A judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy case today after six and a half days of deliberation. The jury could not agree. Massachusetts must now decide whether to try her again.

Six and a half days of deliberation produced no verdict. The postpartum psychosis precedent that this case was supposed to set is still unset. Here is Friday.

A judge just declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder case. The jury could not agree. Massachusetts must now decide whether to try her again.

A judge has declared a mistrial in the trial of Lindsay Clancy, who faced murder charges for killing her three children in January 2023, after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict following more than six days of deliberation. Clancy's defense attorney Kevin Reddington wept after the judge declared the mistrial.

Clancy, 36, does not deny strangling her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and 8-month-old Callan, in the basement of their Duxbury, Massachusetts home. Her defense argued she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis and was not criminally responsible. The jury received an Allen charge, an instruction to deadlocked jurors to keep trying, on Wednesday and reported deadlock a second time Thursday. The judge declared the mistrial Friday. A mistrial does not acquit Clancy. Massachusetts prosecutors must now decide whether to retry the case, which involved 80 witnesses and 300 exhibits and took more than two weeks of testimony. A retrial would give prosecutors the chance to adjust their strategy and give the defense the chance to adjust theirs. The precedent this case was supposed to set on postpartum psychosis and criminal responsibility in Massachusetts courts was not set today. It is still waiting.

If you or someone you know needs support with postpartum mental health, the National Maternal Mental Health Hotline is available by calling or texting 1-833-TLC-MAMA.

Three military veterans and an architectural historian sued Friday to block Trump's triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery. Excavation is scheduled to begin September 21.

A group of three military veterans and an architectural historian on Friday asked a US judge to block the Trump administration from starting work on a triumphal arch in Washington. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced this week that excavation work will begin on or after September 21, without final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, the federal body that must approve major construction projects in Washington. The proposed 250 foot arch, evoking the design of Paris's Arc de Triomphe, would be built near Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from the Lincoln Memorial. When asked in 2025 who the arch was for, Trump said: "Me."

The plaintiffs, three Vietnam-era veterans and an architectural historian, argue the arch would permanently destroy the century-old sight line between the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington House, a visual axis established intentionally after the Civil War to symbolize national reunification. The arch would be taller than the Lincoln Memorial. It has not received final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission, does not have congressional authorization, and the Interior Department is planning to begin digging test pits on the site anyway, on September 21. The project joins a list that includes the White House ballroom construction, the Kennedy Center renaming and demolition suggestion, and the Smithsonian standoff as part of the same week-long pattern of the administration moving on federal cultural and historic spaces without waiting for the legal, legislative, or institutional approval those spaces require. The veterans who are buried at Arlington did not choose to be buried with a view of a 250 foot monument to a living president. The veterans who are suing are making that argument in court.

Argentina's president just escalated the Falklands dispute by seizing on Trump comments. He says the islanders have no right to self-determination. They voted 99.8% to stay British.

Argentine President Javier Milei escalated his country's dispute with Britain over the Falkland Islands on Thursday, announcing tougher sanctions targeting companies involved in an offshore oil project near the British-controlled archipelago and praising President Trump for saying Washington could reconsider its long-standing neutral stance on the islands' sovereignty. Milei said Friday that the islanders "do not have a legitimate right to self-determination" and that any argument based on a referendum held there "is invalid".

In 2013, the Falkland Islands held a referendum on their political status. Of the 1,517 votes cast, 1,513 were yes votes for remaining British. That is 99.8%. The three no votes came from the total registered voting population of 1,650 people. Milei is saying that vote is invalid. His legal basis for that claim is Argentina's longstanding position that the islands are Argentine territory regardless of what the people living there want. Trump's suggestion that the US might reconsider its neutrality on Falklands sovereignty gives Milei something he has been seeking from his close relationship with Trump: American diplomatic cover for a position the rest of the Western world has not supported since the 1982 Falklands War, in which Argentina invaded the islands, Britain retook them, and 649 Argentine troops, 255 British service members, and three Falkland Islanders died. The islands' residents voted with 99.8% clarity about what they want. Milei says their vote is invalid. Trump's comment gave him the opening to say it publicly.

The federal watchdog report on the former Labor Secretary came out Friday. She drank on the job. She misused funds. She created a "toxic, intimidating and humiliating" work environment.

A report from Labor Department investigators found former Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer violated her own department's policy prohibiting harassment, drank on the job, and misused agency funds, overseeing a "toxic, intimidating and humiliating" work environment. Chavez-DeRemer resigned as Labor Secretary in April.

The federal watchdog report arriving in September for a Cabinet official who resigned in April describes the timeline of accountability in a federal government that has been moving faster on enforcement against external targets than on internal ones. Chavez-DeRemer was confirmed as Labor Secretary in February 2025. Allegations of a toxic workplace and her husband's sexual misconduct in her office emerged within months. She resigned in April. The federal watchdog completed its investigation and confirmed the allegations in September. The Labor Department, which exists to protect workers from toxic workplaces and harassment, had a Labor Secretary who created one. The report is now public. The resignation already happened. The accountability arrived after the fact.

The UN just backed a new world map that shows Africa in its true relative size. The US stood alone in opposition.

The United Nations has backed a new world map showing Africa in its true relative size, with the United States standing alone in opposition.

