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(AP) — Restaurants, bars and other merchants struggling to stay afloat during the coronavirus pandemic are desperately reaching out for a lifeline from insurers that in turn contend they are being miscast as potential saviors.

Shutdowns and crowd restrictions imposed by state and local governments to limit the spread of the virus have resulted in more than $1 trillion in estimated losses so far for thousands of rapidly sinking small businesses.

That has prompted a flood of claims under business interruption insurance policies that have been almost universally rejected for a variety of reasons, including boilerplate provisions inserted by insurers after the SARS outbreak in 2003 to exclude disruptions caused by virus and bacteria.

“This is an existential threat,” said John Houghtaling, a New Orleans attorney who is representing restaurants and other businesses seeking about $8 billion in losses that he estimates they will suffer during the pandemic. “A lot of people who did the right thing and bought this coverage thinking they would be thrown a lifeboat if disaster struck are now being told, ‘Sorry, let the Coast Guard come and get you instead.'”

So many lawsuits have been filed against insurers in the U.S. that a Thursday hearing has been scheduled before a federal judicial panel in Washington to decide how to manage them all in the months — and possibly years — ahead. The panel’s review involves more than 200 federal complaints in addition the other lawsuits filed in state courts by the owners of meat-and-potato cafes as well as some of the nation’s best-known and most exclusive restaurants, such as the French Laundry in Napa Valley’s wine country and California cuisine pioneer Chez Panisse in Berkeley, California, which sued its insurer, AMCO, for breach of contract earlier this month.

“The servers, cooks, farmers, ranchers and other hard-working people in the Chez Panisse family are seeing their livelihoods in jeopardy because AMCO has declined to live up to its responsibilities,” said Alice Waters, Chez Panisse’s owner.

President Donald Trump weighed in on the thorny issue in April when he told reporters that he suspected many insurers were dodging their obligations. “You have people that have never asked for business interruption insurance (payments) and they’ve been paying a lot of money for a lot of years for the privilege of having it,” Trump said. “And then when they finally need it, the insurance company says, ‘We’re not going to give it.’ We can’t let that happen.”

Although sympathetic to their policyholders’ plights, insurers say most business interruption policies were designed to cover shutdowns caused by catastrophes such as hurricanes and terrorist attacks while excluding pandemics that cause widespread losses too staggering to cover, even for an industry sitting on $850 billion in reserves. Only a small number of businesses sought additional coverage that specifically includes losses caused by pandemics, said David Sampson, CEO of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, an industry trade group.

Even so, Lloyd’s of London has estimated the insurance industry still will pay out $107 billion in pandemic-related claims, more than the combined amounts doled out after the terrorist attacks in September 2001 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Besides businesses that bought special coverage, the claims include payouts to major sporting and entertainment events that bought cancellation policies coverage, such as the Wimbledon tennis tournament that is collecting about $140 million under its pandemic policy. Insurers also are paying workers’ compensation claims for employees who get sick on the job.

“This popular meme out there that the insurance industry isn’t paying for losses is just not true,” Sampson said.

But the claims insurers are paying only a small fraction of the $231 billion to $431 billion in monthly losses piling up at U.S. businesses with fewer than 100 employees, according to the industry’s estimates.

At that rate, insurers would have no money left to cover non-pandemic claims for auto accidents, home fires and even damages to businesses during the protests across the country since George Floyd died at the hands of Minneapolis police in May, according to industry consultant Robert Hartwig of the University of South Carolina’s risk and management center.

The denial of business interruption coverage is also hurting bars across the country, many of which haven’t been able to offer pick-up or outside dining like restaurants have. The Ivy Club, which also offers live music during normal times its Albany, California, venue, has had to lay off most of its 20-employee staff since March and is now raising money from community donations while it fights its insurer over its business interruption claim.

“Everything is so uncertain that we really don’t know what we are going to do,” said Summer Gerbing, one of the Ivy Room’s co-owners.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in California and several other states have drawn up legislation that would force insurers to cover the business interruption losses that have piled up since March — a requirement that, if imposed, the industry is already vowing to fight as unconstitutional.

The dispute boils down to whether business interruption policies can be applied to instances when there is no physical damage or destruction to a restaurant or store that is being prevented from conducting business as usual.

In one of the first decisions issued on that question earlier this month, a Michigan state judge sided with an insurer’s rejection of a claim for $650,000 for two months of losses that Nick Gavrilides said he suffered at two restaurants, the Soup Spoon Cafe in Lansing, Michigan, and the Bistro in nearby Williamston, Michigan.

Gavrilides’ lawyer, Matthew Heos, contended business interruption coverage should apply because authorities prohibited customers from physically entering the property, an assertion derided as “nonsense” by Judge Joyce Draganchuk during a July 1 hearing posted online.

“There has to be something that physically alters the integrity of the property,” Draganchuk concluded in her dismissal of Gavrilides’ case.

