All posts tagged: debunked

Press association denounces Israel’s use of altered image to depict slain journalist

Press association denounces Israel’s use of altered image to depict slain journalist

Published by Sam Flores

The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents hundreds of journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, published a statement on April 15 criticising the Israeli military for attempting to discredit Lebanese journalist Ali Shoeib, who was killed in an Israeli strike, by publishing a fake image of him wearing a Hezbollah uniform.   Hezbollah is a Lebanese political party and paramilitary group with close links to Iran, which is currently at war with Israel. The group, whose military wing is classified as a terrorist organisation by the European Union, is the target of Israel’s strikes on Lebanon. This image shows the statement made by the Foreign Press Association on April 15, 2026. Source: X To display this content from X (Twitter), you must enable advertisement tracking and audience measurement. Accept Manage my choices War correspondent Ali Shoeib was killed alongside two other journalists, cameraman Mohammed Ftouni and his sister, journalist Fatima Ftouni, when an Israeli air strike hit their vehicle on March 28.  Shoeib worked for Al-Manar, a Lebanese TV channel affiliated with Hezbollah, and the …

5 common myths about robotic mowers debunked

5 common myths about robotic mowers debunked

Published by Daniella Wilson

If you’ve spent your weekends wrestling with a petrol mower or worrying about the impact of your garden maintenance on the environment, you might have considered a robotic alternative – only to be held back by common misconceptions. While rumours of complicated setups and fragile technology persist, the reality of modern autonomous mowing is far more efficient. We’re debunking the biggest myths surrounding robot lawn mowers, to show you how easy it is to achieve a pristine lawn without sacrificing your free time. Myth One: They take ages to install The installation process is as simple as changing your mower’s schedule (Honda UK) Even in large gardens with complex designs, installing the wire for the Honda Miimo is a straightforward process. All you have to do is lay the wire 20 cm within the lawn perimeter and peg it in every 1–2 metres with the simple-to-use pegs that come included with the mower. If you have trees within the lawn or ponds, they can easily be ringed off. Then, all you need to do is …

No, Emmanuel Macron did not share a (fake) photo of Melania Trump with Jeffrey Epstein

No, Emmanuel Macron did not share a (fake) photo of Melania Trump with Jeffrey Epstein

Published by Sam Flores

In the wake of recent tensions between Trump and the Macrons, a false claim has surfaced online. Since April 6, a wave of Spanish-speaking social media posts has alleged that the French President “ridiculed” Trump by sharing an “image of his wife alongside Jeffrey Epstein”. The posts feature a purported leaked image from the Epstein files appearing to show disgraced financier Epstein, who died in prison in 2019, embracing and kissing Melania Trump. One specific post, shared on X on April 8, has already amassed nearly six million views. No publication from Macron One of the first to circulate the rumour appears to be Egyptian journalist Nabil Omran, who posted the image in question to Facebook on April 5 with the caption, “Macron avenges his dignity.” This image was shared by Egyptian journalist Nabil Omran on his Facebook account. “Macron avenges his dignity… He publishes a photo of Trump’s wife […] with her lover,” the text reads. © Nabil Omran / The Observers This is a direct reference to the controversy sparked by Donald Trump’s …

‘Typosquatting’: How to spot fake news sites created by AI – The Observers

‘Typosquatting’: How to spot fake news sites created by AI – The Observers

Published by Sam Flores

Courrier France 24, Sud Ouest Direct, 20minutes.com… they sound like real news outlets, but they are not. Learn how to spot sites created by AI. Since 2023, fake media sites, often created by AI, have been appearing online. The sites publish articles aimed at misleading users or getting views for ad revenue. Here are four tips for spotting fake media sites. Tip #1: Check the URL In 2023, an article appeared online that looked like it was published by the French newspaper Le Parisien. Using the same logo and graphic style as the real newspaper, the article reported that wheat from Ukraine, meant for children in Africa, was instead being used as pig feed in Europe. But the URL – “leparisien.ltd” – showed that the article was fake. The newspaper’s real address is “leparisien.fr”. Imitating a site by using a URL that is close to the real one is called “typosquatting”. Tip #2: Check the real news site. See whether the article appears on the real news site. If you search for the pig feed article on …

4 myths about backyard birds, debunked

4 myths about backyard birds, debunked

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Spring is on the way in the Northern Hemisphere, meaning the birds in our backyards will soon make a lot more noise than before. I, for one, am excited. Birds are obviously great, but as with most subjects, there are all kinds of things we believe about them that have no basis in reality. Many of these ideas are related to our anxiety, as humans, about our interactions with nature—for example, should we feel bad about feeding the birds? Let’s look into what actual research suggests.  Feeding birds doesn’t make them dependent on you. Bird feeders are fun and educational—you get to see a variety of species of birds without leaving your house. A common fear is that this enjoyable hobby comes at a cost: making wild animals dependent on human food, meaning they might not be able to take care of themselves if you stop feeding them.    There’s good reason to worry about this. Animals like bears really …

