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James Te Whata was returning from a tangi, wearing a gang tee, when a cop spotted him.

The Artemis II astronauts have captured our blue planet’s brilliant beauty as they zoom ever closer to the moon.

NASA released the crew’s first downlinked images on Friday, one and a half days into the first astronaut moonshot in more than half a century.

The first photo taken by commander Reid Wiseman shows a curved slice of Earth in one of the capsule’s windows.

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The second shows the entire globe with the oceans topped by swirling white tendrils of clouds. A green aurora even glows, according to NASA.

“It’s great to think that with the exception of our four friends, all of us are represented in this image," said NASA's Lakiesha Hawkins, an exploration systems leader. She added the mission was going well.

As of late Friday afternoon, Wiseman and his crew were more than 180,000 kilometres from Earth and were quickly gaining on the moon with another 240,000 kilometres to go. They should reach their destination on Monday.

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The three Americans and one Canadian will swing around the moon in their Orion capsule, hang a U-turn and then head straight back home without stopping.

They fired Orion's main engine on Thursday night that set them on their course.

After Mission Control shifted the position of their capsule, the entire Earth complete with northern lights filled their windows.

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“It was the most spectacular moment, and it paused all four of us in our tracks,” Wiseman said in a TV interview.

They're the first lunar travelers since Apollo 17 in 1972.

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A new strain of COVID-19 is spreading across the US, Europe and is now spiking here in Australia.

But experts say there are no signs the variant BA.3.2, otherwise known as "Cicada", poses a bigger health threat than other variations.

It was first identified in South Africa a few years ago but it's now spreading rapidly in parts of Europe, the US and is gaining traction across the country.

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New South Wales is leading the country in the number of Cicada cases with 10,247, followed by Queensland with 6378 and Victoria has 3635.

South Australia has 1932 cases according to the latest figures, while WA's recorded 773, ACT 225, Tasmania 263 and the Northern Territory has 128.

Genome sequencing shows the Cicada strain creeping up in recent weeks but experts, like World Health Organisation's Professor Patrick Reading, say there's no cause for alarm.

"It was detected in Western Australia in 2025 and more recently its been in other states," he told 9News.

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"There is no evidence that there is increased severity, hospitalisations, or death associated with this subvariant."

The strain is a descendant of Omicron and carries between 70 and 75 genetic changes in its spike protein compared to its predecessors, helping the virus get into cells and evade the immune system.

"It may be possible that the current vaccine we use may not do such a good job against this variant as it does against other circulating variants," Reading said.

It's important to note, it's not the dominant circulating strain.

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Experts say vaccination remains critically important, particularly for the elderly and those with chronic health conditions, as well as other measures.

"Masks, testing at home, staying at home if you're unwell, hand hygiene and other ways to limit the spread," Reading said.

It's one of five Omicron subvariants being monitored by the World Health Organisation.

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