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  • Throwing papers, hurling a ninja star – Lindsay Clancy lawyer creates courtroom spectacles

    Throwing papers, hurling a ninja star – Lindsay Clancy lawyer creates courtroom spectacles

    The high-profile murder trial of Massachusetts mother Lindsay Clancy has drawn global public attention, and at the heart of the courtroom drama is veteran defense attorney Kevin Reddington, whose impassioned, high-stakes advocacy has once again put his decades-long career of unorthodox legal tactics on full display.

    Over the course of proceedings, Reddington has positioned Clancy, a 36-year-old woman accused of killing her three young children, not as a cold, calculating killer, but as a deeply distressed mother in crisis who desperately needed mental health intervention before the tragedy. His courtroom demeanor has shifted between quiet compassion and fiery frustration: he has held Clancy’s hand, rubbed her shoulder, and escorted her carefully across the courtroom as she uses a wheelchair, referring to her tenderly as “this young lady.” During closing arguments, his voice rose with conviction as he attacked the prosecution’s case, declaring, “This is a prosecution that has ripped the soul out of this girl.” When the judge rejected his initial request to dismiss a problematic juror, he slammed a stack of papers on the courtroom table and sat openly agitated, a display of raw emotion that has captivated the global audience watching the broadcast proceedings.

    For legal observers who have followed Reddington’s career, this high-drama courtroom performance is nothing out of the ordinary. The Massachusetts-based attorney first rose to national headlines in 1989, when he won an acquittal for Therese Rogers, a woman charged with murdering her sleeping boyfriend by stabbing him in the eyes with a butcher knife. In that case, Reddington deployed an unorthodox insanity defense, arguing that Rogers had endured years of ongoing abuse at the hands of her boyfriend and developed Battered Woman Syndrome that triggered a temporary state of insanity at the time of the killing. To drive his argument home, he threw a pair of ninja stars across the courtroom to demonstrate their lethal force; decades later, the scars from the demonstration still mark the courtroom wall. According to *The New York Times*, Reddington’s successful use of this defense strategy marked the first time such an argument secured an acquittal in a comparable case.

    Reddington leaned on a similar defense rooted in long-term abuse nearly two decades later, in 2007, when he represented another woman accused of shooting her husband to death in the chest. The evidence of sustained abuse he presented was so compelling that a grand jury—whose low evidentiary bar is famously summed up by the U.S. legal adage that a grand jury will “indict a ham sandwich,” according to Boston-based attorney Rosemary Scapicchio—declined to return any criminal indictment at all, a legal victory widely viewed as extraordinary.

    Reddington’s profile reached its peak in 2011, when he took on the defense of Catherine Greig, the long-time girlfriend of notorious Irish-American mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger (whose story was later adapted into the 2015 film *Black Mass*, where Bulger was portrayed by Johnny Depp). Greig, who harbored Bulger for years while he was counted among the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives, ultimately secured a favorable plea deal under Reddington’s representation.

    Now, decades after his first high-profile win, all legal and public eyes have turned back to Reddington as he fights for a favorable outcome for Clancy. Tensions boiled over in court recently, when Reddington pushed for the dismissal of one sitting juror, arguing that the juror was refusing to correctly apply the law as instructed and was the lone holdout preventing the unanimous verdict required by the court. Reddington, who appeared positioned to secure another potentially groundbreaking acquittal, warned that forcing the case forward with the noncompliant juror would be a miscarriage of justice. After the judge initially rejected his request, Reddington’s frustration boiled over into the public display of agitation. The following day, he pleaded with the court to avoid declaring a mistrial—an outcome that would require the entire case to be retried from scratch, dragging out proceedings and adding enormous cost and delay. He successfully persuaded the judge to grant a one-hour delay to the mistrial declaration, allowing him to file an appeal to the highest court in Massachusetts. “If we come back here in a half an hour with a mistrial because of a juror that has just spurned the instructions of this court, it’s a shame. It’s a real shame,” Reddington told the court. The judge, who initially pushed back against the request, at one point noting “I’m not an actor,” ultimately granted the delay, keeping Reddington’s defense strategy alive for the time being.

