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Post falsely claims video shows suspended Nigerian governor apologising to predecessor

Post falsely claims video shows suspended Nigerian governor apologising to predecessor

Yahoo15-05-2025
'Jubilation in River state as Governor SIM Fubara apologize to Nysome wike last night as they both finally reconcile back (sic)', reads the caption of a Facebook video published on April 15, 2025.
Shared more than 800 times, the video shows Fubara speaking to the crowd with Wike beside him.
The post was published by an account called 'Agozi commedy'. A review of the account shows it posts political video content, mostly of Tinubu and Peter Obi, the Labour Party's 2023 presidential candidate.
Fubara was elected governor of Rivers state in March 2023, succeeding Wike, a lawyer who currently serves as the minister in charge of Nigeria's capital, Abuja (archived here and here).
Shortly after Fubara's inauguration, he became embroiled in a battle with his predecessor over control of the state (archived here).
The tussle culminated in a failed impeachment attempt and a dispute with state legislators, which resulted in the demolition of the state assembly complex (archived here and here).
In March 2025, Tinubu declared a state of emergency in Rivers state and suspended Fubara, his deputy Ngozi Odu, and the State Assembly for six months. He subsequently appointed Ibokette Ibas, a retired vice-admiral, as the state administrator for the period of Fubara's suspension (archived here).
The decision sharply divided opinion in the country, with critics highlighting the president's disavowal of a similar emergency declaration by the federal government in the past.
In April, Fubara reportedly visited Wike in Abuja to seek reconciliation, days after local media said he met Tinubu in London over the protracted political crisis in the state (archived here and here).
However, the video in the Facebook post does not show Fubara apologising to Wike.
Using Google Lens to conduct reverse image searches on the video keyframes, AFP Fact Check traced the original to a YouTube video uploaded on March 24, 2023 — several years before the two men fell out (archived here).
The video is titled: 'I Dedicated My Victory To Wike And For The Unity Of Rivers State- Fubara Declare.'
In the clip, Fubara is heard thanking Wike and other political allies for their support and effort in canvassing for votes that helped him coast to victory in gubernatorial elections held on March 18, 2025.
A comparison of the two videos shows the footage is the same.
Speaking into a microphone, Fubara says: 'We stand for something, the unity of Rivers state, the progress of Rivers state, the continuation and consolidation of the new Rivers vision and we are going to work with everybody who believes in the vision and continue to bring better lives, good services, protection of the dignity of every Rivers resident, protection of integrity of this state in all phases and make sure we continue to defend our party in the state.'
AFP Fact Check previously debunked claims about the power struggle between Fubara and Wike here and here.
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Disproving alleged transcript of McConnell and Kevin McCarthy discussing 'bringing back slavery'
Disproving alleged transcript of McConnell and Kevin McCarthy discussing 'bringing back slavery'

Yahoo

timean hour ago

  • Yahoo

Disproving alleged transcript of McConnell and Kevin McCarthy discussing 'bringing back slavery'

