Swimming nationals and Olympics trials will bring NZ’s best to Hastings this week.

In the very early hours of tomorrow morning, sky-gazers will get to glimpse a rare total solar eclipse.

There's just one problem: as it'll still be nighttime here in Australia, viewers won't be able to see anything in our skies – instead, the phenomenon will be visible only in North America, in certain parts of Mexico, the United States and Canada.

That said, you'll still be able to watch the event from the comfort of your own home.

Here's how, and everything else you need to know about the total solar eclipse.

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What actually is a total solar eclipse?

A total solar eclipse occurs when the moon is perfectly positioned between the Earth and the sun, blocking out the light from the latter and casting a huge shadow onto our planet.

These are slightly different from a partial solar eclipse – when the moon only obscures part of the sun.

Eclipses can be quite dangerous to view – special glasses are crucial for safely observing the sun as the moon marches across the sky.

During "totality" when the sun is completely shrouded, it's fine to remove your glasses and look with your naked eyes. But before and after, certified eclipse glasses are essential to avoid eye damage, as are solar filters for cameras, binoculars and telescopes.

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When will the total solar eclipse take place?

This year's total solar eclipse will begin at about 2:38am (AEST) but won't be visible from mainland North America until about 4:07am when totality hits Mexico's western coast, according to NASA.

It'll then continue on a north-east path across the continent for more than an hour and a half, until it exits Canada at about 5:46am.

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Where will the total solar eclipse be visible?

The "path of totality" – the area where the total eclipse is forecast to be visible – stretches from Mexico's Pacific coast, passing through the likes of Dallas, Cleveland and Niagara Falls (which is expecting so many tourists that it's declared a state of emergency), all the way up to Newfoundland in Canada's east.

Totality will be visible for about five minutes from any one area on the ground. That's quite a long time and is due to just how close the moon is to us at the moment.

It will be 360,000 kilometres from Earth away on eclipse day and will appear slightly bigger in the sky thanks to that proximity, resulting in an especially long period of sun-blocked darkness.

While the total eclipse will only be visible from that narrow stretch of land, pretty much the entire North American continent will be able to view at least a partial eclipse.

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How can you watch the total solar eclipse in Australia?

Unlike last year's total eclipse that was visible from Exmouth in Western Australia, this one won't be visible in Australian skies, so your best bet to watch is online.

NASA will be livestreaming it from 3am (AEST) from this link, while Associated Press will begin broadcasting at midnight.

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When is the next total eclipse, and will that one be visible in Australia?

The next total solar eclipse won't take place until 2026. That one also won't be visible Down Under, instead showing up in the skies of Greenland, Iceland and Spain.

We'll have to wait until 2028 for our turn, when a total eclipse will pass over much of Australia, stretching from Western Australia's Kimberley region all the way down to Sydney.

– With Associated Press

Rwandan President Paul Kagame blamed the inaction of the international community for allowing the 1994 genocide to happen as Rwandans on Sunday commemorated 30 years since an estimated 800,000 people were killed by government-backed extremists.

Rwanda has shown strong recovery and economic growth in the years since, but scars remain and there are questions about whether genuine reconciliation has been achieved under the long rule of Kagame, whose rebel movement stopped the genocide and seized power.

He has been praised by many for bringing relative stability but vilified by others for his intolerance of dissent.

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Kagame led sombre commemoration events in the capital, Kigali. Foreign visitors included a delegation led by Bill Clinton, the US president during the genocide, and Israeli President Isaac Herzog.

The killings were ignited when a plane carrying then-President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down over Kigali.

The Tutsis were blamed for downing the plane and killing the president and became targets in massacres led by Hutu extremists that lasted over 100 days. Some moderate Hutus who tried to protect members of the Tutsi minority were also killed.

Rwandan authorities have long blamed the international community for ignoring warnings about the killings, and some Western leaders have expressed regret.

Clinton, after leaving office, cited the Rwandan genocide as a failure of his administration.

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French President Emmanuel Macron, in a prerecorded video ahead of Sunday’s ceremonies, said that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France – Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 – for failing to stop Rwanda’s slide into the slaughter.

“It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice,” Kagame said in a speech after lighting a flame of remembrance and laying a wreath at a memorial site holding the remains of 250,000 genocide victims in Kigali.

