USA

FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) — One of the jurors in the Johnny Depp-Amber Heard defamation trial served improperly, an attorney for Heard alleged in a recent filing that asked the court to declare a mistrial and order a new trial.

“Newly discovered facts” show Juror No. 15 in the six-week trial was not the individual summoned in April to serve in the case, Heard’s attorney wrote in a five-page memo filed Friday in Virginia’s Fairfax Circuit Court.

Instead, the filing suggests Juror No. 15 was a younger individual with the same last name who “apparently” lives at the same address.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting a “celebration” of a new bipartisan law meant to reduce gun violence that, after just 16 days in effect, already has been overshadowed by yet another mass shooting.

The bill, passed after recent gun rampages in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, incrementally toughens requirements for young people to buy guns, denies firearms to more domestic abusers, and helps local authorities temporarily take weapons from people judged to be dangerous.

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time, a pharmaceutical company has asked for permission to sell a birth control pill over the counter in the U.S.

HRA Pharma’s application on Monday sets up a high-stakes decision for health regulators amid legal and political battles over women’s reproductive health. The company says the timing was unrelated to the Supreme Court’s recent decision overturning Roe v. Wade.

(AP) --- After members of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan 6, 2021, their leader called someone on the phone with an urgent message for then-President Donald Trump, another extremist told investigators.

While gathered in a private suite at the Phoenix Park Hotel, an Oath Keeper member says he heard their leader, Stewart Rhodes, repeatedly urge the person on the phone to tell Trump to call upon militia groups to fight to keep the president in power.

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden on Saturday defended his decision to travel to Saudi Arabia saying human rights would be on his agenda as he gave a preview of a trip on which he aims to reset ties with the crown prince, who he previously denounced as a pariah.

Biden will hold bilateral talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his leadership team, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his visit to the Middle East next week. https://reut.rs/3PiLiB4

July 10 (Reuters) - Drawing back the curtain to a photo gallery unlike any other, NASA will soon present the first full-color images from its James Webb Space Telescope, a revolutionary apparatus designed to peer through the cosmos to the dawn of the universe.

The highly anticipated July 12 unveiling of pictures and spectroscopic data from the newly operational observatory follows a six-month process of remotely unfurling various components, aligning its mirrors and calibrating instruments.

LOS ANGELES, July 9 (Xinhua) -- The United States had reported 767 confirmed monkeypox cases in 39 states as of Friday, and experts criticized the weakness in the country's public health system to address the snowballing outbreak.

New York had the highest monkeypox case count in the country with 153 cases, followed by California at 136 and Illinois at 91, according to latest data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — When Antonio McGowan left the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman after serving 17 years, he was free for the first time since he was 15. But as an adult finally out from behind bars, he immediately found himself confined to menial labor.

09 July 2022; MEMO: Russia, on Friday, vetoed a bid to extend UN Security Council approval for 12 months of UN aid deliveries to some 4 million people in opposition-controlled north-west Syria from Turkiye, Reuters reports.

The resolution, drafted by Ireland and Norway, received 13 votes in favour, while China abstained. A resolution needs nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, the United States, Britain or France to be adopted.

WASHINGTON, Jul 09 (APP): United States President Joe Biden on Saturday congratulated Muslims in the US and around the world as they celebrated Eid ul-Azha amid soaring inflation and worsening impacts of climate change.

“Jill (the First Lady) and I send our warmest greetings to Muslims across the United States and around the world celebrating Eid ul-Azha,” he said in a statement issued on Saturday.