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Today:
Aiding and abetting: Conservatives invent frivolous USAID spending
Home swap: Zelensky falsely accused of misspending military aid on a German retreat once owned by Hitler
Ads for the Peace Corps, Harbor Freight, and Vizio fund false claim that U.S. spent $50 million on condoms for Gaza
NewsGuard audit finds Western AI chatbots produce most disinformation in Russian and Chinese
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
By Macrina Wang and Sarah Komar
What happened: Conservative commentators are advancing bogus accusations about the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), claiming to have uncovered wasteful and corrupt spending.
Context: Elon Musk has been leading the effort through the Department of Government Efficiency to dismantle the USAID, accusing the agency, which provides humanitarian aid to developing nations, of exploiting U.S. taxpayers.
Here are two examples of false claims circulating about USAID:
Funding ‘fake’ news: The media company Politico, owned by German conglomerate Axel Springer, was reported to have received...
The Western Australian government has issued a stern warning to the state’s solar industry over potentially misleading promotions and “false claims” about the soon-to-launch residential battery re...