  • ‘There was blood everywhere’: Survivors recount US strike on wedding in Iran

    ‘There was blood everywhere’: Survivors recount US strike on wedding in Iran

    What was supposed to be the most joyful milestone in the lives of young Iranian couple Maryam Mallahi and Ziaeddin became one of the deadliest civilian tragedies of the latest round of US military strikes across Iran, leaving five people dead and dozens injured, many of them children.

    On the evening of September 1, around 350 guests gathered in the small coastal community of Kuhestak, located in Sirik County along Iran’s Hormozgan province eastern shore, to mark the couple’s marriage. Following long-held local custom, the celebration was split across two separate venues: male guests assembled at a relative’s residence, while women and children waited for the newlyweds at the bride’s family home. Strings of colored lights were strung across the property, guests dressed in vibrant traditional attire, and anticipation built as the crowd waited for Maryam and Ziaeddin to make their entrance.

    The idyllic scene shattered at approximately 9 p.m., as the United States launched a sweeping new wave of air attacks across southern Iran. Multiple explosions echoed across Kuhestak, a small settlement where the wedding venue sat just 200 meters from a telecommunications tower that was among the initial targets hit. Moments after the first blasts, a projectile tore through the roof of the bride’s single-story home, where dozens of women and children had gathered.

    Majid, a 41-year-old guest at the nearby men’s gathering whose wife and five-year-old child were both wounded in the strike, described the chaos that unfolded in the attack’s immediate aftermath. “We were talking to other guests when suddenly we heard a terrifying sound. At first we thought it was an earthquake. We panicked and ran outside,” he recounted to Middle East Eye. “We rushed toward the bride’s house and saw smoke and fire everywhere. I pulled my wife and my child out from under the rubble. Screams came from every direction, there was blood everywhere, and everyone was scrambling to pull the wounded to safety.”

    Ali Mallahi, the bride’s father and owner of the destroyed home, told reporters he heard a second and third blast, and immediately realized the explosions were centered on his property. “The first explosion completely destroyed the single-story house and left it uninhabitable. The second struck the courtyard, damaging a car and other parts of the property. The house is not a home any more. It is gone,” he said.

    One projectile left a 1.5-meter-deep crater in the floor of one of the home’s main rooms, according to local on-site reporting.

    Mina, a female guest who was trapped under rubble before being rescued and transported to Abolfazl Hospital in nearby Minab, described the casual horror of the moment the attack hit. “We were eating ice cream – the weather is still very hot in Hormozgan this time of year, you know – and we were waiting for the bride and groom to arrive when suddenly we heard this terrifying explosion nearby,” she said. “A second blast hit the house almost immediately and tore a hole through the roof. Bricks and chunks of ceiling and walls came crashing down on us. Everyone was screaming, everyone was calling for help, nobody knew what had happened. I was trapped under the rubble. I was just lucky to get out alive.”

    Nineteen-year-old Zahra, another wounded guest, recalled the gruesome scene inside the home that had been decorated just hours earlier for a celebration. “Every carpet in the house was stained with blood. The shoes, the serving dishes, the lights they had put up for the wedding all had blood on them,” she said.

    Local residents launched a frantic search for survivors before formal emergency response teams could reach the remote site. A Red Crescent rescuer who arrived moments after the strike, who requested anonymity for security reasons, said that uninjured guests and nearby neighbors had already begun pulling survivors from the rubble by the time his team arrived. “People who had escaped the building and others who saw the attack from outside were already trying to pull the wounded and survivors out from under the rubble,” he said. “They were so terrified that we had to spend a large part of our time just calming them down. Of course they were terrified. This was a real tragedy. It took only a few moments for their wedding to turn into mourning.”

    Fifteen ambulances were deployed to the area, with most casualties transported to hospitals in Sirik and Minab, and the most severely injured admitted directly to intensive care units. Iranian officials initially recorded two deaths and 50 injuries, but the toll climbed steadily in the days after the attack. The final confirmed death toll stands at five: 50-year-old Zarkhatoun Taheri, 43-year-old Kolsoum Mallahi-Nezhadnia, 16-year-old Mohammad Mallahi, four-year-old Amir Mohammad Karimi, and 22-year-old Asieh Molaeinejad, who succumbed to her injuries in hospital on Thursday.

