Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: Rwanda, President and Chamber of Deputies
Aljazeera
Election Date: 15/07/2024
After a low-key election campaign that featured just two parties, 9.7 million Rwandans are eligible to vote on Monday to choose a president and members of parliament who will serve for the next five years. President Paul Kagame, who has led the country for the 30 years since the 1994 genocide, is largely unchallenged and is expected to once again win the election.
#Politics
Snopes
True: Thomas Crooks, the 20-year-old man who attempted to assassinate former U.S. President Donald Trump, once donated money to a political action committee aligned with the Democratic Party.
Reporters and online sleuths scoured public records and found the shooter did donate $15 to the Progressive Turnout Project, a PAC that aims to get Democrats to vote, according to the Federal Election Commission.
Reuters
False: Biden did not order the arrest of six justices.
U.S. President Joe Biden did not order the Department of Justice to arrest six Supreme Court justices following a July 1 ruling that gave former President Donald Trump broad immunity from prosecution, contrary to false posts shared online.
Reuters
False: AP reported on Trump ‘child molestation charges’.
The Associated Press did not say prosecutors were “reconsidering” bringing child rape and molestation charges against former U.S. President Donald Trump, contrary to baseless posts on social media.
#Economy
Full Fact
Mostly False: A typical UK household is now £5,883 worse off since 2019 due to energy prices, mortgages, groceries, motoring, personal tax and council tax.
A Facebook post indicated this. There are several problems with this figure. It only considers six specific annual household costs and doesn’t account for changes to wages or benefits over this period. OBR forecasts for real household disposable income per person show a smaller decrease over this period.
#Ukraine
Reuters
False: Ukraine’s first lady bought a Bugatti sportscar in Paris.
There is no evidence that Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska bought a Bugatti Tourbillon sportscar during her June 2024 visit to Paris, despite such claims online including fake photos of a Bugatti invoice and a video that an expert stated has signs of being a deepfake.
#Healthcare
USA Today
False: This plant-based drink cures ‘terminal cancer’.
No, this smoothie recipe doesn't cure cancer. Several of the nation’s leading cancer centres encourage cancer patients to follow a plant-based diet, saying research shows that antioxidants and anti-inflammatory components in produce help stay healthy and battle the side effects of cancer treatments. They do not call it a cure.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Kort over USA om våbenkriminalitet vist i Europa-Parlamentet.
På det sociale medie X deler Dansk Folkepartis repræsentant i Europa-Parlamentet, Anders Vistisen, en grafik, der angiveligt viser statistik over våbenkriminalitet i USA. Grafikken viser angiveligt, at områder med mange våben har mindre våbenkriminalitet, mens områder med få våben oplever meget våbenkriminalitet. Men grafikken har ingen relation til våbenkriminalitet. Den viser valgresultater fra præsidentvalgkampen i 2016 mellem Hillary Clinton og Donald Trump. Anders Vistisen forsvarer sig med, at han ikke føler sig ansvarlig for at faktatjekke, hvad andre deler.
Faktisk
Falsk: Der var terroradvarsler fra CIA forud for OL i Paris 2024.
En video, som har cirkuleret på X i juni, hævder, at CIA advarer om en stor terrortrussel mod metroen i Paris. En talsmand for CIA har udtalt til amerikanske CBS News, at videoen er fabrikeret, og at den ikke har nogen forbindelse til CIA. Videoer som denne er blandt den misinformation, der spredes af russiske netværk forud for OL i Paris.
#Conflicts
Check Your Fact
False: Trump was shot with three weapons at rally.
A viral post shared on X, formerly known as Twitter, claims CNN reported 2024 Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump was shot with three weapons at his July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. A spokesperson for CNN confirmed the post was “inaccurate”.
Check Your Fact
False: Viral photo of man is Trump rally shooter.
Numerous posts circulating on social media claim that an account on X, formerly known as Twitter, has been linked to Pennsylvania rally shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks. The person in the post is not actually of Crooks. The user who originally uploaded the photo and video claimed they were joke posts.
India Today
Half True: The video shows a recent clash between Polish forces and refugees.
The viral video is from November 2021, when Polish forces fired tear gas and water cannons at migrants trying to cross the border from Belarus, escalating the ongoing dispute between the two nations. No such incident has occurred recently.
Check Your Fact
False: There is zero footage of IDF firefights with Hamas.
A post shared on X claims that there are zero videos showing the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) engaged in firefights with Hamas. This claim is false. There are several videos showing gunfights between Hamas gunmen and IDF troops.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Filmmaker John Hughes wrote the script for the 1985 comedy-drama "The Breakfast Club" in two days.
Hughes himself once told a journalist that he wrote the script "on July 4th and 5th of '82," and people in his orbit recalled him saying that to them contemporaneously. But, as with many scripts, it underwent rounds of editing after Hughes completed his initial draft.
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