US secret service agents grinning after Trump assassination attempt? No, image altered
21 July 2024 – An iconic photo of secret service agents pulling Donald Trump to safety has been doctored. In the original, the agents weren’t smiling.
No, US president Biden hasn’t given citizenship to 1 million illegal immigrants – new process only to ‘keep families together’
15 July 2024 – Some 500,000 noncitizen spouses and 50,000 noncitizen children are likely to benefit from the scheme, not 1 million. And they may only apply for permanent residence, not citizenship.
Russian troops taking over US base in Niger? No, photo shot in Syria
5 June 2024 – The West African country’s new military government has ordered US forces out and welcomed Russian “military trainers”. But the photo is unrelated, taken four years ago during the Syrian civil war.
A claim that just won’t die: no, Algerian hacker Bendelladj has not been executed
20 May 2024 – The man with a noose around his neck is not Hamza Bendelladj, as fact-checkers have pointed out for years. The hacker is alive and serving his sentence in a US prison for selling malware that caused major financial harm not only to institutions, but to individual people.
‘I’m not playing a man?’ No, US tennis champ Venus Williams didn’t refuse match against trans woman
14 May 2014 – The viral graphic gets a lot wrong. The photo on the left shows Serena Williams, not Venus. The photo on the right shows French tennis champ Amelie Mauresmo, who is not trans. And there’s been no credible report of the match.
China ‘ready to intervene’ if US and Nato attack Russia? No, alarmist old claim dismissed by Chinese defence ministry in 2022
22 April 2024 – Suggesting a third world war, the claim first appeared soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. But the doom merchants were just making stuff up.
North American solar eclipse triggers bogus warning of ‘cosmic light rays’ over Africa
21 April 2024 – The false claim that “tonight” the Earth will “face its highest radiation” has been circulating online for well over a decade. It’s been given new life by the April 2024 total solar eclipse over Mexico, the US and Canada.
Kenyan president Ruto asks US president Biden for ‘landing crafts’ to invade Haiti? No, CNN X post fake
15 April 2024 – Kenya was to lead a now-delayed international policing mission to quell gang violence in Haiti. But the X post reporting Africa’s “D-day style invasion” of the Caribbean country is not by CNN.
Trump backs South Africa’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party? No, video dubbed
28 March 2024 – Former US president Donald Trump has not urged all South Africans to vote for the new political party in upcoming elections. The altered video was created with Parrot AI, a “celebrity voice generator”.
United States lifts sanctions on Zimbabwe? Not quite
22 March 2024 – The US did lift sanctions against powerful people in Zimbabwe, only to impose “new sanction tools”. And Zidera, the law that sanctions the country itself, remains.
Doctored image of Israeli soldiers with Isis flag used to claim Mossad and CIA created Islamic State
20 March 2024 – The image is not proof that Israeli and US intelligence agencies created the Islamist group. The original photo shows the soldiers holding a green and yellow flag – not the black and white flag of Isis.
No, WHO epidemic expert and former Nigeria CDC head Ihekweazu not hanged at Guantanamo Bay
12 March 2024 – The conspiracist website Real Raw News makes up false stories about public figures it dislikes being executed at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay. Its latest subject is the World Health Organization’s Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu.
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