Un video circulando actualmente en las redes sociales alega mostrar a la Organización de las Naciones Unidas traficando niños. Pero eso no es lo que está pasando en el video.
“Camión de la ONU detenido por la población en general, tráfico de niños, tu ves que no es ningún satanás que está violando a los niños”, dice una publicación en Facebook del 16 de julio.
El video dice en letras rojas: “Vean quienes tenían a niños desaparecidos, el pueblo recupera sus niños robados a manos de la onun”. Este también dice en letras pequeñas, “camión de la ONU traficando con niños” y que esto sucedió en Senegal.
El video muestra un camión rodeado de personas gritando y golpeando el vehículo. También se ven personas tratando de ver que hay dentro del vehículo, y la cámara enfoca niños dentro del mismo.
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 video no es de un camión de la ONU traficando a niños en Senegal
PolitiFact hizo una búsqueda de imágenes inversa y encontró que el video original fue publicado en Facebook en abril de 2019 por ZimEye, un periódico de Zimbabue. El subtítulo dice que un camión de una compañía de seguridad fue arremetido por ciudadanos al sospechar de tráfico infantil, pero era un guardia de seguridad transportando a los hijos de su jefe.
El camión en el video tiene el nombre “Sincere Security”, la cual es una compañía de seguridad en Zimbabue, y no en Senegal. La dirección y el número de teléfono en la puerta trasera del camión coinciden con la información de la compañía encontrada en Internet.
Medios de comunicación en Zimbabue también reportaron que un hombre que llevaba a los hijos de su empleador fue asaltado en Bulawayo, Zimbabue, el 18 de abril de 2019, al ser confundido por secuestrador de niños. ZimLive reportó que los padres de los niños le dijeron a la policía que hubo un malentendido y que estos estaban siendo transportados con su permiso.
Cheikh Sakho, un oficial de comunicaciones de la ONU en Senegal, dijo a Newtral, un medio de verificación en España, en el 2022 que el video no tiene vínculo con la ONU. El añadió que en Senegal no se habla el idioma que se escucha en el video y que “ninguna de las agencias de la ONU en Senegal usa el tipo de vehículo que aparece en el vídeo”.
Nuestro veredicto
Una publicación en Facebook dice que un video muestra “camión de la ONU traficando con niños” en Senegal.
El video no muestra a la ONU traficando niños en Senegal. Este video del 2019 muestra a personas atacando a un camión en Zimbabue al creer que un hombre había secuestrado niños.
Pero un medio de noticias local reportó que no hubo secuestro. Los padres de los niños le dijeron a la policía local que ocurrió un malentendido, ya que el hombre transportaba a los niños con su permiso.
La delegación de la ONU en Senegal niega que el video muestra tráfico de niños.
Calificamos la publicación 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.
A recent Instagram post criticizes the Secret Service for failing to protect Vice President Kamala Harris, but the video in question was filmed more than a year before she took office in her current role.
“Where are the Secret Service??” reads text above the video. “Protestor steals mic from Kamala Harris.”
The video shows someone coming onto a stage where Harris is sitting and snatching her microphone. Harris gets up and walks away.
“You’re the vice president of a whole nation, and this is the response?” a person can be heard saying in the video. “This how long it took?”
An Oct. 9 Instagram post sharing the video 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.)
This incident happened in June 2019, when Harris was still a U.S. senator from California and running for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 election.
She was appearing at MoveOn’s Big Ideas Forum in San Francisco when an animal rights protester jumped onstage. Security also got onstage as Harris walked away from the protester, CNN reported, and Harris’ husband, Douglas Emhoff, wrested the microphone back from the man.
U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was also running for president at the time, told CNN: “I’m really hoping that we see Secret Service and others begin to step in because that really could have been a horrifying moment.”
But claims this happened when she was vice president are False.
A recent video declares President Joe Biden “thee stupidest president” for getting caught on video telling a child, “You’re one sexy kid.”
Biden then appears to caution the child not to “tell mommy what I told you.”
But the video has been altered.
An Oct. 11 Instagram post sharing 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.)
In the original video, shared on TikTok in June, he tells a child a woman is holding, “Let me whisper you a secret,” and then says, “Don’t tell mommy what I told you.”