Gavrilides is now serving customers inside both restaurants but only at half capacity, a restriction that is making it difficult to stay open even though they are operating with skeletal staffs. The Soup Spoon Cafe now has 12 to 15 employees, down from 40 just before the pandemic.

“It’s literally day to day for us now,” Gavrilides said. “I feel let down for everybody. I thought by paying my premiums for the past 14 years and it my service was ever interrupted, I would be rescued. But I guess that isn’t going to happen now.”

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden unveiled a plan Tuesday to ensure that the nation’s post-pandemic economic recovery is built around promoting racial equality, promising to dramatically spur investment in Black-owned small businesses and encourage home ownership while closing wealth gaps among minority communities.

Much of the 26-page proposal — and the billions in federal spending needed to pay for it — had already been promised as part of previous, larger Biden plans to jumpstart the economy when the coronavirus outbreak begins to recede.

But as protests against institutional racism and police brutality have swept the country in recent months, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee is attempting to show voters that he’s committed to implementing specific remedies that can promote racial and economic equality should he win the White House in November.

It’s also another way Biden is aiming to offer a stark contrast to President Donald Trump, who has spent weeks vowing to restore “law and order” and ordering federal authorities to intervene against ongoing protests in places like Portland, Oregon, and Chicago.

“Everything is worsened by the crisis of presidential leadership. A change of ‘tone’ over a few days does not change the facts of the last four years,” Biden will say in a speech later this afternoon from a community center in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, according to excerpts released by his campaign.

The president did strike a more somber tone when commenting publicly about the virus for the better part of the week, but has now resumed spreading misinformation about how to fight it while offering digs at Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

“But this election is not just about voting against Donald Trump,” Biden plans to say. “It’s about rising to this moment of crisis, understanding people’s struggle, and building a future worthy of their courage and ambition to overcome.”

The former vice president wants to take $30 billion, or 10% of federal investment he’s already promised as part of larger economic plans, and funnel it into a “Small Business Opportunity Fund” designed to leverage $5 of private investment for minority owned enterprises for each $1 in public funds allocated. He also plans to spend $50 billion to provide startup capital that can help entrepreneurs of color start businesses in disadvantaged areas.

To encourage home ownership, the plan would create a $15,000 federal tax credit to help low-and middle-income families cover down payments on their first homes. It also pledges to build 1.5 million new homes and public housing units in hopes of addressing the “affordable housing crisis” which has hit many of the nation’s marquee cities and disproportionately hurt people of color.

Biden similarly vowed to undo Trump administration regulatory changes which the Democratic presidential nominee says “gutted” Obama administration rules preventing housing discrimination and unfair lending practices.

Asked about the possibility of a congressional study on the feasibility of federal reparations to descendants of enslaved Black people in the United States, senior Biden officials said their candidate wouldn’t oppose such a study. But they defended Tuesday’s proposal as doing more to benefit Black Americans in the short term, saying “he is not going to wait on a study to create change.”

Biden’s plan also doesn’t endorse legalizing marijuana, though it seeks to clear logistical court hurdles so that states can better identify non-violent offenders whose records they might opt to expunge. Black and Hispanic Americans often face far harsher penalties for crimes involving marijuana possession than their white counterparts.

The Democratic National Committee voted by a wide margin on Monday to keep language calling for legalization of marijuana nationwide out of the party’s platform.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The mayors of Portland, Oregon, and five other major U.S. cities appealed Monday to Congress to make it illegal for the federal government to deploy militarized agents to cities that don’t want their presence.

“This administration’s egregious use of federal force on cities over the objections of local authorities should never happen,” the mayors of Portland; Seattle; Chicago; Kansas City; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Washington wrote to leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.

Video from early Tuesday showed law enforcement officers in Portland filling a street with tear gas to disperse protesters and several loud booms were heard.

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler and City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty late Monday called for a meeting with Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf to discuss a cease-fire and removal of heightened federal forces from Portland.

Earlier Monday, a U.S. official said militarized officers will stay in Portland until attacks on the federal courthouse cease — and that more officers may soon head to the city.

“It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel,” U.S. Attorney Billy Williams said. ”We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so.”

Local and state officials said the federal officers are unwelcome.

The city has had nightly protests for two months since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May. President Donald Trump said he sent the federal agents to Portland to halt the unrest, but state and local officials said they are making the situation worse.

Trump’s deployment of the federal officers over the July 4 weekend stoked the Black Lives Matter movement. The number of nightly protesters had dwindled to perhaps less than 100 right before the deployment but has now has swelled to the thousands.

In protests and violence that happened Sunday night into early Monday morning, the federal agents repeatedly fired tear gas, flash bangs and pepper balls at protesters outside the federal courthouse in downtown Portland. Some protesters had climbed over the fence surrounding the courthouse, while others shot fireworks, banged on the fence and projected lights on the building.

Trump said on Twitter that federal properties in Portland “wouldn’t last a day” without the presence of the federal agents.

