Mangione

Mangione federal trial over CEO murder delayed to January

  • The federal trial originally scheduled for September was delayed on Wednesday until October, and has now been pushed to January 25, 2027.
  • The federal trial of Luigi Mangione in the killing of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been delayed further to January 2027, according to court documents filed on Thursday.
  • The federal trial originally scheduled for September was delayed on Wednesday until October, and has now been pushed to January 25, 2027.
The federal trial of Luigi Mangione in the killing of healthcare CEO Brian Thompson has been delayed further to January 2027, according to court documents filed on Thursday.
The December 2024 shooting outside of a New York City hotel, captured on security cameras, shocked Americans while highlighting deep public anger over the country's private, often costly, healthcare system.
Mangione, 27, faces charges in both federal and New York state courts.
Both trials were delayed on Wednesday. The state trial, originally scheduled for June, was postponed until September. 
The federal trial originally scheduled for September was delayed on Wednesday until October, and has now been pushed to January 25, 2027.
Mangione's lawyers requested the delays because they argued the tight turnaround would make it impossible to prepare adequately for both.
The scheduling order filed on Thursday by US Judge Margaret Garnett said the decision was made "in light of the... decision in the defendant's state court case to adjourn the state trial to September 8, 2026." 
Defendants in the United States can be tried at both the state and federal level for the same crime, although the charges tend to differ -- as they do for Mangione. 
In New York court, Mangione is charged with murder. In federal court, he is charged with interstate stalking.
Mangione has denied all charges.
If convicted in either court he faces life imprisonment without parole.
Mangione was arrested five days after the shooting, at a McDonald's in the state of Pennsylvania -- some 230 miles (370 kilometers) from the crime scene.
pnb/mjf/mlm

Health

Armenia's underground salt clinic at centre of alternative medicine debate

BY MARIAM HARUTYUNYAN

  • At the bottom of the Avan salt mine, a dim tunnel carved from grey rock salt leads to the Soviet-era centre.
  • A mining cage drops deep beneath the Armenian capital, carrying asthma patients in helmets down into a salt cave clinic -- an alternative treatment centre whose future is now at risk.
  • At the bottom of the Avan salt mine, a dim tunnel carved from grey rock salt leads to the Soviet-era centre.
A mining cage drops deep beneath the Armenian capital, carrying asthma patients in helmets down into a salt cave clinic -- an alternative treatment centre whose future is now at risk.
State funding for the speleotherapy centre in the Avan salt mine was recently cut as the small Caucasus nation rolls out a new universal healthcare system that does not cover alternative medicine.
The fate of the facility is a snapshot of a global debate over the effectiveness and role of alternative treatments in modern healthcare, a particularly pressing issue in developing countries.
Speleotherapy -- where patients spend several hours a day in caves breathing mineral-rich underground air believed to reduce respiratory irritation -- has been practised for decades in parts of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.
At the bottom of the Avan salt mine, a dim tunnel carved from grey rock salt leads to the Soviet-era centre.
"We are 235 metres (770 feet) underground, and yet this is a hospital," doctor Anush Voskanyan said as she guided visitors into a vast chamber illuminated by rows of electric lamps.
Opened in 1987 inside a former mine, the centre spans about 4,000 square metres of tunnels converted into treatment and recreation areas. For decades, patients received therapy for free under the state's healthcare programme.
But in 2019, Armenia's health ministry stopped financing the clinic, arguing that speleotherapy does not meet evidence-based medical standards required for public funding.
Annual patient numbers dropped from more than 300 to around 50.
"We struggle to pay salaries and cannot renew equipment that has not been replaced since opening," clinic director Gurgen Hakobyan told AFP, saying its future was "uncertain."

Global strategy

Globally, supporters of traditional or complementary remedies say they have been overlooked by Western medicine.
The World Health Organisation's members have called for a global effort to build a solid evidence base, regulate practitioners and integrate treatments that are proven safe and effective.
Supporters of speleotherapy say the cave environment, free from dust and allergens and with a constant temperature of around 19-20C, helps ease symptoms of asthma and allergies.
Voskanyan, the doctor, said she had seen children make full recoveries after treatment.
But the scientific evidence remains limited.
"Since 1985, only two dissertations have been written on the subject," said Lamara Manukyan, chair of the Armenian Association of Internal Medicine. 
"We lack statistics and large-scale research."
She said speleotherapy "helps conventional medicine ease a patient's condition" and should be considered a "complementary therapy rather than a standalone treatment."

