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WASHINGTON, April 24(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge by computer scientist Stephen Thaler to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office's refusal to issue patents for inventions his artificial intelligence system created. According to Thaler, his DABUS system, short for Device for the Autonomous Bootstrapping of Unified Sentience, created unique prototypes for a beverage holder and emergency light beacon entirely on its own. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and a federal judge in Virginia rejected his patent applications for the inventions on the grounds that DABUS is not a person. Thaler has also applied for DABUS patents in other countries including the United Kingdom, South Africa, Australia and Saudi Arabia with limited success. The UK's Supreme Court heard Thaler's appeal of his loss there in March.

Private equity firm Staple Street Capital valued Dominion at $80 million when it purchased a controlling stake in it in 2018. The Fox settlement was nearly 10 times that amount and far outstripped the $226 million average of four pre-election valuations cited in Fox's court papers. Dominion's damages claim in the Fox case was based upon a report it commissioned from an accounting expert, half of which remains under seal. It is difficult to place a dollar value on the U.S. voting-machine industry because Dominion and its competitors all are privately held. While Dominion's report cites dozens of lost clients due to Fox's coverage, the company still has landed recent contract renewals including in California's Republican-majority Kern County.

☆ You think you need more sleep? Tell that to an elephant seal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But some animals get a lot less slumber - with certain species like the northern elephant seal taking sleeplessness to an extreme. During dives lasting about 30 minutes, the seals went into a deep sleep stage called slow-wave sleep while maintaining a controlled downward trajectory. The species is the world's second-largest seal, topped only by the southern elephant seal. Male northern elephant seals may reach 13 feet long (4 meters) and weigh up to 4,500 pounds (2,000 kg). "It is very peaceful to spend time on the beach watching elephant seals sleep.

The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is expected to act before the deadline to either grant or reject the requests or further pause the litigation. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the U.S. agency that signs off on the safety of food products, drugs and medical devices, approved mifepristone in 2000. Circuit Court of Appeals on April 12 declined to block the curbs ordered by Kacsmaryk. Anti-abortion groups led by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors sued the FDA in November. The plaintiffs contend that the agency used an unlawful process to approve the drug, which they consider to be dangerous.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday bolstered a bid by Turkey's state-owned lender Halkbank (HALKB.IS) to avoid criminal charges in the United States for allegedly helping Iran evade American economic sanctions. The court's majority, while rejecting a key defense mounted by Halkbank, ordered the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Shares in Vakifbank (VAKBN.IS), another Turkish state bank, jumped 9.9% and the bourse's banking index climbed more than 4%. Sovereign immunity generally protects countries from facing legal action in another country's courts. The majority found that the 2nd Circuit did not fully consider whether the bank has immunity under "common law" principles.

"Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and our customers," Poulos said in a statement. Fox anchor Neil Cavuto broke into his news show "Your World" about 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time to report the settlement. In February court filings, Dominion cited a trove of internal communications in which Murdoch and other Fox figures privately acknowledged that the vote-rigging claims made about Dominion on-air were false. Dominion said Fox amplified the untrue claims to boost its ratings and prevent its viewers from migrating to other media competitors on the right. ANOTHER LAWSUIT PENDINGAdding to the legal risks for Fox, another U.S. voting technology company, Smartmatic, is pursuing its own defamation lawsuit seeking $2.7 billion in damages in a New York state court.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court boosts Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed's DNA testing bid
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday gave a boost to Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed's bid for DNA testing of crime-scene evidence that he argues will help exonerate him in the 1996 abduction, rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman. A Texas trial court in 2014 denied Reed's bid for DNA testing. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals also rejected it in 2017 based on the procedures it determined were required under the state law that gives prisoners a chance to seek post-conviction DNA testing. That court denied a request for rehearing six months later. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 decided that Reed should have filed suit within two years of the initial 2014 trial court decision.

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with a convicted stalker's claim that thousands of unwanted Facebook messages he sent to a female musician in Colorado were protected speech in a case testing the limits of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment safeguards. Rather, Counterman was convicted based on a showing that his messages would cause a "reasonable person" serious distress, a so-called objective legal standard. Counterman, citing mental illness and delusions, argued his statements were never intended to be threatening and were thus protected speech. The First Amendment prohibits the government from enacting laws "abridging the freedom of speech," but the U.S. Supreme Court has decided that the provision does not protect true threats. His appeal was rejected by the Colorado Court of Appeals.

☆ Scientists identify mind-body nexus in human brain
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The researchers called this system the somato-cognitive action network, or SCAN, and documented its connections to brain regions known to help set goals and plan actions. "Basically, we now have shown that the human motor system is not unitary. A second system, the SCAN, is more important for integrated, whole body movements, and is more connected to high-level planning regions of your brain," Gordon said. I'm not a philosopher, but one succinct statement I like is saying, 'The mind is what the brain does.' "Some neuroscientists think of the brain as an organ intended primarily to perceive and interpret the world around us.

