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.

Britain’s military launched airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen on Tuesday with US forces, its defense ministry said – the first public acknowledgment of a joint operation since the Trump administration escalated the US campaign against the militant group.

The strikes targeted “a cluster of buildings” south of the capital Sanaa used by Houthis to manufacture drones, which the group uses to attack ships at sea, Britain’s Ministry of Defence said in a statement released Wednesday.

The Royal Air Force sent Typhoon fighter jets to target those buildings, dropping precision bombs after dark following “very careful planning … to allow the targets to be prosecuted with minimal risk to civilians or non-military infrastructure,” the statement said. All the aircraft returned safely, it added.

The Iran-backed Houthis began a military campaign in solidarity with Palestinians when Israel went to war in Gaza in October 2023. They have repeatedly attacked US Navy ships and commercial vessels in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden – two waterways that are critical to international shipping routes – and fired missiles at Israel.

In response, the US has tried to disrupt the Houthis’ capabilities by going after their primary weapons, and by destroying maritime drones and underwater drones.

The UK has participated in joint strikes with the US against the Houthis before, including numerous operations in 2024.

But Wednesday’s statement marks its first acknowledgment of a joint strike since President Donald Trump launched his aggressive military campaign against the group, vowing to use “overwhelming force” to stop the Red Sea attacks.

Tuesday’s joint operation “was in line with long-standing policy of the UK government, following the Houthis initiating their campaign of attacks in November 2023, threatening freedom of navigation in the Red Sea, striking international ships, and killing innocent merchant mariners,” said the ministry statement.

John Healey, the UK’s defense secretary, said the strikes aimed to prevent further Houthi attacks, adding that a 55% drop in shipping through the Red Sea had caused regional instability and damaged the UK’s economy.

Since Trump began his campaign – known as “Operation Rough Rider” – on March 15, US airstrikes have pounded Houthi targets in Yemen, hitting oil refineries, airports and missile sites. The US military acknowledged carrying out over 800 individual strikes in its monthlong campaign, while analysts estimate dozens of Houthi military officers have been killed.

On Monday the Houthis alleged a US airstrike hit a prison holding African migrants, killing dozens.

In response, US Central Command said it was “aware of the claims of civilian casualties related to the US strikes in Yemen, and we take those claims very seriously. We are currently conducting our battle-damage assessment and inquiry into those claims.”

The world is arming itself at the fastest rate since near the end of the Cold War, according to a new report, as major wars rage in Ukraine and Gaza and military tensions spike from Europe to Asia.

The 9.4% year-on-year rise to $2.718 trillion in global military spending in 2024 is the highest figure ever recorded by the authoritative Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in its annual report – which warned there’s no end in sight to the spiraling global arms race. That is the highest rise since 1988, the year before the Berlin Wall fell.

“Many countries have also committed to raising military spending, which will lead to further global increases in the coming years,” the report said.

The United States remains by far the world’s biggest military spender – almost a trillion dollars in 2024, the report said.

Big ticket items in the US budget included F-35 stealth fighters and their combat systems ($61.1 billion), new ships for the US Navy ($48.1 billion), modernizing the US nuclear arsenal ($37.7 billion) and missile defense ($29.8 billion).

The US budget included $48.4 billion in aid for Ukraine, almost three-quarters of Kyiv’s own defense budget of $64.8 billion.

China followed the US in overall military spending with an estimated $314 billion, just under a third of the US total, the report said.

It did not break down Beijing’s spending by weapons or command, but noted China “unveiled several improved capabilities in 2024, including new stealth combat aircraft, uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) and uncrewed underwater vehicles.”

“China also continued to rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal in 2024,” the report said.

Together, Washington and Beijing accounted for almost half of the world’s military spending in 2024, the report said.

But countries involved in – or wary of – regional conflicts showed the biggest increases in spending year over year.

Israel, which launched an invasion of the Palestinian territory of Gaza in 2023, showed a whopping 65% increase in military spending in 2024.

Meanwhile, Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022, showed an estimated increase of at least 38%, but the SIPRI noted that figure was likely higher as Moscow augments military coffers with money from regional and other sources.

