Category: Fact Check

  • Fact Check: Old video about emergency declaration in Vermont stirs online anxiety

    An Oct. 14 Facebook post utilizes all-caps to relay what feels like breaking news: “BIDEN declares FEDERAL EMERGENCY NAT. GUARD DEPLOYED — IT’S TOO LATE TO LEAVE!”

    But the video in the post is several months old.

    It was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    The video features doomsday prepper Patrick Humphrey, whose YouTube channel regularly publishes false or misleading videos that stoke fear about wide-scale disaster.

    Humphrey first posted the video on YouTube in July. 

    In it, he discusses Biden’s declaration that month of a state of emergency in Vermont, which was then experiencing heavy rainfall and flooding. 

    A couple of days later, the Vermont National Guard delivered water to communities affected by the floods. 

    More recently, Biden has declared emergencies in Guam, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Florida and South Carolina, but we found no evidence that he’s declared a national emergency, as the Facebook post suggests, or has dispatched the National Guard to locations where people aren’t allowed to leave. We rate that claim False.



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  • Fact Check: Supposed video of Egyptians delivering supplies to Gaza predates the current conflict

    A video that shows scores of people carrying white packs on their backs across a rocky landscape, implying that they’re delivering aid, is being shared in the context of the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. But the footage predates that conflict. 

    “Egyptians crossing the Palestinian border to deliver water and good to Palestine,” text on the video says. 

    Instagram posts sharing this video were flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

    This video has been online since at least August. An Aug. 31 TikTok post suggested the video was taken on Egypt’s western border with Libya, not the border it shares to the east with the Gaza Strip. 

    A Sept. 6 X post sharing the video said, “Libyan/Egyptian border.”

    Yet another TikTok video posted on YouTube said the footage showed smuggling at the Egyptian-Libyan border.

    We couldn’t confirm what’s happening in the video, or where it was taken. 

    But we do know it doesn’t show Egyptians bringing water and food to Gaza in response to the current war between Israel and Hamas. 

    We rate that claim False.



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  • Fact Check: Old footage mischaracterized as showing U.S. troops deployed to Israel

    U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered troops to prepare to deploy to the Middle East to support Israel, though likely not in combat roles, The New York Times recently reported.

    But an Oct. 10 TikTok post claiming to show “thousands of US troops deployed to Israel” does not reflect this. 

    Tickers above and below the TikTok video say “Breaking news,” and text says “thousands of US troops make their way to Israel.” 

    Some of the footage, however, is more than 5 years old, and from Africa — not the Middle East.

    TikTok identified this video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with TikTok.)

    Several clips come from the Defense Department and appear on the Getty Images’ website. They show U.S. soldiers participating in an emergency deployment readiness exercise in Djibouti, which is more than 1,400 miles from Israel, in March 2018.  

    Another clip has been online since at least July. Someone in that video can be heard saying, “Welcome to Poland.”

    We rate claims this footage shows soldiers deployed to the Middle East False. 

     



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  • Fact Check: U.S. aid to Israel: What to know

    President Joe Biden is planning to ask Congress for more money to support Israel’s military response to the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,400 Israelis.

    “My administration has been in close touch with your leadership from the first moments of this attack, and we are going to make sure you have what you need to protect your people, to defend your nation,” Biden said Oct. 18 during a visit to Tel Aviv.

    The White House hasn’t produced a formal proposal yet, which could also include money for Ukraine as it continues its defense against a Russian invasion.

    How does U.S. aid to Israel generally compare with aid to other countries? Here’s a closer look.

    Israel has consistently received more U.S. aid than any other country. Since the end of World War II, the U.S. has cumulatively provided Israel with almost $318 billion in aid of all types, including military, economic and humanitarian.

    That’s about 70% more than the second- and third-place recipients: Vietnam (because of the Vietnam War) and Egypt (to bolster regional security after Egypt signed a peace agreement with Israel in 1979).

