Surgeons Achieve ‘Groundbreaking’ Pig-to-Human Kidney Transplant
A gene-editing tool has enhanced pig-to-human kidney compatibility, signaling major advances for patients with terminal health conditions.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital have reached a medical milestone by transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62-year-old man who was suffering from advanced renal failure.
The four-hour procedure performed on March 16 marks a pivotal advancement in providing viable organs for patients in dire need.
The kidney came from a biotech firm specializing in human-compatible engineered organs. Leveraging CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, scholars modified the pig’s genes, eliminating three of them involved in producing carbohydrates targeted by the human immune system.
Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens and Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, jointly won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the CRISPR/Cas9 method for genome editing.
Moreover, seven human genes were introduced into the organs to prevent immune-related complications that could lead to rejection. Additionally, snippets of viral DNA known as endogenous retroviruses, which pose risks to humans, were deactivated within the pigs’ genomes.
Before the transplant, the recipient, identified as Rick Slayman, underwent two antibody-based treatments and received immune-suppressing medications to stave off organ rejection.
Leonardo V. Riella, the medical director for kidney transplantation and a Harold and Ellen Danser associate professor of surgery at HMS, expressed optimism for the medical procedure’s fate, envisioning a future where dialysis becomes obsolete.
“At MGH alone, there are over 1,400 patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Some of these patients will unfortunately die or get too sick to be transplanted due to the long waiting time on dialysis. I am firmly convinced that xenotransplantation represents a promising solution to the organ shortage crisis,” Riella noted.
The patient, afflicted with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, had been on dialysis for seven years before undergoing a human kidney transplant in December 2018. However, the transplanted organ exhibited signs of failure five years later, prompting a return to dialysis in May 2023, accompanied by severe complications necessitating frequent hospital visits.
“I have been a Mass General Transplant Center patient for 11 years and have the highest level of trust in the doctors, nurses, and clinical staff who have cared for me,” Slayman said in a statement.
Slayman stated that when his transplanted kidney started failing in 2023, he once again placed his trust in the care team at MGH to fulfill their objectives of not only enhancing their quality of life but also prolonging it.
His nephrologist, Dr. Winfred Williams, and the team at the Transplant Center, proposed a pig kidney transplant, thoroughly discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this procedure with him.
While not the first ever pig-to-human kidney transplant, this achievement builds on past endeavors, with previous attempts conducted on brain-dead individuals sustained by life support. The most recent such transplant, performed by Robert Montgomery at NYU Langone Health in July 2023, saw the kidney function for over a month without rejection or infection.
This medical feat follows a line of successes from the first human organ transplant in 1954 to the nation’s initial penile transplant in 2016.
With over 100,000 Americans awaiting organ transplants and 17 dying daily due to organ shortages, urgent solutions are imperative, particularly amid projections of escalating terminal kidney disease cases in the US from 29 to 68 percent.
“The continued success of this groundbreaking kidney transplant represents a true milestone in the field of transplantation. It also represents a potential breakthrough in solving one of the more intractable problems in our field, that being unequal access for ethnic minority patients to the opportunity for kidney transplants due to the extreme donor organ shortage and other system-based barriers,” said nephrologist Winfred Williams, associate professor of medicine at HMS.
Pope Says Not Taking The Covid Vaccine is an Act of Suicide, Refuses To Condemn Transhumanism mRNA Vaccine Tech
From the very beginning of the covid-19 scandal, Pope Francis made it clear that he is a virtue-signaling coward who worships every decree of propaganda put forth by the World Economic Forum, (WEF) the World Health Organization, (WHO) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. At the height of the propaganda, Francis promoted lockdowns, mandates, social distancing restrictions and ultimately vaccine passports. His fervent belief in this vaccine savior was so strong; he shut down church services, threatened the rights of individuals and demanded conformity to this newfound religion.
Four years later, Pope Francis continues to push dangerous covid-19 vaccines
Four years into the covid-19 scandal, Pope Francis won’t relinquish his pride and continues to mock “anti-vaxxers.” In a newly released memoir, Pope Francis was interviewed by journalist Fabio Marchese Ragona. In the interview, Francis said that opposition to the COVID-19 vaccines “distressed” him. He claimed that “being against the antidote is an almost suicidal act of denial.”