The more than three-year-long conflict in Ukraine has seen NATO countries significantly boost their military budgets in response to Russia’s belligerence and as US President Donald Trump presses Europe and the US-led alliance to be more responsible for their defense, saying they’ve been taking advantage of the United States for too long.

Germany, with the world’s fourth-largest defense budget, upped its spending by 28%. Romania (43%), the Netherlands (35%), Sweden (34%), the Czech Republic (32%), Poland (31%), Denmark (20%), Norway (17%), Finland (16%), Turkey (12%) and Greece (11%), were the other NATO members among the top 40 defense spenders worldwide who showed double-digit increases in 2024.

“The rapid spending increases among European NATO members were driven mainly by the ongoing Russian threat and concerns about possible US disengagement within the alliance,’ said Jade Guiberteau Ricard, researcher with the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme.

But analysts said it may take more than money for US allies in Europe to become militarily self-sufficient.

“It is worth saying that boosting spending alone will not necessarily translate into significantly greater military capability or independence from the USA. Those are far more complex tasks,” SIRPI researcher Guiberteau Ricard said in a press release.

In the Indo-Pacific, the SIPRI said China’s 7% increase in 2024 marked the 30th consecutive year-over-year rise in spending for the People’s Liberation Army, “the largest unbroken streak recorded” in the institute’s database, the report said.

“China’s military build-up has also influenced the military policies of its neighbors, prompting many of them to increase spending,” it said.

Japan’s military budget rose 21% in 2024 – Tokyo’s largest increase since 1952. That brought military spending to 1.4% of gross domestic product, the biggest chunk of Japan’s economy devoted to the military since 1958.

The Philippines, embroiled with China in territorial disputes in the South China Sea, increased its defense spending 19%.

And though spending in South Korea went up only 1.4% in 2024, Seoul has the “highest military burden in East Asia,” at 2.6% of GDP, the institute said.

Taiwan, an island democracy of some 23 million people that the Chinese Communist Party claims as its own and has vowed to seize by force if necessary, increased its defense budget by only 1.8% last year, but Taipei’s military spending is up 48% since 2015, the report said.

India, meanwhile, had the world’s fifth-largest defense budget ($86.1 billion) in 2024. New Delhi’s increase over 2023 was only 1.6%, but the country’s defense spending is up 42% over the past decade, indicative of a troubling trend, researchers said.

“Major military spenders in the Asia–Pacific region are investing increasing resources into advanced military capabilities,” Nan Tian, director of the SIPRI Military Expenditure and Arms Production Programme, said. “With several unresolved disputes and mounting tensions, these investments risk sending the region into a dangerous arms-race spiral.”

Also in Asia, Myanmar, which has seen internal conflict since a military coup in 2021, increased spending by 66% in 2024. At 6.8% of its GDP, Myanmar maintains the largest military burden in the Asia-Pacific, the report said.

Military expenditures in Africa were up 3% overall in 2024. Algeria is the continent’s biggest spender, while ranking 20th worldwide.

In the Americas, Mexico showed a 39% surge in military spending in 2024, “reflecting the government’s increasingly militarized response to organized crime,” the report said.

As servicemen aboard the US Navy aircraft carrier dumped millions of dollars of military hardware into the South China Sea, the commander chose not to watch.

Capt. Larry Chambers knew his order to push helicopters off the flight deck of the USS Midway could cost him his military career, but it was a chance he was willing to take.

Above his head, a South Vietnamese air force major, Buang-Ly, was circling the carrier in a tiny airplane with his wife and five children aboard and needed space to land.

It was April 29, 1975. To the west of where the Midway was operating, communist North Vietnamese forces were closing in for the capture of Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, which the US had supported for more than a decade.

Buang feared his family would pay a terrible price if captured by the communists. So, he jammed his family aboard the single-engine Cessna Bird Dog he found on minor airstrip near Saigon, headed out to sea – and hoped.

And luckily Buang ran into another “idiot,” as Chambers puts it.

The Midway’s deck was crowded with helicopters that Tuesday because it was assisting in Operation Frequent Wind, the helicopter evacuation of Saigon.

Some 7,000 South Vietnamese and Americans would make their way onto US Navy ships on April 29 and 30 in frenzied escapes from Saigon. Some 2,000 of them found their way onto Midway. But few could rival the drama of the family of seven in that two-seat Cessna.