The map most people grew up with in Western classrooms is based on the Mercator projection, a system designed by a Flemish cartographer in 1569 for navigation. It preserves angles and shapes accurately but dramatically distorts the relative size of land masses, making regions near the poles appear much larger than they are and regions near the equator appear much smaller. On a standard Mercator map, Greenland appears roughly the same size as Africa. Africa is actually about 14 times larger. Europe appears larger than South America. South America is nearly twice the size of Europe. The United States appears roughly the same size as Africa. Africa is actually three times larger than the United States. The Peters projection, developed in 1974, corrects these distortions and shows land masses at their accurate relative sizes. The UN endorsing the Peters projection map, and the US opposing it, is a decision about which version of the world's relative proportions is officially sanctioned for global institutional use. The countries that have historically appeared larger on the Mercator map are the countries that built the colonial infrastructure the Mercator map was designed to navigate. The US standing alone in opposition to a more accurate map is a specific kind of statement about which version of the world it prefers to see.

The Philippines Vice President just posted bail after her arrest. Her name is Sara Duterte. Her father ran the country.

Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte posted bail after her arrest, with authorities having charged her in connection with her alleged role in conspiring to kill President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., among other offenses.

Sara Duterte is the daughter of former President Rodrigo Duterte, who governed the Philippines from 2016 to 2022 and whose drug war killed thousands of people in extrajudicial killings. She was elected Vice President in 2022 on a ticket with Marcos, the son of the former dictator Ferdinand Marcos. The Marcos-Duterte ticket won in a landslide. The Marcos-Duterte alliance then collapsed, with Sara Duterte publicly threatening to have Marcos and his wife killed, leading to the criminal charges and her arrest. She has now posted bail. The case involves the daughter of one former Filipino leader charged with conspiring to kill the son of another former Filipino leader, both of whose fathers governed with extraordinary extrajudicial violence. The political and dynastic complexity of Philippine democracy is one of the most specific and interesting cases in the world of how authoritarian legacies persist in democratic systems.

Michigan caught a Hail Mary with no time left to win the first college football game of the season. The sport is back.

Michigan wide receiver JJ Buchanan caught a Hail Mary touchdown pass with no time remaining on the clock to beat Western Michigan at Michigan Stadium, in one of the opening games of the college football season.

College football returned Friday for the first time in 2026. The sport generates roughly $18 billion in annual revenue, more than the NBA and NHL combined, distributed across hundreds of universities whose academic missions and athletic industrial complexes exist in a specific and tension-filled relationship. A Hail Mary to open the season is the kind of moment the sport exists to produce, the desperation heave, the crowd, the improbable catch, the final result reversed in seconds. JJ Buchanan was the player who caught it. Michigan won. The season has begun.

The thread underneath Friday

A judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy murder case after the jury deadlocked for the second time in six and a half days of deliberation, and Massachusetts must now decide whether to retry a case involving 80 witnesses and 300 exhibits while the postpartum psychosis precedent it was supposed to set remains unset. Three Vietnam-era veterans and an architectural historian filed an emergency lawsuit to block Trump's 250 foot triumphal arch near Arlington National Cemetery before excavation begins September 21 without final federal approval, the project joining the White House ballroom, Kennedy Center, and Smithsonian as part of the same pattern of moving on federal cultural spaces without waiting for required approvals. Argentina's Milei announced tougher Falklands oil sanctions and declared the 99.8% islanders' referendum invalid, seizing on Trump's suggestion that the US might reconsider its neutral stance. The former Labor Secretary of the United States drank on the job, misused funds, and created a toxic workplace per a federal watchdog report released today, five months after she resigned. The UN backed the Peters projection world map showing Africa in its true size and the US stood alone in opposition. The Philippines Vice President Sara Duterte posted bail after being charged with conspiring to kill the president. Michigan caught a Hail Mary with no time left to open college football season. A federal judge warned Trump's mail in voting restrictions would cause major disenfranchisement and the Trump administration filed an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court. A postal service whistleblower said the untested USPS ballot delivery system could disenfranchise millions. Nepal rescuers pulled two workers alive from a hydropower tunnel nine days after the flood. Trump called the Iran war "small potatoes" for the US. Putin pledged support for Iran and urged other world leaders to join. A tanker captain was arrested after a cargo ship sank off Istanbul. An Air India investigation flagged a hydraulic failure in a flight emergency. Wesleyan's president called Trump's DEI tax-exempt proposal "extraordinary overreach."

Seven sections, one weekend ahead. The midterms are 64 days away. See you Monday.

What to watch this weekend: Watch whether Massachusetts prosecutors announce a decision on retrying Lindsay Clancy, because the retrial decision shapes whether the postpartum psychosis defense gets tested in court again or whether it remains a legal question without a Massachusetts precedent. Watch whether the judge in the Trump arch case grants the veterans' emergency injunction before September 21, because excavation starting without final approval from the National Capital Planning Commission would be the administration physically breaking ground on a federal monument without the required legal authorization. Watch whether Trump clarifies his Falklands comments after Milei announced sanctions seizing on them, because an offhand presidential comment has now moved a South American country toward confrontation with a NATO ally. And watch whether the Supreme Court weighs in on the mail in voting emergency appeal before November, because the disenfranchisement consequences the district judge warned about are arriving in the same window as early voting in multiple states. See you Monday.

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