Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: Iran Presidential Election
Aljazeera
Election Date: 28/06/2023
Iran will be holding its presidential election on June 28 in a vote that has been brought forward from 2025 following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash last month. While the ultimate head of the Iranian state is the unelected Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the president is the second-most powerful position. Six candidates have been approved to run for the presidency, and they are all ultimately supportive of and loyal to the supreme leader and the Iranian political system.
#Politics
USA Today
False: Biden demanded he 'not have to stand' during debate with Trump
A June 14 Instagram post claims President Joe Biden insisted that a specific rule be implemented for an upcoming presidential debate in which Joe Biden not have to stand during the Presidential debate. A spokesperson from Biden's campaign and one from CNN, which is hosting the first presidential debate, both said the claim is false. There are no credible reports Biden made such a demand.
AAP
False: Julian Assange said WikiLeaks has evidence that Barack Obama operated a child sex abuse ring at the White House.
The claim that Julian Assange said WikiLeaks has evidence that Obama was involved in a child sexual abuse ring at the White House is false. WikiLeaks has stated that Assange never made those statements, and the organisation has not published such evidence on its website.
Reuters
False: Trump says he will require a minimum of 2 years of military service for all Americans over 18.
People in former President Donald Trump’s orbit talked to the Washington Post about the possibility of mandatory military service in the U.S., but Trump has not publicly discussed requiring it for all citizens over 18 years of age, as suggested in social media posts. Trump posted on his own platform the same day the article was posted denying he had even considered the idea.
Reuters
False: Biden's sister is married to Stephen Owens, who owns Dominion Voting Systems.
A viral Instagram video has pushed this claim across the platform. Biden's sister, Valerie Biden Owens is married to Jack Owens, not Stephen Owens. Jack Owens, a law school classmate of President Joe Biden’s, and Stephen Owens, whose company has invested in Dominion Voting Systems, are not related.
#Conflicts
USA Today
False: Image shows Ukrainian girls recruited into the military.
A June 13 Facebook post shows young girls looking down while wearing boots, camouflage pants and solemn facial expressions. The image shows cadets attending a memorial service, not girls recruited into Ukraine’s military. Ukrainians can't volunteer for military service until they turn 18, and women can't be drafted at all, according to an expert.
Snopes
Mostly False: Canada Preparing for 2nd US Civil War.
In April 2024, the Canadian government published a report saying the country needed to be prepared for a potential civil war in the U.S. However, the document did not say any preparations were underway. It also described such an event as "underanticipated" and listed it alongside seven other "underanticipated disruptions" and 10 more probable "prominent disruptions."
Reuters
False: Image of child sleeping between graves in Gaza.
An image staged and shot in Saudi Arabia by a local photographer as an art project and first posted in 2014 has resurfaced online in posts suggesting it shows a scene from the war in Gaza. The same photo was miscaptioned and shared in the past as a scene from Syria.
#Economy
Africa Check
False: 47.3% of Nigerians were multidimensionally poor in 2021.
A newspaper column called Glitters Online claimed that in 2022, 47.3% of Nigerians were multidimensionally poor. The column was wrong however that 47.3% of the Nigerian population is multidimensionally poor – or facing multiple forms of poverty, not just financial. The country’s statistics agency says it is 63%, while an international index done before the Covid pandemic gives it as 33%.
Yahoo News
Half True: Under the Biden Administration, the US economy supposedly added 15M jobs.
U.S. economy kept on recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, it gained 14.9 million jobs in total. However, about 9 million of those jobs were lost during the pandemic, so the net jobs gain from pre-pandemic levels was 5.5 million.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Ukraines præsident Volodymyr Zelenskyy har købt et af Europas største kasinoer på Cypern.
I flere opslag på de sociale medier kan man læse, at Ukraines præsident, Volodymyr Zelenskyj, har købt et af Europas største kasinoer. Kasinoet er en del af det luksuriøse Vuni Palace Hotel og ligger i den nordlige del af Cypern i byen Kyrenia. Der er dog ingen dokumentation for, at Volodymyr Zelenskyj har købt den fashionable ejendom på middelhavsøen.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: It's Illegal in India to Know a Baby's Sex Before Birth.
In 1994, the Indian government enacted the Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PNDT Act) to put a check on female feticide, or the deliberate act of aborting a female fetus. At that time, an estimated 70% of all abortions performed in Delhi, India, were due to the fetus being female. Gender roles influence families and society in India, which can sometimes lead to families preferring to have a biological son, according to a 2019 report published by the global advocacy organization Center for Reproductive Rights.
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