Most people participating in the daily demonstrations have been peaceful. But some attempt to pelt officers with objects and repeatedly try to tear down fencing around the courthouse.

Williams, whose office is inside the courthouse, called on peaceful protesters, community and business leaders and people of faith to prevent violence while they are there and to leave the downtown area before violence starts. He said federal agents have made 83 arrests.

Demonstrations in support of racial justice and police reform in other cities around the U.S. were also marred by violence over the weekend. Protesters set fire to an Oakland, California, courthouse; vehicles were set ablaze in Richmond, Virginia; an armed protester was shot and killed in Austin, Texas; and two people were shot and wounded in Aurora, Colorado, after a car drove through a protest.

The U.S. Marshals Service has lined up about 100 people they could send to hotspots, either to strengthen forces or relieve officers who have been working for weeks, agency spokesperson Drew Wade said.

Kris Cline, principal deputy director of Federal Protective Service, said an incident commander in Portland and teams from the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice discuss what force is needed every night.

Cline declined to discuss the number of officers currently present or if more would be arriving.

Some protesters have accused Wheeler, Portland’s mayor, of hypocrisy for speaking out against the federal presence because Portland police under his watch have used tear gas and other riot-control weapons on protesters, including peaceful ones.

Cline said Portland police should take over the job of dispersing protesters from the courthouse area from the federal officers.

“If the Portland Police Bureau were able to do what they typically do, they would be able to clear this out for this disturbance and we would leave our officers inside the building and not be visible,” Cline said.

He said relations between the federal officers, some of whom live in Portland, and city police were good.

Portland police responded Sunday evening to a shooting at a park close to the site of the protests. Two people were detained and later released, police said. The person who was shot went to the hospital in a private vehicle and was treated for a non-life-threatening wound.

Also late Sunday, police said someone pointed out a bag in the same park, where officers found loaded rifle magazines and Molotov cocktails. The shooting was not related to the items, police said.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Watchmen,” cloaked in superhero mythology and grounded in real-world racism, received a leading 26 nominations Tuesday for the prime-time Emmy Awards.

The HBO series, which captured America’s deep unease as it faces racial and political discord amid a pandemic, was nominated as best limited series and received bids for cast members including Regina King and Jeremy Irons.

King was part of a vanguard of actors of color indicating that TV academy voters took heed of the social climate.

“Zendaya!” exclaimed Emmy announcement host Leslie Jones, her gleeful reaction to the “Euphoria” star’s nomination as best actress in a drama. “This is a great day,” Jones said.

She was part of a socially distanced, virtual release of nominees that was online, not on television as is usual. But nothing is usual during a coronavirus era that has brought Hollywood production to a virtual standstill and is making the Emmys and other awards grasp for alternatives.

The strong showing by Netflix’s “Ozark” helped the streaming service achieve a record-setting 160 nominations that bested onetime perennial leader HBO, which earned 107 nods. Netflix, although the Emmy veteran among streamers, has yet to win a best comedy or drama series trophy.

Streaming newcomer Apple TV+ earned attention in its first season with Jennifer Aniston’s best drama actress bid for “The Morning Show.” Another streaming newbie, Disney+, saw its Star Wars franchise spinoff, “The Mandalorian,” claim a best drama nomination among its hefty 15 total nods.

The Amazon comedy “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” is the second most-nominated series with 20, followed by Netflix’s “Ozark” with 18.

“This year, we are also bearing witness to one of the greatest fights for social justice in history. And it is our duty to use this medium for change,” Frank Scherma, chairman and CEO of the Television Academy said at the outset of the presentation.

The acting categories included a record number of Black nominees, 35, among the 102 contenders for lead, supporting and guest performances in drama, comedy and limited series or TV movie. At slightly more than 34 percent of nominees, that bettered the 2018 record of just under 28 percent of Black actors in those categories.

In sharp contrast, few other people of color were recognized. Among them: Sandra Oh, repeating as a best actress nominee for “Killing Eve,” and Dev Patel, who received a comedy guest actor nod for “Modern Love.”

Kerry Washington’s four nominations covered a wide range, including lead actress for “Little Fires Everywhere” and for her production company’s work on the limited series and other programs.

Washington said she was most emotional about the posthumous nomination for “Little Fires Everywhere” director Lynn Shelton, who died from a blood disorder in May.

“For the academy to acknowledge her in her passing, deservedly so, it’s really moving. We’re at a moment where we so desperately need the voices of storytellers from marginalized communities: women directors, people of color,” Washington said.

Billy Porter, who last year became the first openly gay man to win the top drama series acting prize, was nominated again this year for “Pose.”

Diversity was especially notable in the comedy categories after being nearly absent last year.

“Ramy,” which finds nuanced humor in a young Muslim American’s crisis of identity and faith, earned a best actor bid for its star and co-creator, Ramy Youssef. Issa Rae returned to the best comedy actress category for her series “Insecure,” which earned a best comedy bid.

