First Patient Dosed With Experimental Cancer-Killing Virus in New Trial

Scientists dosed the first patient this week in a small clinical trial of an experimental cancer treatment—one that relies on a novel kind of ally. The treatment uses a virus engineered to selectively kill cancer cells, while also amplifying the body’s immune response to the cancer. The hope is that this therapy can help those with advanced solid tumor cancers, in combination with other existing drugs.

The CF33-hNIS virus, also called Vaxinia, was originally created by researchers at the City of Hope National Medical Center in California. It’s now being jointly developed with the company Imugene Limited.

Vaxinia is billed as an oncolytic virus, meaning it prefers to target and infect tumor cells. Scientists have been hopeful about using these kinds of viruses to directly kill off cancer cells for more than a century, but with limited success so far. In recent years, some teams have decided to explore a slightly different plan of attack. This genetically modified virus not only infects and harms cancer cells, but also forces these cells to become more recognizable to the immune system.

This strategy, the researchers hope, will then allow other treatments that also boost our immune response to cancer cells to be more effective, particularly against hard-to-target solid tumors. These treatments are collectively known as immunotherapy. In early animal and lab experiments, the virus has been shown to reduce the size of colon, lung, breast, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer tumors.

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‘We Will Come for Your Family’: Child Victim Threatened by Cops for Reporting the Mayor Raped Him

Contrary to what many disinformation agents will lead you to believe child sex abuse is not reserved to the the Deep State, Democratic party, and Hollywood. Republicans are regularly caught committing the same acts and as we’ve shown, there is no difference between a blue child rapist and a red one.

What’s more, while elite politicians are caught committing these child sex crimes like former Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, the scope of the problem is far greater. A potential reason this problem has reached epidemic proportions is the lack of punishment these monsters face after hurting children and law enforcement’s role in failing to prosecute or even investigate the predators.

Our archives are full of cops who escape accountability for preying on children. One could easily chock this up to their blue privilege and many times it is. But what about the cops who look the other way when their political superiors are doing the preying?

As the Free Thought Project has previously reported, the problem of child sex trafficking goes all the way to the top in the UK as well. Sir Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom was found by the police chief to be a pedophile. Just like what happens in the US, his vile crimes against children were allegedly covered up by law enforcement for decades.

One victim recently came forward to detail his chilling accusations of his treatment by police when he reported that he’d been abused by a convicted UK politician, John Humphreys.

Humphreys is currently serving a 21-year sentence that was handed down last August for raping two young boys when he served as a primary school governor — a job similar to a school board superintendent in the states.

His sentence should have come much sooner, according to a former victim of his, but police officers from the Devon and Cornwall police departments helped cover it up. Not only did these officers allegedly cover up the crimes of Humphreys but they threatened the victim after he came forward.

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He Heckled a District Attorney on TV. Now He Faces 10 Years Behind Bars.

On Wednesday morning, Joao DePina will walk into a Massachusetts courthouse to learn whether he could face the possibility of spending a decade behind bars.

His alleged crime? Heckling a district attorney from afar during a live press conference.

DePina repeatedly interrupted then-Suffolk County D.A. Rachael Rollins during a November press conference to criticize Rollins’ professional and personal behavior. His shouts were picked up on local news broadcasts, and Rollins paused on several occasions to ask DePina to stop interrupting her attempt to give an update on two cops who had been shot earlier that day. DePina also livestreamed his tirade, during which he criticized Rollins’ nomination to be a U.S. attorney (she was confirmed to the post in December, becoming the first black woman to be U.S. attorney for Massachusetts).

While DePina’s behavior during the press conference was clearly uncivil and rude, prosecutors say it’s also criminal. DePina was charged in November with one count of witness intimidation in connection to his antics at Rollins’ press conference. He could face between 2.5 and 10 years in prison if convicted.

“This is the most grossly unconstitutional thing I have seen in my entire career,” Marc Randazza, a free speech attorney who is representing DePina, tells Reason. “If the First Amendment means anything, Joao walks free.”

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Slave descendants question Georgetown’s $1 billion reparations fund

A year after the Jesuit university announced the reparation fund, descendants of slaves owned by Georgetown have questions

Descendants of slaves owned by the Jesuit religious order and Georgetown University have questions about where the money raised for reparations has gone.

The Catholic university first announced in April 2021 the plans to raise $1 billion to make reparations, though not individual payments, to atone for the Jesuits’ past ownership and sale of slaves. The Jesuits had a goal to raise $100 million in the short-term, according to the initial announcement.

A year later, the descendants of some of the 272 slaves want to know how the money has been spent.

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Iraqi Man in Ohio Charged in Plot to Murder Former President George W. Bush

An Iraqi man living in Columbus, Ohio, has been charged by federal authorities for allegedly plotting to smuggle foreign nationals into the United States as part of a plot to assassinate former President George W. Bush.

Agents from the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force arrested Shihab Ahmed Shihab Shihab, 52, Tuesday morning. He appeared in federal court at 2:30 p.m. and his case was unsealed at that time, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Authorities caught Shihab in a sting set up under the direction of the FBI.

In August 2021, Shihab allegedly intended to help who he thought was an Iraqi citizen enter the country for a $40,000 fee.

“Shihab provided specific instructions on how he would smuggle the person into the United States after 60 days. In October and December 2021, Shihab accepted tens of thousands of dollars for the purported smuggling. In reality, the individual was fictitious, and the interaction was coordinated under the direction of the FBI,” the DOJ said in a release.

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