A hapless kangaroo has been captured making a valiant effort to swim across floodwaters in northern New South Wales – only to be seen diving back in.

Moree woman Dimity Smith filmed the roo swimming across the flooded Marshall Ponds Creek, where gum trees could be seen submerged deep underwater.

"This guy managed to get to the edge," she wrote in a post on Twitter.

READ MORE: Man dies after car becomes trapped in floodwaters in Sydney

READ MORE: Radar images show dramatic change in Sydney rain over six days

"Then swiftly dived back in again after all my cheering…. only to join his family further down the river.

"Hope they all survive."

Floods in Moree continued to worsen today despite clear skies, with 120,000 megalitres of water travelling down the Mehi River from upstream yesterday.

An evacuation warning was issued for low-lying communities late yesterday.

Tasmanian MP Sue Hickey has accused Liberal Senator Eric Abetz of saying Brittany Higgins was "disgustingly drunk" on the night she was allegedly raped in Parliament House.

Using parliamentary privilege, Ms Hickey told the Tasmanian Parliament that the two casually discussed recent sex scandals plaguing federal politics while at a citizenship ceremony.

"I casually asked the honourable Senator Eric Abetz if the minister allegedly accused of the alleged rape that occurred around 30 years ago was the honourable Christian Porter MP," Ms Hickey told Tasmanian Parliament.

READ MORE: 'Blokes don't get it right all the time': Scott Morrison

"The senator quickly responded that yes, it was the first law officer of the nation, Christian Porter, but not to worry, the woman is dead and the law will protect him."

Ms Hickey then said the conversation turned to Ms Higgins, where she alleges Mr Abetz said: "As for that Higgins girl, anybody who is so disgustingly drunk, who would sleep with anybody, could have slept with one of our spies and put the security of our nation at risk".

Mr Abetz has categorically denied the allegations in a statement, saying they are defamatory.

The full statement can be read below.

READ MORE: Scott Morrison 'deeply regrets' News Corp harassment complaint claim

"Allegations of rape are serious matters and have always been treated as such by me. Sexual assault is an issue on which I've been consistently outspoken including domestic violence," Mr Abetz said in the statement.

"Ms Hickey's suggestions otherwise is simply false. As some one who was on the inaugural committee of a women's shelter and its honorary legal adviser for a decade prior to entering parliament, I reject outright her suggestions and gross mischaracterisation of our discussion.

"Its noteworthy Ms Hickey has made her assertions some three weeks after she alleges they occurred."

Scott Morrison threw his support behind Mr Abetz when he was asked about the alleged comments in Question Time this afternoon.

"What I can only refer to is the absolute denial of those statements by Senator Abetz. Now, I was not a party to this conversation, Mr Speaker," Mr Morrison said.

"There were two persons who allegedly were part of this conversation. I was not one of them nor was the member who asked the question."

He said Mr Abetz would continue to serve in his role and had been a "significant contributor" to the Australian political landscape.

READ MORE: Government departments refuse to confirm Brittany Higgins paper trail

The fracas over the nature of the pair's conversation comes amid widespread condemnation of the Morrison Government's handling of complaints of sexual assault.

Yesterday during a press conference in which he made an impassioned plea to the women of Australia, Prime Minister Scott Morrison accused a Sky News journalist of "living in a glass house" and referenced an HR complain of a sexual nature in a media organisation.

That complain was strenuously denied by both Sky News and News Corp, and the Prime Minister later apologised for it.

"In the course of today's media conference when responding to further questions I deeply regret my insensitive response to a question from a News Ltd journalist by making an anonymous reference to an incident at News Ltd that has been rejected by the company," Mr Morrison wrote on Facebook.

"I accept their account. I was wrong to raise it, the emotion of the moment is no excuse."

READ MORE: Christian Porter will keep seat under AEC redistribution

Senator Eric Abetz' full statement regarding Sue Hickey comments

Ms Hickey's defamatory allegations under Parliamentary privilege are categorically denied.

Allegations of rape are serious matters and have always been treated as such by me. Sexual assault is an issue on which I've been consistently outspoken including domestic violence.

Ms Hickey's suggestions otherwise is simply false. As some one who was on the inaugural committee of a women's shelter and its honorary legal adviser for a decade prior to entering parliament, I reject outright her suggestions and gross mischaracterisation of our discussion.

Its noteworthy Ms Hickey has made her assertions some 3 weeks after she alleges they occurred.