Biden had signed an executive order June 9 at Fort Liberty, North Carolina, related to economic security for military families. He was surrounded by people.
In response to someone asking on TikTok what Biden said, the video’s poster wrote: “I don’t think he told him anything because I didn’t hear him say anything I think he just pretended to say something.”
We rate claims that Biden was recorded calling a child “sexy” Pants on Fire!
As the 2024 election approaches, Republicans nationwide are running against incumbent president and likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden by focusing on the economy, and particularly the unusually high levels of inflation on his watch.
In summer 2022, inflation reached about 9%, a level unseen in four decades. That represented a hit to consumers.
In an Aug. 17 post on X, formerly known as Twitter, the West Virginia Republican Party listed several statistics it sees as undercutting Biden’s record on the economy:
“You are paying the price for Biden’s energy agenda. Since Biden took office:
” Gas is more than $1/gallon more expensive
” Americans have lost over $10k in increased cost of living
PolitiFact West Virginia recently fact-checked another statement about gasoline prices, that “gas prices have skyrocketed since Joe Biden took office and continue to do so everyday.” That was rated Half True.
Here, we’ll examine another of the post’s claims: “Since Biden took office … real wages have fallen monthly.”
“Real wages” means wages adjusted for inflation. When real wages are falling, inflation is rising faster than wages. When real wages are rising, wages are rising faster than inflation.
The West Virginia Republican Party did not respond to inquiries for this article, but we were able to assess the statement’s accuracy using commonly cited economic data.
The most applicable federal wage data that is calculated monthly is known as average hourly earnings for all private-sector employees. This can be tracked against the standard measure of inflation, the consumer price index, which is also calculated monthly.
From January to March 2021 — Biden’s first three months in office — wages rose faster than inflation. After that, however, inflation accelerated.
We have previously reported that rising inflation was initially driven by COVID-19-related labor market disruptions and supply-chain difficulties. The war in Ukraine, which led to a spike in gasoline prices, worsened inflation. Economists say that Biden’s 2021 coronavirus relief bill, the American Rescue Plan Act, also worsened inflation by putting more money in Americans’ hands after the pandemic had begun to wane; this meant too much money was chasing too few goods.
For the following two years — April 2021 to April 2023 — inflation rose faster than wages. That means real (or inflation-adjusted) wages were falling.
So, the post has a point that under Biden, “real wages have fallen monthly.” But that ceased to be accurate a few months ago.
From May to July 2023 — the final three months for which data would have been known at the time of the tweet — wages rose faster than inflation. That pattern continued in August 2023
Meanwhile, another measure of wages — median usual weekly inflation-adjusted earnings for full-time wage and salary workers, ages 16 and older — showed a similarly mixed pattern on Biden’s watch, contrary to the West Virginia GOP’s tweet. This measure is released quarterly rather than monthly.
For this measure, inflation-adjusted earnings fell for the first six quarters of Biden’s presidency but have climbed (or for one quarter, remained the same) for the most recent four quarters. The measure also fell for the final two quarters of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Our ruling
The West Virginia Republican party said, “Since Biden took office … real wages have fallen monthly.”
Inflation has outpaced wages for most of Biden’s tenure in office — two full years, to be exact.
But that has not been the case for every month he’s been president. Wages outpaced inflation for Biden’s first three months, as well as over the past four months, when real wages seem to have turned a corner as inflation has receded.
A video of CNN journalists reporting from near the Israel-Gaza border has spread on social media as evidence the network staged an attack there for viewers.
“CNN busted faking attack in Israel for the camera!” reads the text in a screenshot of an Oct. 10 X post from The Quartering, which describes itself on X as a “news & content organization.”
The post’s video shows a camera following a CNN team, including the network’s chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, running and taking shelter on a roadside.
“OK, Jerry, tell the cameraman to keep Clarissa in shot,” a narrator can be heard saying. “It’s not ‘The Blair Witch Project.’”
“Look around, Jerry, look around as if you’re in danger,” the voice later says. “Try to look nice and scared, yeah, that’s it, catching your breath. … OK, that’s beautiful, that’s the money shot.”
And still later: “Can you boost the volume on those explosions please?”