“Deciding whether to get vaccinated is always an ethical choice, but I know that many people signed up to movements opposed to the administration of the medication. This distressed me because in my view, being against the antidote is an almost suicidal act of denial,” Francis said, according to the LifeSiteNews.
According to Francis, the people living in fear are those that didn’t take the vaccine. He claims “a generalized fear was created when superficial explanations of how the vaccines worked spoke of injections of the virus into the body.”
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Meanwhile, Francis continues to visibly live in a state of fear and subservience, having turned the Catholic Church into a shell of its former self, while deriding all of his dignity in the process. Remarkably, he is doubling down and spewing untruths about a failed vaccine program that he is bound to, in a cycle of constant boosters and mental abuse. Moreover, the Pope continues to fuddle about in this miserable existence, while promoting the chicanery to the public, as if it is doctrine.
Vatican uses vaccine passports to threaten unvaccinated individuals
The Vatican’s abuse continued into April of 2022, even after the covid-19 vaccine and multiple boosters had been unlawfully mandated onto the population, harming untold numbers of people and upending countless lives: “Despite a steady lifting of COVID-19 restrictions worldwide and the elimination of all rules in some countries, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, has ordered that the Vatican’s tight controls will continue,” the National Catholic Register wrote in April 2022.
Using fear, control and condemnation, Pope Francis has used his sacrilegious pulpit to promote the biosecurity state, the transhuman agenda and the abolition of human rights, while ignoring mass vaccine injury and medical malpractice. Emboldened by false virtue, Francis promoted the concept of “loving one’s neighbor” as a way to coerce more people to submit to the religion of vaccination. Today, visitors to the Vatican Museums, the Vatican Gardens, the papal villas and the Apostolic Palace at Castel Gandolfo must show a Green Pass in order to enter. The Green Pass is a digital certificate verifying that the individual is fully-vaccinated with an additional booster shot. Individuals who do not furnish a Green Pass must submit to a fraudulent covid-19 PCR test to verify that they are negative for covid-19.
Anyone who fails to obtain a “Super Green Pass” is considered an “unjustified absence” and their pay is suspended. Moreover, Francis requires FFP2 and N95 masks in all enclosed spaces on Vatican territory, and he does not permit religious exemption to vaccination or masks. Those who oppose the medical tyranny and mental illness at the Vatican must seek out a medical exemption, and those are granted on a case-by-case basis.
In the interview, Francis called the COVID-related lockdowns a “grim scenario” that only “began to change with the arrival of the first vaccines.” Foolishly, Francis participated in those “grim scenario” lockdowns at the Vatican. He enforced the mental illness and medical tyranny. He went along with every insidious decree, donning ridiculous coverings all over his head and forcing others to do the same. He failed to speak out for medical and religious freedom and for proper treatment of the sick. He had no discernment and played right into the hand of globalists who exploited populations and injured millions, as they were served up into the clutches of a false savior.
Which Global Brands Are Most Associated With Ramadan?
Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting, prayer, reflection, and community.
And despite it being first and foremost a spiritual period, business activity in certain sectors – food, retail, and entertainment – tends to rise in Muslim-majority countries.
As a result, some global brands have begun to see this period as an opportunity to market their identity, leaning in on the theme of connection and community.
TGM Research conducted a survey in 2023, asking 9,672 respondents in 15 countries a variety of questions. One of them included:
Which brands come to mind first when thinking of Ramadan?
Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu visualizes their responses in the graphic above and delve into a little bit of detail below.
Ranked: Global Brands Associated With Ramadan
Coca-Cola leads the lists with 8.1% of those surveyed picking the beverage giant as the brand they most associate with Ramadan.
In case this comes as a surprise, Coca-Cola has launched numerous ad campaigns for Ramadan in previous years, focusing on spreading happiness and kindness, drawing upon the power of human connection to create a positive image of the brand.
In second place is the Marjan Group, a producer of water tanks and filtration systems, with about half (4.3%) of Coke’s presence.
At third, is another beverage company, Vimto, founded in 1908 in the United Kingdom. In 1927 Vimto introduced its cordial to the Middle East, which has become a key part of breaking fasts during the holy month.
