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Aaron Salter Jr. was killed by a mass shooter because he was working on creating a water-powered car engine Aaron Salter Jr. was working as a security guard at Tops Friendly Markets in Buffalo, New York, on May 14 when an 18-year-old man opened fire on shoppers. Police say Salter, 55, fired at the gunman several times before he himself was slain — one of 10 people shot to death by a white man who police say was motivated to kill Black people. But a claim on Facebook is spinning a different tale about Salter, a retired police lieutenant who has been hailed as a hero, suggesting that he was killed because he was working on making a water-powered vehicle. "Mr. Salter was just on the news about a month ago explaining an invention he made, which was an engine that runs completely off water, no fuel needed," said a man in a Facebook video posted May 30 and shared tens of thousands of times. "A completely hydrogen-fuel(ed) system. And we all know what happened to the last person who decided to come forth with an invention similar to this one." That’s an apparent reference to Stanley Meyer, an inventor of a water-powered fuel cell for car engines. Meyer, who died in 1998, has been at the center of a decades-old conspiracy theory that he was killed by the government for his invention. We’ve fact-checked that claim to be False. Like the claim about Meyer, this video about Salter was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It’s true that Salter was working to power vehicles with water. But there is no evidence that work made him a target in a mass shooting. In a May 16 call to law enforcement, FBI Director Christopher A. Wray was clear about what investigators believe motivated these killings: "From everything we know, this was a targeted attack, a hate crime and an act of racially motivated violent extremism." Payton Gendron, armed with three firearms and tactical gear, drove more than 200 miles from his hometown, Conklin, New York, to the Tops grocery store, police said. He shot four people in the parking lot of the store, three of whom died, then went inside and shot eight more, police say. Video that Gendron live streamed from the scene captured glimpses of Salter’s attempts to halt the rampage, according to reporting by The Buffalo News. An 180-page screed that was posted online and attributed to Gendron detailed his belief in the "great replacement theory," a racist conspiracy that claims immigrants and people of color will replace white people in the country in order to outvote them and replace them racially. The document described Black people as "replacers." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 None of the victims in the mass shooting are named in the online document, and there is no evidence that Gendron knew who his victims were ahead of time. But 11 of the 13 killed or injured in the attack were Black, including Salter. Friends and family remembered Salter for his nearly 30 years on the Buffalo police force. "Even in his retirement, he literally made Tops his priority," Salter’s son, Aaron Salter III, told the Democrat & Chronicle newspaper. "He made sure he was there and he was making sure that the store was safe at all times." Salter was also working to complete his bachelor’s degree at Canisius College and, according to his LinkedIn profile, ran a business called AWS Hydrogen Technologies, LLC. While the Facebook video described Salter as being on the "news" for his car technology, it appears to have drawn clips from two 2015 YouTube videos in which Salter spoke about his work applying water electrolysis, the process of using electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, to fuel vehicles. "I'm always working on my vehicles and or my project of running engines on water for the last four years or so," Salter wrote on his LinkedIn profile. "I would like to realize my dream of getting cars to run off of water using my newly discovered energy source some day." In one of the YouTube videos, Salter showed the hydrogen electrolysis generator he had built in the back of his truck and gave a step-by-step presentation of how the generator worked, along with the truck's original gas engine, to power the vehicle. Salter also tested how long the vehicle could run on hydrogen by using only the generator. In another video, he told a colleague that his interest in alternative energy sources started with solar power. Our ruling A viral conspiracy shared across social media, including in a Facebook post, claims that Aaron Salter Jr. was killed in the Buffalo mass shooting because of his work creating a water-powered engine for vehicles. Salter was indeed working on water-powered vehicle technology. But there is no evidence backing the claim that he was targeted because of it. Salter, along with nine other victims, was shot and killed by a gunman who police say targeted them because they were Black. Three other people were injured in the attack. We rate the social media claim Fals

Increased encounters at the southwest border in April 2022 compared to April 2020 are attributable to changes in border policy A group of state attorneys general sued the Biden administration over its plans to rescind a public health policy intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by expelling immigrants arriving illegally at the southwest border. A federal judge on May 20 blocked the Biden administration from ending the policy, known as Title 42. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for U.S. Senate and was among those who sued the administration, tweeted a comparison of the number of adult immigrants traveling alone and encountered by border authorities in April 2020 and April 2022. In April 2020, it was 15,609. In April 2022, it grew to 166,814. "Border policies matter," wrote Brnovich, who ​​is seeking to win Arizona’s Republican primary Aug. 2. Border policies matter. The number of single adult illegal border-crossers? April 2022 (Biden) - 166,814April 2020 (Trump) - 15,609— Mark Brnovich (@brnoforaz) May 24, 2022 This comparison has several issues. Brnovich’s tweet insinuated that the change in the number of encounters is a result of different policies under President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Although some border policies have changed from one administration to another, those affecting adults crossing the border alone, which Customs and Border Protection classifies as "single adults," have not. Under the pandemic policy, immigrants are quickly expelled and don’t face penalties for crossing the border without authorization. This has led to more immigrants attempting to cross the border multiple times and has contributed to an increase in the monthly numbers of encounters, experts said. Brnovich’s claim also doesn’t take into account the dynamics of the pandemic in early 2020, when lockdowns and restrictions were at their peak, and in 2022, when many of those measures had ended. In fiscal year 2020, the number of encounters at the border was the lowest in April 2020; encounters generally have climbed every month after. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Looking at two months of data is ‘cherry-picking’ Brnovich’s tweet singles out CBP data from April 2020, right at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic when most of the U.S. and the world was under lockdown. Policies limiting the movement of people both within the U.S. and across countries led to a decrease in migration worldwide. Vaccines had not yet been created, and personal protective equipment, like face masks, were scarce. Governments and health officials dissuaded many people from leaving their homes as they learned more about the virus and how it spread. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 Two years later, the world has changed. Vaccines are more widely accessible, and most lockdown restrictions have been lifted. Some countries are dealing with battered economies as a result of the pandemic. Although comparing similar months of immigration data is usually advisable, given the seasonal nature of migration, experts said comparisons of April 2020 and April 2022 are not sound. "Selecting only two months from only two years as Mr. Brnovich did qualifies as an extremely selective and decontextualized comparison, or more colloquially, ‘cherry-picking,’" said Austin Kocher, a research assistant professor at Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. "This does not mean that he is necessarily wrong in his conclusion, only that his choice of data does not necessarily add up to his policy conclusion." Immigration policies at the border have remained the same for adults traveling alone When an immigrant at the southwest border attempts to enter the country illegally, officials have two options — and these options have been the same under both Trump and Biden. One option: enforce immigration law and either turn away immigrants or allow them into the U.S. to seek relief, such as asylum. Another option: quickly expel immigrants to Mexico or their countries of origin, based on the pandemic policy to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. When people are apprehended under immigration law, they can face legal consequences such as fines, misdemeanor charges or barred access to future asylum. People who are determined to have repeatedly attempted crossing can also be subject to felony charges. But people who are expelled under the pandemic policy do not face any immigration penalties. As a result, there’s been an increase in the number of encounters recorded by CBP and in the percentage of people trying to cross the border more than once. Under Biden, there have been some changes in the implementation of border policies for unaccompanied children and families. But for adults traveling alone — the group that Brnovich highlighted — policies have remained the same. Syracuse University's Kocher said a shift in the tone around immigration from the Biden administration could lead to more immigrants trying to cross the border at the same time that COVID-19 restrictions have also relaxed. But experts also emphasize that U.S. policies alone don’t influence decisions to migrate. "Migration has always been multicausal: that is, people migrate because of a wide range of intersecting drivers — poverty, criminal and political violence, climate change," said Maria Cristina Garcia, a professor of American Studies at Cornell University. Many of these factors have been aggravated by the pandemic. Our ruling Brnovich said increased encounters at the southwest border in April 2022 compared with April 2020 are attributable to changes in border policy. Brnovich’s data tracks with CBP’s numbers. But the cherry-picked numbers don’t tell the whole story. In April 2020, lockdowns and the uncertainty of COVID-19 restricted people’s movements. By April 2022, testing and vaccines were more accessible, and lockdown restrictions were largely lifted. Border encounters have generally increased monthly after April 2020. However, immigration policies for adults traveling alone have been the same under the Trump and Biden administrations. Brnovich’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly Fals

"Florida man on drugs kills imaginary friend and turns himself in. We may have all seen the "Florida man" make his way onto our social media platforms. And each account of his exploits are often more bizarre than the last. But as amusing as these anecdotes are, they’re not always true. "Florida man on drugs kills imaginary friend and turns himself in," read a May 30 Facebook post. The purported headline ran alongside an image of a glossy-eyed man, furrowing his eyebrows and pouting his lip. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The Facebook post seemed to derive its headline and mugshot from an article that appeared on Moron.com, a parody news site, in 2015. The story, which listed "MORON" as its author, provided further information on the facetious crime. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 It said, partly, that a man named Geoff Gaylord stabbed his imaginary friend repeatedly with a kitchen knife and turned himself into the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, where he demanded to be punished. Gaylord was later arrested and found to have been intoxicated, the article said. But PolitiFact found no record that such an arrest ever happened. John Medina, a Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office spokesperson, said he could not find an incident that matched the scenario described in the Facebook post. A TinEye search revealed that the mugshot used in the post appeared online in 2011, years before the purported arrest. A Snopes reporter traced the picture in the Facebook post to a Florida resident whose photo appeared on WTSP-TV’s now-defunct mugshot gallery. The crime included in the Facebook post is as imaginary as Gaylord’s make-believe companion. We rate this claim Pants on Fire

“Nobody in any election in America gets 74% of the votes. Ever. It doesn’t happen. Nearly a week after Georgia’s primary — an election in which two of Donald Trump’s endorsed candidates failed to knock off Republican incumbents he’d targeted for defeat — the former president sent a blast email touting a blog post by conservative commentator Emerald Robinson. Robinson, who was taken off the air by the conservative channel Newsmax after sending controversial tweets and was also permanently suspended by Twitter, wrote a Substack post echoing Trump’s longstanding (and debunked) complaints about rigged elections. The post was titled, "Something Stinks In Georgia: The GOP primary numbers are funny because the votes were rigged." In her May 26 post, Robinson expressed disbelief that even though Trump’s national win-loss record in endorsements "stands at 92-7," several of Trump’s top targets in Georgia — incumbent Gov. Brian Kemp and incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — beat Trump-backed primary challengers. Kemp defeated former Sen. David Perdue, 74% to 22%, while Raffensperger defeated Rep. Jody Hice, 52% to 33%. Robinson wrote that the RealClearPolitics.com average of pre-primary polls showed that Kemp was averaging 52% support, compared with 38% for Perdue. Yet "on primary day in Georgia," she added, "Kemp gets 74% and Perdue gets 22%. Nobody in any election in America gets 74% of the votes. Ever. It doesn’t happen. Obvious fraud." No credible evidence has surfaced of widespread fraud. And it’s wrong to say that "nobody in any election in America gets 74% of the votes." For instance, more than four dozen U.S. House general elections in 2020 alone produced blowouts bigger than Kemp’s over Perdue. But the most illustrative way to debunk Robinson’s assertion is to look at the primary races in which Trump has made an endorsement this year. In five statewide races so far, a Trump-endorsed candidate has notched more than 74% of the vote in a primary: Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky (86.3%), Arkansas attorney general candidate Tim Griffin (85.7%), Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar (83.8%), Arkansas gubernatorial candidate Sarah Huckabee Sanders (83.4%), and Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (78.7%). Another three Trump-backed statewide candidates ran unopposed, effectively winning 100% of the vote. Democrats have won races with at least 74% as well. In North Carolina, Senate candidate Cheri Beasley won her primary with 81%, while in Texas, Beto O’Rourke won his gubernatorial primary with 91%. In Ohio, Reps. Joyce Beatty and Marcy Kaptur were unopposed. In Pennsylvania, six incumbent Democratic members of Congress were unopposed, and one, Dwight Evans, won with 76% of the vote. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 The list of Trump-endorsed U.S. House candidates with landslide primary victories is even longer. Trump counts among his endorsements 31 candidates who ran unopposed in the Republican primary. And he endorsed an additional 20 candidates who ended up winning more than 74% of the vote. Notably, several other Trump-backed candidates approached or exceeded 74% of the vote in the very same Georgia primary. Rep. Rick Allen won his primary unopposed, while fellow Georgia Reps. Buddy Carter and Andrew Clyde won with 82.2% and 76.6% of the vote, respectively. Two other Trump-backed candidates in Georgia won with margins almost as large as Kemp’s: Senate candidate Herschel Walker (68.7%) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (70.4%). In all, about one-third of Trump’s endorsees’ victories came from races in which the endorsee faced no opponent at all. Our ruling Robinson wrote, "Nobody in any election in America gets 74% of the votes. Ever. It doesn’t happen." It happens all the time. It occurred in dozens of general elections for U.S. House seats in 2020. Even just looking at Trump’s endorsed candidates, at least 59 have won races with between 74% and 100% of the vote so far this year. On the same primary election day in Georgia, three Trump-endorsed candidates won with at least 74% of the vote. We rate the statement Pants on Fire! RELATED: All of our fact-checks about elections RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Georg

Active shooter drill at high school in Uvalde, Texas, two months before the elementary school shooting shows the event was a false flag Active shooter drills are pervasive in American schools. Although there is growing concern that active shooter drills increase students’ anxiety, school shootings like the one at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, often prompt calls for more active shooter drills. Many states, including Texas, require schools to run active shooter drills. About 95% of American public schools conduct lockdown drills, according to U.S. Education Department data. Despite this, some social media users claim that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District’s active shooter trainings somehow prove that the elementary school shooting was a "false flag" attack. "So let me get this straight," said a man in a TikTok video also posted to Instagram on May 26. "They conducted an active shooter drill at the high school in the same town two months prior, and then magically, they had a shooting at the elementary school." The video featured eerie background music and a New York Post article with the headline, "Chilling images show students at Salvador Ramos’ HS pretending to be dead during active-shooter drill." Authorities have said that 18-year-old Ramos killed at least 19 students and two teachers at the elementary school on May 24. A law enforcement officer killed Ramos at the scene. Authorities are still investigating the shooting. The post containing the video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Taken in its totality, the video suggests that an active shooter drill at Uvalde High School in March is evidence that the elementary school shooting was a "false flag" attack. That’s a baseless claim. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The term "false flag" refers to harmful actions that are designed to look as if they were perpetrated by one person or group, but were committed by someone else. Unfounded claims often circulate after mass shootings suggesting that the attacks were "false flags" devised by the government in an effort to enact gun control laws. In March, the school district’s police department said the goal of an active shooter training at the high school that month was "to train every Uvalde area law enforcement officer so that we can prepare as best as possible for any situation that may arise." The man in the TikTok video also said a police officer who was part of the training was married to one of the teachers killed. That is true, but not indicative of a "false flag" operation. Uvalde is home to about 15,000 people. "Everyone knows everybody," Uvalde resident Tim Wiginton told Canada’s CBC on May 26. "So whether you were directly impacted (by the school shooting) or you know someone who was there, whose kids were there, first responders who responded — everyone knows someone that was connected with it." Our ruling A video shared on Instagram claimed an active shooter drill at Uvalde High School two months before the Robb Elementary School shooting shows the event was a "false flag." This is not true. Active shooter trainings are common in schools across America. The fact that an active shooter training was held at Uvalde High School two months before the elementary school shooting does not mean that the death of 19 students and two teachers was a "false flag" attack. We rate this claim Pants on Fire. RELATED: Fact-checking misinformation about the Uvalde school shooti

The man who killed the Uvalde, Texas, school shooter “wasn't even an on-duty police officer. As questions mount over the police response to the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting, some Facebook users are singling out one brave father for taking extraordinary measures at Robb Elementary School — but they’re also botching his story. "In case anyone missed it, the man that killed the school shooter in Texas wasn't even an on duty officer!!" one viral Facebook post claimed. "It was a parent and spouse of a 4th grade teacher, he just happened to be a border patrol agent." The post includes photos and links to a recent Newsweek article about Jacob Albarado, an off-duty Border Patrol agent whose wife and daughter were in the school during the attack. At the end of the Facebook post, the author wrote: "He then evacuated his wife and daughter and went back in and shot the suspect." The post gets some details right, but multiple things wrong. According to a report by the New York Times, which the Newsweek article cites, Albarado rushed to the school with a borrowed shotgun and, working with other officers, helped evacuate children. But neither article said Albarado was the one who shot and killed Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old gunman. Law enforcement credited a tactical team for that, though they haven’t named the people involved. Albarado appeared on "Today" on May 31 and confirmed that he wasn’t on duty and didn’t have any gear but said he helped evacuate children from outside. We reached out to U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Texas Department of Public Safety for comment but did not hear back. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The New York Times included an excerpt about Albarado’s actions in a May 26 story about Uvalde parents who were furious about law enforcement’s delayed response. The Justice Department is reviewing police actions that day. The story said that Albarado was about to get a haircut when he received a text from his wife, Trisha, a fourth-grade teacher at Robb Elementary, who told him there was an active shooter and asked for help. Albarado sped to the school with the barber’s shotgun, the story said. Once he arrived, he learned that a tactical team was forming to go inside the wing with the gunman. "So Mr. Albarado quickly made a plan with other officers at the scene: evacuate as many children as possible," the Times reported. "Two officers provided cover, guns drawn, he said, and two others guided the children out on the sidewalk." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 The story never said Albarado was the one who killed Ramos. On the contrary, it says that a tactical team shot and killed Ramos after breaching the classroom. But that didn’t stop the social media version of events from taking off. In another version of the claim, Albarado was "first in the line of fire" and cleared every "wing of the school" before busting down the door to the room where Ramos was and killing him. Albarado appeared on "Today" to talk about what happened at the school. He told anchor Savannah Guthrie that he didn’t have any gear and wasn’t on duty, so he didn’t go inside the school. "I met up with one of the officers there, trying to see what was going on, I tried to make my way toward the door. Like I said, I didn’t have any of my gear, I was off duty, so I didn’t go in," Albarado said in the May 31 interview. As he was helping kids evacuate outside the building, Albarado said his wife contacted him and told him she made it out and that his daughter was across the street at the funeral home. Albarado said he went to make sure his daughter was safe and then continued to help. He said he didn’t know where Ramos was at the time or whether he was still in the building. In a May 27 news conference, Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw described how Uvalde police officers, Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement assembled in the hallway of the school, eventually breaching the room where Ramos was located around 12:51 p.m. "They killed the suspect," McCraw said. Ramos was killed approximately one hour and 20 minutes after he first entered the school. Our ruling A Facebook post claims that off-duty Border Patrol agent Jacob Albarado shot and killed the Uvalde school shooter. This post misrepresents what Albarado and law enforcement have said transpired at the school. While Albarado is a Border Patrol agent who helped with the evacuation effort while off-duty, he said he did not go inside the school. And law enforcement has not indicated he was part of the tactical team that killed Ramos inside the school. We rate this False

TV interviews with two different men who are each identified as Uvalde victim's father show the Robb Elementary School mass shooting was staged Television interviews with two different men — each identified as the father of a mass shooting victim in Uvalde, Texas — have many on social media falsely claiming or insinuating that they are crisis actors and the shooting was staged. "What’s the explanation for this? Same victim from Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Tx. Anderson Cooper, CNN and Savannah Guthrie, NBC each interview the child’s father. Same victim, 2 different fathers??" read a tweet posted on May 29 that links to an edited video showing clips from the CNN and NBC interviews. "WHAT A SCAM! THEY ARE PLAYING US! TOTAL FED OP AND WE'RE FED UP!!!" The explanation is far simpler than this claim suggests: One man is the child’s biological father and the other is her stepfather. Amerie Jo Garza, 10, was one of 19 students slain when a gunman attacked the school May 24. A picture of her that circulated after the shooting showed her proudly holding a certificate for making the school’s A/B honor roll, an award given during a ceremony that had been held earlier in the day. Amerie’s grandmother told The Daily Beast that her granddaughter was shot as she tried to call 911 after gunman Salvador Ramos entered the fourth-grade classroom. On May 25, CNN’s Anderson Cooper interviewed a man named Angel Garza about the girl’s death. Both Cooper and the chyron on screen during Cooper’s interview referred to Garza as Amerie’s father, a clip of which was included in the tweet. The next day, NBC aired an interview between journalist Savannah Guthrie and a man named Alfred Garza III, who was also identified in that segment as the girl’s father. Alfred Garza described waiting six hours after the shooting to learn whether his daughter was alive or not. An obituary clears up the confusion. It describes Amerie as a caring, sweet and sassy child who liked to swim and draw. It also lists Alfred Garza III as the child’s father and Angel Garza as her stepfather. A GoFundMe set up by a family friend refers to "both of Amerie’s fathers, Angel and Alfred." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 CNN did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment about the way Angel Garza was identified in the May 26 segment, but two separate CNN articles posted on May 27 and May 29 refer to both men, citing Alfred Garza as the girl’s father and Angel Garza as her stepfather. The edited video that appeared in the tweet made the rounds on social media, and could be found on YouTube, Twitter and Bitchute, as well as Facebook and Rumble accounts belonging to conservatice commentator Charlie Kirk. A "false flag," which often follows mass shootings, is an event designed to make it look like it was done by one person or group but was actually done by another. There have been real "false flags" throughout history, but more often than not in recent years, baseless assertions have spread widely on social media after horrific events, such as the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, that killed 26 people, 20 of them children. Fueled by conspiracy theorists such as Alex Jones, these hoaxes are premised on the idea that these attacks were staged or planned to prompt gun control legislation. In 2018, these unfounded claims earned PolitiFact’s Lie of the Year designation after the internet shared and reshared hoaxes suggesting a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was nothing but political theater. It was not. Seventeen people died. Our ruling A tweet said that the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting was staged and cited as evidence separate TV news interviews showing two different men being identified as the father of a child shot to death in her classroom. However, the explanation is much simpler: One man was the child’s biological father and the other was her stepfather. There is no evidence the shooting, which claimed 21 lives, was staged. We rate this claim Fals

Bill Gates planned a smallpox-type outbreak A Facebook post claims that Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates planned the monkeypox clusters in Europe and North America and that there is a coordinated effort to plan virus outbreaks. Monkeypox is a virus related to smallpox. Monkeypox cases around the world are being investigated by public health authorities, including the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A May 22 Facebook post shared a screenshot of what appeared to be a prior post from Feb. 19. That February post included a photo of Gates and text that read: "I actually think it will be a smallpox-type outbreak. He has mentioned it several times and look in the comments from the Google pic from yesterday." "It’s hard to fathom why people in power would want to do evil things," text in the May 22 post read. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Gates has talked about smallpox, but he has done so in the context of preparing for an outbreak, not planning one. In a conversation with former British health secretary Jeremy Hunt in November 2021, Gates talked about the level of funding and organization required to prepare for pandemics, and said that funding could go to things such as "germ games," where public health authorities test different scenarios. Shortly after Gates’ conversation with Hunt, social media users inaccurately linked Gates with vials labeled "smallpox" found in a Pennsylvania laboratory. The vials contained the virus that is used in the smallpox vaccine, vaccinia, not the virus that causes smallpox, variola. PolitiFact found no connection between Gates’ comments and the discovery of the vials. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The "Google pic" the Facebook user mentions is likely the Google Doodle from Feb. 17, which is a drawing of Japanese virologist Dr. Michiaki Takahashi, who developed the first vaccine against chicken pox. Google described his work this way: "Takahashi’s vaccine has since been administered to millions of children around the world as an effective measure to prevent severe cases of the contagious viral disease and its transmission." Gates, a philanthropist who has used part of his fortune to promote public health, has long been a target of misinformation by people who object to vaccines. Gates financially supports and promotes vaccine development. There is no evidence to support the conspiracy theory that he has planned virus outbreaks. Gates and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have committed funding to prepare for pandemics, not to plan them. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that Gates planned a smallpox-type outbreak. That’s unfounded. Gates has spoken about preparing for future pandemics, not orchestrating them. Gates has long been the target of baseless conspiracy theories by people suspicious of his work to fund and promote vaccine development. We rate this statement False.

In the immediate wake of a fire and vandalism at the Madison headquarters of an anti-abortion group, Democrats had not condemned “activists who are engaging in this repugnant illegal activity. When a Molotov cocktail was thrown into the headquarters of an anti-abortion group in Madison, and its building vandalized, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., at 11:46 a.m. on May 8, 2022, tweeted: "This attack is abhorrent and should be condemned by all." The incident, which occurred in the wake of a leaked draft opinion that suggested the U.S. Supreme Court is poised to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion, was at the offices of Wisconsin Family Action. Police said the Molotov cocktail didn’t explode, but a fire broke out and this message was spray-painted on the building: "If abortions aren't safe then you aren't either." Many politicians — including prominent state Democrats — quickly condemned the attack. Yet, three days later, in a May 11, 2022, news release, Johnson had this to say: "Unfortunately, members of the radical left have firebombed a pro-life office in Wisconsin and are threatening the safety of Supreme Court Justices and their families in an effort to intimidate them to impact their vote. Democrats have yet to condemn activists who are engaging in this repugnant illegal activity." We were interested in the claim included at the end: Is it true that, at the time the statement was issued, Democrats had not spoken out against the violence? Johnson lists a bunch of Democrats who had not. But he ignores those who did. The aftermath of the incident When asked to back up the claim, Johnson’s office sent a list of a host of Democrats — some from Wisconsin, many national figures — whom they said had not condemned the May 8 incident, including: The Democratic National Committee, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, U.S. Sens. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, U.S. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Mark Pocan, Ron Kind and Gwen Moore, all of Wisconsin. But that measure sets up a standard that goes against what Johnson actually said. It suggests Johnson would be correct if there are any prominent Democrats who had not issued statements, ignoring the ones who did. And there are many — especially among party leaders in Wisconsin — who did speak out against the incident. For instance, Gov. Tony Evers, in a 12:13 p.m. May 8, 2022, statement on Twitter, said: "We reject violence against any person for disagreeing with another’s view. Violence is not the way forward. Hurting others is never the answer. We will work against overturning Roe and attacks on reproductive rights by leading with empathy and compassion." Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 The following day, May 9, 2022, according to The Associated Press, Evers was asked about the incident while at a groundbreaking event in a Madison suburb. "It was a horrible, horrible incident," Evers said, and remarked that the responsible party "should be arrested and put on trial. This is unacceptable." On May 8, the day of the attack, at 1:34 p.m., Attorney General Josh Kaul, tweeted: "This is disgraceful and unacceptable. This incident must be fully investigated and whoever is responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." In a Cap Times article posted that day, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said, "I understand that people are afraid and angry, but violence is not an acceptable response. Madison believes strongly in the right to free speech, but it must be exercised nonviolently by all sides in this increasingly contentious debate." In an ABC News report that day, Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Tom Nelson, now Outagamie County executive, said: "I am committed to protecting women’s rights — but we must do it the right way. Violence and destruction are not the answer. I’m glad no one was hurt." The following day, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., tweeted: "I fully reject this act of violence and vandalism, and I support the investigation by law enforcement to hold those responsible for these crimes accountable." We could go on, but we are focusing on reactions from Wisconsin officials, who would be most expected to react to an incident that happened here. To be sure, not every prominent Democrat in the state spoke out. And we could not find statements, via news releases, on individual websites or Twitter, from the three Wisconsin House Democrats cited by Johnson — Moore, Kind and Pocan, who represents Madison. But there is also some hair-splitting going on by Johnson. In an email, Johnson’s spokesperson, Alexa Henning, noted that in a May 13, 2022, letter sent to various high-level Biden administration officials, Johnson noted that "To date, President Biden has made no public remarks, and neither DOJ, FBI, nor DHS have issued a statement condemning this attack." But according to The Hill, there was this statement from a White House official released the day after the attack: "President Biden strongly condemns this attack and political violence of any stripe. The President has made clear throughout his time in public life that Americans have the fundamental right to express themselves under the Constitution, whatever their point of view." Our ruling Johnson claimed that in the immediate wake of a fire and vandalism at the Madison headquarters of an anti-abortion group, Democrats had not condemned "activists who are engaging in this repugnant illegal activity." But at the time of the claim, Evers, Kaul and Baldwin, plus the Madison mayor and others had already done so. In addition, the White House issued a statement saying Biden condemned the incident. To be sure, we could not find statements from several key elected Democrats in Wisconsin, including the congressman who represents Madison. And, clearly, not every Democratic leader in the nation had issued such a statement. But that wasn’t the nature of Johnson’s claim. For a statement that contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression, our rating is Mostly False. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

“These mass shootings happen so much that Ted Cruz really got a template ready to tweet whenever they occur. Offers of "thoughts and prayers" by U.S. elected officials after mass shootings are often received with criticism — with people claiming the messages are empty and void of any actionable response. After the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting on May 24, some social media users accused Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, of having a response template ready to go whenever a shooting occurs. At least 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde by a man named Salvador Ramos, authorities said. "These mass shootings happen so much that Ted Cruz really got a template ready to tweet whenever they occur," a May 26 tweet said. The tweet shows a wall of screenshots supposedly from Cruz’s Twitter account, with the most recent being about the Uvalde school shooting. Each tweet is almost exactly the same, with the exception of the location of the shooting, making it look as if Cruz uses the same apologetic message for each tragedy. This claim is bogus. The tweet Cruz wrote on May 24 about the Uvalde shooting is real, but the rest of the images of the other tweets are fake. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 Heidi & I are fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde.We are in close contact with local officials, but the precise details are still unfolding.Thank you to heroic law enforcement & first responders for acting so swiftly.— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) May 24, 2022 A review of Cruz’s Twitter account shows that he has posted different messages following mass shootings. Many do follow similar patterns, with him and his wife offering prayers to the victims and their families, but the posts aren’t copied and pasted like the claim suggests. Examples of some of his tweets: On May 16, after a gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY, Cruz wrote: "Heidi & I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific shooting in Buffalo, NY. The killer must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and brought to justice. The racism & antisemitism that purportedly motivated this killer have no place in America … I’m thankful there are heroes like security guard Aaron Salter, Jr., retired police officer, who fought back, and lost his life defending those around him." On Aug. 3, 2019, after a shooter killed 23 people in a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, Cruz wrote: "My heart is with everyone in El Paso struck by this unspeakable evil. Heidi & I are praying for the victims & their families & are grateful for the first responders, local authorities & law enforcement working tirelessly to bring the perpetrator of this depraved act to justice." On June 18, 2015, after a gunman killed nine people at a historic Black church in Charleston, South Carolina, Cruz wrote: ​​"My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the victims of last night's shooting in Charleston." We rate this claim Fals

“There hasn't been a single of these mass shootings that have been purchased at a gun show or on the internet. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said stringent gun regulations would not prevent crimes like the May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Texas. "There hasn't been a single of these mass shootings that have been purchased at a gun show or on the internet," Rubio said on May 25. "If people want to do it, we can have that debate, but don’t link it to these horrible events. They have nothing to do with it." Rubio told reporters he wouldn’t support expanding background checks for commercial sales, like gun shows, saying that the issue is unrelated to mass shootings. We wondered whether Rubio’s characterization of where firearms from high-profile shootings were obtained was accurate. Research shows that it’s not. Rubio did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Several firearms used in mass shootings were bought at gun shows, online A 2015 report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service defined a "mass public shooting" as a multiple-homicide incident where four or more victims are murdered with firearms. By that standard, there have been 66 mass public shootings from 1999 to 2013. A more recent analysis from advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety listed 274 mass shootings since 2009. Contradicting Rubio’s claim, PolitiFact found several instances where a perpetrator of a high-profile shooting obtained their weapons at a gun show or on the internet. In 1999, for example, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold — the people behind the shooting at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado — acquired their firearms at a gun show with the help of an 18-year-old classmate. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 At least one of the handguns Seung-Hui Cho used to kill 33 at Virginia Tech in 2007 was purchased online, according to the Virginian-Pilot. Jody Lee Hunt, a convicted felon, bought a firearm through a private seller on Facebook. In 2014, Hunt used the gun to kill his former girlfriend, a business owner, and two others in West Virginia. Federal law requires licensed firearm dealers to perform background checks on prospective buyers. However, federal law does not impose that requirement on unlicensed sellers, who generally sell guns online or at gun shows. It’s worth noting that some licensed firearm dealers do sell online or at gun shows, and they perform background checks on their sales. It’s the seller’s licensing status that determines whether there’s a background check or not. Rubio’s broader point was that expanding the background check requirement to include unlicensed sellers would not prevent a mass shooting, contending that such sales aren’t correlated with such crimes. Experts, however, disagreed with that argument. John Donohue, a Stanford University law professor who brings a strong data approach to gun crimes, said focusing just on mass shootings misses the larger picture of the crimes where these weapons show up. "Everyday murderers and criminals frequently procure their guns without going through background checks," Donohue told PolitiFact. "Because the 18-year-old mass killer in Uvalde purchased his weapon directly from a licensed dealer is not a reason to oppose closing a dangerous loophole in American law." Our ruling Rubio said, "There hasn't been a single of these mass shootings that have been purchased at a gun show or on the internet." PolitiFact found several instances where the firearms used in a mass shooting were purchased online or at a gun show. A high-profile example includes the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School. Rubio didn’t provide any evidence to support his assertion. We rate his claim False

Says Gov. Greg Abbott offered the uncle of a Uvalde shooting victim money to say “we don’t need stronger gun laws. Replying to a recent Twitter thread, some social media users tagged progressive TV news hosts like Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes to draw their attention to something that seemed truly scandalous. Someone claiming to be the uncle of one of the children killed in the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County, Texas, said a representative of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott knocked on his door not long after they returned from identifying his nephew’s body. "He informed us he’s willing to pay us to stand with the Gov and say we don’t need stronger gun laws," the tweet from @MyCancerJourne3 said. "He was asked to leave and said that if we speak about this conversation we will be facing charges and possibly worse." An Abbott spokesperson denied this happened, telling The Daily Beast that it’s "completely false." The publication also contacted the Twitter account about the claim, and the unidentified person behind it told The Daily Beast that it had been hacked. We couldn’t verify whether that really happened. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on November 2, 2022 in a video Video suggests GOP voters denied access in general election. By Gabrielle Settles • November 8, 2022 RELATED VIDEO But The Daily Beast and other journalists have noted that this account has made a number of claims in connection with tragic circumstances the past, such as that a sheriff in eastern Washington state killed another nephew, that he needed financial assistance for colon cancer treatments, that he suffered a stroke, was placed in a medically induced coma, received approval for assisted suicide, and that his body was "struggling to accept its new liver." The account has also said that he received "the Purple Heart in Afghanistan," where he was shot in the chest, and that he was a "9/11 first responder." We rate these tweets about Abbott Pants on Fire!

