Friday, March 4, 2022

Ukraine conflict: Who's in Putin's inner circle and running the war?

By Paul Kirby
BBC News

Published
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Russia's President Vladimir Putin holds a meeting of the Russian Security Council at Moscow's KremlinIMAGE SOURCE, RUSSIAN PRESIDENCY
Image caption, 
In the days before the invasion, Russian TV broadcast a session of President Putin's 30-member security council

Vladimir Putin cuts a solitary figure, leading Russia's military into a high-risk war that threatens to tear apart his country's economy.

He has rarely looked more isolated than in two recent, choreographed appearances with his inner circle, where he sits at a resolute distance from his closest advisers. 

As commander in chief, ultimate responsibility for the invasion rests with him, but he has always relied on a deeply loyal entourage, many of whom also began their careers in Russia's security services. The question is who has his ear, during this most fateful moment in his presidency?

Wednesday, March 2, 2022










 

Hello Gentle People around the world!

Here is what I have learned so far from the BBC and other sources:

1.  Hundreds of Ukrainian citizens have been killed by Russian shelling. Large apartment blocks have been destroyed. Government buildings are now filled with holes.

2. To justify his ordering this attack Vladimir Putin claims the Ukrainian government is filled with Nazis. Putin is providing fake news to his own citizens utilizing his government controlled media channels. 

3. Thousands of Russian tanks have entered the Ukrain and they continue to face stiff resistance from Ukrainian fighters. It is a bitter struggle and from watching these kind of wars from the past, I  believe the Russian tanks will dominate temporarily, only to face years of street fighting and resistance. Eventually, after much death and destruction and poverty in both the Ukraine and in the Russian homeland, the force will be pulled out of the Ukrain and the Russian people will finally realize it was Putin who acted like Adolph Hitler. 

4. Countries from around the World are imposing sanctions on Russia. Even if Russia destroys and dominates the Ukrain,  Russian citizens will suffer extreme poverty for years into the future and it will be the fault of Vladimir Putin. Nobody is blaming Russian citizens.

Kherson mayor appears to suggest city has fallen.

The mayor of Kherson has appeared to suggest that the southern Ukrainian city has fallen to Russian forces. 

In a message posted to Facebook on Wednesday, Igor Kolykhaev wrote that "there were armed visitors in the city council today" and that he had told the troops "we don't have Ukrainian Armed Forces in the city, only civilians and people who want to LIVE here!". 

Kolykhaev wrote that Moscow's forces have imposed a curfew from 20:00 to 06:00 local time (22:00 - 08:00 GMT), and said cars with food, medicines and some other supplies will be allowed to enter the city. 

He added that cars within the city must drive at "minimum" speed and pedestrians are banned from moving in groups of more than two people. 

"So far this is how it is. Ukrainian flag above us. And to keep it the same, these requirements must be met. I have nothing else to offer yet", Kolykhaev said. 

The BBC cannot independently verify this statement and earlier today US defence officials said that Kherson "remains very much a contested city". 


Monday, February 21, 2022

The following Two year old article explains the facts about Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin who is the current dictator of Russia. Putin is not a President as he claims but he is an active and dangerous dictator along the lines of Stalin and Hitler. He is currently attacking the Ukrain with the full intent of annexing it back to Russia. He scorns the United Nations International treaty forbidding one country from attacking another. He is intent on rebuilding the old Soviet Empire which lasted until 1991 when, on that date, the people of the Ukrainian voted to regain their independence and leave the suffocating influence of the old Soviet Union.      N,J.R .

Hanna Kozlowska
By Hanna Kozlowska

Investigative reporter

Published This article is more than 2 years old.

Many key figures—including president Barack Obama, members of the Electoral College, and senate majority leader Mitch McConnell—have voiced concerns about Russia’s hacking campaign during the US election and its ties to the incoming administration. But leave it to Arizona senator and longtime Kremlin critic John McCain to bluntly explain why the United States should be worried.

