International

Does a video shared to social media on August 23, 2023, show Russian oligarch Yevgeny Viktorovich Prigozhin's jet "on fire before crashing"? No, that's not true: While the video itself is authentic, it documented an unrelated plane crash that reportedly occurred nearly two months earlier on June 24, 2023, "near the village of Kantemirovk," about 700 miles from the village…

Does the German government have study figures that show people given the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) "have overall suffered from fewer medically undesirable events as subjects who received the placebo"? No, that's not true: As of August 4, 2023, Germany's Federal Ministry of Health said it did not have "such figures." But not having such study figures proves nothing in…

Does an image show a single man in China breaking up couples' seating arrangements in a movie theater on Valentine's Day? No, there's no evidence of that: The image actually shows the reopening of a movie theater in Beijing amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on August 16, 2023. The…

Did 14 American cities join a "World Economic Forum treaty" imposing a total ban on meat, dairy and private cars by 2030? No, that's not true: At the time of writing, there is no such WEF treaty. The source of the claim cited an unrelated report that explored several emission reduction models and was not meant to become a law…

Is there a link between the wildfires that burned on Maui, Hawaii, on August 8, 2023, and a sighting of green lights seen on a January 28, 2023, livestream from the Subaru Telescope on top of Mount Mauna Kea, on the "Big Island" of Hawaii? No, that's not true: While a green laser was sighted for a few seconds from…

Does a video demonstrate an "official statement" confirming an assassination attempt on Russian president Vladimir Putin? No, that's not true: The clip does not contain any images of such a document, and no credible reports from established media organizations corroborate the claim. The story appeared in a post published on Facebook on August 20, 2023 (archived here). It stated: Official…

Does a viral video capture the detonation of an aerosol bomb in Ukraine in 2023? No, that's not true: The footage was uploaded to the internet years before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The claim reappeared in a post (archived here) published on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 17, 2023. It stated: Now that NATO is sending more…

Have Latvia's "secret plans" to invade Russia recently been exposed? And does information from military archives confirm these plans? No, that's not true: The author of the claim later publicly referred to it as "obvious satire." The story originated from an entry (archived here) published on X, formerly known as Twitter, on August 10, 2023. The post stated: ‼️BREAKING: Recently…

Are COVID-19 vaccine-related "turbo cancers" real? Are they also "contagious" and "behaving like a bioweapon"? No, that's not true: There is no serious evidence for the claim that COVID vaccines cause "turbo cancers." Cancer is complex and has many causes. Additionally, the thought that cancers could be contagious or act like bioweapons lacks support from credible science. Vaccines help the…

Does a video show a laser beam from the sky, or a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW), cause an explosion in a city, or spark the wildfires in Maui, Hawaii? No, that's not true: This viral video predates the August 8, 2023, Maui wildfires. It shows an electrical transformer exploding in the Santiago commune of Macul, Chile, which was first posted…

Does Klaus Schwab, a former professor of business policy in Switzerland widely known as the founder of the World Economic Forum, have family ties with the Rothschild dynasty via a person named Marianne Schwab, née Rothschild? Is she his mother? No, that's not true: A viral video making such an assertion did not include any public records to confirm it.…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin order the executions of "defiant 5G executives"? No, that's not true: The claim, published by a website with a long history of spreading false statements, was not corroborated by credible sources in English or Russian. The claim originated from an article (archived here) published by Real Raw News on August 14, 2023. It was titled:…

Does this video of a gas station attacked with a red laser beam show an example of a Directed Energy Weapon (DEW)? No, that's not true: This video has been edited. The original eyewitness video does not feature a laser beam. Filmed in the Russian city of Makhachkala on August 8, 2014, it shows a situation developing at a Exson…

Did child rapper and foul-mouthed internet sensation Tay "Lil Tay" Tian die on or about August 9, 2023? No, that's not true: No official records document the death after her Instagram page featured a statement announcing the death of the 14-year-old and her elder brother. The unsigned text-only post was written as though it came from her family and provided…

Does a social media video show a giant Barbie-doll hologram walking out of a Barbie box next to Dubai's Burj Khalifa skyscraper, the world's tallest building? No, that's not true: This footage displays a computer-generated image (CGI) video created by a social media ad company based in the United Arab Emirates. The company combined a separate video clip of the…

Did Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin switch his loyalty to Kyiv, reaching an agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy that his paramilitary unit would fight alongside Ukrainian soldiers? No, that's not true: A viral video on social media does not cite any verifiable sources of information or provide visual evidence of the claim's accuracy, and no credible reports corroborate it.…

Did a viral video capture two Russian Tu-160 military jets arriving in South Africa in 2023? No, that's not true: The footage, initially aired by the Russian state-sponsored TV network RT, showed a 2019 event. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on July 26, 2023. Its caption was: What is this? The video contained what appeared…

Is it true that menstrual cycles, or periods, lasting longer than three days are abnormal? No, that's not true: There is no scientific evidence that a period lasting longer than three days is not normal. Two gynecologists and an expert on women's health told Lead Stories that the average length of a period is three to seven days. The claim…

Did World Economic Forum co-founder Klaus Schwab advocate in public for stripping people of their right to vote and replacing elections with prediction algorithms powered by artificial intelligence? No, that's not true: In a 2017 talk, Schwab only wondered whether the use of such products could go as far as substituting for elections. By no means can his words be…

Did U.S. Marines arrest Albert Bourla, the CEO of the biopharmaceutical company Pfizer, on August 7, 2023? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Bourla was arrested, and Pfizer confirmed that it didn't happen. The claim started on a website known for publishing fictional stories about real-life figures. The claim originated in an article (archived here) published by…