“Schitt’s Creek,” the quirky little show that went without Emmy recognition until last year, received 15 nominations for its final season, including for best comedy series and lead acting nods for Eugene Levy and Catherine O’Hara.

“You just don’t expect it. You cant expect it, so what a great surprise,” said O’Hara, who spoke from Canada, where she and her family are living lakeside. She credited TV for its role during the pandemic.

“I think all the streaming and broadcasting that we have watched in these last months has brought a lot of much needed laughter, a chance to cry — about something other than the reality — and a distraction,” she said. “Also, it’s given some optimism to people and some hope.”

“The Good Place,” which also came to an end, earned a best comedy bid and, for Ted Danson, a best comedy actor nomination. Danson was a two-time Emmy winner in the 1990s for “Cheers.”

The farewell was less fond for other shows that wrapped last season, with no major bids for “Modern Family,” “Homeland” or “Silicon Valley.”

But the late Fred Willard received a nomination for his “Modern Family” guest appearance, his fifth prime-time Emmy nod during his long and admired career.

The eight nods for “Unorthodox,” a limited series about a dissatisfied Orthodox Jewish woman, may reflect the virus-quarantine downtime that drew Emmy voters to shows they might otherwise overlooked, said Daniel Fienberg, chief TV critic for The Hollywood Reporter.

A far different pop-culture phenomenon also was a likely beneficiary.

“A show like ‘Tiger King,’ for example, which got a handful of nominations, It’s not really all that great, but it absolutely was the junk food that people were craving at the beginning of this quarantine period,” Fienberg said.

Joining Jones on Tuesday were presenters Laverne Cox (“Orange is the New Black”), Josh Gad (“Frozen”) and Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”). Cox, Gad and Maslany appeared on by video feeds.

Among the honorees whose nomination collided with current events: Brad Pitt earned a nod for a guest appearance playing Dr. Anthony Fauci on “Saturday Night Live.”

Other shows competing for best comedy series are: “Curb Your Enthusiasm”; Dead to Me”; “The Good Place”; “Insecure”; “The Kominsky Method” and “What We Do in the Shadows.”

The nominees for best drama series are: “Better Call Saul”; “The Crown”; “Killing Eve”; “The Handmaid’s Tale”; “The Mandalorian”; “Ozark”; “Stranger Things”; “Succession.”

In addition to “Watchmen,” the nominees for best limited series are: “Little Fires Everywhere”; “Mrs. America”; “Unbelievable”; ”Unorthodox.”

A high energy Jones kicked off Tuesday’s announcement by appearing on a virtual set and joking that she was told there would be many others on set to announce the nominees, but instead she was locked in a studio with only a cameraman.

The Emmy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will be presented Sept. 20 on ABC.

AP writers Jocelyn Noveck and Alicia Rancilio in New York and Ryan Pearson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

(AP) — Silkroad, the acclaimed international musical collective with a social conscience, has a new face — and a fresh sense of purpose.

Grammy-winning folk singer and instrumentalist Rhiannon Giddens is Silkroad’s new artistic director, taking the baton from renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who founded the group two decades ago, Silkroad said Tuesday.

The 43-year-old North Carolina native is the first woman and first multiracial artist to lead Silkroad. The Boston-based organization is known not just for its touring ensemble comprised of world-class musicians from all over the globe, but also for its efforts to use the arts to bridge differences across races, countries and cultures.

“My keenest desire for Silkroad is a sharpening and reinterpretation of what it means for the ‘right now,’” Giddens said in a statement, adding: “What is more American than the gathering of influences from disparate areas of the globe to create something unique and fantastic?”

She makes her debut Wednesday evening with “Recitals from the World Stage,” a virtual presentation prerecorded for Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts.

Ma, who launched Silkroad in 1998 and stepped down as artistic director in 2017, called Giddens “an extraordinary human being and musician.”

“She lives Silkroad’s values, at once rooted in history and its many musics, and is an advocate for the contemporary voices that can move us to work together for a better world,” Ma said.

“In addition to her enormous musical talent, she fosters an immense social consciousness and creates unity through her art,” said Kathy Fletcher, Silkroad’s executive director.

Silkroad has recorded seven albums, including “Sing Me Home,” which won a Grammy in 2016 for best world music. Founded to “seek and practice radical cultural collaboration in many forms,” it holds training workshops and residency programs for music teachers and musicians around the globe.

The group takes its name from the ancient Silk Road trade route that linked China to the West, with the two hemispheres exchanging not only goods but ideas.

Giddens, the daughter of a white father and Black mother who married three years after the Supreme Court struck down all bans on interracial marriage in 1967, has won accolades for spotlighting African-American contributions to banjo, bluegrass and folk music.

She won a Grammy in 2011 for best traditional folk album with the string band Carolina Chocolate Drops, and last year, she was the first recipient of the Americana Music Association’s inaugural Legacy of Americana Award.

