correspondent mark meredith is here with all the details of this big case. good evening, mark. bret, it was a big case. good evening to you. johnny depp was not in the courtroom when today s verdict was announced. tonight both he and his legal team are celebrating after a jury in virginia ruled depp s ex-wife actress amber heard owes him $15 million for defamation. he claimed an op-ed written by heard in 2018 and published in the the washington post significantly set back his career. in the piece, heard wrote she was, quote, a public figure representing domestic abuse. the jury ruled these claims were intentionally meant to hurt depp. the ache door wrote published already traveled around the world twice within a nanosecond had seismic impact on my life and career. six months later the jury gave me my life back. i m truly humbled. we also heard from his legal team. we are also most pleased that the trial has resonated for so many people in the public who value truth and
Requesting to make up for russia s decline. opec meets tomorrow. in the meantime some states like here in new york are offering gas tax holidays through the end of the year. consumers in new york will be spared about 16 cents per gallon. it s a move that will cost the state about $585 million and critics say will it tempt gas prices even higher. artificially lowering one portion of that for a limited period of time changes at the man curve. it increases demand while supply is quite constricted. but other states, bret, like california, are, instead, raking in the tax revenue from consumers as gas prices soar. california has the highest average price per gallon of gas at $16.19.
Tenth. let s look into this. msnbc correspondent trymaine lee traced the history and impact of the racial wealth gap as part of a major initiative from the new york times magazine called the 1619 project. it aims to reframe our country s history through the idea that 16/19 was the year of america s true founding and it examines the consequences of slavery and contributions of black americans and puts them at the center of the story that we tell ourselves about who we are. trymaine lee joins us now. to consider the remarkable economic advantages that the united states saw right after independence, people are always fascinated by how did this breakway country end up doing better than its parent country, the united kingdom? slavery. free labor which became the remarkably cheap labor after slavery. when you consider all the wealth generated by enslaved people and cotton and sugarcane,