He also shared the story of a cousin whose family he tried to save with the help of UN peacekeepers. She did not survive.

“We will never forget the horrors of those 100 days, the pain and loss suffered by the people of Rwanda, or the shared humanity that connects us all, which hate can never overcome,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement.

Rwanda’s ethnic composition remains largely unchanged since 1994, with a Hutu majority. The Tutsis account for 14 per cent and the Twa just 1 per cent of Rwanda's 14 million people.

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Kagame’s Tutsi-dominated government has outlawed any form of organization along ethnic lines, as part of efforts to build a uniform Rwandan identity.

National ID cards no longer identify citizens by ethnic group, and authorities imposed a tough penal code to prosecute those suspected of denying the genocide or the "ideology” behind it. Some observers say the law has been used to silence critics who question the government’s policies.

Rights groups have accused Kagame’s soldiers of carrying out some killings during and after the genocide in apparent revenge, but Rwandan authorities see the allegations as an attempt to rewrite history. Kagame has previously said that his forces showed restraint in the face of genocide.

Kagame said Sunday that Rwandans are disgusted by critics who have “questioned and revised” the history of the genocide.

"Rwandans will always challenge it," he said, adding that preventing another genocide requires political measures such as those now in place.

"Our journey has been long and tough," he said. "Rwanda was completely humbled by the magnitude of our loss, and the lessons we learned are engraved in blood. But the tremendous progress of our country is plain to see and it is the result of the choice we made together to resurrect our nation.”

He added, "The foundation of everything is unity. That was the first choice – to believe in the idea of a united Rwanda and live accordingly."

A night vigil will be held later on Sunday as part of a week of remembrance activities.

Naphtal Ahishakiye, the head of Ibuka, a prominent group of survivors, told The Associated Press that keeping the memory of the genocide alive helps fight the mentality that allowed neighbours to turn on each other, killing even children.

Mass graves are still being discovered across Rwanda 30 years later, a reminder of the scale of the killings.

-"It’s a time to learn what happened, why it happened, what are the consequences of genocide to us as genocide survivors, to our country, and to the international community," said Ahishakiye.

He said his country has come a long way since the 1990s, when only survivors and government officials participated in commemoration events.

"But today even those who are family members of perpetrators come to participate."

Kagame, who grew up a refugee in neighbouring Uganda, has been Rwanda’s de facto ruler, first as vice president from 1994 to 2000, then as acting president.

He was voted into office in 2003 and has since been reelected multiple times. A candidate for elections set for July, he won the last election with nearly 99 per cent of the vote.

Rights activists and others say the authoritarian Kagame has created a climate of fear that discourages open and free discussion of national issues. Critics have accused the government of forcing opponents to flee, jailing or making them disappear while some are killed under mysterious circumstances. Kagame’s most serious political rivals are his Tutsi ex-comrades now living in exile.

Though mostly peaceful, Rwanda also has had troubled relations with its neighbours.

Recently, tensions have flared with Congo, with the two countries’ leaders accusing one another of supporting armed groups. Relations have been tense with Burundi as well over allegations that Kigali is backing a rebel group attacking Burundi. And relations with Uganda are yet to fully normalize after a period of tensions stemming from Rwandan allegations that Uganda was backing rebels opposed to Kagame.

One lucky bidder will get the chance to sit behind the same wheel as the great King of the Mountain.

An international team of researchers have created the largest and most detailed 3D map of the universe ever.

The map allows scientists to track the expansion of the cosmos through the 11 billion years since the Big Bang.

"This is like going from a hand-drawn map of the universe to a satellite image," Swinburne University of Technology's Dr Ryan Turner said.

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"With our much more detailed map, we can picture a larger area and now have significantly more detail in those farther away places and a much more detailed understanding of the structure in our patch of the universe."

As well as researchers from Swinburne, scientists at the University of Queensland developed crucial software for the project.

"The software models the size and shape of the Baryon Acoustic Oscillation (BAO) feature, a remnant of sound waves from the early universe," UQ's Dr Cullan Howlett said.

"The BAO's size acts as a standard ruler, and by comparing its size at different distances from earth to how big it should have been in the early universe, we can measure the expansion rate of the universe.

