Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: Ecuadorian General Election
Africa News
Election Date: 13/04/2025
Ecuador held general elections on 9 February 2025, with a presidential run-off on 13 April after no candidate secured a majority. Incumbent President Daniel Noboa won the second round with 55.6% of the vote, defeating Luisa González by over 11 percentage points in a rematch. Noboa exceeded expectations with strong youth support. While international observers confirmed the elections were free and fair, González refused to concede, alleging fraud without evidence.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: Cody Balmer, the person charged with setting fire to the Pennsylvania governor’s residence, posted a photo that said “F— Trump.”
In April 2020, a Facebook post from an account that belongs to a "Cody Balmer" shared a photo of a bearded man wearing a face mask with a cigarette stuck in it. The photo didn’t include red text that said "F— Trump," as social media posts claimed. Cody Balmer, 38, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, was named a suspect in the April 13 arson at the Pennsylvania governor’s home. Authorities are still investigating and have not stated a motive in the attack.
Full Fact
False: An audio recording captures the Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, saying he hates Liverpool.
There’s no evidence this is a genuine audio recording. It first circulated in October 2023 and was widely reported as fake at the time. It is speculated that it may have been created by artificial intelligence, though it is unknown.
Snopes
False: In the 2021 book “Value(s),” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote, “Western society is morally rotten and has been corrupted by capitalism.”
Carney did not make such a statement, nor did it appear in his book. "Value(s): Building a Better World for All" was a critique of present-day economic systems in a culture that rejects human values. He called for a rebalancing of “the essential dynamism of capitalism with our broader social goals.”
#Economy
Snopes
False: U.S. President Donald Trump signed a new executive order on April, 8, 2025, that raised the minimum wage to $25 per hour.
The claim that Trump signed a new executive order to raise the federal minimum wage to $25 per hour is false. While there were four executive orders signed on April 8, 2025, according to the White House, none of them were related to minimum wage increases.
PolitiFact
False: The U.S. is “taking in almost $2 billion a day in tariffs.”
President Donald Trump provided no evidence that the U.S. was taking in almost $2 billion a day from his tariffs. The Treasury Department shows a much lower figure. The tariff collection figure might approach $2 billion if the now-paused tariff rates that Trump later rescinded were applied to past trade amounts. But that would assume that trade levels would remain unchanged when tariffs are in effect, which economists say is doubtful. In reality, tariff rates are expected to increase prices, which in turn is expected to decrease imports. This means that any estimate that uses past levels of commerce would produce implausibly high revenue projections.
#Technology
Snopes
False: Keanu Reeves debated Elon Musk about artificial intelligence (AI).
There is no proof that the alleged debate between Reeves and Musk ever happened. The claim appeared to have originated from an AI-generated video on a YouTube channel posting similar videos, all of them about Keanu Reeves and alleged confrontations with other celebrities. There was no credible reporting of the event or authentic — meaning not AI-generated, videos from it. Online AI detectors generally said screenshots and audio from the hourlong video were fake.
#Healthcare
Snopes
False: A Black female doctor denied a white male patient for care because of his "Make America Great Again" hat.
A claim that a Black female doctor denied care to a man wearing a MAGA hat, sparking outrage online. However, the video was staged by actors as part of a skit, with fact-checkers and users pointing out the video's origins, including its mirrored editing and the identification of the actor playing the doctor.
AFP
False: Sodium fluoride is the leading cause of cancer.
A video circulating on Instagram claims sodium fluoride is the leading cause of cancer. The post pegs its evidence on similar unproven claims made by Nigerian televangelist Chris Oyakhilome during a recent broadcast where he described fluoride as “a lethal killer”. However, medical experts and global health authorities — including the World Health Organization (WHO) — say there is no scientific evidence that fluoride causes cancer.
AFP
False: Drinking dandelion tea can be used as a cancer remedy
Experts have dismissed social media posts touting dandelion tea as a cancer cure, saying there is no proof that it is an effective remedy for the condition. They told AFP that patients should consult their doctors before taking any supplements or receiving treatment.
#Conflicts
Newsmeter
False: The video shows police using bombs against protestors during a Waqf Act protest, resulting in the deaths of many Muslims.
The claim is False. Kerala Police used stun grenades and tear gas, not bombs, during the April 9 protest near Calicut Airport. No deaths were reported.
#Nordics
Faktisk
Falsk: Solkrem hjelper ikke mot kreft, det finnes ingen forskning som viser det.
Det er ikke sant at solkrem ikke hjelper mot kreft. Det finnes mange studier som viser at solkrem hjelper mot flere typer hudkreft. Det er sant at overeksponering for solen er et stort problem.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Blue-Ringed Octopus Has Enough Venom to Kill 26 Adult Humans Within Minutes.
The blue-ringed octopus, though small and beautiful, carries a deadly neurotoxin called tetrodotoxin (TTX), which is up to 1,200 times more toxic than cyanide and can kill up to 26 adults within minutes. While these octopuses don’t attack humans unprovoked, they can bite if threatened, causing paralysis and potentially death by asphyxiation—there is no antivenom, but survival is possible with immediate medical care. Found mainly in the southern seas near Australia and Southeast Asia, these creatures are best admired from a distance and never handled.
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