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We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.  Connecting decision makers to a dynamic network of information, people and ideas, Bloomberg quickly and accurately delivers business and financial information, news and insight around the world 2024 at 3:57 AM EDTBookmarkSaveArgentine President Javier Milei’s first official visit to Paris to meet Emmanuel Macron Friday will be overshadowed by a racism scandal that began on the soccer field and spilled into the political arena After winning the Copa America tournament on July 14 jubilant Argentine teammates chanted racist lyrics aimed at the French national team’s players that were first heard during the 2022 World Cup final by Argentine fans when the two nations faced each other Too many automated requests from this network Your Ads Privacy ChoicesIMDb “We don’t do all this just for sport The mountains are much more than that.” So writes Benjamin Vedrines Vedrines makes his astonishing feats sound like contemplative walks in the wild But when Vedrines pairs up with Nicolas Jean their sporting achievements and numbers matter In the last two weeks, the pair has put in two impressive ski-mountaineering days in the Ecrins Alps where they live. First, they raced up and down the five faces of Les Agneaux. A week later, they chain-climbed a trilogy of well-known peaks in the area — Ailefroide For Jean, this is a great way to make the best of some down time. For Vedrines, there’s no better training for K2, which he intends to climb this summer without oxygen and in a non-stop single push. View this post on Instagram See this post on Instagram On Feb. 18, the two summited and skied down the five faces of 3,664m Les Agneaux, racking up 6,000 vertical meters in 15 hours. They left at night from the village of Le Monetier-les-Bains, and by dawn, they were already on the summit ridge. There, friends Thibaut Blais and Malo Girard — who had bivouacked on top to wait for them — shot the only photos of the day. From the summit, the pair skied down, and then climbed all the other faces of the mountain. View this post on Instagram See this post on Instagram Happy with Les Agneaux, Nicolas Jean quickly came up with an equally challenging idea, climbing and skiing the trio of Ailefroide (3,954m), Pic Sans Nom (3,913m), and Mont Pelvoux (3,946m). Vedrines signed on, despite admittedly being not very enthusiastic. Forecasts predicted high winds, and he was still tired from Les Agneaux and a hard week of guiding. The three summits of Vedrines and Jean’s latest trilogy. Photo: Benjamin Vedrines Vedrines and Jean started at 2:30 am, climbed to the western point of Ailefroide, and skied down the south face. They stopped below the Selee refuge, attached their skins, and then headed to Pic Sans Nom. Here, they skied down its south face (1st repetition). They were skiing the Sialouze Glacier on the way to Pelvoux when they realized they had forgotten one of their ski skins somewhere on the Pic Sans Nom. Vedrines didn’t reveal whose ski it was, but he used the old guide’s trick of tying a piece of webbing around the ski at the binding. (Check the photo below). It allowed them to skin up to Pelvoux’s summit. How to climb without skins. Photo: Benjamin Vedrines All the faces they skied included 50º sections, a reason they called their feat “Raoul’s trilogy.” The former caretaker of the Selee Mountain hut, Raoul served Genepi, a local liquor that is 50% proof. The young guides had spent many evenings in the hut with Raoul and his Genepi. This was their tribute to the retired hut manager. View this post on Instagram See this post on Instagram Angela Benavides graduated university in journalism and specializes in high-altitude mountaineering and expedition news She has been writing about climbing and mountaineering adventure and outdoor sports for 20+ years Angela Benavides spent time at/worked at a number of local and international media She is also experienced in outdoor-sport consultancy for sponsoring corporations Sign up to receive ExplorersWeb content direct to your inbox once a week A terrifying film that dramatises an obsessional relationship between a cannibal and a young FBI agent, The Silence of the Lambs – directed by the American Jonathan Demme in 1991 – is now a cinema classic Here are three good reasons to revisit this superb Oscar-winning thriller at the Cinéma de la Plage Anthony Hopkins played Hannibal Lecter whose disturbing personality has captivated audiences for generations Due to Lecter's multiple and false personalities – by turns deadly manipulative and seductive – the character achieved cult status for the personification of evil and went on to feature in numerous other dramas adapted from the novels by Thomas Harris Playing opposite Anthony Hopkins, Jodie Foster took the role of a young FBI recruit, sent to investigate the crimes of a serial killer. Both were awarded Oscars for their performances, winning Best Actor and Best Actress in a Leading Role in 1992. Further Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay made this thriller one of the very few films to be awarded the five most prestigious Oscars. Jonathan Demme, who passed away in 2017, was a master of shifting between cinema genres. From the Talking Heads concert film to Ricki and the Flash – a dramatic comedy starring Meryl Streep – or the magnificent drama Philadelphia, which earned Tom Hanks an Oscar for Best Actor, and the documentary The Agronomist, his filmography was a reflection of the director himself: committed and courageous. Find all the news of the Festival de Cannes Children's Hospital of Philadelphia / Nature CommunicationsApril 25 2017 ShareSave When babies are born at 24 weeks’ gestation “it is very clear they are not ready to be here,” says Emily Partridge a research fellow