Historic heat wave could be worst in Europe in over 200 years

By Brian Lada, Accuweather.com

When temperatures reached this territory during a heat wave in 2019, officials allowed Parisians to cool off in the Trocadero Fountain near the Eiffel Tower. This measure could be taken again in the coming days. File Photo by Ian Langsdon/EPA-EFE

AccuWeather meteorologists are warning of one of the most significant heat waves in western Europe in over 200 years, or a few decades before the Declaration of Independence was signed. The long-duration, extreme weather event could turn deadly across the continent.

The heat is on in Portugal and Spain with temperatures topping out near 100 degrees F in Madrid and Lisbon, Portugal, nearly every day since Friday. Sevilla, Spain, has been one of the hottest spots with the mercury soaring above 105 degrees F for seven consecutive days, including a temperature of 112 degrees F on Wednesday.

This heat wave is expected to expand across Europe throughout the week and potentially through the end of the month for some areas.

"There is concern that this heat could become a long-duration heat wave (20 or more days) for many locations from Portugal to central France and interior southeastern Europe, as it could last for the rest of July and continue into August," AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tyler Roys said. This includes the valleys of Hungary, eastern Croatia, eastern Bosnia, Serbia, southern Romania and northern Bulgaria.

The severity of the impending heat could rival the 2003 heat wave when over 30,000 people died, both directly and indirectly, due to the heat, Roys said. He added that this could be one of the worst heat waves in Europe since 1757.

The source of the exceptionally warm air is Africa's Sahara Desert with heat projected to expand farther north and east each day, reaching Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom by the weekend. "July all-time records are at risk of being approached, tied or even broken across Ireland and the United Kingdom," Roys said. "This includes individual cities such as Birmingham, Dublin, Manchester and York."

A new all-time record high could be set in the United Kingdom during the peak of the hot spell. The current record in the country is 102 degrees F, which was set in Cambridge Botanica Garden on July 25, 2019. Londoners likely won't experience temperatures this extreme, but temperatures are predicted to top 86 degrees F for at least three consecutive days, potentially approaching 95 degrees F during the height of the heat.

Britain has issued an "amber" alert due to the impacts expected from the extreme heat. England's government is also mulling over the declaration of the first-ever national heat wave emergency, Sky News reported. In this never-before-used emergency, officials say that "illness and death may occur among the fit and healthy -- and not just in high-risk groups."

In Paris, temperatures over the weekend and into early next week could come within a degree or two of 104. When temperatures reached this territory during a heat wave in 2019, officials allowed Parisians to cool off in the Trocadero Fountain near the Eiffel Tower. This measure could be taken again in the coming days.

Riders and spectators of the Tour de France should also break for the abnormally high temperatures as the tour weaves its way across southern France after leaving the Alps. Spectators lining the roads should take the proper precautions to avoid heat-related illness, especially when roads are closed for cyclists as the temporary closures could limit access to some healthcare facilities, experts say.

The most extreme heat will focus on Portugal and Spain, countries that are battling wildfires.

Temperatures more common for Death Valley, Calif. -- touted as one of the hottest places on Earth -- will be possible in eastern Portugal and western and southern Spain during the height of the hot spell.

The AccuWeather LocalMax Temperature is 120 degrees F in southwestern Spain. For comparison, temperatures typically top out near 118 degrees in Death Valley in July. That temperature in Spain could occur on Thursday and Friday.

People planning to travel to Europe for vacation through the end of July should prepare for the heat and be ready to change plans if events or buildings are canceled or closed due to the extreme weather.

"Tourist destinations across Portugal are being closed for the safety of the public and, in some cases, due to nearby fires," Roys said. More closures are possible across Portugal, Spain and France due to wildfires and heat.

Additionally, air conditioning is not used as widely in Europe as it is in the United States. Even where there are air conditioners, they may not cool down buildings as much as those in the United States.

An initiative in Italy dubbed "operation thermostat" states that air conditioners cannot be set lower than 81 degrees F in an effort to conserve energy, according to Politico. Residents or businesses that do not comply with this new law could be fined roughly the equivalent of $500 to $3,000.

Meteorologists say travelers should also be mindful of wildfire activity, especially those with poor respiratory health, as the smoke from the wildfires could be dangerous. As of Thursday, air quality was "fair" to "poor" across most of Europe, according to Plume Labs, an environmental technology company acquired by AccuWeather earlier this year.

