Dozens of passengers feared dead after plane crashes hundreds of miles off course
Dozens of passengers are feared dead after an Azerbaijan Airlines flight crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan on Wednesday, reports say.
The Embraer 190 passenger jet flying from Azerbaijan to Russia had 62 passengers and five crew on board, Kazakh authorities announced, saying 32 survivors had been rescued.
Flight J2-8243 had flown hundreds of miles off its scheduled route to crash on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea. Officials did not immediately explain why it had crossed the sea, but the crash came shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning.
Russia’s aviation watchdog, meanwhile, said it was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.
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Those aboard the plane included 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian nationals, six Kazakhstani and three Kyrgyzstani citizens, according to Kazakhstani officials.
Russian news agency Interfax reported that both pilots died in the crash, citing a preliminary assessment by emergency workers at the scene. The news agency also quoted medical workers who stated that four bodies had been recovered from the crash so far.
A total of 29 survivors, including two children, have been hospitalized, the ministry told Russia’s state news agency, RIA Novosti, the Associated Press reported. Many passengers have yet to be accounted for.
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Video of the crash showed the plane descending rapidly before bursting into flames as it hit the seashore, and thick black smoke then rising, Reuters reported. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, who had been traveling to Russia, returned to Azerbaijan upon hearing news of the crash, the president’s press service said. Aliyev was due to attend an informal meeting of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a bloc of former Soviet countries founded after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in St. Petersburg.
Aliyev expressed his condolences to the families of the victims in a statement on social media.
“It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote.
He also signed a decree declaring Dec. 26 a day of mourning in Azerbaijan.
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In a statement, Azerbaijan Airlines said it would keep members of the public updated and changed its social media banners to solid black.
“We ask God for mercy on the passengers and crew members who lost their lives,” a translated statement on X said. “Their pain is our pain. We wish a speedy recovery to those injured.”
Elon Musk makes suggestion after congresswoman found living in retirement facility
The news that Rep. Kay Granger, R-Texas, has been living in a retirement facility and experiencing a “very rapid” decline set off a social media outcry this week across the political spectrum.
Among these voices included billionaire Elon Musk, a key adviser and supporter of President-elect Donald Trump.
“Maybe we should have some basic cognitive test for elected officials? This is getting crazy …” Musk said, in reference to the news about Granger.
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Former Department of Education press secretary Angela Morabito said Granger’s staff was possibly “complicit.”
“WOW: Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), who hasn’t voted on a bill in six months, has been living in a nursing home in secret. Records show she has a staff of 25. If any of them knew – and it would be hard not to know – they are complicit,” Morabito shared on X.
Former Texas state representative Jonathan Stickland also commented about Granger, expressing that he was aware of her memory issues.
“No one should be mad at Rep. Kay Granger. Six years ago (as an elected official who worked regularly with/around her) it was obvious she had serious memory issues. She has had no idea what was going on for a while. Yet her friends, family, and staff lied to her. They failed to protect her, and left her in office for their own benefit. Be mad at them. Praying for peace for Rep. Granger,” Stickland posted.
Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee said the news about Granger marked a “compelling case for term limits.”
Granger’s absence was first reported by the Dallas Express on Friday, which quoted a constituent of her district who said she was residing in a memory care facility in Texas.
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Axios political reporter Hans Nichols admitted to missing the story about Granger due to limited resources for journalists on CNN Monday.
“[We] … have limited resources and limited time to report all these stories out. That said, we should have gotten the Kay Granger story. I mean, I’ll own part of that, as someone that spends some time on the Hill. You know, collectively we’re all guilty. Like, you know, individually, it’s hard to parse out guilt,” Nichols said.
The Granger story comes after a year that was defined by President Biden’s cognitive and mental fitness issues that ultimately led to him being forced out of the Democratic nomination. Reports have emerged of a coordinated effort to conceal his diminishment from the public.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who repeatedly dismissed questions about Biden’s ability to serve, told CNN in June 2022 that she herself had a hard time keeping up with the president.
“Don, you’re asking me this question,” a visibly stunned Jean-Pierre exclaimed. “Oh my gosh. He’s the President of the United States.”
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Executive director for Women for America First, Kylie Jane Kremer, wrote on X, “Not just leadership but all colleagues that were aware. Just as we are outraged about Biden, there should be equal outrage about Kay Granger.”