'Salvation'

Armenia's health ministry said its decision to stop the clinic's funding reflects broader healthcare priorities as the country transitions toward universal medical insurance.
"At this stage, priority is given to diseases with high mortality rates such as cancer and cardiovascular illnesses," ministry spokeswoman Mariam Tsatryan told AFP. 
"Alternative and wellness treatments cannot be included in insurance coverage."
Many of the centre's patients -- and its doctors -- lament the decision to strip funding.
Armen Stepanyan, a 63-year-old engineer from Russia's Siberian city of Kemerovo, has travelled to Yerevan annually for more than a decade after developing severe asthma.
"I tried everything -- sanatoriums, treatments -- nothing helped," he said. "Here I felt improvement after the first course."
Supporters argue the centre's significance extends beyond medicine. 
Manukyan, the chair of the internal medicine association, described it as part of Armenia's tradition of natural therapies, including mineral springs and spa resorts.
"There is no reason to dismantle an existing structure and lose a valuable tradition."
The government, which holds a stake in the centre, is trying to privatise its shares, raising hopes that private investment could preserve or repurpose it as a research or medical tourism centre.
"It would be really sad if the clinic had to shut down because it simply ran out of funding," said Stepanyan, the patient.
"I realised this was my salvation. This is the only place where I see real results."
mkh-im/jc/gv

LGBTQ

US Supreme Court rules against ban on 'conversion therapy' for LGBTQ minors

  • But in a 8-1 decision, the court ruled in favor of Kaley Chiles, a licensed mental health counselor who invoked her Christian faith and challenged the law, arguing that it violated her First Amendment right of free speech.
  • The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against a Colorado state law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ minors, siding with a Christian therapist who challenged it on the grounds of free speech.
  • But in a 8-1 decision, the court ruled in favor of Kaley Chiles, a licensed mental health counselor who invoked her Christian faith and challenged the law, arguing that it violated her First Amendment right of free speech.
The US Supreme Court ruled Tuesday against a Colorado state law banning "conversion therapy" for LGBTQ minors, siding with a Christian therapist who challenged it on the grounds of free speech.
At issue is the constitutionality of a 2019 Colorado law that prohibits licensed practitioners from conducting "conversion therapy" on patients under 18.
Proponents of the treatment claim to change the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people.
The therapy has been discredited by major medical organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association, and is banned in more than 20 US states and much of Europe.
Research has shown that it is ineffective and even harmful, leading to depression and suicidal thoughts.
But in a 8-1 decision, the court ruled in favor of Kaley Chiles, a licensed mental health counselor who invoked her Christian faith and challenged the law, arguing that it violated her First Amendment right of free speech.
"Colorado's law addressing conversion therapy does not just ban physical interventions. In cases like this, it censors speech based on viewpoint," wrote conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch in the decision on behalf of the majority of the Court.
"As applied to Ms. Chiles, Colorado’s law regulates the content of her speech and goes further to prescribe what views she may and may not express, discriminating on the basis of viewpoint," he argued.
The First Amendment, Gorsuch wrote, is a "shield against any effort to enforce orthodoxy in thought or speech in this country."
As a result, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts to review their decisions in light of this ruling.

'Can of worms'

Only the liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson expressed dissent, accusing her colleagues of opening "a dangerous can of worms" by undermining states' ability to regulate medical practices that "risks grave harm to Americans' health and wellbeing."
"The Constitution does not pose a barrier to reasonable regulation of harmful medical treatments just because substandard care comes via speech instead of scalpel," she wrote.
Chiles' lawyer, James Campbell, of the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, hailed the ruling in a statement as "a significant win for free speech, common sense, and families desperate to help their children."
But Equality California, an LGBTQ civil rights organization, condemned the ruling, saying in a statement, "The Supreme Court is moving our country backward and into dangerously uncharted territory."
Children who have undergone conversion therapy "were taught to feel shame and self-hatred. Survivors continue to suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. As one survivor put it, conversion therapy came close to killing me," the statement said.
The group also warned that the ruling could have a "far broader" impact if "extended to vaccines, psychiatric medicine, and abortion and contraception."
After taking office for his second term in January, President Donald Trump said the US government would only recognize two genders -- male and female -- and signed an executive order restricting gender transition medical procedures for people under the age of 19.
In June, the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold a Tennessee state law banning hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender transition surgery for minors.
Conversion therapies are banned, at least partially, in many countries, with the support of health organizations such as the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Great Britain. 
The UN has called for a global ban, describing them as discriminatory, humiliating and a violation of individuals' bodily integrity.
sst/ube/mjf/bgs