at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Doctors dress the hand-sized beings in miniature diapers and cradle them in plastic incubators IV lines deliver sedatives to help them cope with the ventilators strapped to their faces Each year, about 30,000 American babies are born this early—considered “critically preterm,” or younger than 26 weeks. Before 24 weeks, only about half survive, and those who live are likely to endure long-term medical complications. “Among those that survive, the challenges are things we all take for granted, like walking, talking, seeing, hearing,” says Kevin Dysart a neonatologist at the Children’s Hospital (Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia)But within a decade or so babies born between 23 and 25 weeks might not be thrust into the harsh outside world at all they may be immediately plunged into a special bag filled with lab-made amniotic fluid designed to help them gestate for another month inside an artificial womb if a new technology that has been successfully tested on lambs is found to work on humans For a study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications Partridge and other researchers from Philadelphia suspended premature lambs allowing them to further develop for four weeks—longer than in past similar attempts The researchers used eight lamb fetuses that were 105 to 115 days old—a level of development comparable to a 23-week-old human fetus the lambs’ brains and organs developed normally A lamb is pictured after four (left) and 28 days (right) in the artificial womb (Nature Communications)The researchers anticipate the animal studies will be completed within two years the wombs can be tested on human preemies within three to five years One reason preterm birth is so dangerous is that the first few breaths of air halt the development of the lungs “Infants that are currently born and supported in a neonatal intensive care unit with gas-based ventilation demonstrate an arrest of lung development,” Partridge says the infant would continue “breathing” through the umbilical cord as its floats in amniotic fluid the fetus would pump its own blood through its umbilical cord and into an oxygenator where the blood would pick up oxygen and return it to the fetus—much like with a normal placenta the amniotic fluid would protect the baby from infections and support the development of the intestines The babies who are hooked up to this apparatus would need to be delivered by C-section as 60 percent of extreme preterm babies currently are the fetus would be given a drug that would prevent it from taking gulps of air during its brief brush with the outside world it would be submerged again in the polyethylene bag “I don’t want this to be visualized as fetuses hanging on the wall in bags,” said Alan Flake a fetal surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and an author of the study He says it will look similar to a traditional neonatal incubator potentially equipped with a camera to assuage anxious parents The doctors could even pipe in the mother’s heartbeat It’s “less stressful than seeing an infant on an incubator on an exposed bed,” Flake said “That’s a very distressing environment for parents.” it all ended in technical issues and circulatory failures the researchers don’t know if the lamb umbilical vessels will function identically to those of a human fetus Lambs are also several times larger than humans are at that stage of development artificial wombs may stir concerns among pro-choice advocates since the devices could push the point of viability for human fetuses even lower That might encourage even more states to curtail abortions after the Philadelphia researchers emphasized they don’t intend to expand the bounds of life before the 23rd gestational week fetuses are too fragile even for the artificial wombs they say their aim is to make extreme prematurity claim fewer infant lives as well as to reduce the estimated $43 billion that prematurity costs the U.S In essence, it’s to make it so babies who shouldn’t quite be “here” yet don’t have to be. In a video that accompanied the release of the study Partridge described being struck by the sight of the zipped-up lamb fetuses dreaming”—all with “complete detachment from the placenta and from mom.” Subscribe to BuzzFeed Daily NewsletterCaret DownHow The Global Elite Have Spent Eight Decades Being Injected With Sheep FetusesCelebrities and at least one pope have been receiving injections of ground-up sheep fetuses in luxury Swiss and German clinics the director-general of the World Health Organization one of China’s most famous folk singers — not to mention wife of the country’s current president Xi Jinping — into the WHO’s modernist Geneva headquarters accompanied by a VIP delegation of Ministry of Health officials and their guests was being sworn in as a goodwill ambassador of the U.N helping spearhead its efforts against AIDS and tuberculosis Margaret Chan (centre) pictured with CSH staff offers what it claims is a near-miraculous “revitalization therapy” which it says can help tackle hypertension often referred to as “live cell therapy” or “fresh cell therapy,” involves killing a pregnant sheep and removing its fetus and injecting these "fresh" cells into the patient Variations of the treatment include freezing the mashed-up fetus for a time before injection or using cells from the fetus or placenta in pill form Other clinics offering such treatment make even bolder claims as to what it can achieve One poster advertising the Fetal Cells Technology Institute claims to be able to tackle “pre-terminal AIDS” with a success rate of more than 95% All of the conditions are considered incurable by conventional medicine A still from a promotional video for Villa Medica a clinic that offered fresh cell therapy (click or tap to play an