Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: Croatian Presidential Election
Politico
Election Date: 12/01/2025
The Croatian presidential election was held on 29 December 2024, with a second round scheduled for 12 January 2025, as no candidate achieved an outright majority. Incumbent President Zoran Milanović is running for a second term as an independent backed by the Social Democratic Party and other center-left parties, while Dragan Primorac, nominated by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), is considered his main rival. The election features eight candidates, with campaigns highlighting issues such as corruption, economic challenges, and national sovereignty.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: 22 states will not be certifying the 2024 US Presidential Election.
All 50 states certified the presidential election and Jan. 6, Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 presidential election.
CNN
False: Trump said “European Union: We have a trade deficit of $350 billion.”
The claim that the European Union doesn't "take anything" from the US is false. In 2023, the US exported $368 billion in goods to the EU, with a trade deficit of about $209 billion in goods (excluding services). The EU is the second-largest market for US vehicle exports, importing over 271,000 cars in 2022, and it was the fifth-largest market for US agricultural products in 2022.
PolitiFact
False: President Joe Biden rescinded a Medal of Freedom given to Trump’s “campaign manager, Bradley Birkenfeld, in 2021.”
An AI chatbot inaccurately claimed President Biden rescinded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Bradley Birkenfeld, a whistleblower and felon, in 2021. Birkenfeld never received the medal, was not Trump’s campaign manager, and no president has ever revoked this honor.
Factly
False: Video shows Rahul Gandhi praising Prime Minister Modi for his accomplishments over the past 10 years and admitting he couldn’t match his level of work.
The audio in the viral video has been manipulated using AI. In the original video, Rahul Gandhi spoke at the London think tank, Chatham House, during his 10-day visit to the UK in March 2023. During the conversation, he discussed various national and international topics, but at no point did he praise PM Modi for his accomplishments over the past 10 years or admit that he couldn’t match his level of work. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
#Conflicts
USA Today
False: Video shows Palestinians attacking Bethlehem church with guns in December 2024.
A Dec. 27, 2024, Facebook post shows a chaotic and noisy scene on a street, with people shouting and throwing stones as emergency sirens sound in the background. The video is from late October 2022, not December 2024, and was recorded outside of a church in Beit Sahour, a small town near Bethlehem. There is no evidence that the men used guns as the post claims.
#Technology
Lead Stories
False: Multiple UFOs spotted in the skies over Alaska today.
The UFO video was originally posted on YouTube in October 2023 and the account it came from features computer-generated imagery sourced from video games and flight simulators. Although this video did not carry a specific disclaimer when posted on YouTube, similar videos from this creator do have disclaimers.
#Healthcare
Lead Stories
False: CoQ10 is a proven treatment for preventing Alzheimer and Parkinson disease.
Neurologists has stated that it is "false" to say that CoQ10 can prevent either disease. While some studies have explored the antioxidant's potential benefits, experts said that results are not clear enough to prove that CoQ10 prevents either Alzheimer's or Parkinson's diseases.
Lead Stories
False: A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study finds children who received the Pfizer covid vaccine are more likely to get covid infection than unvaccinated.
The study of children aged six months to four years found there was not a big difference in infection rates, especially for those who hadn't had COVID before, but that is not the same as a finding that vaccination increases infection risk. The study also noted that COVID vaccines are recommended to prevent serious illness.
PolitiFact
False: “There's never been a placebo-controlled study on childhood vaccines.”
Vaccine skeptics often narrowly define a "placebo" as only water or saltwater, though the FDA recognizes a broader range of safe substances for vaccine trials. Even by this narrow definition, some childhood vaccines have been tested with saline placebos, making Johnson’s claim inaccurate. New vaccines are sometimes tested against existing ones for the same disease, as experts say it would be unethical to leave children unknowingly at risk of preventable illnesses.
#PopCulture
Snopes
True: President-elect Donald Trump once played tennis with tennis star Serena Williams.
Trump briefly played Williams in April 2015 to mark the opening of a Trump-backed tennis facility. Multiple reputable news outlets documented the moment, publishing videos of the volley from several angles. However, the specific origin of footage in several social media posts that circulated in late 2024 was unknown.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Sandt: Danmark kan ikke lovligt sælge Grønland til USA.
Eksperter bekræfter, at Danmark ikke kan sælge Grønland, da det vil være i strid med den grønlandske selvstyrelov og international lov. Grønlænderne har alene ret til at beslutte deres fremtid, herunder uafhængighed eller tilslutning til et andet land. Hvis Grønland ønsker at slutte sig til USA, skal det først blive en selvstændig stat, før der kan forhandles om en aftale.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Sink-Toilet Combinations Common in Japan.
In June 2021, a Reddit post highlighted a Japanese toilet design featuring a hand sink on top, where water used for washing hands is reused for flushing. These sink-toilet combos, available for under $100, are easy to install and conserve water, appealing for small spaces and lowering utility costs. Popularized in Japan post-WWII due to limited space and resource efficiency, they remain a practical and eco-friendly innovation.
Sign up to test the new release of the Factiverse AI Editor
Factiverse is planning to release a new version of our AI editor in the coming months and we are looking for feedback from dedicated users.
Sign up here to access the beta and help enhance real-time fact-checking!
Check out the Factiverse Blog
Want to know more about the world of misinformation and fact-checking? If so, make sure to out the Factiverse Blog! We explore these topics to give our readers a better understanding of these topics while also giving guidelines on how organisations can protect themselves. Click here to look at our list of posts.