At no stage has Ms Hickey ever raised concerns with me about any of our conversations.

Indeed, a fortnight later when we had a chance meeting in a coffee shop in Launceston Ms Hickey actually offered to buy me a cup of coffee which I politely declined because I was about to meet someone.

What has changed? The Premier telling her on Sunday she was no longer wanted by the Liberal Party. On her way out the door she is trying to destroy the Party – noting she has demeaned all her former female Liberal colleagues of Parliament and especially the Attorney General, the membership which initially endorsed her and even "unknown people".

A piece of the Wright brothers' first airplane is on Mars.

NASA's experimental Martian helicopter holds a small swatch of fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, the space agency revealed Tuesday.

The helicopter, named Ingenuity, hitched a ride to the red planet with the Perseverance rover, arriving last month.

Ingenuity will attempt the first powered, controlled flight on another planet no sooner than April 8.

It will mark a "Wright brothers' moment," noted Bobby Braun, director for planetary science at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The Carillon Historical Park in Dayton, Ohio, the Wrights' hometown, donated the postage-size piece of muslin from the plane's bottom left wing, at NASA's request.

READ MORE: Mars rover sends back grinding, squealing sounds of driving

The swatch made the 253.6 million kilometre journey to Mars with the blessing of the Wright brothers' great-grandniece and great-grandnephew, said park curator Steve Lucht.

"Wilbur and Orville Wright would be pleased to know that a little piece of their 1903 Wright Flyer I, the machine that launched the Space Age by barely one quarter of a mile, is going to soar into history again on Mars!" Amanda Wright Lane and Stephen Wright said in a statement provided by the park.

Orville Wright was on board for the world's first powered, controlled flight on December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The brothers took turns, making four flights that day.

A fragment of Wright Flyer wood and fabric flew to the moon with Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong in 1969.

A swatch also accompanied John Glenn into orbit aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1998. Both astronauts were from Ohio.

NASA's 1.8-kilogram helicopter will attempt to rise three meters into the extremely thin Martian air on its first hop.

Up to five increasingly higher and longer flights are planned over the course of a month.

The material is taped to a cable beneath the helicopter's solar panel, which is perched on top like a graduate's mortarboard.

For now, Ingenuity remains attached to the rover's belly. A protective shield dropped away over the weekend, exposing the spindly, long-legged chopper.

The helicopter airfield is right next to the rover's landing site in Jezero Crater.

The rover will observe the test flights from a distant perch, before driving away to pursue its own mission: hunting for signs of ancient Martian life.

Rock samples will be set aside for eventual return to Earth.

Before this historic flight on Mars, Ingenuity has to complete a series of steps that will occur over the next couple of weeks — and they will test the rotorcraft's ability to survive the harsh conditions of Mars without the help of Perseverance.

READ MORE: Mars landing team 'awestruck' by photo of descending rover

For now, Ingenuity remains safely tucked up beneath the rover and attached to the rover's power supply. The debris shield, which protected the helicopter during the February landing of the rover on Mars, was released March 21.

The rover is currently driving to the nearby 10-by-10-metre airfield that Ingenuity's team has chosen to test the helicopter's flight. The site has been named in honor of Jakob van Zyl, former director for solar system exploration and associate director for project formulation and strategy at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. He died in August 2020.

After depositing Ingenuity on the surface, which is nice and flat, Perseverance will carefully back away and take pictures of the helicopter. While it sounds simple, this process will take just over six days. Commands sent from teams on Earth will help release the locking mechanism holding the helicopter against the rover's belly.

A cable-cutting pyrotechnic device will fire, which will enable an arm holding Ingenuity to rotate the helicopter, which is currently horizontal.

READ MORE: Microbes discovered in space could change gardening as we know it

Ingenuity will follow a series of commands to unfold two of its landing legs.

An electric motor will complete the rotation of the helicopter until it's vertical and the other two landing legs will unfold.

"As with everything with the helicopter, this type of deployment has never been done before," said Farah Alibay, Mars helicopter integration lead for the Perseverance rover, in a statement.

"All activities are closely coordinated, irreversible, and dependent on each other. If there is even a hint that something isn't going as expected, we may decide to hold off for a (day) or more until we have a better idea what is going on."

The final steps of deployment include suspending the helicopter 12 centimetres over the Martian surface during a final charging session while Ingenuity is still connected to the rover.