CNN is recycling crisis actors in reports about a man dying in Afghanistan in 2021 and at the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting in 2022 Attempts to discredit tragic events like mass shootings can come in many different forms. One popular tactic is claims about "crisis actors" — people who take part in a supposed conspiracy by pretending to be a victim of an event. Sometimes, these posts target actual victims, like they did in the wake of the 2018 school shooting in Parkland, Florida. Other times, they drag in people who have nothing to do with the event. This is what happened with one man’s image, which has been used multiple times to make false claims that CNN is recycling crisis actors in its coverage of major breaking news events. His photo was used yet again in the wake of the May 24 Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting. "See this guy died twice, once in Afghanistan in 2021 and then again yesterday at the fake elementary school shooting," one Facebook post said. The user told people to "wake up" and said, "CNN is always sloppy and recycle the same crisis actors." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 27, 2022 in a post Video shows Marjorie Taylor Greene planted pipe bombs at Republican and Democratic party headquarters on Jan. 5, 2021. By Gabrielle Settles • October 31, 2022 The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post features side-by-side images of what it says shows a man named Bernie Gores. The image on the left shows a post from an individual (not CNN) claiming that he died protecting students in the Uvalde shooting. The image on the right shows a screenshot of a bogus August 2021 tweet from "CNN Afghanistan," an account with the handle @CNNAfghan, announcing Gores was killed. We debunked previous claims that CNN made this report — the @CNNAfghan Twitter account wasn’t authentic and has long been suspended. Posts using the same picture also falsely claimed that Gores was the first American casualty in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. That, too, is wrong. The photo used in the fake tweets is of a video gamer named Jordie Jordan. In August, Reuters found that the image was of the YouTube gamer and podcaster. We conducted a reverse-image search that showed the photo on Wikitubia, a Wikipedia-type page for YouTubers, that identifies the person as Jordan. The name Bernie Gores has appeared online since at least August 2020. Back then, the same photo of Jordan was featured as Bernie Gores, a person missing in Lebanon after a fuel explosion in Beirut. That was a hoax, and so is this. We rate it Pants on Fir

“Zack Nunn saved over 2,000 Americans abandoned in Afghanistan by leading private rescue missions. The chaotic last days of the U.S. war in Afghanistan that ended Aug. 30, 2021, created a need that active and veteran military members felt compelled to address: people who needed help leaving the country but had difficulty doing so. Some of those in Afghanistan were Americans, while plenty more were Afghans who helped the United States in its war with the Taliban. Iowa state Sen. Zach Nunn, a U.S. Air Force aircrew intelligence officer who flew 700 combat hours over Afghanistan and also a cybersecurity expert in the Obama Administration’s National Security Council staff, was among those responding, co-founding an organization called Task Force Argo. It’s an experience that Nunn, of Altoona and seeking the Republican nomination for Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District seat, is letting people know. "Zack Nunn saved over 2,000 Americans abandoned in Afghanistan by leading private rescue missions," a video ad for Nunn states. Our research shows the ad overshoots how many Americans he personally led out of Afghanistan but that some Americans in Afghanistan still are being helped by Nunn and Task Force Argo. "I would be skeptical of the overall number and skeptical of that number of Americans," said Joe Saboe, founder of the volunteer group Team America. Saboe said Team America, one of the largest private groups evacuating people from Afghanistan, flew out around 150 Americans as U.S. troops left Afghanistan. "It strikes me as high," Saboe told PolitiFact. "More to the point, though, very few politicians were actually helpful during that time, and that goes for both parties," he said about the federal government’s response to refugees trying to get out of Afghanistan as the Taliban won the war in August 201, and the need for groups like Task Force Argo and Team America to step in and help. Groups like Task Force Argo, a nationwide collection of volunteer veterans and private citizens, have brought out of the country or has helped with logistics for Afghan nationals at risk living under Taliban rule for helping the United States during its war with the Taliban. Americans are its first priority, the group states. Nunn said in one of two PolitiFact interviews that his group has tracked since Aug. 31 "upwards of 2,000 Americans" and reported that to the State Department. "We still stay in contact with a weekly call with the State Department to help evacuate those individuals. And we have roughly 5,000-plus Afghan and American citizens in safe houses still in the country," Nunn said. Americans staying there often are doing so because they have family members who are not U.S. citizens and are having difficulty getting permission to leave, Nunn and others said. A Philadelphia Enquirer report Oct. 21, 2021, had the Task Force Ago numbers at 61 Americans among the 2,160 moved from Afghanistan when that story was published. A little more than 500 people have been moved out since then. The Task Force Argo website reported May 25 that it has evacuated 2,663 people from Afghanistan but does not state how many were Americans. Even if all of the 500 additional people since Oct. 21 were Americans — and they are not — that would amount to 561 total. Task Force Argo’s first flight on Aug. 30, 2021, brought 400 Afghans out of Afghanistan. On Sept. 24, 2021, the group announced it had collaborated with a group called Save Our Allies to bring "550 American citizens, lawful permanent residents who have green cards to work in the United States, special immigrant visa holders, Afghans-at-risk, and their families from Afghanistan to a refugee processing center in the Middle East." The release did not state how many were Americans. An Oct. 8, 2021, news release reported that Task Force Argo evacuated 11 U.S. citizens, eight green card holders, and 85 immediate family members. Two days later, a news release from Task Force Argo and a group called Task Force Sunflower said the two collaborated to evacuate three U.S. citizens, 12 U.S. green card holders and 79 of their immediate family members from Afghanistan. Team America, Save Our Allies, Task Force Sunflower and Task Force Argo are among as many as 180 private groups working privately but collaborating with the U.S. State Department and Defense Department to help bring Americans and Afghans out of Afghanistan. Save Our Allies, for example, has reported bringing more than 12,000 Afghans out of the country. It reported it had paid the costs of bringing 55 American citizens and lawful permanent residents out in December. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 Other efforts since Aug. 31, 2021, included Project Dynamo and Human First Coalition using a private charter flight to bring more than 100 U.S. citizens and green card holders and nine special immigrant visa holders to the United States in late September, a news release said. Project Dynamo and Human First Coalition said the Taliban helped them have a safe takeoff from Kabul. The State Department press office told PolitiFact Iowa in a series of email exchanges that it cannot confirm how many Americans these non-government organizations have brought out of Afghanistan. The department evaluates requests for privately arranged flights on a case-by-case basis but could not confirm how many passengers on these flights are eligible to be relocated or settled in the United States, the press office wrote. The State Department vets people the private groups bring to the United States for admission but lacks enough personnel to confirm how any passengers registered on a plane manifest are eligible for relocation in this country, the press office said. The State Department has supported directly travel out of Afghanistan for 683 U.S. citizens and 559 lawful permanent residents from Aug. 31, 2021, to May 23, 2022, with no deadline for ending these efforts, the press office reported. Before Aug. 31, U.S. military and the State Department evacuated and relocated 120,000 people, including 10,000 U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents and Afghan interpreters with special immigrant visas. Nunn said in the PolitiFact Iowa interviews he was involved with rescue missions via third party countries that helped remove Americans and Afghans from Afghanistan last year. He has not been there this year. He works on evacuation logistics remotely, he said. He said he was confident that he had a hand in saving more than 2,000 Americans because of his involvement in last year’s flights, his continued communication and logistical work to assist those who need help getting out of the country, and his collaboration with the national consortium assisting the State Department. "The real conversation in my opinion needs to be far more about the fact that we left Americans behind," Nunn said. "There still are Americans there right now, and there are people in America helping these folks out of their own pocket, their own time. We would like to have some level of help on this and be able to save the people who served with us for two decades." A U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee minority report in February suggested that 9,000 Americans were left in Afghanistan when the Taliban took over. The State Department disputes that number, saying fewer than 200 Americans still were there and choosing to stay. U.S. consortium members have weekly conference calls with government officials in continuing moves to help people leave Afghanistan, involved members told PolitiFact in interviews and emails. This private effort has been referred to as a "digital Dunkirk," a reference to the citizens who rushed to Dunkirk in their personal boats to rescue 338,000 British and French soldiers during Germany’s 1940 World War II siege of that French beach town. High-tech evacuation communications and logistics involving safe houses in Afghanistan and assistance from countries like Qatar once people leave Afghanistan are designed to keep Taliban leaders from finding and punishing those trying to leave. Saboe’s Team America eventually merged with another group #AfghanEvac. Shawn Van Diver, #AfghanEvac’s founder and an early leader pulling together the national consortium, said it’s unlikely that 2,000 Americans have needed to be rescued from Afghanistan since U.S. troops left. Americans who want to leave the country now may fly out of a commercial airport, he said. Van Diver said Task Force Argo has been a sincere, valuable partner. He said in a PolitiFact Iowa interview that Nunn and Task Force Argo cofounder Jesse Jensen, an Army Ranger Regiment captain and Republican candidate for Congress from Washington state, have been helpful bucking many in their party by supporting an Afghan Adjustment Act. The act, supported by President Biden, would give Afghan immigrants permanent legal residency and a pathway to U.S. citizenship. "I think it’s clear that these guys care about Afghans," Van Diver said. "Argo has a lot of handlers that talk to a lot of Afghans, and has been doing their best to provide that much needed support. And, you know, they’ve really stepped up." Our ruling A political ad for Nunn’s 3rd Congressional District primary race in Iowa says Nunn "saved over 2,000 Americans abandoned in Afghanistan by leading private rescue missions." Nunn, Argo Task Force co-founder Jesse Jensen and others are key members of several American groups working privately but in collaboration with the U.S. government to bring Americans and endangered people out of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan since U.S. troops left that country. But saying the count is more than 2,000 Americans when most of those coming out are not American gives a different impression of what Nunn is doing than exists. In a May 18 interview on Shenandoah, Iowa’s KMA radio, Nunn, himself, qualified the claim: "We flew multiple flights over and carried out over 2,500 Americans and allies after the U.S. flag fell in Kabul." Nunn is doing humanitarian work but the number in the ad is an exaggeration and ignores important details. We rate the statement to be Half Tru

"More people die from hands, fists, feet, than rifles. Amid the gun control debate, a data-laden graphic shared on Facebook posits this: rifles are nothing compared with human brawn. "More people die from hands, fists, feet, than rifles. Guess we should ban limbs now…," reads the May 25 post. Underneath, a graphic titled "Number of murder victims in the Unites States in 2020 by weapon used" shows rifle deaths at 455 and deaths from "personal weapons (hands, fists, feet, etc.)" as 662. The post includes a link to a website called Statista. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) FBI data from 2020 does show that more people died from injuries sustained from other people’s fists, feet and hands than from rifles. But there’s more you should know about that data before you use it to draw conclusions. Statista researchers pulled data from the FBI’s Crime Data explorer, which does show that of the 17,813 homicides reported in 2020, 662 of them were committed with "personal weapons" — which the site indeed describes as hands, fists, feet, etc. — and 455 homicides were committed with rifles. So strictly going by the numbers, the post’s claim is accurate, but there are important caveats. The FBI’s numbers also show that of all the homicides reported, 13,663 were committed with firearms of any kind, or about 77%. Only about 4% of homicides overall were from hands, fists and feet. And 4,863 of those gun homicides were committed with firearms of a "type not stated," meaning law enforcement agencies didn't specify in their data reporting which type of gun was used. Enough rifles could be among those to push that total higher than personal weapons — even 5% would do it — though there’s no way to know for certain. The FBI’s data is based on voluntary reporting. Not every law enforcement agency files an expanded homicide report. These statistics are based on reports from 15,875 of 18,623 law agencies, meaning the number of homicides is likely higher. The Centers for Disease Control, for instance, lists 19,384 gun homicides in the U.S. in 2020, based on U.S. death certificate information provided by the National Center for Health Statistics. The FBI statistics show that handguns were used in most of the gun homicides, with 8,029. That’s likely because "violent crime is typically higher in urban areas than rural ones, and handguns are better suited for urban living," said Adam Lankford, a criminology and criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 Lankford and a colleague did a study in 2020 that found that semiautomatic rifles or assault weapons are increasingly being used in mass shootings. "It makes sense that handguns would be used more often than long guns in muggings, gang violence, robberies, or any other form of violence where the perpetrator may try to hide his firearm before and after the crime," Lankford said. "Public mass shooters are less concerned about hiding their firearms because they typically don't expect to escape." AR-15 or AR-15-style rifles have been used in many high-profile mass shootings, including at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012, a country music concert in Las Vegas in 2017 and the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, in 2018. Such weapons were also used in the two most recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York. Salvador Ramos, the Uvalde gunman who police say killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers on May 24, used an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in the attack, one of two rifles he purchased days earlier after his 18th birthday, The Associated Press reported. Payton Gendron, the 18-year-old charged with fatally shooting 10 people in a racially motivated attack at a Buffalo supermarket on May 14, also used an AR-15-style rifle, The Associated Press reported. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that more people were killed by hands, fists and feet in 2020 than by rifles. FBI data does confirm that statistic. But the data source is limited, and the stat alone doesn’t tell the full story of the role firearms of all kinds play in homicides. We rate this Mostly True. Staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this repor

Lee Zeldin “voted for Cuomo’s Billion Dollar Tax hike and every Cuomo budget. Republican gubernatorial candidate Harry Wilson aims to discredit one of the leading candidates in the GOP primary, Rep. Lee Zeldin, with claims that Zeldin supported the economic plans put forth over the years by then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat. Wilson, a businessman from Westchester County, claims in an ad that "Lee Zeldin was Andrew Cuomo’s favorite Republican." The ad goes on to say Zeldin "voted for Cuomo’s Billion Dollar Tax hike and every Cuomo budget." Primaries for statewide offices are set for June 28. Former Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino and former Trump administration aide Andrew Giuliani are also running in the Republican primary for governor. Zeldin, a Long Island congressman, was elected to the state Senate in 2010 and served two terms. We checked his voting record on every state budget during that time. Each budget was passed in multiple bills, addressing revenue, aid to localities, and debt service among other parts, and lawmakers vote on each of them. Zeldin voted in favor of all of the budget bills during his years in the state Senate. Many of these bills passed with overwhelming support in the Senate, sometimes without any senator voting against them. During this period, Republicans controlled the Senate, at times with support from the Independent Democratic Caucus, and they negotiated with the Assembly’s Democratic leadership and the Cuomo administration. We asked Wilson’s campaign about his claim that Zeldin voted in favor of a "billion-dollar tax hike." Campaign spokesperson Alex Wilkes said that in 2011, Zeldin supported the state budget's $1.9 billion tax increase, (revenue was set to increase by that much, though supporters of the tax reform package would say that rates actually went down) and in 2013 Zeldin voted for the state budget that included an extension of a tax targeting high earners. The tax was set to expire in 2014, but the budget vote in March 2013 extended it until 2017. Some observers, like E.J. McMahon, a close watcher of state finances and a fiscal conservative, called the extension in 2013 a tax increase. The tax on high earners was supposed to end, but Cuomo and the Legislature kept it in place, resulting in a 29% increase for high earners, McMahon said. He reached that figure by calculating what they would have paid had the tax targeting high earners expired and what they paid under the rate established by the plan passed by the lawmakers. Featured Fact-check Marco Rubio stated on October 18, 2022 in a campaign ad Val Demings "voted with Pelosi to raise taxes over $4,000 on Florida families." By Yacob Reyes • October 25, 2022 Following the tax reform in late 2011, tax receipts were projected to increase by $1.9 billion. According to the Cuomo administration, the budget for the 2013 fiscal year (April 1, 2012, through March 31, 2013,) raised more tax revenue, though it also created savings for the middle class. An April 2012 report from the Cuomo administration projected a $2 billion increase in tax receipts from what was collected in fiscal year 2012 and what it expected to collect in fiscal year 2013. An expected gross increase of $1.9 billion was attributed to "tax reform." This reform package lowered rates slightly for the highest earners, but did not bring them down to what they would have been had the higher rates been allowed to expire. The report also projected a $250 million decrease in tax revenue from an MTA payroll tax relief plan for small businesses and a decrease of $135 million from tax credits and other initiatives. Though the tax reforms were a revenue-raiser for the state, the budget division wrote: "The tax reform measures are intended to enhance fairness in the tax system and are expected to provide $900 million in savings for middle class New Yorkers and small business." When asked about Wilson’s claim, Zeldin spokesperson Katie Vincentz pointed to the downstate payroll tax break, and a middle-income tax cut, both agreed to as part of the 2011 tax package, and said all of the budgets contained conservative wins. Vincentz also said the budgets shouldn't be called Cuomo budgets, because they were negotiated with and voted on by the Legislature and that members of the Senate majority changed Cuomo’s budget proposals. Our ruling Wilson claims Zeldin "voted for Cuomo’s Billion Dollar Tax hike and every Cuomo budget." While in the state Senate, Zeldin did vote for a final version of every budget that Cuomo proposed. But calling it "Cuomo’s budget" erases the role the state Legislature played in negotiating and making changes to Cuomo’s proposals. The changes to the tax rates were intended to bring in more revenue, though many in the state experienced a tax cut. The highest earners paid a lower rate than they had been paying, but more than they would have paid if the rate had been allowed to expire. The claim is partially accurate because the tax revenue was projected to increase, but it leaves out important details and takes some things out of context, so we rate it Half Tru

Video shows “Russian desert base and infrastructure hit by Bayraktar TB2 drone. The whir of helicopter blades can be heard in a video that takes an aerial view of what’s described as a "Russian desert base." The footage shows the base and "infrastructure" hit by a "Bayraktar TB2 drone," according to a May 23 Facebook post that is causing some confusion as social media users sift through content about the war in Ukraine. That’s because this isn’t real footage — it’s a snippet from a video game. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 RELATED VIDEO Searching for the title of the Facebook video online, we found the same footage on YouTube where it was clearly labeled as showing a recording of the video game Arma 3. The game is an ongoing source of misinformation as Facebook accounts share it in a way that could mislead people into thinking it shows actual combat between Russian and Ukrainian fighters. But that’s not the case, and we rate claims that this is real footage False.

A CNN story reported that Rice Krispies added a transgender mascot Word spread quickly of an alleged announcement that Kellogg’s had made one of its cereal mascots a transgender character. "Kellogg’s spokesperson announces Rice Krispie mascot ‘Pop’ is now a trans woman," read screenshots of what appear to be a headline on CNN.com. Underneath the headline is an image of Rice Krispies characters Snap, Crackle and Pop, with Pop portrayed as a transgender woman. But that claim just doesn’t float — it’s a fake image. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We searched for the headline on CNN, but the story does not appear. Emily Kuhn, senior director of communications at CNN, told PolitiFact that the image of the headline was fake and fabricated. "We have made no changes to the Rice Krispies mascots, Snap Crackle and Pop," Kellogg’s spokesperson Kris Bahner said. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Our ruling An image shared on Facebook claimed to show a CNN news story headline that read, "Kellogg’s spokesperson announces Rice Krispie mascot ‘Pop’ is now a trans woman." The image is fabricated and CNN confirmed they did not make that report. Kellogg’s has made no changes to its Rice Krispies characters. This claim is Pants on Fire! PolitiFact staff writer Bill McCarthy contributed to this fact chec

“Florida Highway Patrol has a semi-truck … The FHP uses a fleet of three such ‘hidden in plain sight’ trucks to snitch on bad drivers. Florida is a state where the strange can become ordinary, and the ordinary can become strange. Such is the case of tractor-trailers being used as patrol vehicles. A Facebook post by Cracked.com, a website focused on humor, said that Florida Highway Patrol, or FHP, used multiple semitrucks to monitor and report traffic violations. "Florida Highway Patrol has a semi-truck as a patrol vehicle and occasionally makes traffic stops," a May 17 Facebook post read. "The FHP uses a fleet of three such ‘hidden in plain sight’ trucks to snitch on bad drivers or even pull them over themselves." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We found that Cracked.com was mostly accurate in its characterization of FHP’s patrol fleet. But more context is needed. The FHP does, in fact, have three semitrucks in its patrol fleet. The trucks are large, at around 53 feet long with 18 wheels, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The agency deploys both tractor-trailers (the truck and the portion being hauled) and the semitruck (the portion containing the engine) on the roads. The semitrucks arrived on the scene in 2014 as part of an FHP campaign to inform drivers about the risk of "aggressive driving" around large vehicles. The vehicles have since been used for outreach and educational purposes. FHP told PolitiFact that at least one of these semitrucks could be used to patrol highways for traffic violations, like speeding or tailgating, though the vehicles are not regularly used in such capacities. "The Florida Highway Patrol does have a marked semitruck that has the capability of conducting a traffic stop," said Peter Bergstresser, a spokesperson for FHP. However, contrary to the post's suggestion, the trucks are not "hidden in plain sight." They are black and beige, like other patrol vehicles in Florida, and prominently bear the agency’s seal and name. View this post on Instagram A post shared by FLHSMV (@flhsmv) FHP has featured the semitrucks on its Facebook on numerous occasions. In one image, a semitruck can be seen performing a traffic stop. Bergstresser also told PolitiFact that the semitrucks are not used for "daily patrol," adding that such vehicles would not be valuable in pursuit of an offender. Florida isn’t the only state that uses a semitruck in such capacities. Tennessee also has a semitruck in its patrol fleet. We rate this claim Mostly True

ICE está en Uvalde, Texas, “entonces los padres indocumentados tienen que temer la deportación antes de verificar si sus hijos están vivos" Después de que una persona armada mató a 19 estudiantes y dos maestras en una escuela primaria en Uvalde, Texas, publicaciones en redes sociales afirmaron que la presencia de autoridades de inmigracion en la escena del crimen significaba que algunos padres podrían ser deportados si se acercaban a la escuela. Un tuit comentó: "ICE está en la escena de un tiroteo que se llevó a cabo en una escuela mayoritariamente Hispana entonces los padres indocumentados tienen que temer el ser deportados antes de verificar si sus hijos están vivos". El tuit, publicado el 24 de mayo, acumuló miles de "me gusta" y retuits en tan solo un par de horas. PolitiFact Texas decidió verificar si los agentes del Servicio de Inmigración y Control de Aduanas (ICE, por sus siglas en inglés) estaban presentes en Uvalde y si el tuit estaba en lo correcto frente al riesgo de deportación para los padres que fueron a buscar a sus hijos. Los agentes de ICE están apoyando las investigaciones, no deportando Un vocero de ICE le afirmó a PolitiFact que la agencia no está ejecutando acciones policiales de control migratorio en Uvalde. Una rama de ICE está presente para apoyar las investigaciones. Una declaración por parte del Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS, por sus siglas en inglés) explica que Uvalde es un "área protegida", lo cual quiere decir que sus agencias no llevarán a cabo acciones de control migratorio durante el evento de emergencia. Algunos ejemplos de otras áreas protegidas incluyen rutas de evacuación, albergues o refugios y sitios para la asistencia o reunificación de familias tras un evento desastroso. DHS también aclaró que las agencias proveerán asistencia de emergencia a pesar del estatus migratorio del individuo. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 "En la mayor medida posible, ICE y (la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza) no llevarán a cabo actividades policiales de control migratorio para que así individuos, sin importar su estatus migratorio, puedan buscar asistencia, reunificarse con familia y seres queridos, y de alguna otra forma afrontar la tragedia que ha ocurrido", resaltó DHS. Algunos agentes de la Oficina de Aduanas y Protección Fronteriza (CBP, por sus siglas en inglés) respondieron al tiroteo y proveyeron ayuda médica, dijo DHS en Twitter el 24 de mayo. El Gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott el 25 de mayo dijo que los agentes de CBP y otras agencias se juntaron en el aula de clases para confrontar al atacante, y que un oficial de CBP mató al autor del tiroteo. Nuestra calificación Un tuit afirmó que la presencia de ICE en Uvalde significa que "los padres indocumentados tienen que temer la deportación antes de verificar si sus hijos están vivos". Una rama de ICE está presente en la escena del crimen para apoyar con la investigación en la medida que se necesite. Sin embargo, los agentes de ICE que llevan a cabo actividades policiales de control migratorio no están presentes para deportar a las personas. Calificamos el tuit como Falso. Este artículo originalmente fue escrito en inglés y fue traducido por Maria Ramirez Uribe, reportera de PolitiFac

“We know from past experiences that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has blamed others for politicizing the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, to advance discussions about gun access. To Cruz, the answer is simpler. "We know from past experiences that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus," Cruz said in Washington on May 24, just hours after the shooting, before many details were known. Ted Cruz proposes armed cops in elementary schools to deter school shootings pic.twitter.com/sJ8B6cf9Xd— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) May 25, 2022 "Inevitably when there’s a murder of this kind, you see politicians try to politicize it, you see Democrats and a lot of folks in the media whose immediate solution is to try to restrict the constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. That doesn’t work. It’s not effective. It doesn’t prevent crime." Is it true that we know from "past experiences that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus"? No. Whether it’s anecdotal evidence or broad-based research, there is little to support Cruz’s claim. Let’s start with what happened in Uvalde, Texas. Uvalde shooting details Texas Sen. Ted Cruz arrives at a news conference in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25, 2022. (AP) Officials have offered various and conflicting reports at what happened at Robb Elementary School. On May 25, Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety Steven McCraw said that before 18-year-old Salvador Ramos entered the school and shot and killed at least 19 children and two teachers, he was confronted by a district school resource officer, a common title for armed police officers who work on school grounds. "There was a brave consolidated independent school district resource officer that approached (Ramos), engaged him and, at that time, gunfire was not exchanged," McCraw said. "The subject was able to make it into the school." Other media accounts offer some different details about the number of officers and the level of confrontation. And then on May 26, Texas law enforcement officials said Ramos was able to enter the school unobstructed and that a school resource officer was not on scene. "He walked in unobstructed initially," said Victor Escalon, regional director for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Law enforcement officers ultimately shot and killed Ramos, McCraw said, but not before at least 21 people were killed and 17 additional people were injured. The Sante Fe, Texas, shooting Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, left, speaks during a roundtable discussion hosted by Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott to address safety and security at Texas schools in the wake of the shooting at Santa Fe, in Austin, Texas, May 24, 2018. (AP) In 2018, in Texas, Cruz responded to another school shooting, this one at Santa Fe High School, in Santa Fe, Texas. In that case, the shooter was confronted by two police officers who were stationed at the school, according to a local sheriff. The officers, one of whom was shot during the attack, "hemmed the gunman into one classroom and saved lives by drawing his attention and fire," the sheriff said. About 30 minutes after the shooting started, the 17-year-old suspect surrendered to law enforcement. A total of 10 people were killed and 13 were wounded. Multiple explosive devices were also found at or near the school, officials said. The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom that focuses on gun issues, found that in Santa Fe and in three other prominent shootings in 2018 — Kentucky’s Marshall County High School in January; Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February; Maryland’s Great Mills High School in March — "attackers stormed campuses despite the presence of armed guards." In each case, guards failed to stop the shooter from killing. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 What research says about armed law enforcement in schools Broader research provides not much support for Cruz’s claim that armed law enforcement officers on school grounds are the "most effective tool" for keeping kids safe from mass shootings. A 2021 study conducted by researchers from University at Albany and RAND examined data from U.S. schools between 2014 to 2018 to evaluate the impact of school resource officers. It found that school resource officers "do effectively reduce some forms of violence in schools, but do not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents." In addition, that study found that school resource officers appear to protect students from "a non-trivial number of physical attacks and fights within schools," which could have long-term academic and psychological benefits for students. But schools with resource officers also report more suspensions, expulsions, police referrals and student arrests — and those harsher disciplinary punishments disproportionately fall on Black students, male students and students with disabilities. Another 2021 JAMA Network study conducted by researchers at Hamline University and Metropolitan State University in Minnesota examined a total of 133 school shootings and attempted school shootings from 1980 to 2019. It was limited by the availability of public data and the inability to measure deterred shootings, among other factors, but researchers found that, controlling for other factors such as location, school type and region, the data showed "armed guards were not associated with significant reduction in rates of injuries" during school mass shootings. Further, when researchers controlled for location and school characteristic factors, "the rate of deaths was 2.83 times greater (emphasis added) in schools with an armed guard present." Pete Blair, the executive director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University, said armed individuals can play a role in stopping school shootings in progress but cautioned against any claim that it’s "the most effective tool" or that it prevents school shootings. In Illinois in 2018, for instance, officials credited an officer with avoiding a potential school shooting involving a student at the school. The shooter’s mother said she thought her son was trying to get the police to kill him. Only the shooter was injured. Blair said the ALERRT Center is part of a group that works with the FBI to release annual active shooter data. The FBI defines an active shooter as "one or more individuals actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area." That data shows that from 2000 until 2021, there have been 434 active shooter incidents, Blair said. This includes shooter incidents in schools and elsewhere. "The most common resolution is for the attacker to flee," Blair said, which happened in about 25% of all cases. In about the same number of cases, the shooting stopped when a responding on-duty police officer, armed security or off-duty officer shot the attacker, he said. Blair said the data isn’t specific enough to break down whether police officers who used force to stop an attack were already stationed there at the time — as a school resource officer likely would be — or were called in specifically to respond to the incident. Dewey Cornell, a professor of education at the University of Virginia who studies school safety, bullying and student threat assessment, said he has seen research that suggests school resource officers "can be valuable in building relationships with students and working with threat assessment teams, but not as armed guards protecting the campus from a shooter." "I know of no scientific evidence that having armed law enforcement on campus by itself keeps kids safe at school," he said. "We have prevented school shootings by identifying threats and working with troubled students before they make an attack." Are armed officers a deterrent? PolitiFact found no studies or research that conclusively showed that the presence of armed officers deterred people from targeting schools. "From a theoretical point of view, it makes sense. Trying to prove it empirically can be difficult," Blair said. "I can’t point to any specific cases and say, here’s this specific case where this person said, they looking at this and they chose not to because there was an armed security guard there.’" The 2021 JAMA Network study said data suggested "no association between having an armed officer and deterrence of violence" in mass shootings from 1980 to 2019. "Prior research suggests that many school shooters are actively suicidal, intending to die in the act, so an armed officer may be an incentive rather than a deterrent," the study said. Steve Guest, a spokesperson for Cruz, pointed to a 2019 Vox article that referenced 2005 research that suggested increased police presence leads to fewer people committing crimes. The article and research wasn’t looking at school shootings specifically. The spokesperson also referenced a 2018 report that found for 238 middle and high schools in West Virginia, the presence of resource officers "increases the number of reported incidents related to drug crime as well as the number of out-of-school suspensions for drug crime, but decreases violent crime and disorder when multiple years are considered." Again, the report wasn’t looking at school shootings specifically. It did say that school resource officers are more likely to work with law enforcement to create a written plan for "how to deal with shootings." Our ruling Cruz said, "We know from past experiences that the most effective tool for keeping kids safe is armed law enforcement on the campus." A 2021 JAMA Network study said data found "no association between having an armed officer and deterrence of violence" in mass shootings from 1980 to 2019. A 2021 study by the University at Albany and RAND said school resource officers "do not prevent school shootings or gun-related incidents." We rate this claim False. ​UPDATE: This story was updated on May 26 at 3:30 p.m. ET to include new details from Texas law enforcement officials about how and when the Uvalde shooter was confronted. These details do not change the rating. RELATED: Here’s how to avoid misinformation as you read about Uvalde and other mass shootings RELATED: Joe Biden said mass shootings tripled when the assault weapon ban ended. They did RELATED: Polls consistently show high support for gun background chec

"When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled. There was no mistaking President Joe Biden’s plea for some sort of concrete response to the slaying of 19 elementary school children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas. "I spent my career as a senator and as vice president working to pass common sense gun laws," Biden said in a May 24 prime time national address. "We can’t and won’t prevent every tragedy. But we know they work and have a positive impact. When we passed the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled." Biden was thinking back to sweeping gun legislation passed in 1994. Among other changes, it banned certain kinds of weapons, and the large-capacity magazines that allow people to fire more bullets before reloading. There are numbers that back Biden up. A 2019 study out of New York University’s School of Medicine found that mass shooting deaths involving assault weapons fell slightly in the decade of the federal assault weapon ban, and then rose dramatically in the decade that followed. That’s the time frame for Biden’s statement. While other researchers said the decline during the ban was too small to draw firm conclusions about the ban’s impact, there is no debate that the pace and deadliness of mass shootings rose after the ban ended. Beyond assault weapons, more recent work points to the threat posed by large-capacity magazines, which the 1994 law also restricted. A limited law The 1994 law barred the "manufacture, transfer, and possession" of about 118 firearm models and all magazines holding more than 10 rounds. People who already owned such weaponry could keep it. When the ban took effect, there were roughly 1.5 million assault weapons in private hands. An estimated 25 million weapons were equipped with large-capacity magazines. The ban expired in 2004. In a 2004 study commissioned by the U.S. Justice Department, researcher Christopher Koper wrote, "The ban’s exemption of millions of pre-ban assault weapons and large capacity magazines ensured that the effects of the law would occur only gradually." The point was the 1994 law was hardly an on-off switch for these firearms and magazines. As long as that hardware remained in circulation, people who wanted to use these weapons in a mass shooting would have some opportunity to acquire them. The ban and the death toll In a 2019 study from New York University’s School of Medicine, a group led by epidemiologist Charles DiMaggio homed in on mass shooting deaths. Researchers define mass shootings in different ways. DiMaggio’s group looked at incidents in which at least four people died. In raw numbers, they found that mass shooting deaths fell during the years of the ban, and rose afterwards. DiMaggio shared his data. Deaths more than tripled in the decade after the ban ended. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); The decline of 15 deaths between the decade before the ban and the decade during it is modest, but there is a clear and dramatic rise after the ban expired. The death toll from mass shootings went from an average of 4.8 per year during the ban years to an average of 23.8 per year in the decade afterwards. Many factors drive gun deaths. To help account for those, DiMaggio’s team put mass shooting deaths in terms of the total number of firearm homicides. Viewed that way, they found that between 1994 and 2004, the yearly rate fell by 9 people per 10,000 firearm homicides. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 DiMaggio’s study concluded that mass shooting deaths were 70% less likely during the ban. His isn’t the only study to find that fewer people died in mass shootings when the ban was in effect. In a 2019 article, Louis Klarevas, a Columbia University researcher, and his co-authors found that shootings in which six or more people died were less common and less deadly in the years during the ban. Larger magazines play a key role The debate over the value of a ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines often includes Christopher Koper at George Mason University. Koper wrote the 2004 study that gave both sides in the gun control debate supporting material. Recently, Koper has spent more time assessing the role of large-capacity magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. In a 2020 article, Koper wrote that more than the semiautomatic weapons themselves, the latest data ties larger magazines to a rising death toll. The most striking trend, he said, is less about the modest fall in deaths under the ban, and more about the dramatic rise that came when the ban ended. Much of that stems from the firepower that comes from large-capacity magazines. "Considering that mass shootings with high capacity semiautomatics are considerably more lethal and injurious than other mass shootings, it is reasonable to argue that the federal ban could have prevented some of the recent increase in persons killed and injured in mass shootings had it remained in place," Koper wrote. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health studied state laws that limit magazine size. Their work linked those laws to a nearly 50% reduction in the rate of fatal mass shootings. The ban’s impact remains unclear On the key policy question of whether the ban drove the decline, DiMaggio urged caution. "It is pretty much impossible to prove cause and effect," he told us when his study came out in 2019. Gun violence researcher Andrew Morral at RAND Corporation, a consulting nonprofit research group, said he and his colleagues don’t see strong evidence that the ban drove down deaths. On the other hand, "we also don’t believe there is strong evidence that they were not the cause of any such reductions," Morral said. Morral said many studies show that limits on weapons and large-capacity magazines are associated with fewer and less deadly mass shootings. And in the absence of stronger data either way, "logical considerations" should guide lawmakers. "The absence of strong scientific evidence is not a good rationale for taking no action," Morral said. Our ruling Biden said that after passage of "the assault weapons ban, mass shootings went down. When the law expired, mass shootings tripled." We last looked at a claim like this in 2019, when Bill Clinton said that after the ban on some types of assault weapons passed, "there was a big drop in mass shooting deaths." Biden didn’t go that far, and as such, is a bit more accurate. A key study backs Biden up. But the reality is millions of assault weapons and large-capacity magazines remained in circulation during the ban, and that makes it hard to tease out the law’s impact. We rate this claim Mostly True.