    Earlier in its history, Israel, which was established as a state in 1948, received significant economic and humanitarian aid along with military aid. However, as Israel has become wealthier, the U.S. has dramatically reduced its economic and humanitarian aid, while continuing its military aid.

    The U.S. has given Israel $3 billion to $4 billion a year in military aid during the past decade and a half.

    This spending was outlined in a 10-year, $38 billion memorandum of understanding the two countries signed in 2016. The memorandum cited several priorities, including updating the Israeli air fleet and maintaining the country’s missile defense system. Similar memorandums were signed under the George W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations.

    If the new U.S. aid package sends $10 billion to Israel, that will be three times the average annual amount of U.S. military aid to Israel over the past decade and a half. 

    In context, the amount of military aid sent to Israel every year is less than one half of 1% of the total U.S. defense budget.

    Although military aid to Israel has been consistently high, aid to Ukraine has lapped it, following Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

    Combining military, economic, and humanitarian aid, the U.S. gave Ukraine nearly $78 billion in 2022; about $46.8 billion was military aid. That’s significantly larger than the U.S. aid to Israel.

    Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., said the new aid would likely help Israel replace military equipment and munitions. It might also include funds that Israel can use to rebuild its military after the war, or to repair damaged buildings and infrastructure, Cancian said.

    Whether the U.S. will send aid to boost Israel’s economy remains uncertain.



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  • Fact Check: Netanyahu no dijo que lanzará una bomba nuclear en Gaza, los subtítulos de este video son falsos

    Un video en Facebook muestra al primer ministro de Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, hablando en hebreo, y según los subtítulos en español, él dijo que Israel va a lanzar una bomba nuclear a Gaza.

    Eso es falso.

    “Hace unos minutos he tomado la decisión de armar nuestra primera bomba nuclear, dentro de 48 horas el mundo sabrá porque somos una nación intocable. Les pido perdón a nuestros ciudadanos que se verán afectados en 48 horas, la franja de Gaza desaparecerá para siempre”, dicen los subtítulos en la publicación del 11 de octubre. 

    La publicación fue marcada como parte del esfuerzo de Meta para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Meta, propietaria de Facebook e Instagram).

    El 7 de octubre, Netanyahu habló sobre el ataque de Hamas contra Israel, cómo Israel se va defender, y agradeció a soldados israelíes, médicos y al Presidente Joe Biden por su ayuda. 

    El video en Facebook muestra solo 38 segundos del discurso que duró más de 4 minutos.

    PolitiFact encontró el discurso en YouTube en el canal del primer ministro. Usando los subtítulos y la transcripción en inglés proveídos por YouTube, analizamos lo que Netanyahu dijo. PolitiFact también usó Google Translate Voice para verificar si lo que él dijo en el video en Facebook concordaba con en el video original. Netanyahu no dijo que iba a lanzar una bomba nuclear a Gaza. 

    Esto es lo que él dijo en el video en Facebook (minutos 0:25 a 1:03 en el discurso completo): 

    “Hoy es un día muy difícil para todos nosotros. Hamas quiere asesinarnos a todos. Es un enemigo que asesina a niños y madres en sus casas, en sus camas, un enemigo que secuestra a ancianos, niños y mujeres jóvenes, que asesina y masacra a nuestros ciudadanos, incluidos niños, que simplemente salieron a disfrutar del día festivo”.

    Él añadió: “Lo que ocurrió hoy en Israel no tiene precedentes y me aseguraré de que no suceda de nuevo. Todo el gobierno está detrás de esta decisión”.

    Un vocero del ministro de relaciones exteriores de Israel le confirmó a The Associated Press que la traducción en los subtítulos del video en Facebook es “falsa”.

    PolitiFact tampoco encontró ningún reporte verídico que diga que Israel lanzó o planea lanzar una bomba nuclear a Gaza. 

    Calificamos la declaración de que Netanyahu dijo que lanzará una bomba nuclear a Gaza como Falsa. 

    Lea más reportes de PolitiFact en Español aquí.