extract) Several of those supposed clients strongly deny ever using the treatment, but at least one modern-day celebrity — Michelle Rodriguez of Lost and the Fast & Furious film series — was happy to publicly endorse a clinic and pose for a photoshoot receiving its treatments A spokesperson for Rodriguez declined to comment on the “private” matter Michelle Rodriguez and Hofit Golan pictured receiving "fresh cell and regenerative therapy" in July 2015 at Villa Medica has been long discredited by mainstream medical opinion and had dwindled to a near-irrelevance by the early 1990s the clinics have found a lucrative new market in East Asia evidenced by thousands of pages of marketing materials Dozens of clinics offer the useless — and sometime dangerous — treatment charging tens of thousands of dollars a time promoting it to their wealthy customers through offices in China The resurgence has prompted a backlash: Last year the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited the treatment as the cause of an outbreak of Q fever — a potentially life-threatening disease that can cause serious heart and lung damage — in New York following the return of a group of patients who had received the therapy in Germany to the U.S the country’s main medicine regulator says the therapy is unsupported and illegal but admits it is struggling to prevent dozens of the clinics continuing to offer their services under the radar wealthy and sometimes desperate families travel across the world to Switzerland and Germany paying up to $100,000 for treatment courses What they receive in return is a series of injections of the organs of sheep fetuses ripped from their mothers earlier that day and mashed up into pink gunk — and thanks to online shipping treatments arrive on the doorsteps of sick people the world over Fresh cell therapy was conceived in 1931 by a Swiss medic, Dr. Paul Niehans. Convinced by the maxim of the 16th-century philosopher Paracelsus — that “like cures like,” the same idea that forms the foundation of homeopathy — Niehans concluded that numerous ailments could be cured by the injection of healthy animal cells into humans. Over the next few decades, his procedure grew in popularity, eventually winning him friends in the highest of places: In the mid-1950s an ailing Pope Pius XII enlisted Niehans to treat his chronic hiccuping. So happy was the pope with Niehans’ apparent results that the doctor was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The seat Niehans filled had previously been occupied by Sir Alexander Fleming, the inventor of penicillin, until his death in 1953. In the following decades, clinicians trained by Niehans split off and founded their own clinics in Switzerland and Germany, spreading word of the treatment — but despite the occasional surge in popularity, fresh cell therapy failed to spread significantly outside of these regions, and was hit hard in the early 1990s by fears in the wake of the U.K.’s BSE (or “mad cow disease”) crisis. The rise of stem cell therapies — fueled by the hope that advanced manipulation of stem cells will allow the treatment of genetic conditions for which there are no good current remedies — seems, however, to have spurred a new surge of interest in fresh cell therapy, with a plethora of clinics offering high-end pseudo-medical services. One of the more prolific advertisers is the German-based Villa Medica clinic, with ads that vary from the surreal, to slickly produced segments showcasing the clinics’ treatments and luxury accommodation, to celebrity endorsements on one of the Philippines’ most popular TV shows. A spokeswoman for the clinic said Villa Medica does not itself produce adverts or online videos, but rather its agents — who attract customers to the clinics — do. One such advert begins with a camera floating through the clouds, with a Chopin’s “Nocturne” playing. Over it speaks a disembodied robotic voice, quoting Niehans. A promotional video for Villa Medica explains the history of fresh cell therapy (click or tap to play an extract) “What I am striving after is not only to give more years to life, but especially to give more life to years,” it begins, before explaining the treatment. “Fresh cell therapy is a purely biological therapy in which fresh cells from donor animals, usually fetal sheep, are injected into the human body for treatment of a wide range of diseases and to retard the ageing process. This method of using living tissues is believed to be the best way to treat illnesses.” The adverts describe the clinic’s procedure. “Fresh cells from Merino sheep donor animals with a 50-year bloodline heritage are extracted and administered on the same day,” they say. Villa Medica seems particularly proud of its Merino sheep — a breed more commonly prized for its wool production — which the adverts say have been “100% internally bred without any contact with other farm animals and the public, which protects our herd from cross-contamination.” The cells from their fetuses, once injected, will have amazing results, the videos claim. The treatment “stimulates and activates the body’s own healing and revitalizing powers,” it pledges. “You can recapture the radiance of life.” More concretely, the adverts promise “a sharper and better memory,” “enhanced metabolism,” and “improved blood circulation.” “You can even achieve a total cure and disease-free state,” they state. Other videos show segments from The Woody Show, one of the Philippines’ most popular chat shows before its host was jailed for criminal libel in 2015. In one, 78-year-old Pilita Corrales — a singer with more than 100 albums who performed with the Beatles in the 1960s — explains how fresh cell therapy saved her career after a fall onstage. Singer Pilita Corrales endorses fresh cell therapy on The Woody Show (click or tap to play an