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.)
The audio is fake.
It doesn’t appear in the original Oct. 9 broadcast, which CNN described on its site as showing Ward and her team taking shelter from rockets near the Israel-Gaza border. Instead, the voice of CNN anchor Kate Bolduan can be heard describing what’s happening in the footage.
The Quartering said on X that “of course the voice over isn’t real.”
We rate claims that it is, and evidence of CNN staging an attack, False.
Vice President Kamala Harris is next in line for the presidency if President Joe Biden were ever unable to carry out his official duties.
But a recent Instagram post retreads old misinformation when it claims that she’s ineligible for the job.
“Kamala Harris is NOT a ‘natural born citizens’ per Art II Sec. 1 par 5 of the US constitution,” the Oct. 12 post says. “Both parents were foreign nationals, NOT U.S. citizens when Kamala was born in Oakland, CA. She is missing 2 of the 3 legs of the ‘natural born citizen’ test. Kamala can’t be president!”
This post 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.)
We’ve dug into similar claims before.
The section of the U.S. Constitution cited in the Instagram post says that “no person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President.”
Harris’ father and mother were born in Jamaica and India, respectively. But because Harris was born in Oakland, California, experts say that Harris meets the definition of a natural-born citizen.
“If you are born in the U.S., you are automatically a natural-born U.S. citizen under the Constitution, Harvard Law professor Einer Elhuage told PolitiFact in 2019.
Sarah Duggin, a Catholic University law professor, told us: “Her birth in the United States, to someone other than a member of a foreign diplomatic corps or otherwise not subject to U.S. jurisdiction, makes her a U.S. citizen. … There is no reason to look at where her parents came from, how long her parents were U.S. residents before she was born, or where she was raised.”
The 14th Amendment says that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”
8 U.S. Code § 1401 says people born in the United States are “nationals and citizens.”
And then there’s an 1898 Supreme Court decision that ruled people born on U.S. soil — with a few exceptions that aren’t relevant in Harris’ case — qualify for citizenship under the 14th Amendment.
We rate claims Harris isn’t a natural-born citizen, and thus ineligible for the presidency, Pants on Fire!
Influenza vaccines contain small amounts of various ingredients that allow them to work and keep them safe and long-lasting. A misleading meme suggestively lists more than two dozen substances it claims are in flu vaccines. But most are not present — and the ones that are aren’t dangerous.
Full Story
All vaccines contain tiny amounts of various ingredients, including the active ingredient, or antigen, which triggers the body to mount an immune response and produce antibodies. Some vaccines may also include stabilizers, adjuvants, preservatives and minuscule amounts of other ingredients used during their production. All of these components are safe in the concentrations used in vaccines, and many are either naturally present in our bodies or found in water, food or other products we ingest or use regularly. Manufacturers list the components of each vaccine on publicly available package inserts.
Seasonal influenza, or flu, vaccines have a “good safety record,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the benefits outweigh the risks. While the effectiveness of the shots varies each year, getting vaccinated is the best way to protect yourself and others from the flu.
There are different types of flu vaccines, with different production processes, doses and ways of administration, as we will explain. But all of them contain components of influenza viruses, which change every year to try to match the viruses that will be circulating during each season. All the 2023-2024 flu vaccines are quadrivalent, meaning they contain components of, and protect against, four influenza viruses, two influenza A viruses and two influenza B viruses. Just as with all vaccines, to be effective and to remain potent and free of contamination, some flu vaccines contain adjuvants, stabilizers, preservatives or other residual byproducts.
But a viral meme that reads “FLU SHOT INGREDIENTS” lists many substances that are not present in any current flu vaccines, including “antifreeze,” “cow muscle tissue” and “monkey kidney cells.” When checking for the ingredients in databases compiled by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Institute for Vaccine Safety, we found that only a fraction of the 27 listed in the meme are present, in very small quantities, in at least one influenza vaccine.
A misleading meme circulating since 2020 claims flu vaccines include many substances that are not present in the vaccines.
An earlier version of the meme, which circulated and was fact-checked by others in 2020, said the flu shot includes “some of these” ingredients. The words “some of these” were deleted in this version. The image provides no source for the information.