"Once we cut the cord with Perseverance and drop those final five inches to the surface, we want to have our big friend drive away as quickly as possible so we can get the Sun's rays on our solar panel and begin recharging our batteries," said Bob Balaram, Mars helicopter chief engineer at JPL, in a statement.

Then, the team will confirm Ingenuity is firmly sitting on the surface of Mars and communicating.

Once it's on the Martian surface, the helicopter will do some test wiggles and spins of the rotor blades. It will have to charge itself using its solar panel and withstand the freezing Martian nights, which can dip to -90 degrees celcius.

Teams will be closely monitoring the weather on Mars, including the wind and measurements taken by the Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyser instrument on the rover, which could impact the flight.

Ingenuity will have 31 days to conduct its series of test flights, which could include up to five depending on the success of the first one. The first flight involves the helicopter lifting about 10 feet off the ground and hovering for about 30 seconds before landing. Subsequent flights will last longer.

Within hours of the first flight, data will be sent back from Ingenuity, as well as the rover's cameras and microphones that will watch and record the flight, to determine if it was successful.

Over the next two days, images from the helicopter's cameras will also be sent back. Together, the data and images will help Ingenuity's team plan the next flights.

"Ingenuity is an experimental engineering flight test — we want to see if we can fly at Mars," said MiMi Aung, project manager for Ingenuity Mars helicopter at JPL.

"We are confident that all the engineering data we want to obtain both on the surface of Mars and aloft can be done within this 30-sol window."

Sols are Martian days, which last slightly longer than Earth days.

The team has stressed that the helicopter is an experiment and each step will be approached with deliberation, which makes things more flexible concerning dates and milestones. And, of course, it all depends on Ingenuity surviving the milestones leading up to flight.

Flight on Mars is made more difficult by the red planet's thin atmosphere, which is just one per cent the density of Earth's at the surface. Mars also receives half the solar energy Earth does during the daytime.

This is why Ingenuity was designed to be small and lightweight — and built with internal heaters to survive frigid nights.

"Every step we have taken since this journey began six years ago has been uncharted territory in the history of aircraft," Mr Balaram said of Ingenuity.

"And while getting deployed to the surface will be a big challenge, surviving that first night on Mars alone, without the rover protecting it and keeping it powered, will be an even bigger one."

Murky brown floodwaters have reached the bright blue ocean on the NSW South Coast.

A photo taken by 9News journalist Kaitlan Steadman at Moruya shows the two waters meeting as the flood crisis continues in the region.

The region has seen substantial rain in the last week, with more forecast in the days to come.

LIVE UPDATES: NSW Premier says no flood deaths is 'simply a miracle'

Fire and Rescue NSW have been surveying damage in the area before more rain arrives, and Victorian reinforcements have arrived to help.

At the nearby Mogo Zoo, which was nearly lost to bushfires last year, enclosures are underwater.

A rhino at the wildlife park could be seen wading through deep water with its head and body barely above the water.

Perth emergency doctor Andrew Lowe has seen three of his planned wedding dates come and go in the past 18 months.

When he and his fiancée Richa, a teacher from India, first applied for a prospective marriage visa almost two years ago in June 2019 they had hoped to get married in a year.

"We were going to do a small wedding here and a big wedding in India," he told nine.com.au.

"Originally, we planned the date for August 2020, then December 2020, and finally in March this year … but that has all gone out the window now and we have no idea what will happen."

Dr Lowe is one of an estimated 6000 Australians who are waiting for their partners' prospective marriage visas to be approved.

Like many Australian visa types, waiting times have blown out since the COVID-19 pandemic.

LIVE NEWS UPDATES: Baby killer Kathleen Folbigg loses her appeal

According to the latest Department of Home Affairs figures, three-quarters of prospective marriage visa applications are now being processed within 18 months and 90 per cent with 29 months.

While the department was granting an average of 180 prospective marriage visas per month before the pandemic hit, it approved less than 15 per month in between April and September last year.

But couples applying for prospective marriage visas say there's an even more pressing issue than the wait times – Australia's travel ban.

Unlike the more popular partner visa – which also has lengthy processing times and a backlog of some 50,000 applicants – those granted the prospective marriage visa are not considered immediate family and are therefore not automatically exempt from the travel ban.

Many couples granted prospective marriage visas say their subsequent applications for a travel exemption have been rejected.

