Fact Check
Tuesday 9 April 2024
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![Bayo Onanuga]()
Bayo Onanuga
special adviser to the Nigerian president
“Nigeria is safe… It’s one of the safest countries in the world… [r]elatively safer [compared to South Africa and the United States], because I am in Abuja now, I’m safe. I go to my town, I’m safe. I go to Lagos, I’m safe.”
Read more...The Global Terrorism Index ranks Nigeria eighth among the ten countries most impacted by terrorism, while, according to the Global Organized Crime Index, Nigeria has the world’s sixth “highest criminality rate,” far worse than the U.S., which is ranked 67th. -
![Najeeb Barwar, Afghan emigre poet]()
Najeeb Barwar, Afghan emigre poet
“I come from the distant regions of Iran, from the mountains of the Hindukush and Panjshir."
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![Vyacheslav Volodin]()
Vyacheslav Volodin
Chairman of Russian State Duma
“Women received political rights in 1918, but they received real power only now, under President Putin and United Russia’s majority ... previously, all this was more for decoration.”
Read more...The United Nations recommends that women hold at least 30% of political leadership positions so that women can influence decision-making. Russia is far below the UN threshold. -
![Sergey Naryshkin]()
Sergey Naryshkin
Director, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service
"The FSB had received certain information from US intelligence services that, unfortunately, such [an attack] was possible. But, as our Russian counterparts have said, that information was very vague and it did not allow us to identify those behind the deadly crime."
Read more...The U.S. warned Russia that Crocus City Hall was a potential target of a terror attack weeks in advance, officials say. -
![Rajendra Singh, RS, X influencer]()
Rajendra Singh, RS, X influencer
“Pakistani Punjab police mercilessly beating an Afghan man, accusing him of theft.”
Read more...There is no evidence the video shows Punjabi police officers. Reliable news outlets reported the police officers in the video were from Peshawar. The reports do not mention the nationality of the alleged criminal. -
![RIA Novosti]()
RIA Novosti
Russian state news agency
"Peskov, commenting on the U.N. report on the torture of Russian prisoners of war in Ukraine, said that this is not news to Moscow, all crimes of the Kyiv regime are documented."
Read more...RIA Novosti distorted the U.N. report on the human rights situation in Ukraine, covering only alleged violations by Kyiv while omitting the bulk of the report, which focused on violations by Moscow. -
![Alex_Oloyede2]()
Alex_Oloyede2
Blue-checked X user
“BREAKING: Possible Sea Confrontation between Russia and NATO…”
Read more...Verified X user pushes 2021 photo of Russian military parade, and alarmist claim, to mislead followers about routine Russian naval exercises in the Red Sea. -
![Sputnik News Agency]()
Sputnik News Agency
“On March 24, 1999, Western nations started bombing the city of Belgrade, the capital of Yugoslavia, under the far-fetched pretext of ‘protecting’ Kosovars.”
Read more...While the roots of the Kosovo ar are complicated, and atrocities were committed by both sides, the evidence shows forced displacement and the targeted killing of Kosovo Albanians preceded the 1999 NATO intervention. -
![Lin Jian]()
Lin Jian
China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson
“The Ordinance strikes a balance between safeguarding national security and ensuring rights, freedoms and economic growth…It does not at all undermine the high degree of autonomy in Hong Kong…The US itself has an airtight national security system, with a large number of laws and unparalleled extraterritoriality. However, it keeps pointing fingers at Hong Kong’s Safeguarding National Security Ordinance. This is sheer political manipulation and hypocritical double standards.”
Read more...Lin Jian’s remarks incorrectly draw a parallel between Article 23 and the U.S. legal system. Careful examination of Hong Kong’s new ordinance reveals that it is starkly different from U.S. principles and in effect undermines Hong Kong’s special status and autonomy. -
![Simplice Sarandji,]()
Simplice Sarandji,
President, Central African National Assembly
“Thanks to Russian security support, ‘Peace returns to the Central African Republic.”
Read more...Hostilities in Central African Republic (CAR) are ongoing, with some 10,000 children fighting in armed conflicts among various rebel groups. Russia’s involvement with CAR’s leadership is replete with corruption, misappropriation of natural resources, mass violence and human rights abuses. -
![Maria Zakharova]()
Maria Zakharova
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
“The oh-so 'peaceful' Iceland is thus trying to keep up with its senior allies in sponsoring Ukrainian Nazis.”
Read more...Iceland, a nation with no military, is helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, not “sponsoring Ukrainian Nazis.” -
![Leonid Sevastyanov]()
Leonid Sevastyanov
Head of the World Union of Old Believers
“The pope congratulates Vladimir Putin on his election as president of the Russian Federation. Pope Francis sees the Vatican as an international platform that could replace some of the U.N. functions."
Source: RIA NovostiRead more...The Vatican told Polygraph.info that Pope Francis did not congratulate Putin on his reelection. RIA Novosti later retracted the report.