In late July 2025, internet users shared videos of people listening to an unidentified voice reading out a purported transcript of a phone call between two Republican politicians, Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. In the call, McConnell and McCarthy allegedly discussed bringing back slavery, creating state-funded religious schools, banning abortion, stemming immigration and the forced impregnation of eighth-graders. We found no credible evidence that the transcript was authentic or that any such conversation between McConnell and McCarthy ever took place. The claim is unfounded. In late July 2025, videos circulated on TikTok showing internet users listening to an audio clip (archived) of a voice reading an alleged transcript of a phone call between Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The two Republican politicians supposedly discussed banning abortion, stemming immigration, creating state-funded religious schools, bringing back slavery, and the forced impregnation of eighth graders. @karressmarie4 Part 23 | The plan the whole time. ♬ original sound - Tweet ♐️ SAGITTARIUS LESBIAN The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), X (archived), Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), YouTube and Reddit (archived). Snopes readers also wrote in to ask if the transcript featured in the videos was authentic. We found no evidence whatsoever that the audio clip or transcript represented an authentic conversation between McConnell and McCarthy. We found no reputable news sources reporting the "leaked" transcript (archived, archived, archived, archived), which would have been extremely newsworthy if true. Though McConnell and McCarthy both previously voted against federal protections for abortion, a common opinion for their party, neither had publicly expressed opinions or plans that aligned with the other supposed policy points like slavery and state-funded religious education allegedly discussed on the call. We reached out to representatives for McConnell and McCarthy to ask if the transcript read out in the videos was genuine and await replies to our queries. The full transcript of the alleged phone call, which an unidentified voice read out, was as follows: OK, so I got the transcripts. Mitch: We have to bring slavery back. Those were the good old days. Kevin: How will we do that, there's no way we can do that. Mitch: Black people won't do it but white people will. Kevin: How will we get white people to be slaves? That sounds ridiculous. Mitch: We have to get rid of the separation of church and state. We must have state-funded religious schools. Kevin: I don't see where you're getting at. Mitch: Those schools will have work programs for fourth through eighth graders. Kevin: Ah, I think I see where you're going here. How is that going to work? Mitch: We get the kids to be — to pick all the produce as a part of their work program to teach them the values of good, old-fashioned blue-collar labor and the bounty of God. Kevin: I don't think that anyone will go for that. Mitch: It's all about grooming, start in the first grade and by fourth grade they'll be ready to do it. Kevin: But we already have people to pick the produce. Mitch: We have to finish the wall. Kevin: No way that's going to happen. Mitch: We find better ways to get the immigrants out of the United States. Kevin: Like doubling ICE? Mitch: Yes. Kevin: This will be too busy, too hard and we'll be too busy trying to sustain this over long periods of time and generations. Mitch: No, we get rid of the abortion laws in the United States and we make it mandatory that all eighth-grade females be impregnated in order to graduate. Kevin: Oh, like replacing the crops. Ha ha ha. Pun intended. Also Kevin: I will work on getting the abortion ban, you work on state-funded religious schools. Mitch: We don't have to do either. Lindsey and I took care of that with the new SCOTUS. "Lindsey" was an apparent reference to Lindsey Graham, the senior senator from South Carolina and a fellow Republican. "SCOTUS" is a common abbreviation for the Supreme Court of the United States. The versions of the alleged phone call shared online were scant on details about when the conversation supposedly took place. Some said the recording was from July 2022, but did not back up this claim. Online postings contained no further information about who leaked the alleged call or why. McConnell and McCarthy on abortion, slavery, school choice As stated above, Snopes found no evidence that the alleged call between McConnell and McCarthy was real, nor did the call seem to reflect the politicians' publicly expressed opinions. McConnell and McCarthy both voted against the Women's Health Protection Act, which would "prohibit governmental restrictions on the provision of and access to abortion services." The bill passed the House in 2021 but failed in the Senate in 2022. Since then, McConnell has said that abortion should be dealt with at a state rather than a federal level. Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, a nonprofit that seeks to reduce and ultimately end abortion in the U.S., rated both McConnell and McCarthy "A+." Both McConnell and McCarthy have historically opposed slavery, a central theme of the alleged call, on their social media accounts. McCarthy spoke (archived) of the "evils" of slavery in 2019. That same year, McConnell wrote (archived) about "slavery's stain on our history" on X. However, McConnell did previously oppose the idea of reparations for slavery, saying in 2019 he didn't think "reparations for something that happened 150 years ago, for whom none of us currently living are responsible, is a good idea." Lastly, McConnell allegedly advocated for "state funded religious schools" in the phone call transcript. These schools, he allegedly argued, would be the basis for the renewed slavery project, as students would participate in work programs. In reality, McConnell has historically been a strong advocate for school choice, co-authoring an opinion piece in 2013 that argued "Choice breeds competition — which is the best way to improve schools," an opinion that would seemingly be at odds with advocating for forced attendance at state-funded schools. This was not the first rumor Snopes has investigated about either McConnell or McCarthy. For example, we previously looked into claims that McConnell said he would not participate in 2020 election debates that included female moderators and that a photo authentically showed McCarthy watching himself lose a vote for speaker of the House. Blad, Evie. "Senate GOP Sticks to School Choice Push in Slimmed Down Relief Proposal." Education Week, 8 Sep. 2020. Chu, Judy. "H.R.3755 - Women's Health Protection Act of 2021." 6 Aug. 2021, Huffington Post: Op-Ed by Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Sens. Rand Paul, Mike Lee, Tim Scott and Lamar Alexander: School Choice: Part of the Solution to Our Broken Education System | The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions. 29 Jul. 2013, "McConnell Equates His Ancestors' Slave Ownership to Obama's." AP News, 9 Jul. 2019, "mitch Mcconnell" AND "We Have to Bring Slavery Back. Those Were the Good Old Days." - Google Search. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. "mitch Mcconnell" AND "We Have to Bring Slavery Back. Those Were the Good Old Days." - Search News. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. "mitch Mcconnell" AND "We Have to Bring Slavery Back. Those Were the Good Old Days." - Yahoo Search Results. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. "mitch Mcconnell" AND "We Have to Bring Slavery Back. Those Were the Good Old Days." at DuckDuckGo. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. "Rep. Kevin McCarthy | National Pro-Life Scorecard." SBA Pro-Life America, Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. "Sen. Mitch McConnell | National Pro-Life Scorecard." SBA Pro-Life America, Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. @SenMcConnell. "With the Nation, Congress Looks Back to 1619 and Remembers the Size and Scope of Slavery's Stain on Our History. ." X, 10 Sep. 2019, @SpeakerMcCarthy. "It's Been 400 Years since the Evils of Slavery First Occurred in America. ." X, 10 Sep. 2025, U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress - 2nd Session. Accessed 24 Jul. 2025. Washington, U. S. Capitol Room H154, and DC 20515-6601 p:225-7000. "Roll Call 295 Roll Call 295, Bill Number: H. R. 3755, 117th Congress, 1st Session." Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, 24 Sep. 2021, Yang, Maya. "Mitch McConnell Refuses to Say Whether He Supports a US National Abortion Ban." The Guardian, 28 Apr. 2024. The Guardian, ---. "Mitch McConnell Refuses to Say Whether He Supports a US National Abortion Ban." The Guardian, 28 Apr. 2024. The Guardian, Solve the daily Crossword

