In the wake of the devastating wildfires on Hawai’i in August 2023, viral posts falsely claimed that the US government would only provide $700 in aid each to affected households.
In fact, the federal government responded quickly to the horrific disaster in Maui, conducting extensive rescue operations and providing aid far in excess of $700 per household.
Claim: A photo authentically shows Russian President Vladimir Putin speaking with regional leaders at an enormous but sparsely populated table.
Rating: True
[...] Putin's public appearances often involve abnormally long or large tables, which has been a consistent source of speculation and mockery since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
[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.
The caption reads, "When Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong UN met and none of them was willing to drink first."
The claim is inaccurate. The video has been edited to remove the moment that they drink. The full video shows that they did drink. The video shows the two toasted each other and then the other people at the table and then were clearly seen drinking.
The F-16 in the video was digitally created as part of an ad. While F-16s
are being provided to Ukraine, it has not been confirmed that the aircraft
are in the country'
Out of the 197 fact-checking articles our team wrote in 2023, 52 of them concerned the war in Ukraine. And 50 of those highlighted pro-Russian disinformation aimed at discrediting Kyiv and the Ukrainian war effort.
A website founded by a former US Marine who now lives in Russia has fuelled a rumour that Volodymyr Zelensky purchased two luxury yachts with American aid money. Despite the false claim, the disinformation plot was successful. It took off online and was echoed by members of the US Congress making crucial decisions about military spending.
It was an incredible assertion - using two advisers as proxies, Mr Zelensky paid $75m (£59m) for two yachts. But not only has the Ukrainian government flatly denied the story, the two ships in question have not even been sold.
Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky buy a house in Florida? And did he get American citizenship? Those are the rumors circulating on social media along with a couple of photos. However, the villa that appears in the photos is still up for sale and the certificate of nationality is fake, making this the latest example of fake news stories implying that Ukrainian officials are using international aid money for personal purposes.
A few days after Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Washington, social media accounts are claiming that the Ukrainian president recently bought a mansion in Florida. The posts show pictures of a lavish mansion and a document that looks like a US naturalisation certificate under his name. But both photos are fake: Zelensky did not buy a house in the US, nor did he become a US citizen.
An excerpt from a broadcast on X (formerly Twitter), in which Elon Musk praises Putin and Russia, was generated by a neural network and shared initially by Russian sources. The original recording of the broadcast with Musk, where he says no such thing, is available online.