Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: Romanian Presidential Election, Portuguese Parliamentary Election and Polish Presidential Election
The Guardian
Election Date: 18/05/2025
Centrist Nicuşor Dan has won Romania’s presidential election with 54.2% of the vote, defeating far-right candidate George Simion, who disputes the result. In Poland, centrist Rafał Trzaskowski narrowly leads the first round of the presidential election with 30.8%, just ahead of right-wing historian Karol Nawrocki, with a run-off set for 1 June. In Portugal, the centre-right Democratic Alliance has won the most votes in a snap election but failed to secure a majority, while the far-right Chega party surged to a record 22.6%, tying with the Socialists in seat count.
#Healthcare
PolitiFact
False: Former President Joe Biden’s cancer is a form of “turbo cancer” caused by mRNA vaccines.
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines don’t cause cancer or enhance cancer’s progression.Prostate cancer with a Gleason scale score of 9, as former President Joe Biden has, is aggressive and can develop fast, a urology professor said. But that doesn’t mean it’s "turbo cancer."
DW - Deutsche Welle
False: Joe Biden has stage V metastatic cancer.
Joe Biden's prostate cancer was diagnosed with a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5), indicating a very aggressive form, but claims that he has "stage five metastatic cancer" are false, as the TNM system only goes up to stage IV.
Factly
False: NASA has selected an Indian Ayurvedic doctor to study the role of traditional medicine in space travel.
Ayurvedic doctors use a range of techniques to diagnose and treat patients including pulse diagnosis, dietary and lifestyle recommendations, herbal remedies along with detoxification treatments. According to official and credible sources, no such collaboration exists. Moreover, there is no media outlet by the name ‘The Yonk Times’. On 18 May 2025, the fact-checking unit of the Government of India’s Press Information Bureau (PIB) clarified in a post on X (formerly Twitter) that the viral claim is false and that the image being circulated is morphed.
#Politics
Snopes
False: In 2015, then-President Barack Obama accepted a "sky palace" jet as a gift from Qatar.
There is no evidence Obama accepted a jet plane from Qatar in 2015 and a 2016 State Department report of all gifts his administration received from foreign governments did not include such a gift, we rate this claim false.
Agence France-Presse - AFP
False: Pentagon backs S. Korea's conservative presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo.
With two weeks left to South Korea's presidential election, social media users widely shared a video by a right-wing YouTuber falsely claiming the US Department of Defense had endorsed conservative candidate Kim Moon-soo. In fact, the YouTuber had misrepresented remarks from US Forces Korea commander General Xavier Brunson during an interview discussing the region's geopolitical situation. A US official told AFP the claim is "completely untrue".
#Economy
PolitiFact
False: Declining cargo traffic at U.S. ports “means we lose less money. … When you say it's slowed down, that's a good thing.”
A cargo slowdown at U.S. ports would result in job loss for people employed at ports, in transportation and at warehouses. Those losses would radiate outward into the economy, economists say.Consumer goods shortages could result as well, economists warn.Less U.S. spending on imports does not mean the U.S. loses less money. Economists say international trade enables affordable consumer products, and if foreign imports are slashed, consumers will end up paying higher prices and potentially buying less, which would have spiraling effects through the economy.
#Conflicts
StopFake
False: Hungarian Tanks Spotted on Ukraine Border.
A video showing Hungarian tanks and armored vehicles sparked online rumors of military movement toward Ukraine, but it was actually filmed in Budapest on May 11 and showed vehicles returning from a military exhibition at the National University of Public Service. Despite confirmations from OSINT researchers and a military historian, Russian propagandists spread the footage without context to suggest escalating tensions at the Ukrainian border.
Factly
False: Video shows the destruction that took place in Pakistan after India’s attack on a Nuclear facility during Operation Sindoor.
This video has nothing to do with Pakistan. These visuals show the destruction that occurred in Yemen in May 2025 during Israeli airstrikes.
#Technology
PolitiFact
Half-True: “Google caved in to Trump. They erased Black History Month from the calendar.”
Google removed Black History Month from its Google Calendar app. In a statement explaining its decision, the company made no mention of President Donald Trump or political winds. Though news of the change emerged in February, after Trump became president, Google said it made its decision in the middle of 2024.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Kolesterolmedicin er ikke så effektivt som kost og motion.
Et populært Facebook-opslag fra Mie Vendersbo opfordrer folk til at droppe kolesterolmedicin og erstatte den med en sund kost og motion alene. Sundhedseksperter afviser kraftigt Vendersbos Facebook-påstande om, at højt kolesteroltal er gavnligt, og at kolesterolsænkende medicin som statiner giver alvorlige bivirkninger, og advarer om, at det kan være farligt at stoppe med sådan medicin, især for dem, der har risiko for hjertesygdomme. Forskerne påpeger også, at Vendersbos påståede kundesucceshistorier bruger AI-genererede billeder, hvilket sår tvivl om hendes troværdighed og gyldigheden af hendes sundhedsråd.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Walt Disney originally named Mickey Mouse “Mortimer.”
Mickey Mouse was originally going to be named "Mortimer," but Walt Disney changed it to "Mickey" at his wife Lillian’s suggestion, a story confirmed by the Walt Disney Family Museum and multiple sources. The name change is documented in Walt’s own interviews and in his biography Disney: An American Original. Mortimer Mouse later appeared as Mickey’s rival in the 1936 cartoon Mickey’s Rival and has since featured in other Disney shows and films.
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