Experts warn El Nino threats Great Barrier Reef

forecasts that there is a 90 percent probability of the El Nino event continuing during the second half of 2023. It is expected to be at least of moderate strength.

Richard Leck, head of oceans at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Australia, said up to 30 per cent of shallow water corals on the reef were bleached when the last strong El Nino caused events in consecutive years.

"The reality is for anyone who cares about the reef is that the best we can do is cross our fingers and hope that it's cloudy or there's a storm," he was quoted as saying by the local media Monday.

Coral bleaching occurs when warm ocean temperatures cause coral to expel the algae living in their tissue, turning the usuallyvivid marine invertebrates completely white.

Bleached corals can survive but are under significantly more stress.

Wellington, July 12 (IANS) New Zealand saw a net migration loss of 13,400 people to Australia in 2022, compared with a net migration loss of 5,400 in 2021, according to estimates released by the national statistics department on Wednesday.

"The net migration loss to Australia in 2022 is the largest for a calendar year since 2013, but well below the largest net loss of 43,700 in the March 2012 year," Stats NZ's population indicators manager Tehseen Islam said.

Traditionally, there has been a net migration loss from New Zealand to Australia, reports Xinhua news agency citing Stats NZ. This averaged about 30,000 a year during 2004-2013, and 3,000 a year during 2014-2019, Islam said.

"Migrant departures to Australia have increased to levels last seen in 2014-2019," Islam said, adding migrant arrivals from Australia are about two-thirds of the 20142019 levels.

There was a provisional net migration gain of 34,300 to New Zealand from the rest of the world, excluding Australia, in 2022.

This more than offset the net migration loss to Australia, statistics show.

Changes in migration are typically due to a combination of factors, including relative economic and labour market conditions as well as immigration policies in New Zealand and other countries, Islam said.

Cate Blanchett feels she has to fight for the right to be an artiste while in Australia

for the space or to justify the fact that you have the right to actually be an artist in Australia," she stated. "But yet overseas, our culture is celebrated and sung and praised but we don't often do it internally. We don't often know what we have here. And living and working overseas, I can see absolutely objectively what we have here."

Canberra, July 4 (IANS) Hollywood star Cate Blanchett feels the need to "constantly justify" her career in her native Australia.

Canberra, July 10 (IANS) The El Nino event could pose a major threat to the health of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, experts have warned, local media reported on Monday.

Marine researchers recently said that a marine heatwave caused by the climate driver could trigger a mass coral bleaching event on the Unesco World Heritage Site, reports Xinhua news agency. The World Meteorological

Organization has said that El Nino conditions have developed in the tropical Pacific for the first time in seven years, setting the stage for a likely surge in global temperatures and disruptive weather and climate patterns.

The phenomenon is expected to drive global ocean temperatures above their long-term average and bring warmer and drier weather to Australia.

A new update from WMO

There have been six mass bleaching events on the barrier reef, the world's largest coral reef, since 1998.

Scientists were particularly alarmed by the 2022 bleaching event, the first during a La Nina phase when ocean temperatures are typically cooler.

The actress said she hates strangers asking her what she does for a living when she's in Down Under because she doesn't think her craft is "celebrated" in the way it is in the UK and US, where she spends a lot of her time, reports aceshowbiz.com.

"The worst thing for us as an actor in Australia is getting in the back of the cab and a cabbie asking 'What do you do?' Because you think, 'Oh, God ...,' " she said, according to the Courier Mail newspaper, during an event at the Roslyn Packer Theatre at the Sydney Theatre Company -which she and husband Andrew Upton ran from 2008 to 2011.

"You're constantly having to fight

The 54-year-old actress admitted promoting homegrown stories, such as her new movie 'The New Boy' -- which follows an Indigenous youth with supernatural powers set in outback Australia during World War II -- is a priority for her. Cate said, "Any chance I have to amplify that and to find ways for that work to get out overseas and be celebrated, but also to be celebrated here, is deeply important to me."

Last month, the Oscar-winning star caused a stir when she joined sparks on stage at Glastonbury to dance to their song 'The Girl Is Crying in Her Latte'. But the actress insisted she had no idea the performance would be such a talked-about moment and insisted nothing about it was planned.