Members of Biden’s staff noticed his fading stamina and increasing confusion within the first few months of his term, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
The Journal based its report on interviews with nearly 50 people, including current and former White House staffers who interacted directly with the president, as well as lawmakers.
California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said on X that that Congress had a “sclerotic gerontocracy.”
“Kay Granger’s long absence reveals the problem with a Congress that rewards seniority & relationships more than merit & ideas. We have a sclerotic gerontocracy. We need term limits. We need to get big money out of politics, so a new generation of Americans can run and serve,” Khann posted.
Progressive independent journalist Ken Klippenstein posted in reference to a video of Granger speaking on the House floor, earlier in 2024.
“The claim that no one knew about congresswoman Kay Granger’s dementia is laughable. Here she is speaking before Congress back in March, stammering and stumbling over every sentence while relying verbatim on a written script. This is painful to watch,” Klippenstein shared.
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Granger, who is 81, did not seek re-election and is retiring at the end of this congressional term next month. She has largely remained absent from the Capitol in recent months, having last cast a vote on July 24. She was not present for over 54% of votes this year. She also stepped down from her position within the House Appropriations Committee, which drafts the bills that fund the federal government.
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Granger’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Liberal media’s absurd advice for surviving Christmas with pro-Trump family members
As the smell of pine fills the air and the stockings are hung with care, some liberal media outlets served up advice that’s as hard to swallow as a dry fruitcake. Their mission? Equipping you to survive holiday conversations with Trump-supporting relatives.
From suggested scripts that sound more like hostage negotiations to icebreakers better suited for therapy sessions than a festive family gathering, here are five of the most over-the-top ideas mainstream media is dishing out to keep your Christmas “Trump-proof.”
1. Cancel Christmas altogether
For one HuffPost contributor, the election of Trump wasn’t just a political turning point – it was a holiday deal-breaker. Faced with the knowledge that her husband and his family voted for the former president, she decided to cancel both Thanksgiving and Christmas altogether. No lights, no carols, no awkward family dinners.
“But I will not give thanks and hold hands in a circle with people who voted for a party that wants to take rights away from LGBTQ people,” guest contributor Andrea Tate wrote. “I will not pass the turkey to someone who supports people who have signaled they will cause harm to people with disabilities and the elderly. I will not sit by a Christmas tree celebrating the birth of Jesus and sipping eggnog when I know how many people may now find themselves in grave – even deadly – danger because they cannot get the reproductive care they need. I will not unwrap gifts given to me by people who voted for a party that has talked about building internment camps and mass deportation.”
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2. ‘The View’ co-host agrees with advice to cut off pro-Trump family at holidays
After a psychologist made headlines last month arguing people should avoid Trump-supporting relatives this holiday season, “The View” co-host Sunny Hostin agreed, saying many people feel “someone voted not only against their families but against them.”
Shortly after the election, Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun spoke to MSNBC host Joy Reid about how liberals who are devastated by Trump’s re-election can cope with the news, including separating from loved ones.
“There is a push, I think just a societal norm that if somebody is your family, that they are entitled to your time, and I think the answer is absolutely not,” Calhoun told the talk show host. “So if you are going to a situation where you have family members, where you have close friends who you know have voted in ways that are against you, like what you said, against your livelihood, it’s completely fine to not be around those people and to tell them why, you know, to say, ‘I have a problem with the way that you voted, because it went against my very livelihood and I’m not going to be around you this holiday.’”
3. Use therapy techniques to divert the conversation
If your holiday feast feels more like a political debate than a festive gathering, Time magazine has your back with a list of 11 carefully crafted phrases to defuse family tension.
The top pick? A simple yet stern declaration: “I won’t be talking about politics today.” Framed as a way to create a politics-free safe zone, the advice encourages setting boundaries with relatives whose views you loathe – so you can focus on what really matters.
“Emphasize that you want to keep the focus on the festivities at hand, and ask for a commitment to avoid polarizing topics. If the conversation still ends up turning in that direction, shut it down: ‘OK, that’s enough of that,’ or, ‘We’re not talking about that here today,’” the Time article states.
