MARY ALEXANDER • 21 July 2024

On the evening of 13 July 2024 former US president Donald Trump was holding a rally in the state of Pennsylvania when a would-be assassin opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle. A bullet clipped Trump’s ear.

He was quickly bundled to the floor and whisked off stage by secret service agents, but not before rising to pump his fist and shout “Fight! Fight! Fight!”

Five days later, Trump formally accepted his nomination as the Republican Party’s candidate in the US presidential election, set for November. He’ll likely be up against current vice president Kamala Harris of the Democratic Party, after president Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

The shooting has polarised conversations on social and other media about US voters’ choices in November. Some analysts say it has improved Trump’s chances. Others point to history: previous attempts to assassinate US presidential candidates have had little impact on the final outcome.

And as with most major news events, false information soon followed.

One is an image of Trump seconds after the shooting, his fist raised and blood on his face with the US flag behind him, being held by secret service agents. But the agents seem to be smiling.

The secret service is a US federal government law enforcement agency. One of its duties is to protect current and past presidents.

The image has been circulating on social media in South Africa and elsewhere with claims that the assassination attempt was staged to boost Trump’s campaign.* These include:

• “Even the Secret Service is laughing at what a big joke it was […]”
• “So if it was really an attempt & not staged why are the secret service guys smiling & why did they allow him to pop his head up.”
• “The Secret Service smiling and hiding in the midst of an assassination attempt??? Yeah, it was staged.”
• “The secret service allows a shooter climb a tree get on a whit roof from 150yards out ya that doesn’t happen , And why are the smiling and laughing ? I don’t buy it ???”

But were the agents really smiling?

‘The thing about photography …’

The image has been altered in a particularly bumbling attempt at disinformation, as the original photo has become globally famous in the days since the shooting. It’s been published in news reports across the world. It’s even available as desktop wallpaper.

In the original, the secret service agents are definitely not smiling.

The photo was shot by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Evan Vucci of the Associated Press.

In several interviews since the photo was published, Vucci has described the split-second moments when he snapped the pic and several others like it.

“I heard the shots. So I ran to the stage as the Secret Service agents were starting to cover president Trump up. They were coming up on the stage from all different directions, and they were going on top of him. I went to the front side of the stage and I started photographing everything I could,” he told the UK Guardian.

He added: “The thing about photography is two people can see the exact same image and have a completely different reaction.”

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Report published by Africa Check on 13 August 2024

The post US secret service agents grinning after Trump assassination attempt? No, image altered appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 2 APRIL 2024

After a controversial month-long delay, the West African country of Senegal held its presidential election on 24 March 2024.

Two of the 19 candidates – the highest number in the country’s history – led the pack.

One was the ruling Benno Bokk Yaakaar alliance’s Amadou Ba, a former prime minister who outgoing president Macky Sall chose as his successor.

The other was Bassirou Diomaye Faye of the opposition Pastef party. Faye was released from prison just 10 days before the vote. Also released was popular Pastef leader Ousmane Sonko.

The party itself had been dissolved by Senegal’s government in 2023 and Sonko was barred from running. So Faye stepped in.

On 25 March, less than 24 hours after voting stations closed, Ba conceded to Faye. Senegal’s electoral commission had announced that Faye had won 53.68% of the 90% of ballots counted.

The next day, a short video of a man giving a speech in English appeared on social media with the claim he was Faye, saying “it’s time for France to leave Senegal alone”.*

Senegal is a French-speaking country and was France’s oldest African colony until independence in 1960. The two countries maintain strong political and economic ties, and France has an air force base in Dakar, Senegal’s capital.

The video is overlaid with the text: “The next African President is speaking. Even His English is clean than alot of current Presidents in our Continent.” Its captions identify the man as Faye.

The clip begins with the man appearing to say:

It is high time for France to lift its knee off our neck and put an end to this unjust oppression. Centuries of misery, human trafficking, colonialism and neocolonialism have caused immeasurable suffering. It is time to put an end to this cycle of oppression. It’s high time for France to leave us alone.

The video can also be seen here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Faye and his allies have pledged to fight France’s “economic stranglehold” on Senegal. But is the man in the video really Faye, speaking English?

Sonko’s 2021 press conference – in French

The man in the video is clearly Ousmane Sonko, not Bassirou Faye.

Africa Check googled videos using the French keywords “discours d’Ousmane Sonko” – “speech by Ousmane Sonko”.

This led us to a press conference Sonko held in Dakar on 2 July 2021. It was streamed live on YouTube by Senegal7, a local TV news channel.

Sonko’s posture and gestures, his suit, the white background and the Senegalese flag to his right all indicate that the viral video was taken from the live stream.

In the stream, Sonko gives an hour-and-a-half speech on a range of topics – in French. He posted a transcript of the speech, also in French, on his X/Twitter account on the same day.

Not only does the viral video show Sonko, but it has been altered, with English audio replacing Sonko’s original French.

But Sonko did say something similar in his 2021 speech. A machine translation of a part of its transcript reads:

But it is time for France to lift its knee from our necks and do like its European peers (Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc.) who are prospering without sucking the blood of the former colonies.

Mais il est temps que la France lève son genou de notre cou et fasse comme ses pairs européens (Allemagne, Italie, Espagne, Grande Bretagne, Suède, Pays-Bas,…) qui prospèrent sans sucer le sang des anciennes colonies.

— Ousmane Sonko (@SonkoOfficiel) July 2, 2021

A six-minute excerpt of the speech was also posted on the Satanal Media YouTube channel, headlined (in French) “It’s time for France to let go of us.”