While the post doesn’t explicitly say the listed ingredients are dangerous, the implication is clear. “Demons and witches brew,” wrote an Instagram user when sharing it.
Most of the listed ingredients — while not necessarily in flu vaccines — are present in other vaccines, or are part of the manufacturing process. But these have not been shown to be harmful.
“There is no vaccine that includes everything on this list,” Dr. Kawsar R. Talaat, associate professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told us in a phone interview. “I think that they have gathered these ingredients and use different names for them in order to scare people as much as possible.”
A Misleading List
Two of the “ingredients” listed in the meme are “Human Embryonic (aborted baby) Lung Culture” and “Aborted Human Diploid Cell Cultures (WI-38 & MRC-5).” But as we’ve written, and as the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia explains, vaccines do not contain fetal cells or tissues. Some vaccines use fetal cell lines to grow vaccine viruses. MRC-5 and WI-38 are two cell lines taken from lung tissue of two embryos aborted in the 1960s for the preparation of some vaccines. But none of the influenza vaccines available in the U.S. uses fetal cells for production. The viruses or viral proteins used to make flu vaccines are produced in chicken eggs or in non-human cell cultures. We’ll explain more of this process later.
Similarly, while tiny amounts of aluminum are present in other vaccines as an adjuvant to boost the immune response — and has been safely used for decades — it’s not in any flu vaccines.
Flu vaccines do not contain antifreeze either, as the meme incorrectly claims. The active ingredient of the antifreeze and coolant used in cars or vehicles is ethylene glycol, which is toxic, and isn’t used in any vaccine. Older formulations of the influenza vaccines used tiny amounts of polyethylene glycol, a product used in some cosmetics, skin conditioners and in laxative medicines used for constipation. Polyethylene glycol is nontoxic and very different from ethylene glycol. There is no polyethylene glycol in the current flu vaccines.
Anyone can check the Johns Hopkins database or consult the package inserts to see that none of the current flu vaccines contains ethanol, aluminum dye or aluminum, any type of acetone, “monkey kidney cells” or Vero cells, “fetal cow serum” or bovine serum, barium, E. coli, “cow muscle tissue,” “DNA from pig circoviruses (PCV)”, “embryonic guinea pig cells,” human albumin (a protein naturally made in the liver), “Mueller’s media (containing cow extracts),” or dextrose (a type of sugar), as the meme incorrectly claims.
Some substances listed in the meme are present in some flu vaccines or other vaccines. But the quantities used are very small and safe.
“Because chemical names can be unfamiliar and relative quantities of exposure are often central to their safety (i.e., ‘the dose makes the poison’), it is easy for people to become confused, concerned, or downright scared when they see a list like this,” Charlotte A. Moser, co-director of CHOP’s Vaccine Education Center, told us in an email.
Tiny amounts of certain detergents, for example, may be present in some flu vaccines, but these are better thought of as surfactants that keep the ingredients blended together.
“Detergent can also be surfactant, if you want to use that term, which are things that help keep things into solutions,” Talaat told us. “So the bread from the grocery store, Oreos, Twinkies, they all have surfactant or detergent to make it homogenous.”
“Most of the things that we use in the flu vaccine are things that are very common in other things that we encounter on a … daily basis,” Talaat added. They may sound scary when you put them in a list like this, she said, but they’re not. “The important thing is that flu vaccines, like the other vaccines that are available have been tested extensively, have been used in billions and billions of people over many years and are incredibly safe and protect us from the most severe influenza disease.”
What’s in the Flu Vaccines
As we said, the major components in the flu vaccines are the flu viruses or viral proteins used to prompt our bodies to make an immune response.
Most flu vaccines contain whole inactivated viruses. One, the FluMist nasal spray vaccine, uses weakened viruses. Some others use surface proteins from the viruses. None of them can cause the flu, since the viruses are either dead or too weak to replicate effectively to make us sick.
Vaccine manufacturers receive candidate vaccine viruses selected for a particular season and use different technologies to grow those viruses and make their vaccines.