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4. Take a break and potentially leave the gathering
The Associated Press has a simple solution: take a breather. Whether the conversation veers into a political minefield or Uncle Bob just won’t stop, the AP suggests calmly excusing yourself from the fray. No need for a dramatic exit – just a composed stroll to the kitchen, the porch, or anywhere that isn’t the battlefield of your family table.
“Things getting intense? Defuse the situation. Walk away. And it doesn’t have to be in a huff. Sometimes a calm and collected time out is just what you – and the family – might need,” the article recommends.
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5. ‘Ban the bad actors’
In a searing MSNBC op-ed, writer Amira Barger challenges the notion that family gatherings should always be sacred if they have different beliefs. The author doesn’t differentiate between Trump-supporting family members and liberal voters.
“I have come to realize that being related by blood doesn’t necessarily mean that those gathered will protect you,” Barger wrote. “Finding family isn’t always about unity, or forcing yourself to remain in a place that causes you harm. Sometimes, it’s about clarity, and the difficult choices that come with it.
“This fall, after a conversation that spanned more than 1,000 texts in various family group chats, my husband and I made the difficult decision to hold a hard and fast boundary with much of my immediate family, whose stated values and votes made it clear to us that we could not feel comfortable around them.”
She adds, “These were decisions we did not make lightly or hastily, but sometimes the best course of action is, in fact, to ban the bad actors.”
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GOP rep’s scathing response for illegal immigrant who allegedly set woman on fire
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is calling for the swift trial, conviction, and execution of the man charged in connection with the gruesome murder of a woman burned alive on a New York City subway.
The outspoken Republican took to social media on Tuesday to address the incident, in which Guatemalan national Sebastian Zapeta, 33, is accused of setting a woman on fire while on a train in Brooklyn.
“Death penalty, don’t waste money on a lengthy trial. Convict him and finish him. What he did is so incredibly evil,” Greene declared in a post on X. “I can’t watch the video anymore. And how it seems like no one tried to save her is beyond me. Maybe they did but it doesn’t seem like it.”
Zapeta faces charges of first- and second-degree murder, and first-degree arson, with a maximum sentence of life imprisonment with no parole.
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Greene is not the only member of Congress to weigh in on the case.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., also called for capital punishment.
“Death penalty,” she tweeted.
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Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., declared in a post on X, “A woman was intentionally lit on fire on the subway today. Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies do not work.”
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New York City Police Department Commissioner Jessica Tisch noted during remarks on Sunday that Zapeta allegedly “used what we believe to be a lighter to ignite the victim’s clothing, which became fully engulfed in a matter of seconds.” Assistant District Attorney Ari Rottenberg alleged in court on Tuesday that the suspect fanned the fire with a shirt.
Zapeta’s next court appearance is scheduled for December 27, according to online records.
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A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) spokesperson said in a statement that Zapeta had been removed from the U.S. in 2018 and then re-entered the country illegally at some point “on an unknown date and location.”
‘Christmas gas’ joke goes viral as women prank the men in their lives with disastrous error
You’ve heard of a Christmas tree, Christmas gifts and Christmas carols, but what about Christmas gas?
That’s what holiday jokesters are telling their loved ones that they pumped into their cars as part of a viral TikTok prank.
“Hey, it’s Hannah,” one prankster says to her husband over the phone.
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“We have a problem. I stopped to get gas on the way to work and they were out. So, I had to get the Christmas gas. And now my car is sputtering so bad, I barely made it to work.”
Hannah Crawford, 31, of Stockton, Alabama, heard about the prank from a friend and could not resist trying it on her husband.
The family counselor slipped into her coworker’s office to make the call.
“You used the what now?” Clayton Crawford can be heard asking, according to his wife’s video that she posted onto TikTok. “Don’t play with me. What are you talking about?”
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At this point, he seems skeptical.
“The Christmas gas,” she replies, hardly able to contain her laughter.
“It was a green handle instead of black.”
“I’ll kill you,” Clayton Crawford told his wife. “You better go run that car off a bridge somewhere if you did that. You better find a way to total it is all I’m telling you, because it’s ruined.”
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Hannah Crawford assures her husband that “they’re fixing it right now.”
“You put diesel in your car,” he says. “There’s no helping you. The green handle is diesel.”
“He fell for it,” Hannah Crawford told Fox News Digital. But Clayton said he had his suspicions.
