Does a video on TikTok show a directed energy weapon (DEW) in the form of a mysterious moving energy beam of artificial origin that strikes different locations in a city? No, that's not true: The footage of a slow-moving light accompanied by explosions does not show a DEW but an electrical incident from 2018 that caused cascading electrical explosions along…

Does a video on social media show an address by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, calling on the Ukrainian army to come out of the trenches and march toward Kyiv to overthrow President Zelenskyy? No, that's not true: The footage shown in the TikTok video is heavily edited and does not correspond to the…

Does a video on social media show soldiers from a Russian military division based in Siberia on their way in 2023 to the Ukrainian front? No, that's not true: The footage shows a group of soldiers from Russia's Tatarstan region in late 2022 marching along a snow-covered road. The claim appeared in a video on TikTok (archived here) published by…

Does a video on social media show Russia and the Russian military intervening on November 5, 2023, to help Gaza? No, that's not true: The footage, which is said to show Russian intervention in Gaza, is a combination of a video from Syria taken no later than 2022 and a video from a stock video website where it was uploaded…

Did famous Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo die in a car accident? No, that's not true: Posts on Ronaldo's official social media accounts and various sports news articles show that Ronaldo played in matches and attended public events days after the claim in the TikTok video was published. The claim appeared in a video on TikTok no longer available but…

Does a video on social media show the Egyptian army preparing to attack Israel in the fall of 2023? No, that's not true: The video on TikTok shows old footage that has been heavily manipulated. The original video shows the Egyptian army during military exercises, filmed years before the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The claim appeared…

Does a video on TikTok show an Israeli drone dropping a bomb on a group of defenseless Palestinian women and children trying to fill water containers? No, that's not true: The footage of the explosion caused by a drone dropping a bomb on a group of people shows a Sudanese drone attack on the Sudanese Rapid Support Force (RSF) militia…

Does this video depict the regrouping and redeployment of the Iranian army towards their western border in response to the Hamas-Israel conflict? No, that's not true: The footage of the Iranian military moving heavy equipment primarily consists of old material, mainly from an Iranian military exercise in September 2022, and does not represent current events related to the Hamas-Israel conflict.…

Does the photo of former Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters raising the Palestinian flag during a concert represent his support for the Palestinian people in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The photo was taken no later than 2018 and has nothing to do with the conflict between Hamas and Israel that…

Was Oktoberfest canceled in 2023 because the alcohol and beer served go against Islam's rules, and most of the citizens in Munich, Germany, are Muslims? Neither of these claims is true: The Munich 2023 Oktoberfest was not canceled. According to the official Oktoberfest website, it was held from September 16 to October 3, 2023. Regarding religious affiliations, official data show…

Did the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, spend $1.1 million at Cartier in New York in September 2023? No, that's not true: On the date of the Cartier receipt that allegedly proved her jewelry spending in New York Zelenska was in Ottawa, Ontario, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for their visit to the Canadian Parliament and meetings with Prime Minister…

Has Russia destroyed NATO bases along the Danube River, in Ukraine, bringing the war close to Bulgaria? No, that's not true: There is no evidence or credible reports of such an attack. The same footage used to corroborate the claim circulating on social media has been posted by multiple Russian sources, describing it as an attack carried out by Russian…

Will the planned transition from coal to renewable energy in Bulgaria jeopardize the country's energy security and affordable electricity prices for Bulgarian citizens in the future? No, that's not true: Coal requires mining, transportation, and processing, the cost of which makes it uncompetitive with free, greener, renewable resources such as the sun and the wind. In addition, coal is responsible…

Is George Soros's Open Society Foundations (OSF) completely withdrawing and ceasing its European activities? No, that's not true: According to Alexander Soros, the new chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Society Foundations and son of George Soros, the OSF is not leaving the EU but plans to reduce its staff and shift part of its focus outside…

Did the Bulgarian government lift the ban on imported grain from Ukraine as a method of exterminating the Bulgarian people because the grain was poisonous? No, that's not true: Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov stated that lifting the ban on imports from Ukraine would lower the prices of basic foodstuffs and inflation. There is no evidence suggesting that Ukrainian grain is…

Did scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) claim that the High-Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is responsible for the severe floods that hit the Bulgarian city of Tsarevo, on September 5, 2023? No, that's not true. No evidence or media reports from reliable news sources support the claim circulating on social media. In addition, the reported rainfall…

Is Bulgaria the country with the highest VAT rate for food products in the EU? No, that's not true: According to the latest updates in the European Commisssion Taxation and Customs database in 2023, Bulgaria's standard VAT rate is 20% but it goes down to 9% for food products suitable for babies or small children. On the other hand, other…

Are Bulgarian government employees disproportionally higher in number in relation to the total population of the country, and are they "tens of times" more numerous, in proportion, compared to the Netherlands and the US? No, that's not true: The figures indicated in the claim, which includes the total population of the three countries and the number of government employees, do…

Does the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria not want Bulgarians to govern their own country and are there "American plans" so that no Bulgarians "will be left in their own country?" No, there is no evidence of such plans by the U.S. Embassy in Bulgaria. The claim is based only on allegations posted on Facebook. A search for different phrases used…

Does a video circulating on TikTok show footage captured by Hubble space telescope and released by NASA, featuring the moment a meteorite entered the atmosphere on the evening of July 11, 2023, alarming many people in Bulgaria? No, that's not true: The easily distinguishable watermark on the displayed video suggests the origin of the footage. It can be traced to…