President Donald Trump's overseas visit has hit another bump after it was revealed that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was forced to order some government ministers and officials to attend a Monday reception for the American president after they threatened to boycott.
According to The Guardian, Netanyahu grew angry on Sunday when he learned of the boycott by some party heads and government officials after they learned of preconditions set forth by the White House.
Israeli officials were told that the White House had requested the reception be shortened to playing the two countries’ anthems - with Trump only shaking hands with Netanyahu.
According to reports in Israeli papers, the officials -- some of whom could defy the prime minister -- were upset at being excluded from the receiving line on the airport tarmac.
Trump will arrive from Riyadh on Air Force One just before noon at Ben Gurion airport on Monday.
The condition often only hits the headlines after violent attacks by sufferers, such as a schizophrenic patient who stabbed a nurse to death last week in the French city of Reims.
But French psychiatrist Sonia Dollfus emphasised that such cases of violence by people with schizophrenia are "extremely rare".
"All the work done over the years trying to de-stigmatise this disease -- it is swept away in 24 hours," Dollfus told AFP.
Around one in every 300 people worldwide are affected by schizophrenia, according to the World Health Organization.
It causes a wide range of distressing delusional disorders, which vary in intensity between patients but often hugely disrupts their lives.
At least five percent of schizophrenia patients are estimated to die by suicide.
The condition is usually treated with a combination of anti-psychotic drugs, social support for reintegration, and psychological therapy.
Scottish psychiatrist Robin Murray, who has spent decades researching schizophrenia, told AFP that when it came to medication, "treatment has not changed dramatically" over the last 20 or 30 years.
He added that psychological therapy had improved in that time.
But unlike numerous other mental disorders -- particularly neurotic conditions -- taking serious drugs remains the cornerstone in treating schizophrenia.
For drugs, there has been a "blank period since the 2010s, when pharmaceutical laboratories really withdrew from psychiatry," Dollfus said.
But there has been some innovation recently, she added.
One development have been apps that can track patients' progress, ensure timely follow-up sessions and contact psychiatrists if necessary.
Another is a new treatment approved by the US Food and Drug Administration last month.
The treatment, developed by the Israeli pharmaceutical firm Teva and France's MedinCell, involves the drug risperidone which has long been used for schizophrenia.
It has traditionally been prescribed as a daily pill, but the new treatment is administered via injection, allowing the drug to be gradually released in the body over several weeks.
This makes it impossible for patients to miss a daily pill.
Interruptions to medication, often brought about by the psychosis the illness causes, are a common problem in treating schizophrenia.
For example, the attacker in Reims had been off his medication, according to several sources.
This new way of administering an old medication is not the kind of revolution that a new drug would represent. But progress may soon be made in that area.
Dollfus said that some drugs currently being investigated are "really interesting" because they work in a different way than those of the past.
Traditionally, anti-psychotic drugs used to treat schizophrenia aim to block the action of dopamine, a molecule that acts as a chemical messenger in the brain.
However, dopamine seems to play a complex role in schizophrenia -- some patients can have excessive levels in some respects and insufficient levels in others.
Traditional anti-psychotic drugs, which tend to work well at stopping certain symptoms such as hallucinations, do not help in other areas, such as the loss of willpower or struggles with language and speech.
Recent research has focused on finding other molecules which regulate rather than block dopamine, while also acting on other areas thought to be involved in schizophrenia.
These treatments, such as one that targets a protein called TAAR1, are still some way away from being available to patients.
But the TAAR1 drug has had positive results from the most advanced stage of trials, known as phase 3.
"This is a really promising avenue," Dollfus said.
© 2023 AFP
Former Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), a close ally of Donald Trump, attacked Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) because he has called to repeal a bill that prevents the shackling of pregnant prisoners during childbirth.
During a Tuesday panel discussion on Newsmax, Collins argued DeSantis does not know how to differentiate himself from Trump.
Collins pointed to the FIRST STEP Act, a criminal justice reform law signed by Trump. But DeSantis has promised to repeal the bill if he is elected president.
"I know a little bit about [the law] because it was my bill in Congress that President Trump signed that was actually the first piece of true criminal justice reform that has actually lowered recidivism rates, gave our criminal justice system a boost, and made it something that is safer for our communities," Collins claimed.
"And [DeSantis] doesn't even seem to know it because he voted for it while he was in Congress," he added. "And it even had a provision it actually had where we were shackling women while they were giving birth in federal prison. I guess Ron DeSantis still thinks they need to be handcuffed while they're giving birth."
Gary Leffler, an Iowa Republican whose "Patriotic Tractor" has long been a staple of the Iowa Caucus scene, says he's now open for business when it comes to his 2020 presidential endorsement.
In an interview with the Washington Post, Leffler said that he's keeping his options open for the 2024 primary, although he was a staunch Trump supporter before.
However, there is only one factor that will determine which candidate gets the coveted backing of him and his "Patriotic Tractor": Whoever hands over more cold, hard cash.
The Post reports that Leffler has gone to both the Trump campaign and that of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to ask them about the possibility of paying for his endorsement, but so far he hasn't reached a deal with either one.
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"We don’t really look at it as a bidding war as much as my wife and I are praying and want to make sure we would feel comfortable in the direction,” Leffler told the Post. “We want to retire... We’ve been very upfront with both campaigns: we’re not doing it for free.”
The Iowa caucuses are a crucial early battle for Republican candidates, although winning them is not predictive of winning the nomination overall, as past winners of the caucuses have included Mike Huckabee and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), neither of whom went on to be nominated for the presidency.
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