Latest news with #TruthSeekersConference
The Guardian
28-04-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: President says he wants Putin ‘to stop shooting' after talks with Zelenskyy
Donald Trump appears to have warmed to Volodymyr Zelenskyy after the two presidents met at the Vatican, with the US leader emerging from talks with a plea for Vladimir Putin: 'stop shooting'. Trump on Sunday said Zelenskyy 'wants to do something good' for Ukraine and is 'working hard', adding he was also 'surprised and disappointed' that Russia continued to strike Ukraine after discussions between his peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, and Putin. Asked what he wants Putin to do, Trump replied: 'Well, I want him to stop shooting,' he told reporters. 'Sit down and sign the deal. We have the confines of a deal, I believe, and I want him to sign it and be done with it.' While speaking to reporters, Trump hinted at a two-week deadline to strike or at least make progress on a peace deal. Trump has previously threatened to walk away from negotiations if a swift agreement is not reached. When asked if he trusted Putin, Trump replied, 'I'll let you know in about two weeks.' Pressed to elaborate on what he expects to happen in two weeks, he evaded the question. 'Two weeks or less,' he said, vaguely, 'but you know they're losing a lot of people. We have 3, 4,000 people dying every week.' Read the full story More than 300 law enforcement officers from at least 10 federal agencies raided an illegal after-hours nightclub in Colorado Springs early on Sunday, arresting more than 100 people authorities said were undocumented immigrants and seizing guns, cocaine, meth and pink cocaine. More than a dozen active-duty military members were detained as well, authorities said. The federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) posted a video on X of the post-raid scene, with dozens of partygoers holding their hands up. Another video showed dozens of people fleeing the building through its entrance after federal agents smashed a window. Read the full story The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, said 'there is a path' to an agreement with China over tariffs after he had interactions with his Chinese counterparts last week in Washington, but he continued to defend Trump's trade plan as 'strategic uncertainty' amid accusations the White House was sending mixed signals over its policy. Read the full story Trump's private golf resort in South Florida will next week host one of the world's leading purveyors of chlorine dioxide, a potentially life-threatening form of industrial bleach that is claimed without evidence to be a cure for cancer, Covid and autism. Andreas Kalcker is among 50 listed speakers at the 'Truth Seekers Conference', a two-day event opening on Thursday at the US president's resort, Trump National Doral Miami. The event features several anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists who have been brought together by the far-right commentator Charlie Ward. Read the full story House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries and New Jersey senator Cory Booker were holding a sit-in protest and discussion on Sunday on the steps of the US Capitol in opposition to the Republicans' proposed budget plan. Billed as an 'Urgent Conversation with the American People', the livestreamed discussion comes before Congress's return to session on Monday, where Democrats hope to stall Republicans' economic legislative agenda. Read the full story Two suspects have been arrested in connection with the theft last week of the US homeland security secretary Kristi Noem's purse as she ate at a Washington DC restaurant, officials said on Sunday. Noem's purse was nabbed on Easter Sunday and reportedly contained about $3,000 in cash and her keys, driver's license, passport and homeland security badge. The homeland security department said Noem had cash in her purse to pay for gifts, dinner and other activities for her family on Easter. Read the full story Anti-Trump 'hands off' protests grew from tens of thousands of people on 5 February to millions around the country by April. Demonstrations on 19 April were also well attended nationwide. 'It's gone from a trickle to a tidal wave really quickly,' said Hunter Dunn, national press coordinator for the movement 50501, short for 50 protests, 50 states, one day. Here's how the movement grew. Read the full story Trump said he would restore Columbus Day in full and shirk Joe Biden's practice of celebrating an Indigenous People's Day in parallel to the public holiday. 'I'm bringing Columbus Day back from the ashes,' he wrote on social media, accusing Democrats of trying to 'destroy Christopher Columbus, his reputation, and all of the Italians that love him so much.' Americans anxious about their country's slide into authoritarianism found some solace in the past week over what appears to be growing pushback by American universities against Trump's assault on higher education. Environmental conservation groups are expressing major concerns over Trump's recent proclamation to reverse fishing regulations across the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine national monument, a federally protected area in the central Pacific Ocean spanning nearly 500,000 sq miles. Catching up? Here's what happened on 26 April 2025.