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“As you could tell, I was just probably fed up with her c—, to be honest with you,” Clayton Crawford told Fox News Digital.
“But maybe halfway wondering if this time she actually did it. One thing about her is it’s never something that’s not possible. There’s always that, ‘Oh my god.’ You just never know what you’re going to get when you answer the phone with her,” he said.
Viewers appeared to get a kick out of the video.
“Love that his first thought was insurance fraud,” one person commented.
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“The fact that he’s not even phased by ‘we have a problem,'” another person wrote.
“Why did he give off Rip from Yellowstone vibes when he said, ‘I don’t have time for you today,'” another commented.
The Christmas gas trend started in 2023 when a number of videos went viral, like Karsen Holloway Ward who garnered 2.9 million views when she tricked her dad into believing she bought “Christmas gas” that she saw on TikTok.
“You don’t follow TikTok,” her father responds, adding, in part, “This is why kids don’t have a clue about life.”
“I have actually put diesel in my gas car and I can testify that not all dads are this calm,” someone commented.
“His little princess you can tell. Very patient,” another person wrote.
While the videos sparked laughter, the effects of actually putting diesel fuel into a gasoline vehicle can be problematic and costly, Paul Sadosky, owner of Valvoline Express Care in Waco, Texas, told Fox News Digital.
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“It’s going to start up because there’s still gas in the line,” Sadosky said.
“But once that gas in the line runs out and it turns to diesel, it’ll probably start running rough. It’ll start smoking and the car will start to misfire,” he said.
Ultimately, the damage could require a new motor.
Since diesel fuel is thicker than gasoline, it evaporates slower and therefore, they are not at all interchangeable.
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“But if you catch it in time, it could just be flushing out all the lines and a new fuel filter,” Sadosky said.
“You might have to replace some fuel lines.”
Sadosky added that it is actually much worse to put gasoline into a diesel car.
Pregnant woman’s nagging cough led to stunning discovery weeks before giving birth
A Chicago woman was just weeks away from giving birth when a nagging cough led to a shocking medical discovery.
MaKenna Lauterbach, then 26 years old, began experiencing severe coughing fits in the last three months of her pregnancy.
“They would be so severe that I would become winded and nauseous to the point of vomiting,” she told Fox News Digital.
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Lauterbach, who lives on a farm in Washburn, Illinois, also began noticing shortness of breath while tending to her horses and goats.
“I give hay to the horses every morning and noticed how winded I was becoming with a dry cough,” she said. “My body felt like I just ran two miles, when, in reality, I had only walked to the barn and back.”
Some doctors dismissed Lauterbach’s symptoms, she said, repeatedly telling her, “It’s because you are pregnant.”
Eventually, though, when the coughing led to vomiting, doctors performed scans and detected a large, grapefruit-sized tumor in her middle chest cavity and right lung, which was completely blocking the artery to the right lung.
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“It’s extremely rare to see this type of tumor invading into the major blood vessels of the heart,” said Chris Mehta, M.D. — a cardiac surgeon with the Northwestern Medicine Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute who specializes in complex heart reconstruction — in a press release.
“It’s extremely rare to see this type of tumor invading into the major blood vessels of the heart.”
“We may see something like this once every few years.”
The tumor had put Lauterbach — and her baby — into respiratory distress.
‘In real trouble’
Lauterbach was flown to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where a large medical team was waiting for her.
“MaKenna was in real trouble, and we had to act quickly – this wasn’t something that could wait for Monday morning,” said Lynn Yee, M.D., maternal-fetal medicine specialist at Northwestern Medicine, in the release.
“When you’re pregnant with a baby that’s nearly full term, your lungs already aren’t functioning at full capacity, and when you add a huge tumor on top of it, you run the risk of having respiratory collapse and cardiac arrest.”
The baby was not tolerating the contractions well and Lauterbach’s blood pressure was plummeting.
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The team performed an emergency cesarean section — and on Easter Sunday, a healthy baby boy, Colten, was born.
‘Blindsiding news’
After the delivery, it was time to address the tumor.
“The tumor was sitting on top of MaKenna’s heart and extended into the right lung, impacting all three lobes and the entire main trunk of the pulmonary artery,” said Kalvin Lung, M.D., a thoracic surgeon with the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, in the release.