Saudi Arabian multinational dairy company, Almarai was picked fourth by 3.5% of the respondents, and after it, comes three global brands—Nestle, Pepsi, Nike—all sitting at 3.2%.
Aside from several ad campaigns, Nike launched a special-edition sneaker named “dusk to dawn” in 2018, a nod to how Ramadan observers went about their day while fasting.
The shoe was created in collaboration with Lebanese artist, Ali Chaaban, who aimed to “create a new essence to running in the Arab world.”
Nike has also created several campaigns featuring Muslim athletes, including Zahra Lari, an Emirati figure skater who was the first woman to compete internationally while wearing a hijab.
France Raises Terrorism Threat Level
France has raised the terrorism alert level across the country following an attack on a packed music venue in Russia, which left 137 people dead.
On Friday, four men opened fire inside Crocus City Hall outside Moscow and set the building ablaze. All of the terrorists were later detained while attempting to flee by car in the direction of the Ukrainian border, according to President Vladimir Putin.
The jihadist group Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISIS-K) claimed responsibility for the massacre. Moscow has so far not confirmed the group’s involvement.
“Following the attack in Moscow, the French president has convened a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council this evening,” French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal wrote on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.
Read more Russia mourns concert hall terror victims
“In light of the Islamic State’s claim that it was responsible for the attack, and the threats looming over our country, we have decided to raise the Vigipirate plan to the highest level,” the prime minister added.
France has been living under reinforced security measures since a wave of terrorist attacks in January 2015, when a group of Islamists killed 17 people in Paris and its suburbs. The government responded by enacting Operation Sentinel, which saw the deployment of armed soldiers to patrol the capital. In November of that year, France saw its deadliest Islamist attacks in recent memory, when suicide bombers and gunmen killed 130 people in Paris.
China Blocks Use of Intel, AMD Chips in Government Computers
After the US took several steps to prevent Chinese companies from acquiring both the latest Nvidia AI chips as well as Europe’s semiconductor titan ASML from sending its advanced chipmaking machines to Beijing (which resulted in a one-time flood of Chinese orders into both ASML and NVDA ahead of the sales ban which the market assumed was a recurring thing and priced out Nvidia revenue growth ridiculous higher compared to where it will end up being), China has retaliated by introducing new guidelines that will mean US chips from Intel and AMD are phased out of government PCs and servers, as Beijing ramps up a campaign to replace foreign technology with homegrown solutions, the FT reported.
This escalation in the chip war between the two superpowers in the form of stricter government procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, and runs alongside a parallel localization drive under way in state-owned enterprises.
According to the FT, the latest purchasing rules “represent China’s most significant step yet to build up domestic substitutes for foreign technology and echo moves in the US as tensions increase between the two countries.” In the past year, Washington has imposed sanctions on a growing number of Chinese companies on national security grounds, legislated to encourage more tech to be produced in the US and blocked exports of advanced chips and related tools to China.
Chinese officials have begun following the new PC, laptop and server guidelines this year, after they were unveiled with little fanfare by the finance ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on December 26. They order government agencies and party organs above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases.
On the same day in December, the state testing agency, China Information Technology Security Evaluation Center, published its first list of “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems, all from Chinese companies.
Among the 18 approved processors were chips from Huawei and state-backed group Phytium. Both are on Washington’s export blacklist. Chinese processor makers are using a mixture of chip architectures including Intel’s x86, Arm and homegrown ones, while operating systems are derived from open-source Linux software.
The standards “are the first nationwide, detailed and clear instructions for the promotion of xinchuang”, said a local government official managing IT system substitution.
Beijing’s procurement revamp is part of a national strategy for technological independence in the military, government and state sectors that has become known as xinchuang or “IT application innovation”. State-owned enterprises were similarly told by their overseer, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, to complete a technology transition to domestic providers by 2027, according to two people briefed on the matter. Since last year, state groups have begun quarterly reporting on their progress in revamping their IT systems, though some foreign technology would be allowed to remain, the people said.
The creeping ban on US-made hardware and software means that US companies in China will be dented, starting with the world’s dominant PC processor makers, Intel and AMD. China was Intel’s largest market last year, providing 27% of its $54bn in sales and 15% of AMD’s $23bn in sales. Microsoft does not break out China sales but president Brad Smith last year told the US Congress that the country provided 1.5% of revenues.