Texas is "50th in the nation in mental health care access. During a press conference in Uvalde County, Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said the state needed to focus on mental health and not restricting gun ownership to prevent future mass shootings like the one that happened at Robb Elementary School. He was jeered by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, who blamed Abbott for the slaying. "This is on you," said O’Rourke, who is running for governor. Abbott said Ramos didn’t appear to have a history of mental health problems, but speaking to reporters outside after he was escorted from the building, O’Rourke criticized the state’s mental health care access. Texas, O’Rourke said, is "50th in the nation in mental health care access." We’ve fact-checked something similar before, back in 2010 when a lieutenant governor candidate said Texas was last in mental health care spending. Back then, the numbers were close; data published on the Kaiser Family Foundation’s website for fiscal year 2016 put Texas second to last, per capita. That indicator is no longer on the foundation’s site, but it also wasn’t the source that O’Rourke was citing. Gina Hinojosa, an O’Rourke campaign spokesperson, directed us to an annual report on the "State of Mental Health in America" by Mental Health America, a nonprofit that advocates for people with mental illness. The report includes a ranking on access to care, which indicates how much access to care exists within a state. This measure considers access to insurance, access to treatment, quality and cost of insurance, access to special education, and mental health workforce availability. In the group’s 2022 report, Texas ranked 51st out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on November 2, 2022 in a video Video suggests GOP voters denied access in general election. By Gabrielle Settles • November 8, 2022 "In Texas, the bottom-ranked state, nearly three-quarters of youth with major depression did not receive mental health treatment," Mental Health America tweeted in October 2021, when the report was published. Mental Health America did acknowledge its report had limitations — including that the report relies on survey data that could be incomplete and was completed in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. We reached out to other groups that might also measure mental health care access but found no such rankings elsewhere. The Kaiser Family Foundation has never tried to rank states on this measure, said spokesperson Craig Palosky, but it does compile state-by-state data related to mental health. Looking at adults reporting an unmet need for mental health treatment in the past year during 2019-20, Texas fared relatively well among the top 10 states with the lowest percentage of such adults. Kaiser notes that the sources for this data were analyses of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s restricted online data analysis system, National Survey on Drug Use and Health in 2019 and 2020, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Data Archive. Our ruling O’Rourke said Texas is "50th in the nation in mental health care access." Mental Health America, a nonprofit advocating for people with mental illness, ranked Texas 51st for mental health care access, behind every other state and Washington, D.C. There are some limitations in the data, which Mental Health America acknowledges. We rate that claim Mostly True.

This image shows the victims of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas A photo published on Facebook incorrectly identifies the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24. A Facebook user published an image with the photos of these students and teachers with a comment in Spanish saying: "These are the victims of the massacre today in Uvalde, Texas. God give strength to the families that are suffering this tragedy. Let's pray for all of them." However, the photo does not show the victims of the shooting in Uvalde. The image is a collage of photos of the 26 victims of the shooting that occurred in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) At least 19 students and two adults were killed in the Uvalde school. However, at the time the post was made the identities of all the victims were not yet known. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 The victims who have been identified are not the ones in the photos included in the collage on the Facebook post. Our ruling A post published on Facebook says a collage of photos identifies the victims of the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas. However, the photo is not of the Uvalde victims. The post uses a photo of the 20 students and six adults that were killed in the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newton, Connecticut in 2012. We rate this post False

Suggests a January traffic accident involving lab monkeys was responsible for spreading monkeypox to humans A Facebook meme stitches together several news events involving monkeys to come up with one unfounded theory about monkeypox. The May 21 post suggests that a January traffic accident involving lab monkeys was responsible for spreading monkeypox to humans. The meme shows three news headlines: "Don’t approach lab monkey missing after Pennsylvania crash, people told," dated Jan. 22; "Woman who helped monkeys in Pennsylvania crash experiencing health issues: report," dated Jan. 25; and "CDC monitors 6 people in US for possible rare monkeypox, says public ‘should not be concerned,’" dated May 19. The caption says, "Hey, I've seen this one before," and includes emojis of monkeys pantomiming "see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) There is no evidence that the January traffic accident involving cynomolgus monkeys, or long-tailed macaques, is linked to the current monkeypox outbreak. Officials never said the monkeys were infected with monkeypox, and the woman who was exposed to the monkeys exhibited minor symptoms that did not include a telltale painful skin rash associated with monkeypox. Further, the crash involving the monkeys occurred Jan. 21, and the incubation period for monkeypox is typically no longer than 21 days, according to the WHO. The current monkeypox outbreak began in mid-May and so far is concentrated in Europe. In January, a truck towing a trailer of 100 monkeys — en route to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-sanctioned quarantine facility in Florida — collided with a dump truck on a highway in Pennsylvania. Back then, debunked social media claims said the CDC staged the event as a cover story for releasing the next bioweapon. At the crash site, a woman named Michele Fallon was exposed to the monkeys, and she exhibited minor symptoms afterward, such as a cough, runny nose and something like pink eye. In an interview published nearly three weeks after the crash, Fallon expressed irritation that the CDC was not giving her the information she sought about the monkeys’ health, but she did not mention any symptoms that matched a monkeypox diagnosis. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 Three of the monkeys were euthanized in January after the CDC conducted a public health risk assessment, PennLive reported. The agency did not provide details about why they were euthanized. The 97 other monkeys were quarantined and monitored for disease, the New York Times reported. On Feb. 1, more than 10 days after the crash, state and federal health officials said no other reports of illness had been reported, according to the New York Times. An infectious disease specialist told the New York Times that monkeypox and other serious diseases are rare in cynomolgus macaques. Our ruling A Facebook post suggests that a January traffic accident involving lab monkeys was responsible for spreading monkeypox to humans. There is no evidence that the lab monkeys were infected with monkeypox or that they spread it to humans. The woman who came into contact with the monkeys had minor symptoms and did not have the characteristic skin rash associated with monkeypox. The incubation period for monkeypox is typically no longer than 21 days, and the traffic crash occurred in January, while the current monkeypox outbreak began in mid-May. We rate this claim False.

“50% of the guns sold in Texas, because of the loopholes, do not pass through a background check. In the first hours after the nation’s 27th school shooting this year, Texan and MSNBC commentator Matthew Dowd told viewers that he owns three shotguns and two rifles, and described hunting as part of the culture in Uvalde, Texas. Then Dowd, a one-time strategist for Republican President George W. Bush who also briefly ran as a Democrat for Texas lieutenant governor in 2021, alluded to laws "on the books" and urged support for more gun control. He claimed: "50% of the guns sold in Texas, because of the loopholes, do not pass through a background check." We reached out to Dowd through his website, MSNBC and his book publisher, but did not get a reply. The research director for Giffords, an anti-gun violence organization, and two university gun researchers told PolitiFact they know of no data to support Dowd’s statistical claim about background checks, which are getting renewed attention in Congress in the wake of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that left 19 children and two educators dead. It was the 27th shooting on K-12 school property in 2022 that resulted in firearm-related injuries or deaths, according to Education Week. When background checks are required Background checks are required in Texas for some gun sales. Federal law generally requires federally licensed firearms dealers, including those in Texas, to conduct background checks when making gun sales. The federal law does not apply to private sellers, and Texas does not have a law that applies to private sellers, either. In Texas, individuals can also buy guns from a licensed seller without going through a background check if they have a state license to carry a handgun. "So, there is no source of administrative data that provides a comprehensive estimate of the percentage of gun transactions or guns currently possessed in which there was no National Instant Criminal Background Check System check," said Philip Cook, a public policy professor and gun researcher at Duke University. Because some gun sales are not recorded, what’s known about the proportion of gun sales not involving a background check is based on surveys. But experts said those are national surveys of gun owners and not data based on actual Texas gun sales. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 What the surveys say Giffords research director Kelly Drane pointed us to a 2017 article in the Annals of Internal Medicine journal that reported a 50% finding about background checks. But it does not back up Dowd’s claim, as it does not address the sale of guns in Texas. The article reported the results of a nationally representative survey of 1,613 gun owners done by researchers from Northeastern and Harvard universities in 2015. The gun owners were asked about where and when they acquired their last firearm, if they purchased it and whether they had a background check. One finding was that, for firearms purchased privately within the previous two years — that is, other than from a store or pawn shop, including sales between individuals in person, online, or at gun shows — 50% were obtained without a background check. But the study found that private transfers were a minority of all gun transactions. The survey found that among all gun transfers, 22% of gun owners said they obtained their most recent firearm without a background check. A more recent study, published by the same researchers in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, utilized a 2019 nationally representative survey of 2,950 firearm owners. That study also does not back up Dowd’s claim. The study estimated the proportion of firearm transfers that occur without background checks, noting differences in the 21 states that have so-called comprehensive background check laws. Those laws vary, but they require background checks for at least some types of private gun sales or transfers, and for at least some types of guns. The study found that 12% of gun owners in states without comprehensive background checks said that when acquiring their most recent firearm, they did not undergo a background check. That compared with 24% in states with comprehensive background check laws. The survey asked about all gun transfers — sales as well as gifts. The Uvalde gunman legally purchased two AR 15-style rifles at a local federal firearms licensee, according to news reports. Such a licensee would have had to conduct a background check to legally make the sales. Our ruling Dowd said "50% of the guns sold in Texas, because of the loopholes, do not pass through a background check." We could find no data to confirm the claim, and available studies and surveys contradict the idea that such a large percentage of gun buyers in Texas were not subject to a background check. We rate the claim False. PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this repor

El atacante en Uvalde, Texas estaba en Estados Unidos ilegalmente Después del tiroteo en la escuela primaria Robb en Uvalde, Texas, se empezaron a compartir publicaciones en las redes sociales afirmando de manera equivocada que el atacante era un inmigrante que estaba en Estados Unidos ilegalmente. Las publicaciones también utilizaban un nombre incorrecto al referirse al autor del tiroteo. "Inmigrante ilegal Salvatore Ramos, 18 años de edad, disparó y mató a 14 estudiantes y un maestro en Uvalde, Texas", decía una publicación en inglés el 24 de mayo. El post fue marcado como parte del esfuerzo de Facebook para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Facebook.) La policía identificó al atacante como Salvador Ramos. El Gobernador de Texas, Greg Abbott indicó que Ramos era ciudadano estadounidense. (Los comentarios de Abbott se pueden encontrar alrededor de los 13 minutos de este video de una conferencia de prensa del 24 de mayo.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on November 2, 2022 in a video Video suggests GOP voters denied access in general election. By Gabrielle Settles • November 8, 2022 Los reportes iniciales indicaban que habían fallecido 14 estudiantes y un maestro en el tiroteo. Sin embargo, esos números fueron actualizados y han muerto por lo menos 19 estudiantes y dos maestras. La policía disparó y mató a Ramos. La publicación afirma equivocadamente que Ramos estaba en Estados Unidos ilegalmente. Calificamos la publicación como Falsa. Este artículo originalmente fue escrito en inglés y fue traducido por Maria Ramirez Uribe, reportera de PolitiFac

Cheri Beasley “vacated” a man’s death sentence and “threw out” the indictment in a child assault case A new television ad from the National Republican Senatorial Committee accuses North Carolina’s Democratic Senate candidate of being soft on crime. The ad says Cheri Beasley "failed to protect" victims of crime. As images roll showing crime scene tape, sad children and a hand that appears to be wet with blood, a narrator says: "They were victims of violent crimes like murder and molestation and Chief Justice Cheri Beasley failed to protect them. "The murderer who shot a boy in the face? Beasley vacated his death sentence. "The man convicted of sexually assaulting a seven year old girl? She threw out the indictment. And that's just the beginning. "We can't trust Cheri Beasley to protect our families." The ad includes some elements of truth about Beasley’s actions while she was a justice on the seven-member North Carolina Supreme Court, but omits context about the cases that might give viewers a skewed impression of why Beasley ruled the way she did. Asked about the ad, NRSC spokesman T.W. Arrighi sent an email with internet links to the court case opinions and news stories about them and wrote: "Every claim is backed up." He didn’t offer additional comments. Let’s review the claims. Vacated death sentence The ad says Beasley vacated the death sentence of a man who shot a boy in the face, citing a state Supreme Court ruling from August 2020. There’s some accuracy to this claim, but it’s also a little misleading and leaves out a lot of context. The case was the State of North Carolina v. Marcus Reymond Robinson. Robinson had been taken off of death row and given a life sentence and the state Supreme Court was asked to weigh whether a new law required Robinson to be returned to death row. Robinson was given a death sentence in 1994 after a jury found him guilty of murdering 17-year-old Erik Tornblom by shooting Tornblom in the face with a sawed-off shotgun after he agreed to give Robinson a ride in his car, according to court documents. But in 2012, the case was reexamined under North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act, a 2009 law that allowed death row inmates and capital murder defendants to challenge their sentences on grounds that they were influenced by racial bias. A Superior Court judge commuted Robinson’s sentence to life in prison after finding that racism significantly influenced jury selection in the 1994 murder trial. Then in 2013, after Republicans had gained control of the state legislature, they repealed the Racial Justice Act and attempted to apply it retroactively, claiming cases already heard under the law were voided and all pending cases were dismissed. This is where Beasley and the state Supreme Court come in. The court ruled 4-3 that Robinson could not be sent back to death row because it would violate the double-jeopardy protections of the state and federal constitutions, and Beasley wrote the majority’s opinion. At the time, the court had six Democrats and one Republican. Dissenting were two Democrats and the lone Republican. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 The ad says Beasley vacated Robinson’s sentence. To be clear, Beasley’s ruling had no bearing on the man’s freedom. He remains in prison. ‘Threw out the indictment’ The ad says Beasley "threw out the indictment" of a man convicted of sexually assaulting a 7-year-old girl. This claim, like the other, has an element of truth but omits key facts. The case was the State of North Carolina v. Michael Lee White. White was found guilty in 2015 of committing a sex offense against a 7-year-old. White appealed his conviction on grounds that the indictment used to convict him failed to include identifying information about the victim as required by state law, which says this about indictments for sex offenses: "If the victim is a person under the age of 13 years, it is sufficient to allege that the defendant unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did engage in a sex offense with a child under the age of 13 years, naming the child, and concluding as required by law." White’s indictment listed the child as "Victim #1." The state Supreme Court, including Beasley, was asked to review White’s case and the decision by the state Court of Appeals, which had upheld his conviction because the victim’s identity appeared in other court documents. In May 2019, the state Supreme Court ruled 4-2, with Beasley in the majority, that White’s trial court judgment should be vacated because prosecutors didn’t comply with state law. The decision featured one less vote because Justice Mark Davis, who sat on the Court of Appeals before joining the Supreme Court, didn’t participate in the case. Beasley wrote the majority opinion, arguing that prosecutors didn’t meet the standard of the law required for indictments. "The State concedes that its intent was to conceal the identity of the child — an intent at odds with the purpose of the naming requirement: to provide notice of the essential elements of the crime charged to the accused," she wrote. "The statutory language is clear and unambiguous: it requires that the child be named as part of the allegations in the indictment … The phrase ‘Victim #1’ does not distinguish this victim from other children or victims." White served about three years and nine months in prison before being released in June 2019, records show. North Carolina Lawyers Weekly reported on the decision, as did the Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation think tank. The Journal predicted Beasley’s ruling would someday come up on the campaign trail. Our ruling The ad alleges that Cheri Beasley "failed to protect" victims by vacating a man’s death sentence and throwing out another convicted man’s indictment for assaulting a minor. In the death sentence case, Beasley did rule against sending Robinson to death row. But the ad leaves out two key facts: he had already been taken off death row, and her ruling kept in place a life sentence. So it’s misleading to suggest that victims aren’t protected from a man who remains behind bars. In the case with the minor, the ad accurately states that Beasley ruled in favor of throwing out the defendant’s indictment. It leaves out the argument of Beasley and the majority of the court: that prosecutors failed to comply with state law when indicting the man involved. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half Tru

“Most of these killers tend to be 18, 19 years old. Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., has worked to enact restrictions on guns ever since the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, an area he then-represented in the U.S. House of Representatives. After another elementary school shooting — this one in Uvalde, Texas, on May 24, 2022 — Murphy gave an impassioned speech on the U.S. Senate floor to urge redoubled efforts to curb gun violence. The speech made the rounds of news shows and was widely shared on social media. In an interview with CNN the day of the shooting, Murphy focused on the young age of the shooters in Uvalde and a May 14 mass shooting in Buffalo. "I want to get rid of these assault weapons," Murphy said. "But maybe we can find common ground on just limiting who can get access to them, maybe say you have to be 21 instead of 18, seeing that most of these killers tend to be 18, 19 years old." This fact-check will focus on whether "most of these killers tend to be 18, 19 years old." When we checked with Murphy’s office, they pointed to a database project undertaken by The Washington Post that tracks every act of gunfire at a primary or secondary school during school hours since the Columbine High School massacre April 20, 1999. The Post found more than 200 incidents that met the project’s criteria. When the Post analyzed these shootings, it found that more than two-thirds were committed by shooters younger than 18. The analysis found that the median age for school shooters was 16. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 So, using this criteria, Murphy is correct, even slightly understating the case. Other data points For overall mass shootings — not just school shootings — academic studies have found that about a quarter of shooters were younger than 25. A large-scale RAND study found that 26% of mass public shooters between 1976 and 2018 were younger than 25. Another study from the University of Alabama found that 27.2% were younger than 25, and that 6.8% were younger than 18. A final point: Murphy referred to "killers," but the Post analysis he relied on included both incidents that resulted in deaths and those that did not. Our ruling Murphy said after the shooting in Uvalde that "most of these killers tend to be 18, 19 years old." That’s largely accurate when looking at school shootings alone, according to a Washington Post database of school shootings since 1999. The database did include shootings that did not result in a death, and the share of teenagers committing mass shootings overall is smaller. We rate the statement Mostly True. RELATED: All of our fact-checks about gu

“They just exposed Mark Zuckerberg as a CIA agent. More than 10 years ago, the satirical publication The Onion posted a video that described Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg as a CIA agent and said that the federal agency’s "invention of Facebook has saved the government millions of dollars." The video is no longer live on the Onion’s website, but Mashable, reporting on it at the time, said that it was "perhaps inspired by a recent interview with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who called Facebook ‘the most appalling spy machine that has ever been invented.’" Recently, a similar claim started to spread on social media: "They just exposed Mark Zuckerberg as a CIA agent," a May 23 Facebook post says. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 This claim may stem from that same satirical Onion video which is newly spreading on social media via TikTok. Real news outlets, such as NBC News and CBS News, have previously reported on how the CIA and the FBI use Facebook, but there’s no evidence to support the claim that Zuckerberg was exposed as a CIA agent. We rate that claim Pants on Fire.

Photos of a person in a skirt show the Uvalde, Texas, school shooter Some social media posts are sharing images of a person wearing a skirt and wrongly claiming that they show Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old authorities have identified as the shooter at Robb Elementary in Uvalde County, Texas. These photos were taken from the Reddit account of a person who identifies as a transgender girl. These Facebook posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 (Screengrab from Facebook) "It’s not me I don’t even live in Texas," the person wrote, posting a picture of themselves on Instagram on May 24. The account identifies the person as a "transgender girl" and says that her pronouns are she/her. "Just checked… still not in TX and not a murderer," she said the next day, sharing another picture. She posted similar pictures and messages on Reddit and responded to some commenters to clear her name: "Not the murderer." "The shooter is dead and I'm alive, I don’t live in Texas." "They are my pics. People are using to make trans people look like murderers and blaming me for the shooting." "I don’t want fame, I just want to live without being attacked when I leave my house." We reached out to her on Reddit to talk about the spreading misinformation but did not immediately hear back. Mashable reporter Matt Binder tweeted that he spoke to her and, he wrote, she "wants the disinformation debunked and the posts falsely accusing them corrected." Conservative journalist Andy Ngo urged people to stop sharing the photos on Twitter. Christina Pushaw, press secretary for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, responded and said "and some of the pics of trans people they’re posting are obviously not Ramos." We separately looked into claims that Ramos is transgender and found no evidence to corroborate them. Claims that these photos of a transgender girl show Ramos are False.

Esta imagen muestra a las víctimas del tiroteo en la escuela en Uvalde Texas Una foto publicada en Facebook identifica erróneamente a las víctimas del tiroteo del 24 de mayo en la escuela primaria Robb en Uvalde, Texas. Un usuario en Facebook publicó una imagen con las fotos de estudiantes y profesores con el comentario: "Estas son las víctimas de la massacre de hoy en Uvalde Texas. Dios fortalezca a todas las familias que están sufriendo por esta tragedia. Elevemos oración por todos ellos". Sin embargo, la foto no es de las víctimas del tiroteo en Uvalde, Texas. La imagen es un collage de fotos de las 26 víctimas del tiroteo que ocurrió en el 2012 en la escuela primaria Sandy Hook en Newtown, Connecticut. El post fue marcado como parte del esfuerzo de Facebook para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Facebook.) Hasta el momento se conoce que hay 19 estudiantes y dos adultos que fallecieron durante el tiroteo de Uvalde, Texas. Sin embargo, las identidades de todas las víctimas no se han publicado. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 Las identidades que sí se conocen, no concuerdan con las fotos incluidas en el collage en la publicación de Facebook. Nuestra calificación Una foto publicada en Facebook dice que un collage de fotos identifica a las víctimas del tiroteo en la escuela en Uvalde Texas. Sin embargo, la imagen utiliza las fotos de las víctimas del tiroteo de la escuela Sandy Hook en Connecticut en el 2012. La publicación identifica erróneamente a las víctimas del tiroteo en Uvalde, Texas. Calificamos la publicación como Fals

The Uvalde, Texas, school shooter was a “transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos. Misinformation is spreading about the 18-year-old authorities identified as the shooter in a massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County, Texas, on May 24. This story is still developing as investigators probe why Salvador Ramos opened fire at the school starting around 11:30 a.m. that morning, but some claims about Ramos’ identity have been contradicted by statements from officials. Some social media users are sharing a screenshot of a tweet by U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican from Arizona, that has since been deleted but said the shooter was "a transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos." "This is Salvador Ramos," another Facebook post said, sharing an ID card photo of Ramos that was provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety. "The 18yr old that just shot up the elementary school in Texas. Bet the news stops covering it soon because a Hispanic Transgender taking 18 kids lives from 2-4th grade and 1 teacher doesn’t fit their agenda." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Gosar’s office did not respond to a phone call or email about the claims in the tweet, but here’s what we know. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, among other officials, has identified the shooter as Salvador Ramos, not Salvatore Ramos. He died at the scene. Ramos was a Uvalde resident and was "reported to have been a student" at Uvalde High School, Abbott said. Abbott also said that Ramos is a U.S. citizen. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on November 2, 2022 in a video Video suggests GOP voters denied access in general election. By Gabrielle Settles • November 8, 2022 We found no evidence to corroborate claims that Ramos was transgender. That rumor appears to stem from photos of an artist who was misidentified as Ramos in some social media posts. The artist identifies as a transgender girl and uses the pronouns she/her. We also found no information about Ramos’ politics. The New York Times reported that Ramos’ acquaintances said he was a high school senior who regularly missed class, struggled to get along with classmates and had few friends. Some said that Ramos, who had a speech impediment, was bullied, and that once after he posted a photo of himself wearing black eye liner he was ridiculed using a derogatory term for a gay person, the Washington Post said. Ramos got into screaming matches with his mother, and often retreated to his grandmother’s house after a big fight, according to the Times. At the time of the shooting, Ramos was living with his grandparents and shot his grandmother before going to the elementary school, Texas DPS Lt. Chris Olivarez said in an interview with Fox News. Olivarez said authorities haven’t identified any gang affiliations or criminal history. Our ruling Social media posts claim that the Uvalde, Texas school shooter was a "transsexual leftist illegal alien named Salvatore Ramos." Officials and news reports have said that the shooter was Salvador Ramos, a U.S. citizen and Uvalde resident. We found no evidence to corroborate claims that Ramos was transgender or a leftist. We rate this post False.

“American journalist” Jack Posobiec was “arrested at World Economic Forum. As the World Economic Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, video of an interaction between police and conservative pundit Jack Posobiec spurred multiple false claims on social media. A video posted May 24 by Donald Trump Jr., was captioned, "American journalist arrested at World Economic Forum." The video shows Posobiec, a former One America News Network personality now affiliated with conservative news organization Turning Point USA, outside what appears to be a restaurant while uniformed police stand nearby. Trump used the word "detained" when narrating the video, and wording at the top of the video also used the word detained rather than arrested. The video was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But Posobiec was neither arrested nor detained in Davos, police said. "This news is fake!" wrote Markus Walser, a spokesperson for police from the Grisons canton, or district, where the World Economic Forum is held. Police in the Grisons canton did not arrest any journalist in Davos, Walser said. When asked if Posobiec was detained, Walser said it’s clear from the video that he was not. In his video, Trump says, "Yesterday in Davos, Jack Posobiec, an American journalist, was detained there for a matter of time," speculating that it was because Posobiec was "going against their agenda." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 In the footage, Posobiec was on the patio outside a restaurant and initially appeared to be speaking with uniformed police officers and other people wearing plain clothes who are not identified. Then, a person off camera began questioning the officers about why they were "detaining" Posobiec, and the remainder of the video was focused on the interaction between the person off camera and the authorities. The officers did not provide a reason why police were talking with Posobiec. In the footage, Posobiec was not physically restrained. One person with the police group said they were doing a normal patrol and that they had a reason for interacting with Posobiec, but would not provide the reason. The person said "everything is clear now" and that they were about to leave the area. Walser, the police spokesperson, said that before and during the World Economic Forum, police officers carry out security checks on people and vehicles. Conservative news outlet the Daily Caller reported that Posobiec was "briefly surrounded" by Swiss police. "Posobiec was not handcuffed or arrested, and was not taken into any physical detainment in any of the footage shared online thus far," the story said. Posobiec changed his Twitter handle to "WEF Detainee Poso." We reached out to the Trump Organization seeking comment from Trump but did not receive a reply. Despite Trump's claim, Posobiec was neither arrested nor detained in Davos. We rate the claim False

The Uvalde, Texas, mass shooter was an “illegal alien. In the aftermath of a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, social media posts falsely claimed that the gunman was an immigrant illegally in the U.S., and got his name wrong. "Illegal Alien Salvatore Ramos, 18 years old, shot & killed 14 students & 1 teacher in Uvalde, Texas," said one May 24 post. It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Police identified the shooter as Salvador Ramos. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Ramos was a U.S. citizen. (Abbott’s comment came at the 13-minute mark in this video of a May 24 news conference.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 17, 2022 in an Instagram post There were two shooters in the 2017 Las Vegas mass shooting. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 20, 2022 Early reporting indicated that 14 students and one teacher died in the shooting, but those numbers were later updated to 19 students and two teachers. Ramos was shot and killed at the school by law enforcement. We rate the claim that Ramos was illegally in the country False.

“Swedish health authorities considering introducing restrictions because of monkeypox outbreak. Swedish health authorities on May 19 confirmed that someone in the Stockholm region had monkeypox. It was Sweden’s first recorded case amid a recent multi-country outbreak, and within days, claims about the nation’s response to the disease were circulating on social media. "JUST IN: Swedish health authorities considering introducing restrictions because of monkeypox outbreak," read one such May 22 post. "Here we go again." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook. With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations once again on the rise, recent news about monkeypox might, at first glance, appear similar to the earliest days of the coronavirus pandemic. But is monkeypox the next COVID-19, as the Facebook post implies? No, according to Sweden’s top health official. "There is no reason to tie monkeypox to COVID-19 and everything that makes people think of, such as fear of the illness and societal measures to control it," said Health Minister Lena Hallengren, according to a Swedish news report. "There will be no limits or restrictions on how we live due to monkeypox. There are no plans to do that." Authorities in Sweden still have concerns about the current monkeypox outbreak, however. Since May 13, cases of monkeypox have been recorded in countries where the virus is not normally found, including the U.S., Canada and several countries in Europe. The disease is considered rare, and investigations into the confirmed and probable cases of monkeypox are ongoing. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 As of early May 25, Sweden had confirmed one case of monkeypox, and the United States had confirmed two cases, according to Global.Health, an organization that tracks infectious disease data. Following the country’s first confirmed case, Sweden classified monkeypox as a disease dangerous to public health and one that is subject to mandatory contact tracing, according to the Swedish public health agency’s website and a report from The Local, a Swedish news organization. Hallengren told Svenska Dagbladet, a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, that monkeypox was given that classification so that those infected would be legally required to report it to authorities, making it easier to track the virus and limit its spread. Sweden currently classifies a number of other diseases the same way, including avian influenza, chlamydia, cholera, gonorrhea, HIV, rabies and syphilis. As of May 25, COVID-19 was classified in Sweden as "subject to mandatory contact tracing," but it was not actively classified as "dangerous to public health." Sweden downgraded COVID-19’s classification as of April 1. Symptoms of monkeypox include a rash, fever, headache, muscle aches and swollen lymph nodes. People who have symptoms of monkeypox and those with whom they’ve had close contact should be aware of unusual rashes or lesions that develop and contact their healthcare provider, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Our ruling An image on Facebook claimed Swedish health authorities were "considering introducing restrictions because of monkeypox outbreak." While Sweden took steps to classify monkeypox as dangerous and ensure that cases would be reported for contact tracing purposes, the country’s top health official said there are currently no plans to introduce "limits or restrictions on how we live due to monkeypox." We rate this claim False. RELATED: Monkeypox outbreak: What to know about its spread, symptoms and vaccin

The current monkeypox outbreak was planned by government and industry leaders As monkeypox cases spread around the world, conspiracy theories about the virus are also spreading across social media. On Facebook, different users are suggesting the monkeypox outbreak was planned by government and industry leaders. One post is a screenshot of a tweet that says, "Last year the U.S. government, Chinese government, Bill Gates, J&J, the UN, WHO, Merck and more participated in a monkeypox ‘tabletop exercise’ where terrorists released an engineered monkeypox virus on May 15, 2022. Weird." The caption reads, "Surely this is just a coincidence." A Rumble video titled "BOOM! Caught Red Handed Planning Monkeypox Pandemic," referenced the same event. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The notion that the outbreak was planned also has gone viral on social media in China, the Daily Mail reported. There is no evidence the recent surge in monkeypox cases was planned. Public health investigators are still researching how the disease spread. An adviser to the World Health Organization said the outbreak "appears to have been caused by sexual activity at two recent raves in Europe," the Associated Press reported. In 2021, leaders from public health, the biotechnology industry, international security and philanthropy gathered for discussion of a simulated scenario where an oubreak of an "unusual strain of monkeypox virus" was "caused by a terrorist attack using a pathogen engineered in a laboratory," according to a report by the Nuclear Threat Initiative, the event organizer. NTI is a nonprofit organization, founded by former U.S. Sen. Sam Nunn and philanthropist Ted Turner, that is focused on reducing biological threats. The organization also led a February 2022 exercise that centered on a fictional virus called Akhmeta. The 2021 monkeypox event did include the attendees listed in the tweet — except for Bill Gates. He did not personally attend, but a representative from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation did. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The simulated scenario also listed the initial "attack" occuring on May 15, 2022, as the tweet says. The first cases in the current outbreak were reported to the WHO on May 13. The event report said the exercise was aimed at examining "gaps in national and international biosecurity and pandemic preparedness architectures" and "exploring opportunities to improve capabilities to prevent and respond to high-consequence biological events." Simulated events have been the subject of misinformation before, but the events are not unusual when it comes to pandemic planning —and they are not proof that pandemics or disease outbreaks are an inside job. Unlike the 2021 tabletop scenario, though, there’s nothing unusual or mysterious about the origin of the current monkeypox strain. Cases linked to the current outbreak have all belonged to one of two previously identified genetic groups of the monkeypox virus, according to the WHO. And genetic sequencing of one sample from a confirmed case indicated that the virus currently circulating matches cases exported from Nigeria to other countries in 2018 and 2019, the WHO reported. The World Health Organization reported that the virus currently seems to be spreading by "human-to-human transmission …occurring among people in close physical contact with cases who are symptomatic." Cases have been identified primarily among men who have sex with men. Our ruling A Facebook post suggests the current monkeypox outbreak was planned by government and industry leaders. There is no evidence the outbreak was planned. In 2021, leaders from government, public health and industry discussed a simulated scenario of a monkeypox outbreak. The event was aimed at examining gaps in biosecurity and exploring ways to improve responses to threats. We rate this claim False. RELATED: What to know about the monkeypox outbre

