Tag: fake news

Corporate media spreads hoax that Russian cosmonauts wore yellow suits to ‘support Ukraine’

When photos began to circulate online of Russian cosmonauts boarding the International Space Station (ISS), media outlets online quickly spread the hoax that the group had deliberately chosen to wear yellow and blue flight suits in solidarity with Ukraine by wearing the country’s national colors.

The connection between the color of the attire and the conflict in Ukraine spread to outlets like the BBC, Bloomberg Quicktake, The Times, and NPR.

But what many had hoped was an act of heroic defiance against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime turned out to be an unrelated coincidence.  

Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, the mission commander for the Russian team aboard the ISS, quickly debunked the story, Reuters reported. In a news conference from the space station, he said the suits had been created six months ago, predating Russia’s military aggression in Ukraine. Moreover, Artemyev expressed solidarity with his country, voicing no sympathy for Ukraine.

“Color is just color,” Artemyev said. “It has nothing to do with Ukraine. In these days, even though we are in space, we are together with our president and people!”

He explained that the team had selected its colors based off of the team’s common alma mater—a college whose primary colors also used yellow and blue. “Every crew picks a color that looks different. It was our turn to pick a color,” he said.

“Sometimes yellow is just yellow,” Roscosmos’s press service said on its Telegram channel. “To see the Ukrainian flag everywhere and in everything is crazy.”

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Vimeo bans “fake news” that creates “a serious risk of material harm”

Video sharing platform Vimeo has updated its terms of service to ban “fake news, deepfakes, propaganda, or unproven or debunked conspiracy theories” that create “a serious risk of material harm to a person, group, or the general public.”

Vimeo’s previous terms banned “conspiracy-related content where the underlying conspiracy theory makes claims that…a real-world tragedy did not occur” but didn’t reference fake news, deepfakes, propaganda, or unproven or debunked conspiracy theories.

These new terms also ban “false claims that a violent crime or catastrophe has occurred.”

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Russia says it will not strand American astronaut in space despite media reports

Last week, a flurry of news reports worryingly claimed that Russia was threatening to strand an American astronaut on the International Space Station in direct response to sanctions placed on the country as it continues to invade neighboring Ukraine. But Russia’s state space corporation Roscosmos is trying to put those fears to rest, saying that it will bring home the astronaut as planned.

The NASA astronaut in question is Mark Vande Hei, who has been living on the International Space Station since April 2021. Vande Hei launched to the ISS on a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan, along with two cosmonauts. While living on the ISS, his stay was extended to a full year, and he is slated to return home in another Soyuz capsule on March 30th. When he returns home, he’ll have the record for longest continuous spaceflight by an American astronaut, at around 353 days.

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White House Says It’s Working With Poland To Get Jets To Ukraine – Warsaw Responds: “Fake News”

Ukraine’s President Zelensky has been urging the United States and NATO countries that his military desperately needs more fighter jets to take on the Russian invasion force, on Friday telling US lawmakers in a Zoom call “close the skies or give us planes” – according to a Congressional leader present for the address.

Apparently the Biden administration is busy working on just that, also at a moment Congress is still prepping a whopping $10 billion military and humanitarian aide package for Ukraine. The new aircraft deal would involve transferring Russian-made warplanes to Kiev from neighboring Poland, according to a new report in FT. 

To expedite the deal – given the battlefield situation and Ukraine’s ability to defend itself depends largely on the speediness of getting sufficient arms – Washington would quickly replace Warsaw’s MiG-29 jets with F-16 fighters.

However, a White House official was quoted in the FT report as admitting the deal could be held up by “a number of challenging practical questions, including how the planes could actually be transferred from Poland to Ukraine.”

Further there’s the question of recent threat’s by Vladimir Putin himself against any country seeking to pour more weapons into the hands of the Ukrainian forces. Putin days ago issued a veiled threat of war against any country supplying weapons that are use to kill Russian soldiers, saying those outside nations would “bear the responsibility”. 

A White House spokesperson had confirmed to FT that “We are also working on the capabilities we could provide to backfill Poland if it decided to transfer planes to Ukraine.” And previously Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the US is “very actively” looking at resupplying Poland if it can quickly transfer its own Russian-made aircraft to Ukraine. 

“We are looking actively now at the question of airplanes that Poland may provide to Ukraine and looking at how we might be able to backfill should Poland decide to supply those planes,” Blinken said in Moldova, while on a trip that highlighted the growing refugee crisis from the war.

Crucially, there was this statement from an unnamed Polish official given to FT: “I can’t speak to a timeline but I can just say we’re looking at it very, very actively.” The official said further, “Poland is not in a state of war with Russia, but it is not an impartial country, because it supports Ukraine as the victim of aggression. It considers, however, that all military matters must be a decision of Nato as a whole.”

On Saturday, perhaps nervous about coming into Russia’s crosshairs amid the flurry of reporting, Poland’s government batted down the reports as “fake news” – saying there’s been no transfer of its aircraft to Ukraine nor does it intend to…

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Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial “Unscathed” According to Israeli Journalist

After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed that Russia had attacked the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial in Kiev in an attempt to “erase our history,” an Israeli journalist visited the site to discover that it was in fact “unscathed.”

Narrative fail.

Legacy media outlets breathlessly reported on Monday that the memorial had been deliberately attacked by an air strike, amplifying Zelensky’s claim that the destruction was “beyond humanity.”