Air quality across Europe on Thursday. Image courtesy of AccuWeather/Plume Labs

The widespread heat wave is not predicted to let up anytime soon with temperatures remaining well above average through next week across much of Europe. All-time records could continue to be challenged next week, according to AccuWeather forecasters.

Long-term heat waves are uncommon in Europe, but they are not unheard of.

"Over the last 25 years, there have only been three long-duration heat waves to impact parts of Europe: 2003 (western and central Europe, 32 days), 2006 (western and north-central Europe, 35 days) and 2021 (Italy and southeast Europe, 21 days)," Roys explained. Last summer was also the hottest on record for Europe.

The extended hot spell could also impact local economies, including agriculture.

"The soil across Portugal to Germany is in the process of quickly losing whatever moisture it contained," Roys said. "This drying is not expected to let up but only intensify during the duration of the heat wave as little to no precipitation is expected across much of the region."

The ramifications of this may not be fully realized until the autumn harvest.

New unemployment filings in U.S. rise to highest level in 8 months

The Fearless Girl Statue is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street in New York City. The Labor Department said on Thursday that more than 240,000 U.S. workers filed for new unemployment benefits last week, the highest level since late November in 2021. 

File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

July 14 (UPI) -- The number of American workers filing for new unemployment benefits has increased to its highest level since last fall, the Labor Department said Thursday in its weekly update.

The number of first-time filings, the department said, rose to about 244,000 last week, which is the most recent period for which data is available. It represented week-to-week increase of 9,000.

The figure is the highest it's been since last November and is close to the lowest post-COVID19 pandemic level, 256,000.

The number of new claims was higher than most economists predicted. They said they expected Thursday's report to show a total of about 235,000 new claims.

Thursday's report came one day after tech giant Microsoft announced that it planned to cut 1% of its workforce. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI

First-time jobless filings have been around the 230,000 mark since last month and reached a contemporary low of 166,000 in March.

Thursday's report also marked the ninth straight week that initial claims were above 200,000 and sixth consecutive week above 230,000.

The four-week moving average rose to about 235,700, a slight weekly increase, and the total number of all jobless claims was 1.3 million.

The labor assessment came after Microsoft announced this week that it would layoff about 1% of its workforce and GameStop said last week that it plans to make job cuts in the near future.

Earlier this month, the department reported that there were 372,000 new hirings during the month of June -- far above the 250,000 that most analysts expected.

Doctor’s lawyer defends steps in 10-year-old girl’s abortion

By TOM DAVIES and JULIE CARR SMYTH

Abortion-rights activist rally at the Indiana Statehouse following the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade on June 25, 2022 in Indianapolis. The lawyer for an Indiana doctor who has found herself at the center of a political firestorm after revealing the story of a 10-year-old girl who traveled from Ohio for an abortion says her client provided proper treatment. (AP Photo/AJ Mast, File)


INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The lawyer for an Indiana doctor at the center of a political firestorm after speaking out about a 10-year-old child abuse victim who traveled from Ohio for an abortion said Thursday that her client provided proper treatment and did not violate any patient privacy laws in discussing the unidentified girl’s case.

Attorney Kathleen DeLaney issued the statement on behalf of Indianapolis obstetrician-gynecologist Caitlin Bernard the same day Republican Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita said his office was investigating Bernard’s actions. He offered no specific allegations of wrongdoing.

A 27-year-old man was charged in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday with raping the girl, confirming the existence of a case initially met with skepticism by some media outlets and Republican politicians. The pushback grew after Democratic President Joe Biden expressed empathy for the girl during the signing of an executive order last week aimed at protecting some abortion access in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling overturning the constitutional protection for abortion.

Bernard’s attorney said the physician “took every appropriate and proper action in accordance with the law and both her medical and ethical training as a physician.”

“She followed all relevant policies, procedures, and regulations in this case, just as she does every day to provide the best possible care for her patients,” DeLaney said in a statement. “She has not violated any law, including patient privacy laws, and she has not been disciplined by her employer.”

Bernard reported a June 30 medication abortion for a 10-year-old patient to the state health department on July 2, within the three-day requirement set in state law for a girl younger than 16, according to a report obtained by The Indianapolis Star and WXIN-TV of Indianapolis under public records requests. The report indicated the girl seeking the abortion had been abused.

DeLaney said they are considering taking legal action against “those who have smeared my client,” including Rokita, who had said he would investigate whether Bernard violated child abuse notification or abortion reporting laws. He also said his office would look into whether anything Bernard said to the Star about the case violated federal medical privacy laws. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would not say whether any privacy law complaints had been filed against Bernard, nor would Indiana University Health, where Bernard is an obstetrician. But the HIPAA Privacy Rule only protects most “individually identifiable health information,” the department’s website said.

