Amber Heard says she punched Johnny Depp to defend her sister

Actor tells court she feared Depp would push her sister down the stairs like he allegedly did to Kate Moss

Amber Heard has admitted punching her ex-husband Johnny Depp, saying it was to prevent him from pushing her sister down a flight of stairs and claiming he had previously done this to his ex-girlfriend Kate Moss.

Giving evidence for a second day at the high court in London, Heard recalled an incident in March 2015 in the couple’s Los Angeles penthouse when she struck Depp because, she said, she wanted to protect her younger sister Whitney.

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Amber Heard: Johnny Depp threatened to carve up my face

Court hears testimony from actor’s ex-wife, who says he was abusive and violent

Johnny Depp threatened to carve and disfigure Amber Heard’s face if she left him, repeatedly demeaned her and often physically attacked her, she has told the high court.

Opening the defence case in the libel trial initiated by the Pirates of the Caribbean star, Heard said her former husband insulted her and on one occasion told her: “I’m going to have to watch you get raped.”

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Closest ever images of sun reveal it is covered in miniature flares

Solar Orbiter images shot from between Venus and Mercury orbits show ‘campfires’ in corona

The closest ever images of the sun reveal its surface is speckled with “campfires”, miniature versions of the dramatic solar flares visible from Earth.

The observations, beamed back from the Solar Orbiter spacecraft, which is a joint Nasa and European Space Agency (ESA) mission, could help resolve why the sun’s atmosphere is so staggeringly hot compared to the surface – a central paradox in solar physics. Miniature flares have been proposed as a theoretical explanation for the so-called coronal heating problem, but until now no telescope has had a good enough resolution to observe the sun’s atmosphere in sufficient detail.

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Winona Ryder says Johnny Depp was never violent to her

Ex-partners Ryder and Vanessa Paradis say allegations against actor are ‘impossible to believe’

Two of Johnny Depp’s former partners, Winona Ryder and Vanessa Paradis, have said he was never abusive or violent towards them and that allegations he is a “wife-beater” were “impossible to believe”.

The two women had been due to give evidence at the high court in London on Thursday via remote video links from the US.

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Amber Heard stole my sexual assault story, ex-aide tells libel trial

Kate James also says she often received abusive text messages from Johnny Depp’s ex-wife

Amber Heard’s former personal assistant has accused the actor of stealing her own experience of being a victim of sexual violence and twisting it into a different story.

In evidence given remotely from Los Angeles, Kate James also said she had regularly received a barrage of drunken, abusive and incoherent text messages from Heard between 2am and 4am.

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Johnny Depp told bodyguard that Amber Heard ‘cut my finger off’

Malcolm Connolly invented story that the actor damaged his hand himself, court hears

Johnny Depp’s bodyguard has said the actor initially made up an excuse after his wife allegedly severed his finger during a row because victims often try to protect their abusers.

Giving evidence in Depp’s libel action against the Sun over an article that labelled him a “wife beater”, Malcolm Connolly was questioned about an incident in 2015 when Depp and his then wife, Amber Heard, were in Australia for the filming of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Depp has accused Heard of cutting off the tip of his finger when she hurled a vodka bottle, but wrote at the time that he had caused the injury himself.

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Johnny Depp accused of suffering ‘blackouts’ over violent behaviour

Court hears allegation that film star was too intoxicated to recall assaulting Amber Heard

The film star Johnny Depp has been accused in court of suffering “blackouts” and having no recollection of his violent past because of his excessive drinking and drug-taking.

During his second day in the witness box at the high court in London, the 57-year-old actor faced allegations that his self-destructive behaviour and jealousy of his ex-wife Amber Heard led him to assault her repeatedly in the course of their four-year relationship.

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Johnny Depp’s barrister tells court Amber Heard invented abuse claims

Libel case against Sun newspaper over term ‘wife-beater’ begins in UK high court

Amber Heard, not Johnny Depp, was the one who started fights during their marriage, the high court has been told at the start of a libel battle involving the divorced Hollywood actors.

It was Heard who was “the abuser” and who invented claims that her former partner was a “wife-beater”, according to an opening statement submitted to the court by Depp’s barrister, David Sherborne.

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Amber Heard can be in court for Johnny Depp’s evidence, high court rules

Judge says it would be unfair to stop Heard watching Depp give evidence in libel case over domestic abuse claims

Johnny Depp has failed to stop his ex-wife Amber Heard from watching him give evidence in a libel case over allegations of domestic abuse.

The actor is suing the publisher of the Sun, News Group Newspapers (NGN), and its executive editor, Dan Wootton, over a 2018 article which described Depp as a “wife beater”.

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JK Rowling: UK domestic abuse adviser writes to Sun editor

Interview with author’s first husband unacceptable, says abuse commissioner

The government’s lead adviser on domestic abuse has written to the editor of the Sun to condemn the newspaper’s decision to publish a front page interview with JK Rowling’s first husband, under the headline: “I slapped JK and I’m not sorry.”

In the letter seen by the Guardian, Nicole Jacobs, the independent domestic abuse commissioner, said it was “unacceptable that the Sun has chosen to repeat and magnify the voice of someone who openly admits to violence against a partner”.