“J.D. Vance profits off Russia propaganda. In Ohio’s U.S. Senate race, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan posted an ad that slams Republican J.D. Vance as being on the wrong side of Russia’s war in Ukraine. The ad opens with video from a Feb. 19 interview that Vance shared on Twitter in which he said, "I don’t really care what happens with Ukraine." (Vance later issued a statement saying "Russia’s assault on Ukraine is unquestionably a tragedy.") Here’s the full transcript of Ryan’s May 10 ad: Vance: I’ve got to be honest with you, I don’t really care what happens with Ukraine one way or the other. The ad shows black-and-white images of a bloodstained woman with bandages above her eye and on her jaw, a mother holding a toddler, and apartment buildings and streets destroyed by shelling. Text on screen: Venture capitalist J.D. Vance’s biggest deal? Social media platform Rumble. Russia state media uses Rumble for propaganda. Why doesn’t J.D. Vance care? J.D. Vance doesn’t care because J.D. Vance profits off Russia propaganda. JD Vance profits off of a company spreading Putin's propaganda. Is it any wonder he "doesn't really care what happens to Ukraine?" pic.twitter.com/C0ucvzUCf3— Tim Ryan (@TimRyan) May 10, 2022 In this fact-check, we look at that last part of the ad to see whether Vance profits from Russia propaganda. The Ryan campaign sent us background information on the substance of their claim. We contacted the Vance campaign and they had no comment. Broadly, while the financial details are private, there’s some accuracy to Ryan’s statement, based on what’s known about Vance’s investment in Rumble. The Vance-Rumble connection Vance is an author and venture capitalist. In 2020, he launched Narya Capital, and since then, the firm has funded a handful of startups, primarily in health care and food supply. In 2021, Narya played the lead role in assembling a group of investors to help Rumble expand. Rumble is a video-sharing platform, created in 2013 by a Toronto entrepreneur to compete with YouTube. Like YouTube, the more people who come to Rumble, the more advertising revenue it attracts. Rumble drew attention in 2020, when it became popular among conservatives for what it promoted as its hands-off approach to moderating content. "Rumble’s mission is to restore the Internet to its roots by making it free and open once again," the company said in March. Rumble’s CEO said recently it has yet to turn a profit, but it is growing rapidly. Featured Fact-check J.D. Vance stated on October 10, 2022 in a debate “Tim Ryan when he ran for president two years ago … supported banning fracking both on public lands and generally speaking.” By Louis Jacobson • October 11, 2022 When former President Donald Trump and conservative pundits such as Dan Bongino and Steve Bannon began posting their videos on Rumble, its user numbers soared. The company reported an average of 41 million monthly active users (people who visit the site) in the first quarter of 2022. In 2020, the level was closer to 1 million users a month. Vance personally invested in Rumble. In his April 2022 candidate financial disclosure, he reported holdings in the company that fall in the range of $115,000 to $300,000. His investment was part of a larger package assembled by Narya that included billionaire Peter Thiel, now a leading backer of Vance’s Senate campaign. The details were undisclosed, but as part of the deal, a top Narya partner joined Rumble’s board. How Russian sponsored media came to Rumble After Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in February, YouTube banned the Russia state-affiliated media outlet RT — formerly Russia Today — from its platform. In response, Rumble became RT’s primary video platform. Ryan’s campaign noted RT’s move as evidence for its claim that Vance is profiting from Russian propaganda. Scott Radnitz, a specialist in Russia and Eurasian studies at the University of Washington, said RT is largely a propaganda network. "Some of its content is non-political, but it is backed by the state and much of its content reflects the Kremlin's messaging intended for foreign audiences," Radnitz said. "RT's use as a mouthpiece of the state has been especially evident during the war, as it has echoed the Kremlin's distortions, lies, and conspiracy theories." When Russian state media said that dead people found in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha were a hoax, RT amplified that message to non-Russian speaking audiences. Since March, RT has used Rumble to post its ongoing livestream along with individual video news stories. The livestream has accumulated over 2 million views since its launch. The video stories have much lower numbers. The most popular ones have about 14,000 views. Other Russian state-sponsored programs have also joined Rumble. They have lower viewer stats than RT. Calculating whether Vance profits off Rumble A key part of Rumble’s business plan is to increase its audience, and with that, its advertising revenues. RT and other Russian state-sponsored programs bring viewers to Rumble. Tech investor Roger McNamee was an early backer of Facebook. Today, on top of his investment work, he’s part of a campaign to crack down on hate speech on Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. McNamee said that while RT’s viewership is less than a million a month, that still helps Rumble’s bottom line. "The choice by Rumble to stream RT after it had been blocked by YouTube is an unambiguous play for viewers who engage with Russian propaganda," McNamee said. "What matters is the intent of Rumble and the fact that RT generates millions of streams on the platform." Many of Rumble’s financial details remain private, but as a general rule, rising user numbers increase the company’s value, and to that extent, the investment Vance made in 2021 is, on paper at least, worth more today. RT has boosted those viewership numbers, but it is far from the most popular producer on Rumble. Bongino’s show, for example, regularly draws about 150,000 views for a single episode, and one of his shows in September had over 973,000 views. Rumble benefits from RT’s presence, but it doesn’t depend on it. Our ruling Ryan said, "Vance profits off Russia propaganda." Ryan’s claim is based on Vance’s investment in Rumble, the platform where RT posts its videos. RT amplifies Kremlin messaging, and in the past two and a half months, RT has produced nearly 2 million views on Rumble. More views mean more advertising revenues for Rumble, and RT’s presence adds value to Vance’s investment. But other programs on Rumble attract many more viewers, and the details on Vance’s investment in the company are not public. Rumble’s CEO earlier this year ​​said the company has yet to turn a profit. With that caveat in mind, we rate this claim Half Tru

Monkeypox “was created in a lab and given via injection. A screenshot of a post about monkeypox on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is being offered as evidence that the virus was man-made. The screenshot from the CDC website says, "Monkeypox was first discovered in 1958 when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research, hence the name ‘monkeypox.’" The Facebook user commented, "It was created in a lab and given via injection, is what this means." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Contrary to the post’s claim, monkeypox "was not created in a lab and given via injection." Kristen Nordlund, a spokesperson for the CDC, told PolitiFact that it was first discovered in 1958 "when two outbreaks of a pox-like disease occurred in colonies of monkeys kept for research." Grant McFadden, a professor at Arizona State University and a virologist with expertise in poxviruses, also told PolitiFact that although monkeypox was discovered in a lab, it didn’t originate there. In fact, since 1958, scientists have learned that rodents transmit the virus to monkeys and dogs, McFadden said. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 David Evans, a professor of medical microbiology and immunology at the University of Alberta, said "monkeypox" is a misnomer. "It’s actually endemic in various African rodents, squirrels, porcupines, etc.," he said in an email. "Basically, people were importing monkeys and occasionally they came infected with monkeypox." A monkeypox outbreak in the United States in 2003, for example, was traced back to the import of exotic pets. As for the claim that the virus is spread via injection, needles are used with lab animals when scientists are investigating a virus, McFadden said, but monkeypox didn’t start because lab monkeys were injected with the virus. And it’s not, of course, transmitted in nature that way. The first human case of monkeypox was recorded in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The virus primarily occurs in central and west Africa, according to the CDC, often near tropical rainforests, though it has been showing up increasingly in urban areas. More than 250 confirmed and suspected cases have been found in at least 16 countries, including the United States and Canada. We rate this post False.

Monkeypox is biological warfare “against us by our governments. In a video being shared on Facebook, a man opens multiple books about biological warfare to entries about the monkeypox virus. "Biological warfare, let’s take a look, what have we got?" a man can be heard saying, flipping open one of the books. Then the camera focuses on "monkeypox virus." "Nooooo," he says. He goes on to say, "This is a war on us by them. Do not comply, do not fall into yet another trap." "It’s a Bio war against us by our governments!" reads text over the video. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Grant McFadden, a professor at Arizona State University and a virologist with expertise in poxviruses and diseases caused by poxviruses, told PolitiFact there’s "really no connection to reality" to support the claim that monkeypox is biological warfare. The monkeypox virus appears on a list of "select agents and toxins," biological agents and toxins the U.S. government has determined "have the potential to pose a severe threat to both human and animal health, to plant health, or to animal and plant products." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 What that means in practice, McFadden said, is that scientists are required to "go through an extreme amount of bureaucratic licensure" to work with the virus in a lab. Monkeypox was first discovered in a lab in 1958, though it wasn’t created there as some conspiracy theories have claimed. More than 250 confirmed and suspected cases have been found in at least 16 countries, including the United States and Canada. Investigations into how the virus is spreading are ongoing, the WHO said, but "based on currently available information, cases have mainly but not exclusively been identified amongst men who have sex with men (MSM) seeking care in primary care and sexual health clinics." At a May 23 press conference, Jennifer McQuiston, deputy director of the division of high consequence pathogens and pathology at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said "all the evidence that we have to date suggests that the monkeypox virus that is circulating in these communities is closely related to the monkeypox viruses that we've seen circulating in West Africa for the last several years." The first U.S. case was reported in Massachusetts, and "sequence data" the CDC has from that case "matches the sequence data" from a case in Portugal, which shows that "they are very closely linked to the viruses that we've seen out of West Africa," McQuiston said. "We know that close personal contact can spread monkeypox," she added. "So all signs point to this being an outbreak associated with person-to-person spread." There’s no evidence to support the claim that these outbreaks are biological warfare against citizens by their own governments. We rate this post False.

The United States can’t import baby formula because of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement A recent Twitter post claimed the United States’ trade policy with its North American neighbors is the reason why there’s a shortage of baby formula nationwide. "Why can’t we just import baby formula?" the May 14 tweet said. "Ever heard of the United States Canada Mexico Agreement? That bit of legislation Trump and Republicans proudly replaced NAFTA with? Remember Trump bragging about that? Remember? That. That's why." We found a similar claim on Facebook. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which officially replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement in July 2020, did overhaul the country’s trade policies with Canada and Mexico. But claiming that trade agreement is the sole reason the U.S. can’t import baby formula vastly oversimplifies the issue. The U.S. can import baby formula, but in a typical year, about 98% of the infant formula consumed in the U.S. is domestically produced. Only a small amount of formula is imported from other countries, such as Mexico, Ireland, the Netherlands, Chile and Austria. The importation of baby formula is subject to high tariffs and complex policies that aim to protect the U.S. dairy industry from competitors and ensure that formula is safe to consume. Domestic and foreign manufacturers alike must adhere to government regulations and undergo review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in order to have their products approved for sale in the U.S. The FDA requires baby formula to meet certain ingredient and nutrition requirements, and the products must follow specific labeling guidelines. For instance, the labels must be in English, except in areas where English is not the predominant language. Once a baby formula product receives FDA approval, retailers must then wait 90 days before marketing it. "It’s a very heavily involved regulatory process, which is why it’s difficult to import baby formula," said Gabby Beaumont-Smith, a policy analyst at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 19, 2022 in a post The diphtheria vaccine is a “poison dart” with side effects worse than the symptoms of diphtheria. By Andy Nguyen • October 24, 2022 RELATED VIDEO The U.S. also requires foreign companies importing baby formula to pay tariffs of up to 17.5%. Additional duties can be placed on formula imports if they exceed a certain amount. These tariffs, as well as the FDA regulations, existed before the USMCA was adopted. But the new trade deal did make some changes to the importation of baby formula from Canada and Mexico. Provisions in the trade agreement limit how much baby formula Canada can export globally each year and impose charges if the exports exceed a certain amount. Currently, if Canadian businesses export more than 40,480 metric tons collectively, they would be subject to an export charge of $4.25 (Canadian dollars) per kilogram. The U.S. didn’t import any baby formula from Canada in 2021. This limit was imposed at U.S. authorities' insistence because there was concern before the new trade deal that Canada was "dumping" powdered milk products, which includes baby formula, said Andrew Novaković, a professor of agricultural economics at Cornell University. "Dumping" is when a country or company persistently sells their product to a foreign buyer at a price considered to be at a loss, "usually for the purpose of simply gaining market share or punishing their foreign competitor," Novaković said. Meanwhile, under the USMCA, Mexico is one of the few U.S. trading partners that can import baby formula duty-free. Only a small amount of baby formula, roughly 12,000 metric tons, was imported from Mexico last year, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission. On May 16, the FDA announced new guidance on the importation of baby formula to help increase the availability of the product in stores across the U.S. The FDA is prioritizing manufacturers that have the largest volume of product available, can get their products onto shelves the quickest, and can demonstrate their product meets the agency’s safety and nutrition standards. Our ruling Social media posts claimed that the U.S. can’t import baby formula due to the USMCA replacing NAFTA. Importing baby formula to the U.S. is allowed, although these imports usually only make up about 2% of all baby formula consumption in the country. The USMCA did make some changes to how baby formula is imported to the U.S., but many other regulatory policies affect imports, too. The trade agreement is not the only barrier to the U.S. importing more formula. We rate this claim Mostly Fals

The World Health Assembly was canceled "after the Geneva airport was coincidentally blown up. A Facebook post made conspiratorial claims that a Geneva meeting of world health leaders was canceled because of a fire in the city’s airport. The May 22 post alludes to the World Health Assembly and says it was canceled "after the Geneva airport was coincidentally blown up." The post features a TikTok video of a fire, and the caption says, "Preparing for the arrivals of the (World Health Organization) ‘elite’ where a Plandemic treaty meeting is being held, two massive explosions erupt at the Geneva Airport, Switzerland. The meeting was canceled after the Geneva airport was coincidentally blown up." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) However, the Geneva airport did not blow up. A fire broke out at a building under construction outside the perimeter of the airport. The only effect on the airport itself was that flights were temporarily disrupted because of heavy smoke, according to media reports. The fire did not lead to the cancellation of the meeting referenced in the post. The 75th World Health Assembly forum opened as scheduled on May 22 in Geneva, United Nations News reported. The World Health Assembly is the decision-making body of the WHO’s member states. There are photos of the opening day of the event. The video footage in the Facebook post appears to be of the actual fire; it matches footage published by The Daily Mail, a British newspaper. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The fire occurred at a building that, when completed, will be a federal center for asylum seekers, according to the Evening Standard. The London newspaper also said the fire’s cause is not yet known. The Facebook post called the World Health Assembly a "Plandemic treaty meeting," referencing the title of a 2020 documentary, "Plandemic." That documentary was full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus. The World Health Assembly meeting also has been "clouded by conspiracy theories about (a) pandemic treaty," according to The Washington Post, stemming from the WHO’s in-progress revamp of international rules for responding to pandemics. Although the assembly likely will discuss pandemic protocols, a pandemic treaty "is not imminent," and the target date for the final draft is 2024, The Washington Post reported. Our ruling A Facebook post says the World Health Assembly was canceled "after the Geneva airport was coincidentally blown up." The Geneva airport did not blow up. A fire broke out at a building under construction outside the perimeter of the airport. The only effect on the airport was that flights were temporarily disrupted because of heavy smoke. The fire did not disrupt the World Health Assembly, which opened as scheduled on May 22 in Geneva. We rate this claim False

Stacey Abrams "supported the MLB boycott. Even before Georgia’s primary elections were decided, a leading Republican in the state was looking ahead to the general election, in which Stacey Abrams is widely expected to secure the Democratic nomination in the state’s hotly contested gubernatorial race. On May 22, two days before the primary, Chris Carr, a Republican who is running for a new term as Georgia’s attorney general, criticized Abrams for a comment she made at a local Democratic dinner the previous night. Abrams told the audience that she is "tired of hearing about being the best state in the country to do business when we are the worst state in the country to live." Abrams expanded on this characterization during the speech, blasting Georgia for its relatively low rankings for such quality-of-life issues as mental health access and maternal mortality. But critics like Carr wasted no time in painting the remark as just the latest example of Abrams trash-talking the state she’s running to lead. "Our state’s No.1 ranking for business has transformed hundreds of thousands of Georgians’ lives," Carr tweeted. "Just like when she supported the #MLB boycott, Stacey Abrams’ reckless & condescending comments continue to harm the state she claims to want to govern." Our state’s No.1 ranking for business has transformed hundreds of thousands of Georgians’ lives.Just like when she supported the #MLB boycott, Stacey Abrams’ reckless & condescending comments continue to harm the state she claims to want to govern.#gapol https://t.co/F1D0pfizn5— Chris Carr (@ChrisCarr_Ga) May 23, 2022 But there’s a problem with what Carr said in his tweet: Abrams did not support Major League Baseball’s boycott of Atlanta for its annual All-Star Game in 2021. Carr’s campaign did not respond to an inquiry for this article. The All-Star Game controversy, which resulted in the late relocation of the game to Denver, was driven by the league’s concerns about a Republican-backed law that had been criticized by voting advocates. They said the law made it harder to cast an absentee ballot by limiting the number of ballot boxes and how long voters could use them, and it generally banned handing out food or water to voters in line. Supporters of the law disagreed that it would make voting harder, noting that the law also expanded early voting options and allowed Sunday voting in counties that wanted to permit it. Before the boycott, which was announced on April 2, 2021, Abrams urged Major League Baseball not to move the game away from Atlanta, citing the economic harm to the metro Atlanta region. She repeated that concern after the game was moved away. • In a Twitter video released March 31, Abrams said: "I understand the passion of those calling for boycotts of Georgia following the passage of SB 202. Boycotts have been an important tool throughout our history to achieve social change. But here’s the thing: Black, Latino, AAPI (Asian American-Pacific Islander) and Native American voters whose votes are the most suppressed under SB 202 are also the most likely to be hurt by potential boycotts of Georgia. To our friends across the country please do not boycott us. To my fellow Georgians, stay and fight, stay and vote." • Abrams told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an article published April 1 that critics of Georgia’s new law shouldn’t rush to boycott "yet." Instead, she said corporations should publicly condemn the law, invest in voting rights expansion and support federal legislation. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 The Journal-Constitution reporter, Greg Bluestein, later tweeted that Abrams spoke to a Major League Baseball senior adviser "and ‘strongly’ urged the league to keep the All-Star game in Atlanta before the decision to yank the event." A Major League Baseball spokesperson offered a similar characterization of the call to PolitiFact at the time. • After the announcement that the game was being moved, Abrams said, "As I have stated, I respect boycotts, although I don’t want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs." She also said that "as other events, productions and businesses weigh whether to patronize Georgia, I urge those who can to come and speak out, and I urge those who are here to stay and fight, and to stay and vote." One set of comments by Abrams — an op-ed published online by USA Today on March 31, 2021 — has attracted some attention from her critics. But even in the op-ed, Abrams doesn’t call for a boycott. "One lesson of boycotts is that the pain of deprivation must be shared to be sustainable," Abrams wrote in the original version of the op-ed posted online. "Otherwise, those least resilient bear the brunt of these actions; and in the aftermath, they struggle to access the victory. And boycotts are complicated affairs that require a long-term commitment to action. I have no doubt that voters of color, particularly Black voters, are willing to endure the hardships of boycotts. But I don’t think that’s necessary — yet. ... I ask you to bring your business to Georgia and, if you’re already here, stay and fight. Stay and vote." Critics point out that USA Today quietly updated the op-ed a few days later, after Major League Baseball announced its boycott. However, the updated version makes essentially the same arguments against a boycott as the initial version did. USA Today, in an editor’s note added to the op-ed after it was updated, said it asked Abrams to modify the op-ed before it ran in print to reflect the news that Major League Baseball had officially decided to move the game. In the revised op-ed, Abrams added language about Republicans being "craven" and President Donald Trump "calling for cancellation of baseball as the national pastime," but her stance on a boycott was not notably different. She wrote, "Instead of a boycott, I strongly urge other events and productions to do business in Georgia and speak out against our law and similar proposals in other states." In response to written questions from members of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, Abrams testified that, "I did not suggest or request that USA Today make this or any other changes to the op-ed; rather, I agreed to a request from USA Today to update my op-ed for print purposes." (The committee hearing was about voting rights.) Our ruling Carr said that Abrams "supported the MLB boycott." Both before and after the league’s boycott, Abrams threw cold water on the idea, saying in a Twitter video, "To our friends across the country please do not boycott us." She echoed those comments to the leading newspaper in Atlanta and in an op-ed in USA Today. She also personally lobbied Major League Baseball not to take that step before the boycott was announced. We rate the statement Fals

In a recent year, the Milwaukee Police Department "collected more guns per capita off the streets than in New York. Gun violence has racked the city of Milwaukee for decades, and May saw a weekend with a new set of shocking headlines, as 21 people were injured in three late-night shootings near Milwaukee's crowded Deer District after a Bucks playoff game. Tackling gun violence was among the issues at the top of Cavalier Johnson's priority list in his successful bid to win the Milwaukee mayor’s office. Days after his historic win, Johnson had this to say April 9, 2022, on PBS Wisconsin’s "Here & Now" show, telling anchor Frederica Freyberg: "Unfortunately, at the local level, we don’t control gun law. We just react to it. In one of the more recent years in Milwaukee, our police department collected more guns per capita off the streets than in New York." That caught our attention, given the vast difference in size — and reputations — between the two cities. Is Johnson right? Gun recoveries in 2016 Let’s start with gun recoveries by the Milwaukee Police Department, a number that has been on the rise in recent years. 2015: 2,504 guns recovered 2016: 2,421 2017: 2,753 2018: 2,908 2019: 2,621 2020: 3,097 2021: 3,279 Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 As of April 20, 2022, the police department had recovered 927 guns — compared with the 681 reported at about the same time the year before. To be sure, a per-capita approach is the best way to compare Milwaukee and New York City, which is approximately 10 times larger. In this case, though, Johnson was pretty vague in declaring the city led in "one of the more recent years." Which year? When asked for backup, Johnson’s staff pointed to 2016 and provided two articles — one published by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the other by Wiscontext, which is part of PBS Wisconsin. Both articles reported that Milwaukee had a higher gun recovery per capita versus some of the country’s largest metropolitan cities. In 2016, the 2,421 guns recovered by Milwaukee police translated into a rate of 406.84 guns per 100,000 people, according to the Journal Sentinel article. That same year, New York City reported 3,583 gun recoveries, which translated into about 42 per 100,000 people, according to a 2017 report issued by the city of Chicago. The numbers do not include any guns obtained through turn-in or buyback programs. The city of Chicago report was comparing its experience with that of other large cities, and was largely aimed at determining where guns used in crimes come from. In any case, that means the rate in Milwaukee, in that year, was 10 times that of New York. Milwaukee even surpassed two other major U.S. cities featured in the report: Chicago and Los Angeles. In 2016, Chicago counted 6,644 gun recoveries, with a rate of 244 per 100,000 people, while Los Angeles had 5,908 gun recoveries in the same year, with 149 per 100,000. Many factors go into gun recoveries, including more aggressive policing, special patrols and initiatives and the like. But Johnson made a narrow, focused claim, and on it hit the mark. Indeed, as the Journal Sentinel article noted, Milwaukee police routinely recover guns at a higher rate than many other major cities — so, truly, Johnson probably would have been safe even if he had been more expansive in making his point. Our ruling Johnson claimed that in a recent year, the Milwaukee Police Department "collected more guns per capita off the streets than in New York." Although the time frame Johnson referred to was vague, the claim was on point, as Milwaukee’s gun recoveries per capita numbers in 2016 were more than 10 times higher than what New York City reported for that year. We rate the claim True. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

A Mars Rover photo captured by NASA shows a doorway, suggesting extraterrestrial life At first, it certainly looks like a doorway. A grainy image captured by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover in May 2022 shows a formation in the planet’s rock that social media users seized on as some kind of alien door, suggesting it shows the presence of life. "Photo From Mars Curiosity Rover Looks Like We Found a Doorway," reads a headline from a website called the "Good News Network." "NASA released this photo from the Mars Rover of an apparent doorway on Mars," one Facebook post featuring the image said. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but while NASA did capture the image at the center of this claim, it didn’t find a secret, alien doorway on Mars. Space officials and Mars experts said the formation is an unremarkable, naturally-occurring crevice that matches many others seen around the planet. The claim was addressed in a Twitter thread authored by the NASA-run Curiosity Rover account that called the formation a natural geological feature. "Some of you have noticed this image I took on Mars. Sure, it may look like a tiny door, but really, it’s a natural geologic feature! It may just *look* like a door because your mind is trying to make sense of the unknown." Some of you have noticed this image I took on Mars. Sure, it may look like a tiny door, but really, it’s a natural geologic feature! It may just *look* like a door because your mind is trying to make sense of the unknown. (This is called "pareidolia") https://t.co/TrtbwO7m46 pic.twitter.com/VdwNhBkN6J— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) May 18, 2022 It’s somewhat common for people to see patterns in rock shapes that look like one thing or another, said Andrew Good, a spokesperson for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 23, 2022 in an Instagram post “Wikileaks releases moon landing cut scenes filmed in the Nevada desert.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 25, 2022 "This is called pareidolia, and despite all the sensitive science instruments on the rover and the mission’s hundreds of scientists working with our data, we have not seen anything that isn’t easily explainable," Good said. "Sometimes it’s weird shapes in the rocks, sometimes it’s ‘bad pixels’ that leave irregular marks in some of the images." William Dietrich, an earth and planetary science professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who studies landscape form and evolution, said the perceived doorway is a result of rock movement. "You can see that the feature resulted from the shedding of a block of rock, leaving a wedged shaped cavity, and you can see the back of the cavity," Dietrich said. "Another image (that) covers a larger area on this hill shows many other examples of loose blocks. Displacement of these loose blocks downslope could lead to such a cavity." NASA shared additional images of the area and said the rover used its mast camera on May 7 to capture the photo of the mound of rock, nicknamed the East Cliffs. The mound, located on Mars’ Mount Sharp, has a number of naturally-occurring open fractures, NASA said. The opening featured in the posts is roughly 12 inches tall and 16 inches wide, similar in size to a dog door. The image shared online has been magnified, officials said, making the formation appear significantly larger than its real size. "These kinds of open fractures are common in bedrock, both on Earth and on Mars," the organization said. NASA says that Curiosity, which has been on Mars since 2012, is currently investigating a region on Mount Sharp that may hold evidence of a major change from wetter to drier conditions in the planet’s early history. Our ruling Posts on social media claim that NASA released an image that shows a doorway on Mars, suggesting life on the planet. NASA officials and Mars experts did release a photo of a rock formation that, at some angles, looks like a doorway-shaped structure. But NASA dismissed claims that the formation is evidence of extraterrestrial life and said the opening is an unremarkable, naturally-occurring crevice that matches many others on the planet. We rate these posts False

Video shows a “Russian pilot” escaping from jets and a Russian aircraft getting hit by a missile Amid the war in Ukraine, a spate of video game footage is being packaged as showing actual combat in the Eastern European country. One such video shows firefights in the sky as helicopters and jets dodge enemy weapons. "Russian pilot escapes from jets - Russian SU-25 hit by Missile," reads the title of the clip recently shared on Facebook. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 RELATED VIDEO We found the clip on YouTube by searching for the words in the title. On that platform, it was clearly identified as coming from the video game Arma 3. On Facebook, however, it’s causing confusion. We rate claims that this shows real combat in Ukraine with Russian jets False.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp “allowed 7.5 million ballots to be sent to every registered voter. Days before the May 24 primary, former U.S. Sen. David Perdue claimed that Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp didn’t do enough to ensure election integrity in 2020. Purdue made a long list of allegations against Kemp during an interview with Breitbart, a conservative news website. But one in particular jumped out to us as wrong. Perdue said Kemp "allowed 7.5 million ballots to be sent to every registered voter." Perdue’s statement suggests that as governor, Kemp sent a mail ballot to every voter. Kemp did not do that, nor did Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. In the spring of 2020, Raffensperger sent an application for a mail ballot to every active voter. This line of attack fits into the falsehoods that Perdue and former President Donald Trump continue to perpetuate — that voting by mail is a scheme promoted by Democrats and their allies. We contacted Perdue’s campaign to ask for his evidence and did not receive a response. Kemp faces Perdue, who is backed by Trump, in the Republican primary for governor. If neither candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, the top two vote getters will advance to a June 21 runoff. The Republican winner will face Democrat Stacey Abrams in November. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic Secretary of State encouraged voting by mail When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the spring of 2020, it upended plans for primary elections. Raffensperger announced in March 2020 that his office would send an application for a mail ballot to all 6.9 million active registered voters for the primary. (The primary date kept shifting but ultimately it was June 9.) A voter is "active" if they voted, updated or changed their voter registration or updated their driver’s license within the previous five years. Each voter needed to decide whether to apply for a ballot and then sign and mail the application. Then, they needed to receive, sign and return the ballot. Local election officials checked their signatures against those on file in each case. Raffensperger’s office also took steps to keep in-person voting safe, such as purchasing thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer and wipes for polling sites and helping counties recruit younger poll workers who were presumed to be at lower risk for COVID-19 than older volunteers. Kemp was not involved in those decisions. "Election administration in the state of Georgia falls under the authority of the Georgia Secretary of State per the Georgia Constitution," Kemp’s campaign spokesperson Tate Mitchell said. "The governor does not play a role in that." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 About 1 million voters cast ballots by mail in the June 2020 primary. Voters who cast ballots in person the day of the election waited for hours in line at some sites. Perdue’s other charges Perdue made several other charges against Kemp in the Breitbart interview that are also inaccurate or partially wrong: Perdue said Kemp allowed "drop boxes with no chain of custody, no security." Kemp wasn’t in charge of drop boxes. Perdue also omits that the State Election Board required that drop boxes have security features. Nearly all of the counties followed the chain of custody rules which included filling out forms related to emptying ballot drop boxes. Perdue said Kemp "allowed Zuckerberg to put $55 million" into Democratic counties for "mobile voting buses." This is misleading. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative gave $350 million to a nonprofit to distribute grants to local election offices nationwide. In Georgia, counties received a total of about $45 million, but that went to both Democratic and Republican counties and it wasn’t exclusively for mobile voting. Kemp "allowed a consent decree" that "basically eliminated voter ID on absentee ballots." That’s wrong. There was no consent decree. An agreement between election officials and Democratic groups spelled out the process for election officials to contact voters when an absentee ballot was rejected for a missing or mismatched signature. Our ruling Perdue said Kemp "allowed 7.5 million ballots to be sent to every registered voter." Perdue’s attack is directed at the wrong official, and it mischaracterizes what happened. The Georgia secretary of state oversees elections. In March 2020, that official — not Kemp — announced that he would send an absentee ballot application to the 6.9 million active voters in the state for the primary. An application for an absentee ballot is not the same as an actual ballot. We rate this statement False. RELATED: David Perdue distorts facts in Georgia agreement on absentee ballot signatures RELATED: Georgia’s David Perdue said elections were stolen from him and Trump. Pants on Fire! RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Georgia RELATED: All of our fact-checks about electio

In 2020, when Raphael Warnock ran a campaign ad featuring himself with a beagle, “that wasn’t his dog. With a mixture of admiration and criticism, Republican Senate candidate Gary Black recently brought up TV advertisements in which Democrat Raphael Warnock co-starred with an adorable beagle. The ads were widely credited with helping Warnock stage a come-from-behind victory to fill a vacant Senate seat in January 2021. During Black’s May 13 interview with WLBB radio, Black acknowledged that the ads were "great," saying, "I tip my hat to him on that." However, Black added, "Raphael Warnock can't even tell the truth about that. That wasn't his dog. He didn't even own that dog." Black was correct that the dog wasn’t Warnock’s. (In Warnock’s defense, we never found an instance when he claimed it was.) The first beagle ad, released in November 2020, made fun of what Warnock expected critics would say about him during the intense lead-up to the January 2021 runoff election. The ad’s narrator warned viewers, tongue-in-cheek, that Republican nominee Kelly Loeffler would accuse Warnock of hating puppies, among other things. The ad closed with Warnock holding a beagle and telling the camera, "By the way, I love puppies." A second beagle ad showed footage of Warnock walking the same dog through a suburban neighborhood. Warnock told viewers he’s confident that they will see Loeffler’s attack ads "for what they are" — right as he dumped a bag of dog poop into a curbside trash can. The beagle barked in approval, and the ad closed with the dog licking Warnock’s neck. I told you the smear ads were coming, but Georgians will see Sen. @Kloeffler’s ads for what they are. pic.twitter.com/0sgU8ndC63 Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 30, 2022 in a photo “There are no greenhouse gas emissions in this photo” of cows grazing. By Kristin Hugo • November 7, 2022 — Reverend Raphael Warnock (@ReverendWarnock) November 24, 2020 The ads were an immediate hit, even spawning beagle-themed merchandise. Campaign professionals said the ads served to make Warnock — a Black pastor running in a Southern state — relatable to white swing voters, right down to its use of a cuddly, nonthreatening dog breed. "The entire ad screams that I am a Black candidate whom white people ought not be afraid of," Stanford political scientist Hakeem Jefferson told The New York Times. Brian Robinson, a Georgia-based Republican strategist, agreed, telling the Times that the ads "made it harder to caricature him, because they humanized him." That the beagle wasn’t Warnock’s own has been public since the Times reported it a few weeks after Warnock was elected to the Senate. When we contacted Warnock’s campaign staff, it referred us to what the Times wrote: "The beagle spots were the brainchild of Adam Magnus, the Warnock campaign’s lead admaker, who wanted to find a way — through humor — to inoculate Mr. Warnock against explicit attacks and implicit ones. First he had to call the pastor. ‘I want to make sure you like dogs,’ he recalled asking. "Mr. Warnock said he did — he had owned dogs before (Comet, Cupid and Brenal — all mutts), though not currently — and was game for a puppy-themed spot. Next, Mr. Magnus had to cast a star pooch, which he eventually found from a Georgia supporter whom the campaign declined to name." It remains to be seen whether Warnock’s general election opponent — who is almost certain to be former football star Herschel Walker, who leads in the GOP primary by a wide margin — will criticize Warnock for including in his campaign outreach a dog that isn’t part of his family. Our ruling Black said that the beagle in Warnock’s ads "wasn’t his dog." Black is correct: The dog was lent to Warnock’s campaign by a supporter for the purpose of filming the ads. Warnock had lived with dogs on several earlier occasions, but not while the ad was being filmed. For the record, Warnock himself has never claimed that the dog was his own. We rate the statement Tru

“Americans can get up to $50k in relief” from a “new benefit that just got released last week. A misleading video with millions of views on Facebook falsely implies that the U.S. government is providing new relief funds for Americans. The May 19 video says, "Americans can get up to $50k in relief" from a "new benefit that just got released last week." The video begins by showing footage of what appears to be a television news broadcast with a CNN logo at the bottom of the screen and next to it text that says, "Americans can now claim up to $50,000." The footage is dated April 22 and marked "Breaking News." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But there is not a new government benefit available to Americans. The Facebook video directs viewers to a website that provides quotes for private loans from multiple lenders. The TV news segment featured in the video appears to be fabricated. The footage is identical to a video available on the stock photography website Shutterstock. We also did not find any similar headlines or stories from April 22 in a search of CNN’s website and Twitter page. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 During the Facebook video, a narrator gestures to the fabricated news broadcast and says, "This program’s been all over the news lately. So a new benefit just got released last week, allowing Americans to claim up to $50,000. You don’t need any credit history at all, no bank requirements. I did it myself and I got $8,000 in two days." He adds, "You just come to this website right here." The site shown is Personal Loan Pro. Personal Loan Pro is a loan comparison website, according to FinanceBuzz, a personal finance site. It matches users to potential lenders, with quotes and terms from multiple loan providers in one place. Going to that website doesn’t automatically guarantee a loan; people still must submit an application to a lender. Any money received as a result of finding a lender via Personal Loan Pro is borrowed and must be paid back according to the terms of the loan. Despite the Facebook post’s claims, Personal Loan Pro is neither a "relief" program nor a new government benefit. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!