The prosecutor for Indianapolis, where the abortion took place, said his office alone has the authority to pursue any criminal charges in such situations and that Bernard was being “subjected to intimidation and bullying.”

“I think it’s really dangerous when people in law enforcement start trying to launch a criminal investigation based on rumors on the internet,” Democratic Marion County Prosecutor Ryan Mears said.

Some Republicans who have backed stringent abortion restrictions imposed in Ohio after the Supreme Court ruling, including Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, initially questioned whether the story relayed by Bernard to the newspaper was real. After telling Fox News on Monday that there was not “a whisper” of evidence supporting the case’s existence, Yost said his “heart aches for the pain suffered by this young child” and his investigative unit stands ready to support police in the case.

On Thursday, Yost faced intense backlash for his public statements, including a claim that medical exceptions in the Ohio “fetal heartbeat” abortion ban would have allowed the girl to receive her abortion in the state.

Apparently in response, he released a “legal explainer” detailing the law’s medical exceptions. Abortion rights advocates and attorneys said the law’s medical exceptions – for the life of the mother, dire risks of bodily harm and ectopic pregnancies – would not have protected an Ohio doctor who performed an abortion for the girl from prosecution.

Bernard did not reply to email and text messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

__

Carr Smyth reported from Columbus, Ohio.

The AP Interview: Khashoggi fiancee criticizes Biden visit

By AYSE WIETING and SUZAN FRASER

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Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Kashoggi, poses for a photograph during an interview with The Associated Press in Istanbul, Turkey, Thursday, July 14, 2022. Cengiz described Joe Biden's decision to visit Saudi Arabia as "heartbreaking," accusing the U.S. president on Thursday of backing down from his pledge of prioritizing human rights. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)


ISTANBUL (AP) — Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, described Joe Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia as “heartbreaking,” accusing the U.S. president of backing down from his pledge of prioritizing human rights.

In an interview with The Associated Press in Istanbul a day before Biden travels to Saudi Arabia on Friday to meet with the crown prince, Cengiz said Biden should press Saudi Arabia — a country that she described as a “terrible ally” — to embrace a human rights agenda. She also wants Biden to seek more answers from Saudi authorities over what happened to Khashoggi’s remains.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has long denied any knowledge or involvement in Khashoggi’s killing, which was carried out inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul by agents who worked for the young heir to the throne. A U.S. intelligence report that Biden declassified after coming to office said Khashoggi’s killing could not have happened without Prince Mohammed’s knowledge.

Cengiz had gone with Khashoggi to the Saudi Consulate for an appointment to pick up documents needed to marry her. While she waited outside, he went in — and never reappeared.

“That day destroyed my life. And I don’t want to remember any part of that day,” Cengiz said Thursday, recalling that they’d planned to choose new furniture for their home after his consulate visit and meet with friends.

At the time of his murder, Khashoggi was a U.S. resident and contributing columnist for The Washington Post who had written articles critical of the crown prince’s widening crackdown on activists. He had previously held positions in the Saudi government, but had turned into a critic at a time when the crown prince was being hailed in Western capitals for ushering in social reforms inside the kingdom.

The October 2018 killing and attempts to cover it up drew international condemnation, and the reputation of Prince Mohammed has never fully recovered.

The prince has, however, begun to lure back big name Western investors who initially shied away from the kingdom after the killing. He’s also reset ties with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as Turkey seeks Gulf investments to buoy the strained economy.

The kingdom tried and found some people guilty for the operation that killed Khashoggi, but no senior officials or anyone responsible for overseeing it was ever convicted.

Biden came to office a sharp critic of the crown prince, pivoting away from the warm relationship cultivated under President Donald Trump. Biden said during his campaign that he believed Khashoggi was killed on orders of Prince Mohammed, describing the kingdom as a “pariah” and stating “there’s very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia.”

“It’s a very huge backing down actually,” Cengiz said of Biden’s decision now to reset diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia now. “It’s heartbreaking and disappointing. And Biden will lose his moral authority by putting oil and expediency over principles and values.”

Oil prices have been steadily climbing for months, but increased even more after Russia’s war in Ukraine. Energy prices, inflation and the economy are on voters’ minds as Americans prepare to head to the polls this November.