Gas Boom Grows, Solar Boom Slows Amid A Failing Energy Transition
Gas Boom Grows, Solar Boom Slows Amid A Failing Energy Transition

Forbes

time4 hours ago

  • Forbes

Gas Boom Grows, Solar Boom Slows Amid A Failing Energy Transition

WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 25: U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright speaks during the Semafor World ... More Economy Summit 2025 at Conrad Washington on April 25 2025 in Washington, DC. The Summit, held from April 23-25, gathers CEOs, government officials, financial leaders, and more for conversations on the state of the global economy. (Photo by) A pair of stories in recent days illustrate the rapidly shifting equation for the prospects of a real energy transition in the United States during Donald Trump's second presidency. Thanks in large part to the administration's radical rebalancing of federal energy policies, the momentum is shifting heavily in favor of traditional energy sources like oil, natural gas, and nuclear power as tax breaks and subsidies for renewables are being systematically eliminated. The end result is an altered outlook on which form of generation will boom into the future. A Gas Generation Boom Driven By AI In the July 24 issue of the Wall Street Journal's Climate and Energy newsletter, Ed Ballard writes that 'There's Never Been a Better Time to Be Selling Natural-Gas Turbines.' On the same day, Reuters published a piece by Nichola Groom headlined, 'Boom fades for US clean energy as Trump guts subsidies.' Taken together, the stories detail a reversal of Biden-era fortunes for the respective industries which has come about more rapidly and comprehensively than anyone could have realistically imagined just six months ago. This time last year, speculation ran rampant that a long backlog for sourcing natural gas turbines would limit the prospects for natural gas to provide a major share of new power generation needed to meet rapidly rising electricity demand. But, as the big tech companies in the AI industry, whose enormous data centers springing up across the country are the major driver of incremental demand, developed plans to secure their power needs, a consensus began to form that natural gas generation is the ideal solution for the coming decade for a variety of reasons. Outside view of the newly completed Meta's Facebook data center in Eagle Mountain, Utah on July 18, ... More 2024. The data center is a complex of five large buildings each over four football fields long and totaling 2.4 million square feet. (Photo by GEORGE FREY / AFP) (Photo by GEORGE FREY/AFP via Getty Images) Those reasons include: As that consensus began forming last summer, Ballard writes, prices for the turbines 'went through the roof.' But, at the same time, the handful of big turbine manufacturers, including GE Vernova, Siemens Energy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, developed and announced plans to expand existing facilities, build new ones, and increase their output of new turbines. Ballard notes that all three companies are in the process of expanding their U.S. operations, adding that 'GE Vernova looks the most convinced,' pointing to plans to expand the output from its Greenville, SC plant from 55 turbines per year to as many as 80, a 40% increase. More expansion may ultimately be needed given the current backlog with lead times as long as four years, but GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik says his company will need more certainty around the AI industry's ultimate true generation needs before committing his company to more capital outlays. Solar Boom Slows Amid D.C. Policy Shift While gas generation is in a renaissance, Groom says the U.S. solar boom of recent years has suddenly stalled. Indeed, the boom may already be fading amid decisions by an array of solar manufacturers to cancel planned new capital investments. 'Singapore-based solar panel manufacturer Bila Solar is suspending plans to double capacity at its new factory in Indianapolis,' writes Groom. She also points to decisions by both Canada-based Heliene and Norwegian solar wafer maker NorSun to re-evaluate or suspend planned new investments as federal policy shifts. Groom also notes that even a pair of fully permitted solar facilities in Oklahoma now face cancellation in the wake of the enactment of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which gradually repeals Biden-era tax breaks and subsidies for both the wind and solar industries in the coming few years. The President levied another hit at solar's future with a July 7 executive order directing strict enforcement of OBBBA provisions by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. All told, according to energy researcher Rhodium Group, a total of $373 billion in clean energy investments are now at risk. The pair of Oklahoma projects are likely to be joined by a rash of cancellations of planned solar and wind projects in the coming months, as developers determine they won't be able to meet the OBBBA's deadline of being placed in service by the end of 2027 to continue to benefit from the investment tax credit. Capital flight is also likely to become a rising problem as private equity and institutional investors reallocate capital to more profitable ventures with higher degrees of certainty. Some of that capital seems likely to end up being invested in gas generation capacity instead. Where Do The Competing Booms Go From Here? In a July 22 interview on Fox News Special Report with Bret Baier, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said he and the administration are for 'everything that works. Anything that can deliver affordable, reliable, secure energy.' Prodded by Baier, Wright gave a dim assessment for the wind industry's future in the United States, saying 'value of the energy [it generates] is very low - who knows when the wind's gonna blow - and there's been huge public opposition to onshore and offshore wind.' But Wright's view of the future for the solar industry was more positive, saying, 'Solar is a different story. Solar is growing rapidly in the United States right now and I think it's got a future.' But, he added, 'The idea there was just it should have a commercial future not paid for by the taxpayers' future.' Thus, the key for the solar industry to revive its boom times in the remaining 42 months of this second Trump presidency will be to develop sustainable business models which create solid, investable rates of return without major federal tax breaks or subsidies. That seems a major challenge given that, if such a model exists, it would likely have already been deployed. Meanwhile, the natural gas industry will face challenges of its own. A slowing of the solar boom places added pressure on natural gas generation companies to mount a major, rapid expansion of new capacity in the parts of the country where it will be most needed. Some key states, like Texas, in which the AI industry is rapidly expanding have been and are likely to remain welcoming to gas generation. Policymakers in some other big AI states seem likely to need more convincing. For an industry experiencing a current equipment procurement backlog and whose infrastructure has experienced significant ill-timed failures in recent years - like the freeze-ups in Texas during 2021's Winter Storm Uri - the ability to sustain its current boom and grow it into the future is not necessarily a foregone conclusion. Much work remains to be done.