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"This information allows us to peer 11 billion years into the past and study how the universe has evolved over time and measure the effects of matter and dark energy."

Dr Turner said there were also plenty of cosmic surprises to come.

"As the 3D map evolves with more data, we anticipate our understanding of cosmic structures, dark energy, and the fundamental laws governing our universe will continue to refine," he said.

"But for now, we'll continue to explore this map in search of more universal dark secrets."

His secret artistic wonderland created in a rented unit has now been given protected status.

Mount Etna in Sicily, the largest active volcano in Europe, has been blowing spectacular "smoke rings" into the sky since last week.

The "volcanic vortex rings", a rare phenomenon generated by the combination of rapid gas release and the vent shape, spewed out of a new crater that opened on Tuesday on Etna's summit.

Boris Behncke, volcanologist at the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology in Catania Boris, explained in a Facebook post that "no volcano on Earth produces as many vapour rings ('volcanic vortex rings') as Etna".

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Etna is breaking all previous records, Behncke wrote.

"In the late afternoon of 2 April 2024, a small mouth opened on the north-eastern rim of the South-East Crater, producing puffs of glowing gas," he added.

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"By the next morning it was evident that these puffs were producing an impressive amount of steam rings, and this activity has been going on ever since, having already emitted hundreds if not thousands of these pretty rings."

There were no reports of particular disruptions in the surrounding villages or at Catania airport, which often closes in the case of major eruptions.

Mount Etna has been in an almost constant state of activity for the last decade.

In 2021, Etna emitted so much volcanic material over six months that it grew in height by almost 30 metres.

At 3357 metres, Etna is the highest peak in southern Italy.

The summit area consists of five main craters, and most eruptions take place from one of these craters.

While often violent and spectacular, the crater eruptions rarely threaten nearby human communities.

Missouri this week plans to execute death row inmate Brian Dorsey for the 2006 murders of his cousin and her husband, but a clemency petition shows scores of people have asked Governor Mike Parsons to spare his life, citing Dorsey's rehabilitation and what they call an unjust death sentence.

Dorsey is deeply remorseful for the murders, his clemency petition says, contending the killings of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie happened while Dorsey was suffering a "drug-induced psychosis and alcohol-induced blackout," making him incapable of the deliberation required for a first-degree murder charge.

Still, Dorsey accepts responsibility, the petition says, and in the years since has sought to atone: He has a spotless prison disciplinary record and works as a barber for the correctional staff, a position of immense trust.

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Indeed, more than 70 correctional officers support the inmate's clemency petition, it says, which also cites the support of five jurors from the penalty phase of his trial, a former Missouri Supreme Court justice and at least three Republican state representatives.

"His deep shame and remorse has shaped him, and apparently shaped the way he's lived every day of his life since," Megan Crane, one of his attorneys, told CNN. While Dorsey's lawyers and advocates fight to have his sentence commuted, "that is still his focus in this final week: the shame and remorse he feels and reflecting on that."

Dorsey also deserves clemency, his petition argues, because his attorneys at trial were ineffective due to a "financial conflict of interest." They were paid flat fees of $US12,000 ($18,256) the petition says, meaning their compensation would equal about $US3.37 an hour if they did the several thousand hours of work capital cases require on average.

Dorsey's petition notes many of his friends and family members – including those he purportedly shared with the victims – are also opposed to his execution having written a letter asking Parson to impart mercy. A copy of the letter provided to CNN by defence attorneys redacted signatories' names for their privacy.

Still, there are other members of the victims' families who support Dorsey's execution, scheduled for Tuesday evening, which they described in a statement to CNN as a "light at the end of the tunnel."

Dorsey "was a close family member who was given a safe haven to get him out of a bad situation and turned this helping hand into the ultimate betrayal of a loved one," the statement by Sarah Bonnie's family says.

Dorsey's actions took the couple – who enjoyed riding Harley Davidson motorcycles and camping, according to their obituaries – from their young daughter, who grew up without her parents at foundational moments of her life.

"First day of school, school parties, school dances, first date, sweet sixteen, first boyfriend and high school graduation," the statement says. "All of this was taken from her by a family member that proclaimed to love her."

CNN has attempted to reach members of Benjamin Bonnie's family for comment but has not heard back.