Members of Biden’s Democratic Party have urged the president to make human rights a key part of his discussions with the crown prince during his meeting Friday while acknowledging that Saudi Arabia is an important U.S. ally and oil producer.

Biden on Thursday declined to commit to mentioning Khashoggi’s murder when he meets the prince.

“I always bring up human rights,” Biden said during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. “But my position on Khashoggi has been so clear. If anyone doesn’t understand it, in Saudi Arabia or anywhere else, then they haven’t been around for a while.”

Biden said the purpose of his trip to Saudi Arabia is “broader” and designed to “reassert” U.S. influence in the Middle East. He’s scheduled to attend a summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council, which includes several Arab nations.

Cengiz expressed profound disappointment with Biden’s stance.

“One of Biden’s promises (was) being different. It was a very big hope to me to believe, again, that Biden will do something for me and for Jamal,” she said. “Instead of being different now, he’s doing the same and embracing dictators in the region right now. So it’s a very disappointing for me.”

“He has to ask what happened to his body? Where is his body? Still we do not have any answer,” she added. “And people need to get the truth in this case. And we cannot forget.”

“We cannot forget what happened to Jamal.”

___

Fraser reported from Ankara, Turkey.

Van Gogh self-portrait found hidden behind another painting

yesterday

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Senior Conservator Lesley Stevenson views Head of a Peasant Woman alongside an x ray image of the hidden Van Gogh self portrait. A previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings. The National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday it was discovered on the back of Van Gogh’s “Head of a Peasant Woman” when experts took an X-Ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. (Neil Hanna via AP)


LONDON (AP) — A previously unknown self-portrait of Vincent Van Gogh has been discovered behind another of the artist’s paintings, the National Galleries of Scotland said Thursday.

The self-portrait was found on the back of Van Gogh’s “Head of a Peasant Woman” when experts at the Edinburgh gallery took an X-ray of the canvas ahead of an upcoming exhibition. The work is believed to have been hidden for over a century, covered by layers of glue and cardboard when it was framed in the early 20th century.

Van Gogh was known for turning canvases around and painting on the other side to save money.

The portrait shows a bearded sitter in a brimmed hat. Experts said the subject was instantly recognizable as the artist himself, and is thought to be from his early work. The left ear is clearly visible and Van Gogh famously cut his off in 1888.

Frances Fowle, a senior curator at the National Galleries of Scotland, said the discovery was “thrilling.”

“Moments like this are incredibly rare,” she said. “We have discovered an unknown work by Vincent Van Gogh, one of the most important and popular artists in the world.”

The gallery said experts are evaluating how to remove the glue and cardboard without harming “Head of a Peasant Woman.”

Visitors to an upcoming Impressionist exhibit at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh can see an X-ray image of the self-portrait through a lightbox.

“A Taste for Impressionism” runs from July 30 to Nov. 13.

DEATH RACE
Horse put down following injury during Calgary Stampede chuckwagon races

ALL HORSE INJURIES ARE FATAL

CALGARY — A horse has been killed after it was injured in a chuckwagon race at the Calgary Stampede.

Organizers say in a statement that the horse on Cody Ridsdale's team was hurt during the fourth heat of Thursday night's competition.

Following a veterinary assessment, the owner decided it would be humane to euthanize the animal.

Chuckwagon races returned to the Stampede after missing the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Six horses died in 2019, which led animal rights groups to raise concerns about horses that suffer fractured legs, broken backs and heart attacks.

Related video: In 1st event after 6 horses died, Stampede chuckwagons return with new safety measures

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The Stampede has said that this year it brought in new safety measures for horses, which include reducing the number of wagons to three from four on the track for each heat.

Researchers at the University of Calgary are also looking at ways to improve the health, safety and performance of horses at the Stampede, including the surfaces chuckwagon horses run on and whether there's a way to reduce leg fractures.

"We are looking at track conditions and the effect of different footings — at varying depths and levels of hardness — on the impact of legs," Dr. Renaud Léguillette, a professor in the faculty of veterinary medicine, said in a news release earlier this week.

He said the track is one of the parameters that could be controlled to prevent leg fractures.

Chuckwagon races are a nightly spectacle during the 10-day Stampede, which ends Sunday. Crowds watch each evening as horse-drawn wagons thunder around a dirt track accompanied by outriders.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2022.

The Canadian Press

IT'S RENT INCREASES TO BLAME

The size of the millennial generation is to blame for sky-high inflation, strategist says

Natasha Turak - Yesterday 


The latest consumer price index data this week revealed a searing 9.1% increase year over year in June, prompting Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to say that inflation in the U.S. is "unacceptably high."
The causes behind the steep jumps include high energy prices, pandemic stimulus spending and geopolitical crises — but one investor is blaming millennials.