Indian Express
27-04-2025
- Health
- Indian Express
Author who said bleach cures Covid, cancer to speak at Donald Trump's private golf resort
US President Donald Trump's private golf resort in Florida is set to host a speaker who promotes the use of industrial bleach as a cure for cancer, Covid, and autism, The Guardian has reported. Andreas Kalcker, a German citizen believed to live in Switzerland, will be one of about 50 speakers at the 'Truth Seekers Conference' starting Thursday at Trump National Doral Miami. The event will bring together several anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists and is organised by far-right commentator Charlie Ward. Kalcker markets a product called 'CDS', short for chlorine dioxide solution, which he admits is a disinfectant. He claims it can 'eliminate pathogens' that cause disease and has described it as 'possibly the greatest medical discovery of the last 100 years', according to The Guardian. Also read | Why spraying bleach on mould can 'create one of the most a toxic mixtures' (and what you should do instead) However, health officials in the United States and Spain have strongly warned against it. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has said chlorine dioxide is effectively no different from drinking bleach and can cause life-threatening side effects like dehydration, diarrhoea, and kidney damage. Kalcker's appearance at the conference highlights how dangerous alternative health claims have been growing during Trump's second term in office. Trump's controversial decision to appoint Robert Kennedy Jr, a known vaccine sceptic, as head of the Department of Health and Human Services, has already worried many health experts. Kennedy, who used to lead the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, praised Trump's pandemic response and said he had looked at 'all of the different remedies including even chlorine dioxide'. He also spoke about treating measles outbreaks with cod liver oil and praised doctors who allegedly 'healed' hundreds of measles cases with inhaled steroids – all without evidence. Kennedy's comments helped clarify a puzzling moment from Trump's first term when he famously suggested using disinfectant 'by injection' to fight Covid during a White House briefing in April 2020. Since Trump's return to the White House, there has been a sharp increase in government censorship of science information. Several public health websites have been taken offline, including an FDA page warning that chlorine dioxide is a 'powerful bleach typically used for industrial water treatment'. However, a 2019 press release warning against the chemical can still be found online. Kalcker has built a wide customer base across Latin America and sells his product using scientific-sounding language. He calls himself 'Dr Kalcker' and claims to specialise in 'electromolecular medicine'. He also runs a training centre promoting claims that chlorine dioxide can cure autism, Parkinson's disease, and vaccine injuries, though none of these claims are supported by evidence. Fiona O'Leary, a campaigner against pseudoscience and mother of autistic children, told The Guardian: 'Kalcker presents himself as a doctor, is very clever, and has created a product that sounds and looks plausible. But at the same time he is promoting the lunatic idea that autism is caused by parasites.' Kalcker faced legal trouble in Argentina in 2021, when he was investigated and charged after the death of a five-year-old boy whose parents gave him chlorine dioxide. At the Trump Doral event, Kalcker is expected not only to speak but also to sell books promoting his product. Trump's resort to ask if it was appropriate to host such an event, but no response was received. Charlie Ward, who organised the conference, is known for spreading conspiracy theories and is an associate of Trump's son, Eric Trump. In 2022, he controversially claimed that 'more people have been killed by the jab than were killed in the Holocaust', The Guardian reported.