☆ US Supreme Court faces self-imposed deadline to act on abortion pill curbs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

WASHINGTON, April 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday faces a self-imposed deadline to act before significant limits on access to the abortion pill mifepristone take effect in a challenge by anti-abortion groups to the drug's federal regulatory approval. The Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, is expected to act before the deadline to either grant or reject the requests or further pause the litigation. In a case that could undercut federal regulatory authority over drug safety, the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. The 5th Circuit did halt a part of Kacsmaryk's order that would have suspended the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug in 2000 and effectively pull it off the market. Some 56% of respondents said they have an unfavorable view of the Supreme Court.

In a 9-0 ruling written by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Supreme Court overturned a lower court's decision against MOAC Mall Holdings LLC, the parent company of the mega-mall located in Bloomington, Minnesota. The lease provided Sears with a three-story, 120,000-square foot (11,000 square meters) location at the mall for a rent of just $10 a year. Mall of America went to court to try to stop the lease transfer during the Sears bankruptcy process. Circuit Court of Appeals found in 2021 that bankruptcy law does not allow for appeals of court-approved bankruptcy sales. While bankruptcy law limits the ability of courts to unwind a sale after appeal, it does not prevent appeals entirely, the Supreme Court ruled.

"Fox has admitted to telling lies about Dominion that caused enormous damage to my company, our employees and our customers," Poulos said in a statement. Shares of Fox Corp closed up slightly at $34 per share, but were down 1% in after-hours trading after the settlement amount was disclosed. Fox Corp CEO Lachlan Murdoch told Wall Street analysts in February that the company had about $4 billion cash on hand. [1/5] Dominion CEO John Poulos and lawyers speak to the media after Dominion Voting Systems and Fox settled a defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million, avoiding trial, over Fox's coverage of debunked election-rigging claims, in Delaware Superior Court, in Wilmington, Delaware, U.S. April 18, 2023. Fox Corp reported nearly $14 billion in annual revenue last year.

☆ Anti-abortion groups urge US Supreme Court to restrict abortion pill
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court should restrict the availability of the abortion pill mifepristone, anti-abortion groups challenging the medication's federal regulatory approval told the justices in a filing on Tuesday, urging them to implement curbs ordered by a conservative federal judge in Texas. Mifepristone is taken with another drug called misoprostol to perform medication abortion, which now accounts for more than half of all U.S. abortions. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. Anti-abortion groups led by the recently formed Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine and four anti-abortion doctors sued the FDA in November seeking to reverse approval of mifepristone. Since last year's Supreme Court decision, 12 U.S. states have put in place outright bans while many others prohibit abortion after a certain length of pregnancy.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder/File PhotoWASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp's (NOVN.S) bid to revive a key patent on its blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Gilenya that was invalidated amid a legal dispute with China's HEC Pharm Co Ltd (1558.HK). Novartis sued HEC and more than a dozen other generic drugmakers for patent infringement in Delaware federal court after they applied for FDA approval of Gilenya generics. Novartis settled with some of the drugmakers, allowing for some Gilenya generics before a key patent's 2027 expiration. The Supreme Court in October rejected a Novartis emergency bid to pause the decision. HEC responded that the Federal Circuit "followed its own rules," and that "no Federal Circuit judge - including the dissenter - suggested any procedural concern" with the decision.

[1/2] A Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sign is at the U.S. headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan, U.S. May 25, 2018. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook/File PhotoWASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a bid by General Motors Co (GM.N) to revive its racketeering lawsuit against rival automaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), now part of Franco-Italian automaker Stellantis NV , over bribery allegations involving the United Auto Workers union. Stellantis in a statement praised the court's decision to turn away what it described as "baseless claims" by GM. "Today's decision upholding the district court's dismissal of GM's lawsuit is another reaffirmation that its claims are meritless," Stellantis said. FCA paid a $30 million fine while the UAW agreed to independent oversight to resolve the U.S. Justice Department investigation.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court turns away suit by Texas inmate held 27 years in solitary confinement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, U.S., April 6, 2023. Hope, who is still in prison but as of last year no longer in solitary confinement, filed a civil rights lawsuit against prison officials in 2018. Following a 1994 prison escape, Hope was placed by prison officials in solitary confinement. Hope said he continued to be held in solitary confinement despite being deemed by Texas security officials in 2005 to no longer pose an escape risk. Texas asked the justices to consider the case moot since Hope is no longer held in solitary confinement, a request that was contested by Hope's lawyers.

[1/2] Sanofi logo at the company's headquarters during the annual results news conference in Paris, France, February 4, 2022. Sanofi in 2009 acquired the rights to Auvi-Q, an epinephrine auto-injector intended to compete with EpiPen. Injection of epinephrine is used to treat serious and sometimes life-threatening allergic reactions to foods, medications, bee stings and other causes. Circuit Court of Appeals last July agreed, noting that the exclusive contracts in question were "a normal competitive tool within the epinephrine auto-injector industry." The 10th Circuit added that Sanofi could have competed on those terms, but instead chose initially to market Auvi-Q as a more expensive, premium product.