US

In Beirut's largest stadium, displaced people with disabilities face 'ordeal'

BY MARGAUX BERGEY

  • More than a million people have been displaced and Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,200 people, including 124 children, Lebanese authorities say.
  • In the stands of Beirut's largest stadium, it is the shouts of children displaced by war that echo, not the songs of fans. 
  • More than a million people have been displaced and Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,200 people, including 124 children, Lebanese authorities say.
In the stands of Beirut's largest stadium, it is the shouts of children displaced by war that echo, not the songs of fans. 
Beneath the concrete steps, more than a thousand people fleeing Israeli bombs on Lebanon sleep in tents, including around 50 wheelchair users and people with other mobility challenges. 
The vast sports complex is one of the few shelters able to take in people with disabilities, despite being poorly adapted to their needs. 
"If there's a strike, the people around me could run away and leave me behind; I can't get up and move if no one helps me," said 62-year-old Fatima Nazli, who uses a wheelchair. 
The state has not put in place any strategy to evacuate people with disabilities, said Sylvana Lakkis, head of the Lebanese Union for People with Physical Disabilities. 
"We submitted a policy and proposal" to the government, but "they never listened", she told AFP. 
"Every time there is a crisis, we, people with disabilities pay the price." 
Nazli and her husband had to leave their apartment in Beirut's southern suburbs, an area that has been struck repeatedly by Israel since Lebanon was pulled into the Middle East war on March 2. 
They are living in a tent in a section of the stadium where she is forced to ask Red Cross volunteers for help to get down the flight of steps leading to the only bathrooms she can access. 
– 'Living in constant fear' –
The couple expects to move to another section of the stadium, where two access ramps and four accessible toilets were recently installed. 
In the meantime, Nazli and her husband, Abu Ali, who did not wish to give his full name, go back to their apartment from time to time to take a shower and pick up clean clothes, gripped by fear because the neighbourhood "could be bombed at any moment" by the Israeli air force.
The Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium, on the edge of Beirut's southern suburbs, has witnessed the twists and turns of Lebanon's troubled history. 
Destroyed by bombing during the Israeli invasion in 1982 and rebuilt after the end of the civil war in 1990, it has fallen into disrepair due to a lack of funds for its upkeep.
Football legend Pele once trod its turf, and international sporting competitions have been held there. 
But the stadium has also served as a warehouse for food supplies, and Hezbollah held the lavish funeral there for its former leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed by Israel in September 2024. 
– 'An ordeal' –
"This place was not built to be lived in," said stadium director Naji Hammoud, who opened its doors "the next day" after the first evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli army in the southern suburbs in early March.
More than a million people have been displaced and Israeli strikes have killed more than 1,200 people, including 124 children, Lebanese authorities say.
Many displaced people are sleeping on the streets of the capital or in their cars, and Hammoud said he wants the facility to take in "as many as possible".
Around the tents, workers are busy renovating the unsanitary restrooms, installing showers and connecting them to the water supply, and hooking up electricity.
"I can't wash myself on my own, I need help," said Khodr Salem, a shopkeeper from the south of the country, who has difficulty walking and uses a crutch because of an infection in his leg. 
"We lived like kings in our homes. Our life has become an ordeal," the old man said through tears, sitting on a mattress in his tent. 
For Lakkis, Lebanon doesn't have enough accessible shelters: the few schools able to receive people with disabilities fill up quickly.
She called on authorities "to make at least one inclusive shelter in each district".
Lacking options, many displaced people therefore have to find relatives who can host them or pay exorbitant rents to landlords, explained Fadi Al-Halabi, executive director in Lebanon of the Ecumenical Disability Advocates Network. 
"The international community must take into account the needs of people with disabilities" and allocate a share of the international aid budget to them, he said. 
vid-mby/ris/lg/ser