Video shows protest in Kenya, not a demonstration against Togolese president
Video shows protest in Kenya, not a demonstration against Togolese president

Yahoo

time21 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Video shows protest in Kenya, not a demonstration against Togolese president

Togo has witnessed major anti-government protests that the police have repressed since late June. A video widely shared on social media claims to show a large turnout at one of the demonstrations. However, the claim is false; the video was filmed in Nairobi, Kenya's capital city. The East African country has also recently witnessed large-scale protests, with citizens demanding the resignation of President William Ruto. 'This is Togo right now. Citizens protesting as the Togolese President Faure changes the constitution to make him president for life, where citizens will no longer participate in voting for the president,' reads the caption of a Facebook video shared more than 690 times since it was published on June 28, 2025. The video attached to the post shows a crowd marching on a highway with loud noises in the background and smoke rising from items burning on the road. The video has also appeared elsewhere in posts shared on Instagram and a Facebook account belonging to a media organisation in Nigeria. AFP Fact Check has previously debunked the claim in French. In June, several protests, which were violently repressed by the police, shook the streets of Lome, the Togolese capital, resulting in the deaths of at least seven people (archived here). Citizens protested the arrest of government critics, rising electricity prices and constitutional reform that moved the country to a parliamentary system of government where President Faure Gnassingbe occupies the highest office (archived here). The opposition argues that the reform will allow the president to remain in power indefinitely. Swahili audio Some comments under the post talk about the need for a change in Africa's leadership structure, a sign that people believe the claim. However, others mention that the video was filmed in Kenya, not Togo. An AFP fact-checker based in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, confirmed that some of the words heard in the video were in Swahili, a language spoken in East and Central African countries, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike English and French, Swahili is hardly spoken in West Africa, where Togo is located. For example, the words 'wana retaliate' are heard in the 16th second of the video. 'Wana' in Swahili means 'in the process of'. Further evidence reveals the video does not show demonstrations in Togo. Kenyan protests A reverse image search was conducted on keyframes from the video using Google Lens. Among the search results was a YouTube link to the same footage, which was posted on June 28, 2025, without a caption (archived here). The YouTube video includes a watermark for a TikTok account called '@makofonyo3', where the original video was posted three days earlier (archived here). Again, it contained no details of what the clip depicted. However, a similar video from the same account was also shared on June 25, 2025, showing crowds marching along the four-lane highway, except this time a large road sign is visible, giving an indication of where it was filmed (archived here). Some of the words written on the gantry sign include directions for 'Nairobi', 'Kamiti Road', an urban road in Nairobi, 'Garden City', a shopping centre located along Thika Road, a major highway, also called A2, and 'Mombasa', a coastal city in Kenya. The highway sign was geolocated to Thika Road in Nairobi using Google Earth (archived here). AFP Fact Check matched various landmarks on Thika Road, like buildings and bridges, to both the video in the false posts and imagery from Google Earth. Furthermore, by expanding the view on Google Earth, we established that the video falsely linked to Togo was filmed from alongside the gantry on Thika Road during protests in June 2025 (archived here). Kenyan protests On June 25, protesters took to the streets of Nairobi, Mombasa, and other counties across the country to mark the first anniversary of the deaths of 60 people killed when thousands of youths stormed the parliamentary chamber in 2024, demanding Ruto's resignation. The anniversary marches were violently repressed by the police and rekindled anti-government protests (archived here). Several Kenyan media outlets mentioned Thika Road in their reporting, including Citizen TV Kenya (archived here). The Daily Nation published photos in which the four-lane highway can be seen several times (archived link here). Following the incident, the Kenyan government said it 'thwarted a coup d'etat' and denounced 'terrorism disguised as protest' (archived here). Since then, Ruto has continued to warn those who would 'overthrow' the government. The United Nations and other human rights groups have criticised the violence witnessed during the latest protests (archived here). Ruto, who was elected in 2022 after campaigning on behalf of the poorest, has faced significant opposition to his economic policies since 2024.

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