Buang had no radio and so the only way to let the captain of the Midway know he needed help was to drop a handwritten note onto its deck as he flew overhead.

Several attempts failed before finally one found its mark.

“Can you mouve [sic] these Helicopter to the other side, I can land on your runway, I can fly 1 hour more, we have enough time to mouve. Please rescue me, Major Buang wife and 5 child,” it read.

Capt. Chambers had a choice to make: clear the deck as Buang requested; or let him ditch in the ocean. He knew the aircraft, with its fixed landing gear, would flip over once it hit the water. Even if it held together, flipping would doom the family to drowning.

He couldn’t let that happen, he said, even though his superiors did not want the small aircraft to land on the carrier.

Neither did the Midway’s air boss, who ran flight deck operations.

“When I told the air boss we’re going to make a ready deck (for the small plane), the words he had to say to me I wouldn’t want to print,” Chambers said.

Chambers said he ordered all of the ship’s 2,000-person air wing up to the deck to prepare to receive the small plane and turned his ship into the wind to make a landing possible.

Crewmen pushed helicopters – worth $30 million by some accounts – off the deck. American, South Vietnamese, even CIA choppers splashed into the waves.

Chambers still doesn’t know exactly how many. “In the middle of chaos, nobody was counting,” he said.

And he wasn’t looking.

Because he was disobeying the orders of his superiors in the US fleet, he knew his decision could land him a punishment that included being kicked out of the Navy.

“So that was my defense. It was kind of a stupid idea at the time, but at least it gave me the confidence to go ahead and do it.”

With enough space cleared, Buang touched down on the Midway. Crewman grabbed onto the light plane with their bare hands to make sure it wasn’t blown off the deck in the strong winds coming across it. The rest of the crew cheered.

“He’s probably the bravest son of a bitch I’ve run into in my whole life,” said of Buang, adding that the South Vietnamese pilot was trying save his family by landing on an aircraft carrier – something he’d never done before – in a plane not designed for that.

“I was just clearing the runway for him … that’s all you can do.”

And life came before hardware, he said.

“We do the best we can saving human lives. That’s the only thing you can do.”

The final days of the Vietnam War

The fall of Saigon brought the final curtain down on a grinding conflict that unleashed devastation across the region, cost more than 58,000 American and millions of Vietnamese lives, saw the might of US military power fought to a bloody stalemate and triggered huge social unrest at home.

The 50th anniversary on Wednesday will trigger complex and mixed emotions for those who lived through it.

For Vietnam’s government, still run by the same Communist Party that swept to victory, it will be a week of huge parades and celebrations, officially known as “Liberation of the South and National Reunification Day.” For those South Vietnamese who had to flee, many of whom settled in the US, the anniversary has long been dubbed “Black April.”

For US veterans, it will once again raise the age-old question – what was it all for?

Chaos ruled Saigon in the last week of April 1975.

Though more than a decade of US military involvement in the Vietnam War had officially ended with the signing of the Paris Peace Accords with North Vietnam in January 1973, the deal didn’t guarantee an independent state in the South.

The administration of US President Richard Nixon had pledged to keep up military aid for the government in Saigon, but it was a hollow promise that would not last into the era of his successor Gerald Ford. Americans, tired of a divisive war that had cost so many lives and hundreds of billions in taxpayer dollars, were broadly unsupportive of the South Vietnamese regime.

In early March 1975, North Vietnam launched an offensive into the South that its leaders expected would lead to the capture of Saigon in about two years. Victory would come in two months.

Refugees cling to a Chinook helicopter taking off after a supply drop to troops along Highway One, about 38 miles northeast of Saigon, April 14, 1975.

On April 28, North Vietnamese forces attacked Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon, making an evacuation by airplane impossible. There was no other place in the city that could handle large aircraft.

With helicopter evacuation the only option, Washington launched Operation Frequent Wind.

When Bing Crosby’s seasonal classic “White Christmas” played over the radio, that was the signal for Americans and select Vietnamese civilians to go to designated pickup spots to be airlifted out of the city.

