Your weekly fact-checks
#Politics
Snopes
False: US Voting ballots that are marked by poll workers are disqualified.
A rumor spread across multiple social media platforms that ballots marked by poll workers with "a letter, a checkmark, a Star, an R or a D, a number or any writing of any kind" could disqualify them. In the months leading up to the 2020 presidential election, a similar assertion — that poll workers in South Carolina were trained to mark ballots in order to invalidate them — gained traction. Direct testimony from poll training managers and official government spokespersons confirmed this was false.
Snopes
True: The 2024 U.S. presidential election will be the first since 1976 that doesn't feature a Bush, Biden, or Clinton on the ballot.
When U.S. President Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election and endorsed Kamala Harris as the Democratic party's candidate, he made history. According to Gilder Lehrman Institute of History, a candidate, either presidential or vice presidential, has had the last name of Bush, Biden or Clinton in every presidential election starting in 1980.
India Today
Half True: This video shows Venezuelan protestors taking over the capital following the 2024 election results.
After Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro secured a third term on July 28 in a disputed election, many Venezuelans took to the streets, alleging electoral fraud. Meanwhile, a video of a massive public gathering with white smoke billowing in the background went viral on social media claiming these protests were response to the 2024 election results. However, the viral video is from 2017 when thousands of anti-Maduro protesters gathered for the “Mother of All Marches” along a highway in Caracas, Venezuela.
Factly
False: PM Modi’s face was covered at the Kozhikode railway station because pictures of Modi are not allowed there.
The viral image is from March 2024, and the Palakkad railway authorities have clarified that it is an OSOP stall. They stated that Modi’s picture was covered according to ECI orders due to the MCC being in place during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
#Healthcare
Full Fact
False: Cannabis oil destroys cancer cells but it has been banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Claims are circulating that cannabis oil and "vitamin B17" destroy cancer cells. It goes on to say that both substances have been banned by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, the claims about these substances’ ability to destroy cancer cells are not entirely accurate and require some context. Even if some studies do show cells dying in the lab, this does not always mean the same would happen if a person was treated with the same substance. Whilst there are some health benefits associated with some components of cannabis, there is limited evidence that it destroys cancer cells and not enough research to show whether this would translate into an effective treatment.
Snopes
True: Algeria prohibits being transgender or undergoing gender-affirming treatment such as a medical or surgical transition.
As people sought to debunk the false rumor in August 2024 that Olympic boxer Imane Khalif, from Algeria, was a trans woman, some claimed she couldn't be trans because her country bans medical and surgical care designed to affirm someone's gender identity. This is true in Algeria, LGBTQ+ people do not receive protections, homosexuality is treated as a crime and widely debunked "conversion therapies" to supposedly change people's orientations are legal. The law does not allow people to change their gender on their official identity documents, let alone medically or surgically.
FactCheck.org
Mostly-False: RFK Jr "Chronic disease in children has dramatically increased."
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy repeatedly has said chronic disease in children has dramatically increased, while using statistics with unclear sources and putting forward unsupported narratives on the causes. Diagnoses of a variety of chronic conditions in children have increased in recent decades, but likely not to the extent that Kennedy claims or for the reasons he gives.
#Economy
PolitiFact
Mostly-True: During the Trump presidency and even before the pandemic, America went into a manufacturing recession.
There is no official definition for when an industrial sector goes into recession but by two common metrics — employment and output — U.S. manufacturing tipped negatively starting in early 2019, Trump’s third year in office. Although manufacturing employment rose fairly robustly for the first two years of Trump’s term, this job growth stalled in his third year and fell slightly before the pandemic hit. Even more notable, economists say, is that manufacturing output, by two separate metrics, fell modestly but consistently following its 2018 peak.
#Conflicts
Reuters
False: The Pentagon accidentally sent $6.2 billion to Ukraine.
The Pentagon did not accidentally send extra money to Ukraine, the $6.2 billion accounting error refers to an overestimate of the value of equipment sent to Ukraine.
USA Today
False: US ordered the total evacuation of US citizens in Lebanon.
A July 28 Facebook post apparently shows the State Department seal alongside a supposed security alert stating that the US ordered a total evacuation of its citizens in Lebanon. The agency issued a Level 3 travel advisory for the country, meaning Americans are urged to reconsider travel to the area. "We don't have any plans for or an announcement as it relates to an evacuation or efforts for private U.S. citizens from Lebanon," department spokesperson Vedant Patel said.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Police officers touch the taillights of cars they pull over so their fingerprints are on the vehicle if anything happens to them during a traffic stop.
For years, people online have shared a police strategy that allegedly helps connect officers to a vehicle or location if something happens to them during a routine traffic stop. It is unknown how many police academies formally teach this technique, or whether it is instead a strategy passed along as a training tip by more experienced officers. Police may also touch other areas of the vehicle's rear — not just the taillights. A coalition of police unions and associations across the U.S state have stated that police officers touch the taillights and other locations.
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