Doctors performed a biopsy and diagnosed Lauterbach with stage 3 melanoma.
The doctors believe she may have had a melanoma on her skin at some point, and that “a cell or two escaped” and began growing inside her body.
“It was truly blindsiding news,” Lauterbach told Fox News Digital. “When I first got the diagnosis, I went through a roller coaster of emotions.”
“I was grieving the birth plan I had spent months preparing, while also dealing with the news of my unexpected diagnosis.”
After first feeling relief at having an answer, she said she felt some anger that her symptoms had been dismissed earlier. Then there was the fear of the cancer itself.
“Because of the tumor, the delivery happened so quickly. I was grieving the birth plan I had spent months preparing, while also dealing with the news of my unexpected diagnosis,” she said.
“My situation was serious, and while my clinical team was working on a plan to treat my cancer, it was comforting to know that the NICU nurses [at Northwestern] were taking such wonderful care of our son.”
Taking life-saving action
The team at Northwestern recommended that Lauterbach undergo three cycles of immunotherapy before surgery, which helped shrink her tumor by 30%.
Dr. Lung and Dr. Mehta removed Lauterbach’s entire right lung, parts of the main pulmonary artery and her lymph nodes.
“The surgery was risky relative to other cancer surgeries due to the need for cardiopulmonary bypass, and the need to repair the main artery going to both lungs, but it was done under very safe conditions with well-proven techniques,” Dr. Lung told Fox News Digital.
“We were concerned that even with the extent of surgery, we would not be able to completely remove the tumor,” he went on.
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If the tumor had grown just slightly more into the main artery going to the lungs, or if it had involved the heart, it would have been a different outcome.
But the surgery was a success, and Lauterbach’s latest scans showed no evidence of metastatic melanoma.
“Her outcome was very good,” Dr. Lung told Fox News Digital. “She has recovered from surgery almost entirely, and her main issue is shortness of breath, which is a consequence of only having one lung.”
“In terms of cancer prognosis, we expect it to be quite good, given that the entire tumor responded to the immunotherapy treatment she received.”
‘New normal’
Today, though he was born three weeks early, little Colter Lauterbach is a thriving, happy baby boy.
“As for myself, I am still healing, emotionally and physically,” said MaKenna Lauterbach. “My lung capacity is getting close to ‘the new normal’ for me and I’m finally starting to return to some sort of normal routine.”
“There are some days when the bad memories and the unknowns haunt my thoughts.”
Looking ahead, Lauterbach will continue immunotherapy treatments for one year, and the doctors will continue to monitor CT scans to ensure the cancer doesn’t come back.
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Her cancer is currently considered a “stable disease,” doctors say, which means no new tumors have appeared.
The new mother, who turned 27 in October, said she is looking forward to her son’s first Christmas on the farm.
“Emotionally, I try my best not to let reality weigh on me, but there are some days when the bad memories and the unknowns haunt my thoughts,” she said.
“Colter and my wonderful husband, Parker, are what have given me the strength to make it through everything.”
For other women, Lauterbach emphasized the importance of “knowing your body.”
She advised, “If you know something isn’t right, don’t take ‘I don’t know’ for an answer. Find someone who will take your concerns seriously and would rather do extra testing just in case, as opposed to missing something life-threatening.”
How many US service members are spending holidays deployed overseas
As millions of Americans gather together with loved ones to celebrate the Christmas holiday and ring in the new year, hundreds of thousands of American men and women in uniform will mark the holidays away from family in decidedly less festive corners of the world.
As of June, 165,830 U.S. service members were on deployment across the Middle East, Indo-Pacific region and Europe. That figure has likely ticked higher amid recent unrest across the Middle East, and it doesn’t include service members working at U.S. bases over the holidays and civilian personnel on overseas contracts.
Here’s a look at where service members will spend the holidays on deployment across the world:
Middle East
Around 43,000 troops are stationed across the Middle East as of October, an increase from the usual 34,000 amid the recent unrest and outbreak of war between Israel and Iranian proxy forces Hamas and Hezbollah.
The Pentagon announced in October it would be moving troops into Cyprus to prepare for escalating unrest in Lebanon. And last week the Pentagon divulged that some 2,100 troops were in Syria — not the 900 they had long claimed. Another 1,000 troops are in Iraq carrying out missions to thwart ISIS.
