Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: 2025 Greenlandic general election
BBC News
Election Date: 11/03/2025
Greenland held general elections on 11 March 2025, with the opposition Democrats winning a plurality of ten seats in the 31-member Inatsisartut. The election centered on independence, but after U.S. president-elect Donald Trump renewed interest in purchasing Greenland, Prime Minister Múte Bourup Egede downplayed immediate independence, emphasizing reforms in Danish-Greenlandic relations instead.
#Politics
PolitiFact
Half True: Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is “polling very well. It’s very popular.”
Of seven polls taken since mid-February, one, by Harvard-Harris, found 72% support a government agency focused on efficiency, but the question didn’t specifically ask about DOGE. The Harvard-Harris poll also found 60% saying DOGE "is helping make major cuts," without asking if respondents supported those cuts. Two other polls found a divided opinion on DOGE, and four found DOGE and Elon Musk to attract more opposition than support.
Snopes
True: U.S. President Donald Trump posted a link on Truth Social that displayed a symbol Nazis used to identify gay men in concentration camps.
Trump posted a link to an article, which displayed a preview of the featured illustration of an upside-down pink triangle with a red slash through it. It was not clear whether he read the article or knew what the illustration depicted or symbolized.
Lead Stories
False: Trump established March as Women's History Month.
The formal observation of Women's History Month was started by Congress in 1987, an expansion of the previous statute designating Women's History Week. Part of the resolution reads: "The President is requested to issue a proclamation calling upon the people of the United States to observe such month with appropriate ceremonies and activities." On March 6, 2025, Trump signed the 2025 "Women's History Month" proclamation, as have seven presidents before him.
#Conflicts
Full Fact
False: Ukrainian soldiers are faking combat to appear "war torn" to receive US funds.
Clips from a music video filmed in Ukraine on 24 February 2025 are being falsely claimed on social media to show Ukrainian soldiers faking combat to secure U.S. aid, following President Donald Trump’s pause on military assistance. Fact-checkers confirmed the footage features Ukrainian police officer Mariana Checheliuk and was shared by the creator Vitsikkkk, who debunked the false claims, stating the clips were from the song Brothers by Misha Skorpion & Vitsyk.
Reuters
Mostly False: Zelenskiy signing bombs ‘to be dropped on Gazans’.
Social media posts falsely claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro signed live artillery shells destined for Gaza, when in reality, the video from September 22, 2024, shows them signing display-only shells at a U.S. munitions factory producing weapons for Ukraine. Fact-checkers confirmed the shells were never filled or placed into inventory, and the misleading claims surfaced after President Donald Trump’s tense meeting with Zelenskiy on February 28, 2025, and amid discussions of a U.S. arms sale to Israel.
#Economy
Snopes
True: A liquor store in Ontario, Canada removes American liquor bottles from its shelves in response to U.S.-imposed tariffs.
In March 2025, a video from Kitchener, Ontario, authentically showed an LCBO employee removing U.S. liquor from store shelves in response to tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump on Canadian goods. The Ontario government pulled 3,600 U.S. alcohol products from LCBO stores as retaliation, with multiple videos confirming the removals across the province.
PolitiFact
False: During President Joe Biden’s four years in office, “31% of U.S. job growth” came from public-sector jobs.
During former President Joe Biden’s time in office, 11% of job gains were in the public sector, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows.
Snopes
Half True: The government of Canada charges 250% tariffs on U.S. dairy products imported into Canada.
Canada can charge high tariffs — up to 298.5% — on U.S. dairy products. However, this tariff rate does not apply to all dairy products imported into Canada from the U.S. Rather, the higher rate only applies when imports exceed a pre-agreed-upon quota.
PolitiFact
False: The number of full-time jobs was dropping almost the entire Biden administration.
Whether counting from the beginning of former President Joe Biden’s term or from June 2022, when U.S. employment returned to its prepandemic level, the number of full-time jobs increased on Biden’s watch. The number of part-time jobs also rose during Biden’s tenure, largely driven by an increase in workers who chose part-time work because they preferred it.
#Technology
PolitiFact
False: Apple quietly removed International Women’s Day from their calendar app.
Apple did not remove International Women’s Day from its calendar app. The holiday never was featured there, the company said.
#Nordics
FactCheck.org
False: Consuming cod liver oil and two other non-standard medications are effective treatments for measles.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has misleadingly promoted vitamin A, cod liver oil, a steroid (budesonide), and an antibiotic (clarithromycin) as measles treatments, despite a lack of evidence supporting their effectiveness. While vitamin A can help in cases of deficiency, experts emphasize that vaccination remains the safest and most effective way to prevent measles, and the CDC, Texas health officials, and medical professionals do not endorse Kennedy’s suggested treatments.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Grønlands statsminister, Múte B. Egede, sagde: »Hold dine beskidte hænder væk fra vores land. Grønland er frit og vil forblive frit.« til Elon Musk.
En falsk profil på de sociale medier, der udgiver sig for at være Grønlands statsminister, Múte B. Egede, er dukket op igen få dage før det grønlandske valg og har spredt vildledende indlæg om forholdet til USA og NATO, som mange brugere, herunder eksperter, har opfattet som ægte. Eksperter advarer om, at sådanne efterligninger kan vildlede vælgerne og det internationale publikum**, især fordi folk i stigende grad bruger de sociale medier til at få politisk information.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
True: New Zealand can join Australia as a state if desired.
New Zealand took part in early Australian Federation conferences but had little interest in becoming part of Australia and did not attend the drafting of the Australian Constitution. However, The Australian Constitution allows New Zealand to join as a state under covering clause 6 and Section 121. Despite close ties between the two nations, New Zealand has remained independent. As non-Australian citizens, New Zealanders cannot vote in Australian elections.
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