NEW YORK (AP) — Brenda Shaughnessy is a prize-winning poet who speaks reverently of her times spent at MacDowell, the New Hampshire based retreat where for more than a century writers, musicians and visual artists have enjoyed both rural solitude and creative camaraderie.

If not for the coronavirus, she would have had a residency this year at MacDowell, which shut down in the spring. So when officials there asked her to participate in a new kind of fellowship — Virtual MacDowell — she agreed despite her skepticism.

“I am doing it because I am so deeply grateful to MacDowell,” said Shaughnessy, who has worked on all five of her books during previous visits. “With this fellowship, I know it’s not going to be anything close to the experience I was supposed to have. You’re not going to get those magical elements that make MacDowell work, like uninterrupted time.”

MacDowell announced Tuesday that Shaughnessy will be among eight artists chosen for what it is calling a pilot program, designed to salvage at least part of an experience that has been enjoyed by James Baldwin, Leonard Bernstein and Thornton Wilder and thousands of others.

From Aug. 3 to Aug. 28, Shaughnessy will be joined online by architect Jeffrey Halstead, composer Steven Kazuo Takasugi, filmmaker William E. Jones, interdisciplinary artist Leslie Cuyjet, playwright C. A. Johnson, visual artist Phoebe Adams and writer Jacob Guajardo.

MacDowell executive director Philip Himberg said he thought the virtual fellowship was worth trying because he found that the interactions among artists of different fields often proved as valuable as their time alone. The new program will include virtual dinners and other digital gatherings.

“We can’t get people into private studios, but we could could create a community,” he said.

MacDowell will try to import at least some of the atmosphere of its longtime setting. It will pay for food ordered by fellows for the first and last virtual dinners and will send picnic baskets like the kind used when meals are brought to cabins on the MacDowell grounds in Peterborough.

“I love the idea of the package! So thoughtful,” says Shaughnessy, who lives in Verona, New Jersey.

Another leading retreat, Yaddo, has no plans for a virtual residency. Based in Saratoga Springs, New York, Yaddo has been shut down since March and no physical residencies are planned before 2021. Yaddo president Elaina Richardson said that the residency continues to have online events such as dinners and educational discussions but was skeptical about a virtual fellowship.

“I’m intrigued by the idea, but I’m not sure how it would work,” she says. “You’re not in the protective bubble that Yaddo exists to provide you with.”

Takasugi, who lives in Newton, Massachusetts, had planned to use his MacDowell residency to work on music and arrangements for a festival in Germany this fall. But the festival has been postponed, leaving him more time to finish. Meanwhile, he continues to write at home and looks forward to sharing ideas with the other virtual fellows.

“Everything here is closed down here, and there’s very little socializing, so this is a chance to let people hear what I’m doing,” he said. “I just like the idea of not letting the virus stop us from these kinds of programs. I want to try and help make this work. That’s why I’m going to do this.”

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

LONDON (AP) — Johnny Depp’s libel case against a British tabloid that accused him of abusing ex-wife Amber Heard was wrapping up Tuesday, with the star’s lawyer insisting Depp had never hit a woman and branding Heard “a compulsive liar.”

The “Pirates of the Caribbean” star is suing News Group Newspapers, publisher of The Sun, and the newspaper’s executive editor, Dan Wootton, at the High Court in London over an April 2018 article that called him a “wife-beater.”

In closing arguments at the three-week trial, Depp’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said the actor strongly denied “this reputation-destroying, career-ending allegation.”

“He has never hit a woman in his entire life — period, full stop, nada,” Sherborne said.

Judge Andrew Nicol will retire later to consider his verdict. He is expected to hand down his ruling in several weeks.

WHAT IS THE JUDGE DECIDING?

Neither Depp nor Heard is on trial, though it has been easy to forget that during a case that dissected their toxic celebrity love affair.

Depp is the claimant in the civil case, NGN and Wootton are the defendants and Heard is their main witness. To defeat Depp’s libel claim, the newspaper must persuade the judge that, on the balance of probabilities, its story was accurate.

NGN’s lawyer, Sasha Wass, said in her summing-up that there was no doubt Depp “regularly and systematically abused his wife” and so the “wife-beater” label was justified.

But Sherborne said The Sun’s article — which urged J.K. Rowling to have Depp fired from the movie version of her book “Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them” — gave the false impression Depp had been “tried, convicted and sentenced” for domestic violence, and compared him to former film mogul Harvey Weinstein, who has been jailed for sex offenses.

“Acting as both judge and jury, the defendants plainly and squarely state that Mr. Depp is guilty (of a) series of serious and violent criminal offenses,” he said.

WHAT IS IN DISPUTE?

The two sides agree that the relationship between Depp and Heard, which began after they met on the set of 2011 comedy “The Rum Diary,” soured long before they divorced in 2017. Texts, emails and recordings attest to the increasingly bitter relations between Depp, now 57, and the 34-year-old model and actress.

But they disagree completely over who started and escalated their fights.