Amelia Elliott, who helps run the Grant Offshore Visas Now Facebook page – which has 2700 members – said being granted a prospective marriage visa appeared to make no difference to getting a travel exemption granted by the Australian Border Force.

"One member of our group lodged over 30 times for his fiancée's travel exemption – even through different agents – and was continually denied," Ms Elliott said.

"Another member got her fiancé's PMV300 approved a month ago and I think she is up to around her seventh refusal.

"Unless there is a change in ABF criteria they are unlikely to have success."

Dr Lowe said he feared that even if Richa was granted her prospective marriage visa, she also wouldn't be given a travel exemption.

'You just want to start your life'

Dr Lowe first met Richa when they were both members of the same Rotary International youth organisation.

"Initially, we were pen pals. I was in my third year of med school and I was looking at going to Mumbai for a placement and so I starting chatting to Richa," he said.

"I didn't end up going to India, I went to Scotland. But we ended up forming this nice relationship where we chatted for hours and hours."

The pair finally met in person in France, where Richa was studying, in 2015, and got engaged in Perth in 2019.

"We applied for a prospective marriage visa because we were just playing by the rules that were there at the time," Dr Lowe said.

In order to be able to apply for a partner visa, couples need to be either married or have lived together for a year.

"We could have got married and applied for a partner visa, then we wouldn't have been in this situation, but we didn't know how things would turn out," he said.

Desperate to be together and finally start their lives, Dr Lowe said he and Richa had both applied for numerous travel exemptions over the past few months.

"Sometime in December 2020, we heard that if you manage to get the travel exemption, the chances of your visa being processed may increase," he said.

"Richa has twice tried her luck under the 'immediate family' category. But with no joint lease and bank accounts, we decided to use my critical skills to get her here. We have lost count of the number of applications we have made."

Dr Lowe said his applications for a travel exemption so he could fly to India to marry Richa were also rejected because he was unable to take three months off his work as a doctor during the pandemic, a key time threshold considered by the ABF.

He now plans to take six months off from his job later this year to fly to India.

Dr Lowe said the enforced separation had taken a toll of both of them.

"It's obviously really emotionally distressing to be apart from your partner for such a long period of time. You just want to start your life together," he said.

"Her life is completely on hold and she is really distressed about the situation.

"It's horrible to see your partner so upset and there is nothing that you can do."

'Violation' of human rights

Dr Lowe said he believed the government's treatment of the couple, as well as other prospective marriage visa applicants, violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and he had lodged a complaint with the Australian Human Rights Commission.

"(The ICCPR) says that a family should be free of arbitrary interference from the government. Saying you didn't marry her on this date so you can't travel, what is more arbitrary than that?" Dr Lowe said.

"It also says that two individuals should not be prevented from starting a family, which is exactly our situation."

Dr Lowe said while he understood the need to restrict travel during the pandemic, prospective marriage visa applicants were just one group of many who had been let down by the Federal Government.

"Stranded Australians have been let down, skilled migrants, internationals students and people like myself have all been let down by the lack of federalised quarantine and not increasing the quarantine caps safety," he said.

However, the travel ban on prospective marriage visa holders, who often had critical skills and made up such a small part of Australia's migration program, did not make sense, he said.

"Why would you, for such a small group of people, create such a large amount of misery?" he said.

Labor calls on government to reconsider marriage visa travel ban

Victorian MP Julian Hill urged the government in parliament yesterday to "show some compassion" and reconsider the travel ban imposed in relation to prospective marriage visas.

"People who applied for the 300 prospective marriage visa are often the fiancés of Australians. Even if they have the visa issued, have paid their $8000 and have waited years, they are not getting travel authorisations to come here," Mr Hill said.

"There's enormous sadness and anger amongst Australians that they are being discriminated against because of the visa which their partner applied for.

"If you've lived together for one year and been together for one year, that's okay.

"But if you've been together for five years but you haven't lived together for one year then apparently that's not okay. It's discrimination."

The Department of Home Affairs is yet to respond to nine.com.au's request for comment.

The department says on its website: "Prospective Marriage visa holders can request an exemption from Australia's travel restrictions for consideration on a case-by-case basis.

"An intention to marry is not sufficient evidence to demonstrate that a person is the immediate family member of an Australian citizen or permanent resident."

Child-killer Kathleen Folbigg's 18-year fight to clear her name has been dealt yet another blow, with her guilt confirmed by one of our top courts.