    __________________________________________________________________________

    Debido a limitaciones técnicas, partes de nuestra página web aparecen en inglés. Estamos trabajando en mejorar la presentación.



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  • Fact Check: The Wall Street Journal didn’t report that an American missile caused deadly Gaza hospital blast

    An Oct. 17 attack on a Gaza hospital, estimated to have killed hundreds of civilians being treated and taking refuge there, sparked a blame game between Israel and Palestinian officials, with each accusing the other of responsibility.

    Amid this back and forth, claims spread on social media that The Wall Street Journal reported that the blast at the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was caused by an American missile.

    “The Wall Street Journal: ‘The bomb that was dropped on the hospital was an American MK-84,’” read an Oct. 17 post on X, formerly Twitter. “This bomb is precision-guided, largest in MK family and has about 950 kg weight.”  The post had been viewed more than 375,000 times as of this publication. 


    Screenshot via X

    A Wall Street Journal spokesperson told PolitiFact that the newspaper did not publish any report about an American MK-84 being used in the blast.  

    The newspaper has published multiple stories about the hospital explosion, as well as live updates about the war. None mention an American-made missile causing the explosion.

    We found no evidence that any other credible news source made such a report.

    Shortly after the explosion, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry said it was caused by an Israeli airstrike. But Israel denied involvement, and said the explosion was the result of a misfired rocket by an armed Palestinian group.

    On Oct. 18, U.S. officials announced that intelligence, which included satellite data, intercepts and open-source information, indicated that the blast wasn’t caused by an Israeli airstrike and instead suggested it came from a rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group. 

    But officials cautioned that the assessment is preliminary and said they were still collecting and analyzing evidence.

    We rate claims that The Wall Street Journal reported that the explosion was caused by an American ballistic missile False.



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  • Fact Check: Ask PolitiFact: Where does Hamas get its weapons?

    Photos and videos on social media show thousands of missiles launched from Gaza to Israel, drones and grenades destroying tanks, Hamas militants armed with assault weapons and machine guns breaching the fenced boundary between Gaza and Israel. 

    These images have led some congressional Republicans and social media users to question the provenance of Hamas’ arsenal and the militant group’s ability to attack Israel by surprise. Some claim that U.S. weapons are now in Hamas’ hands — weapons meant for Ukraine or left behind by U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

    PolitiFact conducted advanced searches on Google and the database, Nexis, spoke with six experts in military, terrorism and middle eastern affairs and the U.S. State Department and found no public confirmation that Hamas used U.S. weapons in the Oct. 7 attacks. However, experts told PolitiFact it is not inconceivable for Hamas to have U.S. weapons. 

    Here’s what we know about where and how Hamas gets its weapons.

    How claims that Hamas has U.S. weapons spread

    Speculation that Hamas has U.S. weapons went viral on social media soon after Hamas attacked Israel.

    “We need to work with Israel to track serial numbers on any U.S. weapons used by Hamas against Israel,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said Oct. 8 on X, formerly Twitter. “Did they come from Afghanistan? Did they come from Ukraine? Highly likely the answer is both.”

    Jim Ferguson, a former Brexit Party parliamentary candidate, posted Oct. 8 on X, “Breaking News Israel: US weapons left behind in Afghanistan used to attack Israel.” 

    A fabricated video claiming to be a BBC News report falsely said investigative journalists from Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based group, “concluded” that “Ukraine supplied the majority of the weaponry used by the Palestinian Hamas movement.” BBC and Bellingcat journalists say the video is fake.

    In 2022, BBC News reported that social media posts originating in Russia falsely claimed that Ukrainians were selling U.S.-provided weapons on the black market. BBC said the posts used photos of weapons from previous years and conflicts, including the civil war in Syria, which started in 2011.

    Other claims that Hamas has U.S. weapons trace back to an anonymous source cited in a June Newsweek article.

    How does Hamas usually get its weapons? 

    Iran smuggles weapons to Hamas and also trains the militants on how to build their own weapons, according to the CIA’s World Factbook. The U.S. State Department has said that Hamas gets funding from Iran. 

    Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a Middle East analyst and guest contributor for the Washington Institute, a pro-Israel U.S. think tank based in Washinngton, D.C., said Egypt’s crackdowns on smuggling routes that run through its country has forced Hamas to build and source more weapons locally in Gaza. But some materials needed to build weapons continue to be smuggled, he said.

    Hamas sometimes builds weapons using materials recovered from Israeli strikes, such as rubble and unexploded weapons, a 2021 report from the Washington Institute said. Materials are recycled and used to create rocket propellers and warheads. 

    Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official, told RT Arabic, a Russian state-owned news outlet, Oct. 8 that Hamas has weapon-building factories in Gaza. 

    Is there evidence that Hamas is using U.S. weapons?

    Fouad Alkhatib told PolitiFact that footage of the Oct. 7 attacks shows Hamas fighters using Soviet-era missiles, not weapons the U.S. has provided to Ukraine. He added that “no visual or open-source intelligence confirms” Hamas’ use of U.S. weapons left behind in Afghanistan.

    Fouad Alkhatib says videos of the attack also show weapons produced in Gaza. 

    An NBC News report about weapons confiscated by the Israel Defense Forces and a CNN analysis of videos and photos of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack reached the same conclusions. 

    “You can see by the symbols on all the equipment that everything is homemade of Hamas,” an Israeli soldier said in a video posted Oct. 15 by the Israel Defense Forces. 

    However, Michael Knights, a military expert at the Washington Institute, said Hamas can obtain U.S. weapons by buying them on the black market or by capturing weapons the U.S. sent to Israel.

    Iran also trains Hamas on how to build copies of U.S. weapons, he said.

    David Silbey, a Cornell University military expert, said that if Hamas has U.S. weapons, they are likely small weapons used by one person, rather than large armored vehicles or missile systems which would be more difficult to smuggle into Gaza.  

    What about the weapons sent to Ukraine?

    Knights said claims that Ukraine has been selling the weapons it has received from the U.S. on the black market are a “conspiracy theory” intended to stop U.S. aid to Ukraine.

    Other experts, Ukrainian officials and an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson agree.

    Brian Micahel Jenkins, a terrorism expert at Rand Corp., a global policy think tank, said this conspiracy theory fits with a larger Russian campaign.

    “The way Russia sees as its path to victory in Ukraine is to basically persuade Ukraines backers in the West that the contest is hopeless, that Ukrainians are corrupt and do everything they can to discourage continuous support,” Jenkins said. “Russia wins by cracking U.S. western support.”

    Nevertheless, weapons left behind in battlegrounds, or that were lost, stolen, or sold can end up on the black market. 

    Vietnam War weapons have shown up in other conflicts in different parts of the world, Jenkins said.  

    “No war will be unfought because of a lack of weapons,” he said.

    In October 2022, the State Department published a fact sheet about U.S. efforts to keep weapons sent to Ukraine from ending up in different hands, such as safeguarding arms and ammunition when they’re transferred and deployed and bolstering security and border management in Ukraine and neighboring states. Ukraine’s “intense internal demand” for weapons has also prevented U.S. weapons from leaking into the black market, the State Department said. 

    However, the State Department added that U.S. weapons can surface on the black market if Russian forces capture them after battling Ukrainians. 

    In a February House Armed Services Committee hearing, Colin H. Kahl, then-undersecretary of defense for policy, told lawmakers there was no “significant diversion” of U.S. weapons and “no evidence the Ukrainians are diverting (them) to the black market.”



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  • Fact Check: No evidence Democrats want to accept ‘1 million’ Gaza refugees

    Israeli Defense Forces told people in north Gaza, an area that’s home to about 1 million people, to evacuate as Israel prepared to respond to attacks by Hamas.

    Now, some conservatives are using that figure to falsely claim the Democratic Party is broadly advocating to take them all in as refugees.

    “Democrats want to bring one million to the US,” conservative news website The Gateway Pundit posted Oct. 15 on X.