No one is talking about millennials' role in high inflation, investor says
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Soaring inflation is putting markets on edge and triggering fears of a recession. The latest consumer price index data this week revealed a searing 9.1% increase year over year in June, prompting Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to say that inflation in the U.S. is "unacceptably high."

The causes behind the steep jumps include high commodity and energy prices triggered by supply shortages and Russia's war in Ukraine, record government spending packages on economic stimulus and low interest rates amid the Covid-19 pandemic, and continuing labor shortages and supply chain problems meeting increased demand.

But one investor is arguing that there's another major factor to blame: millennials.

"See, what everyone is not including in the conversation is what really causes inflation, which is too many people with too much money chasing too few goods," Bill Smead, chief investment officer at Smead Capital Management, told CNBC's "Squawk Box Europe" on Thursday.

Smead explained that in the U.S. there are an estimated 92 million millennials, primarily in the 27- to 42-year-old age bracket. "The last time we saw what we call 'wolverine inflation' — which is inflation that is hard for policymakers to stop — was when 75 million baby boomers had replaced 44 million silent generation people in the 1970s."


A realtors listings are advertised in a window in Centreville, Maryland, on July 6, 2021.

"So we have in the United States a whole lot of people, (aged) 27 to 42, who postponed homebuying, car buying, for about seven years later than most generations," he said.

"But in the past two years they've all entered the party together, and this is just the beginning of a 10-to-12-year time period where there's about 50% more people that are wanting these things than there were in the prior group."

"So the Fed can tighten credit, but it won't reduce the number of people wanting these necessities in comparison to the prior group," Smead said.

To be sure, the Federal Reserve's printing of an unprecedented amount of money since the pandemic began is a major cause of inflation, economists agree. Smead also did not mention skyrocketing energy prices due to geopolitical events and supply issues, which can't be blamed on millennials.


Burnout was cited as one of the top three reasons for younger workers who left their jobs in the past two years, according to Deloitte's survey.

Plenty of millennials would disagree with the idea that they all have a lot of money and are now purchasing assets — according to a number of surveys taken in the last two years, upward of 60% of millennials are delaying homebuying due to student debt or the simple cost of homes compared with wages. This generation is also the one with the fastest-growing debt burden.

Even many of those with ample funds are still holding back. As recently as June, the CNBC Millionaire Survey found that millennials are "three times more likely to be cutting back on big purchases compared with their baby boomer counterparts."

"Forty-four percent of millennial respondents said higher rates have caused them to delay purchasing a new home, compared with only 6% of baby boomers. Nearly half of millennial millionaires said they are delaying purchase of a car because of higher rates — more than double the rate of baby boomers," CNBC wrote.

Pressure on the housing market due to the pandemic-induced shortage of inventory and high competition is also keeping many potential buyers in the late 20s to early 40s age group away.

Largest homebuyer market by generation

Despite all this, millennials are still making up the largest chunk of the homebuyer market by generation. They're also the largest generation in the U.S. by population.

"Millennials now make up 43% of home buyers – the most of any generation – an increase from 37% last year," the National Association of Realtors found in its latest study released in March.

The NAR classifies 23- to 31-year-olds as "younger millennials" and 32- to 41-year-olds as "older millennials."

"Eighty-one percent of Younger Millennials and 48 percent of Older Millennials were first-time home buyers, more than other age groups," NAR wrote.

Housing correction is 'dead ahead,' warns economist Mark Zandi

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Older millennials made up the "largest generational group of buyers" at 25%, and the median age was 36, the study found. The next-largest group was Gen Xers at 22% with a median age of 49.

"Some young adults have used the pandemic to their financial advantage by paying down debt and cutting the cost of rent by moving in with family. They are now jumping headfirst into homeownership," Jessica Lautz, NAR's vice president of demographics and behavioral insights, said in the report.

The figures still leave a lot of young people out of the picture. According to rental listing site Apartment List, in 2020, 18% of millennials believed they would be paying rent forever, giving up on homeownership – nearly double the rate of 10.7% two years prior.

The Fed's role

As the Fed pumped the U.S. market with liquidity (or some say, flooded it) and kept interest rates low over the last two years, its officials contended through 2021 that creeping inflation was "transitory."

In late May, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted she had been wrong.

