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A total solar eclipse will dazzle people today in what’s been described as “our planet’s greatest spectacle”.

The perfect alignment of Earth, the sun and the moon will be seen later – meaning people in North America will experience a total solar eclipse, which will plunge much of the continent into darkness.

But people in parts of the UK will be able to see a partial eclipse too.

So where can you see it, why is this one so special and is there anything you need to be aware of? Here’s everything to know.

In the UK

Although North America will enjoy the full spectacle of a total eclipse, people in parts of the UK will get to see a partial eclipse.

Dr Edward Bloomer, senior astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, said the UK is only going to get “a small grazing” of the eclipse in the West and North of the country.

A map showing parts of the UK that will be able to see a partial eclipse
Image:
A map showing parts of the UK that will be able to see a partial eclipse

The start of the partial eclipse will be at 7.52pm (BST) and it will end by 8.51pm.

Here’s where you might see it – weather permitting:

In Glasgow, about 12% of the sun will be obscured at around 8pm (BST).

Edinburgh could see a 6% obscuration.

Liverpool will only see a maximum of 3.1% coverage at 7.57pm when the sun is right on the horizon – the window is very small as the start and end times are 7.55pm and 8pm.

Belfast will be treated to more of an eclipse with a maximum of 28.1% coverage at 8.10pm – the full window in which people might see it here is 7.55pm until 8.14pm.

Stornoway in Scotland will see 33.7% maximum coverage at 8.13pm. Here it will start at 7.53pm and end at 8.23pm.

Anything in London?

Sadly, no.

Dr Bloomer said: “I’m afraid the South and the East are out of luck this time around.

“We won’t ourselves get to see anything from the observatory, which we’re a bit sad about.”

However, you can watch our live coverage of the total eclipse on the Sky News channel, the Sky News app or on our YouTube channel.

NASA will also be providing a live stream of the celestial event, providing telescope views from several sites along the eclipse path.

You’ll be able to watch that on NASA’s official YouTube channel or on its site here.

In Ireland

As well as Belfast and Derry in Northern Ireland, people in the Republic of Ireland will have a chance to see the partial eclipse.

The best opportunities will be in the West. The town of Belmullet, in County Mayo on Ireland’s west coast, could be treated to an eclipse which covers 44% of the sun, according to UK Weather Updates on X.

The account also says Galway will be a good spot to catch the partial eclipse, where it’s estimated more than 35% of the sun will be covered.

It will also be possible to watch in Ireland’s capital, Dublin. But here it’s thought only around 15% of the sun will be covered.

Total eclipse promo

In the US, Mexico and Canada

The US, Mexico and Canada will be in the totality path of the eclipse, meaning more than 31 million people across 15 states will be treated to the mesmerising sight of the sun being obscured by the moon.

A total solar eclipse April 8 will enter over Mexico's Pacific coast, dash up through Texas and Oklahoma, crisscross the Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and New England, before exiting over eastern Canada into the Atlantic. (AP Photo, File)
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A map showing how long the total eclipse will last in each area on the path of totality. Pic: AP

The time it will last in each area varies from just under four-and-a-half minutes in Zaragoza in Mexico to around a minute in Montreal, Canada.

According to NASA, the first location in North America where people will be able to view the eclipse in totality will be Mexico’s Pacific coast at around 11.07am PDT.

Map showing when the eclipse will happen across the United States
Image:
A map of the path of the eclipse across the United States

The eclipse’s path will then enter the United States in Texas and travel through Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine.

Small parts of Tennessee and Michigan will also experience the total eclipse, before the path moves on to Canada in Southern Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Cape Breto. Its last sighting will be in Newfoundland.

What exactly do people see during a full solar eclipse?

The event will see the sky fall dark as if it were dawn or dusk, and a halo form around the sun as its light is blocked out by the moon.

If there is clear weather, people along the eclipse’s path will see the sun’s corona, or outer atmosphere, which is usually obscured by the bright face of the sun, according to NASA.

NASA urges viewers to wear specialised eye protection during the eclipse, as it’s not safe to look at the sun apart from at the very brief moment when it’s completely blocked by the moon.

