Three men accused of the murder of the Belfast journalist Lyra McKee have been linked to the scene by clothing and physical features, a court has heard.

The New IRA claimed responsibility for the death of McKee, 29, who died after being hit by a bullet as she stood close to police vehicles while observing rioting in the Creggan area of Derry on 18 April 2019.

Three men from Derry – Peter Cavanagh, 37, of Mary Street, Jordan Gareth Devine, 25, of Bishop Street, and Paul McIntyre, 58, of Kells Walk – have been charged with her murder. They are also facing other charges connected to the shooting and the rioting.

The trial opened in May 2024. In February, Judge Patricia Smyth rejected a defence application that there was no case to answer due to insufficiency of evidence.

Proceedings resumed at Belfast crown court on Wednesday morning when defendants filled the dock as the prosecution summed up their case against them.

Six other Derry men are on trial on charges including rioting and throwing petrol bombs. They are: Joseph Patrick Barr, 37, of Sandringham Drive; Jude Forest Coffey, 28, of Gartan Square; Joseph Anthony Campbell, 25, of Gosheden Cottages; Patrick Anthony Gallagher, 33, of John Field Place; Christopher Joseph Gillen, 45, of Balbane Pass; and Kieran George McCool, 57, of Ballymagowan Gardens.

The nine men all deny the charges.

Another man accused of rioting and throwing petrol bombs on the night of the murder died during trial proceedings last year.

The prosecution claim the three men accused of murder had accompanied a lone gunman to the firing point on the night, and had encouraged or assisted him.

McKee’s sister Nichola was among those in the public gallery watching on.

The prosecuting barrister, David McDowell KC, said Andrew Wooller, a forensic image analyst, had identified 19 individuals by height, build, clothing and trainers, who appeared to be involved in the disorder.

He said Cavanagh, Devine and McIntyre, as well as Campbell and Gillen, could be linked to the scene on 18 April by an analysis of imagery gathered, which includes footage filmed by an MTV crew on the day of the shooting.

McDowell also claimed that those involved in rioting in the area on 16 and 18 April had “displayed forensic awareness” by burning clothing.

McDowell contended that McIntyre had played a “leading role”, and had been spotted close to the gunman. He described him having been pictured wearing “distinctive” trainers with lace adornment, a hooded jacket, a red Superdry T-shirt, O’Neill tracksuit bottoms, a Nike cap and a metal bracelet, which, with his short height and heavy build, “overwhelmingly” linked him with person D seen in footage of the rioting on 18 April. He added that McIntyre had his name, Paul, tattooed to his knuckles and a distinctive tattoo on the upper of his left hand.

McDowell said Devine had been seen wearing distinctive trainers, tracksuit bottoms and a US Polo Association cap on a number of occasions, linking him with person B from riot footage on 18 April.

He said McIntyre and Devine had declined to give evidence to account for evidence against them.

The trial continues.

The days after Nowruz, the Persian New Year, are usually a bustling time in Tehran, with spring arriving, trees blossoming, businesses reopening after the holidays, and people returning to work and school.

This year, however, Iranians are trying to maintain a semblance of ordinary life against the constant backdrop of explosions, airstrikes – and a conflict many fear may drag on for weeks or months.

“More and more, people are starting to normalise this war,” said Farhad, a photography editor in Tehran. “It’s difficult, but we’re adapting and trying to return to our daily lives as much as possible. There’s no alternative. We’re tired. We just want peace.”

Explosions lit up the city’s skyline overnight on Wednesday as Israel launched fresh airstrikes, but by the morning, joggers were exercising again in the sprawling Pardisan Park. Schools and universities remain closed since the start of the war, but shops, restaurants and cafes are slowly reopening.

Aylar, a 39-year-old human rights worker who spent the first weeks of the war sheltering in her apartment with her cats, said that she had paid for an expensive VPN to try to circumvent the internet blackout imposed by Iranian authorities so she can talk to relatives abroad. “On the same day, I also went for coffee and chocolate cake with friends on what felt like a sunny spring day. These conflicting realities are bizarre,” she said.

Iran’s official death toll has frozen at around 1,500 for days, but the real figure may be more than 3,000, with many more injured, according to the Iranian Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been tracking attacks and casualties across the country.

And while many Iranians have managed to stay in their homes away from attacks, others have found themselves dangerously close to the violence.

Azadeh, a 46-year-old researcher and cinematographer who returned to Iran after finishing her PhD in Turkey, said she was outside with her pregnant sister when a strike hit.

“It was just 200 metres from us. I held her tightly in my arms to protect her from shrapnel and in that moment, I felt so helpless,” she said from her home in Tehran. “Every time I hear the sound of an explosion, I feel fear. But I also feel such a responsibility towards my family, my sister and my elderly grandmother. I want to protect them from this war. Since the attack, I’ve lived in constant fear.”

With schools and universities still closed, many international students have chosen to leave Iran for the time being. “There’s been a huge exodus,” said Hasina, a 26-year-old Afghan medical student, who undertook a train and bus journey from Tehran back to Afghanistan to wait out the war.

“It was sad and scary to leave, and it was difficult to return to Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. At the border, many of us women got into trouble with the Taliban because we arrived without a male guardian. I hope to be back in Iran soon,” she said from the western Afgahanistan city of Herat, near the Iranian border, adding that being with her family there was, for now, still better than “hiding from bombs in Tehran”.

For many Iranians the future is uncertain. Some voiced concerns that without significant political change, the conflict could become a recurring reality. “We went through the 12-day war with Israel last year, and now we’re under attack again,” said Abbas, a 41-year-old man in Tehran. “I worry this could become a pattern.”