Photos of monkeypox lesions prove the current virus outbreak is a hoax People sharing photos of lesions caused by monkeypox and suggesting that because these images have been used in news coverage over the years, that proves the current outbreak of the virus is a sham. "Folks," one May 21 post says. "If they’re sellin’ ya monkey pox, why don’t they at least use real, current pics? For God’s sake THINK about it!" The post shows screenshots of four photos used in news stories in 2022 and years prior. But it’s not unusual for media outlets to reuse such images to illustrate for readers what an infection could look like. And none of the news stories claim that these are new photos. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Since May 13, there have been reports of cases of monkeypox in countries where the virus is not normally found, including the United States, according to the World Health Organization. As of May 21, 92 cases had been confirmed, with between one and five cases in the U.S. Investigations into the origin of these outbreaks are ongoing. In the United States, the first case was reported on May 18 after a resident returned to Massachusetts from Canada, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 One photo shows scabbed sores on a hand that appeared in both a May 21 Independent story about monkeypox and a CNN story from September 2018, when cases were being reported in the United Kingdom. We found the photo on Getty Images’ website. It was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and shows the hand of one of the first known cases of the monkeypox virus in the United States in June 2003. Embed from Getty Imageswindow.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'s8nlm6vDSJVTqVUkmdV3Uw',sig:'NfnaTVDOChmzfARcyeO3zBgld_ygICWG4qMYBPAKzyY=',w:'594px',h:'472px',items:'2067975',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })}); Another black-and-white image shows a hand gripping a leg, both covered in lesions. The photo appeared without a caption in both a recent story by NBC News about the monkeypox infections and a 2010 blog post about the virus. We found this one on Getty Images, too. It was taken in June 2003 and shows "the arms and legs of a 4-year-old girl infected with monkeypox" in Liberia. Then there’s a photo of a pair of hands with lesions that ran in a May 21 New York Daily News story and a 2018 Sun story. "This 1997 image provided by the CDC shows the dorsal surfaces of the hands of a monkeypox case patient," the Daily News caption says. On Getty’s website, the photo has a similar caption. The image was taken in the Republic of Congo. Finally, there’s a photo of lesions on a man’s torso that ran in BBC stories about monkeypox in 2017 and in 2022 with a Reuters credit. We found a 2017 story about monkeypox in Nigeria on the BBC’s site but couldn’t find the image in the screenshot. Nevertheless, like the other photos in this post, its repeated use over time does not undermine the fact that there are real outbreaks of monkeypox happening across the world. There’s nothing unusual about these photos being reused to show readers what an infection could look like. We rate this post False.

Merrick Garland “sicced the police on parents when they were at the school boards simply trying to be heard for the safety of their children. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears recently said U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland "sicced police" on parents who spoke out at school board meetings. Her statement came at the start of a May 12 television interview on "Fox & Friends." Earle-Sears, a Republican, was asked why Virginia was "tolerating" protests outside the Fairfax County homes of three U.S. Supreme Court justices who endorsed a draft ruling that would overturn Roe v. Wade. "We’re not tolerating it," she replied. "In fact, our governor has had the state police outside of their homes this whole time since the very first time it started. "What we need now is for Merrick Garland to go ahead and do his job," she continued. "You saw that he sicced the police on parents when they were at the school boards simply trying to be heard for the safety of their children." Earle-Sears said Garland should be enforcing a federal law that bars protests near a judge’s residence that are aimed at influencing the "discharge of his duty." She accused Garland of "selectively enforcing the laws" and offered his actions on demonstrations at school board meetings as an example. Earle-Sears is entitled to her opinion on Garland’s fairness. But her claim that he "sicced the police on parents" doesn’t hold up. A number of conservatives have made similar statements, and fact checkers have found them False. We tried four times to contact Earle-Sears and her office and got no reply. Her claim is likely based on Garland’s October 2021 order that the FBI work with local governments to help handle what he called, "a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence" against school board members and educators. School systems in Virginia and across the nation had seen angry protests against mandatory mask wearing for students, transgender accomodation policies and the alleged teaching of critical race theory. A raucous school board meeting in Loudoun County was recessed in June 2021 and resulted in the arrest of a father whose 15-year-old daughter had been sexually assaulted in a high school girls bathroom by a male student. Prosecutors later said the attacker was wearing a dress but did not characterize his gender identity. Featured Fact-check Joe Biden stated on October 23, 2022 in a forum with Now This Student loan forgiveness is “passed. I got it passed by a vote or two. And it’s in effect.” By Louis Jacobson • October 25, 2022 Garland’s order came six days after Biden received a letter from the National School Boards Association asking "for federal law enforcement and other assistance to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation." The association said the uprisings "could be the the equivalent of domestic terrorism," a claim it subsequently retracted. Garland's order did not direct localities to increase police presence at school board meetings or make arrests — local decisions that the attorney general does not control. An accompanying justice department news release said the order would establish training to help school board members "understand the type of behavior that constitutes threats, how to report threatening conduct to the appropriate law enforcement agencies, and how to capture and preserve evidence of threatening conduct to aid in the investigation and prosecution of these crimes." Republicans grilled Garland about the order during an October 2021 hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. He said parents have a constitutional right to complain about their children’s education at school board meetings and that he could not "imagine a situation where [that] would be labeled as domestic terrorism." "I want to be as clear as I can be," he said. "This is not about what happens at school board meetings. It’s only about the threats of violence and violence aimed at school officials, employees and teachers." Garland said federal officials would not be attending school board meetings and that his order did not suggest otherwise. Our ruling Earle-Sears said, Garland "sicced the police on parents when they were at the school boards simply trying to be heard for the safety of their children." The word "sic" is defined as "chase, attack — usually as a command especially to a dog." Her comment apparently refers to Garland’s order in 2021 that the FBI work with local governments to help handle a national spike in threats against local school board members. Garland has said his goal is to enhance safety by training board members and educators how to recognize and report threats. Garland has no power to increase local police protection at school board meetings and has said that federal officials will not be attending them. He has said parents have a constitutional right to speak out at school board meetings; there is nothing in his order that says otherwise. We rate Earle-Sears' statement False.

“Indiana woman charged for mail in voter fraud, delivered 400 ballots with Democrat box pre-checked. A Facebook post from a few days after the 2020 presidential election is getting fresh attention online as people share claims about a woman identified as Janet Reed. "Indiana woman charged for mail in voter fraud, delivered 400 ballots with Democrat box pre-checked," the Nov. 10, 2020, post says. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Reed did get into legal trouble for election-related conduct, but the headline on this post is misleading in that the criminal case the post is referring to pertained solely to absentee ballot applications — not actual ballots. And that becomes clearer the farther you read into the post. It goes on to say that "this individual in Indiana delivered mail in ballot applications with 400 of these mail in ballots being pre-checked Democrat before delivery." That gets closer to the truth. Janet Reed, a precinct committee member with the Vanderburgh County Democratic Party in Indiana, was arrested and charged in June 2020 with one count of unauthorized absentee ballot, a felony. She pleaded guilty in 2021 and was sentenced to 18 months of probation. She was accused of sending absentee ballot applications to more than 400 voters. On the part of the application where voters indicate whether they want to vote in the Democratic or Republican primary, Reed had pre-checked the Democratic box. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 8, 2022 in a Facebook post There’s “evidence of a massive transfer of completed, curated ballots” that are fraudulent in the 2022 election. By Ciara O'Rourke • October 11, 2022 Essentially, that would have left voters with no choice but to participate in the Democratic primary election that June, the Evansville Courier & Press reported. The county election office "received and rejected over 400 of the pre-marked applications" before the primary, the election board said in a statement, according to the Courier & Press. Vanderburgh County Clerk Carla Hayden said that her office sent replacement applications to affected voters so that they could get new absentee ballots for the primary. In the general election, voters can cast ballots for candidates regardless of their party affiliation. We don’t know which voters Reed sent these applications to, or why. She refused to cooperate with investigators once she was arrested and she "refused to provide an interview regarding her involvement in this case," the Courier & Press reported, citing an arrest affidavit. We couldn’t find any other information that illuminated her motivations. RELATED VIDEO Our ruling A Facebook post claimed that an Indiana woman was "charged for mail in voter fraud, delivered 400 ballots with Democrat box pre-checked." That’s partially accurate but leaves out some some important details. Reed was charged for sending voters pre-checked absentee ballot applications so that they would receive a ballot for the Democratic Party’s primary. Reed did not pre-check the actual ballots. She pleaded guilty to a felony election fraud charge. Voters eventually got new unmarked applications. We rate this post Half True.

Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni posted a photo of themselves enjoying a $5,135 bottle of wine “as American women despair about abortion rights being taken away from them. The image seems innocent enough. It shows U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with his wife, attorney and conservative activist Ginni Thomas, holding a bottle of wine. But some social media users claim that the couple posted it following the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade, suggesting that they were celebrating the predicted dismantling of the landmark case that granted federal protection to those seeking abortion. "BREAKING: As American women despair about abortion rights being taken away from them, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginni post a photo of themselves enjoying a $5,135 bottle of fancy wine. RT IF YOU THINK THAT THEY ARE A DISGRACE!" a May 6 tweet by Occupy Democrats read. Other examples of the claim also appeared on Facebook. The image appears to be authentic, but it wasn’t taken recently. A reverse-image search showed that the photo has been posted online since at least September 2018. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Articles that featured the photo were about Crystal Clanton, a conservative activist hired by Ginni Thomas who later faced criticism for making racist comments. We couldn’t verify the $5,135 price the post placed on the particular bottle the Thomas’ have in the photograph, but the same kind of wine currently goes for about $4,000 a bottle. Our ruling Social media posts claim an image of Clarence and Ginni Thomas shows them enjoying a $5,000 bottle of wine following the Roe v. Wade draft leak. This is miscaptioned. The photo is real but it wasn’t taken recently. It dates back to at least September 2018. We rate these posts False. RELATED: Fact-checking 5 claims in the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wad

Video shows helicopters in Ukraine “being picked off in ambush - Short range air-to-air missile Amid the war in Ukraine, video game footage is being confused for actual combat. We’ve already debunked several claims that simulations from the game Arma 3 show fighting in Ukraine, where soldiers and civilians are defending against a Russian invasion. A recent video shared on Facebook that’s described as showing "helicopters being picked off in ambush — short range air-to-air missile" is also from the game. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 RELATED VIDEO We found the footage on YouTube searching for the Facebook post description and "Arma 3." But the YouTube video makes it clear that this is a video game. We rate claims that it’s real footage of combat False

Video shows “Russian tank column totally destroyed by attack helicopter. It can sometimes be difficult to discern what information on social media about the war in Ukraine is credible, and what’s not. A recent Facebook post shared a video featuring combat scenes and alleged that it is footage of a "Russian tank column totally destroyed by attack helicopter." But like other such clips that have come before it, this video isn’t real — it’s a video game simulation. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 We’ve previously fact-checked claims that took snippets from Arma 3 and presented it as footage of Russia attacking Ukraine and China trying to attack Taiwan. RELATED VIDEO Because this video looked similar to the clips used in those false claims, we searched YouTube for "Arma 3" and some of the key words in the Facebook post — "tank column" and "attack helicopter." That led us to a March 13 post of the same video that appears in the Facebook post, only this one is clearly labeled as a "military simulation" and notes that it’s from the Arma 3 game. The claim that a video shows a Russian tank column totally destroyed by an attack helicopter is wrong. We rate it False.

Says Gov. Tony Evers is “a big proponent of this defund the police movement. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has declared "defund the police is dead." President Joe Biden, in his State of the Union address said: "The answer is not to defund the police. It’s to fund the police." And, while some party members support "defund the police efforts," Democrats have made no major effort to advance the idea, despite controlling Congress and the White House. Nevertheless, Republicans continue to label Democratic leaders as backing the approach. Enter Rebecca Kleefisch, the former Wisconsin lieutenant governor, who is one of four Republicans hoping to unseat Gov. Tony Evers in November 2022. The other Republicans in the race are Tim Michels, Kevin Nicholson and Tim Ramthun. At an April 30, 2022, Take Back Wisconsin Town Hall event in Mequon, Kleefisch described Evers as "a big proponent of this defund the police movement." Meanwhile, a pro-Kleefisch political action committee, the Freedom Wisconsin PAC, has begun airing a radio ad claiming "liberals want to defund our police" and urging Wisconsinites to "stop Tony Evers, Joe Biden, and the liberals’ from doing so." The phrase "defund the police" really entered the national consciousness in the wake of the May 25, 2020, murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a Minneapolis police officer who knelt on his neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. That killing, and a host of other cases, helped fuel a summer of protests across the nation, including in Kenosha, where 29-year-old Jacob Blake was shot seven times from behind by a police officer and left partially paralyzed on Aug. 23, 2020. To be sure, there are various proposals to reduce, redirect or even drastically cut the money spent on law enforcement. In some scenarios, the idea is to spend some of the money instead on community programs or mental health services with the hope it will mean less crime and fewer incidents that need a police response. So, Kleefisch and Freedom Wisconsin are using the broadest of strokes in their characterization. But is Kleefisch right that Evers is "a big proponent of this defund the police movement?" No. She badly misses her target. Evers and police We reached out to Kleefisch staff to ask them for backup for the claim, but after several days they did not respond. So let’s take a look at Evers and what he has said and done as it relates to the specific issue, and police funding generally. Featured Fact-check Tim Michels stated on October 24, 2022 in News conference Tony Evers “wants to let out between 9,000 and 10,000 more” Wisconsin prisoners By Madeline Heim • November 4, 2022 First, in a June 2020 meeting with Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters and editors, Evers backed having police departments overhaul how they use force, but specifically opposed slashing their funding. Most law enforcement officers "are in the profession for the right reason," Evers said, "so the idea of completely disassembling police in the state or Milwaukee, I couldn't support." Indeed, the headline on the June 4, 2020 story read: "Protesters have demanded police departments be 'defunded.' Tony Evers says that goes too far." That same story noted Evers said: "We're always going to need police service" and that "to completely defund police departments ... that isn't going to work.’" So, all of that directly contradicts Kleefisch’s claim. In August 2021, Evers signed a bill that established a uniform use-of-force policy for police across Wisconsin. That same day, he did veto a Republican-backed bill that would have cut state aid to local governments that reduce their police budgets – a GOP measure aimed at countering any "defund the police" measures. Meanwhile, Evers has taken other steps – chiefly with federal pandemic relief money – to direct more money to police departments. In March 2022, Evers approved using $56 million to help police forces and courthouses across the state boost law enforcement and crime prevention programs, as well as to clear a backlog of criminal cases. That was in addition to an earlier $45 million for public safety efforts announced in October, bringing the total to more than $100 million. Finally, at a March 18, 2022 WisPolitics.com luncheon, Evers declared "hell yes" when asked if he backed assisting Wisconsin communities tackle rising crime by getting them more funding for police through increasing shared revenue. So, that, too, undermines Kleefisch’s claim. Our ruling Kleefisch claimed Evers is "a big proponent of this defund the police movement." She and her team did not offer any evidence to back her claim, but there is plenty that contradicts it – notably direct statements made by Evers, who has also used federal pandemic aid to provide more than an additional $100 million to local law enforcement. We rate the claim False. window.gciAnalyticsUAID = 'PMJS-TEALIUM-COBRAND'; window.gciAnalyticsLoadEvents = false; window.gciAnalytics.view({ 'event-type': 'pageview', 'content-type': 'interactives', 'content-ssts-section': 'news', 'content-ssts-subsection': 'news:politics', 'content-ssts-topic': 'news:politics:politifactwisconsin', 'content-ssts-subtopic': ' news:politics:politifactwisconsin' });

"David Perdue voted with liberals” for $10 trillion “in new debt, his out-of-control federal spending is driving inflation through the roof. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, fending off a primary election challenge from fellow Republican David Perdue, blamed Perdue for soaring inflation. Perdue "voted with liberals" for $10 trillion "in new debt" and "his out-of-control federal spending is driving inflation through the roof," a Kemp TV ad said. Debt rose by about $10 trillion during Perdue’s tenure as a one-term U.S. senator, from 2015 to 2021, but much of that was a bipartisan effort, not solely the work of "liberals." In addition, inflation has multiple causes, and some experts point to spending approved after Perdue left office as a key cause. Perdue voted for bipartisan debt-raising measures Kemp’s campaign did not provide us any information beyond what is cited in the ad to back up its attack on Perdue. Words displayed in the ad refer to "$10 trillion in debt" and to the U.S. Treasury Department without citing a specific document or database. Erica York, an economist with the Tax Foundation, pointed PolitiFact to Treasury Department figures showing that total debt increased about $10 trillion between 2015 and 2021, from roughly $18 trillion to $28 trillion. Perdue voted for a number of large, debt-raising measures. The Republicans’ 2017 tax cut increased deficits, but the parties came together on two large COVID-19 relief bills — $2 trillion in March 2020 and $900,000 in December 2020. President Donald Trump signed both. Kemp praised the larger measure, saying in a March 2020 tweet: "Thanks to @POTUS for signing the CARES Act and to Georgia’s congressional delegation for their strong support of this much-needed measure." An important point that also undercuts Kemp’s statement is that much of the accumulated debt every year isn’t even voted on; it essentially adds up from spending that’s on autopilot. That is, automatic borrowing for Medicare and Medicaid, not debt approved by senators during Perdue’s tenure. Featured Fact-check America First Legal stated on November 1, 2022 in an ad “Kamala Harris said disaster aid should go to non-white citizens first." By Tom Kertscher • November 5, 2022 Debt not the sole driver of inflation Since Perdue left office in January 2021, the inflation rate has climbed to over 8%. In Kemp’s ad, the words "government spending to blame for inflation" appear on the screen. That’s part of the headline on a March 30, 2022, Fox Business article about a study released two days earlier by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. The study compared inflation in the U.S. and other developed countries. The Federal Reserve analysis didn’t blame inflation solely on government spending. It said global supply chain problems and changes in spending patterns due to the COVID-19 pandemic have pushed up inflation worldwide. The study did blame higher U.S. government spending for making inflation higher in the United States than in other developed nations since the first half of 2021. Economic experts told PolitiFact in April that President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 spurred inflation. They differed on the precise scale of its impact, with estimates ranging from two to four additional points out of the inflation rate at the time of about 8.5%. The experts said past government spending, COVID-19’s disruptions to labor markets, energy prices and supply-chains also played significant roles. Most recently, the war in Ukraine has made a challenging situation worse. Georgia’s primary is May 24. If neither Perdue nor Kemp gets more than 50% of the vote, there would be a runoff June 21. Trump endorsed Perdue. The GOP nominee will face Democrat Stacey Abrams, who is unopposed. Kemp won his first term in 2018 by defeating Abrams, a former state lawmaker, by about 50% to 49%. Campaign watchers rate the Nov. 8 general election as a toss up and "tilts Republican." Our ruling Kemp said in an ad that Perdue "voted with liberals" for $10 trillion "in new debt, his out-of-control federal spending is driving inflation through the roof." Debt rose about $10 trillion during Perdue’s time as a U.S. senator, but it didn’t accumulate only from votes by "liberals" to increase spending; much of the increase came from bipartisan votes and automatic spending by programs such as Medicaid and Medicare. In addition, there are multiple causes for inflation, and some experts pointed to spending approved after Perdue left office as a key cause. Kemp’s statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False. RELATED: Fact-checking ads in the 2022 elections RELATED: Fact-checks about Georg

Says Fox News and Candace Owens tweeted that “New studies show that 68% of those who used ivermectin to treat or prevent covid are suffering long-term bowel and urinary incontinence. Images of tweets shared on Facebook suggest that those who used the anti-parasitic medication ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment or prevention might have to contend with some unpleasant side effects. "Ivermectin’s hidden cost: New studies show that 68% of those who used ivermectin to treat or prevent Covid are suffering long-term bowel and urinary incontinence," read what looked like a screenshot of a verified Fox News tweet. The screenshot, which was shared on Facebook on May 13, also showed an alleged reply to the Fox News tweet from conservative commentator Candace Owens. "Well this explains a few things," Owens appeared to say, adding an emoji with a distressed expression. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) These tweets are fake. And these "new studies" with troubling ivermectin findings don’t exist. The entire thing is fabricated. (Screengrab from Facebook) The screenshot was shared by a Facebook account using the name "Turning Points USA" — an apparent jab at Turning Point USA, a conservative group founded by Charlie Kirk where Owens once worked as a spokesperson. PolitiFact searched Owens’ and Fox News’ verified accounts and archives of their tweets and found no evidence that either account had ever shared the tweets from the screenshot. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 Also, if you look closely at the upper right corner of the fake Fox News tweet in the image, you’ll see the phrase "r/totallyrealtweets," which suggests the image is linked to a Reddit community that shares fake and satirical tweets. Ivermectin has been studied as a COVID-19 treatment, but neither the Food and Drug Administration nor the National Institutes of Health’s COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel recommend using ivermectin to treat COVID-19. As of April 29, the NIH panel "recommends against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, except in clinical trials." In frequently asked questions from April 2021, the FDA said: "While there are approved uses for ivermectin in people and animals, it is not approved for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19." The FDA said that side effects associated with ivermectin use include things such as skin rashes, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, stomach pain, limb swelling, sudden blood pressure drops and liver injuries. Because of the potential side effects, "any use of ivermectin for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 should be avoided as its benefits and safety for these purposes have not been established." Public health organizations’ repeated warnings didn’t stop people from promoting the drug for COVID-19, and some doctors continue to prescribe ivermectin for the virus. Still, we found no evidence to suggest that "long-term bowel and urinary incontinence" should be among the legitimate concerns for people who used the anti-parasitic against COVID-19 in the face of such warnings. We were unable to find any "new studies" that found 68% of people who used ivermectin for COVID-19 were experiencing such side effects. Our searches for those studies turned up only fact-checks debunking these fake tweets and a 2017 study that looked at the effects of administering ivermectin to a large group of people in Democratic Republic of Congo. In that study, people reported "a wide range of adverse events, including headache, coma, abnormal gait, stupor, asthenia, conjunctival hemorrhage, fever, back pain, urinary incontinence and psychiatric disorders" after taking the drug. That was, of course, years before COVID-19 was first detected. Our ruling An image shared on Facebook suggests Fox News and Candace Owens tweeted that "new studies show that 68% of those who used ivermectin to treat or prevent covid are suffering long-term bowel and urinary incontinence." These tweets are fake, and there’s no evidence that "new studies" with troubling ivermectin findings about incontinence actually exist. We rate this claim Fals

“(Pfizer) says do not breastfeed. Baby formula shortages everywhere. Gates promotes brand new artificial breast milk technology. All within less than a 2 week period. …Nothing to see here. A Facebook post linked several unfounded claims to create one conspiracy theory about U.S. baby formula shortages. "(Pfizer) says do not breastfeed," the May 17 post said. "Baby formula shortages everywhere. Gates promotes brand new artificial breast milk technology. All within less than a 2 week period. …Nothing to see here. " The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Each part of the claim has been previously debunked. The claim that "(Pfizer) says do not breastfeed" appears to be a reference to falsehoods that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine isn’t recommended while breastfeeding. Those claims said the recommendation came from Pfizer, but included screenshots of a document published by United Kingdom health officials in late 2020, when COVID-19 vaccines were in their infancy and rollout had just begun, the Associated Press reported earlier this month. When initially published in December 2020, the UK document said COVID-19 vaccines should not be used while breastfeeding. The guidelines "d(id) not indicate the shots are unsafe during pregnancy or while lactating but highlight a lack of data at the time of publication," Reuters reported. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 The UK document was later updated to remove the language about vaccines not being recommended during breastfeeding. The change reflected updated safety data and evidence showing that the vaccine is safe for breastfeeding women, according to the AP. British health authorities as well as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend COVID-19 vaccination for people who are breastfeeding. The second part of the claim in the Facebook post implies that domestic baby formula shortages are planned or deliberate. But the shortages are linked to supply chain problems that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the recall of some formula that led to a manufacturing plant shutdown. Finally, the post claimed that "Gates promotes brand new artificial breast milk technology," and also implies a link to current baby formula shortages. A startup company called BIOMILQ that makes artificial breast milk received $3.5 million from an investment fund co-founded by Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson. But the company says it’s still three to five years away from getting a product to market. We rate this claim False.

“Don't let this formula shortage scare you!!! Make your baby some hemp milk w/sea moss. It’s easy I promise! During the domestic shortage of baby formula, social media has been rife with recipes for homemade formula, which experts warn against. One Facebook post recommended a specific combination of ingredients that has caused dire health problems for infants. "Don't let this formula shortage scare you!!! Make your baby some hemp milk w/sea moss," read the May 11 post. "It’s easy I promise!" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Babies who were fed similar combinations of hemp and sea moss have suffered cardiac arrest, rickets and other deficiencies, according to a 2021 report by the Centers for Disease Control Prevention. The agency examined three cases from August 2020 through February 2021 when infants were treated in hospital emergency departments "for symptoms related to consumption of a nutritionally deficient homemade formula based on alkaline diet recipes," consisting of varying combinations of sea moss, hemp seeds, dates and coconut water. The recipes lack essential vitamins and micronutrients such as vitamin D, calcium and iodine, the CDC said. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 19, 2022 in a post The diphtheria vaccine is a “poison dart” with side effects worse than the symptoms of diphtheria. By Andy Nguyen • October 24, 2022 The cases "highlight the potential for grave consequences" when making homemade baby formula, the CDC report said. "Human breast milk and commercial infant formula contain vitamins and micronutrients essential for growth and development," according to the report. "Infants fed an alternative diet can develop severe deficiencies and experience long-lasting developmental consequences." We rate the advice in this Facebook post False.

A photo of Ukrainians with paintball guns proves the war is staged A screenshot of a tweet by conservative activist Jack Posobiec is spreading on social media as evidence that the war in Ukraine is staged. In the May 16 tweet, Reuters tweeted a story about the war in Ukraine and the country’s report that it had held off a Russian incursion in the Sumy region there. The tweet included a photo of four people in camo crouching close to the ground and holding weapons. Posobiec shared the Reuters tweet, writing, "Those are paintball guns, Reuters." As that retweet has spread, so have the claims that the war isn’t real. "One big theater production," one person wrote on Posobiec’s Instagram post sharing the screenshot his tweet. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The photo that Reuters tweeted is not an image of Ukrainians repelling a Russian incursion in the Sumy region. That story was published on May 16. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 17, 2022 in una publicación en Facebook "Ministros de Defensa de OTAN deciden invadir a RUSIA para prevenir ataque de Putin”. By Maria Ramirez Uribe • October 17, 2022 The photo in the tweet was taken on April 15 by Reuters photographer Zohra Bensemra and it shows a training exercise in Sumy — not a live firefight. "Members of the territorial defense force attend a training simulation for raiding a building occupied by enemy forces as they prepare for new assault, amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, outside an abandoned building in Sumy," the photo’s caption says. The caption does not specify what kind of gun the people in the photos are holding, but some social media users have highlighted what looks like the part of a paintball gun that holds the paintballs. Social media posts have previously misrepresented photos of people in Ukraine holding wooden guns during training exercises as proof the war is fake. RELATED VIDEO Trudy Rubin, a foreign affairs columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer, wrote from outside of Kyiv in February that civilian trainees were "practicing with cardboard guns or plastic paintball guns or hunting rifles from home until they are provided military weapons." Even members of the U.S. military have used paintball guns for training exercises. The war in Ukraine is real, and it has been well-documented by reporters and citizens on the ground in the country. We rate claims that this photo proves it’s being staged Pants on Fire.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger used "$50 million of Zuckerberg money" in 2020 to "tip the scales. U.S. Rep. Jody Hice is running to be Georgia Secretary of State on a platform of false claims about the 2020 election. Hice, who was endorsed by former President Donald Trump, says he will be tougher on election integrity than his Republican rival, incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Raffensperger drew Trump’s wrath after he disputed Trump’s false statements about a stolen election. Hice told Fox 5 news anchor Russ Spencer on May 5 that the election "reeked of fraudulent activity." Spencer responded that the FBI, state investigators and Trump’s attorney general, Bill Barr, found no credible allegations of widespread fraud. Spencer asked Hice about a phone call that Trump had with Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, when Trump made a raft of false claims, such as that thousands of dead people had voted. Hice defended Trump, saying that there were other numbers Trump didn’t bring up, including the "$50 million of Zuckerberg money that Brad Raffensperger used to tip the scales." Hice’s campaign did not respond to our emails asking for his evidence. Hice’s statement gave a distorted picture of a grant awarded to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and inflated the size of that grant ninefold. Grants were given to about half the states in 2020 for voter outreach In 2020, election officials faced an expensive and unprecedented challenge: pulling off a safe national election during a pandemic. The 2020 pandemic relief package known as the CARES Act included $400 million in election funding. But that wasn’t enough to cover all of the new expenses, which would include a massive increase in voting by mail. The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, formed by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, stepped forward to help close the gap. The initiative gave money to nonprofits to then award grants to election offices. The nonprofits selected the recipients, not the Zuckerberg Initiative. The Center for Election Innovation & Research oversaw the distribution of about $65 million. The center, founded in 2016 by David Becker — previously the director of the elections program at The Pew Charitable Trusts — works with secretaries of state to help them maintain accurate voter registration lists and secure election technology. The goal of the grants was to help states pay for nonpartisan voter outreach. The center invited all states to apply. The 23 that responded received the amount of money they requested. Seven of those state agencies were led by Republican election officials, while 10 were led by Democratic election officials, and six were led by nonpartisan or bipartisan boards of elections. Georgia received about $5.6 million. States could spend money on direct mail, ads, and other communications such as establishing voter hotlines. In Georgia, the money was spent on TV ads. Hice said that Raffensperger used the money to "tip the scales" — suggesting Raffensperger wanted to aid or disadvantage a particular candidate. We found no evidence of such a scheme. So where does Hice’s $50 million figure come from? It’s possible that he was referring to a separate set of grants, also from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, of $350 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life. That organization distributed grants nationwide to 2,500 local elections offices. Dozens of counties in Georgia applied and received funds that added up to about $45 million. Local election offices used the grants to pay for staff, personal protective equipment and election equipment to sort absentee ballots. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 Some Republican state lawmakers across the nation objected to populous Democratic strongholds getting the largest amounts of money through that initiative, although every jurisdiction in red and blue areas that applied received money. Grants ranged from $5,000 for small townships to $19 million for New York City. Raffensperger’s office said that he had no authority to prevent counties from receiving the grants. The Georgia State Assembly in 2021 was among many GOP-led states that later passed a ban on local election officials accepting private grants. Hice is one of many election deniers running for office in 2022 Hice is among the Republican candidates challenging Raffensperger in the May 24 primary. If no candidate wins more than 50%, the top two vote getters will advance to a June 21 runoff. Hice has repeatedly denied the reality that Biden won the presidential race. He backed the unsuccessful case before the U.S. Supreme Court that sought to overturn results in a few states including Georgia. Hice also objected to accepting Georgia’s electoral college votes on Jan. 6, 2021. Hice told the Washington Post in February, "Yes, I believe Trump won. If we were to get an accurate count of the votes in Georgia, I believe absolutely Trump won Georgia." Raffensperger has defended his handling of the 2020 election in Georgia, where the results were backed up by three counts. Our ruling Hice said that Georgia’s secretary of state used "$50 million of Zuckerberg money" in 2020 to "tip the scales." In 2020, the Secretary of State received a $5.6 million grant from the Center for Election Innovation and Research for nonpartisan voter outreach. But Georgia had plenty of company – 23 states, led by both Republican and Democrat officials, received grants. There is no evidence that Raffensperger used the money to "tip the scales." Dozens of counties in Georgia received grants from the Center for Tech and Civic Life that added up to about $45 million, but Raffensperger had no say in which counties applied for grants. Both grant programs were funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help election officials cover the extra expenses of administering elections amid a pandemic. Hice has distorted the amount of grant money received by Raffensperger and the purpose. We rate this statement False. RELATED: 'Zuckerbucks' for 2022 elections? Republicans say thumbs down RELATED: All of our fact-checks about Georgia RELATED: All of our fact-checks about elections

"In Iran, if a 12-year-old girl is raped and impregnated by her father, she must carry the baby to term, or be thrown in prison for life. Wait, sorry, no, That's Alabama. New social media claims are circulating about a 2019 Alabama abortion law that never went into effect. A May 18 post on Instagram says, "In Iran, if a 12-year-old girl is raped and impregnated by her father, she must carry the baby to term, or be thrown in prison for life. Wait, sorry, no, That's Alabama." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post gets the details wrong. The Alabama law specified, "A woman who receives an abortion will not be held criminally culpable or civilly liable for receiving the abortion." Instead, the law would have punished abortion providers. Alabama passed the law in May 2019, and it would have outlawed abortions in almost every case, including rape and incest. It was scheduled to go into effect in November that year. But in October, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction that blocked the law until it could go before higher courts, AL.com reported. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 12, 2022 in a Facebook post “Trump woken up from his bed by police.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 14, 2022 The law would have made it a Class A felony for doctors to perform abortions — on par with crimes such as capital murder and first-degree kidnapping, according to CNN. In Alabama, Class A felonies carry a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of 99 years to life. If the U.S. Supreme Court overturns the landmark abortion case Roe v. Wade, as a leaked draft opinion suggests it might, Alabama’s abortion law — which only makes an exception for abortion "in order to prevent a serious health risk to the mother"— would immediately take effect, according to AL.com. Our ruling An Instagram post says, "In Iran, if a 12-year-old girl is raped and impregnated by her father, she must carry the baby to term, or be thrown in prison for life. Wait, sorry, no, That's Alabama." Alabama passed a law — which never went into effect — that would have implemented a near-total ban on abortion, including in cases of rape and incest. But the law did not include any criminal or civil punishments for women receiving abortions, only for doctors providing abortions. We rate this claim False.

