Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2024
This week's election: US Presidential Election 2024
The Guardian
Election Date: 05/11/2024
The 60th U.S. presidential election decided the 47th president, with Donald Trump securing the office once again beating Kamala Harris by seemingly more than 5 million votes. The position is widely regarded as the most powerful role in the world. Alongside him, the 50th vice president was chosen in JD Vance. Both Trump and his supporters had described it as the most critical election of their lifetimes, emphasizing that democracy and the American way of life were at stake. Record sums of money were raised and poured into campaign ads and ground operations. Media coverage across print, TV, online platforms, and podcasts reached unprecedented levels of intensity and polarization.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: Data shows some voters cast multiple votes, meaning "at least 164,568 illegal votes have been cast” in Michigan.
Michigan’s Qualified Voter File keeps registered voters’ previous addresses attached to their voter IDs, but only the most recent registered address is active.Michigan’s secretary of state said a formatting error in an early voting report from the file generated a line for each voter’s associated address, showing multiple addresses associated with the same voter ID for some.There were not multiple ballots cast and counted from the same voter ID. Only one vote can be counted with each ID, officials said. The error has been fixed.
Factcheck.bg
False: Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel had control over the U.S. Senate.
Israel’s prime minister does not say that his country “has the Senate, the Congress and a record strong Jewish lobby in the United States” in a viral video shared on social media. The excerpt from a 1988 interview with Benjamin Netanyahu has been inaccurately translated. What he actually says is that the United States have a Senate and a Congress, and that Israel has a strong Jewish lobby.
PolitiFact
False: Trump stated he “never mentioned” wanting to end the Affordable Care Act.
During the 2024 campaign, Trump has said inconsistent things about his plan for the Affordable Care Act if he wins the presidency. But he’s wrong to say that he’s never "mentioned" wanting to scuttle the law. He did so in 2016 as a candidate. As president, Trump sought to end the law through congressional action and at the U.S. Supreme Court.
PolitiFact
Half-True: “Kari Lake is threatening social security and medicare.”
Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake, a Republican, has not specifically called for cutting Social Security or Medicare. She has supported slashing half to three-quarters of the federal budget, which could impact funding for both programs.
#Healthcare
USA Today
False: The WHO admitted mpox is a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines.
The WHO made no such admission. The COVID-19 vaccines cannot cause mpox, and the claim originated with a website that has repeatedly shared misinformation.
Check Your Fact
False: Bill Gates indicted by a dutch court over COVID-19 vaccines.
While his philanthropic efforts provided major support to the vaccine rollout, he has been accused of many different conspiracies about COVID-19 vaccines, such as including tracking devices in the shots themselves. This claim, repeated by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a recent campaign rally in Georgia supporting former President Donald Trump, is misleading. Because the case brought against Gates is a civil suit, not a criminal suit, no indictments are necessary.
#Conflicts
Check Your Fact
False: There are armed militias ‘hunting’ FEMA employees in North Carolina.
FEMA briefly paused door-to-door hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina due to safety concerns after unverified reports of armed threats. An Oct. 13 Washington Post article cited an email from a FEMA worker about “trucks of armed militia” allegedly targeting staff. An Oct. 14 social media post further spread these claims, linking the threats to “MAGA disinformation,” though FEMA and local officials debunked this. FEMA clarified it had only adjusted operations for safety, without stopping services entirely. Relief efforts resumed on Oct. 15 after law enforcement addressed what was described as a limited threat. Local authorities also reported an arrest of a man who allegedly made threats against FEMA workers.
Full Fact
Half-true: A video shows Israel Defense Forces soldiers being run over by a speeding truck near Tel Aviv recently.
An old video is being shared on social media alongside claims it shows Israel Defense Forces soldiers being “deliberately run over by a speeding truck near Tel Aviv”. The footage actually shows a 2017 lorry attack on a group of Israeli soldiers near Jerusalem.
#Disasters
Check Your Fact
Mostly False: Video show a recent flood in Spain.
A Facebook post shows a video of a car drifting in floodwaters, claiming it’s a recent incident with people "clinging to car roofs" as floods carry them away. This claim is inaccurate; the video actually dates back to July 2023 in Alcañiz, Spain. Local outlets reported severe flooding at that time, with over an inch of rain in 10 minutes, resulting in roadblocks, crop damage, and several rescues.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Forsvarets test viser, at unge fra Mellemøsten er mindre intelligente.
Anonyme konti på sociale medier deler en figur fra en dansk undersøgelse, der har undersøgt testresultater for unge til Forsvarets Dag. Figuren viser, at unge med mellemøstlige navne har den laveste IQ. Forskerne er ikke helt enige om, hvorvidt unge med mellemøstlig baggrund rent faktisk er mindre intelligente end deres danske jævnaldrende.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: All blue-eyed individuals are linked to the same ancestor.
All blue-eyed individuals living today are necessarily descended from one individual. Such a framing must be weighed against the fact that every single human alive today is likely descended from that same individual, as well. Scott Hershberger wrote in Scientific American, that "humans are all more closely related than we commonly think."
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