It may be difficult for Intel or AMD ever to make the list of approved processors. To be evaluated, companies must submit their products’ complete R&D documentation and code. The top criteria for evaluation is the level of design, development and production completed within China, according to a notice from the state testing agency.
Then again, like most regulations in China, this one too is meant to be broken. As the FT reveals after speaking with two provincal-level procurement officials, some leeway remained to buy computers with foreign processors and Microsoft Windows. But the transition is certainly in place: Lao Zhangcheng, in charge of purchasing 16 fully Chinese computers for an organization under the Shaoxing city transport bureau, said his colleagues had no choice but to get used to domestic operating systems.
“We are replacing old computers that have foreign chips,” Lao said. “After this purchase, basically everyone in the office will have a domestic computer. The old computers we have left with Windows systems can still be used under certain situations.”
Lin Qingyuan, a chip expert at research group Bernstein, said substitution would progress faster for server processors than for PCs because of the more limited software ecosystem in need of replacement. He expected xinchuang servers to account for 23 per cent of total China server shipments in 2026.
“The purchasing guidance has made the xinchuang policy more actionable for officials,” he added.
Analysts at Zheshang Securities estimate China will need to invest Rmb660bn ($91bn) from 2023 to 2027 to replace the IT infrastructure in government, party organs and eight major industries.
Ukraine Likely Had Prior Knowledge of Moscow Terrorist Threat
A group of gunmen opened fire at a concert venue in Moscow on the evening of March 22, killing over 100 people and setting fire to the building.
Eleven suspects have been detained by Russian security services in relation to the terrorist attack, including the four suspected perpetrators who were apprehended as they were trying to flee the country across the border with Ukraine.
During an interview with Sputnik, political and military analyst Sergey Poletaev pointed out that the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officially announced that the suspected terrorists had contacts in Ukraine.
According to Poletaev, even if the reports about the perpetrators being Tajikistani citizens are true, the attack in Moscow could have been masterminded either by some kind of Islamist terrorist organization that has ties with Ukraine, or even by Ukraine directly.
In any case, he noted, it appears that the Ukrainian leadership had prior knowledge of this act of terror, “which makes them accomplices, at the very least.”
Poletaev also argued that while the attack was likely planned by professionals, it does not necessarily mean that the perpetrators were equally skilled, with the analyst observing how high school students sometimes kill dozens of people during shooting sprees.
Commenting on the attempts by both Washington and Kiev to hastily deny Ukraine’s trace in this terrorist attack, Poletaev suggested that the West is going to insist that ISIS* alone was responsible.
Thus, he postulated, there will be two narratives – the Russian and the Western – and it all comes down to whose side the “global majority” is going to take.
“It is in our best interests to collate a convincing body of evidence for our case. It would greatly help us with diplomacy,” Poletaev remarked. “We’re talking about the ‘third countries,’ of course, as the West will most likely dismiss any talk of Ukraine’s involvement.”
Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a political analyst and professor at Tehran University, also found it curious that, even when “no real details” about the attack were known, the United States started insisting that Ukraine was not involved.
“It is also very strange that the United States was able to give such a detailed travel advisory or warning about a terror attack naming concerts and giving specifics about an attack in Moscow and large gatherings and all that [previous to the attack],” he added. “So, they have all these specific details, but they were unable to give anything specific to the Russians. This all makes one think that something is very wrong.”
Referring to claims about ISIS being responsible for the attack, Marandi argued that this theory does not necessarily rule out “cooperation between Ukraine and ISIS or the potential role of the United States.”
“The very fact that the United States, from the start, said that Ukraine wasn’t involved and the very fact that they gave such a detailed warning to their citizens is raising serious questions. But ISIS and the Ukrainian regime both have very strong connections with the West,” he elaborated. “ISIS has cooperated with NATO countries, it has cooperated with Israel, and it has cooperated with other American allies in Syria for years. And Ukraine is also deeply dependent on NATO countries.”
Marandi also pointed out that ISIS “has always been focused on the enemies of the United States” whereas the terrorist organization’s attacks on NATO countries or the Middle Eastern powers aligned with the West have been “very rare.”
ISIS (also known as ISIL/IS/Islamic State) is a terrorist group outlawed in Russia and many other countries.