"I think I was wrong then about the path that inflation would take," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer in an interview. "There have been unanticipated and large shocks that have boosted energy and food prices, and supply bottlenecks that have affected our economy badly that I ... at the time, didn't fully understand."

The Fed has approved three interest rate hikes this year, with the latest in mid-June constituting the largest single increase in the country since 1994 at 75 basis points. After June's inflation print of 9.1%, analysts predict the central bank could deploy a massive 100 basis point rate rise to combat inflation, which in the U.S. is at its highest in 40 years.

Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic, when asked earlier this week by reporters about the likelihood of the hike, replied, "Everything is in play."

— CNBC's Robert Frank contributed to this report.

Judge in Twitter v. Musk once made rare ruling: ordering a deal to close

By Tom Hals and Hyunjoo Jin

(Reuters) -The judge overseeing Twitter Inc's $44 billion lawsuit against Elon Musk has a no-nonsense reputation as well as the distinction of being one of the few jurists who has ever ordered a reluctant buyer to close a U.S. corporate merger.

Kathaleen McCormick took over the role of chancellor or chief judge of the Court of Chancery last year, the first woman in that role. On Wednesday, she was assigned the Twitter lawsuit which seeks to force Musk to complete his deal for the social media platform, which promises to be one of the biggest legal showdowns in years.

"She already has a track record of not putting up with some of the worst behavior that we see in these areas when people want to get out of deals," said Adam Badawi, a law professor who specializes in corporate governance at the University of California Berkeley. "She is a serious, no-nonsense judge."

In contrast to Musk's brash and volatile behavior, she is known as soft-spoken, approachable and amiable -- but a person who also stands her ground. She advocates respect among litigants and integrity at legal conferences.

"We've always had each other's backs, we've always gone out for drinks after arguments and maintained this level of civility," she told a gathering at the University of Delaware this year.

After weeks of confrontational tweets suggesting Twitter was hiding the true number of fake accounts, Musk said on July 8 he was terminating the $54.20-per-Twitter share acquisition, worth $44 billion. On Tuesday, the social media platform sued.

McCormick on Friday scheduled the first hearing for July 19 in Wilmington, when she will consider Twitter's request to expedite the case and conduct a four-day trial in September.

Shares of Twitter were up about 2% to $37.11 in midday trading on Friday, but still more than 30% below the deal price.

Judges have ordered reluctant buyers to close corporate acquisitions only a handful of times, according to legal experts and court records. One of those was McCormick.

Related video: Musk mocks Twitter's legal threat after ditching deal
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Last year, McCormick got the attention of Wall Street dealmakers by ordering an affiliate of private equity firm Kohlberg & Co LLC to close its $550 million purchase of DecoPac Holding Inc, which makes cake decorating products.

She described her ruling as "chalking up a victory for deal certainty" and rejected Kohlberg's arguments that it could walk away because of a lack of financing.

The case has many parallels to the Twitter deal. Like Musk, Kohlberg said it was walking away because DecoPac violated the merger agreement. Like Musk, Kohlberg argued in part that DecoPac failed to maintain ordinary operations.

There are also differences. Musk's deal is magnitudes bigger, involves a publicly traded target company in Twitter and might have implications for Tesla Inc, the electric vehicle maker that is the source of much of Musk's fortune.

Tesla shares were trading up slightly on Friday at $718.04, down from around $1,000 when the Twitter deal was announced.

In other cases, she has come down on the side of shareholders when they clashed with management.

Last year, she prevented energy company The Williams Cos Inc from adopting a so-called poison pill anti-takeover measure, saying it breached their fiduciary duty to shareholders.

Last month, she said shareholders of Carvana Co could sue the board for a direct offering of stock to select investors when the share price was depressed during the early pandemic.

A graduate of Notre Dame Law School, McCormick started her career with the Delaware branch of the Legal Aid Society, which helps low-income people navigate the court system.

She went into private practice "mainly for financial reasons," she told the Delaware Senate during her confirmation hearing, joining Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, one of the state's main firms for business litigation.

She joined the Court of Chancery in 2018 as a vice chancellor and became the first woman to lead the Court of Chancery last year.

Despite her mild manner, Eric Talley, who specializes in corporate law at Columbia Law School, said he doubts McCormick would be cowed by Musk.

"I would not be placing my bets on Chancellor McCormick suddenly becoming weak-kneed," he said.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Hyun Joo Jin in San Francisco; editing by Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)

EDMONTON JOURNAL

Opinion: It's time to stop looking to the U.S. for health-care solutions

Kaylynn Purdy , Melanie Bechard - 

© Ed Kaiser

An ambulance waits outside the University of Alberta Hospital emergency area on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022.