US

In Israel, air raid sirens spark anxiety and dilemmas

BY ANOUK RIONDET AND ALICE CHANCELLOR

  • So sometimes instead of going down, we have to stand outside," said her mother, Veena Azmanov, who noted that the noise inside the shelter, combined with the wail of sirens and boom of missile interceptions, can elevate stress.
  • Acutely sensitive to noise because of childhood trauma, Nili stresses when air raid sirens send her into a crowded shelter where her own "internal war" overlaps with the one raging outside.
  • So sometimes instead of going down, we have to stand outside," said her mother, Veena Azmanov, who noted that the noise inside the shelter, combined with the wail of sirens and boom of missile interceptions, can elevate stress.
Acutely sensitive to noise because of childhood trauma, Nili stresses when air raid sirens send her into a crowded shelter where her own "internal war" overlaps with the one raging outside.
The experience of Nili, whose name has been changed for this article, highlights the particular vulnerability of people with mental health conditions when dealing with the Middle East war, triggered on February 28 by US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
With every siren warning, the same anguish returns for the 21-year-old, who has spent nine months at the Shalvata Mental Health Centre in the central town of Hod HaSharon, run by Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit Health Services.
"It's unpleasant and unfamiliar to be in a relatively small room with many people you don't know, men and women together, usually quite crowded," she told AFP during a visit to the centre.
"We're in Israel, and there's a war outside. But there are also people who have been dealing with their own internal war for many years," she added.
The anxiety of war is also something felt acutely by Israelis living with disabilities, who number about 1.32 million people, or around 13 percent of the population, according to a 2025 report by the Central Bureau of Statistics.
For 16-year-old Rhea Azmanov, who has a cognitive disability, the uncertainty creates layers of additional challenges.
"All kids with disabilities really need routine" to give them a sense of stability and certainty, her father, Ziv Azmanov, told AFP.
"So when there is no normal routine, as in the current circumstances, it creates with her a lot of stress and anxiety."
The Azmanov family does not have a "mamad" or reinforced room in their apartment in the central city of Raanana, and must use their building's shelter each time a siren sounds the warning of incoming missiles.
"She's very uncomfortable. She hates crowded places. So sometimes instead of going down, we have to stand outside," said her mother, Veena Azmanov, who noted that the noise inside the shelter, combined with the wail of sirens and boom of missile interceptions, can elevate stress.
And for people with reduced mobility, accessibility challenges become more extreme during wartime "because everything is more accelerated", said Yoav Braver, who heads training at Beit Issie Shapiro, one of Israel's leading centres for people with disabilities.
Braver said that public information mapping accessible shelters was hard to come by, and even people with mamads in their homes could struggle to get there in the 90-second window afforded by the longest air raid warnings.
Caregivers often shoulder a particularly heavy burden during wartime, Braver said, adding that Beit Issie Shapiro had set up a hotline offering advice for professionals or family members.  
"Burnout is a main issue that we deal with in times of war," he said.

'Ethical dilemmas'

For medical staff caring for psychiatric patients such as Nili, and those with more severe conditions like schizophrenia and personality disorders, seemingly impossible choices can surface between ensuring their own safety or staying with the most vulnerable.
Merav Agsham, head nurse of the psychiatric unit at Shalvata, described these as daily "ethical dilemmas" when the sirens sound.
"Come out, please," she recently begged a patient having a psychotic episode, as he was taking a shower and refused to head for the shelter.
"Eventually I went down without him," the 38-year-old mother told AFP, but recalled she had a lump in her throat.
"If something will happen, how can I live with that? They're my responsibility," she said.
Agsham said that sometimes patients refused to take shelter by insisting that there was no danger and nothing would happen to them.
Other times, patients would argue "I don't mind if the missile will come down on me, and I will die. I want to die."
At night everything becomes more complicated, said the centre's director Shlomo Mendlovic. 
Medicated patients sleep deeply and are hard to wake, while others are restrained to prevent violence.
Mendlovic said staff must find their own balance between respecting the patients' autonomy, choosing to stay with those under their care, or ensuring their own safety. 
"I would prefer that everyone will go to the shelter," he said, but added he was proud to see the dedication of staff who chose to stay with patients.
Uri Nitzan, director of the depression and crisis intervention ward at Shalvata, said the centre prioritised dialogue, encouragement and support. 
"In moments of crisis, you can feel that... there is a good relationship," he said.
anr-acc/jd/srm