“Vladimir Putin is a thug and a murderer and a killer and a KGB agent,” McCain said on CBS’s “Face of the Nation” on Dec. 11. Speaking two days later about Rex Tillerson, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, who received the Russian “Order of Friendship” in 2013, McCain said in a radio interview: ”Frankly, I would never accept an award from Vladimir Putin because then you kind of give some credence and credibility to this butcher, this KGB agent, which is what he is.”

Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000, has created a regime under which his opponents are murdered; political prisoners are sent to Siberia for decades behind bars; minority rights are suppressed; opposition is quashed; foreign territory is forcefully annexed; and Syria’s bloodthirsty president, Bashar Assad, enjoys direct military support for his massacres.

Here’s a non-exhaustive list of examples of Putin’s abusive rule in Russia.

Murdering enemies.  

Putin, who has ruled Russia since 2000, has created a regime under which his opponents are murdered; political prisoners are sent to Siberia for decades behind bars; minority rights are suppressed; opposition is quashed; foreign territory is forcefully annexed; and Syria’s bloodthirsty president, Bashar Assad, enjoys direct military support for his massacres.

Murdering enemies

The list of people suspected murdered on orders from the Russian leader or people close to him is long. It includes several of Putin’s early critics among them liberal politician Boris Nemtsov, investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and exiled former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko. A UK government report showed that Litvinenko’s death—he was poisoned using polonium in London—which was “probably” approved by Putin. 

Click on the names to find the articles pertaining to these victims.

The list of people suspected murdered on orders from the Russian leader or people close to 

Monday, February 7, 2022

Complex Three-Dimensional Kidney Tissue Created in the Lab From Scratch 

3D Kidney Generated From Cultured Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Researchers in Japan have generated a kidney-like 3D tissue, consisting of extensively branched tubules, from cultured mouse embryonic stem cells. Credit: Dr. Shunsuke Tanigawa

A research team based in Kumamoto University (Japan) has created complex 3D kidney tissue in the lab solely from cultured mouse embryonic stem (ES) cells. These organoids could lead the way to better kidney research and, eventually, artificial kidneys for human transplant.

By focusing on an often-overlooked tissue type of organoid generation research, a type of organ tissue made up of various support and connective tissues called the stroma, Dr. Ryuichi Nishinakamura and his team were able to generate the last of a three-part puzzle that they had been working on for several years. Once the three pieces were combined, the resulting structure was found to be kidney-like in its architecture. The researchers believe that their work will be used to advance kidney research and even lead to a transplantable organ in the future.

3D Kidney Structures Generated From Cultured Mouse Embryonic Stem Cells

Researchers in Japan have generated a kidney-like 3D tissue, consisting of many types of kidney-specific structures, from cultured mouse embryonic stem cells. Credit: Dr. Shunsuke Tanigawa

The kidney is a very important organ for continued good health because it acts as a filter to extract waste and excess water from blood. It is a complex organ that develops from the combination of three components. Protocols have already been established by various research teams, including Dr. Nishinakamura’s team at the Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics (IMEG) at Kumamoto University, to induce two of the components (the nephron progenitor and the ureteric bud) from mouse ES cells.

In this, their most recent work, the IMEG team has developed a method to induce the third and final component, kidney-specific stromal progenitor, in mice. Furthermore, by combining these three components in vitro, the researchers were able to generate a kidney-like 3D tissue, consisting of extensively branched tubules and several other kidney-specific structures.

The researchers believe that this is the first ever report on the in-lab generation of such a complex kidney structure from scratch. The IMEG team has already succeeded in inducing the first two components from human iPS cells. If this last component can also be generated from human cells, a similarly complex human kidney should be achievable.

“We are now working very hard to generate a fully functional human kidney,” said Dr. Nishinakamura. “We hope to use our developments to screen drugs for various diseases, and for transplantation in the long run.”

Reference: “Generation of the organotypic kidney structure by integrating pluripotent stem cell-derived renal stroma” by Shunsuke Tanigawa, Etsuko Tanaka, Koichiro Miike, Tomoko Ohmori, Daisuke Inoue, Chen-Leng Cai, Atsuhiro Taguchi, Akio Kobayashi and Ryuichi Nishinakamura, 1 February 2022, Nature Communications.
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28226-7

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PIG HEART KEEPS MAN ALIVE! FANTASTIC BREAKTHROUGH!