Most flu vaccines are made by inoculating and growing viruses in chicken eggs. The fluid containing the viruses is then harvested from the eggs, and the viruses are purified and killed or weakened. Egg-based flu vaccines (Afluria, Fluad, Fluarix, FluLaval, Fluzone and FluMist) may contain traces of egg proteins, but people with an egg allergy can still get any of these vaccines, based on recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices. Previously, the ACIP recommended people with severe egg allergy get their vaccine in a medical office, but starting this season, those measures are no longer recommended.
One of the flu vaccines (Flucelvax) is made by growing influenza viruses in cell culture, specifically Madin-Darby canine kidney, or MDCK, cells. The cells used to make this cell line were isolated in 1958 from the kidney of a cocker spaniel. To make the vaccine, manufacturers grow and collect the viruses, inactivate them, and then purify the antigens. Since the 2021-2022 season, this vaccine is egg-free. But it may contain very tiny amounts of MDCK cell DNA or protein.
There is also a recombinant flu vaccine (Flublok) made up of just influenza surface proteins. The vaccine uses recombinant DNA technology to add the genes for each flu strain’s surface proteins to a baculovirus, a virus that infects insects. The “recombinant” baculovirus is then put into a cell line — one derived from cells of the fall armyworm, an insect related to moths, caterpillars and butterflies — to produce the proteins. The proteins are then extracted and purified. This flu vaccine is egg-free, but it may contain residual amounts of fall armyworm and baculovirus DNA and proteins from the manufacturing process.
As we mentioned, the vaccines also may use stabilizers, preservatives or adjuvants so that they remain safe and effective.
Stabilizers are used to keep the antigen stable during shipping and storage. One of the stabilizers used in the nasal spray vaccine is porcine, or pig, gelatin. It’s worth noting that we consume gelatin made from cow and pigs in numerous food products, from gummy candies or marshmallows to wine or mints. Although the vaccine only contains 2 milligrams per dose (for reference, a teaspoon is equivalent to 5,000 mg), people with a severe allergic reaction to gelatin should get a different flu vaccine, as recommended by the CDC. As CHOP’s Vaccine Education Center explains, people who have severe allergic reactions to foods containing gelatin should avoid vaccines that contain gelatin.
Some vaccines also contain preservatives, added to prevent contamination. “Whereas stabilizers keep what’s supposed to be in the vial stable, preservatives keep what shouldn’t be in the vial out,” the CHOP website explains. This is important when a vial contains multiple doses because bacteria or other microbes could enter the vial and contaminate the contents.
Three of the flu vaccines (Afluria, Fluzone and Flucelvax) use the preservative thimerosal, which contains ethylmercury, in multidose vials. Ethylmercury is a kind of mercury that is safer than methylmercury, which can be present in some fish and animals and can be toxic at high levels. Ethylmercury is less dangerous because it’s broken down and excreted faster from the body than methylmercury. According to the Food and Drug Administration, the amount of mercury contained in a vaccine is roughly the same amount contained in a 3 ounce can of tuna fish. The small amounts of thimerosal in vaccines have been shown not to be harmful. There is no link between thimerosal in vaccines and autism, as we’ve explained.
Vaccines may also contain some leftover products from the manufacturing process. As explained by CHOP’s Vaccine Education Center, since the ingredients of the vaccine come from biological systems, it’s sometimes impossible to completely remove substances used during the process. Although most of the time the amounts that remain in the vials are insignificant, the substances still need to be listed.
Formaldehyde, which is mentioned in the meme, is one of them. This organic compound is used in vaccines to inactivate viruses, so they don’t replicate and make us sick. Formaldehyde is also produced naturally in our bodies, where it has a role in producing amino acids, and is also present in the environment and in food we eat. According to the FDA, the amount of formaldehyde “present in some vaccines is so small compared to the concentration that occurs naturally in the body that it does not pose a safety concern.”
The agency says that, for example, in a newborn baby of 6 to 8 pounds, the amount of formaldehyde in their bodies is 50 to 70 times higher than the maximum amount they could receive from a singe dose of a vaccine or from vaccines administered over time. Repeated exposure to formaldehyde, mostly through breathing air containing the compound, is associated with cancer, but there is no evidence linking cancer to the small amounts of formaldehyde in some vaccines.