extract) “I’ve heard about stem cells already,” she tells the host, because “many important people” were having the fresh cell remedy. In agony from her hip injury, and unable to perform, she went to Germany for the Villa Medica treatment. “The next day I thought I was going to feel a little dizzy but after one week I was back,” she says delightedly. “I was able to get married three times again.” What’s more, she tells the delighted host, after the treatment she has sex “every day, before breakfast.” Another segment features the show’s host interviewing the mother of an autistic boy, who sits next to her throughout as she extols the miraculous effect the cell therapy had upon her son. The child fiddles relentlessly with a tablet computer, barely looking up as the interview, which is clipped and edited, proceeds. In an apparent bid to show his improvement, the host shakes hands with the boy — it takes two attempts — before closing with a failed attempt to high-five the visibly disengaged child. Another segment promoting fresh cell therapy featured an autistic child who had apparently benefited from the treatment (click or tap to play an extract) The adverts are not trying to draw in any old customer, though: Fresh cell therapy clinics, whether in Switzerland or in Germany, are strictly for the ultra-rich. Private booking forms for the Swiss clinic CSH, seen by BuzzFeed News, open with a long discussion of the treatment, a detailed medical questionnaire, and a reminder of why cell therapy is the right choice for the patient — noting in passing that chemotherapy drugs are “harmful, toxic,” and “could damage malignant cells or normal cells,” while “natural” fresh cell therapy increases the body’s “resistance to cancer” and “helps to reduce the risk of benign to malignant transformation.” A separate booklet ensures the client will be kept in the lap of luxury: What would the clinic’s “VIP guest” like from their stay? The questions tackle travel — CSH offers “first-class or business-class” only — before moving on to which five-star hotel the patient would like to stay in: a city pad, or a rural getaway? Sightseeing options include helicopter trips, yachting, and more. Like many fresh cell clinics, the brochure also gives clients a chance to get a head start on their luxury shopping while in Europe, offering the option to be presented with a range of luxury watches for purchase, as well as cosmetics or antiques. Other clinics go still further, signing partnership deals with the luxury crystal purveyor Swarovski to promote their local stores. It’s all top-of-the-line stuff — but so is the price tag. The deposit alone for treatment at CSH ranges from $7,500 to $15,000, with the rest of the payment required in full before treatment begins. Invoices from other clinics seen by BuzzFeed News show straightforward fresh cell “checkups” costing between $6,000 and $14,500, while a high-end treatment course can cost up to $86,000 or even $100,000. A final draw the clinics use to persuade modern-day high rollers to splash out on the regeneration therapies is to show off an apparently A-list roster of previous clients. Villa Medica’s adverts suggest fresh cell therapy in its initial heyday was used not just by multiple popes — it was certainly used by at least one — but also Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Charlie Chaplin, Audrey Hepburn, and Marilyn Monroe. A selection of supposed beneficiaries of fresh cell therapy Adverts for other clinics claim that more contemporary fresh cell therapy clients include Madonna, Michael Douglas, Rupert Murdoch, and the U.K.’s head of state herself, Queen Elizabeth II. These were claims spokespeople for several of the notables were quick to dismiss. There is “absolutely no truth to this,” said a spokesman for Rupert Murdoch. “Michael has never heard of this company nor has he ever used their products or followed any kind of procedure like they claim,” said Michael Douglas’s spokesman, who added he was consulting counsel over the use of the actor's image in the promotional materials. By longstanding convention, Buckingham Palace never comments on any questions relating to the Queen’s health, but BuzzFeed News understands the palace would never grant permission for her image to be used in such a manner. Multiple requests for comment to Madonna’s representatives were not returned. Some celebrities publicly state, however, that they use cell therapy. Last July actor Michelle Rodriguez posted a photo to Facebook of her and a friend standing outside Villa Medica’s clinic in Germany. Michelle Rodriguez's public Facebook post promoting Villa Medica “I'm here to balance out my body with preventative therapy with techniques that have been used for 80 yrs,” she wrote. “The chief doctor here has been focusing on this method for 30 yrs and so many friends have come to this place with ills and have left it feeling brand new. I'll keep you posted on the therapy results. Just want to share good wholistic [sic] health whenever I can.” BuzzFeed News asked Rodriguez’s representatives if she still supports the treatments, and whether she had received any payment for her endorsement. “We do not comment on our clients’ personal lives,” said a spokeswoman. Villa Medica said it had not paid Rodriguez for her post. The post received more than 79,000 likes. “It sounds like a place I need to be at,” one early commenter wrote. “Please let us know if the treatments work,” replied another. Despite the clinics’ influential friends, their famous clients, their hefty price tags, and the ambitious marketing claims, the treatments they offer — for serious and sometimes terminal medical conditions — may not even be legal in some of the countries where they are performed. A variant of the Swiss People's Party's controversial "black sheep" advertising. If you believe