Over the past year, medical leaders have called on provincial and federal governments to take immediate action to save our health system. Emergency department wait times are breaking records, surgeries are delayed or cancelled, and 15 per cent of Canadians don’t have a family physician. Our system and country cannot continue this trajectory. Our publicly funded health system desperately requires innovation and fortification to deliver care to all.

It is said in politics that no good crisis should go to waste, and there is a lot of talk that some provinces will use this an opportunity to transition to a more investor-owned health-care delivery system.

Yet, Telus Health’s Life Plus program, owned by a corporate giant, has come under review in B.C. for potentially creating a parallel privately funded system and drawing family physicians out of the publicly funded system. The purported goals of privately funded care are to reduce costs by driving competition and improving access, but it creates a slippery slope sliding towards a system that privileges those who can afford to pay.

As Canadian doctors who have studied health policy in the U.S., we can confirm that Canada’s history of equitable access based on need, not ability to pay, will be undermined by adding private-pay to the equation. It will create a mishmash of poorly functioning health-care delivery systems.

In a Lancet publication assessing 60 countries with the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index which looks at deaths that could be prevented with timely and effective health care, Canada ranked in the top 25 per cent and the U.S. ranked near the bottom half.

According to a Commonwealth Fund publication comparing 11 OECD countries, the U.S. is ranked last for affordability and it spends more on health care than any other country in the world. Fifty per cent of low-income Americans report cost-related access problems compared to 21 per cent of low-income Canadians. In Canada, this is largely driven by the inability to pay for medications, something that would change with the introduction of national pharmacare. Many European countries perform well, but they have the ability to regulate costs in many ways that Canada cannot.

The U.S. also has the highest infant mortality and lowest life expectancy of the 11 countries in the ranking. The U.S. only has four per cent of the global population but it has had 15 per cent of all deaths globally due to COVID-19. In an analysis of 26 million COVID-19 cases in the U.S., 338,000 deaths due to COVID-19 could have been avoided if all Americans had adequate health insurance.

The U.S. is not a system to copy. In fact, our medical colleagues in the U.S. are advocating tirelessly to improve their system. A privately funded system would not only likely cost Canadians more, but the health of our nation would suffer even further.

Like all nations, Canada has its flaws, but access to health care based on need, and not ability to pay, is a key Canadian value. An overwhelming number of Canadians stepped up to get vaccinated against COVID-19 to protect themselves and their communities. Over 76 per cent of Canadians were vaccinated as of December 2021 compared to 60 per cent of Americans. We care about each other. We are a collectivist society, and private-pay health care can only survive in an individualistic one.

It’s time we stop discussing privately funded health care as a solution and look to strengthen our system to work for every person living in Canada. It is time to stop looking to the U.S. for solutions and instead look to how we can maximize our existing $265 billion in health spending to strengthen our publicly funded system and shift more dollars, not less, into our universal health system.

We have room to innovate by creating a world-class health human resource plan deeply integrated into the needs of communities, funding needed health infrastructure, supporting family medicine, and having greater leadership and co-ordination between federal and provincial/territorial governments.

Let’s embrace our collective nature as Canadians and pull together and demand a better, stronger universal health system for all. It’s the most Canadian thing that we can do.

Dr. Kaylynn Purdy is a neurology resident doctor at the University of Alberta and a health policy masters student at Stanford University.

Dr. Melanie Bechard is chair, Canadian Doctors for Medicare and a paediatric emergency medicine physician.

Related video: Premiers push for health-care spending increase from Ottawa (cbc.ca)

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B.C. upholds ban on private health-care clinics, but case expected to go to Supreme Court

Sharon Kirkey , National Post - 41m ago


Vancouver surgeon Brian Day, one of the country’s most vocal promoters of private medicine, has lost another court battle to undo the laws that prevent extra billing and user charges in Canada.


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Day has fought to make the case that Canadians should be free to pay privately for medically necessary care, and that doctors should be free to charge them for it.

In a unanimous decision released Friday involving a case that goes to the core of one of the country’s most sacrosanct social programs, the British Columbia Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s dismissal of Day’s challenge of B.C.’s Medicare Protection Act, ruling that bans on extra billing and private insurance do not violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, even though people are at risk of dying while languishing on wait lists.

It’s the latest chapter in Day’s 13-year-long constitutional challenge against the B.C. government over whether private surgery clinics can charge patients for publicly insured services normally done in hospitals.