    Provincial authorities confirm 68 people were wounded in total, 19 of whom are children under the age of 10. Fatemeh, a lightly injured guest who knew Amir Mohammad and his family, shared the devastating heartbreak of the young boy’s death: “Amir Mohammad was supposed to start preschool in just a few days, when the new school year began. Now his parents have to attend his funeral. The grief is unbearable.”

    To date, no official Iranian or US statement has confirmed exactly what type of weapon struck the wedding venue. Witnesses interviewed by Middle East Eye gave conflicting accounts, with some identifying the projectile as a missile and others saying it came from a drone. Razieh Alishvandi, deputy for international and humanitarian affairs at the Iranian Red Crescent, has officially characterized the incident as a projectile strike on a private residential home during a civilian wedding. All residents and witnesses interviewed confirmed the home was purely residential, with no military, security, or intelligence infrastructure located nearby.

    The Kuhestak strike was part of a broader wave of US attacks across Hormozgan and other regions of southern Iran that night. Iranian officials confirmed additional strikes and explosions in Bandar Abbas, Qeshm, Jask, Konarak, and Chabahar. In Kuhestak, the strike also damaged the local telecommunications tower, portions of the town pier, and critical electricity and communications infrastructure, cutting mobile phone and internet service for Kuhestak and the nearby village of Mishi for several hours.

    For local residents, the attack immediately stirred traumatic memories of a February strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab that killed 156 people, most of them children, on the first day of US-Israeli strikes against Iran earlier this year.

    US officials have not publicly confirmed what the intended target in Kuhestak was. US Central Command said in a statement that the night’s strikes targeted Iranian radar, communications, and maritime capabilities, adding that the US military does not intentionally target civilians. US Vice President JD Vance later stated that Washington was launching an investigation into the incident.

    Maryam and Ziaeddin survived the attack only by chance: neither had arrived at the bride’s home when the projectile struck. While the couple escaped physical harm, all of the dead and injured are close relatives, friends, and guests they had invited to celebrate their marriage. A close friend of the bride, who requested anonymity, said Maryam remains in deep shock and fragile mental health. “Maryam is in a very bad state – very, very bad,” she said. “She had dreamed about this night for so long. She wanted to celebrate the beginning of her married life with her family and friends. Now her mental state is so fragile that we honestly do not know how she will cope with this tragedy.”

  • UN votes to adopt new world map showing Africa’s true size

    UN votes to adopt new world map showing Africa’s true size

    In a landmark vote that addresses centuries of geographic bias in global mapping, the United Nations General Assembly has backed a plan to replace the ubiquitous but deeply flawed Mercator projection with a more geographically accurate map that properly reflects Africa’s true scale. The initiative, dubbed the “Correct the Map” resolution, was introduced by the West African nation of Togo and earned unified support from the 55-member African Union ahead of the vote. When the final tally was counted, 164 member states had thrown their support behind the measure, with major European powers France and the United Kingdom among the backers. The United States stood alone as the only country to vote against the resolution, while six other nations abstained from the vote.

    For more than 450 years, the Mercator projection has dominated classroom walls, atlases, and popular world maps across the globe. Created in 1569 by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator, the projection was originally designed to aid European mariners in navigating transoceanic trade routes and exploration voyages. Its enduring popularity stems from its unique ability to preserve straight lines of constant compass bearing, a feature that made it invaluable for 16th-century navigation. However, the projection carries a well-documented flaw: an unavoidable distortion inherent to flattening a three-dimensional spherical globe onto a two-dimensional plane. To preserve the straight-line navigation property, Mercator’s design systematically inflates the size of landmasses near the poles while drastically shrinking the apparent area of continents and countries near the equator.

    The most striking distortion of the projection shrinks Africa to such an extent that it appears roughly the same size as Greenland on most Mercator maps, even though Africa’s actual land area is 14 times larger than the Arctic island. Proponents of the change have long argued that this persistent misrepresentation is not just a trivial geographic error, but a distortion of global perceptions that undermines recognition of Africa’s geopolitical importance, economic potential, and development needs. By systematically minimizing the continent’s size on maps, critics argue, the Mercator projection has contributed to a longstanding underappreciation of Africa’s role in global affairs and the scale of challenges and opportunities it faces.