the brochure of CSH, the treatment is not only legal in Switzerland, it’s encouraged. One such pamphlet opens with a smiling message of encouragement from the company’s chairman, a former federal councillor for the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, whose advertising once featured a flock of white sheep kicking a black sheep out of the country. Next, the local town mayor welcomes prospective patients to “one of the world’s most authoritative wellness centres.” The next page shows the smiling photo of the WHO’s director-general, Dr. Margaret Chan, with CSH’s Asia director. “World Health Organization Recommended CSH,” the caption proclaims. The effect is a reassuring one. The WHO director-general's apparent endorsement of CSH The reality is, unsurprisingly, more complicated. Six years before CSH’s photo op with the director-general, the WHO flatly condemned fresh cell therapies. “Animal cells are being injected supposedly to achieve, for example, ‘rejuvenation’ or as unproven ‘treatments’ for a variety of illnesses and complaints,” it stated. “In these unregulated practices, many types of animal cells have been used with little attention to quality, safety, or effectiveness. These types of practices pose unacceptable infectious public health risks and should not be permitted.” A spokesman for the World Health Organization said Dr. Chan had not endorsed the clinic, and they had asked CSH to remove the photo from their website as soon as it was drawn to their attention. He added that while “there is no official WHO position on the subject,” “there is no evidence about [its] efficacy,” and there are “serious concerns about safety.” “Countries such as Switzerland have taken measures to prohibit these practices,” he said. CSH’s brochure seems reassuring about cell therapies’ legal position in Switzerland. It makes a side-by-side comparison of fresh cell therapy with rivals such as plastic surgery or skin care products. While these are merely “legal,” it says, “the Swiss government support” fresh cell therapy. This came as something of a surprise to the country’s medicines regulator, Swissmedic. “Most of these so-called fresh cell therapies are illegal,” spokesman Peter Balzli told BuzzFeed News. “There’s probably 30, 40, 50 clinics in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. They all know that they shouldn’t do that, but if one does and we learn about it we will go after them. “It is extremely popular especially amongst Chinese clients. The clinics are pretty angry with us because we banned these therapies and they’re angry with us.” The clinics continue to operate, he said, because they are savvy in avoiding drawing regulators’ attention. “We do inspections every now and again but it’s very hard to catch them because normally they will do it in a very smart way,” he said. “They will bring the patients to a place nobody knows and so it’s tricky, the enforcement is very complicated.” A statement on the Swissmedic website reiterates this. “To date, the Federal Office of Public Health and Swissmedic have not granted any authorisation, production permit, or other permits for the products used in fresh cell therapy or for their application.” In Germany, by contrast, the treatments appear to be legal, according to the medicines regulator and clinics operating in the country. “In Germany the question whether a manufacturing license is required for a specific drug is usually decided on a state level,” said a spokesman for BMG, Germany’s institute for drugs and medical devices. “If the drug contains cells or tissues of animals, the doctor or the person allowed to practice medicine has a duty of disclosure.” However, he suggested Germany may also be reassessing its rules on these treatments. “The Federal Ministry of Health is currently examining further measures based on new expert reports from the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (Bundesinstitut für Arzneimittel und Medizinprodukte) and the Paul-Ehrlich Institute,” he said. “Unethical, unscientific, and unconscionable” The legal climate for fresh cell clinics is complex. Experts’ verdict on the treatments themselves, though, is not: Every independent expert contacted by BuzzFeed News said the treatments don’t work. Worse still, studies have shown people getting ill or even having fatal immune system reactions after receiving useless fresh cell injections. The warning signs have been around for some time: In 1990, a paper from the American Cancer Society is clear. “There is no scientific evidence that fresh cell therapy is effective in the treatment of cancer,” it states. “In fact, serious side effects can result from fresh cell therapy.” A paper from the same year in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health called the treatment “a cruel and dangerous deception.” “It has no proven benefit,” concluded a 1999 paper in the European Journal of Cancer. It is the rise of — and future hopes for — stem cell technology that seem to have helped fuel the resurgence of fresh cell therapies. Much of the advertising refers to stem cells, helping to draw in international clients thanks to the association. It’s a situation that appalled multiple experts across the world who were contacted by BuzzFeed News. “It is clear that people mingle all cell therapies in their minds,” said Professor Jeanne Loring, a cell researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. “There are cell therapies in clinical trials that are well designed and likely to work for macular degeneration and Parkinson's disease. The key difference is that these therapies are following regulatory guidelines, and seeking approval in the same way that drugs are approved. A promotional video for Villa Medica that, bizarrely, appears to use footage from an unaired advert for the Xbox (click or tap to play