Some flu vaccines (Afluria, Flublok and Fluzone) may include chloride, or salt. Salts, often based on sodium and potassium, keep the pH balance and keep the active ingredients suspended, according to the University of Oxford’s Vaccine Knowledge Project. “These are common and harmless,” the organization says.
People with concerns about specific ingredients can ask their doctors and choose which of the nine flu vaccines offered this season is the best for them. The CDC says everyone 6 months and older should get a flu vaccine every season, with specific recommendations for each age group.
Editor’s note: SciCheck’s articles providing accurate health information and correcting health misinformation are made possible by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The foundation has no control over FactCheck.org’s editorial decisions, and the views expressed in our articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the foundation.
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Vaccine Ingredients. Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Updated 18 Jul 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Components of Vaccines. Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Updated 6 Apr 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Package Inserts And Manufacturers For Some Us Licensed Vaccines And Immunoglobulins. Institute for Vaccine Safety, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Updated 31 Aug 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Flu Vaccine Safety Information. CDC. Updated 25 Aug 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Different Types of Flu Vaccines. CDC. Updated 31 Aug 2022. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Selecting Viruses for the Seasonal Influenza Vaccine. CDC. Updated 3 Nov 2022. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Summary: ‘Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)—United States, 2023-24.’ CDC. Updated 23 Aug 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
TABLE. Influenza vaccines — United States, 2023–24 influenza season* CDC. Updated 24 Aug 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine. CDC. Updated 25 Aug 2023. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
“Flu Vaccine: What’s in the Vial?” CHOP. Nov 2022. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
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“Flu Shot Ingredients Includes Some of These — Or Do They?” I Speak of Dreams blog. 13 Nov 2020.
Talaat, Kawsar R. Associate professor of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Phone interview with FactCheck.org. 5 Oct 2023.
Vaccine Ingredients – Fetal Cells. CHOP. 21 Oct 2021. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
How Influenza (Flu) Vaccines Are Made. CDC. Updated 3 Nov 2022. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Ethylene Glycol. ChemicalSafetyFacts.org. Updated 14 Oct 2022. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
Ethylene Glycol. PubChem. Accessed 9 Oct 2023.
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ACIP Evidence to Recommendations (EtR) Framework: Safety of Influenza Vaccines for Persons with Egg Allergy. CDC, ACIP. 10 Aug 2023.
Grohskopf, Lisa A. et al. “Prevention and Control of Seasonal Influenza with Vaccines: Recommendations of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices — United States, 2023–24 Influenza Season.” MMWR. 15 Aug 2023.
Cell-Based Flu Vaccines. CDC. 25 Aug 2023.
Fall armyworm. Featured Creatures. University of Florida.
Rumors about the Israel-Hamas war have run rampant on social media, and among them is a claim that Israel reduced a church in Gaza to rubble.
“Israel just bombed and destroyed the third oldest church in the world and the biggest church in Palestine,” an Oct. 9 Instagram post said, sharing a photo of St. Porphyrios Orthodox Church.
This post 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 church responded to the unfounded claims on Facebook.
“We inform you that the church of St. Porphyrios in Gaza is in the best condition,” read an English Facebook translation of the church’s Oct. 9 post. “And the news you spread is nothing more than rumors.”
It went on to call the claims “lies and fake news.”
Subsequent posts from the church haven’t contradicted this.
Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate.
Quick Take
Ukraine began requiring women with medical and pharmaceutical backgrounds to register for the military on Oct. 1 and remain in the country in the event they are called into service. But a video, posted by a YouTube show that frequently spreads misinformation, misleadingly claims that Ukraine ordered all women ages 18 to 60 to “report for duty.”
Full Story
U.S. officials estimated in August that 70,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. On the Russian side, the U.S. officials say there have been about 120,000 deaths and up to 180,000 injured soldiers.
The heavy Ukrainian casualties are partly due to limited medical facilities and staff on the front lines, the New York Times reported in August. Combat medics are often unable to get to casualties on the battlefield, and hospitals can’t handle the number of wounded.
Now, the country is requiring women with medical backgrounds to register at enlistment offices. Women in this group are prohibited from leaving the country.