    The solution adopted by the UN and African Union is the Equal Earth projection, a modern equal-area map created by a team of independent cartographers in 2018. Unlike the Mercator projection, which prioritizes navigation shape over area accuracy, the Equal Earth projection preserves the proportional size of all landmasses across the globe, ensuring that Africa, South America, and other equatorial regions appear at their true size relative to northern landmasses such as Europe and North America. In February of this year, all 54 African Union member states formally adopted the Equal Earth projection, citing its ability to fairly represent all continents while retaining the visual clarity needed for general use.

    Speaking ahead of Friday’s General Assembly vote, Togolese Foreign Minister Robert Dussey framed the initiative as a matter of global equity. “A fair world begins with a fair map,” Dussey told Reuters news agency. In an earlier briefing to UN delegates, he expanded on this reasoning, noting that maps are never neutral political or cultural objects. “A map is never neutral. It shapes perceptions, influences how the place of peoples and continents in the world is understood,” Dussey explained.

    While the non-binding resolution does not legally require all UN member states to alter their official maps, policy analysts and cartographers expect it to drive widespread changes to mapping standards across international institutions, educational systems, and global publications in the coming years. The vote marks a historic step toward addressing long-standing geographic bias that has shaped popular understanding of the world for centuries.

  • Argentine couple to return Nazi-looted painting to rightful owner

    Argentine couple to return Nazi-looted painting to rightful owner

    Eighty years after it was looted by Nazi forces from a Jewish art collector’s collection, a long-missing late-baroque masterpiece has been ordered returned to its rightful lineage following a surprising discovery hidden in plain sight in coastal Argentina.

    The artwork, *Portrait of a Lady* (also referred to as *Contessa Colleoni*), was first spotted by pure chance in August 2025: a Dutch newspaper, Algemeen Dagblad, identified the painting in public listing photos posted by an estate agent advertising a home for sale in Mar del Plata, a popular coastal town just outside Buenos Aires. The canvas was hanging unassumingly above a green sofa in the living room of Patricia Kadgien, daughter of former Nazi fugitive Friedrich Kadgien.

    Friedrich Kadgien, who fled to Argentina after World War II, was a senior adviser to Hermann Göring—Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, who oversaw the mass plunder of thousands of artworks across occupied Europe. The portrait was one of more than 1,000 pieces stolen from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker, a prominent Jewish Dutch art dealer, following the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands in 1940.

    After the painting was identified, authorities launched a search of Kadgien’s property in September 2025 that failed to turn up the artwork. Kadgien and her husband Juan Carlos Cortegoso were subsequently charged with concealment of stolen property and placed under house arrest. On Friday, however, a court in Mar del Plata reached a negotiated resolution: all criminal proceedings against the couple have been suspended in exchange for their full cooperation to return the painting and a financial settlement.

    Under the terms of the agreement between Kadgien’s family, prosecutors, and Goudstikker’s heirs, Kadgien and Cortegoso will surrender all legal claims to the artwork. They have also agreed to donate 4.8 million Argentine pesos (equivalent to approximately £2,356 or $3,185) to local public hospitals in exchange for avoiding prosecution for concealing the stolen piece.

    The sole surviving heir to Goudstikker’s collection is Marei von Saher, Goudstikker’s daughter-in-law. Per reporting from Argentine newspaper *Clarin*, von Saher plans to place the portrait on temporary loan to Buenos Aires’ Holocaust Museum, where it will be displayed to raise public awareness of Nazi-looted art and the ongoing work to return stolen cultural property to its rightful owners. Von Saher has long reaffirmed her family’s commitment to the recovery effort, stating previously that the goal remains “to bring back every single artwork robbed from Jacques’ collection, and to restore his legacy.”

    Art historical scholarship on the portrait has been divided since its recovery. The work is broadly attributed to late-baroque Italian artist Giuseppe Ghislandi, though some experts have argued it may instead be the work of Giacomo Ceruti, another prominent Italian painter from the same historical period.