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Woman’s attraction to chandeliers not a sexual orientation, Ipso says

Amanda Liberty made complaint about article in the Sun mocking declaration of love for German light fitting

A woman in a long-term relationship with a 92-year-old German chandelier has been told that her attraction to historic light fittings is not considered to be a protected sexual orientation.

Press regulator Ipso made the ruling after Amanda Liberty, a woman from Leeds in her mid thirties, complained about an article in the Sun mocking her public declaration of love for Lumiere, her name for an intricate lamp she bought on eBay.

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Johnny Depp’s libel case against the Sun adjourned

Actor is suing paper over claims he was violent and abusive toward ex-wife Amber Heard

Johnny Depp’s libel case against the Sun over allegations he was violent and abusive towards his ex-wife Amber Heard, which was due to begin on Monday, has been adjourned to a later date.

Mr Justice Nicol made the announcement at the high court on Friday. “I have reached the reluctant conclusion that the trial does have to be adjourned,” he said.

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‘Let’s burn Amber’: texts allegedly sent by Johnny Depp about ex read in court

As actor’s libel case continues in London, high court hears details of messages allegedly sent about Amber Heard

Texts allegedly written by actor Johnny Depp contained death threats against his then wife Amber Heard, London’s high court has heard.

In November 2013, Depp allegedly sent a text to actor Paul Bettany saying: “Let’s burn Amber.” The same day, he allegedly texted Bettany saying: “Let’s drown her before we burn her!!! I will f–k her burnt corpse afterwards to make sure she is dead.”

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Telescope captures most detailed pictures yet of the sun

First observations from Inouye telescope bring previously hazy star into sharp focus

The sun’s turbulent surface has been revealed in unprecedented detail in the first observations by the Inouye solar telescope in Hawaii.

The striking images reveal a surprising level of structure hidden within the churning plasma exterior, bringing a previously hazy impression of the sun’s patchwork surface sharply into focus for the first time.

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Astronomers discover huge gaseous wave holding Milky Way’s newest stars

‘It’s right up in our face’ – close proximity of stellar nursery to our solar system stuns scientists

Astronomers have discovered a gigantic, undulating wave of dust and gas where newborn stars are forged over a 50 million billion mile stretch of the Milky Way.

The gaseous structure, which holds more mass than 3m suns, runs directly behind our solar system as viewed from the heart of the galaxy, but has eluded observation until now.

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Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe beams back first insights from sun’s edge

Flying closer than any other mission, spacecraft set to unravel the sun’s mysteries

Nasa’s Parker Solar Probe, which has flown closer to the sun than any spacecraft, has beamed back its first observations from the edge of the sun’s scorching atmosphere.

The first tranche of data offers clues to long-standing mysteries, including why the sun’s atmosphere, known as the corona, is hundreds of times hotter than its surface, as well as the precise origins of the solar wind.

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Paul Burrell and James Hewitt among latest phone-hacking cases

Dozens of celebrities join Prince Harry in new cases against Sun and Mirror publishers

Princess Diana’s former lover James Hewitt and her butler Paul Burrell are among dozens of individuals who have joined Prince Harry in the latest round of phone-hacking claims against tabloid newspaper publishers.

Hewitt and Burrell recently filed their cases against the publisher of the Daily Mirror at the high court, according to court filings seen by the Guardian, joining the Duke of Sussex in alleging the publisher intercepted their voicemails. Their claims will focus attention on the extent to which British newspapers targeted the royal family and those around them in the hunt for stories during the 2000s.

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Meghan: I was warned the British tabloids would destroy my life

Royal speaks of struggling to cope with her new life in interview for ITV documentary

The Duchess of Sussex has revealed she was warned before her marriage to Prince Harry that the British tabloids would “destroy” her life, as she spoke of struggling to cope with the reality of being part of the royal family.

In an interview for the ITV documentary Harry & Meghan: An African Journey, she said the last year had been “hard” and that she had had “no idea” of what she would face.

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Rebekah Vardy ‘hires IT experts’ over Coleen Rooney leak claims

Vardy suggests someone else with access to her Instagram account could have leaked stories to the Sun

Rebekah Vardy has said she is calling in forensic computer experts to examine who had access to her Instagram account following an extraordinary dispute with fellow footballer’s wife Coleen Rooney over the leaking of private information to the Sun.

Vardy, who was on holiday in Dubai with her footballer husband, Jamie, when the story broke, has denied claims that she provided the stories to the newspaper – despite apparently being caught in an elaborate sting operation that involved Rooney posting fake updates to see which appeared in the media.

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Prince Harry’s lawsuit against tabloids could backfire, commentators claim

Duke of Sussex’s legal action against Sun and Daily Mirror over alleged phone hacking takes attack on press up a level

Prince Harry’s move to take legal action against tabloids for alleged phone hacking is part of the royal’s ramped-up aggressive PR approach designed to send a message to the media, according to commentators.

It emerged on Friday night that the Duke of Sussex – who released a strongly worded attack on the British media for their treatment of his wife, Meghan, earlier this week – has issued legal proceedings against the owners of the Sun and the Daily Mirror.

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