Ukraine’s Defense Ministry published Order No. 313 in December 2021, requiring all Ukrainian women ages 18 to 60 in more than 100 professions to register at enlistment offices. The order had called for registration by the end of 2022, but the Ukrainian Defense Minister postponed Order No. 313’s registration requirement until Oct. 1, 2023.
The order came in response to Russia’s increased military presence near Ukraine’s border. But the order was precautionary — it does not require universal conscription of women, nor does it require women to serve in combat.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces issued a statement saying, “All medical women, these are doctors, nurses, dentists, midwives, pharmacists, ages 18 to 60, will be required to register for military service starting October 1,” CNN reported on Sept. 8. The military did not require registration for women in other professions, the Kyiv Post reported.
But a video shared on Facebook on Oct. 4 misrepresents the Ukrainian military requirement that went into effect Oct. 1. The headline on the video reads, “Ukraine Has Run Out Of Men. Women Must Report For Duty!”
The video is a segment from the YouTube show Redacted, hosted by Clayton Morris and his wife, Natali. The show has previously spread misinformation about COVID-19, as we’ve written.
“Ukraine has passed a new law on military registration of all women conscripts. It’s now enforced as of the first of October. The obligation applies to all Ukrainian women between the ages of 18 and 60,” Clayton Morris misleadingly claims, as viewers see a headline that reads, “Ukrainian women to be conscripted as the country faces Russian forces.”
Morris is a former host of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” and a real estate investor who moved with his wife to Portugal following allegations of fraud by former clients.
Since the war in Ukraine began, Morris has amplified Russian talking points and been featured on RT, the Russian-controlled news network.
Order Does Not Apply to All Women
Since the activation of Order No. 313 on Oct. 1, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry has selectively enforced the order, Jessica Trisko Darden, associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, told FactCheck.org in a phone interview.
The types of professional work covered by Order No. 313 “are not comprehensive,” explained Trisko Darden, who has researched the role of women in the Ukrainian military. The Defense Ministry has decided to selectively apply the order’s registration requirement as certain professions are needed, Trisko Darden said.
“Registration for the draft is not mobilization. Ukraine has always said that they will not compel women into combat roles,” Trisko Darden said.
Officials have not said whether women would serve as medics in combat zones, she said. But Trisko Darden expects at least some of these women to administer medications and provide medical aid in hospitals, as needed.
So Morris’ claim that Ukraine is requiring “all Ukrainian women” to register with the military is misleading, as we said.
Order No. 313 does not require all Ukrainian women to register, and the Defense Ministry is currently only enforcing the order’s registration requirement for women with certain medical and pharmaceutical backgrounds.
It’s worth noting that Ukrainian women have had combat roles and other responsibilities in supporting their country’s armed forces. More than 60,000 women voluntarily serve in the military.
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Goldstein, Matthew. “An Ex-Fox News Host Pitched ‘Financial Freedom.’ His Clients Want Their Money Back.” New York Times. 25 Mar 2019.
Hendrix, Stevie and Serhii Korolchuk. “On the front lines, Ukrainian women are often the first responders.” Washington Post. 3 Jul 2022.
Jessica Trisko Darden. Political Science professor, Virginia Commonwealth University. VCU.edu. Accessed 11 Oct 2023.
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Order No. 313–On Approval of the List of Specialties and/or Professions Related to the Relevant Military Accounting Specialties, After Obtaining Which Women Are Registered as Persons Liable for Military Service and the List of Specialties and/or Professions Related to the Relevant Military Accounting Specialties. 3 Dec 2021.
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Former President Donald Trump made the egregious claim that the perpetrators of the violent attacks on Israel, are entering the U.S. through the southern border.
“The same people that raided Israel are pouring into our once beautiful USA, through our totally open southern border, at record numbers,” Trump said Oct. 9 on Truth Social. “Are they planning an attack within our country? Crooked Joe Biden and his boss Barack Hussein Obama did this to us!”
Trump’s statement leaves the impression that Hamas militants — the terrorist group in Gaza that attacked Israel — are crossing the border in Mexico into the United States.
Trump provided no evidence to back up his claim, and didn’t elaborate when he made similar remarks in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and West Palm Beach, Florida. We asked his campaign for evidence and received no reply.
Terrorism experts told us that there is no proof to back up that claim. And a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said there is no intelligence to signal a threat to the U.S. from Hamas.
