Lawyers for an Australian woman accused of fatally poisoning three family members with deadly mushrooms have told the jury their deaths were a “terrible accident.”

Erin Patterson is standing trial for the 2023 deaths of her mother-in-law Gail Patterson, father-in-law Donald Patterson and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson – who all died in hospital days after Patterson served them a meal that contained death cap mushrooms.

She is also charged with the attempted murder of Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who was also at the lunch but survived.

Crown prosecutors allege Patterson deliberately served lethal mushrooms to kill her lunch guests; her defense counsel claims the deaths were a tragic accident.

During opening arguments on Wednesday, Patterson’s lawyers admitted that she initially lied to police when she said she hadn’t foraged for mushrooms and didn’t own a dehydrator. They said when she learned how ill her guests had become after eating her meal, she “panicked” and acted in ways that may seem suspicious.

The saga, which has gripped the nation for two years, began on a summer day in late July 2023 when Patterson hosted the four relatives of her estranged husband at her home, telling them she wanted to discuss a medical issue. Her ex-husband had also been invited but did not attend.

The court heard she told her guests she had cancer and asked them for advice on how she should break it to her two children. The prosecution alleges she did not have cancer, and had used the “medical issues” discussion to ensure the children would not be at the meal; the defense admitted she had lied about the diagnosis.

During the meal, Patterson served her guests individual beef wellingtons – a steak and pastry dish that incorporates mushrooms. Her guests fell ill hours later and were all admitted to hospital where doctors suspected mushroom poisoning, prompting a police investigation. Patterson was arrested and charged several months later.

Prosecutor Nanette Rogers SC alleged that Patterson served the guests death cap mushrooms – a highly poisonous variety of wild fungus – that she had picked herself.

Patterson herself had gone to the hospital, claiming to feel unwell after the meal – but her tests did not show severe illness, and she voluntarily discharged herself against doctors’ advice, prosecutors said.

Patterson had told police she didn’t own a dehydrator, but surveillance footage after the deaths showed her disposing of a unit at a local trash dump, which was later found to contain traces of death cap mushrooms, the court heard.

Patterson insists she is innocent. Her defense lawyers told the jury they don’t dispute that the guests died from her meal – but argued she had not intentionally poisoned them.

“The defense case is that Erin Patterson did not deliberately serve poisoned food to her guests at that lunch on the 29th of July, 2023,” said defense lawyer Colin Mandy SC.

“She didn’t intend to cause anyone any harm on that day. The defense case is that what happened was a tragedy, a terrible accident.”

Mandy admitted that Patterson had lied about the dehydrator and about foraging for mushrooms, saying she had simply panicked in the moment.

“The defense case is that she panicked because she was overwhelmed by the fact that these four people had become so ill because of the food that she’d served to (them),” Mandy said. “Three people died because of the food that Erin Patterson served that day. So you’ll need to think about this issue – how Erin Patterson felt about that in the days that followed.”

Patterson has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The case is expected to continue for up to six weeks.

Sitting inside her fly-infested tent in Gaza City, Iman Rajab sifts clumps of flour through a sieve, over and over again.

She found the half-bag of flour in a garbage dumpster. It is crawling with pests and shows clear signs of contamination. But it’s still Rajab’s best hope for keeping her six children fed and alive. So she sifts the flour once more to make bread.

“My kids are vomiting after they eat it. It smells horrible,” Rajab says of the bread it produces. “But what else can I do? What will I feed my children if not this?”

She is one of hundreds of thousands of parents in Gaza struggling to feed their children as the war-torn Palestinian enclave barrels towards full-blown and entirely man-made famine.

For nearly two months, Israel has carried out a total siege of Gaza, refusing to allow in a single truck of humanitarian aid or commercial goods – the longest period Israel has imposed such a total blockade.

Israel says it cut off the entry of humanitarian aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages. But international organizations say its actions violate international law, with some accusing Israel of using starvation as a weapon of war – a war crime.