Heard claims Depp turned into a violent alter ego he called “The Monster” under the influence of alcohol and drugs. She alleges 14 separate incidents in which he hit, slapped and shoved her, pulled her hair and threw bottles at her “like grenades.” The judge was shown photos of Heard with black eyes, red marks on her face and an injured scalp — alleged evidence of Depp’s violence.

Depp called the allegations a “hoax” and claimed that Heard hit him, even severing the tip of his finger with a thrown vodka bottle. Under cross-examination Depp admitted headbutting Heard during a tussle, but said it was by accident as he tried to stop her punching him.

Heard acknowledged having a short temper and said she punched Depp once in March 2015. But she said it was to prevent him hitting her sister.

Sherborne accused Heard of repeatedly changing her story during the trial, and said that during a “moment of unscripted malevolence” in the witness box, she’d made up a rumor that Depp had pushed former girlfriend Kate Moss down some stairs.

The lawyer said Heard was “a wholly unreliable witness and frankly a compulsive liar — and I don’t say that lightly.”

WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

The trial has provided an up-close and often unflattering look at Hollywood stardom, revealing details of Depp’s life of wealth, luxury, emotional turmoil and substance abuse.

Depp acknowledged heavy drug use, saying he took marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy and magic mushrooms, and became addicted to opioid painkillers. But he denied drugs made him violent.

The couple’s relationship disintegrated against a glamorous international backdrop. Depp’s private island in the Bahamas, a Los Angeles penthouse, a luxury train and a private jet were all locations for violence, according to Heard.

Depp said in the witness box that he had made $650 million since he joined the lucrative “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise — and ended up $100 million in debt after his financial advisers neglected to pay his taxes for 17 years. He said his major expenses included $5 million to send the ashes of his literary hero, drug-fueled journalist Hunter S. Thompson, into space.

The couple’s relationship also left a costly trail of destruction. Damage to a rented house in Australia after one altercation was estimated at more than $100,000. The couple’s downtown L.A. penthouse was trashed during another argument. At one point, excrement was left in their bed — whether by a dog or a person is disputed.

WHO ARE THE WINNERS AND LOSERS?

British libel law is widely considered to favor claimants over defendants, but Depp could end up a loser even if he wins.

Depp said he sued The Sun because his career had been harmed by Heard’s allegations. But the lawsuit has given the claims a huge global audience.

“It almost beggars belief that anyone rational has taken this case to court,” said Mark Stephens, a media lawyer at legal firm Howard Kennedy. “Now, I know that many people say it’s all about vindication. It’s all about proving he’s not a wife beater. But the stakes are very, very high for everybody. And at some level, mud sticks.”

Heard also has had her character questioned and has been accused of fabricating evidence. A #MeToo activist, Katherine Kendall, alleged that Heard appropriated a violent rape that happened to Kendall for her own ends.

Heard has faced abuse from Depp fans on social media. Depp’s supporters have also been a regular noisy presence outside court, with some holding signs reading “Justice for Johnny.”

WILL THE VERDICT BE THE END OF THE STORY?

Not likely. Depp is suing Heard for $50 million in Virginia over a Washington Post story about domestic violence. The trial is due to be held next year.

Stephens said that if Depp “loses in London, he’s almost certain to lose that American case. So this is in some ways a dress rehearsal for the second case.”

MIAMI (AP) — The Miami Marlins’ coronavirus outbreak could endanger the Major League Baseball season, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday, although he doesn’t believe games need to stop now.

More than a dozen Marlins players and staff members tested positive for COVID-19, stranding the team in Philadelphia and raising anew questions about MLB’s attempts to conduct a season.

“This could put it in danger,” said Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert. “I don’t believe they need to stop, but we just need to follow this and see what happens with other teams on a day-by-day basis.”

Fauci made his comments on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“Major League Baseball — the players, the owners, the managers — have put a lot of effort into getting together and putting protocols that we feel would work,” Fauci said. “It’s very unfortunate what happened with the Miami (Marlins).”

Their outbreak continued to disrupt Major League Baseball’s schedule Tuesday, the sixth day of the pandemic-delayed season, with the Marlins’ home game against Baltimore postponed.

The game Monday between those teams was also called off, as was the Yankees’ series opener Monday at Philadelphia, where New York would have been in the same clubhouse the Marlins used last weekend.

Nine Marlins players on the 30-man roster, two taxi squad players and two staff members tested positive, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because the results hadn’t been publicly disclosed.

“Obviously, we don’t want any player to get exposed. It’s not a positive thing,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said on the MLB Network. “But I don’t see it as a nightmare. … We think we can keep people safe and continue to play.”

The Orioles, who made a trip to Miami without playing a game, are scheduled to host the Marlins in a two-game series starting Wednesday.

“If the testing results are acceptable, the Marlins will resume play in Baltimore on Wednesday against the Orioles,” Manfred said.