    “Democrats want the USA to take in half of Gaza, including up to 1 million ‘refugees,’ at your expense, because Israel is destroying their homes,” read another X post from the same day, this one from a radio show host. “Prediction: Biden will find a way to do this.”

    U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., said something similar on X on Oct. 16: “The Democrats’ push to take in a million Palestinian refugees is absurd. Even other Middle Eastern nations recognize the fact that terrorist cells could disguise themselves as refugees fleeing war.” 

    Biggs linked to a clip of an interview he gave to radio show host James T. Harris. “We were talking about how we had a move by the Democrats to try to get Palestinian refugees over in America,” Harris said. “How serious are the Democrats?”

    “They are pretty serious about that,” Biggs replied. “These Democrats, a lot of them are finding sympathy with Hamas and the Palestinian movement — not with Israel, who was attacked ruthlessly.”

    We contacted a Biggs spokesperson to ask for his evidence that the Democratic Party has sought to allow 1 million refugees from Gaza to the U.S.

    “He is referring to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s calculation that more than 1 million Palestinians have already been displaced from their homes in just one week. Additionally, he is referring to Israel’s evacuation order to 1 million Palestinians,” Biggs spokesperson Matthew Tragesser told PolitiFact in an email. Tragesser said “many Democrats” including Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.,  “have publicly supported bringing in the Palestinian population via the refugee resettlement process to the United States.”

    We asked Tragesser to point to specific statements by the two lawmakers showing they called for 1 million refugees from Gaza to be allowed into the U.S. and got no response. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez have made broad statements supporting refugees, but we found no statements showing they called for 1 million to come to the U.S.

    Comments by two members do not represent the entire party.

    Bowman and AOC expressed support for taking refugees

    Some social media posts making the 1 million claim linked to an Oct. 14 New York Post article headlined, “Progressives call for US to take in some of the expected 1 million Gaza refugees.” But the story quotes only one Democratic lawmaker — Bowman — and he didn’t call for a specific number of refugees to enter the U.S. 

    Bowman said that “50% of the population in Gaza are children. The international community as well as the United States should be prepared to welcome refugees from Palestine while being very careful to vet and not allow members of Hamas.” 

    We contacted Bowman’s office to ask whether that was his full statement or whether he has said how many Gaza refugees he thinks the U.S. should receive. We got no response.

    In an Oct. 16 CNN interview with Ocasio-Cortez, host Abby Phillip played a clip of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who said he opposed allowing any refugees from Gaza into the U.S. and said “all” of them are anti-Semitic. Phillip asked Ocasio-Cortez if the Arab countries should take on the “lionshare of the burden to absorb what could be over 1 million if not more refugees from Gaza.” 

    Ocasio-Cortez said she supports accepting refugees, but cited no number.

    “I think there’s something to be said about the region’s partners being able to support and step up Palestinians,” she said. “However, that does not abdicate the United States from our historic role that we’ve played in the world of accepting refugees and allowing people to restart their lives here.” We contacted Ocasio-Cortez’s press office to ask whether she made any statements calling for a specific number of refugees to be allowed into the U.S. and got no response.

    Biden previously raised the refugee cap, but nowhere close to 1 million

    Even if there were any evidence to the claim that Democrats are advocating to accept such a sizable number of refugees into the U.S., current policies would not allow that.

    Receiving refugee status is a difficult process that can take years. 

    Biden campaigned in 2020 on a promise to set annual refugee admissions at 125,000 and seek to raise it over time. We gave Biden a Promise Kept in July for raising the refugee cap to 125,000. 

    But in the federal fiscal year ended in September, the U.S. let in about half the allowable amount: 60,014, including 56 Palestinians, according to the Refugee Processing Center within the State Department. 

    There is another path for people fleeing difficult situations including war: humanitarian parole. Unlike refugee status, parole does not include a path to citizenship but does allow people to live and work in the U.S. for two years. Biden has extended parole to people from Afghanistan, Ukraine and some Latin American countries.