Dorsey and his attorneys acknowledge "many people are and forever will be grieving the loss" of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie, his petition says, adding, "We recognise that there are no words or efforts that can make this tragedy less painful. Our intention is not to cause more harm, but to do the opposite."

The murders of Sarah and Benjamin Bonnie

Dorsey had long struggled with severe chronic depression, his clemency petition says. For years, he'd self-medicated with alcohol and crack cocaine, but his petition claims he was going through a withdrawal at the time of the killings, which had in the past caused him to hallucinate.

The murders happened on December 23, 2006, hours after Dorsey called his cousin asking for help, according to a ruling by the Missouri Supreme Court last month, which recounted the history of the case. Two drug dealers were in his apartment, Dorsey said, and he needed money to pay them.

Sarah and Benjamin went to Dorsey's apartment, and the drug dealers left. They then took Dorsey back to their home, the ruling notes, and Dorsey spent the evening drinking and playing pool with Sarah and Benjamin's family and friends.

Later that night, the ruling says, Dorsey entered their room with a shotgun and fatally shot them both at close range. Court records say Dorsey raped Sarah's body, but Dorsey's attorneys argue this remains an allegation because he was never charged with and never pleaded guilty to rape or sexual assault.

Dorsey locked the bedroom door, then stole several items and Sarah's car, which he drove around as he tried to sell the stolen items to pay off his debt, the ruling says. Sarah's and Benjamin's bodies were discovered the next day by Sarah's parents, who found the couple's then-4-year-old daughter alone at the house.

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Dorsey turned himself in on December 26 and was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. His guilty plea in March 2008 was followed by a sentencing trial, the filing says, where jurors heard testimony and evidence about his past, including his mental health problems, suicide attempts and substance abuse.

Dorsey was sentenced to death for each murder, court records show, and his conviction and death sentence have previously been upheld on appeal.

"Governor Parson and his legal team are in the process of reviewing Mr Dorsey's clemency petition," Johnathan Shiflett, a spokesperson for the Republican governor, told CNN Thursday. Parson's office intends to announce a decision before the execution date, Shiflett added, "typically at least 24 hours in advance."

In a previous statement announcing he had sought an execution date for Dorsey, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey said he was seeking to "enforce the laws as written, which includes carrying out the lawful sentence that has been upheld by multiple courts, including the nation's highest court."

Dorsey still has litigation in both state and federal courts that could potentially halt his execution. It's typical in capital cases for litigation to continue up until the last minute before an inmate is put to death.

Attorneys' payment disincentivised work, petition claims

At the time of his murder trial, Dorsey was represented by two attorneys appointed by the Missouri State Public Defender, each of whom was paid a flat fee of $US12,000, his clemency petition says, regardless of whether the case went to trial. The petition says this created a conflict of interest for Dorsey's attorneys: "to work for Brian's benefit was to the detriment of their own livelihoods."

Put another way, the payment scheme disincentivised the work needed in a capital case, and Dorsey's petition contends this was why his attorneys had him plead guilty without a guarantee of a life sentence and claims the attorneys did not adequately investigate.

"If they had they would have known what we know now, which was Brian had lifelong chronic depression, and that he had turned to self-medicating with alcohol and crack cocaine at this point because other treatments had failed," Crane, one of Dorsey's current attorneys, said. "And he had a history of experiencing psychosis when withdrawing from crack, experienced paranoid and persecutory delusions and hallucinations."

"That is a defense to capital murder," she said. "If they had done the basic interviewing of their client and investigation, they would have known they had a defense, and they would have used that to either negotiate a plea deal with a benefit of a life sentence, or they would have gone to trial because they had a defense."

Christopher Slusher, one of Dorsey's trial attorneys, declined to comment when reached by CNN Thursday. The other, Scott McBride, did not immediately respond.

In a previous appeal, both lawyers testified the flat fee did not affect the decisions they made in the case, and both could have requested more money if they needed it, court records show. The courts dismissed that appeal after a three-day hearing.

In the years since, however, the Missouri State Public Defender has done away with paying flat fees to attorneys in death penalty cases: In a letter included with Dorsey's petition, its director writes the practice was found to violate guidelines by the American Bar Association, which says flat fees in such cases are "improper."

Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice Michael Wolff, another of Dorsey's advocates, described this element of Dorsey's case as a "rare failing of the legal system itself" in his own letter to the governor.

Wolff was on the state Supreme Court when it upheld Dorsey's direct appeal, he wrote, but the justices were not aware of the flat fee arrangement at the time. This "defect," he said, "undoubtedly influenced everything," and should warrant a life sentence.

Executing Dorsey, Wolff added, "will dishonor our system of capital punishment."

'Extraordinary rehabilitation'

Dorsey's petition strongly emphasizes what it calls his "extraordinary rehabilitation," which his advocates say merits a commutation to life in prison.

"If Brian Dorsey has not been rehabilitated, then the word ceases to have any meaning at all," the petition says.

Dorsey's petition points to his work as a staff barber as just one illustration of this rehabilitation. For 11 years, he has cut the hair and shaved the beards of wardens, staff and chaplains at the Potosi Correctional Center, trusted with tools that he could otherwise use to harm people.

"The Brian I have known for years could not hurt anyone," one corrections staffer wrote in support of Dorsey's request for clemency – one of several quoted by his petition, which redacts the staffers' names for their privacy. "The Brian I know does not deserve to be executed."

Were Dorsey's sentence to be commuted, he'd like to continue his work as a barber, Crane said, as well as his Sunday phone calls and talking with his family, all of which are "meaningful enough for it to be a life worth living."

"He has seen his work and service he's providing the prison is both a way to be atoning," she said, "and a way to feel like he is giving back or doing something positive, in spite of or because of the horrible thing he did."

"The death penalty is supposed to be reserved for the worst of the worst, that's what the US Supreme Court has told us," Crane said. "And what Brian's clemency package is about and the support attests to is that there's no question that Brian is not the worst of the worst."

A brazen robbery on a London street led an Australian expat to discover her phone made it all the way to a warehouse in China – and she's not the only one. 

Jackie, 30, who is originally from Sydney, was using her phone while walking along a street in Shoreditch, in the eastern London borough of Hackney, when a thief on a motorbike tore past her.

"I was walking home from work, thinking I'd enjoy the nicer weather and a guy on a motorbike snatched it straight out of my hand as I was waiting to cross the road," she told 9news.com.au.

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"It was a bit aggressive, but mostly really shocking how fast it happened.

"I couldn't even work the next morning because I need my phone to log on to my laptop."

Jackie reported her phone stolen to police but decided to try her luck using Find My iPhone.

To her surprise her phone pinged inside a building at Shenzhen in the Chinese province of Guangdong, about 10,000 kilometres away.

After talking with other expats about the incident she said she discovered she wasn't the only one to fall victim.

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"Most Aussies I know here have had the same thing happen to them," she said.

"Apparently it's a full operation here where they take phones and re-sell them on. Mine's sitting in a factory in China."

In 2022 in London there were 90,864 phones reported stolen, an average of 250 a day, according to data from the Metropolitan Police.

Of those, 14,953 involved the suspect using a bicycle, motorbike, moped, scooter, e-bike or e-scooter, Met Police said.

Although the total number of Londoners' phones that do end up in China is unknown, there are multiple accounts from people across the US and Europe who have discovered their phones had turned up in Shenzhen.

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The city, described as the "Silicon Valley of China", is a bustling hub for black market phones with vendors having little care about where the devices come from, according to a report from ITV.

There are vendors dedicated to phone repairs, refurbishments and even stores that produce "Frankenstein phones", a phone made using parts from other handsets.

Jackie said she was told by police that it was unlikely they would be able to return her phone to her.

In the 2022 period, of the 90,864 phones stolen only 1915 were recovered, Met Police data shows.

Jackie said she wonders what will become of her phone once it leaves Shenzhen.

"It was just swiped out of my hand. I'll never have my phone out in public again," she said.

A Met Police spokesperson told 9news.com.au: " We have specialist teams of both uniformed officers and detectives who attend robbery calls quickly, search the area with victims and witnesses for suspects, and help to secure CCTV and forensic evidence to support mobile phone robberies and investigations."

"We advise everyone to remain vigilant of their surroundings in crowded areas and on the transport network."

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Inquiries into the circumstances of the crash are underway.