JUNE 3: At the start of his recent trial, many legal experts suggested that Mr Depp had a weaker chance of winning than he did in the UK, because the US has very strong free speech protections.
The fact that the jury found that Ms Heard was guilty of defamation with an article in which she claimed she was a victim of domestic abuse means they didn't believe her testimony.
Mark Stephens, an international media lawyer, told the BBC that it's "very rare" that essentially the same case is tried on two sides of the pond and gets different results.
He believes the main factor that influenced Mr Depp's victory in America was the fact that his US trial was before a jury while his UK trial, over an article in the British tabloid that called him a "wife-beater", was before a judge only.
"Amber Heard has comprehensively lost in the court of public opinion, and in front of the jury," he said.
In both the UK and the US trial, Mr Depp's lawyers argued that Ms Heard was lying - to make their case, they attacked her character and claimed that she was in fact the abusive partner.
This is a common defence tactic in sexual assault and domestic violence trials called "deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender" or "Darvo", said Mr Stephens.
The strategy turns the tables on the alleged victim, shifting the conversation away from "did the accused commit abuse" to "is the alleged victim believable".
"They deny that they did anything, they deny they're the real perpetrator, and they attack the credibility of the individual calling out the abuse, and then reverse the roles of the victim and the offender," Mr Stephens said.
In the UK trial, Mr Stephens said the judge recognised that strategy, and dismissed a lot of the evidence that did not directly address whether Mr Depp committed assault or not.
"Lawyers and judges tend not to fall for it, but it's very, very effective against juries," he said. Men are more likely to believe Darvo arguments, but female jurors are also susceptible.
"People have a paradigm in their mind of how a victim of abuse might be like and how they might behave, and of course we all know that's often false."
Hadley Freeman, a Guardian journalist who covered both cases, told the BBC that another major difference was the fact that the American trial was televised, turning the court case into "almost a sports game".
Each twist and turn of the trial was watched by millions of people - many of whom turned to social media to express support for Mr Depp.
On TikTok, the hashtag #justiceforjohnnydepp got about 19 billion views. The jury was instructed not to read about the case online, but they were not sequestered and they were allowed to keep their phones.
Ms Freeman also thinks that vitriol that the general public lobbed against Ms Heard was a "a bit of #MeToo backlash".
"'Believe women' seems a very long time ago when it comes to Amber Heard," she said.
With inputs from BBC
JUNE 2: Jurors awarded Mr Depp - who denied abusing Ms Heard - $15m (£12m) in compensatory and punitive damages.
Ms Heard, 36, won one of three counter-claims against Mr Depp, 58, and was awarded $2m in compensatory damages.
The Hollywood stars, who divorced in 2017, presented conflicting versions of their doomed relationship in the trial.
Over six weeks, the court in Fairfax, Virginia, heard tawdry details of Mr Depp and Ms Heard's tempestuous marriage, and its unhappy ending.
Polls suggested many Americans were more interested in the legal drama than the war in Ukraine or a potentially historic ruling on abortion expected any day from the US Supreme Court.
Coverage of the trial - which was televised and livestreamed - hit billions of views on social media.
After nearly two days of deliberations, jurors found on Wednesday that Ms Heard's statements about her marriage were "false" and she had acted with "actual malice".
But they also found that Mr Depp had defamed Ms Heard when his lawyer gave a statement to the Daily Mail in 2020 calling her abuse allegations a hoax.
As the seven-member jury delivered its verdict, screams and chants of "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny" erupted outside the court.
Mr Depp was not in court due to "previously scheduled work commitments", his spokesperson said. The actor was said to be watching from the United Kingdom, where he has played three surprise concerts alongside his friend, British musician Jeff Beck, since the jury began deliberating on Friday.
On the eve of the verdict, Mr Depp received a standing ovation after performing with Mr Beck at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
In a statement on Wednesday, he said: "The jury gave me my life back. I am truly humbled."
He added, in Latin: "Truth never perishes."
Mr Depp's statement continued: "I hope that my quest to have the truth be told will have helped others, men or women, who have found themselves in my situation, and that those supporting them never give up."
Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Penney Azcarate reduced the punitive damages awarded to Depp to $350,000, the statutory cap in Virginia. That leaves his total damages at $10.4m. Ms Heard was not awarded any punitive damages.
The actress, who sat sombrely throughout the reading of the verdict, said in a statement that she was "heartbroken". She argued that the jury had ignored evidence in her favour.
"I'm sad I lost this case. But I am sadder still that I seem to have lost a right I thought I had as an American - to speak freely and openly," said the actress, who stars in an Aquaman sequel due out next year.
She added: "I'm even more disappointed with what this verdict means for other women. It is a setback. It sets back the clock to a time when a woman who spoke up and spoke out could be publicly shamed and humiliated."
A spokeswoman for Ms Heard has said she plans to appeal the ruling.
Something new even for US justice
This was a news story where everyone has had equal access to the source material. Such access empowered millions to engage and discuss.
We saw reaction shots of the main participants, we were able to watch facial expressions, and we saw some extraordinary moments unrelated to the main narrative.
The sight of the doorman, Alejandro Romero, delivering his testimony via Zoom from his car while vaping and then driving off was something new even for American justice. The look on Judge Azcarate's face at the end of his testimony was proof enough. It was simply compelling to watch.
It was also a puzzle. Two people arguing a completely opposed view of events that took place behind closed doors means that millions saw the evidence for themselves and made up their own minds. We can all be detectives.
Wednesday's ruling marked a turnaround in legal fortune for Mr Depp. Two years ago, the Pirates of the Caribbean star was on the losing side of a libel ruling in the UK when the Sun, a British tabloid, called him a "wife-beater".
The US sequel to their legal battle revolved around a 2018 opinion piece by Ms Heard in the Washington Post, describing her experience as a "public figure representing domestic abuse".
She did not mention her ex-husband or any other alleged perpetrator by name. But Mr Depp - once one of Hollywood's most bankable stars - said the implications had derailed his career.
He sued for $50m; she counter-sued for $100m. Although both reside in California, the case was heard in the Virginia county in which the Washington Post operates its printing presses.
The two met in 2011 while filming The Rum Diary and wed in February 2015. They divorced two years later.
MAY 13: Vadim Shishimarin appeared at a preliminary hearing in Kyiv. He faces life in prison if convicted.
Ukraine says it has identified thousands of potential war crimes committed by Russia.
Russia has denied targeting civilians and made no comment on the trial.
Prosecutors say Mr Shishimarin was driving in a stolen vehicle with other soldiers in the north-eastern Sumy region when they encountered a 62-year-old cyclist using a phone.
He was ordered to shoot the civilian to stop them from telling Ukrainian defenders about their location, according to the prosecutors.
It is not clear how he was captured or what the nature of the evidence against him is.
Mr Shishimarin spoke to confirm basic details such as his name. He is yet to enter a plea, and the trial will reconvene next week.
Hundreds of bodies have been found in regions previously occupied by Russia.
Some of Ukraine's allies, such as the UK and US, have joined the country in accusing Russia of carrying out genocide.
After the hearing, state prosecutor Andriy Synyuk told Reuters: "This is the first case today. But soon there will be a lot of these cases."
US singer R Kelly has been found guilty of exploiting his superstar status to run a scheme to sexually abuse women and children over two decades. Eleven accusers, nine women and two men took the stand over the searing six-week trial to describe sexual humiliation and violence at his hands.
AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine received a major boost on Monday after data from a large trial showed it was safe and effective, potentially paving the way for its emergency authorisation in the United States as countries in Asia accelerated its rollout.
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