Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: Azerbaijani Parliamentary Election
Aljazeera
Election Date: 01/09/2024
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev has called snap parliamentary elections for September 1 that are unlikely to change the legislature’s makeup radically. Aliyev issued a decree ordering the dissolution of parliament, which his New Azerbaijan party dominates. With power concentrated in the presidency, parliament has a limited role in shaping affairs in the Caspian Sea nation. His party, which holds 69 of 125 seats in the outgoing parliament, is expected to win a new majority in the oil-rich country, which the West, Russia and Turkey have courted.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: Post claims Trump said, “you used to be able to get cereal for 20, 30 bucks a pound.”
Former President Donald Trump bemoaned grocery prices at a recent press conference. However, a review of the event’s transcript and video does not show he said the quote attributed to him in viral social media posts.
PolitiFact
False: Kamala Harris wants to give $25,000 to illegal aliens to buy American homes.
Providing little detail, Vice President Kamala Harris pledged to provide up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for "working families who have paid their rent on time for two years and are buying their first home." Most immigrants living illegally in the U.S. are not eligible for benefits from federal programs, because the programs require Social Security numbers. Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are typically ineligible for federal Department of Housing and Urban Development housing programs. The Vance campaign said immigrants could obtain Social Security numbers and qualify for the program. However, the program’s eligibility requirements have not yet been revealed.
DW - Deutsche Welle
False: Tim Walz lied about his military service in Afghanistan.
A viral post on social media platform X, accused Walz of lying about his military service in Afghanistan. While it is true that Walz did not serve in Afghanistan, the post misquoted him, removing crucial context from his statement. The video attached to the post shows Walz in an older interview, where he actually said, "My battalion provided base security throughout the European theatre from Turkey to England in the early stages of the war in Afghanistan." It seems the statement was deliberately altered to mislead viewers.
Snopes
Half-True: Ukraine passed legislation banning the Orthodox Church in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Parliament passed (though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not yet signed, as of this writing) legislation that would allow the government to ban the Russian-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church. However the law does not pertain to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the church to which the majority of Ukrainian Christians belong. Claims that Ukraine banned the Orthodox Church entirely or that it outlawed Christianity are false.
#Economics
The Dispatch
Half-True: Investors will have to pay taxes on unrealized capital gains even if they end up losing money on the stock.
Democratic campaign officials have indicated that Vice President Kamala Harris largely supports the same tax increases proposed by the Biden administration in its 2025 budget. The proposal, which includes increases to top marginal tax rates, capital gains rates, and corporate tax rates, has triggered widespread online chatter about whether, under the plan, Americans would face a novel tax on “unrealized capital gains”—meaning a tax on the appreciation of assets that have not yet been sold. The Harris campaign did endorse a plan that would tax unrealized capital gains, but it would apply only to a subset of high-net-worth Americans worth $100 million or more.
#Conflicts
Africa Check
False: Former Nigerian president Buhari and former army chief Buratai were 'waving' Boko Haram flag.
In 2017, the Nigerian army forced Boko Haram militants out of their forest enclave. Then Chief of Army Staff Tukur Buratai presented the president with the Boko Haram flag as a sign of victory over the group's insurgency. Online posts claiming that Buratai and former president Muhammadu Buhari waved the flag in support are misleading.
#Healthcare
USA Today
False: Mpox is a reaction to COVID-19 vaccines.
COVID-19 vaccines have nothing to do with Mpox, which is caused by a virus identified more than 60 years ago. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines were first administered in late 2020.
Vox Ukraine
False: A New Coronavirus Subvariant FLiRT is “Being Tested” in Ukraine.
There is information being spread online that the emergence of the new coronavirus subvariant FLiRT in Ukraine is evidence of it being used as a “testing ground for new weapons”. The narrative about Ukraine as a “testing ground” is part of Russian propaganda, suggesting that the West uses Ukraine for its own purposes. If foreign companies do test something on the territory of Ukraine, it happens within the framework of official clinical trials. Details about these can be found on the website of the State Expert Center of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine. Currently, there are four ongoing clinical trials related to COVID-19 in Ukraine, none of which are dedicated to the new FLiRT subvariant. Three of them are investigating the effectiveness of treatments for COVID-19, and one is examining the effectiveness of a vaccine.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Skattebetalerne i Københavns kommune kunne spare 530 millioner danske kroner i året hvis kommunen ble administrert like effektivt som Frederiksberg kommune.
Dette er en misvisende sammenligning, mener flere eksperter. Regnestykket kan ikke gjøres så enkelt, for det er flere forbehold som må tas i en slik sammenligning.
Faktisk
Halvt sant: Hvis du vil ha et kosthold basert på mest mulig norske produkter, vil kjøtt og meieriprodukter være de beste proteinkildene.
Animalske fôrprodukter kan være en god proteinkilde, men behovet for proteiner i kosten kan også dekkes via plantebaserte matvarer.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: 10-Year-Old Girl's Warning Ahead of Tsunami Saved Hundreds of People on Thai Beach in 2004
A 10-year-old English girl, Tilly Smith, reportedly was credited with saving the lives of hundreds of people on the island of Phuket in Thailand during the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004. While on the beach, she recognized the warning signs of a tsunami as she had learned them in geography class just two weeks earlier. She is credited with saving the lives of hundreds of tourists. National Geographic previously published warning signs of a tsunami include rapidly rising or falling coastal waters, a loud roar from the ocean or rumblings of an earthquake
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