Agriculture “is still the No. 1 sector of the economy” in Georgia In a quest for rural votes, candidates running statewide these days seem to be overstating agriculture’s economic role in their states. During her late surge in the Pennsylvania Senate primary, Republican Kathy Barnette told conservative host Glenn Beck that "agriculture is the No. 1 industry here in Pennsylvania." In reality, agriculture amounted to less than one-half of 1% of Pennsylvania’s economic activity in 2021, leaving it behind more than a dozen other major industry sectors. We rated the statement False. Not long after, we began looking into statements in advance of the May 24 Georgia primary. We found a May 13 interview that Gary Black, a GOP Senate candidate, gave to WLBB, a local media outlet in Carrollton, west of Atlanta. (Black trails Herschel Walker, the former football star, by a wide margin, according to polls.) A few minutes into the interview, Black said, "Agriculture is still somewhere in the neighborhood of a $74 billion, $75 billion enterprise in the state of Georgia. It’s still the No. 1 sector of the economy." However, as is the case in Pennsylvania, agriculture accounts for only a small sliver of Georgia’s economy. And Black should know this: He’s the state’s sitting agriculture secretary, capping four decades of farming experience, plus top positions with the Georgia Farm Bureau and the Georgia Agribusiness Council. According to official data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis, agriculture accounts for about 0.7% of Georgia's gross domestic product. The No. 1 industry sector in Georgia in 2021 was finance, insurance, and real estate, at more than 25%. That was followed by professional and business services (more than 14%); manufacturing (more than 10%); and information services (almost 9%). Way down the list — below utilities and even miscellaneous — was agriculture, at less than 1% of Georgia’s total economic output. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 13, 2022 in a post on Facebook If a sealed bag of raw poultry appears “puffy,” it means the protein is not safe to consume. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 14, 2022 !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); In 2021, Georgia agriculture was a $4.6 billion industry, so collectively, it’s not peanuts. (Georgia ranks No. 1 in the nation in peanut production, and it also leads the nation in producing pecans and broilers, the official name for chickens.) Overall, Georgia ranks 17th among the 50 states in total farm receipts, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Still, in the context of a $606 billion state economy, agriculture simply isn’t the state’s No. 1 industry as measured by dollars and cents. A final note: When Black mentioned agriculture being perhaps a $75 billion enterprise in Georgia, he may have been including agriculture’s secondary and tertiary economic impacts on sectors like support services, trucking, and storage, which is a common way to describe a given industry’s total impact on the economy. Those secondary and tertiary impacts would have been classified under other sectors in the Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Neither Black’s campaign nor the state agriculture department responded to inquiries for this article. Our ruling Black said that agriculture "is still the No. 1 sector of the economy" in Georgia. In reality, federal data for 2021 shows that agriculture accounted for about 0.7% of Georgia's GDP, which was far down the list of biggest industry sectors in the state. We rate the statement Fals

Students in Wilkes County, North Carolina, “identify themselves as cats or ‘furries’” and “have asked for litter boxes to be placed in school restrooms for them to use. In April, we debunked a claim that schools in several states were putting litter boxes in bathrooms to accommodate students who identified as furries, people interested in anthropomorphized animals. School districts in Iowa, Michigan, Wisconsin and Nebraska said this isn’t happening, contrary to widespread rumors there. Similar claims, such as cafeteria tables being lowered to allow furries to eat without utensils in Texas, are also false. Now, a school district in North Carolina has pushed back on the unsubstantiated allegation that students identifying as cats or furries were insisting on litter boxes in the bathrooms and bowls of water in the halls. "We are in trouble and it's worse than many are aware," a May 17 Facebook post says. "We have some students here in Wilkes that identify themselves as cats or ‘furries.’ They have demanded to wear furry outfits to schools and been denied due to it violating dress code. We were told some have asked for litter boxes be placed in school restrooms for them to use. They have demanded that water bowls be put in hallways." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Morgan Mathis, a spokesperson for Wilkes County Schools in North Carolina, told PolitiFact that the school system "is not aware of any of the requests mentioned in this post such as items in restrooms." If credible evidence emerges that there’s any validity to this claim, we’ll reconsider our ruling. But it appears to be part of a pattern of fabricated, ridiculous claims. Pants on Fire!

“The Biden administration is bringing amendments that would propose that all nations of the earth cede their sovereignty over national health care decisions to the WHO. A flurry of claims on Facebook and conservative media outlets warn that the World Health Organization is on track to gain enormous powers that would override the health care policies of any individual government. "The Biden administration is bringing amendments that would propose that all nations of the earth cede their sovereignty over national health care decisions to the WHO," former Minnesota Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann said May 9 on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast. One online program said the WHO would be able to impose vaccine mandates and require vaccine passports. The World Health Organization has launched a public process to revamp a key guiding document, the International Health Regulations. Those rules define how the multilateral community will respond to a future pandemic. The effort to tweak them stems from criticism that the WHO took too long to declare a public health emergency over COVID-19 and that it deferred too much to China. Bachmann's claim hinges on the U.S. recommendations for the overhaul of WHO regulations. So, we read them. In the U.S. April 12 filing, there is nothing that matches what Bachmann described. Broadly, the American changes would require the WHO to share information faster about a newly discovered public health risk. At the first sign of an outbreak in a country, the U.S. wants the WHO to help diminish the risk elsewhere by offering manpower and other resources to the immediately affected country. If that affected country rejects the help, it has two days to explain why, then the WHO shall "immediately share" with other countries the information about the exchange, says the U.S. amendment. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 Contrary to Bachmann’s assertion that the WHO would run roughshod over national sovereignty, the overall thrust of the U.S. proposed language is to add more naming and shaming techniques to the WHO’s arsenal. Bachmann said nations would "cede their sovereignty," but the text of the Biden administration proposal includes no power to override what a country decides to do. The WHO can offer and recommend, but it can’t require. Bachmann is currently dean of the Robertson School of Government at Regent University, a school founded by television evangelist Pat Robertson. We emailed Bachmann and did not hear back. Our ruling Bachmann said "the Biden administration is bringing amendments that would propose that all nations of the earth cede their sovereignty over national healthcare decisions to the WHO." The Biden administration proposal is publicly available online. It seeks to compel the WHO to engage more assertively when a health risk emerges, and to share any information it gleans with the international community more quickly. It requires the WHO to recommend actions to the affected country, and offer expertise. The sanction for nations who reject WHO assistance is public exposure. Nothing in the Biden administration proposal matches Bachmann’s interpretation. We rate this claim False.

News interview proves that the Buffalo, New York supermarket shooting was staged The day before the deadly shooting at a Buffalo, New York, supermarket, a patron of the store had spoken to the man who police have charged in the attack. An Instagram post has mischaracterized an interview with the patron, saying it shows that the event was staged. It wasn’t. Ten people died and more were injured. In an interview with NBC News, a man identified as Grady Lewis said this about his encounter with the shooter: "He looked out of place. Not because he was white, it’s just a feeling I had about him—" "Intuition," someone can be heard saying off camera. "Intuition," Lewis said, "yes, definitely. An energy that made me say, ‘well, let me talk to this guy.’ And I talked to him for like an hour and 45 minutes and, actually bought him something to drink because he seemed a little nervous but I wasn’t able to get anything out of him." A description of this exchange in an Instagram post says: "Witness to the shooting: feedback from earpiece, being told what to say is caught on live TV." "STAGED WE ALL KNOW IT," one person commented on the post. "They couldn’t find a better actor than THIS???" someone else said. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 29, 2022 in an Instagram post The Pelosis “are refusing to turn over surveillance video of their home.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 31, 2022 This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) It’s clear watching the video that this is not a hot mic moment gone awry. Lewis was describing a feeling he had about the alleged gunman, and someone offered a word for what he was describing: intuition. Lewis then agrees that the word characterizes what he’s describing. He’s wearing a microphone, which is typical of people giving TV news interviews, but he doesn’t appear to be wearing an earpiece, as the Instagram post claims. Lewis, who is 50, visits the Tops grocery store where the May 14 shooting took place on most days, the Wall Street Journal reported. He was sitting across the street when he heard the first gunshots. RELATED VIDEO In the aftermath of the incident, Lewis gave multiple interviews to news outlets and made similar remarks. "I got a feeling of, he’s not supposed to be here. I just had a feeling," he told BuzzFeed News. "I don’t like — it’s not like white people come to the store, and I say, ‘why are you here?’ I don’t do that. It was just a feeling." Claims that Lewis was being directed on what to say on camera and that it proves that the shooting was staged are wrong. We rate them Pants on Fire.

The U.S. government’s inaction over buffalo killing that harmed Native American populations in the 1800s shows it is now “is creating food shortages” so that Americans are more “dependent on the government. Concerns about the country’s food supply are weighing heavily on many Americans as baby formula is hard to find and international conflict threatens commodities like wheat in some parts of the world. A social media post invoking those fears harks back to U.S. history to suggest that the government is purposely creating food shortages. "In 1873 the U.S. government killed 1.5 million buffalo to starve Native Americans so they would become more dependent on the government," read one such May 11 post. "Fast forward to today, and the government is creating food shortages to achieve exactly the SAME goal!" It was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post has a point about why so many buffalo were killed in the late 1800s, but it makes an unfounded comparison: There’s no evidence the U.S. government is currently creating food shortages. The campaign to kill buffalo In the mid-1800s, more than 30 million buffalo roamed the plains; by the end of the 19th century, only a few hundred remained. The rapid population decline was due to overhunting, which was welcomed by U.S. officials as a way to force Native Americans in the Great Plains region to settle on reservations. Andrew Isenberg, an American history professor at the University of Kansas and the author of "The Destruction of the Bison," said white hunters in the late 1800s likely killed "far more" than the 1.5 million buffalo mentioned in the post — a fact federal authorities knew. "The U.S. federal government did not actively destroy bison in order to starve Indigenous people in the Great Plains into submission," he said. "But the federal government stood by and refused to prevent the wasteful destruction of bison by private white hunters and then welcomed the result of the near extinction of the species: Indigenous peoples’ surrender to the reservation system." Bison skulls await industrial processing in Michigan in 1892. (Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library and Wikimedia Commons) Gen. William Sherman, who commanded the U.S. Army in the region, negotiated treaties with groups of Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains in the late 1860s, Isenberg said. The U.S. agreed to allow Native Americans to occupy large parts of the Great Plains "so long as the buffalo may range thereon in such numbers as to justify the chase." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 24, 2022 in a video McDonald's uses potatoes sprayed with a highly toxic pesticide called Monitor. By Andy Nguyen • October 28, 2022 Not long after those treaties were negotiated, Isenberg said, Sherman wrote a letter saying, "it will not be long before all of the buffalos are extinct near and between the railroads." By 1873, welcoming the extinction of buffalo to suppress Indigenous peoples "had become de facto government policy," Isenberg said. In an 1872 report, Interior Secretary Columbus Delano wrote that the buffalo’s disappearance "must operate largely in favor of our efforts to confine the Indians to smaller areas, and compel them to abandon their nomadic customs, and establish themselves in permanent homes." Although the decimation of the buffalo population was ultimately the work of private hunters, "the idea that destroying bison was a way to force the surrender of Indigenous people in the Great Plains was quite overt," Isenberg said. No evidence of manufactured food shortages While there is concern about global food shortages because of the war in Ukraine, experts told PolitiFact in April that the U.S. is less vulnerable to food shortages than poorer nations that rely largely on imports. "The U.S. food system has a good level of self-sufficiency, so currently, it is hard to imagine empty shelves in grocery stores," said Ohio State University agricultural economist Seungki Lee. And though claims have surfaced suggesting the U.S. government is intentionally creating food shortages, we have found there is no evidence to back that up. A number of factors have contributed to the U.S. baby formula shortage, including a recall by a major U.S. manufacturer, existing supply chain issues associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the highly concentrated nature of the formula market. View of almost empty baby formula shelves at a Duane Reade in New York City on May 11, 2022. (AP) Our ruling A post claimed that the U.S. government’s inaction over buffalo killing that harmed Native American populations in the 1800s shows it is now "is creating food shortages" so that Americans are more "dependent on the government." Millions of buffalo were killed by hunters in the late 1800s as part of a "de facto government policy" meant to force Native Americans in the Great Plains to abandon their customs and accept the reservation system. This racist history, however, does not prove that the U.S. government is currently creating food shortages to force government dependence. We found no evidence to support that claim. We rate this claim False. RELATED: Ask PolitiFact: What can parents do if they can’t find baby formula in store

"Under Greg Abbott, property taxes have gone up $20 billion. Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rourke is blaming Gov. Greg Abbott for high inflation in Texas, taking a page out of the GOP playbook in attacking President Joe Biden. O'Rourke released an Instagram video on April 23 with the caption, "Greg Abbott is the single greatest driver of inflation in the state of Texas." TV news clips were stitched together with clips of O'Rourke speaking. In one clip in the montage, O'Rourke says, "Under Greg Abbott, property taxes have gone up $20 billion." O'Rourke went on to say, "When you add this to the other inflation that he's causing ... " with more clips pointing to electricity bills, traffic backups at the border in April due to additional commercial vehicle inspections Abbott ordered that he said would improve border security, and the rising costs of internet and phone for rural Texans. Overall, O'Rourke is saying Abbott is exacerbating consumer prices in Texas, which were already rising nationwide. We looked at one component of the ad: that jaw-dropping number of a $20 billion increase in property taxes. Is it true? O'Rourke's source Nationally, inflation hit a 40-year high according to March data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, prompting criticism of Biden, especially as inflation relates to government spending. O'Rourke's campaign pointed to a Texas Taxpayers and Research Association report titled "Relief from Rising Values: 2019 Property Tax Reforms Cutting Tax Rates at a Record Pace." The report looked at the effects of legislation by state Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, and state Rep. Dan Huberty, R-Houston, that overhauled the school finance system and local government budgeting practices and tamped down property tax increases for Texans. The association found property taxes are continuing to rise, but at a slower rate. The campaign pointed specifically to a figure in the report depicting Texas local property taxes from 2011 to 2021. Property taxes levied were just over $50 billion in 2015, when Abbott took office, and just over $70 billion in 2021. The difference is about a $20 billion increase. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Data on estimated revenue from local property taxes is available on the state comptroller's website. According to the 2018-19 biennial report on property taxes by the comptroller's office, property taxes totaled $52.2 billion in 2015. Comptroller data on school district, city, county and special district property taxes indicate there was an estimated $73 billion in property taxes collected statewide in 2021. That's at least a $20 billion increase and in line with the analysis by the Texas Taxpayers and Research Association. In the six years before Abbott's election, property taxes increased to a lesser extent, but that property tax growth was constrained by the Great Recession. To note, while O'Rourke is appealing to voters who may also be homeowners, both commercial and residential property taxes are included here. Austin Community College economics professor Stuart Greenfield, whose state government career included work with economic models and how Texas distributes money to school districts, said just over half of the 2019 school district taxable value of property was single-family and multifamily homes. Featured Fact-check Marco Rubio stated on October 18, 2022 in a campaign ad Val Demings "voted with Pelosi to raise taxes over $4,000 on Florida families." By Yacob Reyes • October 25, 2022 Is Abbott to blame? The Texas Taxpayers and Research Association is a lobbying organization that primarily spends its money on research. Its policy advocacy has a fiscal conservative bent, the association's President Dale Craymer said, but the organization doesn't advocate for the policies of one party over the other. Craymer said O'Rourke spoke correctly of the group's report based on the data it analyzed from the comptroller's office. The implication of O'Rourke's ad, however, is that Abbott is responsible for rising property taxes. Craymer said the role of state government is indirect at best when it comes to property taxes because rates are set locally and not by the governor or Legislature. "Basically, the process by which rates are set and adopted is laid out in state law," Craymer said. "The Legislature and the governor obviously are responsible for drafting and putting those laws in effect. But the state really doesn't have a direct say in the amount of property taxes individual jurisdictions raise." The association's report found taxes would have been somewhat higher without two property tax changes by the Legislature in 2019. One created a process where school district property taxes would decrease over time for senior citizens, whose school district taxes are capped. The second change, Craymer said, increased the school district property tax homestead exemption for homeowners from $25,000 to $40,000, saving homeowners about $180 per year. Also in 2019, the Legislature required cities, counties and most special districts to seek voter approval to set a property tax that raises revenues more than 3.5%. For junior colleges and hospital special districts, the threshold for voter approval is 8%. For school districts, it is 2.5%. State policy also affects property values, and increases in value are tied to increases in taxes. Richard Auxier, senior policy associate at the Tax Policy Center under the Brookings Institute and Urban Institute, said the value of Texas homes is increasing alongside the rest of the country. "While you can frame that as property taxes went up, you can flip that to home values went up," Auxier said. "It's always going to be a trade-off, because people want the value of their homes to increase, but people don't want their taxes to go up." !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Texas Republicans have campaigned on property tax relief, too. Abbott added property tax relief to the Legislature's third special session agenda in 2021 that resulted in a now-approved amendment to the Texas Constitution. Abbott similarly publicized his support for property tax relief as a priority in a May 2 tweet ahead of May 7 elections. Abbott's campaign responded to O'Rourke's ad by saying Abbott reduced property taxes by $18 billion since taking office and O'Rourke increased property taxes as an El Paso City Council member. Texas voters approved Proposition 2, which raises the homestead exemption for school district property taxes from $25,000 to $40,000. They also approved Proposition 1, which corrected a 2019 oversight in tax relief that did not apply to homeowners who are disabled or 65 or older because their school tax burden is capped. Our ruling O'Rourke said in an April 23 Instagram video on rising inflation in Texas that, "Under Greg Abbott, property taxes have gone up $20 billion." Data presented in biennial reports and on the comptroller's website show that estimated revenue collected through property taxes increased by more than $20 billion. O'Rourke's figure was accurate. But property taxes are set locally, not by the state. Although state policies might indirectly affect property taxes, the governor's role in setting property taxes is indirect. We rate this as Mostly Tru

“Breaking: Democrats introduce bill to put Americans in quarantine camps. A May 17 blog post on Alex Jones’ conspiracy-oriented website, Infowars, sounds the alarm on what it describes as planned quarantine camps in the United States. "BREAKING," the post’s title says. "Democrats introduce bill to put Americans in quarantine camps." But if you read further, it becomes clear that this "breaking news" is actually more than two years old, and it mischaracterizes the nature of a bill that was introduced in 2020. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post cites legislation filed by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., H.R. 6666, also known as the TRACE Act. That’s short for the COVID-19 Testing, Reaching, And Contacting Everyone Act. The bill was filed on May 1, 2020, and was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce the same day. Democrats, who control the U.S. House, have taken no action on the bill since. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 What’s more, the bill doesn’t arrange for Americans to be placed in quarantine camps. According to a summary of the bill, written by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, it authorizes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to award grants for testing, contact tracing monitoring and other activities to address COVID-19. The bill itself mentions quarantine once, saying that the Health and Human Services secretary may award grants "to eligible entities to conduct diagnostic testing for COVID-19, to trace and monitor contacts of infected individuals, and to support the quarantine of such contacts" through mobile health units and "as necessary, testing individuals and providing individuals with services related to testing and quarantine at their residences." Back in 2020, Rush told Reuters that contact tracing would be voluntary. At the time, there were false claims that the bill allowed strangers to enter someone’s house, test them for COVID-19 and take their family members into quarantine. RELATED VIDEO "Contact tracing is not a new idea and is regarded by the CDC as a ‘key strategy for preventing further spread of COVID-19,’" Rush said in 2020. "My bill, the COVID-19 TRACE Act, is about appropriately and safely using this time-tested principle to better assist the communities that are the most impacted by the coronavirus — namely the African-American community — through voluntary testing and door-to-door outreach." The claim that Democrats recently introduced a bill to put Americans in "quarantine camps" is a gross mischaracterization of the 2020 proposal. We rate this post Pants on Fire.

“Due to the baby formula shortage Tricare will now pay to have it shipped directly to you. Many U.S. families are scrambling for solutions to the domestic baby formula shortage. For military parents of babies who have metabolic disorders, the U.S. Defense Department has always provided one — but social media posts are getting the details wrong and falsely leading people to believe that it’s more widely available than it actually is. A May 15 post says that Tricare, the Defense Department's health care program, "will now pay to have (baby formula) shipped directly to you," because of the shortage. It includes steps to follow, including emailing a form to Military Medical Supplies, a private company contracted to provide formula to Tricare. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But Tricare does not cover the cost of formula for all infants, only for those with metabolic disorders, it said in a May 17 statement posted on its website. Tricare also said it doesn't directly ship baby formula to beneficiaries. A small number of families — around 200 — are eligible to receive formula paid by Tricare because their infants have dietary needs requiring speciality formulas, including those formulated for feeding tubes, Military.com reported. Participation in the program requires a doctor’s order. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 19, 2022 in a post The diphtheria vaccine is a “poison dart” with side effects worse than the symptoms of diphtheria. By Andy Nguyen • October 24, 2022 The baby formula shortage is linked to COVID-19 related supply chain issues and a product recall that led to a temporary facility shutdown by a major formula manufacturer. About 40% of formulas are out of stock nationwide, The Atlantic reported May 12. Our ruling A Facebook post claimed, "Due to the baby formula shortage Tricare will now pay to have it shipped directly to you." Tricare does not cover the cost of formula for all infants, but it does cover the formula for infants with metabolic disorders. The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. We rate it Half True.

The problem with mail ballots in Lancaster County is a sign of “voter fraud. As the results of the Pennsylvania Republican Senate primary remained up in the air a day after the election, critics of voting by mail distorted a problem with mail ballots in Lancaster County. On election night May 17, partially counted returns were too close to determine if Mehmet Oz or Dave McCormick would emerge as the winner. The race may land within the half-percent margin to require a recount. A problem in Lancaster emerged after 7 a.m. on Election Day when officials opened up mail ballots and found that a significant number printed by the vendor, NPC, would not scan because they had the wrong identification code. The Pennsylvania State Department said about 22,000 ballots were affected; the county will duplicate ballots by hand and scan them over the next few days. On Twitter, some people suggested that it was a sign of voter fraud or something "suspicious." "And of course there are mail in ballot discrepancies in Lancaster County, PA," tweeted John Cardillo. "We’re a third world country. Voter fraud is becoming the accepted norm." Another person tweeted of the Lancaster ballots: "I see a major opportunity for voter fraud." But county and commonwealth officials told us there was no evidence of fraud. What led to the problem The day after the election, County Commissioner John Trescot told PolitiFact that there was "no sign of fraud related to this printing error." Lancaster County Detective Andrew Morgan, who works for the district attorney, told us that detectives had received no reports of fraud. Lancaster officials said the error occurred after the county had approved the vendor’s test ballots, which had the correct identification code. The vendor, NPC, did not respond to PolitiFact. Ellen Lyon, a Pennsylvania State Department spokesperson, also said there is no indication the printing error resulted from fraud or malicious intent. Human error in elections happens from time to time, said David Becker, founder of the Center for Election Innovation and Research. But it’s worth noting that the problem was discovered as a result of checks and balances built into the system. "It appears that every single voter who cast a vote on a ballot with the printing error on it will have their votes counted correctly, thanks to procedures in place," Becker said. Pennsylvania law doesn’t allow processing mail ballots until Election Day Thirty-eight states allow officials to process ballots cast by mail before Election Day, but Pennsylvania isn’t among them. Pennsylvania law says mail ballots can’t be processed until 7 a.m. on Election Day. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 So there was no way to spot the problem earlier. Election officials from both parties have urged the Pennsylvania General Assembly to allow for earlier processing of mail ballots. "If the legislature had acted, this would have been discovered days if not weeks before, and could have been mitigated more effectively, allowing for rapid delivery of accurate results," Becker said. In 2021, lawmakers passed a bill that included earlier processing of mail ballots, but Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat, vetoed it, citing other aspects of the bill, including stricter voter ID requirements. Voting by mail surged in Pennsylvania starting in 2020 as a result of Act 77, the 2019 law that established no-excuse mail voting, a provision pushed by Democrats. Republicans got one of their priorities included, too: elimination of straight-ticket voting. Following Joe Biden’s presidential win in Pennsylvania, some Republicans have sought to undo the law, and the matter is in litigation. Former President Donald Trump, on his social media platform, Truth Social, used the Pennsylvania situation as another opportunity to attack voting by mail: "Our Country should go to paper ballots, with same day voting. Just done in France, zero problems. Get Smart America!!!" Trump’s repeated statements suggesting widespread fraud have been debunked by fact-checkers, judges and government officials. France completed its presidential election count quickly because that was the only contest on the ballot. Of all the counties in Pennsylvania, Lancaster and one other reported election issues, the State Department said. In Berks County, at least two dozen polling places had long lines as a result of problems with new electronic pollbooks. A court order extended voting in Berks County by one extra hour. The winner of the Senate Republican primary will face Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. John Fetterman. The Senate seat is being vacated by Sen. Patrick Toomey, a Republican. Our ruling Social media posts extrapolated a problem with mail ballots in Lancaster County as a sign of "voter fraud." There is no evidence of fraud. The issue had to do with a vendor that printed the mail ballots using a wrong identification code; the ballots would not scan, so they will need to be copied by hand. County officials dismissed notions of vote tampering or other illegal activity. What happened in Lancaster is a vendor error, and suggestions that it amounts to voter fraud are wrong. We rate this claim False. RELATED: All of our fact-checks about elections RELATED: Dave McCormick’s Truth-O-Meter RELATED: Mehmet Oz’s Truth-O-Meter RELATED: Why France reports election results faster than the

Photo from “data leak at Elon Musk AND NASA … are said to be from one of Elon Musk’s Space-X satellites. An image of what looks like Earth, if it were rolled flat, is being shared on social media with a surprising description. "Data leak at Elon Musk AND NASA — this photo and another eleven photos are said to be from one of Elon Musk’s Space-X satellites," the post says. "These photos were not encrypted during transmission. NASA hackers would have intercepted them." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) We reached out to both NASA and SpaceX, the rocket company founded by entrepreneur Elon Musk, but didn’t hear back. However, we found no evidence to support the claim that this image was made public as a result of a leak at the federal agency or Musk’s private company. Previous authenticated leaks, such as video of a SpaceX rocket exploding in 2019 and an email from Musk warning SpaceX faced bankruptcy in 2021, were both well-covered in the media. It follows that news organizations would also cover the alleged leak of this image, but we found no such reports. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The image itself has been online for years, and previously, it wasn’t connected to NASA, SpaceX or Elon Musk. It appeared in this 2018 tweet, this January Quora post, this 2020 blog post claiming the earth is flat, and this undated blog post musing that the earth is neither flat nor a sphere. This NASA image, created by combining data from two satellites, shows what Earth looks like from space. It is well-established that the Earth is a sphere — more specifically, an irregularly shaped ellipsoid, according to the National Ocean Service — and it does not look like the image in the Facebook post. We rate this post False.

“79% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority neighborhoods. This is not by accident. That is by its founder, Margaret Sanger's, eugenicist design. Conservative commentator Candace Owens is no fan of Planned Parenthood, the nonprofit organization that has provided reproductive health care, including abortion services, for decades. In a recent tweet, Owens cited a statistic and the organization’s history as proof Planned Parenthood’s goals are unethical. "79% of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority neighborhoods," Owens wrote on Twitter May 3, a post that has since been shared on Facebook. "This is not by accident. That is by its founder, Margaret Sanger's, eugenicist design. Go back and read her quotations. The Left sees racism everywhere except for where it actually is." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Planned Parenthood and supporters of its mission have indeed wrestled with the legacy left by Sanger, who opened the nation’s first birth control clinic in 1916 and five years later founded the organization that would become Planned Parenthood. Sanger embraced the idea of eugenics, defined by the National Human Genome Research Institute as the "scientifically inaccurate theory that humans can be improved through selective breeding of populations." But scholars who have studied her life and work say that as she expressed a eugenstic viewpoint, she did not link it to race — and there is no indication she supported abortion access or sought to use abortion as a form of genocide, as some have claimed. But we were interested in the 79% data point Owens cited. Owens told PolitiFact the source for that figure was a 2015 report by the Center for Urban Renewal and Education, a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C., that was submitted to Congress. The report said the number came from "protectingblacklife.org," a website associated with an anti-abortion organization. But that analysis is in dispute, and data on this matter differs. Further confusing matters, the data that is available has been produced by organizations with clear stances in the abortion debate. Some of the reports are more than10 years old. They also vary in how they analyze neighborhood demographics — and in how they evaluate the meaning of those demographics. Although Owens’ original post didn’t mention abortion, she pointed us to data specifically about abortion clinics. (Planned Parenthood has many clinics, not all of which provide abortions.) While Sanger was a champion of birth control, she was largely opposed to abortion. Planned Parenthood did not begin offering abortion services until 1970, fours years after Sanger died. Taken together, available data is inconclusive The original source of Owens’ 79% claim, protectingblacklife.org, features a map of what it says are Planned Parenthood surgical abortion facilities that are located "within walking distance of African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods." "2010 Census results reveal that Planned Parenthood is targeting minority neighborhoods," it says. "79% of its surgical abortion facilities are located within walking distance of African American or Hispanic/Latino neighborhoods." An abortion clinic is included on the map if it lies within 2 miles of a census tract with at least a 50% minority population or where the minority population percentage is at least 1.5 times higher than that of the surrounding county. PolitiFact reached out to the website to get more information about the data it used but didn’t hear back. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 14, 2022 in an Instagram post Video footage showing Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi hiding on Jan. 6, 2021, shows the U.S. Capitol attack “was a setup.” By Madison Czopek • October 17, 2022 Joerg Dreweke, associate director of U.S. communications at the Guttmacher Institute, a pro-abortion rights research organization, took issue with the methodology. As an example, he pointed to what the map shows about the facility in Sioux City, Iowa. "There are what looks like eight census tracts within walking distance," Dreweke said. "One of these eight is 27% Hispanic, which by their definition (because it is 1.5 times higher than the county average) makes it a ‘minority neighborhood,’ and therefore the facility ‘targets’ minorities.’ But that is ridiculous on its face, from the map (and again, no idea how reliable it is), that clinic appears to be surrounded by overwhelmingly white residents." In 2014, the Guttmacher Institute published its own report to address claims that most abortion clinics are located in predominantly Black or Hispanic neighborhoods. It was broader in scope, though and Planned Parenthood was only one of the providers included in the analysis. The report, which was based on 2011 census data, found that fewer than one in 10 clinics were located in mostly Black neighborhoods and that six in 10 abortion providers were located in neighborhoods where more than half of residents are white. Planned Parenthood cited 2015 data that said less than 4% of its clinics providing abortion services were located in communities where more than one-third of the population is Black. The original report was internal, and a Planned Parenthood spokesperson declined to share it with PolitiFact. Planned Parenthood also pointed us to research showing that, as of 2019, 56% of its health centers are in what are considered rural, medically underserved or where there are shortages of health professionals. Sanger’s views and the Negro Project Sanger’s first birth control clinic opened in 1916 in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, which was mostly Irish and Jewish. When she did open a Harlem clinic in the early 1930s, about half of its patients were white. Members of the Black establishment, including W.E.B. DuBois and the Black newspaper the Amsterdam News, supported it. Although Sanger has been criticized for supporting eugenics, historians of the movement and scholars who have studied Sanger’s life say her opinions largely centered around what would today be considered issues of public health. During Sanger’s time, one scholar wrote, "the purpose of eugenics was to improve the human race by having people be more healthy through exercise, recreation in parks, marriage to someone free from sexually transmitted diseases, well-baby clinics, immunizations, clean food and water, proper nutrition, nonsmoking and drinking." Those who think Sanger wanted Black genocide often cite the Negro Project, an effort launched in 1939 to bring birth control services (but not abortion) to Southern Black communities. Black leaders like DuBois, and Mary McLeod Bethune, founder of the National Council of Negro Women, and Rev. Adam Clayton Powell, pastor of the Black Abyssinian Baptist Church, were members of its advisory council. First lady Eleanor Roosevelt was also supportive. Sanger has been criticized for a particular statement from a 1939 letter she wrote advocating that organizers recruit Black ministers for the project: "We don’t want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs." But reporting by PolitFact Georgia found Sanger was advocating for Black doctors and ministers to play leadership roles in the project to avoid misunderstandings — she was not suggesting genocide. In addition, scholars note that her views on abortion were far from those of an advocate. In her own words: "Although abortion may be resorted to in order to save the life of the mother, the practice of it merely for limitation of offspring is dangerous and vicious." While she strongly condemned the practice, Sanger felt that it was "a woman’s duty and right to have for herself the right to say when she shall and shall not have children." Our ruling Owens claimed that "79%" of Planned Parenthood clinics are in minority neighborhoods. "This is not by accident. That is by its founder, Margaret Sanger's, eugenicist design," she said. Data on this matter is dispute, with advocates on each side of the abortion debate arriving at separate conclusions based on different methodology. Sanger has been criticized for supporting eugenics, but scholars say her allegiance to the movement concerned public health, not race. She also was largely opposed to abortion, and none of her clinics performed the procedure until after her death. This statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False

A recent photo shows the “Russian Orthodox Church blessing a rocket called Satan. A striking image of men dressed in what appears to be religious garb next to Army-green weaponry is circulating online with this description: "Russian Orthodox Church blessing a rocket called Satan." Amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, readers may assume that this is a recent photo. It’s not. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Doing a reverse image search of the photo in the Facebook post, we found the photo on a Russian news agency’s website. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 22, 2022 in an Instagram post A CNN headline shows Uganda’s president saying he doesn’t support Ukraine because it would be “disgusting.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 24, 2022 The English translation of the caption for this photo and others from that were taken on May 6, 2015, reads: "Ritual of blessing the participants of the Victory Parade and the consecration of launchers on the Khodynka field." The English translation of story posted with the photo on a Ukrainian news site a few days later says: "Russian priests perform a ceremony of blessing the participants of the Victory Parade in Moscow and consecration of the Yars missile complex at the headquarters of the Strategic Missile Forces on the Khodynskoye field." Victory Day is an annual May 9 celebration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. But photos from the 2015 parade marking the holiday, including this one from the Chinese news agency Xinhua, describe the weapon that the priests blessed not as "Satan" but as another missile, the RS-24 Yars. That type of missile was also captured in Associated Press photos from a 2022 dress rehearsal for the parade. RELATED VIDEO "Satan" was a NATO nickname for another Russian missile: the RS-36M. "Satan 2," is an RS-28, the missile replacing the RS-36M, NBC News reported. We’ve previously debunked claims that "Satan 2" is capable of destroying everything in the world. Under Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Orthodox Church has developed closer ties with the country’s defense ministry, Reuters reported. Russian priests "have long appeared in images sprinkling holy water on submarines, ballistic missiles, Soyuz space rockets and other pieces of hardware as part of rituals to bless them," the news outlet said. We rate this post False

“The vast majority of individuals that we’re releasing out are not showing up for hearings. In a hearing over the Department of Homeland Security’s budget, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., asked Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas about DHS’s capacity to detain immigrants entering the country illegally at the southern border. Mayorkas said detention capacity is limited, but authorities hold certain people if there is a belief that they will not show up to their court hearings. Lankford replied: "You say detention is used when you’re not sure if they’re going to show up for hearings. The vast majority of individuals that we’re releasing out are not showing up for hearings." Mayorkas pushed back, saying he "would respectfully disagree" with Lankford because "the data evidence is that the majority of people show up for their hearings." We reached out to Lankford’s office — and to DHS — for their respective data but did not hear back. We also sought information from the Executive Office for Immigration Review within the Department of Justice but did not get a response. That office is responsible for adjudicating the immigration cases of people placed in deportation proceedings. Debate on whether immigrants show up to their hearings is not new. The ways of measuring this number vary, but regardless of the metric, the numbers show a majority of immigrants do show up to their hearings. Why people are released from immigration custody Immigrants apprehended at U.S. borders receive from DHS a Notice to Appear, a charging document that explains why the U.S. government seeks to deport them. Immigrants who receive a Notice to Appear are either placed in detention or released. Due to limited detention space, immigration authorities generally release people they believe don’t pose a threat to public safety and are likely to show up to their court hearings. People who are released can travel to their final destination in the U.S. while they await their hearings, according to Jessica Bolter, a policy analyst at the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute. A majority of immigrants do show up to court, data shows During their first hearing, immigrants can tell a judge whether they will contest removal and seek a form of relief, like asylum. It can take years and multiple hearings before a person gets a final decision. If an immigrant fails to show up to any hearing, the immigration judge can issue what is known as an in absentia removal order. This means the immigrant is ordered to be deported without being present in court. For the most part, in absentia cases occur with non-detained immigrants because DHS is responsible for ensuring detained immigrants show up to all their hearings. The Justice Department’s Executive Office for Immigration Review publishes immigration court data, including what’s known as the "in absentia rate." To get this number per fiscal year, the government divides the number of in absentia cases by the total number of cases completed that year. The in absentia rate for fiscal year 2021 was 10%; for the first quarter of 2022, October to December 2021, it was 18%. Court closures due to COVID-19 meant some hearings were postponed. Because non-detained immigrants weren’t scheduled to show up to court, the in absentia rate went down from 2020 to 2021. Featured Fact-check Adam Laxalt stated on November 20, 2022 in an ad “Biden and Democrats have dismantled border security.” By Maria Ramirez Uribe • November 3, 2022 "It’s true that data show that the majority of people show up for their hearings," Bolter told PolitiFact via email. "And even more do so when they are represented." Overall, the government data do not support Lankford’s claim that "the vast majority" of people released from immigration custody "are not showing up for hearings." Other ways to calculate the in absentia rate, and related debate The way that the Justice Department’s office calculates the in absentia rate does not take into account cases that are pending completion or administrative closure cases, where immigration judges move non-priority cases to the court’s inactive docket indefinitely. Some experts say that leaving these cases out of the calculation leads to a higher in absentia rate that can be misleading. That’s because in absentia cases are completed faster than cases in which an immigrant shows up to multiple hearings, according to Bolter. An immigrant might show up to multiple hearings in a year, but if the case is not completed during that year, they will not be included in the in absentia rate calculation. On the other hand, if an immigrant doesn’t show up to one hearing that case could be quickly completed with an in absentia removal order, which would be included in the rate as a no-show. Cases are now taking even longer to complete due to the increasing backlog, now at 1.6 million cases. As the backlog grows, cases stay pending for longer. A 2020 study by the University of Pennsylvania measured the in absentia rate taking into consideration administrative closures and pending cases. Under either of these scenarios, the rate of immigrants who showed up to court still outweighed those who did not. Between 2008 and 2018, about 66% to 83% of immigrants released from custody attended their court hearings, according to the study. Andrew Arthur at the Center for Immigration Studies, a think tank that favors low immigration levels, disputed the study’s ways of calculating the in absentia rate. These methods inflate the denominator by including administrative closures and pending cases, he said, making the in absentia rate appear lower. "At best, calculating in absentia rates is an art, not a science," Arthur said. "Because of course, it's always going to be a moving target." Our ruling Lankford said "the vast majority of individuals that we’re releasing out are not showing up for hearings." There are different ways to track how many immigrants don’t show up to immigration court hearings, and all indicate that a majority of immigrants, including those who are not detained, do attend their hearings. Data from the Justice Department show that in fiscal year 2021 and during the first quarter of 2022, most immigrants attended their hearings. We rate Lankford’s claim Fals

Your state will send you free infant formula if you call Enfamil and Similac customer service numbers While the infant formula shortage persists in the United States, some parents may be looking for alternative means to get food for their babies. But don’t waste your time in a customer service phone tree to try to get free formula from your state. "Due to the shortage of formula if you call Enfamil or Similac they will notify the state you can’t find any for your child and the state will send you a 6 pack of 12 Oz cans to your address!," a May 16 Facebook post says. "For free! The shortage has gotten worse but it doesn’t hurt to call and ask!" This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The post gives genuine customer services numbers for Enfamil and Similac, two baby formula brands, but a spokesperson for Abbott, the maker of Similac, told us this isn’t true. There’s no process in which parents call the company, the company notifies the state in which they live, and then that state sends the parents six cans of free formula. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Enfamil did not respond to our questions about the post. We tried calling the customer service number provided in the post but were on hold indefinitely. Still, we found no credible reports to corroborate this claim. We rate this post False.

