Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: Mexican Presidential Elections
Reuters
Election Date: 02/06/2023
Claudia Sheinbaum won a landslide victory to become Mexico's first female president, inheriting the project of her mentor and outgoing leader Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador whose popularity among the poor helped drive her triumph. Sheinbaum, a climate scientist and former mayor of Mexico City, won the presidency with between 58.3% and 60.7% of the vote, according to a rapid sample count by Mexico's electoral authority. That is set to be the highest vote percentage in Mexico's democratic history.
#Conflicts
USA Today
False: Image shows a fiery explosion near Rafah refugee camp.
A May 29 Instagram post shows fire and smoke rising over a mass of tents. The word "Rafah," a city in southern Gaza, is written in white letters on the image. After some investigating it was found that this dramatic image of the explosion near the Rafah tent camp was AI-generated.
Full Fact
Mostly False: A video shows the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on 17 May in Odesa, Ukraine, which eliminated a large NATO logistics hub.
A video circulating on Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) is being shared with claims it shows the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on a large NATO logistics hub in Odesagather, Ukraine. While the video circulating shows the building being damaged, there is no evidence the building depicted has anything to do with NATO. NATO has stated that the building depicted in the video was not a NATO building.
Snopes
True: Photos show former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley signed "finish them" on an artillery shell during a May 2024 trip to Israel.
Following Hamas' deadly attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, Haley repeatedly mentioned the words "finish them" alongside specific references to Hamas militants and Iran. She even signed an artillery shell with this quote while visiting Israel.
#Politics
NPR
False: Trump states that his New York Hush Money trial conviction was all the result of "Biden and his people."
There’s no evidence to support the claim. The case against Trump was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecuted under New York state law, meaning the case was unconnected to the White House or DOJ.
AFP
False: An image shows police taking Donald Trump into custody after his conviction.
An image shared across social platforms appears to show police taking Donald Trump into custody after a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records. But the former US president was wearing a different outfit as the verdict was delivered in his hush money trial and the picture spreading online appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence.
AFP
False: Rahul Gandhi appealed to support the BJP and PM Modi.
As Indians voted in marathon six-week elections, a doctored video of opposition leader Rahul Gandhi appearing to endorse the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) circulated online. The footage appears to show Gandhi saying the BJP will "save democracy". However, in the original video, he urged voters to back his Congress party and warned that the BJP would "destroy democracy".
PolitiFact
False: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said they were going to suspend elections in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s presidential election would have been held in March, but Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in November that elections would not take place. Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, Ukraine has operated under martial law. Ukraine’s law prohibits elections during martial law. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made no announcement about suspending Ukraine’s elections. He referred to Ukrainian elections in a May 14 speech, saying the U.S. is working with Ukraine to strengthen its election infrastructure for when Ukrainians agree conditions allow for elections.
#Healthcare
PolitiFact
Half-True: Donald Trump wants to terminate the Affordable Care Act.
Former President Donald Trump has said several times over the years that he wants to replace the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare — most recently in December. Trump has since walked back this stance, writing on social media in March that he "isn’t running to terminate" the health care law, but instead wants to make it "better" and "less expensive."Trump hasn’t said how he would do this, and healthcare policy experts said it’s difficult to know where he stands without a detailed plan.
AFP
False: Bleached flour can cause cancer.
Food additives used to whiten flour are not the same as household bleaching chemicals and are unlikely to pose health risks, experts told AFP, refuting false posts repeatedly shared in Malaysia. The posts, which cited a prominent consumer group in the country, further alleged bleached flour causes cancer but experts said there were no conclusive links with the disease.
#Technology
Snopes
Mostly False: Actor Terrence Howard holds a patent on augmented and virtual reality technology.
Howard filed a patent application related to augmented and virtual reality technology in 2010. However, in 2013, this application was abandoned prior to being approved, which means Howard was ultimately not granted a patent for this technology.
#Nordics
Faktabaari
Sant: Google endret sine søkeanbefalinger og søkeresultatvisning under presidentvalget i Finland.
Under det finske presidentvalget, noen dager før tidligstemmegivning startet, fjernet Google fullstendig søkeanbefalingene for navnene på presidentkandidatene fra brukere som surfer i Finland. Forhåndsstemmegivningen begynte 17. januar. Så sent som 13. januar foreslo Googles søkeanbefalinger for en bruker som surfet fra Helsinki, for eksempel ordene «språkkunnskaper» og «kone» etter Alexander Stubbs navn. Etter 14. januar kom det imidlertid ikke flere søkeanbefalinger. Dette tyder på at Google endret søkeanbefalingene i forbindelse med presidentvalget.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Penguins trade sex acts for pebbles, which they use to build their nests.
Adélie penguins use pebbles and stones to build their nests. The larger the nests, the more resistant they are, leading penguin pairs to collect as many stones as possible. However single males have more time to gather stones and appear to be a good source of pebbles. So when male penguins did this, they gave female penguins more pebbles. This would result in a higher chance of engaging in a sexual encounter with female penguins than normal according to a 1998 study. After each sexual encounter, the female would pick up a stone from his nest site and leave immediately. Penguins are famously monogamous however this occurred even with female penguins who already were pair-bonded to other males.
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