Misinformation

Video shows French President Emmanuel Macron removing a bag of cocaine from a table as journalists entered the train cabin where he was meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Enlarged photographs and video footage show the white object Macron removed from the table and stuffed in his pocket was a tissue. This was also confirmed by the French government.

Viral social media posts are alleging that French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer were caught taking cocaine on their trip to Kyiv.

At the centre of the claims is a video showing the three leaders greeting one another on a train from Poland to Ukraine, ahead of a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reaffirm their support for his country.

It’s a tissue of lies.

A bizarre conspiracy that European leaders snorted cocaine en route to critical Ukraine talks has been roundly ridiculed by the French president’s office, after it was promoted by Russian trolls as well as American conspiracists such as Alex Jones.

“This fake news is being spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation,” the Elysee Palace posted on X.

President Emmanuel Macron's office has accused France's enemies of spreading fake news by suggesting that he and other European leaders had taken drugs on a train during a visit to Kyiv.

Video footage published online showed Macron sitting at a table in a train compartment with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. In the footage, Macron removes a crumpled white object from the table.

The percentage of Americans who think the government should "take steps to restrict false information online" is shrinking.

According to new data from the Pew Research Center, Americans are losing patience for the idea that the government should censor in the name of stopping misinformation.

Pew also found decreasing support for the idea that tech companies should make such efforts on their own.

The administration appears inclined to adopt Russia’s wholly fictionalized version of the facts of this war.

Meta on Friday announced it will officially end its fact-checking program in favor of community notes on its Facebook, Instagram, and Threads platforms on Monday.

Misinformation is nothing new. It has, however, become ubiquitous and, in some cases, more difficult and time-consuming than ever to debunk. 

When we first started publishing in 2003 — which predated Facebook (2004), YouTube (2005) and Twitter (2006) — viral misinformation took the form of chain emails. Although they were a problem at the time, chain emails were to misinformation what the Pony Express is to ChatGPT.

That’s an eggshell-ent development.

US border agents have seized more eggs than fentanyl in recent months as President Trump ramped up security to stop the flow of the deadly opioid — and egg prices have surged as high as $15 a carton.

Since October, border agents have seized 3,768 poultry-related products, whereas there were only 352 instances of fentanyl being confiscated, according to the Telegraph...

Federal data shows that eggs are being seized at U.S. borders more than the synthetic opioid fentanyl, a trend occurring amid an ongoing bird flu outbreak causing poultry shortages across the nation.

According to data collected by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), there have been 5,572 egg product seizures so far this fiscal year. There were about 15,955 such interceptions in fiscal year 2024 and 16,541 in fiscal year 2023, the data shows.