An American stares at the sun during the 2017 eclipse. Pic: AP
Image:
An American man stares at the sun during the 2017 eclipse. Pic: AP

“A total solar eclipse is one of the grandest sights in nature – and may be very rare anywhere in the galaxy,” Chris Lintott, professor of astrophysics at the University of Oxford, told Sky News.

“I get a shiver down my spine every time,” he added.

Partial solar eclipses are known to make the sun appear to have had a bite taken out of it, because the moon only covers part of the sun rather than the entire thing.

A partial solar eclipse seen from Argentina in December 2020. Pic: AP
Image:
A partial solar eclipse seen from Argentina in December 2020. Pic: AP

Why is this one so special?

This one’s a bit of an anomaly because total solar eclipses are only meant to happen once every 375 years in any one place in the world – yet people in the US state of Illinois will see it for the second time in seven years.

The 21,000-strong city of Carbondale in Illinois saw a total solar eclipse in August 2017 and the fact people there will now see one again so soon afterwards is incredibly rare.

Spectators watch the 2017 eclipse in Illinois. Pic: AP
Image:
Spectators watch the 2017 eclipse in Illinois. Pic: AP

It’s earned the state a new nickname – the ‘eclipse crossroads of America’.

“Southern Illinois is considered the eclipse crossroads of America because it was in the centreline for the path of totality in 2017 and will be again in 2024,” the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said.

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Why scientists are excited too

Both professional and amateur scientists plan to carry out experiments and observations as Earth falls dark.

NASA’s deputy chief Pam Melroy says it will give an “entirely different” opportunity to study the interaction between the Earth, moon and sun.

The US space agency and others will focus much of their work on observing the corona, the sun’s outer atmosphere, which can’t normally be seen because the sun is too bright.

Guests watch the sun re-emerge after a total eclipse at the football stadium at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 2017. Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

During an eclipse, though, the corona’s white halo can be seen bursting out from behind the shadow. It’s hundreds of times hotter than the sun’s surface and it’s the source of solar wind.

It’s also a complete enigma. Scientists still don’t know how the corona is heated to such extreme temperatures.

NASA’s scientists will be hoping to get more data on it, as well as answers to other questions when they send research planes as high as 50,000ft (9.5 miles) to conduct a series of experiments on 8 April.

Some of the things they’re hoping to observe include:

  • How fast particles are moving when they are flung out into space
  • Photographing in both infrared and visible light to try to identify new details in the middle and lower corona
  • Using a spectrometer to study light from the corona, hopefully learning more about the temperature and chemical composition of the corona and the particles it emits
  • Studying a dust ring around the sun. Dust is the leftover remnants from when the solar system was forming
  • Searching for asteroids orbiting nearby.

Hundreds of citizen scientists are also expected to get involved in Monday’s eclipse, looking at things like the quietening of birds and other wildlife, the dip in temperature as the sun is blocked, and what effect there is on communications.

US university students will be releasing hundreds of weather balloons to monitor atmospheric changes.

Are there any health warnings?

Yes. You could permanently damage your eyes if you try to watch the eclipse with normal sunglasses.

If you are planning on looking directly at it, you need proper eclipse glasses, which are “thousands of times darker” than sunglasses, according to NASA.

But you need to make sure they work, as bogus retailers capitalise when an eclipse is due and you may be duped into buying a counterfeit pair.

The American Astronomical Society advises these three steps to check if your glasses are safe.

1. “Put them on indoors and look around. You shouldn’t be able to see anything through them, except perhaps very bright lights, which should appear very faint through the glasses. If you can see anything else, such as household furnishings or pictures on the wall, your glasses aren’t dark enough for solar viewing.”

2. “If your glasses pass the indoor test, take them outside on a sunny day, put them on, and look around again. You still shouldn’t see anything through them, except perhaps the Sun’s reflection off a shiny surface or a puddle, which again should appear very faint.”

3. “If your glasses pass that test too, glance at the Sun through them for less than a second. You should see a sharp-edged, round disk (the Sun’s visible “face”) that’s comfortably bright. Depending on the type of filter in the glasses, the Sun may appear white, bluish-white, yellow, or orange.”

If you feel your glasses pass all these tests, they are “probably safe”, says the AAS.

When will a full solar eclipse next be seen in the UK?

A partial eclipse will be viewed across 90% of the country in 2026, but it won’t be a total one until 2081 in the Channel Islands or 2090 in the South West.