The Guardian
27-04-2025
- Health
- The Guardian
Trump golf club to host speaker who claims bleach can cure cancer and Covid
Donald Trump's private golf resort in South Florida will next week host one of the world's leading purveyors of chlorine dioxide, a potentially life-threatening form of industrial bleach that is claimed without evidence to be a cure for cancer, Covid and autism. Andreas Kalcker is among 50 listed speakers at the 'Truth Seekers Conference', a two-day event opening on Thursday at the US president's resort, Trump National Doral Miami. The event features several anti-vaxxers and other conspiracy theorists who have been brought together by the far-right commentator Charlie Ward. Kalcker, a German national thought to be living in Switzerland, markets the bleach under the brand name 'CDS', for chlorine dioxide solution. His online brochures claim that the toxic chemical, which he admits is a disinfectant, can 'eliminate pathogens' that cause disease. He boasts it is 'possibly the greatest medical discovery of the last 100 years'. Government health authorities in the US and Spain have denounced the remedy as fraudulent, saying it is no different from drinking bleach. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that it can cause serious and even life-threatening side-effects, including dehydration, diarrhoea and kidney injury. Kalcker's appearance at Thursday's conference is the latest indication that potentially dangerous alternative health approaches are being emboldened and are proliferating during Trump's second term in the White House. The US president's choice of the prominent vaccine skeptic, Robert Kennedy Jr, to head the Department of Health and Human Services has spread alarm through medical circles. Kennedy, who until 2023 led the anti-vaccine group Children's Health Defense, has talked about treating the current measles outbreak in Texas with cod liver oil. He also praised without any evidence two doctors in Texas whom he claimed had 'healed' 300 children with measles using the inhaled steroid budesonide. At his confirmation hearings for the health secretary job, Kennedy directly mentioned chlorine dioxide. He praised Trump's handling of pandemic, saying the president had not only speeded up the search for a Covid vaccine but had looked at 'all of the different remedies including … even chlorine dioxide'. Kennedy's remark helped solve one of the enduring mysteries of Trump's first term. In April 2020, early in the pandemic, he astonished medical scientists around the world by advocating the use of 'disinfectant' as a treatment for Covid. At a White House press conference, Trump said: 'I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?' Kennedy's confirmation comments clarified that Trump was indeed referring to chlorine dioxide, a toxin that been falsely claimed as a 'miracle cure' for autism, cancer, malaria and HIV/Aids. Since Trump re-entered the White House in January his new administration has overseen an unprecedented censorship of government information relating to science. Several federal public health websites and databases have gone dark. The FDA website page that describes chlorine dioxide as a 'powerful bleach typically used for industrial water treatment', and warning that it can be life threatening, has been taken down and replaced with a 'page not found' notice. However, a press release from 2019 publicizing an FDA announcement on the dangers of chlorine dioxide can still be found on the FDA website. It states: 'The US Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers not to purchase or drink a product sold online as a medical treatment due to a recent rise in reported health issues. Chlorine dioxide products, when mixed, develop into a dangerous bleach which has caused serious and potentially life-threatening side effects.' The main distributor of 'miracle cure' bleach in the US, Mark Grenon, was sentenced to five years in prison for selling an 'unapproved and misbranded drug' in October 2023. His sons Jonathan and Jordan Grenon were sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison. Kalcker is one of the most prominent peddlers of the bleach remedy. He has had success selling chlorine dioxide through many Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Mexico. He wraps his product in pseudo-scientific language, calling himself Dr Kalcker and claiming he is a specialist in 'electromolecular medicine'. He has set up what he calls a training institute, and claims without evidence that his products can lead to 'recovery' from autism, dramatic improvement in Parkinson's disease, and healing from 'vaccine damage'. 'Kalcker presents himself as a doctor, is very clever, and has created a product that sounds and looks plausible. But at the same time he is promoting the lunatic idea that autism is caused by parasites,' said Fiona O'Leary, a campaigner against pseudoscience who has autistic children. In 2021, Kalcker was investigated by Argentinian authorities and charged with falsely promoting bleach as a medical cure following the death of a five-year-old boy who had been given chlorine dioxide by his parents. In addition to promoting his remedy on stage at Trump's Doral resort, Kalcker will be selling books about his bleach product at a vendor stall. The Guardian asked Trump's resort whether it was appropriate to allow its space to be used to promote a potentially dangerous bleach remedy, but received no immediate reply. The organiser of the Doral conference, Charlie Ward, is an associate of the president's son, Eric Trump. He has promoted a number of conspiracy theories including QAnon. In a speech in 2022 recorded by the monitoring group Media Matters he downplayed the Holocaust, saying that fewer people had died as a result of it than through vaccines. 'More people have been killed by the jab than were killed in the Holocaust,' he said.