Folbigg, 53, appealed after the Honourable Reginald Blanch, QC, ruled the evidence heard in a 2019 judicial inquiry made "her guilt of these offences even more certain".

Today that decision was upheld, with three Supreme Court judges ruling there was an ample basis for that decision.

READ MORE: Scientists call for convicted baby-killer to be pardoned, released

Folbigg was jailed in 2003 for at least 25 years for killing her four babies – Caleb, Patrick, Sarah and Laura – in the decade from 1989.

She has always maintained her innocence and at the judicial inquiry, her team pointed to a genetic mutation in the two girls.

Doctors who gave evidence were divided on the significance of the CALM2 gene, which can impact on the normal function of a heart.

READ MORE: Folbigg says 'supernatural powers' responsible for babies' deaths

"The scientific evidence raised a theoretical possibility that there were innocent explanations for the deaths of the two girls," the appeal court ruled. 

But the judges went on to say their deaths were at odds with other reported cases in several aspects, which included that the girls died at a younger age and while asleep, not during exertion.

"Further, the boys' genomes provided no common cause," the court ruled.

READ MORE: Folbigg grilled over diary entries

They said when considered with Folbigg's diary entries there was "ample basis" for the head of the judicial inquiry to find "there was no reasonable doubt about her guilt".

In recent weeks, 90 medical and scientific professionals have signed a petition which says the evidence as to the genetic mutation has strengthened since the inquiry and Folbigg should be pardoned.

The governor was waiting for advice from the attorney-general before making a decision on that.

Ms Folbigg and her supporter Tracy Chapman said they were "content that we respectfully challenged the system – as is our legal right".

"You don't always win in the manner you expect," they said.

"There's a lot of value in learning from the experience, whether you win or lose.

"You have to give it a go, or the system isn't being utilised effectively".

They said the decision "only strengthens our resolve to keep going".

"Blokes" are desperately trying to get things right on the issue of sexual misconduct, the Prime Minister said this morning.

Speaking to 2GB's Ray Hadley on issues of sexual harassment in Parliament House, Scott Morrison called for a return to "basic moral principles".

"Government can't solve all these issues," Mr Morrison said.

"Blokes don't get it right all the time, we all know that, but what matters is that we're desperately trying to.

READ MORE: Morrison 'deeply regrets' News Corp allegations

"We will get this right and we need to focus on that."

Mr Morrison described it as "a very emotional issue".

"It's been going on a long time, and it doesn't rest at the foot of any government or any individual," he said.

"We've all got to do our bit."

https://omny.fm/shows/the-ray-hadley-morning-show/scott-morrison-calls-for-societal-shift-in-respons/embed?style=cover

Mr Morrison said the issue shouldn't be about women versus men.

"We've all just got to respect each other a lot more," he said.

"There are great women and there are great men who want to do the right thing and don't want to make this a whole identity issue."

READ MORE: Emotional PM asks Parliament to 'get house in order'

Mr Morrison apologised late last night for invoking a purported act of sexual harassment by a News Corp staffer – one which the company said they were unaware of.

"In the course of today's media conference when responding to further questions I deeply regret my insensitive response to a question from a News Ltd journalist by making an anonymous reference to an incident at News Ltd that has been rejected by the company," Mr Morrison said in a statement last night.

"I accept their account. I was wrong to raise it, the emotion of the moment is no excuse.

"I especially wish to apologise to the individual at the centre of the incident and others directly impacted.

"I had no right to raise this issue and especially without their permission."

READ MORE: Liberal MP calls for 40 percent female quota

A massive container vessel has become wedged in the Suez canal, blocking traffic on one of the world's most important waterways.

The Ever Given, a 400-metre long cargo ship en route from China to Rotterdam, has become stuck one of the narrowest parts of the canal.

Tugboats are desperately trying to shift the massive vessel as a massive backlog of ships accumulates at the mouth of the Red Sea, and the Great Bitter Lake.

Engineer Julianne Cona is stuck on the vessel behind the Ever Given, and photographed the stuck ship.

"Ship in front of us ran aground while going through the canal and is now stuck sideways," she wrote on Instagram.

"Looks like we might be here for a little bit."

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMxEKHanW62/

She added the sarcastic hashtag #wellthisisfun.

So far the vessel, owned by the shipping company Evergreen, has been stuck for more than 12 hours.

The Suez Canal is one of the busiest waterways in the world.

Without it, vessels would have to sail all the way around the continent of Africa to get from Europe to Asia.