“[The Russians] have orders to erase our history, our country and all of us,” Zelensky said. “You killed Holocaust victims for the second time.”

However, the attack had actually targeted the nearby television tower and the memorial was not damaged.

The memorial was “not harmed and no bomb, missile or artillery shell hit the site itself,” Ynet News reported.

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CNN, ABC and CBS News to stop broadcasting in Russia after Putin’s threat to lock up journalists for 12 years: Bloomberg, BBC and Canada’s CBC ‘temporarily suspend’ operations

CNN International, the global arm of CNN, ABC and CBS News will stop broadcasting in Russia, after the Kremlin introduced a new law in the country that could jail anyone intentionally spreading ‘fake’ news.

Bloomberg News, the BBC and Canada’s CBC also said they were temporarily suspending the work of their journalists inside Russia. 

Russian officials have said that false information has been spread by enemies such as the United States and its Western European allies in an attempt to sow discord among the Russian people.

Lawmakers in Moscow passed amendments to the criminal code making the spread of ‘fake’ information an offense punishable with fines or jail terms. They also imposed fines for anyone calling for sanctions against Russia following the invasion of Ukraine.

The new legislation was passed by parliament and will become law when Vladimir Putin signs it, as he is widely expected to do. It was not clear when Putin would sign the measure.

It appeared to give the Russian state much stronger powers to crack down, by making it a criminal offense to spread fake information, with a jail term of up 15 years for posting about ‘fake news.’

‘CNN will stop broadcasting in Russia while we continue to evaluate the situation and our next steps moving forward,’ a spokesperson said Friday. 

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Zelensky Lies About Russia ‘Shelling Nuclear Plant’ And Triggering ‘Radiation Leak’ in Latest Bid to Con NATO Into War

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in an “emotional” speech on Thursday night that Russia intentionally launched an attack on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in the city of Energodar with tanks and warned that the entirety of Europe could be destroyed as a result.

“Right now, Russian tanks are firing upon nuclear units,” Zelensky said. “These are tanks equipped with thermal imagers. That is, they know where they are shooting, they have been preparing for this!”

He continued: “I appeal to all Ukrainians, to all Europeans. To all people who know the word ‘Chernobyl.’ Who know how many grief and casualties the explosion at the nuclear power plant caused. It was a global catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of people struggled with its consequences. Tens of thousands of people were evacuated. Russia wants to do it again. And already repeats. But six times more!”

“Europeans! Wake up, please! Speak to your politicians! Russian troops are firing upon the nuclear power plant in Ukraine. Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the city of Energodar. There are six power units. Six! One power unit exploded in Chernobyl,” Zelensky said.

“The Russian military must be stopped immediately! Shout to your politicians. Ukraine has 15 nuclear units. If there is an explosion, it is the end of everything. The end of Europe. This is the evacuation of Europe. Only immediate European action can stop Russian troops. Do not allow the death of Europe from the catastrophe at the nuclear power plant!”

Zelensky regime officials claimed they detected “elevated levels of radiation” and urged NATO to immediately institute a no-fly zone over Ukraine (which would immediately mean World War III).

Everything they said was a lie. The International Atomic Energy Agency and the White House both fact-checked Zelensky’s claims on Thursday night and reported there was no radiation leak.

“Ukraine regulator tells IAEA there has been no change reported in radiation levels at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant site,” the IAEA said.

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Is that Darth Invader? Israeli TV channel unwittingly runs ‘live footage’ from Ukraine… showing a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars

An Israeli TV news channel has run ‘live footage’ of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine featuring a crash-landed TIE fighter from Star Wars.

The clip even shows stormtroopers standing beside the Imperial aircraft on a snowy road. 

An investigation at Channel 13 has been launched and the editor has been suspended after the video was aired during a montage of destruction in Ukraine.

The clip was originally an advert produced by Disney and Lucasfilm in 2014 to promote a new Star Wars channel on Sky Deutschland.

It shows the stormtroopers surveying the crashed starfighter on a German autobahn while cars zoom past.

The original caption said: ‘Warning: Unsecured crash on the A3. Please turn right and not overtake!’

It is believed the video started circulating on the messaging app Telegram after the Russian invasion, duping people into believing it showed footage from the war. 

Ukraine has warned about disinformation being shared online, saying Russia is preparing an online campaign to suggest senior military and political figures have surrendered.

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BBC Pulls All Reporters From Russia After Moscow Criminalizes “Disinformation”

Following earlier news that Russia will criminalize “disinformation” about military in crackdown on “fake information”, not that different from the wholesale “canceling” and deplatforming of any western media outlets that do not parrot the official narrative, moments ago the BBC announced that it would “temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff within the Russian Federation” while the news agency assesses the full implications of this unwelcome development.

Full Statement from Tim Davie, BBC Director-General:

“This legislation appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism. It leaves us no other option than to temporarily suspend the work of all BBC News journalists and their support staff within the Russian Federation while we assess the full implications of this unwelcome development.

“Our BBC News service in Russian will continue to operate from outside Russia.

“The safety of our staff is paramount and we are not prepared to expose them to the risk of criminal prosecution simply for doing their jobs. I’d like to pay tribute to all of them, for their bravery, determination and professionalism.

“We remain committed to making accurate, independent information available to audiences around the world, including the millions of Russians who use our news services. Our journalists in Ukraine and around the world will continue to report on the invasion of Ukraine.”

Is that an admission that The BBC produces ‘fake news’?

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