Cases of acute child malnutrition are also rapidly rising, one of the telltale signs of impending famine. Nearly 3,700 children were diagnosed last month, an 82% increase from February, according to the United Nations.

Five-year-old Usama al-Raqab has already lost 8 lbs in the last month, now weighing just 20 lbs, according to his mother. According to the World Health Organization, the median weight for a healthy 5-year-old boy is about 40 lbs.

He has several pre-existing medical conditions – including a pancreatic disorder and respiratory issues – which require a diet rich in fats and proteins to stay healthy. Those foods have become almost completely unavailable as Israel’s siege approaches its third month.

Usama’s skin now sticks to his bones, and his mother says he can barely walk.

“I have to carry him everywhere. He can only manage to walk from the tent to the bathroom and nothing more,” she says.

When his mother takes off his clothes to bathe him, he winces in pain. Every movement is painful in his condition.

Food deliveries blocked just outside of Gaza

The aid organizations that were once the answer to a food crisis that has roiled Gaza for much of this nearly 19-month-long war are now also out of answers.

Standing in an empty warehouse, the WFP’s emergency coordinator in Gaza Yasmin Maydhane said the organization’s supplies have been “depleted.”

“We are in a position now where over 400,000 people that were receiving assistance from our hot meal kitchens – which is the last lifeline for the population – is in itself grinding to a halt,” she said.

If Israel would only open the gates to Gaza, the WFP says it is ready to surge enough aid into Gaza to feed the entire population for up to two months. UNRWA, the main UN agency supporting Palestinians, said it has nearly 3,000 trucks filled with aid waiting to cross into Gaza. Both need Israel to lift its blockade to get that aid in.

As conditions in Gaza spiral, Israel has offered no indication so far that it is planning any action to avert all-out famine.

Israel’s European allies – including France, Germany and the United Kingdom –have issued increasingly urgent calls for it to allow the entry of humanitarian aid – with one notable exception. Unlike last year, when former US President Joe Biden’s administration pressured Israel repeatedly to facilitate the entry of more aid into Gaza, President Donald Trump’s administration is backing Israel’s blockade.

The White House’s National Security Council has issued statements supportive of Israel’s control of the flow of humanitarian aid as a bargaining chip to compel Hamas to release more hostages. And last week, the newly appointed US ambassador to Israel rejected appeals from humanitarian officials to pressure Israel to open the crossings.

“What I would like to suggest is that we work together on putting the pressure where it really belongs: on Hamas,” Ambassador Mike Huckabee said, calling on Hamas to agree to another hostage release deal. “When that happens and hostages are released, which is an urgent matter for all of us, then we hope that that humanitarian aid will flow and flow freely.”

But Gaza’s starving civilians are running out of time.

At a soup kitchen in al-Nuseirat in central Gaza last Friday, hundreds of Palestinians waited in line in the scorching sun for the only meal most of them will eat that day.

Sitting on the ground, an elderly woman named Aisha shields her head from the sun with the pot she hopes will be filled with food. She feels sick – her head feels like it is melting, she says.

“We are starving, tired, and weary of this life,” Aisha says, her voice weak with fatigue. “There is no food, no nothing. Death is easier than this life.”

Young and the old crowd towards the front of the line, pots and bowls raised high. The one meal a day from this charitable association has become their only lifeline – but the exhausting routine of hours spent standing in line for meager sustenance is pushing him and many others to the brink.

“This pot – how can it feed eight people?” Abu Subhi Hararah shouts, unable to contain his frustration. “Who should I feed – my wife, my son, or the elderly?

“Our children are dying from war, from bombings at schools, tents and homes,” he cries. “Have mercy on us. We are searching for a morsel of food.”

A minerals deal between Ukraine and the United States could finally be signed as early as Wednesday after weeks of intense negotiations that at times turned bitter and temporarily derailed Washington’s aid to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told Ukrainian television that the country’s economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko was on her way to Washington.