    Through Aug. 31, more than 211,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans had arrived lawfully under the humanitarian parole processes, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.

    But PolitiFact found no evidence that Democrats are widely advocating for 1 million people to enter through that process, either.

    A spokesperson for the National Security Council, which advises President Joe Biden on national security and foreign policy, told PolitiFact that there are no plans for any new refugee programs or granting parole. That matched what National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters Oct. 12.

    Spencer Tilger, a spokesperson for the International Refugee Assistance Project, a legal aid group, said Palestinian refugees have historically faced hurdles — and they do now as well.

    “Given that there are no airports in Gaza, and the territory’s Egyptian and Israeli borders are sealed, a more pressing concern is that Palestinians displaced by Israeli military action actually have no safe place to go or safe way to get there,” Tilger said. 

    Our ruling

    Biggs said the Democrats are pushing “to take in a million Palestinian refugees.”

    That’s how many people in north Gaza have been told to leave: 1 million.

    Two Democrats — Reps. Bowman and Ocasio-Cortez —  said the U.S. should accept some refugees, but neither mentioned a number. They talked about other countries doing their part, too.

    The U.S. would not be able to take in 1 million refugees from Gaza — that’s eight times the cap for all refugees.

    We rate this statement Pants on Fire!

    RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Israel and Gaza



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  • Fact Check: Good Enough to Be True: Lego donated model MRI scanners to comfort children

    Undergoing a medical procedure, such as an MRI scan, can be scary, especially for children. Lego is here to help.

    Fans of the Danish company’s colorful building blocks might have seen social media posts about a Lego model of a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, machine, that was created to reassure children who need to have MRIs.

    An Oct. 8 Instagram post shared a photo of the Lego MRI scanner and said, “Lego donates model MRI kits to hospitals to help children understand the procedure and reduce their anxiety.”

    (Screengrab from Instagram)

    We learned this toy story is Good Enough to Be True: the Lego MRI scanner is real and the models have been distributed to 600 hospitals worldwide.

    Our occasional Good Enough to Be True stories are intended to highlight social media claims about uplifting news that would earn a True rating on our Truth-O-Meter.

    Lego’s model MRI scanner started in 2015 as a passion project for Lego chemical technician Erik Ullerlund Staehr and the radiology department at Odense University Hospital in Denmark, Lego said in a February 2022 press release.

    MRI is a noninvasive, painless test doctors use to diagnose a variety of medical conditions. The machine uses a strong magnetic field and radio wave energy pulses to produce detailed pictures of a person’s organs and internal body structures, according to Radiology Info, an information website managed by the American College of Radiology and the Radiological Society of North America.

    The Lego MRI scanner model consists of 500 pieces and measures 5 inches wide, 10 inches long and 4 inches high, the company said. And because Legos are made of plastic — and are therefore not magnetic — this toy would be considered safe to have near the MRI machine.

    MRI scanners make a lot of noise, and to have accurate results, patients must lie still during the exam, which can take up to an hour depending on which body parts are being scanned, Ulla Jensen of Odense University Hospital’s radiology department said in Lego’s press release.

    Staehr said in the release that the children he’s seen interact with these MRI models usually feel more relaxed before their scans, “turning an often highly stressful experience into a positive, playful one.”

    Since the first prototype was made, Lego said the radiology department at Odense University Hospital has used the Lego MRI scanners to help more than 200 children, ages 4 to 9, annually.

    The Lego Foundation, which owns 25% of the Lego Group, said in 2022 that it would expand the project by donating 600 MRI models to hospitals with existing pediatric MRI scanning facilities. Lego also developed training videos that show physicians how to incorporate the model in their interactions with children and their families.

    We rate the claim that Lego donated model MRI scanners to help children undergoing the procedure feel comfortable Good Enough to be True!

    See a post that might make a great Good Enough to Be True story? Send it to [email protected]. We choose claims that pique our curiosity and fit our Truth-O-Meter definition of True.