an extract) “I strongly advocate for oversight and believe that there should be legal ways to shut down those clinics that are blatantly taking advantage of the desperate by offering worthless, sometimes dangerous treatments.” “Legally, morally, and ethically all health claims need to be supported by sound evidence,” said Professor Edzard Ernst, emeritus professor of complementary medicine at the University of Exeter in the U.K. “These preparations have no such support. “In my view, people who exploit desperate consumers by selling bogus treatments which are not just ineffective but potentially harmful are nothing but charlatans who violate even the most basic principles of medical ethics.” Others warned of the threat to legitimate stem cell research by clinics conflating fresh cell treatments and genuine medical advances. "Several businesses that specialise in advertising fresh cells have begun to use the term ‘stem cell’ in their marketing materials,” said Doug Sipp, a researcher at the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology in Japan. “To my knowledge none of them actually use bona fide stem cells other than whatever might incidentally happen to be in the fetal animal tissue, which is quickly eliminated by the recipient immune system. “To the extent that these businesses cause confusion about what stem cells are and what they are capable of in a clinical context, it can represent a reputational threat to the field.” “‘Fresh cell therapy’ is different than ‘stem cell therapy,’ though I suspect the former is trading on the excitement surrounding the latter,” said Professor Timothy Caufield, Canada research chair in health law and policy. “This is a controversial and entirely science-free therapy...there has been a lot of hype around stem cells and I suspect the ‘fresh cell therapy’ people are just leveraging this noise.” Arthur Caplan, the director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Langone Medical Center, summed up the universal anger this therapy provoked in the experts contacted by BuzzFeed News. “It is a cruel attempt to play on the desperation of the dying by associating quackery with stem cell research,” he said. “Ripping off the sick has a long tradition in the non-mainstream health care world and fresh cell treatments are the latest example of this unethical, unscientific, and unconscionable exploitative behavior.” The risks of the therapy are real. Just last October, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documented a small outbreak of Q fever, a flu-like illness that can take chronic form and cause serious heart and lung problems. People with pre-existing illnesses or weakened immune systems are particularly vulnerable. The CDC found the outbreak among a group of patients who had traveled to Germany in 2014 for fresh cell therapy, though the organization did not state at which clinic. Two groups of U.S. patients a year traveled to the clinic, they said, and had done so for five years. None had been warned that Q fever was a risk of the treatment. For others the consequences are still more severe, as case studies from the 1980s — the last resurgence of popularity for the bogus therapy — show. One of the cases written up for academic literature was that of a 69-year-old woman who collapsed immediately after a fresh cell injection and entered a coma. A week later she developed rapidly worsening paralysis, removing her ability to swallow, and eventually to breathe. Twenty-five days later she was dead. A “healthy” 76-year-old woman died two days after an injection, with an autopsy revealing the same syndrome. The paper concludes the women had an unusual fatal immune system reaction to the foreign cells. Despite the array of experts lined up against fresh and frozen cell treatments, Villa Medica mounted a spirited defense of its techniques. Rainer Klingler, the CEO of Villa Medica Healthcare, told BuzzFeed News the clinic itself and its “general agent” based in Thailand were “legally and commercially independent companies.” He said the clinic now specialized in “freshly frozen” rather than “fresh” cell therapies. “Whereas in the past also our clinic has been injecting fresh cells, we are now only applying freshly frozen cells. This change provides the utmost security for our patients,” he said. “We do not criticize allopathic medicine, never. We are offering an alternative solution and a complementary therapy, supporting in many cases where the traditional medicine was or is not adequately successful in a long run.” He said the treatments offered by his clinic were high quality and safe. “In our practice and in that of our predecessors we have observed in a very small number of cases of allergic reactions as they can occur after any medical treatment,” he said. “Nowhere in medical literature you will find proven cases of side effects of CT [cell therapies] other than allergies. No proven death cases caused by CT have been reported. “You will find of course at some of our competitors examples of lack of quality in production of cell material or negligence in application of cell material.” Klingler said his clinic’s agents were “independent entrepreneurs and independent in their pricing,” and said the clinic’s own pricing was fair. “Our prices are reasonably calculated and do of course consider that we are offering the highest standards in quality of cell material, in hygienic safety for the patient, in accommodation and in aftercare,” he said. “You will find cheaper offers in the same way as you will find cheaper cars than a Mercedes.” He concluded by differentiating fresh cell therapy from frozen cell therapy, and said Q fever was the result of poor hygiene rather than the treatment itself. “I have no reason and I have no intention to defend fresh cell therapy,” he said. “Villa Medica has decided two years