Fox has said Dominion cannot prove that the network knowingly spread falsehoods or recklessly disregarded the truth, the legal standard of "actual malice" that plaintiffs in defamation lawsuits must meet. Fox is now largely limited to arguing that Dominion cannot prove actual malice. Fox has called Dominion's lawsuit an assault on the free press and framed its stance in the case as a defense of journalism and diversity of ideas in the public square. Fox has attacked the credibility of Dominion's damages estimate, saying it is based upon unrealistic growth projections and faulty assumptions. An expert report commissioned by the company attributed scores of lost contracts to Fox's coverage, though much of the report remains under seal.

Postal Service for alleged religious discrimination is set for U.S. Supreme Court review on April 18, poses in an undated handout image taken at an unknown location. Postal Service over his refusal to work on Sundays gives the Supreme Court another chance to widen religious rights but also has led to a debate over whether religious people are more legally deserving than others to weekend days off from work. The court, with its 6-3 conservative majority, has a track record of expanding religious rights in recent years, often siding with Christian plaintiffs. The Postal Service in 2013, in a bid to remain profitable, contracted with Amazon.com to deliver packages, including on Sundays. His absences caused tension among other carriers who had to cover his shifts, the Postal Service said.

Fox has argued that Dominion cherry-picked evidence to mischaracterize the network's coverage decisions, which it said were reasonable because election-rigging claims by the president's lawyers were inherently newsworthy. Fox has said it also gave Dominion's side of the story by airing its denials. The Fox Corp chairman is set to take the witness stand, along with other executives including Fox News CEO Suzanne Scott. The trial is also due to include testimony from a parade of conservative-leaning Fox hosts including Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Jeanine Pirro. Fox has attacked the credibility of Dominion's damages estimate, saying it is based upon unrealistic growth projections and faulty assumptions.

[1/2] The U.S. Supreme Court building is seen in Washington, U.S., April 6, 2023. Two laws, the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Securities Exchange Act, funnel judicial review of adverse agency orders to federal appeals courts only after those orders become final. The Supreme Court's conservative justices have signaled wariness toward expansive federal regulatory power and the previously recognized duty of judges, under Supreme Court precedent, to give deference to that authority. Federal agencies have had their powers curtailed in recent Supreme Court rulings. Axon sued the FTC in 2020 in federal court in Arizona following an investigation by the agency into its 2018 acquisition of Vievu, a rival body-camera provider.

☆ Compact galaxy's discovery shows Webb telescope's 'amazing' power
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The discovery is another example of how observations by Webb, which was launched in 2021 and began collecting data last year, are transforming our knowledge of the nature of the early universe. The orbiting infrared observatory was designed to be far more sensitive than its Hubble Space Telescope predecessor. This galaxy, Kelly said, is "absolutely tiny" in relative terms. "Nonetheless, we found that it was forming about two stars each year, which is similar to the rate at which the Milky Way is forming stars," Kelly added. "The combined power of the James Webb Space Telescope and the galaxy's magnification due to gravitational lensing allows us to study this galaxy in detail," Williams said.

☆ Biden administration asks US Supreme Court to stop abortion pill limits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Andrew Chung | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Danco Laboratories, the manufacturer of mifepristone, also asked the U.S. Supreme Court for similar relief on Friday. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority. The administration said the lower court orders would have "sweeping consequences" for women who need access to mifepristone and the FDA's scientific judgment authority over drug safety. "The resulting disruption would deny women lawful access to a drug FDA deemed a safe and effective alternative to invasive surgical abortion," the Justice Department told the justices. Since last year's Supreme Court decision, 12 U.S. states have put in place outright bans while many others prohibit abortion after a certain length of pregnancy.

☆ Oldest-known bat skeletons shed light on evolution of flying mammals
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

A few other fossil species from around this time still have that claw, but it's been lost in most living bats," Jones added. This species was closely related to two other bat species whose fossils were previously found at the same locale - Icaronycteris index and Onychonycteris finneyi. This indicates there was a greater diversity of species early in the history of bats than previously appreciated. The fossils represent the oldest-known bat skeletons - both very complete and well-preserved. The only older bat fossils are isolated teeth and jaw fragments from places including Portugal and China, dating to about 55 to 56 million years ago.

☆ U.S. Supreme Court won't halt $6 billion student debt settlement
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( John Kruzel | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Around 3,500 borrowers entitled to automatic loan discharge under the settlement attended one of the three schools. The decision was separate from a case pending before the high court over the legality of President Joe Biden's plan to cancel $430 billion in student debt for about 40 million borrowers. The message is clear: the rights of student borrowers will not falter, even in the face of well-funded, overblown political attacks masquerading as legal argument," Connor told Reuters. Twenty conservative-leaning U.S. states, led by Ohio, had asked the Supreme Court to grant the request by the schools to pause further loan discharges under the settlement. Around 78,000 borrowers had already received loan discharges by April 11, the Biden administration told the justices in a court filing.

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