Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: North Macedonia Presidential Election
AP News
Election Date: 24/04/2023
Voters go to the polls in North Macedonia this week for the first round of the presidential election. It is the seventh such vote since the small landlocked Balkan country gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. The campaigns have focused on North Macedonia’s progress toward joining the European Union, the rule of law, fighting corruption, combating poverty and tackling the country’s sluggish economy.
#Conflicts
AFP
False: A video shows the US readying nuclear weapons for war in the Middle East.
Users of X are claiming a video shows the United States mobilizing long-range bombers loaded with nuclear warheads in preparation for war in the Middle East after Iran launched its first-ever direct assault on Israel, a key ally. This is false; the footage predates the April 13, 2024 attack and captures a military training exercise officials stated was scheduled far in advance.
Full Fact
False: An image shows weapons-laden Iranian trucks moving from Iraq into Syria.
Multiple Facebook posts from earlier this month falsely claimed that an image of military trucks loaded with missiles shows Iran moving weapons from Iraq to Syria, with one post incorrectly suggesting this was in preparation for an attack against Israel.
India Today
Mostly False: This video shows the damage caused to an Israeli airbase by Iran’s April 14 attack.
More than 300 drones and missiles were part of Iran's April 14 attack on Israel, the country's largest-ever conventional show of force. While most of the projectiles were reportedly intercepted outside Israel's borders with help from the US, the UK, and France, at least nine Iran Iranian missiles struck two air bases. The video that is being shared however has been on the internet since early 2023 and likely shows a Russian attack on Ukraine.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: Trump says business records case about hush money is a “Biden trial.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into Trump’s business records began before Joe Biden was president. By the time Trump was charged in 2023, Biden was president. Trump’s fighting of the subpoena of his business records lengthened the timeline. District Attorney Alvin Bragg hired a former Justice Department prosecutor in 2022. Legal experts have stated that doesn’t prove Biden was involved.
Factly
False: This video shows Rahul Gandhi announcing his resignation from Congress ahead of the 2024 General elections.
A video modified using AI-generated audio is circulating claiming that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has resigned from the party ahead of the 2024 General elections. In the original video, he said he accepted the nomination to run for a parliamentary seat in Lok Sabha.
PolitiFact
Barely True: The 1864 Arizona law forbidding abortions, upheld by the State Supreme Court, also sets the age of consent for females at 10 years.
Arizona’s Supreme Court ruled to bring back an 1864 abortion law that is part of a larger set of laws called the Howell Code that governed the Arizona territory during the Civil War. The Supreme Court’s decision did not restore other parts of the Howell Code, including setting the age of consent for females at 10 years old.
#Entertainment
PolitiFact
False: Taylor Swift is doing satanic rituals during her shows.
Taylor Swift’s songs mention neither Satan nor Satanic rituals. Swift has publicly described herself as a Christian. The leader of The Satanic Temple, a religious organisation, dismissed the allegations about Swift as conspiracy theories. Experts have stated that musicians have been accused of performing satanic rituals for decades.
Snopes
Mostly False: A TikTok video shows actor Harrison Ford giving a pro-Palestinian speech during the Israel-Hamas war.
The caption on this TikTok video is misleading. While Harrison Ford did give a speech referencing young people and their struggles, it isn't speaking about Palestinians or Hamas. It's a video from 2019 where he is speaking on the issue of climate change.
#Nordics
AFP
Väärin: Greta Thunbergin isoisoisä kuului Rothschild-sukuun.
Suomalaisessa sosiaalisessa mediassa levisi väite, jonka mukaan Thunberg on sukua Rothschildin pankkidynastialle ja että hänen isoisoisänsä oli Joachim Rothschild-Thunberg, yksi Ruotsin "menestyneimmistä pankkiireista". Historiallisten asiakirjojen perusteella Thunbergin suvussa ei kuitenkaan ole tämän nimisiä ruotsalaisia pankkiireja tai Rothschildeja.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: A couple in Brazil planted over 2 million trees in 20 years to recreate the forest.
In 1998, award-winning photographer and photojournalist Sebastião Salgado and his wife, Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado, founded Instituto Terra, a federally recognized nature preserve and nonprofit organisation. With the help of local students and workers, the couple in Brazil planted more than 2 million trees over 20 years.
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