The last full solar eclipse seen in the UK came in 1999, which was spotted over Cornwall and parts of Devon. Unfortunately, clouds covered it from view in most other areas it should have been spotted over.

Total solar eclipses generally occur every 18 months or so, but whether or not you can see one depends on where you are in the world and, of course, the weather. Partial ones take place between two and five times a year – with the same caveats.

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School kids asking for advice on strangulation during sex – as abuse victim issues warning

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School kids asking for advice on strangulation during sex - as abuse victim issues warning

Schoolchildren are asking teachers how to strangle a partner during sex safely, a charity says, while official figures show an alarming rise in the crime related to domestic abuse cases.

Warning: This article contains references to strangulation, domestic abuse and distressing images.

It comes as a woman whose former partner almost strangled her to death in a rage has advised anyone in an abusive relationship to seek help and leave.

Bernie Ryan, chief executive of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation, has been running the charity since its inception in 2022 after non-fatal strangulation became a standalone offence.

“It’s the ultimate form of control,” she says.

She says perpetrators and victims are getting younger, while the reason is unclear, but strangulation has seeped into popular culture and social media.

“We hear lots of sex education providers, teachers saying that they’re hearing it in schools.

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“We know teachers have been asked, ‘how do I teach somebody to strangle safely?’

“Our message is there is no safe way to strangle – the anatomy is the anatomy. Reduction in oxygen to the brain or blood flow will result in the same medical consequences, regardless of context.”

Bernie Ryan, the Chief Executive of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation
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Bernie Ryan, CEO of the Institute for Addressing Strangulation

A recent review by Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin recommended banning “degrading, violent and misogynistic content” online.

Violent pornography showing women being choked during sex she found was “rife on mainstream platforms”.

Ms Ryan says she “wants to make sure that young people don’t have access to activities that demonstrate that this is normal behaviour”.

Read more from Sky News:
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Man whose body was found in suitcase ‘had raped teenager’

Strangulation is a violent act that is often committed in abusive relationships.

It is the second most common method used by men to kill women, the first is stabbing.

According to statistics shared by the Crown Prosecution Service, in 2024 there was an almost 50% rise in incidents of non-fatal strangulation and suffocation – compared to the year before.

Kerry pleads for other victims of abuse to leave before it's too late
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Kerry Allan pleads for other victims of abuse to leave before it’s too late

Domestic abuse victim Kerry Allan has a message for anyone who is in an abusive relationship.

Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022. While she said “at the beginning it was really good”, within months he became physically abusive.

In August last year her friends found his profile on a dating app.

“I confronted him and he denied it. I knew we were going to get into a big argument and I couldn’t face it, so I said I was going to my mum’s for a few days and take myself away from the situation.

“I came back a few days later and stupidly I agreed we could try again and everything escalated from that.”

Injuries to Kerry's chest. Pic: CPS
Image:
Injuries to Kerry’s chest. Pic: CPS

In the early hours of 25 August the pair had come in from a night out at a concert and got into an argument.

“He was having a go at me, accusing me of flirting with other people, and I was angry. I told him he had a nerve after what he’d done to me in the week and how he humiliated me.

“I told him that I wanted to leave, that we were done and that I wanted to go to my mum’s and that’s when it got bad.

“He pinned me to the bed and that’s when he first strangled me.”

Kerry's neck injury. Pic: CPS
Image:
Kerry’s neck injury. Pic: CPS

Kerry says this was the first time she’d ever been violently assaulted. Cosgrove was eerily silent as he eventually let go and Kerry gasped for air.

“I remember trying to get my breath back, I was crying and hyperventilating… I was sick on the bedroom floor and I was asking him to go.”

Cosgrove strangled her for a second time before letting go again.

“He was saying I wasn’t getting out of this bedroom alive. I was dead tonight, he hoped that I knew that. Just kept saying how I’d ruined his life.”

Injury to Kerry's eye. Pic: CPS
Image:
Injury to Kerry’s eye. Pic: CPS

“I remember feeling a sort of shock thinking at this point, I’m not going to get out of this bedroom, he’s actually going to kill me.”

Kerry began screaming and shouting for help as loud as she could.