“There is no credible evidence of Hamas on the southern border of the United States,” said Jason M. Blazakis, director of the Middlebury College’s Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism.
Hamas is an Islamic militant group that formed in Gaza in the 1980s. The U.S. State Department designated it as a terrorist group in 1997. Hamas in 2006 won elections in the Palestinian territories and in 2007 took over Gaza. Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of Israel. Hamas’ attack on multiple sites in Israel in October was the deadliest attack on Israel in decades.
Trump’s comments echo what he said as president, when he linked immigrants to terrorism.
No evidence that Hamas militants crossing southern border
Despite historically high numbers of migrant encounters at the border, it is not “open” for everyone to come in, as Trump claimed. Physical barriers, surveillance technology and about 20,000 U.S. Border Patrol agents help limit who and what enters the country.
“There is no truth” to Trump’s claim about Hamas militants “pouring” across the U.S. southern border, said David Bier, an immigration expert at the libertarian Cato Institute.
Alex Nowrasteh, the Cato Institute’s vice president for economic and social policy studies, studied attacks or planned attacks in the U.S. from 1975 through 2022 by 219 foreign-born terrorists. During the nearly five-decade span, four were from Palestine, and the most recent attempted attack was in 1997. Nowrasteh told PolitiFact that as far as he knew, none of the attackers were part of Hamas. The largest group executing an attack on U.S. soil came from Saudi Arabia — the 9/11 terrorists.
Experts said there is some evidence of Middle East terrorist groups operating in Latin America. But the experts added that they had not seen evidence that Hamas had crossed the U.S. southern border.
Arie Perliger, a security studies professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell, said that “there was some evidence for coordination or collaboration between Hezbollah and Mexican cartels” in the past decade, but he had never heard of Hamas’s involvement. (Hezbollah is a militant group from Lebanon and a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.)
Republicans misleadingly pivot to U.S. border security
Some of Trump’s rivals for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination have also stoked fears about a threat in the U.S. following the Hamas attack.
But experts said that Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel cannot be looked at through the lens of U.S. border security.
“They both involve borders, but the comparison ends there,” Bier said. “People aren’t crossing the border to conduct terrorist attacks or take over parts of the United States. A very small percentage may come to commit ordinary crimes, like selling drugs, but overwhelmingly, they are coming for economic opportunity and freedom.”
There is not a terrorist movement in Mexico, Central America or South America that targets the U.S. or in any way compares with Hamas targeting Israel, Nowrasteh said.
“It’s just a radically different security environment,” Nowrasteh said.
Blazakis, of Middlebury College, said the comparison was a “false analogy.”
“The vast majority of people who are at the southern border are trying to escape criminal gangs and drug trafficking organization violence,” he said.
Terrorist watch list isn’t an indicator of a threat
The number of times immigration officials have encountered people on the terrorist watchlist at the U.S. southern border has risen in the past two years. U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports this data annually but doesn’t include the nationality of people on the list.
Experts say imprecise and sometimes flawed data make these numbers a bad gauge of the threat of a terrorist attack on U.S. soil. For example, many of the people on the list are neither suspected terrorists nor affiliated with foreign terrorist organizations that pose a threat to the U.S., said Nowrasteh.
Instead, people could be on the list because they have some affiliation with members of a terrorist organization, according to CBP. Or they could belong to domestic guerilla groups, sometimes inactive, that are not international terrorist organizations.
Additionally, CBP data can include false positives, or people who were added to the watchlist because they share the same name or birth date as someone listed.
Our ruling
Trump said, “the same people that raided Israel are pouring into our once beautiful USA, through our TOTALLY OPEN SOUTHERN BORDER, at Record Numbers.”
The onus is on Trump to prove his claim, and he provided no evidence to support it.
Terrorism experts told us that there is no evidence that Hamas, a terrorist group in Gaza, has militants crossing the Mexico-U.S. border, much less in record numbers. And a DHS spokesperson said there is no credible intelligence to signal a threat to the U.S. from Hamas.
The southern border is not open for everyone to come in. Barriers, detection technology and immigration agents limit who and what can enter the country.
We rate Trump’s statement Pants on Fire!
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