ago — for good reasons and for the sake of the patient — to abstain from fresh cell therapy and to move to frozen cell therapy only. “You can compare Q fever with flu: Infection can be transferred by air and you can catch it anywhere like a cold or chickenpox, also in a regular public hospital. During a Q fever epidemic in our region some years ago not one of our patients was infected, which stands for our hygienic standards.” At the time of publication, the Swiss clinic CSH had not returned requests for comment made to any of the listed addresses for its head office in Switzerland, nor its satellite offices in East Asia. None of this has been enough to stop the internet helping fresh cell therapy go truly global. Not only does the web help the Swiss and German clinics attract wealthy foreigners to their clinics, it also allows other companies to sell a pill version of the sheep cells and ship globally. An FCTI promotional poster explaining the treatment's supposed effectiveness against AIDS. One of the biggest players was Labdom, which used to produce a range of pills and injectable fresh cell products under the MF-III and FCTI (Fetal Cells Technology Institute) brands. The MF-III brand has subsequently been sold to a new owner, Nexgen. These brands’ marketing materials make some truly staggering claims. One poster stated that FCTI’s “Fetal Precursor Stem Cell Therapy” has a “>95%” success rate in the “treatment of patients with pre-terminal AIDS." Other posters featured pictures of children with cerebral palsy and autism, offering “stem cell” treatment as “THE SOLUTION” or the “treatment of choice.” FCTI offered several treatments at the time, including some based on the cells of rabbit fetuses. MF-III pills meanwhile, an online listing claimed, could help treat autism, cancer, emphysema, Parkinson’s, depression, heart disease, and dozens of other conditions. They are still available with worldwide shipping, despite not being regulated or approved as medicines in many of the countries they ship to. Among the addresses listed by the company is a central London location. A spokesman reached by BuzzFeed News on the listed phone number in February this year said the company had tried to set up a London shop but had a “nightmare” due to “regulation issues.” As a result, he explained, “We don’t ship any commercial orders to the U.K. but we do have a number of personal orders on a regular basis.” Medical staff in Australia have reported on multiple occasions finding patients had received imports of fresh cell therapy pills. And in America, getting hold of MF-III’s sheep placenta pills is easy: They’re listed on Amazon.com. An Amazon.com listing for MF-III "placenta extract" pills. For $240 plus delivery, you can buy a pack of 30 “ovine placenta extract” pills from the “herbal supplements” section of the site, sold through a third-party reseller. Gone are the claims to treat AIDS and cancer, replaced instead with vaguer promises that the treatment “rejuvenates and regenerates cell growth” and “strengthens the immune system.” A spokeswoman for MF-III said it does not directly sell its treatments online. “MFIII range of supplements do not contain fresh or fresh frozen cells," she told BuzzFeed News. "Only one product under the softgel range contains sheep placenta; which is the MFIII PE Softgel Advanced Formula. “To our knowledge, our official MFIII website, Nexgen BioPharma and associated sites do not have any London address. There may be other websites owned or managed by resellers under which we have no control or knowledge. We do not own any Amazon listings.” She added, “there are no side-effects to date as this is a nutritional supplement.” David Marshall, who described himself as an external management consultant restructuring FCTI, said the company was presently “on hiatus” pending a relaunch “with a new discipline.” He said FCTI does not now offer fresh or frozen cell therapy, instead focusing on treatments using patients’ own cells. Asked about claims about AIDS and other conditions made in previous posters, he said, “Yes, this marketing material exists and is withdrawn pending the relaunch of the business Q2. “I too have queried these claims, and all the claims. My feedback thus far is that the claims were made based on reporting data from the medical practitioners who administered the therapy.” For the treatments’ critics, a brief line tucked away in the “legal disclaimers” section of an MF-III Amazon listing spoke of the effects more starkly. “This product,” it says, “does not diagnose or treat any condition.” James BallSpecial Correspondent, BuzzFeed UK This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations Banksy just posted photos of his latest piece... which IS the stuffed animal truck we were wondering about yesterday The truck—which had the street artist's 1-800 number on it—was spotted around South Brooklyn yesterday afternoon—around 1 p.m Not sure but i think someone was in the truck banging as if the animals were trying to escape." Disturbing indeed—he calls the piece The Sirens Of The Lambs Here's video from when it was first spotted yesterday: today the "slaughterhouse delivery truck [is] touring the meatpacking district," and then will tour citywide We're headed over there now to see if we can spot it and will update with specific current locations here's the video Banksy posted on his YouTube today And don't try tossing any tracking devices inside, as someone seems to have done with the mysterious street artist's other moving target (the waterfall and butterfly truck)—with his latest update he added this addendum: "If you're the person who stuck a tracking device on the garden truck you're now following a car service in Queens." Update 3 p.m.: We visited the truck at Little West 12th Street by Washington Street and we asked the truck driver his name. He replied, "Joe." Last name? "The Farmer." Joe The Farmer couldn't really answer any of our other questions, "I don't really know much, I'm just a driver, a delivery guy. I'm just here delivering meat. Farm fresh meat." He did admit that he didn't know where he was going next, "I just find out along the away." Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor. Ukus has been serving up beloved Balkan dishes in Astoria for more than 20 years. The Bushwick venue said in an Instagram post that it was not able to meet a final inspection deadline. Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily. Gothamist is a website about New York City news can't be changed but with years and years of hard work to redo it.. And in those years you become something different But you're never gonna be the same person you are right now Todd Hayes: Are you assuming I already made a decision by November 9, 2020Source: YouTube then get out of it." Netflix has launched the first official trailer for Mosul an intense action-thriller directed by Matthew Michael Carnahan 21 Bridges) making his feature directorial debut This film premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year and is produced by the Russo Brothers - Joe & Anthony One of their first big non-Marvel projects following all the Avengers movies An extraordinary true story of heroism in the face of overwhelming odds a police unit from Mosul fights to liberate the Iraqi city from thousands of ISIS militants Shot entirely in Arabic - the movie stars Suhail Dabbach (Major Jasem) This looks like one hell of a rough & tumble action movie and I'm so glad they made it without any American actors Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Matthew Michael Carnahan's Mosul, from Netflix's YouTube: Find more posts in: To Watch, Trailer Making this film is decent cultural gesture New comments are no longer allowed on this post Add our RSS to your Feedly +click here+ Latest posts now available on Bluesky: Get the latest posts sent on Telegram Want emails instead?Subscribe to our dailynewsletter updates: More than 500,000 tulip bulbs planted in field Sian © Caroline DutreyOKEt non MP2018 n’a pas fini de régaler les Marseillais on part sur un sentier urbain insolite avec le GR2013 qui nous invite déjà à la deuxième saison de ses 1001 NUITS pas question d’explorer le monde arabe les 1001 NUITS du Bureau des Guides du GR2013 sont plutôt une programmation culturelle organisée entre février et septembre 2018 pour faire voyager les amoureux de culture au travers de rendez-vous insolites à Marseille et dans ses alentours la saison 2 des 1001 NUITS débarque dès ce week-end avec 7 nouvelles choses insolites à voir Assister à un concert électroacoustique 1001 NUITS #8 - Coucher du soleil à 20h44 - PétroleOù Christian Sebille et Philippe Foch invoquent turbines Samedi 5 mai Macap, Aix-en-ProvencePlus d'infos Entendre le récit d'un héros 1001 Nuits #9 - Coucher du soleil à 20h50 – Les 7 ascensions d’ElzearOù Christine Breton et Clémentine Henriot nous emmènent sur les traces de l’ermite Elzear Jeudi 10 mai La Maison Sainte Victoire du plateau du Cengle (Saint-Antonin-sur-Bayon / Beaurecueil)Plus d'infos Admirer une installation au coeur d'un quartier abandonné 1001 Nuits #10 - Coucher du soleil à 20h52 – Le chant du signeOù les tracés d’Alias IPIN naviguent de ruines en ruines en quête d’harmonie Samedi 12 mai Plage de la Romaniquette, IstresPlus d'infos Faire une veillée musicale avec des détenus 1001 Nuits #11 - Coucher du soleil à 20h59 – Les agneaux sont dans labergerieOù Stéphane Massy & la Troupe Secrète nous proposent une rave tendre et un concert sauvage pour humains civilisés.  Samedi 19 maiParc départemental de Saint-Pons, GémenosPlus d'infosDécouvrir le plateau de l'Arbois 1001 Nuits #12 - Coucher du soleil à 21h12 – Nos voisins américainsOù Hendrik Sturm explore et raconte les petits conflits de voisinage avec le camp de soldats américains installé sur le plateau de l’Arbois Samedi 2 juinPlateau de l’Arbois, CabrièsPlus d'infosMarcher 1001 Nuits #13 - Coucher du soleil à 21h20 – Camper sous la bonneétoile MorandatOù Nicolas Mémain et le Collectif Etc. invitent à dessiner à plusieurs la constellation Morandat.Samedi 16 juin Puits Y. Morandat, GardannePlus d'infos Traduire ses sensations lors d'une promenade 1001 Nuits #14 - Coucher du soleil à 21h22 – Une visite de circonstancesOù Mathias Poisson se glisse silencieusement dans le paysage pour souligner le visible et l’invisible à coups de pinceaux tremblants. Samedi 30 juin Village Saint SavourninPlus d'infos La Rédac' OKHommes à barbe : cet article vous est réservé "Ça va barber" est LA solution pour prendre soin de vos poils faciaux et les rendre aussi doux que des agneaux L'idée : des huiles 100% naturelles préparées avec amour dans un labo du 4e qui nourriront et chouchouterons vos barbes les plus rêches et touffues car vous n'êtes peut-être pas au courant mais l'huile est LE produit essentiel à tout mec qui voudrait prendre soin de son outil numéro un de séduction en 2015 : la barbe Tous les 3 ont donc lancé leur petite boite en 2015 pour aider les poilus à redonner un peu de douceur à leur épiderme elle les rend plus forts et hydrate la peau qui sèche en silence en-dessous Histoire d'en rajouter une couche : votre barbe laissera un parfum des plus agréables autour de vous c'est mieux que cette odeur de chien mouillé qui vous était familière Et les produits sont tous fabriqués avec des matières premières issues de l'agriculture biologique vous avez toutes les cartes en main pour que votre toison soit aussi douce que de la soie Louis Vuitton va organiser son prochain défilé.. Ces trois marques célèbres viennent de s'installer dans ce centre commercial à Lyon Tristesse : ce concept unique de vêtements de seconde main ferme ses portes à Lyon