Her neighbours heard the commotion and called the police. While they were en route, Kerry was once again being assaulted.

Bleeding in Kerry's eye
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Bleeding in Kerry’s eye

“I ran over to the bedroom window and tried to jump out, he grabbed me as I went to open the window, and we struggled. And then I was back in the same position, he was on top of me on the bed, and his hands were round the throat again. But this time it didn’t stop.

“I remember trying to struggle and trying to kick out and hit him and I just kept thinking that I definitely was going to die, because at this point, it wasn’t stopping.”

The next memory Kerry has is opening her eyes to see police and paramedics in the bedroom.

Michael Cosgrove. Pic: CPS
Image:
Michael Cosgrove. Pic: CPS

Cosgrove had heard the sirens, jumped out of the bedroom window and went to hide in Kerry’s car.

Kerry remembers opening her eyes to paramedics caring for her: “I remember thinking, I’m alive. I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t believe that I was alive and I wasn’t dead. My last memory is him being on top of me with his hands on my throat.”

Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022
Image:
Kerry met Michael Cosgrove in September 2022

She gives this advice to anyone who is in an abusive relationship: “Please speak to somebody, whether it’s friends, family, a work colleague, whether it’s somebody online, whether it’s a charity that you’re directed to, any sort of abuse is not okay.

“Whether it starts off emotional, they often start off that way, and they escalate, and they can escalate badly.

“Take what happened to me as a huge warning sign, because I wouldn’t want anyone else to be in the position I’ve been in the last eight months.”

Cosgrove was found guilty of attempting to murder Kerry and intentional strangulation.

He will be sentenced in July.

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King Charles echoes his grandfather’s historic VE Day speech as he marks 80th anniversary

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King Charles echoes his grandfather's historic VE Day speech as he marks 80th anniversary

The King echoed the words of his grandfather as he delivered a speech at the precise moment King George VI addressed the nation to mark VE Day 80 years ago.

At 9pm, Charles spoke at Horse Guards Parade in central London and called on the country to “rededicate ourselves” to “the cause of freedom” and “the prevention of conflict”.

His grandfather spoke to the nation from Buckingham Palace at 9pm on 8 May 1945, to thank the country for their contribution as war came to an end in Europe.

King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave Union flags during the concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade in central London. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025.  Jonathan Brady/PA Wire
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King Charles III and Queen Camilla wave Union flags during the concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade in central London. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025.

Recalling the VE Day speeches, Charles said: “We should remind ourselves of the words of our great wartime leader, Sir Winston Churchill, who said ‘meeting jaw to jaw is better than war’.

“In so doing, we should also rededicate ourselves not only to the cause of freedom but to renewing global commitments to restoring a just peace where there is war, to diplomacy, and to the prevention of conflict.

“For as my grandfather put it, ‘We shall have failed, and the blood of our dearest will have flowed in vain, if the victory which they died to win does not lead to a lasting peace, founded on justice and established in good will’.

Stressing the responsibility we still hold today, he added: “Just as those exceptional men and women fulfilled their duty to each other, to humankind, and to God, bound by an unshakeable commitment to nation and service, in turn it falls to us to protect and continue their precious legacy – so that one day hence generations yet unborn may say of us: ‘they too bequeathed a better world’.”

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King Charles III and Queen Camilla alongside the Waleses at the concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade in central London. Pic: PA
Image:
King Charles III and Queen Camilla alongside the Waleses at the concert celebrating the 80th Anniversary of VE Day, held at the historic Horse Guards Parade in central London. Picture date: Thursday May 8, 2025. Pic: PA

The King’s words were designed to be a reminder of current conflicts.

In recent months, the monarch has been placed at the forefront of diplomatic matters, making his call for “unity” even more pertinent.

“The Allied victory being celebrated then, as now, was a result of unity between nations, races, religions and ideologies, fighting back against an existential threat to humanity,” the King said. “Their collective endeavour remains a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when countries stand together in the face of tyranny.”

After a week which has seen the Royal Family make it a priority to ensure VE Day commemorations have been special for the surviving veterans, the King thanked not just those who served in uniform but acknowledged the contribution of those left back home.