The canal runs through Egypt from the Mediterranean and the Red Sea.

Nearly everything shipped from Asia and the Middle East to Europe and vice versa passes through the Suez Canal.

It was one of the videos that went viral during 2020's first COVID-19 lockdown, cheering everyone up as they sat at home: a dolphin swimming close to the surface in what was purported to be a Venetian canal.

It was fake of course – it turned out to have been shot near the port in Cagliari, on the island of Sardinia.

But on Monday, two dolphins really did make a day trip to Venice.

READ MORE: Giant walrus spotted in Ireland after falling asleep on iceberg

They took a trip up the famous Grand Canal, before swimming over to Giudecca island, where they saw no fewer than two churches by Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, before returning home to the Adriatic Sea.

Their visit came when the city is in another lockdown as Italy battles a third wave of COVID-19.

And while they were in danger during their time in the city, it is believed the dolphins made it safely out.

The pair of striped dolphins – thought to be an adult and a juvenile, probably a mother and child – were first spotted around 6am by Marco Busetto, co-owner of drainage company Eredi Busetto Giuseppe, in the Giudecca Canal, a wide waterway separating the long island of Giudecca from the historic centre of Venice. He alerted the authorities.

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An hour later they appeared at the mouth of the Grand Canal, swimming up the iconic waterway towards the famous Salute church, where the Busetto team – by now parked up to start work – clocked them once more.

"It really was a lovely surprise – something unique and special, to see them and to think how close they had got to the Grand Canal," Luca Folin, who works for the firm and shot a video which swiftly went viral, told CNN.

"But they were also in a lot of danger because of all the boats going back and forth, which could have injured them with their propellers."

The group tried to halt traffic while waiting for the police to arrive.

The rescue mission

In the meantime, the authorities called in the experts – a team from CERT, or Cetacean strandings Emergency Response Team, from the nearby University of Padua.

They caught up with the dolphins back in the Giudecca Canal, between the churches of San Giorgio Maggiore and Zitelle, grand marble-clad churches designed by Palladio, which enjoy eye-popping views over the Basin of St Mark's, and St Mark's Square.

"The traffic was intense, and we realised the dolphins were completely disorientated, swimming around in all directions, mostly because they were scared," Guido Pietroluongo from the group told CNN.

"Dolphins mostly orientate themselves by sound, but here, both sides of the canal had walls and there were boats all around. The authorities said they had been stuck there for two hours, swimming round and round."

And so to the rescue. The CERT team – led by Professor Sandro Mazzariol – coordinated nine boats of the Venice authorities into a chain, trying to steer the animals towards the Lido, Venice's long strip of beach, and a point where the Venetian lagoon meets the Adriatic Sea. It took two and a half hours.

"Time and time again a ferry would cut through the chain so the dolphins would get lost again," says Pietroluongo.

Eventually, with other traffic redirected, the "chain" worked, and the dolphins turned their backs on St Mark's Square, towards the Lido.

"We realised the animals were at the safest point and wanted to see what they would do," says Pietroluongo.

"We sighted them three times and then lost them completely. They hadn't gone back towards the Grand Canal, so hopefully they took the right direction."

READ MORE: New species of whale found

It's believed they made it safely back to the Adriatic.

The CERT team were on alert to be called back Tuesday, but there have been no sightings.

"Hopefully they're free in their environment, now," he says.

A rare sighting

Striped dolphins – as the CERT team believe them to be, having watched back the footage – are a rare sighting in the northern Adriatic.

Deepwater mammals, they are usually found in the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas, and the southern half of the Adriatic, says Pietroluongo.

What's more, they usually swim in pods of up to 100, not pairs, and stay far away from the coastline. The last time one was seen in the Venice lagoon was four years ago; bottlenose dolphins are seen more regularly.

The group think that this pair could have lost their way while looking for food.

Pietroluongo called the sighting "joyous." Meanwhile, Luca Folin, who shot the video of the creatures in the Grand Canal, called it a "beautiful and rare moment… at a sad time."

"I uploaded it to social media without thinking it'd go around the world," he says.

"To be honest, I posted it to give a nice greeting to my fellow citizens in such a sad year – but having the video go viral is nice because it means I've made others smile."

The failed attempt of a police officer to obtain a cellphone from a witness which contained “important evidence” was yesterday criticised by the defence team of Samuel Samson.Detective Sergeant Mark McCloy gave evidence during the…