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  • Fact Check: Lawmaker estimated there were six transgender athletes competing in Wis. sports, but lacks evidence

    During a public hearing on a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports in Wisconsin, bill co-author Rep. Barbara Dittrich, R-Oconomowoc, was asked if she knew how many transgender athletes were competing in Wisconsin K-12 sports.

    “I heard (there) were about a half a dozen of them,” she responded during the Oct. 4 hearing. “Whether there are more than that, I do not know.”

    But the only thing that’s clear about the number of transgender athletes in Wisconsin is that the actual number is uncertain.

    Let’s dive in.

    Dittrich’s response

    In a series of email exchanges, Dittrich spokeswoman Meagan Matthews initially said the complaints were from “about six different teams.” Matthews then said the complaints were from six individuals whose identities she kept confidential “to guard their privacy.” 

    Matthews finally said Dittrich had heard six individuals connected to six different teams complain about their daughters having to compete against transgender athletes.

    “Hope that’s clear enough for you,” Matthews added.

     

    But that just amounts to a restating of the claim.

    Indeed, the number of trans athletes competing in Wisconsin youth sports is unclear. It could be more, it could be less.

    No concrete numbers exist

    The six complaints Dittrich cited during her testimony were from 2021, Matthews said in an email. Dittrich first cited such complaints after she introduced a previous version of her bill more than two years ago. 

    When asked if any of the six complaints about transgender athletes were specifically regarding high school sports, Matthews said Dittrich “doesn’t recall” and cited the two-year gap.

    At the time, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked for examples of transgender athletes competing in Wisconsin that Dittrich was citing. Her office provided two unnamed athletes and their races, but a Journal Sentinel report from May 2021 found both athletes were adults who were not competing in school sports and would not be affected by the bills.

    Officials with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association estimated in the Journal Sentinel report they had received a few dozen inquiries from schools about transgender athletes since the mid-2010s, of which four were about athletes seeking to transition to female.

    A WIAA spokesperson told the Journal Sentinel in 2021 he couldn’t recall a transgender athlete ever competing in a state tournament. 

    More: Wisconsin transgender athletes face ban from women’s sports under proposed bills, which would affect few, if any, sports officials say

    The WIAA’s Transgender Participation Policy says districts should contact the association if they have a student athlete participating in WIAA sport opposite their sex assigned at birth. 

    But Todd Clark, WIAA communications director, told us the WIAA has no way of confirming the number of trans athletes participating in interscholastic athletics in Wisconsin because it does not track notifications sent to its office.

    He added that, according to staff, there were “very few” notifications sent to the office.

    As for complaints, Clark said the WIAA has not received “true complaints” about transgender athletes, but has had a few calls to the office expressing concerns “more so about the policy and potential impact” of allowing transgender athletes to compete in the division that matches their gender.

    The WIAA couldn’t speculate on whether the concerns were based on a specific athlete, he added.

    We did our own search for any recent reports of transgender athletes. We found only one potential example of a transgender student competing in Wisconsin high school sports in Green Bay, though the instance was based on parent complaints. 

    Lori Blakeslee, director of communications and public relations for the Green Bay Area School District, said the district does not require students to identify themselves and is therefore unsure how many, if any, transgender athletes compete in school sports.

    Our ruling

    During a hearing on a bill that would ban transgender girls from competing in high school girls’ sports, Dittrich claimed there are “about a half a dozen” transgender athletes competing in Wisconsin K-12 schools.

    The number she cited referenced complaints made to her office more than two years ago when the bill was originally introduced. But she only provided two specific examples at the time, and both were found to be adults not competing in school sports.

    In the wake of the new claim, her office had no new specifics.

    The WIAA has heard some concerns and “very few” notifications about transgender athletes. But the organization does not keep records of the number of transgender athletes, and it’s unclear from the concerns how many transgender athletes compete in Wisconsin high school sports.

    Based on the information available to us now, and the lack of evidence from Dittrich, we rate this claim Mostly False.

     



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