More than 100 helicopters, operated by the US Marine Corps, the US Air Force and the CIA, would deliver evacuees to US Navy ships waiting offshore.

By command of the president (not really)

While Capt. Chambers was making command decisions at sea, American helicopter pilots were doing so above Saigon.

Marine Corps Maj. Gerry Berry flew from a US ship offshore to Saigon 14 times during the evacuation, the last of those flights marking the official end of the US presence in South Vietnam.

But getting to that point wasn’t straightforward.

Berry, the pilot of a twin-rotor CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter, got orders on the afternoon of April 29 to fly to the US Embassy in Saigon and get Ambassador Graham Martin out.

But nobody seemed to have told Martin or the US Marines guarding the embassy.

Upon touchdown, when he told the guards he was there to pick up the ambassador, they ushered about 70 Vietnamese evacuees aboard the aircraft instead, he said.

Subsequent flights from an offshore US Navy ship were greeted with more and more evacuees – and no US envoy.

With each flight to and from the embassy, Berry could see the crowds outside the it growing – and North Vietnamese forces drawing closer.

But he knew someone had to take charge, to at least get the ambassador out.

Around 4 a.m., he could see the North Vietnamese forces closing on the embassy.

“The tanks were coming down the road. We could see them. The ambassador was still in there,” he said.

Landing on the roof, the Sea Knight took on another stream of evacuees – and no Ambassador Martin.

Berry called a Marine guard sergeant over to the cockpit – and told him he had direct orders from President Ford for the ambassador to get on the helicopter.

“I had no authorization to do that,” Berry said. But he knew time was short, and his frustration at making this trip more than a dozen times was boiling over.

“I basically ordered him out, when I said in my best aviator voice, ‘The president sends. You have got to go now,’” using military terminology for how an order is handed down.

He said Martin seemed happy to finally get a direct order, even if it came from a Marine pilot.

“It looked like an Olympic sprint team getting on that (aircraft). So you know, I’ve always said that all he wanted to do was be ordered out by somebody,” Berry said.

With the envoy aboard, the Sea Knight headed out to the USS Blue Ridge, ending Berry’s 14th flight of Operation Frequent Wind, some 18 hours after he started.

Hours later North Vietnamese tanks would break through the gates of the South Vietnamese presidential palace, not far from the US Embassy. The Vietnam War was over.

Legacies of Vietnam

Berry and Chambers were both officers who had to make decisions – outside or against the chain of command – that saved lives during the fall of Saigon, which was soon renamed Ho Chi Minh City by the victorious North Vietnamese.

And Chambers says it is a quality that sets the US military apart from its adversaries to this day.

“We have young kids … taught initiative to do things and to take responsibility, unlike some of the other militaries where the commissar, or whoever it is,” looms over every decision, Chambers said.

“We want everybody to think, and everybody to act,” said Chambers, who as a Black man was the first person of color to command a US Navy aircraft carrier.

“You’ve got to be the guy in charge. You can’t run things all the way up through the Pentagon every time you have to do something,” Berry said.

Chambers never faced any disciplinary action for his decisions aboard the Midway off Saigon. He’s not sure if that’s because the Midway wasn’t the only ship dumping helicopters overboard that day or because he was quickly dispatched on another rescue mission.

And it certainly didn’t hurt his naval career. Two years after dumping those helicopters into the sea, he was promoted to rear admiral.

Pilot Berry, who also served a combat tour in Vietnam in 1969 and ’70, is also left with sadness at the war’s futility.

“I hate to think all those deaths were for naught, the 58,400,” he said.

“What did we gain by all that, you know? And we killed more than a million Vietnamese.”

“Those people not only lost that life, but they lost the life where they would have had families and all those things,” Berry said.

As the 50th anniversary of his evacuation flights neared, Berry, now 80, was asked how long Americans would remember the Fall of Saigon, which brought to a close one of the US military’s greatest failures.

“With the number of lives we lost… it can’t be called a victory. It just can’t be,” Berry said.

But Vietnam also provides lessons 50 years later about keeping your trust with allies and friends, like NATO and Ukraine, he said.

“We had all that promised aid for South Vietnam that never came after the final assault” began in March 1975, he said.

“We never, never delivered.

“You promise something, you should follow through.”