No, Iran didn’t publish a ‘list’ of 11 American cities to target

No, Iran didn’t publish a ‘list’ of 11 American cities to target

Published by Sam Flores

Instagram user truecrimewithbella posted a video on March 3 in which she tells her followers that Iran has drafted a list of 11 US cities it intends to target militarily in response to the US-Israeli attack on Tehran. The list includes both large cities like Seattle and San Francisco, and more surprising choices like Cheyenne, Wyoming and Shreveport, Louisiana. The video has garnered nearly 10 million views.  It turns out, however, that this purported Iranian hit list doesn’t exist. A series of links When we typed the names of these towns and cities into a search engine, we quickly came across an article published by the British tabloid the Daily Mail on June 25, 2025, under the title “Chilling list reveals which US cities would be first targets hit in WWIII”. The article makes no mention of Iran. Instead, it says “world policy experts, investigative journalists and financial analysts have warned about what could possibly happen if there was a third world war.” We found the origin of this list by following a series of links. …

Has the British Museum really removed references to ‘Palestine’ from exhibits?

Has the British Museum really removed references to ‘Palestine’ from exhibits?

Published by Sam Flores

The latest scandal brewing about the British Museum centres on its choice to remove references to “Palestine” from the information panels on several displays, as first reported by several media outlets in mid-February.  The story quickly sparked headlines around the world.  “The name ‘Palestine’ was removed from all the exhibits in the British Museum,” reads a February 16 Facebook post shared by the French-language edition of AJ+, a publication of Qatari media outlet Al Jazeera. For its part, Agence Média Palestine reported that the British Museum removed references to Palestine “from its exhibits under pressure from a pro-Israel group”. The social media accounts of several English and French language outlets were also quick to share the news. Pure TV+ – whose misleading posts we’ve reported on in the past – declared to its 200,000 Facebook followers that the British Museum decided “under pressure from a pro-Israeli group” to “delete all references to ‘Palestine’ from its exhibits”. Turns out, the British Museum is still using the term ‘Palestine’ In reality, the British Museum still uses the term “Palestine” …

Did NASA really discover a temporary, second moon?

Did NASA really discover a temporary, second moon?

Published by Sam Flores

“NASA Confirms Earth Has Gained A Temporary 2ND Moon That Will Remain in Orbit Beside Us Until 2083,” reads a claim made by the Facebook account What the Fact, an account that says it is dedicated to “the latest space science & astronomy news”. Its second moon claim was featured in a post that garnered more than 16,000 reactions. The claim was also widely circulated on X, with some posts garnering more than 3 million views.  To illustrate this claim, the posts feature an image generated by artificial intelligence showing the Earth with two moons of roughly the same size, suggesting the existence of a new heavenly body similar to the Moon currently in orbit around our planet. This is a screenshot of the post that What the Fact shared on Facebook on December 30, 2025. © Facebook The confusion seems to hail from the discovery made last July by researchers at the Complutense University in Madrid of a small asteroid baptised “2025 PN7”. This asteroid was first spotted through the Pan-STARRS1 telescope at the …

How AI-generated images are being used to deny the massacre of protesters in Iran

How AI-generated images are being used to deny the massacre of protesters in Iran

Published by Sam Flores

Iranian security forces have been carrying out a deadly, unprecedented crackdown on anti-government protesters since January 8. Preliminary estimates of the number of demonstrators killed range from 6,000 – the current total of an ongoing count being carried out by NGOs – and 20,000, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Iran, Mai Sato.  As our team observed by reviewing many videos filmed by eyewitnesses, the Kahrizak morgue in Tehran was flooded with hundreds of protesters’ bodies. According to partial counts carried out by the BBC and the NGO Human Rights Watch, the bodies of at least 200 to 400 demonstrators were brought to the site. However, social media users and media outlets with links to the Iranian government began, the week of January 19, to explicitly deny that the massacres were taking place, claiming that the photos taken in the Kahrizak morgue were all generated by artificial intelligence.  The Fars News Agency, which is linked to the Iranian regime, has tried to make this point by sharing two images of the same moving scene: …

Nicola Peltz’s ‘eleventh hour’ wedding dress claims debunked in resurfaced video

Nicola Peltz’s ‘eleventh hour’ wedding dress claims debunked in resurfaced video

Published by Daniella Wilson

One of the stand-out claims in Brooklyn Beckham’s bombshell statement on Monday was that his mother, Victoria Beckham, was set to design Nicola Peltz’s wedding dress until she pulled out “at the eleventh hour.” But despite this, Nicola ended up with a beautiful gown designed by the late fashion legend Valentino Garavani, a process which saw the American actress flying to Rome to design it. In a resurfaced clip from an interview with Elle, Nicola called the entire process was “a dream” detailing that she and her whole family headed to the holy city for the occasion. “My favourite outfit I’ve ever worn is my wedding dress. I got to go to Rome, and design it with everyone at Valentino; it was just a dream.  “My dad took me with my brother, and my mum and Brooklyn, but then my dad and Brooklyn did something else obviously because they couldn’t go into the fitting. Just being able to go to Rome and go to a new place that I’d never been and design a dress with …