“We unite to celebrate and remember with an unwavering and heartfelt gratitude, the service and sacrifice of the wartime generation who made that hard-fought victory possible,” he said. “While our greatest debt is owed to all those who paid the ultimate price, we should never forget how the war changed the lives of virtually everyone.”

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King arrives at VE Day service

Like families up and down the country remembering VE Day, it was clear Charles’s mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was at the forefront of his mind.

Remembering his mother’s story of what happened when she was allowed to leave the palace, he said: “The celebration that evening was marked by my own late mother who, just 19 years old, described in her diary how she mingled anonymously in the crowds across central London and ‘walked for miles’ among them.

“The rejoicing continued into the next day, when she wrote ‘Out in the crowd again. Embankment, Piccadilly. Rained, so fewer people. Conga-ed into House. Sang till 2am. Bed at 3am!’.

Read more:
VE Day anniversary in pictures
What VE Day was really like

Charles continued: “I do hope your celebrations tonight are almost as joyful, although I rather doubt I shall have the energy to sing until 2am, let alone lead you all in a giant conga from here back to Buckingham Palace.”

Earlier in the week, at a tea party held at Buckingham Palace, the King said to one veteran: “Do you do the conga? I remember doing congas with my grandmother round and round the house.”

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Red Wall MPs should focus on two-child benefit cap rather than winter fuel, Harriet Harman says

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Red Wall MPs should focus on two-child benefit cap rather than winter fuel, Harriet Harman says

Red Wall MPs should push for the two-child benefit cap to be lifted rather than a reversal of the winter fuel payment policy, Baroness Harriet Harman has said.

Baroness Harman, the former Labour Party chair, told Sky’s Electoral Dysfunction podcast that this would hand the group a “progressive win” rather than simply “protesting and annoying Sir Keir Starmer” over winter fuel.

Earlier this week, a number of MPs in the Red Wall – Labour’s traditional heartlands in the north of England – reposted a statement on social media in which they said the leadership’s response to the local elections had “fallen on deaf ears”.

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They singled out the cut to the winter fuel allowance as an issue that was raised on the doorstep and urged the government to rethink the policy, arguing doing so “isn’t weak, it takes us to a position of strength”.

Labour’s decision to means test the policy has snatched the benefit away from millions of pensioners.

But Baroness Harman said a better target for the group could be an overhaul of George Osborne’s two-child benefit cap.

More on Harriet Harman

The cap, announced in 2015 as part of Lord David Cameron’s austerity measures, means while parents can claim child tax credit or Universal Credit payments for their first and second child, they can’t make claims for any further children they have.

Labour faced pressure to remove the cap in the early months of government, with ministers suggesting in February that they were considering relaxing the limit.

Baroness Harman told Beth Rigby that this could be a sensible pressure point for Red Wall MPs to target.

She said: “It could be that they have a kind of progressive win, and it might not be a bad thing to do in the context of an overall strategy on child poverty.

“Let’s see whether instead of just protesting and annoying Sir Keir Starmer, they can build a bridge to a new progressive set of policies.”

Jo White, the Labour MP for Bassetlaw and a member of the Red Wall group, suggested that her party’s “connection” to a core group of voters “died” with the decision to means test the winter fuel payment for pensioners.

“We need to reset the government,” she told Electoral Dysfunction. “The biggest way to do that is by tackling issues such as winter fuel payments.

“I think we should raise the thresholds so that people perhaps who are paying a higher level of tax are the only people who are exempt from getting it.”

Pic: AP
Image:
Pic: AP

A group of MPs in the Red Wall, thought to number about 40, met on Tuesday night following the fallout of local election results in England, which saw Labour lose the Runcorn by-election and control of Doncaster Council to Reform UK.

Following the results, Sir Keir said “we must deliver that change even more quickly – we must go even further”.

Some Labour MPs believe it amounted to ignoring voters’ concerns.

Read more:
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Starmer faces rebellion from Labour MPs over welfare reforms

One of the MPs who was present at the meeting told Sky News there was “lots of anger at the government’s response to the results”.

“People acknowledged the winter fuel allowance was the main issue for us on the doorstep,” they said.

“There is a lack of vision from this government.”

Another added: “Everyone was furious.”

Downing Street has ruled out a U-turn on means testing the winter fuel payment, following newspaper reports earlier this week that one might be on the cards.

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