Fact-check Malta: Does Pope Leo XIV have Maltese ancestry?
A 1910 census listed his great-grandfather as Maltese… but the family may have cited Maltese ancestry to pass as white
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Society
Old Greek ID cards will no longer be valid after August 2026
Amid fierce debate over the new ID cards, a misleading claim began circulating on Greek social media in late April 2025, regarding the validity of the old cards.
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Fact-check Malta: How does Malta’s assisted dying proposal compare to other countries?
More than 12 countries have euthanasia laws, but no two are identical
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US anti-disinformation guardrails fall in Trump’s first 100 days
May 5, 2025 From slashed federal funding for disinformation research to the closure of a key agency combating foreign influence operations, the United States has dismantled vital guardrails against falsehoods within President Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office. The moves could have national security implications, experts warn, granting US adversaries such as Russia and
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AI images of Pope Francis wearing pride flag resurface after his death
Pope Francis died of a stroke on April 21, 2025, less than a month after returning home from five weeks in hospital battling double pneumonia (archived here).
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Fact check Malta: Labour Party supporters use AI to turn civil society protest into a partisan battle
April 14, 2025 Supporters of Malta’s Labour Party are sharing photorealistic AI-generated images in partisan Facebook groups that attempt to portray opposition leader Bernard Grech at a civil society protest in the capital city of Valletta. A protest was held by a number of local NGOs on 2nd April 2025 outside the parliament building in
Photo shows two African American men in the 1920s, not Turkish politician
This X post from March 28, 2025, posted an image of two men, with the one embracing the other and implied in the caption in insulting and homophobic language that the photo depicted Kemal Ataturk and proved he was gay. The post was shared more than 100 times.
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Fact-check Malta: Fishing for attention – AI-generated videos making waves
March 10, 2025 AI-generated videos are filling social media feeds, and they are looking increasingly real, even if logic suggests otherwise. Take this video, for example, which is currently doing the rounds on Instagram. It appears to show a team of fishermen out at sea hauling a mammoth oyster onto their boat. They proceed to
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Fact-check Malta: Can a court expert refuse to testify?
March 10, 2025 The role of the court expert has come under recent scrutiny, following British forensic accountant Jeremy Harbinson’s refusal to travel to Malta to testify in a prominent criminal case. Harbinson is one of the authors of a 1,200 page report into the privatisation of Karin Grech, St Luke’s and Gozo general hospitals
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Video shows train crash anniversary rally in Greece, not mass protest in Romania
Romania’s constitutional court annulled the presidential election in December 2024 after allegations emerged of Russian meddling in favour of far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, who unexpectedly won the first round after shooting to prominence virtually overnight. On February 26, 2025, Romania indicted Georgescu on charges including making “false statements” over his campaign financing and starting a “fascist, racist or xenophobic organisation”. Georgescu denies wrongdoing. The election is to be rerun in May.
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