  • Argentina threatens oil firms with sanctions as Falkland Islands dispute intensifies

    Argentina threatens oil firms with sanctions as Falkland Islands dispute intensifies

    Decades-long tensions over the South Atlantic Falkland Islands, known as Las Malvinas to Argentina, have reignited in recent weeks after Argentina’s far-right President Javier Milei announced new threats of economic sanctions against international energy companies planning exploratory drilling in waters surrounding the contested archipelago. The move marks a sharp escalation of Buenos Aires’ long-standing campaign to push the United Kingdom to relinquish control of the British Overseas Territory, a dispute that already boiled over into open armed conflict between the two nations in 1982.

    In a nationally televised address to the Argentine public, Milei framed the current moment as a turning point in Argentina’s decades-long sovereignty claim, arguing that shifting global dynamics support Buenos Aires’ position. “The winds of change are blowing in favor of our claim to the Malvinas,” he stated, pointing to recent comments from former U.S. President Donald Trump that have opened the door to a potential reversal of Washington’s long-standing recognition of British sovereignty over the islands.

    Milei recalled that Trump previously threatened to revise the U.S. stance on the Falklands dispute in response to the UK’s refusal to back the U.S. in its conflict with Iran. “Recently, President Trump declared that the US is re-evaluating its historic position in relation to the Malvinas,” Milei added, marking the first time a sitting U.S. or former U.S. president has publicly confirmed a potential review of Washington’s long-held policy on the territorial issue.

    Beyond leaning on potential international support, Milei also sought to frame the dispute through a lens of national decline and resurgence. He claimed the UK is currently on “a path of decline” driven by its immigration policies, contrasting this with what he called Argentina’s flourishing future that will ultimately prevail in the sovereignty struggle.

    The immediate trigger for Milei’s latest escalation is the upcoming start of exploratory drilling at the Sea Lion oilfield, located in waters off the Falklands coast. The project is led by a partnership between British energy firms and Israeli energy company Navitas Petroleum, which holds a 65 percent controlling stake in the development. Milei labeled the project a “clear and present danger” to Argentina’s sovereignty claims, and confirmed that the country would move forward with implementing existing legal powers to sanction any companies involved in unauthorized activity around the islands.

    Argentina has long had legislation on the books that allows authorities to impose economic and legal restrictions on any company that participates in resource exploration projects in the Falklands that Buenos Aires does not authorize. What makes the Sea Lion project notable, however, is Milei’s own political background: the Argentine president has positioned himself as a staunch pro-Israel ally, and had previously avoided harsh criticism of Navitas Petroleum, unlike he has with other international firms seeking access to Falklands energy resources.

    The Israeli government has already acknowledged the diplomatic sensitivity of the situation. In December, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar noted that the involvement of Navitas Petroleum’s British subsidiary had created difficult feelings between the UK and Argentina, expressing regret for the friction while noting Israel’s special bilateral relationship with Milei’s government.

    For its part, the UK has swiftly rejected Milei’s threats and reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to the Falkland Islands and the rights of their population. Downing Street pointed out that economic pressure against Falkland Islanders from Argentine governments is not a new tactic, and emphasized that the island people hold an inalienable right to self-determination — including the right to develop and exploit their own natural resources.

    While both nations have staked competing claims to the archipelago for more than a century, a 2013 referendum held among Falkland Islanders delivered an overwhelming result in favor of remaining an overseas territory of the UK, a result London has repeatedly cited as confirmation of the legitimacy of its rule.

  • Judge says mistrial likely, permits defence to file an emergency appeal

    Judge says mistrial likely, permits defence to file an emergency appeal

    In a high-profile criminal case that has drawn widespread public attention, a Massachusetts judge has confirmed that a mistrial is the most likely outcome in the proceedings against Lindsay Clancy, while granting the defense team a narrow, one-hour window to submit an emergency appeal against the planned mistrial ruling.

    The legal move comes after weeks of heated arguments and procedural wrangling between the prosecution and defense over evidence admissibility and jury selection issues that have stalled the trial’s progress. Clancy’s legal counsel had previously pushed back against the growing expectation of a mistrial, arguing that a halted proceeding would prolong the case and disrupt the interests of all parties involved. In response to the defense’s push for appellate review, the judge issued a swift ruling on Friday: acknowledging that a mistrial was the probable next step, but greenlighting the defense’s request to file an emergency challenge within 60 minutes of the ruling.

