Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: 2025 Tajik parliamentary election
Asia Plus
Election Date: 2/03/2025
Tajikistan's President Emomali Rahmon has set March 2, 2025, for elections to the Majlisi Namoyandagon (lower house of parliament) and local councils, while elections to the Majlisi Milli (upper house) will be held on March 28, 2025. The Majlisi Namoyandagon consists of 63 members, with 41 elected in single-member constituencies and 22 through proportional representation with a 5% electoral threshold.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: Pope Francis died as of Feb. 23, 2025.
Pope Francis was alive as of Feb. 24, 2025, though he remained hospitalized in critical condition.
Euronews
False: Zelenskyy has been banned Trump's Truth Social platform.
Claims that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy banned Donald Trump's Truth Social platform are false. Truth Social has never been available in Ukraine, as confirmed by both the platform's representatives and the Ukrainian government, which has expressed interest in having the service accessible in the country.
Reuters
False: Zelenskiy's latest approval rating is 4%.
Despite Donald Trump’s claim that Volodymyr Zelenskiy has only a 4% approval rating, a Kyiv International Institute of Sociology poll shows 63% of Ukrainians approve of their president. The survey, conducted between November 2024 and January 2025, found that 26.1% “completely approve” and 36.9% “tend to approve” of Zelenskiy’s actions.
PolitiFact
False: Elon Musk just ordered all federal workers to be tested for drugs and those that fail have 30 days to retest clean or be fired.
Presidential adviser Elon Musk has not issued any directive ordering all federal workers to get drug tested. The claim likely originated from Musk’s comment to a post calling for such a directive. Musk said it was a "great idea."Federal workers are already subject to drug screenings, including during the initial hiring stage and through random selection.
#Conflicts
Reuters
False: Zelensky started the war with Ukraine's war with Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly blamed Ukraine for the war he initiated with the invasion on February 24, 2022, a claim echoed by Donald Trump, who suggested Ukraine could have prevented the conflict by making a deal. However, extensive evidence, including news reports, video footage, and UN documentation, confirms Russia’s unprovoked attack, with Putin falsely justifying it as a mission to "demilitarize and denazify" Ukraine—claims that were named PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year in 2022.
#Economy
PolitiFact
Half-True: The single biggest driver of our national debt since 2001 has been Republican tax cuts.
A 2024 Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget analysis found that tax cuts were the biggest of four types of legislation that have added to the federal debt since 2001. The analysis also showed that two other types of legislation trailed close behind tax cuts in fiscal impact: large stimulus bills and annual spending increases. The analysis concluded that several of the five tax cut bills since 2001 also had buy-in from congressional Democrats who voted for them or a Democratic president who signed them.
Time Magazine
False: Millions of dead people receive social security checks.
The Trump administration, backed by Elon Musk, has falsely claimed that tens of millions of centenarians are improperly receiving Social Security benefits, though reports show most improper payments are due to overpayments to living recipients and amount to less than 1% of total benefits. Experts warn that exaggerating such issues misleads the public into believing Social Security’s financial challenges can be solved without structural changes like tax increases or benefit adjustments.
Euronews
False: France's pensions system costing €55 billion a year.
Prime Minister François Bayrou's claim that France's pension system is costing €55 billion annually has been contradicted by a report from the Court of Auditors, which projects the deficit will reach €15 billion by 2035 and €30 billion by 2045. The 2023 pension reform temporarily stabilizes the deficit at around €5 billion for the next five years, but further measures are needed to address the growing shortfall.
#Disasters
Newschecker
False: Video shows earthquake in New Dehli.
A Google Lens search on the keyframes of the viral video led to a YouTube post by @Jukinmedia, dated February 16, 2021, carrying the same footage with the caption, “Water Spills Out of Bathtub as it Shakes Rigorously During Earthquake in Japan”
#Healthcare
Reuters
False: Switzerland has banned mammograms.
Switzerland has not banned mammograms, despite false online claims, and the country continues to recommend breast cancer screenings for women aged 50 and older through organized programmes in many cantons. While mammograms carry a small risk of false positives and radiation exposure, studies show their benefits in reducing breast cancer deaths significantly outweigh the risks.
Africa Check
False: Pills formulated with all-natural ingredients cure prostate cancer.
Several Facebook posts are promoting "Procanxa" pills with claims they cure prostate cancer. However, a medical expert says this product should not be trusted. Kuranga Sulaiman Alege, a professor of urology at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria explained that no such product could cure prostate cancer or enlargement.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Halvt sandt: Det er ulovligt at benægte, at holocaust fandt sted.
Medlem af Københavns Borgerrepræsentation Kashif Ahmad hævdede, at holocaustbenægtelse er ulovlig i Danmark, og sammenlignede det med begrænsninger af ytringsfriheden i henhold til koranloven og racismeparagraffen. Juridiske eksperter præciserer dog, at Danmark ikke har en specifik lov mod holocaustbenægtelse. Det er kun strafbart, hvis det udtrykkes i en truende eller racistisk sammenhæng i henhold til de eksisterende love om hadefuld tale.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Michael Jackson filed a patent for 'Anti-Gravity Illusion Shoes'.
Michael Jackson, along with Michael L. Bush and Dennis Tompkins, patented "anti-gravity illusion shoes" (US5255452A) in 1992, designed to create the illusion of defying gravity by engaging with a hitch mechanism on a specially equipped stage. Previously, Jackson achieved the effect using cables and a harness, but the patented shoes allowed for seamless execution during live performances. The patent includes detailed drawings of the shoes, their fastening mechanism, and their use in performances, and the National Archives Store even sells a magnet set featuring the invention.
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