Europe
U.S. forces are stationed across Europe to support NATO forces and deter any potential Russian aggression.
Major areas of deployment include Germany (34,894), Italy (12,319) and the United Kingdom (10,180).
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Asia
U.S. forces partner with allies in Asia to conduct joint exercises and coordinate on countering the threat of China and
Areas of deployment include South Korea (23,732), Japan (52,852) and Guam (6,453).
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Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin thanked U.S. troops for serving over the holiday season in a Christmas message.
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“We know firsthand the holidays can be especially hard if you’re far away from your loved ones. So for our troops stationed around the globe, we deeply appreciate your sacrifice,” he said. “We know that your families serve too, and our military families are the foundation of America’s strength.”
Research institute pursuing ‘miracle therapy’ that could ‘transform’ lives of sick kids
Renowned visionary English physician William Harvey wrote in 1651 about how our blood contains all the secrets of life.
“And so I conclude that blood lives and is nourished of itself and in no way depends on any other part of the body as being prior to it or more excellent,” he wrote. “So that from this we may perceive the causes not only of life in general … but also of longer or shorter life, of sleeping and waking, of skill, of strength and so forth.”
Dr. Kevin Watt, team leader of the Heart Regeneration and Disease Laboratory at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) in Melbourne, Australia, understands this concept deeply.
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He lives it every day, as he and his fellow researchers study and reprogram the potential of the blood to treat disease, specifically heart failure in children.
Building on the work of Dr. Shinya Yamanaka of Japan, who discovered that specialized cells could be reprogrammed back to immature stem cells, Watt and his collaborators have taken this work several steps further.
They have used small molecules to turn these new stem cells from the blood into heart cells.
Small heart organoids are developed in the lab — which can then be injected into the failing hearts of children.
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Relying on the philanthropic support of the Murdoch Institute, the work is progressing rapidly and has been shown to be effective already in mice, pigs and sheep.
“The vision of our research is to develop new therapies that can transform the lives of children with heart failure.”
Clinical trials in humans will be starting soon, and as Dr. Watt told me in an interview from Australia, “Large sheets of heart tissue will be stitched into the failing heart.”
Congenital heart failure as well as side effects of chemotherapy in children will be targets for this miracle therapy. Millions of children around the world suffer daily from these conditions.
Watt said that certain chemotherapy (anthracyclines) have a higher risk of heart failure – up to 15% of the time – and this treatment may be useful to protect the heart.
Watt said, “Heart failure remains an urgent, unmet clinical challenge across the world. While we have made significant advances over several decades in managing the disease, we lack targeted therapies to treat these devastating conditions.”
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He added, “More than 500,000 children around the world live with advanced heart failure that requires transplantation. The vision of our research is to develop new therapies that can transform the lives of children with heart failure.”
To achieve this, he said, “we use a technology called induced pluripotent stem cells, where we can convert blood or skin cells of patients with heart failure into stem cells that we then turn into heart cells … or even make engineered heart tissues that can be stitched onto the patient’s heart to help it pump.”
The cells that are targeted in the blood are known as peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).
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They are “pushed back in time to an earlier time before they became differentiated into heart or kidney cells,” he said.
Then they can be pushed forward to become healthy heart cells or mutations — or other abnormalities can be corrected.
While the team at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute is making heart cells from stem cells in the blood for clinical use, it’s also using these stem cells to figure out new drugs to treat heart failure directly.
Said Watt, “Using stem cells from patients with heart failure caused by chemo, we are actively developing new drugs and cell-based treatments that we believe will transform the lives of patients with these conditions … Our research group has pioneered methods to turn these stem cells into miniature heart tissues that can be used to model disease-in-a-dish, to identify new drug targets for the development of new therapies.”
These treatments are personalized and highly expensive, but they’re also highly effective.
Correcting heart failure in young children is only a few years away from becoming a reality.
It’s a Christmas miracle that relies on the kind of philanthropic support that MCRI is famous for arranging.
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“Philanthropic support plays a critical role in accelerating the development of these new, transformative treatments,” said Watt, “and this support will be essential as we work toward bringing stem cell-based precision therapies for heart failure to every child who needs it.”
Visit go.fox/MCRI to donate or to learn more about MCRI’s important research.