'NEW HEART STILL A ROCK STAR': Man doing well after receiving first heart from gene-edited pig

PIG KIDNEYS PLAY A ROLE: Alabama doctors advance organ transplantation with gene-edited pig kidneys

The team said their research with the silicone cap and the drug cocktail is far from done. They add that it may be possible to strengthen or add to the drug cocktail to help regenerate fully complete limbs with actual toes and bones. Michael Levin, director of the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and a study co-author, said the next step is to test the procedure out on mammals, which eventually could lead to human regeneration.

A team at Tufts University and Harvard University has brought scientists a step closer to the goal of regenerative medicine by using a drug cocktail to regrow a frog's amputated legs. 

Only a few animals in the world are able to regrow some limbs: salamanders, lizards and crabs. They do it through blastema cells, when a mass formation of stem cells occurs at the end of a stump almost immediately after the limb is lost, so the regrowth process can begin.

Frogs are like humans and mammals, however, in that they cannot regenerate complex limbs like arms or legs. Instead, our bodies, along with those of frogs, use scar tissue to protect wounds from blood loss and infection.

In a peer-reviewed study published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, scientists from the two universities wanted to see whether limbs could be regenerated on African clawed frogs with amputated legs. 

Tufts scientists created a five-drug-cocktail silicone cap. In the cap were drugs meant to reduce inflammation, a protein substance to help with scarring, and drugs meant to help the growth of blood vessels, muscles and nerve fibers. The team put the cap on the frogs for 24 hours. 

"Using the BioDome cap in the first 24 hours helps mimic an amniotic-like environment which, along with the right drugs, allows the rebuilding process to proceed without the interference of scar tissue," David Kaplan, professor engineering at Tufts and co-author of the study, said in a news release

An African clawed frog. The species was used to see if those with amputated legs could have them regrown using a drug cocktail.

The cap was taken off after the 24 hours, and the team spent the next 18 months observing any changes. At the end of the period, many of the tested frogs had not only regrown the legs, but the limbs also had become nearly fully functional.

The legs had a new bonelike structure, internal tissues and new "toes" without bones. They responded to touch, and the frogs were able to use them to swim and go back to a normal way of life. Nirosha Murugan, researcher at the Allen Discovery Center at Tufts and lead author of the study, said it was "exciting" to see the drugs helped create "an almost complete limb."

Fossil fuel pollution = global warming = pandemics = death!


logo greenpeace

Nelson,

 

Two weeks ago, on an extraordinarily cold winter day, a group of Greenpeace volunteers and I visited 12 bank branches of the Big Five in Toronto – precisely, RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO and CIBC.We postered, went live on Instagram, and reminded everyone of the Big Five’s ongoing role in funding fossil fuel projects that violate Indigenous rights and accelerate climate chaos even as they continue to try to greenwash themselves. [1]

 

Together, we need to demand that Canada’s Big 5 banks stop funding destructive fossil fuel projects. Will you join me in doing so?

GP1SWOGV_Medium_res_with_credit_line

The CGL pipeline severely violates Indigenous rights and increases fossil fuel production. While Canada’s big 5 banks have made public commitments to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 [2] and to respect Indigenous land rights, their actions speak louder. And they are funding CGL, even as the Royal Canadian Mounted Police repeatedly raided unceded Wet’suwet’en territory in acts of colonial violence. [3] [4] [5] [6]

 

If you’re a customer of Canada’s Big 5 banks, remember that these banks are using YOUR money, YOUR savings to fund such projects. Tell them you don’t approve.

It’s not at all impossible to stop investing in destructive pipelines or fossil fuel projects. A recent Greenpeace report shows that although the big 5 banks are more exposed to climate risk than they admit, they could phase out their support for fossil fuels. [7]

I hope you can join me in telling them to do so.

 

Thank you for your support!

 

Tara,

Mobilizations Campaigner, Greenpeace Canada

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