Faye was inaugurated on 2 April 2024. At 44, he is Senegal’s youngest president yet.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 12 April 2024

The post Senegal’s new president Faye telling France to leave his country alone? No, old video of allied politician Sonko with English audio added appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 28 MARCH 2024

Has former US president Donald Trump endorsed uMkhonto weSizwe, South Africa’s newest political party? A low-res video circulating on social media since early March 2024 indicates he has.*

In the clip, Trump appears to say:

Greetings. All South Africans, my name is president Donald Trump. I urge all South Africans to vote for uMkhonto weSizwe May 29th. The African National Congress of Cyril Ramaphosa has failed all South Africans. With this new backed party by president Jacob Zuma, all South Africans will matter. Vote uM …

It then cuts out.

South Africans are set to vote on 29 May in what are slated to be the country’s most pivotal elections in 30 years. Opinion polls suggest the ruling African National Congress (ANC) could lose the parliamentary majority it has held since 1994.

The new uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party takes its name – “spear of the nation” in isiZulu – from the ANC’s military wing during the struggle against apartheid. MK’s profile was boosted when former ANC president Jacob Zuma backed the party and began campaigning on its behalf.

The ANC recently lost a court bid to have the electoral commission’s registration of MK declared invalid. It is currently in another legal battle over who owns the uMkhonto weSizwe name and logo.

One opinion poll suggests that in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province, the ANC could lose half its votes to MK in the upcoming elections.

But does the video really show Trump urging South Africans to vote for MK?

Another fake made with Parrot AI

First off, a closer look at the video clearly shows that the audio doesn’t match the movement of Trump’s lips.

Africa Check took screenshots of the video and ran them through a reverse image search. This revealed that the viral clip was taken from a 2017 interview with Trump by the US broadcaster NBC News. The MK party was registered in September 2023.

Trump’s tie, the angle of his face and the flag pin on his jacket are all the same. The background shows the same US presidential flag positioned to his left.

In the 13-minute NBC video, Trump says nothing about uMkhonto weSizwe. The viral video is fake.

It’s likely it was created by Parrot AI, which sells itself as a “celebrity voice generator”.

Africa Check recently debunked another fake, using the same NBC clip, in which Trump appears to berate Nigerians for criticising president Bola Tinubu. That video includes the Parrot AI logo.

* Some claims posted on Facebook and Instagram may have been deleted by users after being rated via Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program.

Published by Africa Check on 11 April 2024

The post Trump backs South Africa’s uMkhonto weSizwe Party? No, video dubbed appeared first on South Africa Gateway.

MARY ALEXANDER • 20 March 2024

“ISIS was created and funded by Mossad and the CIA,” reads the caption of an image circulating on social media in Nigeria, South Africa and elsewhere.

It adds: “Israel treated ISIS fighters in their hospitals and John McCain met with their leader and supplied weapons.”

The image shows a row of smiling soldiers holding the black and white flag of Isis, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, next to the blue and white flag of Israel.

Mossad is the foreign intelligence agency of Israel, a country in the Middle East. The CIA is the US Central Intelligence Agency.

John McCain was a US senator and the Republican Party presidential candidate who lost to Barack Obama in 2008. He died in 2018.

What is Isis?

Isis is a militant Sunni Islamist group that captured and held large parts of northern Iraq and eastern Syria in the Middle East from 2014 to 2019. The group’s previous name was the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant, or Isil. It’s also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, or simply as the Islamic State.

At its height, the Islamic State controlled a self-declared caliphate of roughly 4,400 square kilometres, a region of about 8 million people.

In 2015 the International Criminal Court said it was investigating “crimes of unspeakable cruelty” by the Islamic State. These included:

… mass executions, sexual slavery, rape and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, torture, mutilation, enlistment and forced recruitment of children and the persecution of ethnic and religious minorities …

The Islamic State has been linked to deadly attacks in Nigeria, Benin, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. It has also claimed responsibility for attacks in more than 20 other countries across the world.

Most recently, an Islamic State group based in Afghanistan claimed responsibility for a 22 February attack on a concert hall on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia’s capital. At least 133 people have so far been reported to have been killed.

But is the image any proof that Isis was “created and funded by Mossad and the CIA”?

US-led African Lion military training in Morocco

A reverse image search reveals that the image has been altered.

In the original photo, the soldiers are holding a green and yellow flag – not the Isis flag – next to the Israeli flag.

The photo appears in news reports on troops from an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) battalion joining the US Africa Command’s African Lion military training exercise in Morocco in June 2023.

Its caption on the Times of Israel reads: “An IDF contingent of soldiers from the Golani Reconnaissance Battalion in Morocco to take part in the US-led African Lion military exercises on June 5, 2023.”

The photo was also posted on the IDF’s official X/Twitter account on 5 June 2023.

משלחת של 12 לוחמים ומפקדים מיחידת סיירת גולני יצאה אתמול לתרגיל “African Lion 2023” בהובלת זרוע היבשה שמתקיים במרוקו.

בתרגיל משתתפות כ-18 מדינות וכ-8,000 חיילים מצבא ארה”ב, מרוקו וגאנה >> pic.twitter.com/4SDKbAcAJl

— צבא ההגנה לישראל (@idfonline) June 5, 2023

A machine translation of the post’s Hebrew text reads:

A delegation of 12 fighters and commanders from the Golani patrol unit left yesterday for the ‘African Lion 2023’ exercise … that is taking place in Morocco. About 18 countries and about 8,000 soldiers from the US army, Morocco and Ghana are participating in the exercise.

The altered image is not proof that Mossad created and funded Isis.

* Some Facebook and Instagram users may have deleted their posts after Meta’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program rated their claims as untrue.

Report published by Africa Check on 28 March 2024

The post Doctored image of Israeli soldiers with Isis flag used to claim Mossad and CIA created Islamic State appeared first on South Africa Gateway.