Meanwhile, Chicago White Sox manager Rick Renteria will be kept away from his team after experiencing a “slight cough and nasal congestion,” general manager Rick Hahn said. Tests were planned.

The Marlins’ outbreak was the talk of baseball, and Washington Nationals manager Dave Martinez choked on his words as he discussed the situation. Martinez missed time last season because of a heart condition, and the Nationals are scheduled to play in Miami this weekend.

“I’m going to be honest with you: I’m scared,” Martinez said. “My level of concern went from about an eight to a 12. I mean this thing really hits home now. … I got guys in our clubhouse that are really concerned, as well.”

The Marlins placed infielder Garrett Cooper, outfielder Harold Ramírez and right-hander José Ureña on the injured list. They claimed right-hander Justin Shafer and left-hander Josh Smith off waivers from Cincinnati, and will likely rely heavily on reinforcements from their training camp in Jupiter, Florida.

Manfred said there are factors that would force MLB to alter plans.

“A team losing a number of players that rendered it completely non-competitive would be an issue that we would have to address and have to think about making a change,” he said. “Whether that was shutting down a part of the season, the whole season, that depends on the circumstances. Same thing with respect to league-wide. You get to a certain point league-wide where it does become a health threat, and we certainly would shut down at that point.”

MLB and the union held talks Monday after aspects of the protocols were widely ignored during the season’s first four days, such as the prohibitions on high-fives and other physical celebrations.

The NBA and NHL plan to resume their seasons in bubble environments, with basketball at Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and hockey at Edmonton, Alberta, and Toronto.

“The NBA and the NHL have an advantage: smaller numbers of players, shorter period of time,” Manfred said. “I understand why they did what they did. I’m just not sure it was workable for us.”

The NFL has opted not to create a bubble environment as training camps open for the coming season.

“It might be that they have to go in a bubble,” Fauci said, “but I think they’re conscientious enough and want to protect their players and protect the personnel that they will do the right thing.”

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A week after appearing to project a more serious tone about the coronavirus, President Donald Trump is back to spreading misinformation about how to combat the virus and the credibility of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert.

Fauci pushed back Tuesday, saying he will keep doing his job.

Trump pushed unproven claims that an anti-malaria drug, hydroxychloroquine, is an effective treatment for COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. But numerous studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine is not effective and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew an order that allowed the drug’s use as an emergency treatment for COVID-19.

Trump returned to his earlier advocacy for hydroxychloroquine after returning from a trip to North Carolina Monday where he promoted efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. Trump retweeted a series of tweets advocating for hydroxychloroquine, including a video of a doctor claiming to have successfully used the drug on hundreds of patients.

The president also shared a post from the Twitter account for a podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, a former top White House adviser to Trump, accusing Fauci of misleading the public over hydroxychloroquine.

Fauci, a leading member of the White House coronavirus task force, responded to Trump’s tweets during an appearance Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

“I go along with the FDA,” said Fauci, the longtime director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease.”

It’s not the first time Fauci has come under attack from Trump and those close to him.

The president’s top trade adviser, Peter Navarro, who has clashed with Fauci over hydroxychloroquine, recently penned a scathing attack on the doctor that was published by USA Today. The newspaper later said the opinion piece did not meet its standards.

In recent nationally televised interviews, Trump himself has described Fauci as “a bit of an alarmist” and accused him of making “mistakes” in his coronavirus guidance to the American people.

Asked if he can do his job when Trump continues to publicly question his credibility, Fauci said Tuesday he’ll press ahead “no matter what” because of the stakes involved.

“I don’t tweet. I don’t even read them, so I don’t really want to go there,” Fauci said. “I just will continue to do my job no matter what comes out because I think it’s very important. We’re in the middle of a crisis with regard to an epidemic, a pandemic. This is what I do. This is what I’ve been trained for my entire professional life and I’ll continue to do it.”

Asked about claims he’s been misleading the public, Fauci said: “I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances.”

Trump retweeted a video that is circulating on social media pushing misleading claims about hydroxychloroquine. Earlier in the pandemic, Trump advocated vigorously for hydroxychloroquine to be used as a treatment, or even a preventative, telling people, “What have you got to lose?”

Trump also said he took a 14-day course of hydroxychloroquine.

Facebook, Twitter and YouTube began scrubbing their sites of the video Monday because it includes misleading claims about hydroxychloroquine, and glosses over the dangers of taking it. But dozens of versions of the video remain live on their platforms, with conservative news outlets, groups and internet personalities sharing it on their pages, where users have viewed them millions of times.

One version of the video had more than 17 million views before Facebook took it down.

Facebook is trying to remove the video because it is “sharing false information about cures and treatments for COVID-19,” according to Andy Stone, a spokesman for the platform.

Twitter also said it is working to remove the video. A tweet from the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., describing one version of the video as a “must watch!!!” Monday night was also taken down by the platform.

In the video, Dr. Stella Immanuel, a physician from Houston, Texas, promotes hydroxychloroquine as a sure-fire cure for the coronavirus,. She claims to have successfully treated 350 people “and counting,” including some with underlying medical conditions.

