Amber Heard’s call for retrial against ex-husband Depp denied

Jul 14 2022

Amber Heard’s request for a retrial after her defamation trial against ex-husband Johnny Depp has been denied.

Heard was seeking to have the verdict of the trial thrown out based on what she and her lawyers deemed ‘inconsistent verdicts.’ A 48-page document was filed by her team earlier this month, outlining their standing on the matter.

Attorney Elaine Bredehoft, representing Heard, claimed that Depp’s team ‘proceeded solely on a defamation by implication theory, abandoning any claims that Ms Heard’s statements were actually false.’

Heard’s team also argued that one of the jurors was not actually summoned for jury duty. It was claimed that a 77-year-old man received the summons, but was instead replaced by his son who has the same name and address.

Despite this, Judge Penney Azcarate rejected all claims made by Heard’s team in a written order released on the 13th of July. The judge deemed the issue surrounding the juror irrelevant.

Heard could still appeal the decision by going to the Virginia court of appeals. The trial between the two revolved around an op-ed Heard wrote for the Washington Post about being a public figure representing domestic abuse.

In the end, Heard was ordered to pay around $10 million in damages to Depp, whereas Heard was ordered to pay $2 million to her.

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Malta amongst worst countries for expats to move to in 2022

Jul 13 2022

A fresh new survey ranked Malta one of the worst places for expats to move and live in, making it in the bottom 10 overall out of 52 countries.

The survey was conducted by The Expat Insider 2022, published annually by InterNations. This is one of the largest global expat networks and it placed Malta in 43rd place.

Out of the European countries which ranked lower, only Italy, Luxembourg and Cyprus placed in 44th, 48th and 49th. At the opposite end of the list was Mexico in top place.

Portugal and Spain were the only two European countries which made it into the top 5, placing in 4th and 5th respectively.

Some surprising finds were the likes of New Zealand, which placed in 51st place, just one spot shy of the last place taken up by Kuwait. This was because New Zealand was found to be too expensive for expats in general.

Malta fared slightly worse in the Quality of Life, ranking at around 49th place. The islands fared poorly in leisure options, travel and transit, as well as when it comes to environment and climate.

Malta did get a boost when it comes to security and safety, placing in 37th place, and when it comes to health and well being, placing higher at 32nd place. It also placed fairly well in terms of settling in, culture and welcome, local friendliness and when it comes to finding friends.

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Get ready for a sunny weekend ahead as temperatures drop slightly

Jul 13 2022

This weekend you’ll be able to enjoy some Maltese beaches without worrying about any excessive temperatures.

That being said, the drop in the scorching heat will still be minimal as we’ll be experiencing temperatures set at around 37 degrees Celsius. But that is far removed from the previous 40°C we saw during the brutal heat waves.

The weekend will kick off with a far gentler 33°C on Friday, with a possible cloud here and there. It will climb up just one degree by Saturday, maintaining a UV index of 10. Temperatures are then set to jump to 37°C for the remainder of the week.

The lowest temperatures will be settling at around 23°C, maintaining some rather hot and electrically demanding nighttime hours. The drop in temperatures might be a bit of a respite for many, but they are still some of the highest we’ve seen so far.

Therefore, caution is, as always, advised. Apply sun screen often – even when not at the beach. Seek out the shade and make sure you’re chugging as much water as possible to stay hydrated.

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Elon Musk sued by Twitter for backing out of $44 billion deal

Jul 13 2022

Twitter launched a massive lawsuit against Tesla CEO Elon Musk after the billionaire decided to pull out of his $44 billion purchase deal.

This comes after Musk announced last week that he planned to pull out of the massive deal due to being ‘misled’ about Twitter’s number of bots and fake accounts.

Lawyers acting for the SpaceX CEO said that Twitter made ‘false and misleading representations upon which Mr Musk relied when entering into the Merger Agreement.’

However, this doesn’t appear to be good enough grounds for pulling out of the deal and the lawsuit, launched on the 12th of July, says the tech billionaire needs to honour his agreement.

‘Musk entered into a binding merger agreement with Twitter, promising to use his best efforts to get the deal done’ reported The Guardian. ‘Now, less than three months later, Musk refuses to honour his obligations to Twitter and its stockholders because the deal he signed no longer serves his personal interests’.

The lawsuit also blasted Musk’s expectations to put Twitter in a ‘public spectacle’ as he ‘apparently believes that he is free to change his mind, trash the company, disrupt its operations, destroy stockholder value and walk away.’

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