    Legal observers note that emergency appeals in mistrial proceedings are rare, and the one-hour deadline is an unusually tight timeline designed to keep the case moving without unnecessary delay. It remains unclear whether the appellate court will take up the challenge, or how a ruling would impact the broader trajectory of the case. The defense has not yet released a public comment on their next steps following the judge’s order.

  • BBC at the Clancy trial. What happens next?

    BBC at the Clancy trial. What happens next?

    The high-profile Lindsay Clancy trial has entered its seventh consecutive day of jury deliberations, with BBC journalist Ione Wells reporting live from the courthouse as the proceedings hang in the balance. After weeks of witness testimony, legal arguments, and evidence presentation, the case now rests entirely in the hands of the 12-member jury, who have been sequestered to weigh the facts and reach a unanimous verdict. For members of the public and legal observers following the closely watched proceedings, the extended deliberation period has sparked widespread questions about how the case will unfold from this point forward.

    Legal analysts note that multi-day deliberations are not uncommon in complex criminal cases, where juries must sort through volumes of evidence, conflicting witness statements, and intricate legal instructions before reaching a conclusion. An extended deliberation often signals that jurors are carefully debating the details of the case rather than rushing to a judgment, adding an extra layer of tension to the wait for a verdict. BBC’s on-the-ground coverage from the courthouse has provided real-time updates for audiences following the trial across the United Kingdom and beyond, with Wells documenting every development as the jury continues its work.

    So what potential outcomes can we expect in the coming days? If the jury reaches a unanimous verdict, the judge will formally read the decision in open court, and sentencing will be scheduled at a later date if a guilty verdict is returned. If jurors remain deadlocked and unable to reach a unanimous decision after extended deliberations, the defense and prosecution will enter a new phase of proceedings, with the judge likely to declare a mistrial and leave the door open for a potential retrial at a later date. Until the jury delivers its final decision, all parties involved remain in a holding pattern, waiting to learn the outcome of one of the most closely followed criminal trials of the year.

  • What happens if a mistrial is declared in Lindsay Clancy case?

    What happens if a mistrial is declared in Lindsay Clancy case?

    After seven days of closed-door deliberations over the fate of Lindsay Clancy, the Massachusetts mother accused of killing her three young children, the trial has hit an unprecedented stalemate: the 12-member jury has remained hopelessly deadlocked, leaving the presiding judge on track to formally declare a mistrial.

    Clancy, 33, was charged with three counts of first-degree murder for the 2023 deaths of her 5-year-old daughter Cora, 3-year-old son Dawson, and 8-month-old son Callan. She does not dispute that she killed the three children, but has entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity. Her legal team argues Clancy was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time of the killings, a debilitating mental health condition that erased her ability to tell right from wrong, and thus she cannot be held criminally liable for her actions. Prosecutors have pushed back fiercely against this narrative, arguing the killings were a premeditated, intentional act that meets the legal standard for first-degree murder.

    Under Massachusetts and U.S. federal legal rules, a jury must return a unanimous verdict beyond a reasonable doubt to convict or acquit a defendant in a felony murder trial. Over the course of deliberations, jurors have notified Judge William Sullivan three separate times that they are unable to reach a consensus, even after Sullivan issued a rare Tuey-Rodriguez charge – an additional set of instructions that encourages jurors to re-examine their own positions and engage openly with opposing perspectives in an effort to break the deadlock. When the panel again confirmed it could not reach an agreement, Sullivan publicly signaled he had no remaining legal option but to declare a mistrial. He has delayed the formal declaration for one hour to allow Clancy’s lead attorney, Kevin Reddington, to file an emergency appeal.

    A mistrial declaration does not equate to an acquittal, nor does it validate the prosecution’s case against Clancy; it simply ends the current trial without a formal verdict, opening the door to three distinct possible outcomes for the high-profile case, which has drawn intense national public attention over its six-week run. If a mistrial is formally entered, prosecutors can choose to dismiss the charges entirely, negotiate a plea deal with Clancy’s defense team, or request a retrial with a newly seated jury. Legal experts note that dismissal remains unlikely for a case of this severity, and most expect prosecutors to push for a new trial.

    “In serious felony cases like these, prosecutors often ask for a retrial,” explained Heather Cucolo, a New York Law School professor and leading expert in mental health law. She added, “A case like this that obviously has been so high profile, and there is so much of an emotional response to the facts of this case, I think it’s very likely that the prosecutor will ask for a retrial.”