“We are finalising the last details with our American colleagues. As soon as all the final details have been finalised, I hope that the agreement will be signed in the near future, within the next 24 hours,” Shmyhal told the Ukrainian Telemarathon.

The US and Ukraine have been trying to hammer out the natural resources agreement that would give Washington access to Kyiv’s untapped mineral riches in exchange for investment since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky was expected to strike the deal during his trip to Washington in February – but the agreement was left unsigned when that visit was cut short following the contentious Oval Office meeting.

Among the key sticking point of the negotiations was the question of security guarantees – and whether the US would provide them as part of the deal. Trump initially refused that, saying he wants Ukraine to sign the agrrement first and talk about guarantees later.

At that time, Zelensky described the draft agreement as asking him to “sell” his country. Ukrainian officials have since indicated they believed that US investment and the presence of American companies in Ukraine will make the US more interested in Ukraine’s security.

Shortly after the doomed White House visit, Trump ordered US aid to Ukraine to be suspended. While the assistance has since been restored, the episode became a major wakeup call for Ukraine’s European allies, who have pledged to step up their help to the country.

Trump has largely billed the agreement as Ukraine “paying back” for the aid the US has provided to Ukraine since Russia launched its unprovoked full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

The details of the agreement have not been made public. However, Shmyhal said on Sunday that the deal “will not include assistance provided before its signing.”

Speaking on Wednesday, Shmyhal described the deal was “a strategic agreement on the establishment of an investment partnership fund.”

“It is truly an equal and beneficial international agreement on joint investments in the development and recovery of Ukraine between the US and Ukrainian governments,” he added on Wednesday.

Under the deal, the US and Ukraine will create a joint investment fund in Ukraine with an equal contributions from both and equal distribution of management shares between them, Shmyhal said.

“The American side may also count new, I emphasise new, military aid to Ukraine as a contribution to this fund,” Shmyhal said.

The news of the deal being signed as early as Wednesday was first reported by Bloomberg and the Financial Times.

Mineral riches

Kyiv’s allies have long eyed the country’s mineral riches. Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 50 materials classed as critical by the US Geological Survey.

These include rare earth minerals and other materials that are critical to the production of electronics, clean energy technologies and some weapon systems.

The global production of rare earth minerals and other strategically important materials has long been dominated by China, leaving Western countries desperate for other alternative sources – including Ukraine.

A memorandum of understanding prepared under the Biden administration last year said the US would promote investment opportunities in Ukraine’s mining projects to American companies in exchange for Kyiv creating economic incentives and implementing good business and environmental practices.

Ukraine already has a similar agreement with the European Union, signed in 2021.

This is a developing story.

Wildfires raging near Jerusalem forced evacuations in several areas and led to several major road closures on Wednesday, as firefighters struggle to contain the flames amid dry conditions and high winds.

Israel is seeking international assistance to fight the fires, as the defense minister says the country is “in a time of national emergency.”

The fire forced authorities to close Route 1, the major road connecting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem on Wednesday – Israel’s Memorial Day.

Videos from social media show people walking along the highway with thick smoke filling the air.

The fire is active on multiple fronts, authorities said, with one area concentrated around the town of Neve Shalom, located about 15 miles west of Jerusalem. In one clip, the flames can been seen next to the road along a packed section of highway.

At least six communities in the area have been evacuated, authorities said. Israel has asked for international assistance to fight the fire.

“We are in a time of national emergency, and all available forces must be mobilized to save lives and bring the fires under control,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz Wednesday.

There are about 120 teams fighting the fire, Israel’s Fire and Rescue Services said, as well as 12 firefighting aircraft and helicopters.

So far, seven people have arrived at Shamir Medical Center’s emergency room as a result of the fire, according to the hospital. One is in moderate condition, while the rest are in mild condition.

The fire is in approximately the same location as a similar blaze last week.