A reporter who covered the Buffalo supermarket shooting was a "crisis actor. One day after a shooter opened fire on a Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York, a local news station based in Orlando, Florida, ran a report from the scene of the massacre. The segment that WKMG-TV ran was a package shared from a partner affiliate in Houston, KPRC-TV, featuring a report that KPRC reporter Brandon Walker filmed from Buffalo. "Good evening to you from Buffalo, the northeast side of town," Walker said in the May 15 report as he stood outside the supermarket, yellow police tape still stretched behind him. "Tonight, as FBI investigators continue to process the scene inside Tops Friendly Market, community members reflect on how they feel," Walker said. "There's a lot of sadness, a lot of anger, too, over the racism they say fueled 18-year-old Payton Gendron’s actions." The problem: Walker was wrongly introduced by WKMG anchor Erik von Ancken as "Walker Graham," and the chyron at the bottom of the screen identified him the same way. In a statement to PolitiFact, WKMG’s assignment desk said the script the station received from KPRC listed Walker’s name as "Walker Graham," and the error was carried over onto the air. At the end of his report, Walker signed off by saying, "I’m Brandon Walker." But across social media, the mixup was a sign of something more nefarious, a conspiracy in which Walker was playing the role of a reporter as a "crisis actor" on the set of a staged attack. The "crisis actor" claims started with a tweet that put a photo of Walker’s report for WKMG, in which he’s listed as "Walker Graham," next to a report he did for KPRC under the correct name. "So he just got two different names depending on the news station?" said the May 16 tweet. "One day people, one day you’ll realize why people like me question EVERYTHING." Screenshots of the tweet quickly spread to Instagram and Facebook, where they were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 29, 2022 in an Instagram post The Pelosis “are refusing to turn over surveillance video of their home.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 31, 2022 "Let’s give a warm welcome to the latest crisis actor in the Buffalo show!" one Instagram post said. Another post on Facebook said simply, "#CrisisActor." Among the people pushing the false "crisis actor" claim was Lauren Witzke, the far-right GOP nominee for a 2020 U.S. Senate seat from Delaware, who has promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory. "New Buffalo crisis actor just dropped," Witzke said in posts on Telegram and Instagram. PolitiFact previously debunked a Pants on Fire claim that Gendron, who was charged for the shooting, was a "crisis actor." There is no evidence that the attack was staged or a "false flag." There were multiple witnesses, and the shooter live streamed the assault. This claim about Walker is also baseless. "This is a real reporter," WKMG’s assignment desk said in its statement to PolitiFact. Walker has worked for KPRC since 2015, according to his bio on the KPRC website. In a reply to the original tweet that set off the "crisis actor" conspiracy theory, Walker wrote: "Seems my colleagues at a sister station don’t know my name. Brandon Walker, it is. I work for a station in Houston, KPRC2; however, I’ve filed reports for our sister stations in other cities." Walker and KPRC did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment. Another Houston-area journalist tweeted that KPRC and WKMG both are owned by Graham Media Group, a broadcasting company, which might have prompted the "Walker Graham" error. We rate these "crisis actor" claims Pants on Fir

Donations of baby formula to Ukraine helped cause the current U.S. shortage The U.S. shortage of baby formula has several causes — from supply chain problems to formula recalls — but charitable giving is not among them, despite social media claims. A May 12 post on Facebook suggests that donations of baby formula to Ukraine are related to the current shortage. The post shows side-by-side screenshots of two news headlines. One is dated March 7, 2022, and says, "Operation Ukraine boxes baby formula to send overseas," and the other, dated May 12, 2022, says, "Baby formula shortage hits parts of the U.S." The dates are circled on each story. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) There is no evidence the donated baby formula contributed to U.S. shortages, which are attributed to supply chain problems that began during the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the recall of some formula that led to a manufacturing plant shutdown. Featured Fact-check Viral image stated on October 16, 2022 in an Instagram post Kid Rock posted “Zelensky just bought his parents an $8,000,000 villa, complete with a salt water pool & 3 brand new vehicles.” By Ciara O'Rourke • October 17, 2022 The headline about Operation Ukraine is a reference to a 22-year-old Columbus, Miss., nonprofit that gathered $10,000 worth of baby formula to ship to Ukraine in March, a Mississipipi television station reported. One 21-ounce can of Enfamil formula costs around $30, so $10,000 would purchase about 333 cans — not nearly enough to have an effect on the nationwide shortage. Causes of the U.S. shortage are described by Bloomberg as "​​long-term economic pressures collid(ing) with a sudden supply shock." The long-term issues are related to the pandemic, which led to supply chain and shipping disruptions, as well as labor shortages. And the supply shock, Bloomberg explained, came when Abbott Laboratories recalled its baby formula and shut down a Michigan manufacturing plant because of concerns about contamination. The claim that donations of baby formula to Ukraine are related to the current U.S. shortage is unfounded. We rate it False.

“When unemployment goes down, inflation goes up. Most Americans are experiencing the highest rate of inflation in years, so it was no surprise that George Stephanopoulos, the host of ABC’s "This Week," brought up the year-long rise in consumer prices during an interview with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Pelosi answered by citing several thorny factors pushing prices upward, including coronavirus-related supply chain problems and Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, both of which the U.S. government has limited leverage to control. "What causes inflation?" Pelosi said on May 15. "One is when unemployment goes down, inflation goes up. That's not anything to accept. When wages go up, inflation goes up. That's one. When supply goes down, cost goes up. So supply is affected by COVID and supply chain problems that we have because of COVID, and also because of the war in Ukraine. There is a Putin price hike at the pump. Not all of it to him, but a large part of it." One part of Pelosi’s comments caught our attention — that "when unemployment goes down, inflation goes up." That seemed at odds with economic data of recent years, when unemployment was quite low, but so was inflation. Economists told PolitiFact that Pelosi’s formulation was once widely accepted in the field, but it has taken many hits over the past few decades. The inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation was first noted by economist A. W. Phillips in 1958. "He reasoned that when unemployment is high, workers are easy to find, so employers hardly raise wages, if they do so at all," economist N. Gregory Mankiw wrote in 2019. "But when unemployment is low, employers have trouble attracting workers, so they raise wages faster. Inflation in wages soon turns into inflation in the prices of goods and services." Two economists who later won Nobel Prizes, Paul Samuelson and Robert Solow, found a similar pattern. The theory, which came to be known as the Phillips curve, played an important role in economic policymaking during the 1960s and 1970s. Economists told PolitiFact that there can still be some linkage between high unemployment and low inflation (and vice versa). But this correlation can be negated by a variety of factors — factors that have been present in the economy since at least the 1990s. Consider a comparison of the rates of inflation and unemployment from 2012 to the onset of the pandemic in 2020. Inflation ran in a pretty narrow range during that period, from effectively zero to 2.9%. Yet, over the same time span, unemployment ranged from 8.3% (a level rarely reached going back to 1950) all the way down to 3.5% (close to a record low). !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); It’s not that the factors creating the Phillips curve are dead, economists say. Rather, they’ve been drowned out by other, more powerful factors. All things being equal, said Brookings Institution economist Gary Burtless, low unemployment will boost workers’ wages, which in turn will increase producers’ costs and spur inflation. But, he added, "all things are often not equal." Unusual, and possibly transitory, factors can mess with the clean linkages embodied in the Phillips curve, he said. Featured Fact-check Rob Portman stated on June 30, 2010 in a news release Since the Democrats’ stimulus went into effect last year, Ohio has lost about 150,000 Jobs. By Mark Naymik • July 28, 2010 For instance, the theory’s inability to explain the U.S. economy since the 1990s may have been because of strong growth in productivity, Burtless said. Productivity gains enabled workers’ wages to grow even as overall costs for employers remained low. This produced the combination of relatively low unemployment and relatively low inflation. Intensifying globalization, which put competitive pressure on U.S. producers to keep price increases small, may also have played a role. The linkage between unemployment and inflation "appeared to be missing in action during much of this period," Burtless said. Today, one of the primary assumptions that undergirded the Phillips curve — a steady supply of goods — has vanished, because of the supply-chain issues spawned by the coronavirus pandemic. In turn, the supply chain backup has been only exacerbated by Putin’s invasion, which has spiked prices for oil and other commodities. "Many economists would think of the war in Ukraine as a classic supply shock," said Emi Nakamura, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley. The combination of supply chain concerns and the war in Ukraine has produced significant inflation in the United States for the first time in decades. During the past year, inflation has run between 5% and 8.5%. Superficially, this could be attributed to the low unemployment rate, but this would be simplistic: It wouldn’t explain why similarly low unemployment rates before the pandemic never produced inflation higher than 2.9%. Pelosi’s office said she wasn’t trying to be overly reductive in her comments. "Acknowledging low unemployment as a factor among others isn’t the same as saying the Phillips curve is destiny," said Henry Connelly, a Pelosi spokesperson. He added that Pelosi "has never agreed with those who believe that low unemployment is dangerous or that keeping millions of Americans out of work and out of a paycheck as a response to inflation makes any moral or economic sense." Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, said he empathizes with Pelosi. "For a layperson to get this wrong, I don’t find that supershocking," he said. "I don’t mean that as a wisecrack. If you grew up in a certain era, this was the received wisdom." Our ruling Pelosi said, "When unemployment goes down, inflation goes up." For years, economists believed in this relationship, and there is still an element of truth to it. However, several decades of real-world experience has shown that the relationship between unemployment and inflation is not all that precise, because other factors — including supply shocks, productivity improvements and globalization — have often overwhelmed the effects between the two. We rate the statement Mostly Fals

Images show Joe Biden surrounded by U.S. Marshals An image of President Joe Biden is being shared on social media with the suggestion that the commander in chief’s arrest is looming. "Appears as if Sleepy was surrounded by US Marshall’s again!!!," one post said, referring to Biden. "It’s going down." In the photo, Biden is leaning down to speak to someone while four men stand behind him. They’re wearing pins, though the image isn’t clear enough to see what kind. However, the post also shares pictures of badges worn by U.S. Marshals with a silver star. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) RELATED VIDEO The Facebook post draws from a May 4 visit by U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes to the White House. A Fox News video of the event shows the men in the picture more clearly, and they aren’t wearing Marshal badges. That’s because they aren’t U.S. Marshals. The Secret Service told us that the image shows Secret Service agents and White House staffers. We rate this post False

Mark Zuckerberg was arrested A recent Facebook post appeared to break news about an arrest some critics of the social media platform may have enjoyed. "BOMBSHELL!" the title of a video in the post said. "ZUCKERBERG FIRST ARREST!" But the video itself didn’t offer any evidence to support the claim that Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, was in custody. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Claims that Zuckerberg was arrested are unfounded. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 He’s been active on Facebook in the days since, posting a video on May 12 that showed him using a forthcoming virtual reality headset. He gave an interview to Protocol, a publication that covers technology — with no mention of his alleged arrest. There are no credible reports to corroborate it. We rate this post Pants on Fire

“Disney stock is down more than 70% and attendance is down more than 55%! 10.1 million people canceled their Disney+ subscription. The Walt Disney Co. has been a target for misinformation since it denounced a Florida law that bans classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity. Social media users have claimed that Disney’s move has led to economic turmoil. "Disney stock is down more than 70% and attendance is down more than 55%," said a May 10 Facebook post. "10.1 million people canceled their Disney+ subscription. Everything woke goes broke." The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Disney did not respond to PolitiFact’s request for comment. But as fact-checkers at Agence France-Presse reported in April, the claim in the Facebook post is unfounded. The Facebook post did not give a timeframe for measuring Disney’s stock performance. We looked at multiple starting points and did not find one that amounted to a loss of 70%. Disney’s stock price was around $105 when trading closed May 13, according to Yahoo Finance. This is a 25% drop since the company’s stock price swelled to $141 on March 29, the day after Disney said its "goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature." Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Although the stock value had begun falling before the company criticized Florida’s new law, Disney’s stock did drop 8 percentage points after Gov. Ron DeSantis moved to dissolve the company’s special taxing district. The post also said Disney’s theme park attendance experienced a massive drop. Disney’s latest figures regarding its theme parks were released May 11, when the company reported that its revenue increased to $6.7 billion. Disney attributed much of the revenue growth to increased guest spending and attendance at its domestic parks. Similarly, the post’s claim that the company’s subscription-based streaming service, Disney+, had "10.1 million" cancellations is unproven. Disney reported a subscription growth of 33% during the second fiscal quarter, which "partially offset" higher costs related to programming, production and marketing. The figures in the Facebook post closely resemble an article published on USA TATERS, a satirical website started by Christopher Blair. The article also said the company’s CEO was "Joe Barron," a regular fixture of Blair’s satirical websites. In reality, Disney’s chief executive is Bob Chapek. The Facebook versions of the claim did not include a disclaimer that it was satire. We rate this claim Fals

No planes are visible in footage of the 9/11 attack In a video of the World Trade Center on Sept. 1, 2001, that’s being shared on social media, plumes of black smoke rise from one of the towers as a fiery explosion appears on the other. It’s a familiar scene for anyone who remembers watching the immediate news coverage of the attack more than 20 years ago. Only in this video, no plane can be seen crashing into the second tower and causing that burst of flames. "9 1 1," reads a recent Facebook post that shared the video. "Good luck looking for those planes… They censored well, but not long enough: they did not think that truthers would post their videos years later." This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) This video has been edited to scrub the plane from the footage. You can see United Airlines Flight 175 crashing into the World Trade Center’s south tower starting at about the 1:50 mark of this video shot by WPIX Channel 11 cameraman Keith Lopez. Lopez recounted the experience in a 2002 interview with the New York Observer. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 9, 2022 in a Facebook post “Donald Trump is back on Twitter,” thanks to Elon Musk. By Sara Swann • October 10, 2022 "Through his lens, Mr. Lopez’s eye was fixed on the north tower," the story says. "When the south tower burst into flames, he thought he’d seen a bomb explode. Only later, when he paused to rewind the tape — he was worried he’d forgotten to press the record button and missed the explosion — he saw the airplane." Lopez’s recording isn’t the only footage of that moment. Other examples include this still from a video by Evan Fairbanks, this photo from the New York Times and this live broadcast from CNN. This is an incident that was well-documented, investigated and witnessed live by people who were on the ground in New York City and others who were watching TV as the attack unfolded. Nearly 3,000 people died and more than 6,000 others were injured that day, when members of the Islamist terrorist organization al-Qaeda who intentionally targeted the U.S. According to a report on that day’s events by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, the first sign something was amiss on United 175 was at 8:47 a.m. when the plane changed beacon codes twice in a minute and then, a few minutes later, deviated from its assigned altitude and ignored New York air traffic controllers’ repeated attempts to contact it. At 8:52 a.m. one of the passengers called his father and said, "I think they’ve taken over the cockpit — an attendant has been stabbed — and someone else up front may have been killed. The plane is making strange moves. Call United AIrlines — tell them it’s Flight 175, Boston to LA." This Facebook post and video is not accurate and makes a ridiculous claim. That’s our definition for Pants on Fir

Kathy Barnette "pretends she's America First, but repeatedly attacked President Trump. Just before Pennsylvania Republicans choose their Senate nominee, surprise contender Kathy Barnette was attacked by a super PAC that supports Dr. Mehmet Oz, the candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump. "Don’t trust phony Kathy Barnette," says the narrator in a TV ad from Our American Century. "Barnette pretends she’s America First, but repeatedly attacked President Trump." Barnette, who vaulted to the top tier of candidates days before the May 17 primary, criticized Trump during his run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. But after he won the nomination, she pivoted, became a Trump supporter and has campaigned on a platform similar to Trump’s "America First" in style. Anti-Trump until he won 2016 nomination We did not reach Our American Century, a conservative PAC based in McLean, Virginia, that provides no contact information on its website. We received no replies to emails we sent to addresses listed on the organization statement the group filed with the Federal Election Commission. The group’s ad backed up its claim against Barnette by citing excerpts from a May 11, 2022, article on Breitbart, a conservative website. In four Twitter posts from September 2015, Barnette called Trump’s debate performance "horrid," said he would not be a good president, called him liberal" and said his moral character is "questionable." "Did u c d last Presidential Debate. #Trump2016 was horrid." — tweet "#Trump2016 is good 4 beers & barbeque. BUT, not as President." — tweet #Trump2016 is JUST AS LIBERAL as d leaders we currently hv n office. #MoralityMatters & Trump does not rank high in it…" — tweet "#Trump2016 moral character is questionable!" — tweet The article also noted that Barnette wrote in her 2020 book, "Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: Being Black and Conservative in America," that Trump was her least favorite Republican presidential candidate in 2016. "Out of 16 presidential candidates, Donald Trump was no. 16 on my preferred list," she wrote. Then became Trump supporter Much of Barnette’s book, however, praises Trump. Barnette wrote that historically low Black unemployment was the result of Trump’s "proactive support for Black communities." She said he enacted prison reform, revitalized urban areas, and forgave loans to four historically Black colleges and universities. Trump is "an extraordinary man with amazing stamina and broad shoulders capable of carrying the weight of his office," she wrote. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 Barnette’s campaign website includes a page that has a video in which Barnette says she is on her way to vote for Trump in the 2016 general election, and a 2017 tweet in which she writes about why she supports him. Barnette’s campaign also cited to PolitiFact that page and her book. Barnette’s support for Trump also includes participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, protest at the Capitol that turned into an insurrection. A week earlier, Barnette posted a video saying she was organizing buses to travel to Washington, D.C., for the protest. On April 27, 2022, Barnette told a Philadelphia TV station that she attended the protest but did not enter the Capitol. Asked if the 2020 election was stolen, she said: "I do have concerns. I believe there are legitimate concerns about what took place during the election of 2020." On May 16, 2022, NBC News published photos of Barnette marching toward the Capitol alongside members of the far-right extremist Proud Boys group who were later arrested and indicted for breaking into the building and attacking officers. Barnette’s campaign responded by saying Barnette "was in D.C. to support President Trump and demand election accountability." Barnette, who ran for a U.S. House seat in Pennsylvania in 2020, has been put in an awkward position by Trump’s endorsement of Oz and his doubling-down by saying that she can’t win the general election. "I lost by 19 points, Donald Trump lost by more than 26 points," Barnette said May 16 in her final campaign appearance, comparing her 2020 performance in the district with Trump’s margin there, The New York Times reported. "Who’s less electable with those numbers?" Contest could help decide Senate control The Pennsylvania race is for the seat held by Republican Pat Toomey, who was first elected in 2010 and decided not to seek re-election. Besides Barnette and Oz, polls show the other major contender for the GOP nomination is former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick. The Nov. 8 general election race is rated as a toss-up and as "tilts Republican." The outcome could help determine which party controls the Senate, now split 50-50. Our ruling The Our American Century super PAC said Barnette "pretends she's America First, but repeatedly attacked President Trump." Barnette attacked Trump during his run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, but she became a supporter after he won the nomination. We did not find evidence that she’s criticized him directly since, and she supported his re-election campaign in 2020. We rate the statement Half True. PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report. RELATED: Pennsylvania fact-checks RELATED: Wild GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania coming to a clos

Says she never tweeted comments linking pedophilia and Islam Kathy Barnette, the sudden contender for the Republican nomination in Pennsylvania’s U.S. Senate race, was shown one of her tweets during a television interview days before the state’s May 17 primary. The tweet wasn’t visible to viewers, but it was displayed on the phone of NBC News reporter Dasha Burns. Burns showed her phone to Barnette and said: "I mean, this tweet says: ‘Pedophilia is a cornerstone of Islam.’" Barnette said: "Yeah, no, I don’t think that’s me. I would never have said that," according to a clip of the interview posted on YouTube. "OK, I would have never said that, because I don't believe that," Barnette added, according to a longer version of her reply posted on NBCNews.com. But Barnette did post what Burns said she did. Here is what Barnette tweeted from her verified Twitter account on April 10, 2015: "Pedophilia is a Cornerstone of Islam ⋆ UFP NEWS http://fb.me/2zuiyNeXH" Pedophilia is a Cornerstone of Islam ⋆ UFP NEWS http://t.co/PmuXZE7h80— Kathy Barnette (@Kathy4Truth) April 10, 2015 The tweet is still live. The link in Barnette’s tweet is not active. But an archived link shows that two days before her tweet, the link went to that headline on UniversalFreePress.com, also known as UFP News. The article under that headline claimed that child molestation is widespread throughout the Muslim world. UFPNews.com "provides conservative patriots who love liberty a different perspective on government, politics and world news," according to the ZoomInfo database. Barnette’s campaign did not reply to our emails requesting comment. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 15, 2022 in Instagram post Seattle authorities are investigating a string of serial killings. By Michael Majchrowicz • October 17, 2022 Barnette has made other anti-Muslim statements. In a speech uploaded to YouTube in 2015, Barnette said, "The mindset of a Muslim is very different from the mindset of Americans, and that’s the reason why we cannot fully understand the depth of the depravity, the depth of the evil." She said Islam is a "worldview" as well as a religion, and "we have a right to discriminate against worldviews. We discriminated against Hitler’s Nazi Germany view of the world, right?" Barnette tweeted in 2015: "There is nothing rational about Islam." Axios reported on several other anti-Muslim tweets by Barnette, including posts critical of former President Barack Obama that falsely called him a Muslim. In an interview May 15, 2022, Fox News host Shannon Bream asked Barnette about her tweets about Islam, though not about the pedophilia tweet specifically. Barnette said the tweets were "not even full thoughts." "Let me just say in almost all of those tweets, especially when you look at the time frame we were living in at that particular time, we had the Obama administration bringing in a lot of Syrian refugees at that time," Barnette said. "The overwhelming majority of the tweets that are now being presented are not even full thoughts," Barnette added. "So I can't provide a lot of context because, again, it's almost 10 years ago. That's how far they have to go back to try to find anything on me." Dr. Mehmet Oz, another candidate for the GOP nomination, told the Associated Press that Barnette’s tweet is "disqualifying." If elected, the former TV personality would be the Senate’s first Muslim. Contest could help decide Senate control The Pennsylvania race is for the seat held by Republican Pat Toomey, who was first elected in 2010 and decided not to seek re-election. Besides Barnette and Oz, polls indicate the other major contender for the GOP nomination is former hedge fund CEO Dave McCormick. The Nov. 8 general election race is rated as a toss-up and as "tilts Republican." The outcome could help determine which party controls the Senate, now split 50-50. Our ruling Barnette said in an interview that she never tweeted comments linking pedophilia and Islam. In a 2015 tweet, Barnette shared a headline that read, "Pedophilia is a Cornerstone of Islam." We rate Barnette’s interview statement Pants of Fire! PolitiFact staff researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this article. RELATED: Pennsylvania fact-checks RELATED: Wild GOP Senate primary in Pennsylvania coming to a clo

Suggests Megan Thee Stallion was not shot in the foot Social media continues to be a source of misinformation about a high-profile case where one rapper is charged with shooting another. On May 11, multiple Facebook users shared the same image post that suggests Megan Thee Stallion was not shot, but had stepped on glass. "Dr. Loffredo, who treated Megan Thee Stallion, confirmed her foot was wounded due to her stepping on glass," says the Facebook post. It includes photos of Megan and Tory Lanez, who is charged with shooting Megan in 2020. The posts were flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The information appears to have originated with a police report allegedly from the Los Angeles Police Department, published this month by celebrity news site Mob Radio. The LAPD did not respond to our email inquiring whether the police report is authentic. The screenshot of the police report says after a July 2020 altercation, Megan — identified in the report by her real last name, Pete — "was transported to Cedars Sinai and was treated by Dr. Loffredo for lacerations to her left foot. Dr. Loffredo confirmed laceration due to stepping on glass." Dr. Anthony Loffredo is an emergency medicine doctor at Cedars-Sinai, according to the hospital’s website. We did not find any public statements from Loffredo about the case. But the information in that report is consistent with what Megan has said publicly about the timeline of events. On the day of the altercation, Megan told police and doctors that her injury came from stepping on broken glass, according to reports from a December 2021 hearing in the case. She later said she had been shot, and a more detailed medical report from the day of the altercation shows that there are bullet fragments in her foot, CBS and Page Six reported. Lanez is charged with assault with a semi-automatic firearm in connection with the shooting, and prosecutors have said they believe the evidence substantially supports the charges. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 The shooting has been the source of conflicting information from the start. In July 2020, Megan attended a party with Lanez, and later that night, Megan was shot. Initially, Los Angeles police did not name a suspect, explain Megan’s injuries in detail or confirm whether the injuries were gunshot wounds, The New York Times reported in July 2020. In October 2020, Lanez was charged in connection with the shooting. Megan explained in an April 2022 interview with Gayle King that she first told police she stepped on glass because she was worried after the murder of George Floyd what the police might do if they found out someone had a gun. "Surveillance footage of the arrest shows Lanez, the unidentified woman, and later Megan lying spread-eagled on the ground near the vehicle, surrounded by multiple police cars with a helicopter hovering overhead," NBC News reported in October 2020. It’s not the first time false information has circulated on social media in an attempt to cast doubt on Megan’s account. In February, we debunked a claim that it had been revealed in court that Lanez’ DNA was not found on the weapon. Our ruling Facebook posts suggest Megan Thee Stallion was not a shooting victim but had stepped on glass. Megan initially told police and doctors her injury was caused by broken glass, and a document alleged to be the police report reflects that. A more detailed medical report from the day Megan was shot shows that there are bullet fragments in her foot. Police charged Lanez with assault with a semi-automatic firearm in connection with the shooting, and prosecutors have said they believe the evidence substantially supports the charges. We rate this claim False.

“Finland joins NATO. A recent Facebook post warns that World War III is looming "as Finland joins NATO." On May 15, Finland’s prime minister and president announced that the country will apply to join NATO in response to Russia invading Ukraine. But Finland hasn’t joined NATO yet, and Turkey has voiced concerns about the country doing so. This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Finland’s parliament still must vote on whether to join NATO, but it’s considered a formality because a majority of lawmakers favor it. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meanwhile, said on May 13 that Turkey is "not favorable" toward Finland joining NATO. The following day, an adviser to Erdogan told Reuters, "We are not closing the door. But we are basically raising the issue as a matter of national security for Turkey." NATO makes all decisions by consensus. RELATED VIDEO If Finland formally applies for membership, as is expected, leaders from other countries have advocated for a quick accession to the military alliance. It could then take around six months for member countries to ratify the accession protocol, NPR reported. The statement in this post that Finland has joined NATO contains an element of truth — the country has said it plans to apply — but it ignores critical facts. Finland has not yet formally applied to join NATO, and Turkey could block its membership. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has said Turkey has made it clear that’s not its intention. We rate this post Mostly False.

The NewProfilePic app is Russian spyware A new phone app is making waves on social media as people use it to recreate their selfies into caricatures of themselves. But according to a rising number of claims, the NewProfilePic app is bad news. "GUYS! If you’ve downloaded the new app fad going around making your pictures into characters DELETE IT!" one Facebook post warned. "You’re giving it permission to have access to your cards, any banking information on your phone, contacts, etc. It’s from a Russian based company and there are already reports of them wiping out bank accounts." That post, along with others, quickly spread on social media, and the Daily Mail also reported on the claim. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) But those rumors don’t paint the right picture — the app isn’t sending your information to Russia. Here’s how you can tell. Who owns the app, and how does it work? NewProfilePic was created by a mobile development group called Informe Laboratories Inc., and copyrighted by Linerock Investments Ltd., said Kristina Lunina, a Linerock Investments spokesperson. The app is available on Google Play and the Apple App Store. We looked at the app’s permissions in both stores — neither of them state that the app accesses people’s banking or contact information. When we clicked on the app’s privacy policy for both Google and Apple, we were directed to Linerock Investments’ website. The privacy policy lists what their apps can access. Contrary to the claim, it doesn’t include banking information or contacts. "We collect your name, email address, user name, social network information and other information you provide when you register, set up an account, contact us by email or use our services," Linerock Investment Ltd. states. "We may also obtain information from other companies and combine that with the information we collect on the Services." We tested and explored NewProfilePic for ourselves. Here’s how it works: Once users download and open the app, it asks whether they'd like to try a three-day trial for its pro version, which costs $29.99. Users can bypass that and head to the app’s home screen, which includes a "choose photo" button. The app then asks for permission to access photos and media on the device. People can select which photos they want to turn into cartoons, and the app will generate those images into caricatures. Featured Fact-check Tucker Carlson stated on October 27, 2022 in a TV segment The United States is "about to run out of diesel fuel ... by the Monday of Thanksgiving week." By Andy Nguyen • November 7, 2022 PolitiFact staff writers Yacob Reyes, Samantha Putterman and Gabrielle Settles Lunina said the app’s permissions aren’t much different from those on Instagram or TikTok. We found that’s true, except for a key difference — TikTok and Instagram both ask for permission to access people’s contact lists to connect users with their friends on the apps. Does NewProfilePic send user’s information to Russia? In a word, no. Lunina explained that all user photos are hosted and processed on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure servers, which are in the United States. The app’s developers do have some ties to Russia, but not as extensive as some have claimed. Linerock’s headquarters are based in the British Virgin Islands, and they have development offices in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Snopes reported that the company’s domain was formerly registered in Moscow, but now, it’s registered in Florida. Lunina said the domain address in Moscow was registered to the former address of Victor Sazhin, the founder of Linerock. "He does not live in the Russian Federation now," she wrote in an email to PolitiFact. "Currently, the address was changed in order to avoid any confusion." Sazhin wrote in an Instagram post of his own Russian and Ukrainian heritage, noting that the company’s team consists of people from both countries. "We understand that due to the current events in Ukraine, any connection to Russia could raise suspicions," Lunina said. "We did not and do not plan to have any affiliation with any governmental organizations of any country." Our ruling Social media posts claim the NewProfilePic app accesses people’s banking information and contact lists and sends them to Russia. The app does not ask for that information. It asks for access to the user’s camera, photos and media. A spokesperson for one of the app’s developers said users’ images are stored on servers in the United States, not Russia. The app’s domain was formerly registered in Moscow because the founder once lived there. However, he has since moved, and the app’s domain address has changed. We rate this claim False. PolitiFact researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this fact check.