    Until the next steps are finalized, Clancy will remain in custody at the same mental health facility where she has been held since the killings, on the original murder charges. If a retrial is scheduled, the timeline for a new proceeding will depend on multiple factors, including court availability, pre-trial motions filed by either side, and scheduling for expert witnesses, both for the prosecution and defense. The entire six-week original trial has been marked by intense public interest, with crowds regularly gathering outside the Massachusetts courthouse to follow updates.

    To protect the jury’s privacy, the identities of the nine women and three men who served on the panel have not been released to the public, and Judge Sullivan banned all photography and recording of jurors during the proceedings. Once the case concludes, however, individual jurors are free to choose whether to speak publicly about their deliberations. Past high-profile trials have seen jurors come forward to share their experiences, including through media interviews or published books, meaning details of the internal deadlock could emerge in the coming weeks.

    This case has shone a new spotlight on postpartum psychosis, a severe, rare mental health emergency that can occur in the period after childbirth. For individuals experiencing suicidal thoughts or emotional distress after childbirth, or anyone struggling with similar mental health challenges, support is available globally through Befrienders Worldwide at www.befrienders.org, and for UK residents through BBC Action Line at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

  • Russia hits Ukrainian security headquarters in drone attack, Zelensky says

    Russia hits Ukrainian security headquarters in drone attack, Zelensky says

    In a targeted strike that has raised tensions ahead of planned US-mediated peace negotiations this weekend, a Russian drone struck the central Kyiv headquarters of Ukraine’s top domestic security agency, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed. The attack took place on Friday afternoon, with the unmanned aerial vehicle striking directly at a room assigned to Oleksandr Poklad, head of the SBU’s operations in the building. As of Friday evening, it remained unclear whether Poklad was present in the facility at the time of the impact, but Zelensky said he had already spoken with the security chief to order a proportional, measurable response to the assault.

    Zelensky confirmed in a Telegram statement that the drone was intentionally aimed at the senior SBU official’s office, a development that military analysts say points to improving accuracy in Russia’s latest generation of attack drones. The strike also fuels speculation that Moscow is ramping up offensive operations ahead of the scheduled diplomatic talks, in a bid to strengthen its negotiating position. “All emergency services are on the scene. Everyone affected will receive the necessary assistance,” Zelensky wrote in his public update. He added: “I instructed Poklad to deliver an appropriate, tangible response and, where possible, one that mirrors this strike, to the Russians once everything is ready. Our military will support this response.”

    Visual footage of the attack circulated widely across social media and news platforms, showing thick black smoke billowing from two upper-floor windows on the building’s facade. Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko confirmed that five people were injured in the strike, though he did not specify whether the casualties were SBU staff inside the building. A nearby café, part of a popular local chain, suffered significant structural damage, and one civilian customer was transported to a local hospital for treatment. Stanislav Zavertaylo, co-owner of the damaged café, told the BBC that this was the third location of his chain to be destroyed or damaged since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. “Now I’m in shock because there’s a lot of damage. All the windows are broken, there’s a lot of glass, garbage,” he said.

    In a separate announcement released Friday, Russia’s defense ministry confirmed it had also targeted a cargo vessel in the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk and a commercial tanker near Odesa in coordinated strikes overnight. Over the past several weeks, Moscow has significantly escalated its daytime airstrike campaign against key Ukrainian infrastructure and government targets, increasingly deploying faster, jet-powered drones that are far more difficult for Ukrainian air defense systems to intercept. It has not yet been confirmed what type of drone was used in the SBU headquarters attack.

    This successful strike on a high-profile central Kyiv government building marks a rare breakthrough for Russian offensive operations. Prior to this attack, key Ukrainian government facilities in the capital had remained largely unharmed despite repeated Russian attempts to target administrative and security infrastructure amid the Kremlin’s ongoing military campaign. The SBU headquarters is located just a short distance from Kyiv’s iconic St Sophia Cathedral, the oldest standing building in the capital, and the agency plays a central role in Ukraine’s war effort, leading deep cross-border strikes against Russian military and infrastructure targets.

