Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: South Korean Presidential Election
BBC News
Election Date: 03/06/2025
South Korea held an early presidential election on June 3, 2025, after the impeachment and removal of President Yoon Suk Yeol, with Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung defeating rivals Kim Moon-soo and Lee Jun-seok. The election saw a high voter turnout of 79.38%, with key campaign issues including the 2024 martial law crisis, economic concerns, political polarization, and social challenges like gender equality and the fertility rate.
#TrumpCheck
Snopes
True: President Donald Trump said not to feel sorry for Joe Biden shortly after the announcement of Biden's cancer diagnosis, calling him "vicious" and claiming he hurt many people, including political opponents.
Video evidence confirms Trump made the remark about Biden during a May 30, 2025, news conference. Many who heard it assumed Trump said it in reference to Biden's Stage 4 prostate cancer diagnosis two weeks earlier, but the context alone wasn't clear enough to definitively confirm that.
Lead Stories
False: President Donald Trump complains on social media that Ukraine's attacks on Russia interfere with his sleep.
A search across his account on Truth Social did not produce a match to the image a viral post purported to have taken from his account. Searches across an archived version of his account and news reports did not confirm that the post in question ever existed.
#Politics
Africa Check
False: Kenya's Standard newspaper reported that a Kenyan lawmaker staged his abduction.
A front page that appears to be from Kenya’s Standard newspaper claims that member of parliament George Koimburi staged his abduction. But the front page has been manipulated.
Lead Stories
False: Secretary of State Marco Rubio officially declared that individuals who criticize Israel will be denied entry visas to the United States.
In a video posted along with the claim, Secretary Rubio does say the U.S. has implemented a new visa policy to "prevent foreign nationals from coming to the United States to foment hatred against our Jewish community." Rubio did not say that under the new visa policy criticism of Israel would trigger a ban. A top White House spokesman said emphatically that it is not the U.S. policy.
PolitiFact
False: Harvard University “refuse(s) to tell us” who its international students are.
To enrol international students, universities are required to report information to the federal government, including the students’ names, contact information and coursework. To enter the U.S., international students must apply for student visas through the State Department, a process that requires students to provide biographical and security information to the federal government.
#Healthcare
Vera Files
False: Metro Manila will be placed under General Community Quarantine starting June 10 to prevent the spread of a so-called ‘Mpox COVID-19' variant.
The Department of Health in the Philippines said there is no need for a lockdown due to Mpox cases because the virus is not airborne. The post used an edited version of a 2020 ABS-CBN News news card.
#Conflicts
Newschecker
False: Russian nuclear bomber attacks Ukraine️ following the latter’s large-scale drone strikes on June 1, 2025, targeting multiple airbases deep inside Russia.
The video where this claim originates from dates back to November 21, 2024, when Russia fired its intermediate-range ballistic missile, targeting the Pivdenmash industrial plant in Dnipro, Ukraine.
#Economy
Africa Check
False: LAPO are offering "quick easy" loans.
Several Facebook pages impersonating Nigeria’s LAPO microfinance bank are falsely offering quick loans, including LFMB Digital Microfinance LOAN and LAPO online loan service. These pages claim to provide various loans, such as SME and personal loans, with unrealistic promises like accessing up to N1 million in three minutes, and should not be trusted.
Reuters
False: UK has plans to revive 17th-century window tax.
Social media posts are claiming that the UK has plans to revive 17th-century window tax. There are no plans to reintroduce a window tax in Britain, the government says, nearly 175 years after the levy was abolished. The tax, which varied according to the number of windows in a property, was introduced in 1696 and abolished in 1851.
PolitiFact
Half-True: U.S. retail gasoline prices heading into Memorial Day weekend: 20 year low.
Without adjusting for inflation, prices per gallon today aren’t anywhere near the lowest in two decades. As a percentage of disposable income, 10 gallons of gasoline are at their second-lowest cost since 2002 — 23 years ago. Going back to 2002, the only year lower than this year was the pandemic year of 2020, when travel and commuting were at historically low levels.
#Nordics
Faktisk
Falsk: Ingen randomiserte kontrollerte studier viser at cellegift forlenger forventet levealder.
I Wolfgang Wees podcast hevdet treningsfysiolog Anders Haakenstad at ingen randomiserte, kontrollerte studier viser at cellegiftbehandling forlenger forventet levealder. Det finnes imidlertid tusenvis av forskningsartikler som viser at cellegiftbehandling fører til høyere kreftoverlevelse og totaloverlevelse for de fleste kreftformer. Et stort antall av studiene som viser dette, er randomiserte, kontrollerte studier.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Manatees control their buoyancy by farting.
Manatees, intelligent marine mammals lacking a swim bladder, regulate their underwater buoyancy by passing gas, which helps them control their position in the water column. Scientific studies show that releasing or holding in gas affects their ability to float or sink, and this flatulent ability, along with their heavy bones and specialized lungs, aids their movement and survival in aquatic environments.
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