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The orthopedic surgeon co-founded Vancouver’s private Cambie Surgery Centre and a specialist referral clinic. He’s fought to make the case that Canadians should be free to pay privately for medically necessary care, and that doctors should be free to charge them for it. The British ex-patriate once described medicare as “madness,” compared Canada’s health system to a one-star airline and argues that forcing people to endure lengthy waits for needed care violates their charter right to life, liberty and security of the person. He’s also seeking legalization of “dual practice” that would allow doctors to bill both the public system and private patients.

The Canada Health Act “is a law that is literally killing Canadians,” Day told the National Post’s Tom Blackwell in a 2016 interview .

Six years later, the horror stories abound. A New Brunswick man this week said he witnessed the death of an elderly man who died in his wheelchair after waiting hours for treatment in a Fredericton emergency room. An Ontario man with a shattered femur languished on a stretcher in a hospital hallway for four days before getting surgery Thursday. The Ontario Medical Association has warned people face waits not of months, but in some cases years to get cancer screenings and surgeries. The country’s premiers warned this week the system is “crumbling” and will continue to crumble unless the federal government increases its share of health-care spending.

According to the think tank SecondStreet.org, at least 11,581 people across Canada died in 2020-21 while waiting for surgery, scans like MRI’s or an appointment with a specialist.

Day launched his lawsuit in 2009. In September 2020, after a 194-day trial, B.C. Supreme Court Justice John Steeves ruled that Day and his co-plaintiffs had failed to show that patients’ rights are being infringed by B.C.’s medicare act. Steeves said its focus is on equitable access, not ability to pay, and that the richer and healthier would benefit most from a two-tier scheme.

In its judgment released Friday, the three-justice panel said Steeves erred in his analysis of the right to life and say in their ruling that the impugned provisions infringed on some patients’ section 7 right to security of the person and their right to life.

The panel said people were waiting beyond target benchmarks for tests and surgeries for life-threatening conditions, and that some faced an increased risk of death as a result of the law.

But they found that breach can be overruled by another section of the charter that says rights can be limited if shown to be justified in a democratic society.

In written reasons, Chief Justice Robert Bauman and Justice David Harris concluded the fundamental purpose of the province’s medicare protection act is to ensure access to care for all eligible, based on need, and not a person’s ability to pay.

“The conclusion we are compelled to reach is far from a satisfactory one,” Justice Mari-Ann Fenlon lamented in a concurring decision.

“The record establishes that thousands of patients every year are waiting beyond medically acceptable times for care,” Fenlon wrote.

“We reach the decision we do in this case, constrained by the record, and recognizing that the impugned provisions are upheld at the cost of real hardship and suffering to many for whom the public system is failing to provide timely necessary care.”

“This is such a lost opportunity,” lead lawyer Peter Gall said on behalf of Day and the Cambrie Surgery Centre. “The courts had to unblock the political paralysis. Look at what’s happening in our health-care system — people are dying and suffering.”

The restrictions in B.C. are similar to a raft of laws across provinces that “try to dampen down the incentives for doctors to work in the private sector and try to keep them working in the public system,” said Colleen Flood, a law professor and research chair in health law and policy at the University of Ottawa.

Day has argued that having an “escape valve” would improve wait lists by taking people who could afford it out of the public system and into a private one, she said.

“The trouble with that is you’re also taking away physicians and labour. And all other things being equal, doctors probably would prefer to get paid more, treat easier patients, and spend more time working privately than publicly. That’s the danger,” Flood said.

“That’s why most policy people are not at all keen on two-tier health-care systems, because you’re just going to divert a system that’s already strapped for numbers — where do the nurses come from to work in these private clinics?”

She doesn’t have any doubt the case will go to the Supreme Court of Canada. “He will want his moment there.”

With evidence everywhere of increasing wait times and an overstrained system, a two-tier system “does seem like an attractive option,” said Western University bioethicist Maxwell Smith. “Clearly something pretty dramatic needs to happen. Small tweaks don’t seem to be quite doing it anymore.”

“The public universal health-care system is so sacrosanct that we have an aversion to even thinking about a two-tier system,” Smith said. “I think the conclusion ought to be that we shouldn’t go down that route, but it shouldn’t preclude us looking at other jurisdictions … there are a lot of different things we might consider.”

Wait times at airports are getting a lot of attention. “I think that the wait times we are seeing in health care are more objectionable,” Smith said.

With additional reporting from The Canadian Press