    Witnesses in the area described the attack unfolding during a routine air raid alert, with a brief high-pitched whine of the incoming drone followed by a deafening explosion that sent shockwaves across nearby neighborhoods and sent plumes of smoke rising over the city skyline. Ukrainian Foreign Ministry representative Andriy Sybiha condemned the attack as a deliberate act of escalation timed to undermine ongoing diplomatic efforts. “Moscow launched this strike during a renewed push for peace – laying bare its true rejection of diplomacy,” Sybiha said, adding that the assault “is a major escalation that demands resolute responses.”

    The strike comes just days ahead of a planned visit by US mediators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are set to travel to both Moscow and Kyiv this weekend as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire and end the 3-year-old full-scale war. According to Axios, which cited anonymous senior US officials, the envoys will first meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Saturday, before traveling to Kyiv for talks with Zelensky on Sunday. Witkoff and Kushner have spearheaded President Donald Trump’s peace initiative since he took office, though the pair have yet to secure a breakthrough on a lasting settlement.

  • At least 37 killed by toxic fumes during alleged petrol theft in Nigeria, reports say

    At least 37 killed by toxic fumes during alleged petrol theft in Nigeria, reports say

    A deadly incident in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern region has left at least 37 people dead after they inhaled toxic fumes while siphoning fuel from an illegal pipeline tapping operation in Rivers State, according to the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre (YEAC), a local environmental and community advocacy group.

    YEAC reports that more than 100 people arrived at Okari Jetty in Okrika under the cover of darkness aboard small vessels to collect the stolen refined fuel, and dozens remain unaccounted for following the disaster. Local eyewitness accounts confirm that many victims collapsed after exposure to the toxic fumes, with some falling into the adjacent Bonny River and others rushed to nearby medical facilities for emergency care. Nigeria’s police force confirmed to the BBC that a formal investigation is currently underway to confirm the exact number of casualties and establish a full timeline of the incident.

    Illegal oil theft and pipeline tapping have plagued the Niger Delta, Nigeria’s core oil production hub, for decades. Rivers State is one of several key producing states that make up the vast coastal Niger Delta region, a landscape of mangrove swamps and wetlands that holds the bulk of Nigeria’s massive oil and natural gas reserves. For generations, criminal networks have illegally tapped into operational pipelines to siphon crude oil and refined petroleum products, which are then either sold directly on the black market or processed at unregulated illegal refineries across the region.

    YEAC confirmed that the fatal incident involved exposure to what local communities call “Indorama fuel”, a grade of refined Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), the standard gasoline used for road vehicles across Nigeria. Nigeria’s Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) has issued a public statement urging both media outlets and local residents to only rely on officially verified information as security agencies work to piece together the details of the early Thursday morning incident. The NSCDC also reiterated its longstanding condemnation of illegal pipeline tapping and oil siphoning, warning that these criminal activities pose severe, ongoing threats to human life, local ecosystems, and Nigeria’s already fragile national economy. Environmental campaigners have long echoed this warning, noting that rampant oil theft and illegal refining are responsible for widespread, long-lasting ecological damage across the Niger Delta, destroying fishing grounds and contaminating drinking water supplies for local communities.

    In recent years, Nigeria’s federal government has ramped up security operations targeting illegal oil theft networks across the region. Speaking on Thursday to Nigerian broadcaster Channels TV, Captain Abiodun Folorunsho, director of naval information, issued a stark warning to oil thieves: that there is no safe hiding place for criminal actors across the Niger Delta’s waterways and coastal areas, which are continuously patrolled by the Nigerian Navy. “Their days are numbered, and if we catch you, of course, we’ll ensure that you face the law,” Folorunsho said.

    Alongside expanded Nigerian Navy maritime patrols, the Nigerian military and other security agencies have carried out repeated raids on illegal oil theft operations and refineries, where criminal groups often exploit the region’s dense, remote mangrove forests to avoid detection.

    The crackdown on oil theft comes as Nigeria works to reverse years of declining production caused by rampant theft, widespread insecurity, and chronic underinvestment in the country’s oil sector. The government has set an ambitious target to boost national oil production to roughly three million barrels per day by 2030, a goal that relies heavily on improved security in the Niger Delta and broad regulatory reforms to attract much-needed foreign direct investment to the sector.