That uncertainty is further compounded by deep divisions within society, and Tehran remains polarised.

Most Iranians, regardless of their political affiliation, oppose the war but some have welcomed it, seeing the violence as the best chance for the fall of the Islamic Republic.

In the hours after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was announced, some Tehranis climbed onto their roofs in spontaneous scenes of celebration, shouting “azadi” (freedom) into the night, while elsewhere, government supporters gathered in the streets to mourn, holding vigils and reciting prayers.

But as attacks across the country have intensified, pro-government supporters have gathered on streets and in public squares every evening, chanting “God is great, Khamenei is the leader” and “death to America, death to Israel”.

“Our society is divided. Some believe this war could lead to a free, democratic government backed by the US, while others dismiss this, pointing to the failures of the US across the region,” said Farhad. “At the same time, many are suffering and being killed. Why aren’t there anti-war protests in the US? It seems that nobody cares.”

Senate Republicans on Wednesday announced plans to begin a unilateral push for legislation that may include funding for Donald Trump’s war with Iran and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while also including elements of a voter ID bill that is a priority of the party’s right wing.

The legislative effort – which could take weeks to play out and has no guarantee of success – comes amid a protracted standoff with Democrats over the partial shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has led to lengthy lines at Transportation Security Administration (TSA) checkpoints at some airports.

The Senate budget committee chair, Lindsey Graham, announced that, for the second time since Trump returned to the White House, the party intends to craft a bill using the reconciliation procedure, which will allow it to circumvent the Senate filibuster and thus pass with only Republican votes.

“The purpose of the second reconciliation bill is to make sure there is adequate funding to secure our homeland and to support our men and women in the military who are fighting so bravely,” Graham wrote on X.

He also hinted the proposal would contain elements of the Save America act, which would impose a host of ID requirements on voters when they register and cast ballots. That bill is currently under consideration in the Senate, but lacks the Democratic support to pass.

“I also think we have many opportunities to improve voter integrity through reconciliation,” Graham wrote.

A second reconciliation bill has been discussed for months in the Capitol, after Republicans last year used the procedure to pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which funded Trump’s crackdown on undocumented immigrants, instituted an array of tax cuts and made major changes to eligibility for Medicaid.

Graham’s announcement came the day after John Thune, the Senate majority leader, made a proposal to Democrats to restart funding to most of the DHS and its subagencies, with the exception of ICE. But the proposal would exclude many of the reforms the minority has demanded in response to the deaths of two US citizens at the hands of agents conducting an intensive immigration enforcement operation in Minneapolis. It also would not stop Republicans from reauthorizing funding to ICE through the reconciliation procedure.

The Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, told reporters on Monday that his party would send a counteroffer to Republicans. A spokesman for Thune said on Tuesday that no offer had yet been received.

The compromise offers the chance to resolve the lengthy TSA lines that have snaked through major airports in recent days, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta international airport and George Bush intercontinental airport in Houston. On Monday, ICE agents deployed by Trump to address the congestion began appearing at certain terminals.

But some Democrats are reticent to accept any deal that would see them give up leverage to force reforms on ICE and other agencies involved in Trump’s mass deportation push. Among the party’s demands are an end to agents wearing masks, a requirement they display ID and adhere to a use of force policy, and seek judicial warrants before entering private property.

“Just as Democrats have been very clear, we will immediately fund TSA, Fema, Coast Guard, and CISA while talks continue on ICE and border patrol. We’ve also made very clear that if we are talking about funding any part of ICE or CBP, we absolutely must take some key steps to rein them in,” Senator Patty Murray, the top Democratic appropriator, said on Monday.

“The current Republican offer in front of us does not do that.”

The partial shutdown has not affected ICE’s involvement in Trump’s immigration crackdown, because the agency’s deportation operations received tens of billions of dollars in funding under the OBBBA.

The GOP is likely to face its own challenges in seeing through a second reconciliation bill. The party’s right wing, with Trump’s encouragement, has made passage of the Save America act a priority, but Democratic opposition means it has no pathway out of the Senate.

The Utah senator Mike Lee acknowledged that there was no way to get the measure passed under the reconciliation procedure, which requires bills address only spending, revenue and the debt limit.

“It’d be great [if] SAVE America fit within the rigid definition of ‘budgetary’ for purposes of budget reconciliation,” Lee wrote on X. “But it doesn’t.

“We need to keep debating SAVE America until it passes,” he added.

Meanwhile, Republican controls the House of Representatives by a mere one seat, with three seats vacant, allowing any objectors to Trump’s war with Iran to wield outsize power over the bill.

Republicans nonetheless sought to keep the pressure on Democrats, with the House homeland security committee on Wednesday convening a hearing to explore the impacts of the shutdown on the DHS and subagencies including the Coast Guard, TSA and the Federal Emergency Management Administration (Fema).

Ha Nguyen McNeill, the acting administrator of the TSA, said that her agency’s employees had missed $1bn in paychecks because of the shutdown.

“Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their childcare, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line and drained their retirement savings,” she said.

“Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma and taking on second jobs to make ends meet.”

Before this most recent shutdown, only 4% of TSA employees would not report to work. Now, McNeill said that “multiple major airports are experiencing days where 40% to 50% of their staff are calling out” because they cannot afford to work without pay.

The Democratic ranking member on the House homeland security committee, Bennie Thompson, meanwhile condemned Trump for sending ICE agents to airports, saying that the agents are not trained to do TSA’s job.

“We see images of ICE agents standing around or walking through terminals doing nothing to reduce the lines at security checkpoints, while TSA personnel continue to do their jobs without pay because Republicans refuse to vote for legislation to fund TSA,” Thompson said.