State Sen. Kirk deViere voted against Medicaid expansion, the governor’s budget and teacher raises A political mailer circulating in North Carolina says a Democratic legislator voted against issues important to his own party and Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The ad by N.C. Futures Action Fund, a liberal political action committee, accuses state Sen. Kirk deViere of siding with Republicans on key issues. It says he: "Voted no on Medicaid expansion for children and seniors. "Voted no on better pay for our teachers. "Voted no on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Democratic budget plan." Cooper’s allies have said deViere has been too friendly with Republicans who control the state legislature, thereby giving away leverage Democrats may have held in budget negotiations. Cooper took the unusual step of endorsing deViere’s opponent, former Fayetteville City Council member Val Applewhite, in District 19’s Democratic primary. Now the N.C. Futures Action Fund, a dark money group funded by liberal donor Dean Debnam, is paying for attack ads against deViere. While deViere’s critics have said he engages with Republicans in "backroom" dealing — a claim deViere disputes — the mailer goes a step further by making false claims about the senator’s votes. Asked about the "voted no" claims in the ad, N.C. Futures Action Fund spokesman Michael Weisel said the citations reflect deViere’s actions and aren’t meant to be taken literally. Weisel in an email said that deViere, behind closed doors, was presented with multiple opportunities during budget negotiations to stand with Cooper and his caucus, but "caved." Weisel suggested that by voting for the Republican budget, deViere therefore rejected Cooper’s spending plan. When asked to substantiate the claim related to the negotiations, he didn’t immediately provide a response. He previously provided links to WRAL articles about state senate votes on budget bills, but no proof that deViere voted against the issues mentioned in the mailer. "The statement ‘voting no’ does not require a legislative bill vote, nor does the statement of a bill vote appear in any educational advocacy presented for these points," Weisel said in the email. "Backroom whispers, winks and nods determine whether legislative agendas and policies win or lose, not somebody’s name on a legislative bill vote tally," Weisel added. DeViere says that attack is built on lies. "Legislators are accountable for our votes because a vote shows constituents where we stand ‘on record,’" deViere said in an email. "The claims and statements in this ad and in other ads created by this organization that have run in support of my opponent are flat out false and incorrect. My voting record shows that I delivered results for teachers and public education as a whole, as well as furthered the expansion of Medicaid." Featured Fact-check Senate Leadership Fund stated on October 11, 2022 in a political ad Cheri Beasley “backs tax hikes — even on families making under $75,000.” By Paul Specht • October 31, 2022 Let’s break down the claims in the ad. Medicaid expansion. The mailer says deViere "voted no" on Medicaid expansion and cites "voting statistics 2021-22." This is inaccurate. A clean bill expanding Medicaid as proposed by Cooper didn’t make it to the floor during the most recent legislative session. Cooper and Democrats for years have been pushing to expand Medicaid to provide health insurance coverage to more North Carolinians. The problem for Democrats is that the GOP holds a majority in both chambers of the General Assembly, and many Republican members oppose expansion. House Speaker Tim Moore effectively ruled out Medicaid expansion again last year, saying it couldn’t be included in budget negotiations because it didn’t have enough support in the House. The final state budget — a deal struck between Republican leaders and Cooper — did extend by one year postpartum health care coverage for mothers on Medicaid using funding provided by the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan. DeViere was one of several state Senate Democrats who voted for the final version of the budget. Teacher pay. The mailer says deViere opposed "better pay for our teachers," and cites a June 25, 2021, vote on an early version of the budget, as well as "Governor’s Budget Recommendations, 2021-23." Voters might get the impression from the ad that deViere opposed raises for teachers or that he voted against the governor’s budget plan. Neither is true. Senate Bill 105 is the budget bill introduced by Republican leaders last year that was amended several times before party leaders reached the budget agreement. The final version of the bill, which became law, gave teachers an average 5% raise over two years, plus a bonus of at least $2,300 in federal pandemic relief money. It also granted an extra $500 to teachers who earn less than $75,000 a year, WRAL reported. The bill as written on June 25 also included teacher raises, albeit smaller ones. WRAL reported that the June proposal included teacher raises of about 3% over two years. The early version received less bipartisan support than the final budget compromise. DeViere was one of four Senate Democrats who supported it. Congressional candidates Ben Clark and Don Davis also voted in favor of it, but neither was called out by Cooper for their votes. The governor’s budget. The ad says deViere "voted no on Gov. Roy Cooper’s Democratic budget plan," citing the budget bill and the governor’s initial budget proposal. That’s also inaccurate. Cooper’s budget proposal was filed as a bill in the state Senate. However, as is the case with most governors’ budget plans, it was never given a vote on the floor or even heard in a committee. In other words, deViere was never asked to choose between the governor’s budget and the GOP budget. The Democrats’ minority status gives the party limited leverage in budget negotiations. Our ruling The N.C. Futures Action Action Fund ad says deViere "voted no" on Medicaid expansion, teacher raises, and the governor’s budget. But the state senate was never asked to vote on Medicaid expansion or the governor’s budget during the 2021-22 session, as suggested by the mailer. The mailer cites deViere’s vote on SB 105 as opposing "better pay" for teachers. That bill included raises for teachers, something Cooper praised when he signed it. We rate this claim Fals

“When President Biden took office … there was no vaccine available. The White House recently tweeted that when President Joe Biden took office, "there was no vaccine available." After widespread pushback on social media, it retracted the claim. On May 12, the White House’s official Twitter account sent a tweet that said in part that "when President Biden took office … there was no vaccine available" for COVID-19. When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available. In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President's term ever recorded.— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 12, 2022 The tweet attracted wide notice, with critics noting, among other things, that Biden himself had received his first vaccination on Dec. 21, 2020, which was about a month before he was sworn in. Today, I received the COVID-19 vaccine.To the scientists and researchers who worked tirelessly to make this possible — thank you. We owe you an awful lot.And to the American people — know there is nothing to worry about. When the vaccine is available, I urge you to take it. pic.twitter.com/QBtB620i2V— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 22, 2020 On May 13, the White House walked back its original statement, tweeting, "We previously misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021. We should have said that they were not widely available. Vaccines became available shortly before the president came into office. Since then, he’s responsible for fully vaccinating over 200 million people." We previously misstated that vaccines were unavailable in January 2021. We should have said that they were not widely available. Vaccines became available shortly before the President came into office. Since then, he’s responsible for fully vaccinating over 200 million people. https://t.co/rHJ0GZ63Dy— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 13, 2022 The White House erred in its first attempt at framing its record on vaccines. While coronavirus vaccines were often hard for ordinary Americans to get, they did exist and were being administered. The first vaccination was administered to an employee at Long Island Jewish Medical Center on Dec. 14, 2020, or six days before Biden received his first shot. Initially, health care workers were among the few categories of Americans who were allowed to receive a vaccination. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 On Dec. 22, 2020, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made its recommendations for allocating COVID-19 vaccines at a time when production was first ramping up. The idea was to target the available vaccines to those who were most at risk. "Phase 1a" was reserved for health care personnel and residents of long-term care facilities, or about 24 million people. In "phase 1b," vaccines would be reserved for people 75 years and older and "frontline essential workers" outside of the health care context, a number estimated to total 49 million. In "phase 1c," the vaccine would be given to people between 65 and 74 years, or younger people with certain "high-risk medical conditions," totaling about 129 million people. The actual prioritization decisions were made individually by states, and many states experienced challenges in distributing and allocating the vaccines they had received, both before Biden took office and after. On Jan. 8, or 12 days before Biden took office, the Associated Press reported that of 21.4 million doses distributed, only about 5.9 million had been administered. By that point, the vast majority of doses would have been administered to health care workers, residents of long-term facilities, or other very old Americans. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); The data shows that vaccinations accelerated during the first few months of Biden’s presidency. All told, in the 37 days before Biden took office, 21.3 million doses were administered. In Biden’s first 37 days in office, 60.5 million doses were administered, or almost triple the number in the equivalent period before he was sworn in. Our ruling The White House said, "When President Biden took office … there was no vaccine available." A vaccine did exist before Biden took office. In fact, Biden himself received his first shot about a month before he took office. In all, more than 20 million shots were administered while Trump was president. That said, the notion that the vaccine was not "widely available," as the White House’s corrected tweet put it, has better support. Initially, only health-care and other frontline workers, along with the most elderly Americans, were eligible. It took until several months into Biden’s presidency before non-elderly, non-immunocompromised Americans were able to get shots. We rate the statement Fals

“Your government quietly confirmed the fully vaccinated are developing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome. We’ve already debunked claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause AIDS, contain "HIV lipid wrappers" and have eight strains of HIV, and that the United Kingdom government has reports that suggest "the fully vaccinated" are rapidly developing AIDS. A May 15 blog post doubles down on this misinformation with a sensational headline: "Your Government quietly confirmed the Fully Vaccinated are developing Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome while they had you worried about Russia-Ukraine & the cost of living." This is wrong, which is why the post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) "Something is very wrong, and it is because of the Covid-19 injections," the post says. "All around the world, Governments are publishing official data that all show the same thing. Those same Governments however are not willing to explain why." But while the post makes lots of allegations, there’s no evidence to support the claim that governments, including the U.S. government, have said that people vaccinated against COVID-19 are developing AIDS. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause HIV or AIDS, or make people more susceptible to them. The vaccines bolster the immune system, not weaken it. A spokesperson for the UK Health Security Agency told PolitiFact last year that "COVID-19 vaccines do not cause AIDS." RELATED VIDEO According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "there is no association between COVID-19 vaccines and risk for HIV infection." Medical experts have echoed this. There is "no way" any COVID-19 vaccine can cause HIV infection or AIDS, Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease expert specializing in HIV research told us. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

Photos of the alleged Buffalo shooting gunman show two different people Authorities have identified 18-year-old Payton Gendron as the suspect in a May 14 massacre at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, that left 10 people dead and others injured. Unfounded false flag claims often follow mass shootings in the United States, and this one is no different. Among them is a conspiracy theory that suggests images taken of Gendron after the shooting show not one but two crisis actors. "Went from ginger haired ‘fit’ person to a black haired heavy dude," one May 14 post says. "In less than one hour." The post shows two photos. One is of Gendron in a white paper gown and white face mask as he was being arraigned in Buffalo City Court on May 14. The other shows him wearing green camo-print clothes outside the grocery store in police custody earlier that day. His hair in that photo appears more auburn than in the photo of the court hearing. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 10, 2022 in a post “Premature babies are at a much higher risk of injury from immunizations than full-term babies.” By Andy Nguyen • October 13, 2022 This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Someone’s hair color can look different in an image depending on a number of factors, such as lighting, whether a photo was taken inside or outside, and other conditions under which it was taken. RELATED VIDEO Other photos taken at the arraignment show Gendron with the same shade of hair as it appeared when he was in custody outside. In none of the images, including the ones that appear in the Facebook post, does it appear black. But in some photos from the hearing, it looks more brown. That appears to be because some images taken at the hearing were shot through a plexiglass partition separating the defendant from the gallery where the public and press sit. There’s no evidence to support the claim that the person photographed in the courtroom is not the same person photographed outside the grocery store. Both are Gendron. We rate this post Pants on Fire!

“It costs more to live in many Florida cities than New York City. U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist, a Democratic candidate for governor, laid bare what he thought was at stake on the ballot for Florida voters this November: affordable housing. Floridians "are ready for a governor that is focused on the real issues facing our state," Crist said at a May 4 press conference. "This is the real crisis: It costs more to live in many Florida cities than New York City." Florida residents are struggling against the backdrop of rising rental prices, explosive demand and limited supply. But are rents as steep as Crist made it seem? It’s a bit more complicated than his comparison suggests. Most Florida cities are less expensive than New York City The cost of living in Florida has risen significantly since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Rent prices have particularly skyrocketed from West Palm Beach to Miami, according to data maintained by Realtor.com. Realtor.com published a report in March indicating that the median rent in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area increased about 57% in the last year. The report examined 50 "core-based statistical areas," meaning geographic regions drafted by the White House Office of Management and Budget that often consist of two or more socioeconomically-tied counties. South Florida, with a median rent of $2,988 a month, outpaced New York City’s median rent of $2,750 in March, per the report. The tri-county region also experienced growth at a faster year-over-year pace than New York City. Other large metro areas in Florida, however, lagged behind New York City in median rent. For example, the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area had a median rent of $2,114 a month, an annual increase of around 30%. The median rent price in Jacksonville was $1,580, and the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford area was $1,886. So, New York’s median rent is actually higher than most Florida cities. When looking at for-sale home prices, New York City’s median asking price is also more expensive. "From the standpoint of actual rents and property prices, the New York metro remains one of the most expensive metros in the country," said Ken Johnson, a real estate economist and dean of Florida Atlantic University’s College of Business. Featured Fact-check Rebekah Jones stated on October 26, 2022 in a post on Instagram Document shows Rebekah Jones “demonstrated” a violation of Florida’s Whistleblower Act. By Sara Swann • November 1, 2022 Florida’s rental and ownership premiums outpace New York City Crist's characterization is more accurate from the standpoint of rental and ownership premiums, or the percentage difference between the statistically estimated prices of a metro area and its current prices. Real estate economists measure rental and ownership premiums to assist consumers in gauging whether their current market is over or underpriced. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University and the University of Alabama analyzed large rental markets across the U.S. and developed a ranking of the most overpriced areas. Of the 25 most overvalued rental markets in the nation, the highest five are all in Florida. "Six months ago, only a couple of Florida metros could be found in the Top 25 of this ranking," Johnson told PolitiFact. "Thus, Florida markets appear to be rising through this ranking very quickly." The research showed the residents living in Miami-Fort Lauderdale, Fort Myers, Tampa, North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton and Port St. Lucie are paying rent that is overpriced. In Miami-Fort Lauderdale, for example, renters are paying around 21% more than what they should be, based on the area’s long-term trends. That is the most overvalued market in Florida. Meanwhile, New York City wasn’t featured on the list. According to another study measuring more than 100 U.S. rental markets, New York City ranked 98th. "In terms of a premium, the New York metro is one of the least expensive metros in the country," Johnson said. Our ruling Crist said, "It costs more to live in many Florida cities than New York City." PolitiFact found that the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach area’s median rent exceeded New York City's. However, while Florida cities have experienced record growth, their median rental prices still lag behind New York City. Crist has more of a point when it comes to rental and ownership premiums. According to a study analyzing more than 1oo U.S. rental markets, New York City had one of the least overpriced rents in the country. We rate Crist’s claim Half Tru

“Kathy Barnette wants to build a statue of Barack Obama right next to the one of Abraham Lincoln on Capitol Hill. Pennsylvania Republican Kathy Barnette’s surge in the race for the U.S. Senate GOP nomination means she’s become a target of criticism from some corners of the Republican Party. USA Freedom Fund, a super PAC with links to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, released an ad that cast Barnette as a fan of former President Barack Obama. Here’s what the ad said: "Remember when Barack Obama called us bitter, saying in Pennsylvania, we cling to guns or religion or dislike people who aren't like us? Remember how that made you feel? One candidate for Senate doesn't care. In fact, Kathy Barnette wants to build a statue of Barack Obama right next to the one of Abraham Lincoln on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kathy Barnette — woke Republican. Out of touch with Pennsylvania." Barnette did propose adding a statue of Obama. But that statement alone misses the context that she never supported Obama or his policies. The attack ad seems to suggest otherwise. The spot in Washington, D.C.’s Capitol Hill neighborhood that the ad refers to is Lincoln Park, about a mile east of the Capitol Building. In the middle of the broad, grassy area sits the Emancipation Memorial, a statue that shows Lincoln standing as a formerly enslaved person rises up from a kneeling position. The statue was paid for through a fundraising effort organized by an emancipated woman. Thomas Ball's sculpture depicts President Abraham Lincoln freeing an enslaved man. (NPS) The writer and civil rights leader Frederick Douglass gave the keynote speech at the memorial’s dedication in April 1876. In 2020, during the removal of statues of historic figures who had owned slaves or were tied to the slave trade, Barnette launched an online petition to add two statues on either side of the Emancipation Memorial. One would be of the Obama family, and the other of Douglass. Featured Fact-check Kanye West stated on October 16, 2022 in an interview Suggests fentanyl, not Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd By Gabrielle Settles • October 18, 2022 "We suggest the new statue be positioned so that the freed slave of the Emancipation Memorial Statue appears to be looking towards the First Family," Barnette wrote in the petition. "This will serve as an example of how far we have come as a nation and how we stand today on the shoulders of those who have come before us. " Asked on a Philadelphia radio show about her plan, Barnette acknowledged that she did so, and explained her intent. "You have a former slave, Frederick Douglass, looking at a slave that’s rising from slavery, because he’s emancipated by Lincoln," Barnette said May 12 on "The Chris Stigall Show." "And you have that slave looking into the future of where this nation will be." Asked if she supported Obama, Barnette said, "No." "I did not vote for Obama either term," she said. "I looked at who he was, and it did not align with where I am, and what I want for this country." In 2016, after seven Iranians were freed in a prisoner swap, Barnette tweeted, "Don't we get it? Obama is a Muslim!" Our ruling A super PAC claimed "Kathy Barnette wants to build a statue of Barack Obama right next to the one of Abraham Lincoln on Capitol Hill." Barnette said she did propose a statue of Obama and his family, but she never voted for him, or backed his policies. Her idea was to use three statues to show how far Black people have come since the time of slavery. The statement is accurate but needs clarification. We rate this claim Mostly True.

Joe Biden “inherited inflation of 1.7%. Now we're well over 8% and growing. Late in Pennsylvania’s hotly contested Republican Senate primary, Kathy Barnette emerged from seemingly nowhere to challenge the two far better-known and better-funded candidates: celebrity surgeon Dr. Mehmet Oz and former hedge fund executive Dave McCormick. Barnette, a conservative activist and military veteran, posted portions of an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham to her Facebook page in which the candidate criticized President Joe Biden’s handling of the economy, especially the rise in inflation. Biden, she said, "inherited inflation of 1.7%. Now we're well over 8% and growing." This is basically accurate, though what she indicated about inflation still "growing" is speculative. The benchmark inflation measurement, known as the consumer price index, is often calculated by how much the basket of measured goods cost compared to the same month one year earlier. In Biden’s first full month in office, February 2021, prices were 1.7% higher than they were in February 2020. That’s the figure Barnette cited. Prices have risen consistently ever since. The peak so far came in March 2022, when prices stood 8.5% higher than they were in March 2021. This also tracks with Barnette’s statement. !function(e,i,n,s){var t="InfogramEmbeds",d=e.getElementsByTagName("script")[0];if(window[t]&&window[t].initialized)window[t].process&&window[t].process();else if(!e.getElementById(n)){var o=e.createElement("script");o.async=1,o.id=n,o.src="https://e.infogram.com/js/dist/embed-loader-min.js",d.parentNode.insertBefore(o,d)}}(document,0,"infogram-async"); Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 25, 2022 in an Instagram post The documentary “2,000 Mules proves” Democrats “cheated on the 2020 elections.” By Jon Greenberg • October 28, 2022 That said, after hitting 8.5% in March, the year-over-year figure for April was 8.3%, which was a decrease, albeit a slight one. Barnette may eventually be proven right to say that inflation will keep growing, but to say so now runs counter to the most recent month and amounts to speculation. While no one knows how inflation will look over the next few months, it’s possible that the rate of increase could slow somewhat, just based on how the figure is calculated. In May 2020, inflation was 5%, which was significantly higher than the previous year-ago baseline that has been used for the calculation in recent months. So is Biden to blame? Economists say his policies have played a role, but that they are one factor among many. Economists estimate that the money circulated by Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan has driven half or less of the inflation bump. The rest of the factors include COVID-19’s impact on labor markets and supply chains and, most recently, Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has driven a price shock for gasoline. Our ruling Barnette said Biden "inherited inflation of 1.7%. Now we're well over 8% and growing." She is right on the numbers: Inflation has spiked significantly on Biden’s watch, partially though not entirely due to his policies, according to analysts. However, the year-over-year increase in inflation dropped slightly between March 2022 and April 2022, so to say it’s still "growing" is premature. We rate the statement Mostly Tru

Homemade baby formula recipes offer a ‘viable option’ during U.S. shortag As people grapple with America’s infant formula shortage, some social media users have started sharing homemade recipes, telling frantic parents who can’t find food for their babies that they can make their own formula instead. One post claimed, falsely, that the "shortage is manufactured" and then went on to say that people could use raw goat’s milk or make her friend’s homemade recipe. Another offered a recipe with cow’s milk, whey and a variety of oils, saying homemade formula can be a "viable option when you do it correctly." And another offered up a tattered 1960s recipe card that called for giving the baby two level tablespoons of Karo corn syrup. Feeding babies homemade formula — no matter how legitimate or questionable the recipe may appear — is dangerous and not recommended as an alternative to store-bought formula. The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) The U.S. Food and Drug Administration advises against making formula and says consuming homemade formula can result in adverse health effects for infants. The American Academy of Pediatrics also strongly advises against homemade formulas, saying they are not safe and do not meet babies’ nutritional needs. The shortage of infant formula has been attributed to COVID-19 related supply chain issues, inflation, and a February 2022 product recall by Abbott, a major U.S. manufacturer of baby food, that temporarily halted production at its Sturgis, Michigan plant. The White House recently announced steps intended to ease the shortage, including making it easier to import formula and cracking down on price gouging. The FDA is also expediting and streamlining some of its processes in an effort to address the shortage. Following cases in 2021 of hospitalized infants suffering from low calcium after being fed homemade formula, the FDA reported that potential problems with homemade versions include contamination and inadequate amounts of critical nutrients. Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 12, 2022 in an Instagram post Pfizer executive “admits” vaccine was never tested for preventing transmission. By Jeff Cercone • October 13, 2022 "These problems are very serious, and the consequences range from severe nutritional imbalances to foodborne illnesses, both of which can be life-threatening," the agency said. Homemade formulas may not provide enough of some nutrients, or they can contain too-large quantities of others, which is equally dangerous. For example, homemade formula might have too much salt, which infants’ kidneys and livers cannot handle in large amounts, wrote Dr. Steven Abrams, chair of the National Committee on Nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a May 9 blog post. "If your baby doesn't get enough of the important parts of infant formula — even for a few days or weeks — they can suffer long term effects on their abilities to grow strong and do well in school," Abrams said. "Lack of these nutrients can lead to severe health problems and even death. Homemade formulas may also lead to risks of contamination, causing infections or may even cause serious problems with high or low levels of minerals like calcium or electrolytes such as sodium." Commercial infant formulas, on the other hand, "are designed to mimic human breast milk as closely as possible, and are carefully regulated to make sure they have the nutrients growing babies need — in a form their bodies can process," the New York Times reported. Our ruling Social media users are sharing homemade infant formula recipes amid the shortage and are claiming that homemade formula is safe. Pediatricians and organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and FDA all advise against making and feeding homemade baby formula to infants. These recipes can rob babies of essential nutrients needed for development and may also lead to risks of contamination and infection. Such recipes aren’t considered safe and should not replace store-bought formula. We rate posts stating otherwise False

“We’re one of the seven nations in the world that allow abortion on demand at 20 weeks. In an interview on Fox News, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said the U.S. is unusually permissive on abortion relative to the rest of the world. "We’re one of the seven nations in the world that allow abortion on demand at 20 weeks," Graham said May 8 on "Fox News Sunday." Graham spokesman Kevin Bishop told PolitiFact that group included China and North Korea, adding that "the United States should not be in that club." The group also includes countries, such as Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea and New Zealand. But before we dig into the details, Graham’s phrase, "abortion on demand," opens the door to adding more countries to the list. Particularly in Europe, broad exceptions allow women to get an abortion at up to 20 to 24 weeks. Graham’s statistic traces back to a 2014 report by the Charlotte Lozier Institute, a research group that opposes abortion. The countries flagged in the Lozier report are: the United States, China, North Korea, Canada, the Netherlands, Vietnam and Singapore. The Lozier study included countries if their laws failed to specify the allowed reasons for an abortion — the woman's well-being, for example — and permitted abortions at 20 weeks or later in the pregnancy. In a footnote, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito referred to the report in his leaked draft opinion, which would overturn the 1973 landmark case Roe v. Wade. The footnote also cited data from the Center for Reproductive Rights, a group that supports abortion rights, and added Iceland and Guinea-Bissau to the list because they "are now also similarly permissive." Margaret Harpin, a legal adviser for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told PolitiFact that by their count, 12 countries now allow abortions up to 20 weeks or later without specifying a particular reason for seeking one. Graham’s reference to seven nations tracks with the 2014 Lozier study, but since then, laws have changed and that number has increased to 12. Beyond that, PolitiFact’s analysis found that there are more nations that allow abortions at or beyond the 20-week mark. They do so on the basis of socioeconomic welfare or mental health. Graham cast the U.S. as an outlier, but Fordham University law professor Julie Suk said international comparisons are challenging. "Many Americans use the term ‘abortion on demand’ in a way that would encompass ‘medically indicated abortion’ in Europe," Suk said. "So the comparison of abortion here and abortion in Europe gets very sloppy and confused." (The challenge of international comparisons has led to different PolitiFact ratings over the years, with most finding that claims like Graham’s leave out important context.) Reasons why other countries allow abortions beyond 20 weeks Under current U.S. Supreme Court rulings, a woman has the right to an abortion up to the point of viability of the fetus. No exact minimum number of weeks defines when a fetus can survive outside the womb. The most premature infant that has survived in the U.S. was born at about 21 weeks. Once a fetus is viable, states can ban abortion, so long as the mother's life or health isn’t at risk. Featured Fact-check Facebook posts stated on October 9, 2022 in a Facebook post “Donald Trump is back on Twitter,” thanks to Elon Musk. By Sara Swann • October 10, 2022 In over 20 countries, family circumstances or mental health are grounds for an abortion at 20 weeks or later. In Australia, laws vary by state or territory, but the three largest states permit abortions at 22 to 24 weeks. Japan allows abortions up to 22 weeks for socioeconomic reasons. In South Africa, abortions based on socioeconomic factors are allowed up to 20 weeks. Rwanda allows abortions on broad socioeconomic grounds until 22 weeks. Our scan of laws across Europe found 18 countries extend the allowable number of weeks to get an abortion based on the mental health of the mother or socioeconomic concerns. In the Czech Republic, an abortion can take place up to week 20 for mental health reasons. In Ukraine, the law gives flexibility up to the 22nd week. Great Britain allows abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy if continuation of the pregnancy involves risk "of injury to physical or mental health" of the patient or any of her existing children. Northeastern University law professor Martha Davis has spoken with legal experts across Europe about the ease of accessing abortions at 20 weeks or later. "Folks from places like Denmark, Sweden, England, and others with similar laws said that it was a non-issue to meet the paper requirements to obtain a later term abortion," Davis said. Law professor Federico Fabbrini at Dublin City University said that a woman’s request carries weight and in the U.K., "medical approval of an abortion request is a matter of course," at up to 24 weeks in pregnancy. Access to abortion in other countries not based purely on individual rights The U.S. and other countries view abortion law through different lenses. In Europe and elsewhere, a woman’s right to choose is less at the center of these laws than Americans might think. "None of the countries that the U.S. considers to be its peers recognize a constitutional right to terminate pregnancy, as a matter of private choice, for any reason, up until the moment of fetal viability," wrote Suk of Fordham in a forthcoming William and Mary Law Review article. It’s less about individual rights, Suk said, and more about defining the terms of what will lead to the best outcome for both the country and the person who is pregnant and their family. A de facto three-phase approach has emerged. In the first phase, the state imposes few limits on abortions up to about 11 to 14 weeks. "Between early pregnancy and approaching the viability line — anywhere from 20 to 28 weeks — the law imposes procedural hurdles for permitted abortions," Suk wrote. After that, the law might or might not explicitly ban abortions, but in either case, they are rare and only occur in immediate life-threatening circumstances. Our ruling Graham said that the U.S. is one of "seven nations in the world that allow abortion on demand at 20 weeks." This is based on a 2014 study from a center that opposes abortion rights; the study highlighted countries that allow abortions at 20 weeks or later in a pregnancy and whose laws did not spell out under what circumstances abortions are permitted. Since that study, five additional countries now meet those criteria. And beyond that, there are more than 20 countries with flexible frameworks that allow abortions at 20 weeks or later. Graham’s statement is partially accurate but leaves out important details and context. We rate his claim Half True. RELATED: Fact-checking 5 claims in the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wa

Says people can follow a 1960 recipe for homemade baby formula as a workaround during the current shortage The Facebook post makes it sound deceptively simple: To circumvent a nationwide shortage of baby formula, just make your own. But experts strongly disagree. The May 11 post says people can follow a 1960 recipe for homemade baby formula as a workaround during the current shortage. It shows a photo of the recipe, with ingredients that include evaporated milk and Karo syrup. The caption says, "Y’all, I felt this was pertinent information to share considering the shortages we are facing with our babies. I personally have not used this method yet but glad to have the details just in case!" The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.) Featured Fact-check Instagram posts stated on October 19, 2022 in a post The diphtheria vaccine is a “poison dart” with side effects worse than the symptoms of diphtheria. By Andy Nguyen • October 24, 2022 (Screenshot from Facebook) Making baby formula is not as simple as it sounds, though. The U.S. Food & Drug Administration advises against it, and says consuming homemade formula can result in adverse health effects for infants. The American Academy of Pediatrics also strongly advises against homemade formulas, saying they are not safe and do not meet babies’ nutritional needs. The shortage of infant formula, attributed to COVID-19 related supply chain issues and a product recall that led to a temporary facility shutdown by a major formula manufacturer, has increased dramatically since the first half of 2021, with 40% of formulas now out of stock nationwide, The Atlantic reported. The White House recently announced steps intended to ease the shortage, including making it easier to import formula and cracking down on price gouging. The FDA is also expediting and streamlining some of its processes in an effort to address the shortage. Following cases in 2021 of hospitalized infants suffering from low calcium after being fed homemade formula, the FDA reported that potential problems with homemade versions include contamination and inadequate amounts of critical nutrients. "These problems are very serious, and the consequences range from severe nutritional imbalances to foodborne illnesses, both of which can be life-threatening," according to the agency. Homemade formulas may not provide enough of some nutrients, or they can contain too-large quantities of others, which is equally dangerous. For example, homemade formula might have too much salt, which infants’ kidneys and livers cannot handle in large amounts, wrote Dr. Steven Abrams, chair of the National Committee on Nutrition for the American Academy of Pediatrics, in a May 9 blog post. Commercial infant formulas, on the other hand, "are designed to mimic human breast milk as closely as possible, and are carefully regulated to make sure they have the nutrients growing babies need — in a form their bodies can process," the New York Times reported. Regarding the 1960 recipe featured in the Facebook post, a pediatric gastroenterologist told CBS News DFW that our understanding of nutrition has evolved since that time. "What worked or what they thought worked in the 1960s, we have much better scientific knowledge now to know that it can cause short-term harm, but most importantly, long-term harm for the baby," said Dr. Rina Sanghavi, of UT Southwestern Children's Health Dallas. Our ruling A Facebook post says people can follow a 1960 recipe for homemade baby formula as a workaround during the current shortage. But the FDA advises against it, and says consuming homemade formula can result in adverse health effects for infants. And the American Academy of Pediatrics also strongly advises against homemade formulas, saying they are not safe and do not meet babies’ nutritional needs. We rate this claim False.

The Biden administration has been "recklessly releasing potentially dangerous Afghans into our communities. Editor's note: In September of 2022, the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security issued a report that raised questions about the vetting procedures of Afghan refugees and indicated DHS lacked "critical data to properly screen, vet and inspect" Afghan evacuees after the Taliban takeover of the country in August 2021. That prompted a request to review this item, since the new information reflects the same time period covered previously. However, it is the practice of PolitiFact to rate items based on the information known at the time -- known to us, and to the person making the claim. With that in mind, we are not breaking precedent to re-examine the rating. It is worth noting that DHS officials dispute parts of the Inspector General report and outline the steps they took to vet refugees, including biometric scans. More on that response -- and about the issue in general -- can be found in this Sept. 7, 2022 article from CBS News. As Afghans resettle across the country and the United States examines how it evacuated and screened tens of thousands of refugees, U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany is among those who sees shortcomings in the process – and squarely blames the Biden Administration. "As I warned last year, the #BidenAdministration has been recklessly releasing potentially dangerous Afghans into our communities. The White House told us they were ‘fully vetted.’ They lied," Tiffany wrote on Twitter on Feb. 18, 2022. Tiffany, whose district includes Wausau, Marshfield and Minocqua, made the comments following the release of a U.S. Department of Defense inspector general’s report evaluating the department’s efforts in screening refugees when assisting the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Tiffany’s office did not return phone calls or emails from PolitiFact Wisconsin. But his tweet included a link to a news article about the analysis, so there is no doubt what he is referring to. For this fact-check, we are zeroing in on the most concrete aspect of Tiffany’s claim – whether, according to the analysis, the Biden administration has been "recklessly releasing potentially dangerous Afghans into our communities." Defense department didn’t call Afghans with security concerns ‘potentially dangerous’ With international attention focused on Russia’s war against Ukraine, and refugees leaving that war zone, it’s easy to forget about what Tiffany is highlighting. He is focused on the August 2021 evacuation of 76,000 refugees from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrew its forces and the Taliban re-seized control. Republicans have argued from the start that the chaotic withdrawal – based on a timeline set by former President Donald Trump – meant it was impossible for U.S. officials to adequately screen those who boarded planes and arrived here. Let’s start with the verbiage Tiffany uses – "potentially dangerous." Nowhere in the inspector general’s Feb. 15, 2022, report does it categorize any of the Afghan refugees as "potentially dangerous." The description comes from a headline in the Washington Times – though, we should note, the body of that story doesn’t include that language either. Rather, the report itself describes 50 people who had "potentially significant security concerns" and made it to the continental United States. The report does not say what those concerns involve, such as a prior criminal background or otherwise. Separately, the inspector general’s office wrote that as of September 2021, of a sampling of 31 Afghans identified as possible security risks, only three could be located. The report does not indicate what security concerns or "derogatory information" about the individuals was found in the review. The defense department defines derogatory information as information that would require additional investigation or clarification in taking "administrative action" against individuals. Administrative action in this case would be allowing someone into the United States Erin Barbato, a Wisconsin-based immigration attorney, noted that just because someone may have committed crimes in their home country doesn’t make them a national security threat in the United States. To imply the few dozen people with such backgrounds are risks is speculative and "fear mongering," she said. Featured Fact-check Blake Masters stated on October 15, 2022 in a tweet Immigrants illegally in the country are treated “better than military veterans.” By Jon Greenberg • October 21, 2022 When refugees come to the U.S., they rely on work programs and government assistance to restart their lives. Refugees also were resettled from military bases by a resettlement agency responsible for them. Someone knows where they were placed – and likely where they are – even if the Defense Department couldn’t at the time of the report, she said. Afghans were vetted with information available at the time To be sure, the vetting was done with only the information available at the time. The inspector general’s report notes the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol didn’t vet refugees with Defense Department biometric and other biographical data. The reason? The information wasn’t available because of agreements made with foreign allies about who can access that data. It wasn’t until late 2021 when that data became available, according to the audit report. The two agencies later entered into an agreement to share data and Afghans already vetted through the existing process, which contained other biometric data sources, were reexamined. The retroactive screening is what found those 50 Afghans with possible security concerns. Ultimately, the report amounts to identifying technical hiccups in the early vetting process during the evacuation, said Susan Martin, founder and retired professor at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University. The report doesn’t explain whether what a derogatory comment is or whether that information was of major or minor concern, she said. To Martin, it’s clear Afghans were vetted and report highlights efforts to improve the system for how the U.S. vets refugees. "The issue is whether the vetting identified all applicants who might pose security threats before being released into the US," Martin said. "No system is perfect in doing so. And, all systems can be improved." Our ruling Citing a specific report, Tiffany said it demonstrated the Biden administration has been "recklessly releasing potentially dangerous Afghans into our communities" The report did not describe the Afghans as potentially dangerous. A Washington Times headline did. The inspector general’s report identified 50 people that had "derogatory information" in a defense department biometric database, but what that information involves is not known and was not included in the report. The report did find holes and inefficiencies in the vetting process that were fixed before the report’s publication and Afghans admitted into the U.S. were retroactively screened with missing data. The bottomline: Tiffany overstates these findings in making his point. Our definition of Mostly False is a statement that "contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression." 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