“You don’t need masks, there is a cure,” Immanuel says in the video. “You don’t need people to be locked down.”

Trump initially flouted guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on wearing face masks, saying he wouldn’t wear one himself and refusing to be seen in one in public.

But he recently began encouraging the public to wear face coverings as he has tried to strike a more serious tone about the virus. In the U.S., the some 4 million people have been affected and the death toll is nearing 150,000, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

In another video shared widely on Twitter by a pro-Trump nonprofit, Immanuel claims Fauci and CNN anchors are secretly taking hydroxychloroquine and challenges them to give her a urine sample.

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.

TORONTO (AP) — The displaced Toronto Blue Jays will play in a minor league ballpark in Buffalo, New York, this year after being turned down by the Canadian government and blocked from playing in Pittsburgh by the state of Pennsylvania.

The Blue Jays’ home for the season will be Sahlen Field, where the Triple-A affiliate Buffalo Bisons usually play.

The team had been looking for a major league ballpark for its home games after the Canadian government wouldn’t allow it to play in Toronto but the search was unsuccessful. Pennsylvania health officials rejected a deal to play in Pittsburgh because of rising COVID-19 cases there.

The team also held talks with the Baltimore Orioles about Camden Yards, but the Blue Jays didn’t want to wait on Maryland officials with their season starting Friday.

“Baltimore never got to a situation to where we were denied,” Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro said. ”At some point continuing to explore and look at an option like Baltimore was not going to be a risk we could take. That risk of being turned down certainly existed. And so we obviously had to make a decision knowing we had a very good alternative, albeit not a major league one.”

The Blue Jays open the season on the road at Tampa Bay. Their first scheduled home series, against the Washington Nationals on July 29 and 30, will now also be on the road to accommodate infrastructure modifications at Sahlen Field to help it meet Major League Baseball standards and COVID-19 safety requirements.

The Blue Jays’ first game in Buffalo will be either on July 31 against the Philadelphia Phillies or on Aug. 11 against the Miami Marlins.

The team had also considered playing home games at its training facility in Dunedin, Florida, but that is among the states that are virus hot spots.

Health officials in Canada and Pennsylvania were worried about the frequent travel by players throughout the U.S., one of the countries hit hardest by the pandemic.

General manager Ross Atkins had said his team had more than five contingency plans for a home stadium.

“I’m excited we finally have to a place to play. We’re done with that,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.

Slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. expects the Buffalo park to favor pitchers because it is a larger field than the Rogers Centre in Toronto.

“It’s going to be different because of the way it is in Toronto compared to Buffalo,” Guerrero said through an interpreter. “There are no fans anyway. We’re just going to go play baseball.”

Blue Jays players had made it clear to the front office they wanted to play in a major league park. Outfielder Randal Grichuk had described Buffalo as a “worst case.”

“This process has no doubt tested our team’s resilience, but our players and staff refuse to make excuses,” Shapiro said.

Shapiro said substantial new construction will be required to upgrade Sahlen Field. The locker room needs to be expanded so players can practice social distancing. The lights need to be upgraded as well. The team will bear the majority, if not all, of the costs, he said.

The team also reached out to the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres about using some of their facilities.

U.S. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York urged baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred this week to pick Buffalo.

“I’ve always been a Bisons and Bills fan so I guess now I’ll be a Blue Jays fan, at least this year,” Schumer said in an interview with The Associated Press. “It seemed so logical for the Blue Jays to go to Buffalo for geographic and market reasons. If they want to expand their market it’s very good to be in western New York. It’s a good facility.”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo had told reporters before the announcement that he spoke to Manfred on Friday morning.

“If we can get Toronto playing here, I say great. We have the protocols in place, it will be done safely,” Cuomo said. “I’d rather it happen here. It’s good for Buffalo.”

At a news conference, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz put on a Blue Jays cap and jersey in anticipation of what he said will be the first major league game to be played in Buffalo since 1885.

The Blue Jays and visiting teams and personnel will fill two hotels, Poloncarz said, and restaurants will cater their food. He told residents not to expect to bump into players around town. “They will basically be sequestered and quarantining in hotels,” Poloncarz said.

At a separate news conference at the ballpark, Rich Baseball Operations President Mike Buczkowski said the team won’t know when the first game will be played until it evaluates what modifications will be needed.

“We’re further challenged in doing that by COVID and by the protocols and the safety measures that have to be in place for the players,” Buczkowski said.

“Some of it will take days. Some of it is going to take probably longer than that. So that’s why we really can’t say exactly which day would be the first game that we would host here.”

Associated Press Writer Carolyn Thompson in Buffalo, New York, contributed to this report.

Coronavirus links

Indiana coronavirus timeline

With information from the Indiana Department of Health through March 4, 2021, this timeline reflects updated tallies of deaths and positive tests prior to that date.