Category International community

Fact Check: Putin Defends Hitler’s Invasion of Poland in Carlson Interview

True. Based on a Russian transcript of Vladimir Putin's interview with Tucker Carlson, Newsweek verified Putin said Adolf Hitler was "forced" to invade Poland, an inaccurate interpretation of the circumstances leading to World War II. While translations do not use the word "forced" or "compelled", they broadly match its meaning.

August 6, 2024
Coordinated disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Fascism Germany Hatred and bigotry International community Media taken out of context Methods Misconceptions Nazism Poland Putin Russia

No, this video doesn’t show a Russian air strike on a NATO arms convoy

A video of a massive fire circulated widely on social media in late April along with captions claiming it showed a strike by the Russian army on a NATO weapons convoy en route to Ukraine. However, it turns out that this is an old video that wasn't filmed anywhere near Ukraine.

Fact Check: Italian PM Meloni Did NOT Say ‘If Russia Does Not Agree To The Terms Of The Peace Summit, We Will Force It To Surrender’ | Lead Stories

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, "If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender"? No, that's not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has strongly criticized Russia's invasion of Ukraine, no credible sources report her saying that Russia should be forced to surrender.

Russia targets Paris Olympics with deepfake Tom Cruise video | Artificial intelligence (AI) | The Guardian

The fake Cruise video, which appeared on the Telegram messaging platform last year, is called Olympics Has Fallen and uses artificial intelligence-generated audio of the film star's voice to present a 'strange, meandering script' disparaging the IOC. The documentary, whose title riffs on the Gerard Butler action film Olympus Has Fallen, also claims falsely to have been produced by Netflix and is promoted with bogus five-star reviews from the New York Times and the BBC.

Fact Check: U.S. Spokesperson Did NOT Justify Ukrainian Strikes On Belgorod, Russia Saying It Holds ‘Virtually No Civilians’ — Video Is AI Fake | Lead Stories

Does a 50-second video show authentic remarks by U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller discussing "military targets" in the Russian city of Belgorod, with "virtually no civilians left" in that city? No, that's not true: The video mixes video of different briefings, during which Miller made no such remarks. The words falsely attributed to him in the video were AI-generated. The State Department labeled the video a deepfake. The video of fake remarks was also posted by the Russian Embassy in South Africa account on X, but later that post was deleted.

Fact Check: Haley’s math comparing clean energy tax credits to national security

Making a point about spending on national security, Haley said that the US supporting Ukraine, Israel and securing the southern border would cost "less than 20% of Biden's green subsidies." Facts First: This math from Haley is largely true.

January 15, 2024
Aid to Ukraine Fact checks / debunkings Military aid USA

Fact Check: Orban Did NOT Tell Zelenskyy In Argentina: ‘Putin Knows Something Special About Me’ | Lead Stories

Did Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban tell Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at the inauguration of Javier Milei as Argentina's new president, that Russian President Vladimir Putin knew something "special" about him? No, that's not true: Orban and Zelenskyy exchanged a few words in front of cameras during the ceremony, as shown by footage shared by major international media. Their conversation, though, cannot be heard. According to the Hungarian Prime Minister's press office and a post on X by Zelenskyy, the two leaders discussed European affairs. [...] The video is dubbed: The words spoken in the TikTok audio don't match the movement of Orban's lips as shown in the footage.

January 15, 2024
Corruption Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Hungary Misconceptions Ukraine

Online claims misrepresent White House remarks on Ukraine military aid | Fact Check

[T]he president did not threaten to deploy US troops to fight Russia if the budget was not approved. Instead, he was warning of what may happen if Russian forces were to expand into any of the NATO territories neighboring Ukraine, which the United States is bound by treaty to help.

January 15, 2024
Aid to Ukraine Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Military aid Misconceptions USA

Lloyd Austin was not killed in Ukraine on Jan. 3 | Fact check

The claim: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was killed in Ukraine on Jan. 3. Our rating: False Austin is alive. [...] Austin resumed his full duties as secretary of defense on Jan. 5 and released a statement on Jan. 6. The report comes from a publication that routinely publishes fabricated stories.

January 15, 2024
Coordinated disinformation Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Misconceptions Ukraine USA

Fact Check: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin Was NOT Killed In Kyiv On January 3, 2024 | Lead Stories

Was Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin killed by Russian cruise missiles in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 3, 2024? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer confirmed to Lead Stories that this claim is false. On January 1, 2024, Austin was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., due to complications from surgery and remained there as of January 10, 2024. Also, this claim is from a website that regularly publishes fabricated content often mistaken for real news.

January 15, 2024
Coordinated disinformation Disinformation Fact checks / debunkings Misconceptions Ukraine USA