A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
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Deadly mosquitoes did not swarm Baltimore music festival
CLAIM: Video shows deadly mosquitoes released at a Baltimore music festival.
THE FACTS: While concertgoers were swarmed by flying insects at one point during an African American music festival last month, concert goers said they were not bitten by mosquitoes but gnats. Experts said swarming mosquitoes would behave differently than the bugs in the video. The Baltimore Health Department also said no insect-borne illnesses were reported following the event. Social media users are nevertheless sharing a video clip they claim shows hordes of killer skeeters dumped on unwitting concertgoers in Maryland's largest city. The clip pans across a crowd of revelers at a park, many of whom are vigorously waving hats, blankets and other personal items to try and shoo away the teeny pests. "Helicopter released deadly mosquitoes in Baltimore, MD AFRAM 2023," the text on the video reads. The idea could have been pulled straight from the history books: a Cold War-era military program called Operation Big Buzz involved dropping thousands of mosquitoes across George and Florida in order to see whether the insects could be used in disease warfare. But the airborne invasion at the Baltimore concert wasn't a...
New Delhi: Ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while addressing a rally, stated that Mahatma Gandhi had returned his knighthood in protest agai...