Did German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock say that everyone knew the sanctions against Russia were useless before they were introduced? No, that's not true: Baerbock defended the sanctions during a discussion organized by the Wall Street Journal, saying they are important because they show those who violate basic laws that they will be held accountable.The claim appeared in a video…

Did French President Emmanuel Macron call a meeting among European Union and NATO leaders to agree on sending soldiers to Ukraine, and was Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico the only European leader to reject the idea? No, that's not true: The meeting was called to discuss European military and financial assistance to Ukraine. While the issue of ground troops was…

Can a beam attached to a vehicle with a magnet move the vehicle forward and thus function as free, perpetual propulsion, replacing petrol? No, that's not true: This would not work, as a mechanism such as the one shown in a video circulating on social media would defy the laws of physics. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Have Ukrainian refugees revived diseases like whooping cough, scarlet fever and scabies that were once nearly eradicated in the Czech Republic? No, that's not true: Statistics indicate that these conditions have not been nearly erased there. According to the spokeswoman for the State Health Institute, the data and epidemic patterns of these conditions suggest that their recent increase is not…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin compare Bud Light beer to "gay piss," predict that Donald Trump will "whup some ass" after winning the U.S. presidential election and accuse Hillary Clinton of killing Jeffrey Epstein in his interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson? No, that's not true: The interview, released on February 8, 2024, on Carlson's website, does not…

Do data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, prove that COVID-19 vaccines have caused more deaths than all other vaccines together, "since 1988 when the reporting system was set up" until 2021? No, that's not true: VAERS is an online database that anyone can access to submit a report of a suspected adverse reaction after a vaccination.…

Is there little evidence that the late Alexei Navalny, a Russian opposition leader who recently died in prison, was poisoned with Novichok in 2020? No, that's not true: Laboratory results from samples of Navalny's blood, urine and skin, performed by multiple laboratories in Germany and other countries, proved that Navalny was poisoned with a Russian nerve agent code-named Novichok. The…

Did Czech Health Minister Vlastimil Válek say the planned production of penicillin in the Czech Republic could inadvertently lead to the production of pervitin, a Czech name for methamphetamine? No, that's not true: Valek never mentioned pervitin during a discussion about the need to increase local production of penicillin. The claim was fabricated in a post designed to appear as…

Did Czech President Petr Pavel say that Russia will win the war in Ukraine? No, that's not true: An interview with the president by Czech public radio was edited so that the president's statement was taken out of context. Pavel did say the words in the interview, but not in that order or context. The claim appeared in a video…

Was former Czech ice hockey goalkeeper Dominik Hasek an informant of the Communist-era Czechoslovak secret police? No, that's not true: An online search of publicly available archival records shows that Hasek did not collaborate with the StB, as the Communist-era secret police in Czechoslovakia was known. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on TikTok on December 22, 2023.…

Was the bird flu outbreak at a Czech poultry farm in January 2024, resulting in the culling of 73,000 chickens, actually a deliberate scheme to introduce U.S. poultry into the Czech market? No, that's not true: Authorities confirmed the presence of highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza at a poultry farm near Chocen, located two hours east of Prague. The claim…

Did Czechoslovakia continue to exist, which means the Czech Republic and Slovakia cannot be part of NATO? No, that's not true: Czechoslovakia officially ceased to exist on January 1, 1993, when it divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic has been a NATO member since 1999, Slovakia since 2004. The claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Did six vehicles filled with riot police monitor the Czech interior minister's town hall meeting with dissenters in the northeastern Czech city of Karvina on January 22, 2024? No, that's not true: Both a police spokesperson and the woman who took the photograph of a policeman in tactical gear that was included in the video confirmed to Lead Stories that…

Did Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala say he was glad that the media "almost ignored" his omission of a $1 million investment in his asset declaration and claim to have concealed all his funds in a location beyond the reach of even top investigative journalists? No, that's not true: Fiala did not make that statement, and the audio in the…

Is Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala being ignored by foreign delegations compared to his Slovakian counterpart Robert Fico? No, that's not true: Government press releases and official posts on social media show that both heads of government have received foreign representatives in the capitals of their countries. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on TikTok on January 21,…

Did Russia kill several French "officers" or "mercenaries" during an attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine, in January 2024? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support the Russian claim, and French officials dismissed it as part of a Russian disinformation campaign, saying the names of the alleged French victims circulating on Russian Telegram channels had been previously reported in…

Was American Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin killed in Kyiv during a Russian missile attack on January 3, 2024? No, that's not true: Lloyd Austin was hospitalized at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington DC between January 1 and January 15, 2024, for treatment of an infection related to a prostate cancer operation. The claim appeared in a video (archived…

Did the Czech Republic not participate in a December 2023 meeting of the United Nations Security Council called by Russia because its ambassador was in Prague? No, that's not true: Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky decided the Czech Republic would not take part in the UN meeting because he considered it part of Russian propaganda efforts aimed at spreading lies.…

Does a letter by the Prague university gunman in which he confessed to an earlier double murder, found in his booby-trapped house, prove that the police framed him for that crime? No, that's not true: The police confirmed to Lead Stories that the gunman had confessed to killing an infant and her father days before the mass shooting at Charles…

Does the Czech government want to give citizenship to foreigners to sway the vote in its favor? No, that's not true: The Czech government has approved a proposal by lawmakers that would allow descendants of emigrants from Czechoslovakia who were illegally stripped of their citizenship by the communist regime to become citizens of their ancestral country. Some opposition politicians, promoting…