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  • Video showing aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia linked to Israel-Iran clash

    With tensions between Iran and Israel escalating, a 37-second-long video showing debris strewn across an open area and flames in the distance, suggesting the impact of a possible explosion has gone viral. Some social media users claim the video is from Tel Aviv after Iran’s retaliatory strikes while others shared it saying that it shows destruction by Israel in Tehran.

    Iran and Israel targeted each other with missiles and airstrikes early on Saturday, June 14, 2025, a day after Israel launched its biggest aerial assault in an alleged bid to stop Tehran’s pursuit of developing nuclear weaponry.

    Turkey-based X account, Gündem Analizi (@GndemAnalizi), shared the video depicting the aftermath of strikes on June 14, claiming it was footage showing Iranian missiles’ strikes on Israel. (Archive)

    At the time of writing this, the post had garnered over 360,000 views.

    Another X account, Islamic Invitation Turkey (@islamic_turkey), shared the same video, claiming it shows the impact of ‘Iranian revenge’ in Tel Aviv. (Archive)

    At the time this article was written, the post had over 420,000 views.

    Bharat TV (@bharattvusa), which claims to be a media outlet on X, shared the video with a caption that there was an explosion at the army headquarters in Tehran, Iran. (Archive)

    Several social media accounts have shared the same video, either claiming it to be from Tel Aviv or Tehran.

    Click to view slideshow.

     

    Fact Check

    To verify the authenticity of the viral clip, we extracted several key frames and conducted a reverse image search on a few stills. This led us to a post on Instagram Threads dated February 1, 2025, with strikingly similar frames as the viral video. It was also accompanied by a caption that read, “Another crash… 🥵 Reports suggest a medical transport Learjet twin-engine jet has crashed in a populated area of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Three buildings in the vicinity are reportedly damaged.”

     

    Taking cue from this, we checked with specific keywords and landed on a YouTube short uploaded in February. At the 00:25-minute mark, the exact visuals seen in the viral video appear.  The video’s description says these are scenes from the aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

    In the viral clip, the individual recording the footage appears to be entering a Dunkin’ Donuts outlet. While the video is somewhat grainy, a Dunkin’ Donuts signboard is briefly visible. Despite the lack of clarity, the distinct shape, color scheme, and branding elements of the signage make the identification conclusive.

    We geolocated the Dunkin’ Donuts outlet and confirmed that the location of the viral clip is indeed from Philadelphia.

    We also found several news reports from February 1, 2025, confirming that an air ambulance (a Learjet 55) went down just after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia airport, on a busy Philadelphia street. Seven people were killed and 19 were injured in this accident. 

    Thus, the video shared with claims that it shows the aftermath of Iranian strikes on Tel Aviv and the destruction after Israel struck Tehran are both false. It is a 4-month-old video from Philadelphia. 

    Note that the same video was also shared during the recent clashes between India and Pakistan, claiming it depicts the destruction of Karachi port in Pakistan by INS Vikrant’s military actions. Even at that time, Alt News had debunked this. 

    The post Video showing aftermath of a plane crash in Philadelphia linked to Israel-Iran clash appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Ankita Mahalanobish.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Palestine prisoners’ release ‘symbolic win’ showing unity in face of occupation, says academic

    Asia Pacific Report

    Sultan Barakat, a professor at Qatar’s Hamad Bin Khalifa University, says the release of Palestinian prisoners is a “symbolic win” rather than a victory for the Palestinians, primarily showing the inhumane conditions they live under.

    “Israel can capture people in the West Bank and Gaza because they all live in a confinement area under the control of Israel,” he told Al Jazeera.

    Dr Barakat discussed the way Palestinians were “arbitrarily rounded up, taken to prison and treated badly” by Israel.

    A total of 183 Palestinian prisoners were released today from Israeli jails as part of the exchange for three Israeli hostages under the ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel.

    They included 18 serving life sentences and 54 serving lengthy sentences, as well as 111 detained in Gaza since 7 October 2023.

    Dozens of Palestinians released from Israeli jails showed signs of torture and starvation, said the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society.

    Barakat stressed that the release of prisoners also “shows the unity of the Palestinians in the face of occupation”.

    “The prisoners are not all necessarily Hamas sympathisers — some were at odds with Hamas for a long time,” the academic said.

    “But they are united in their refusal of occupation and standing up to Israel,” he added.

    Hamas ‘needs to stay in power’
    Another academic, Dr Luciano Zaccara, an associate professor at Qatar University’s Gulf Studies Center, told Al Jazeera that Hamas needed to stay in power for the ceasefire agreement to be implemented in full.

    “How are you going to reconstruct Gaza without Hamas? How are you going to make this deal complied [with] if Hamas is not there?” he questioned.

    Dr Zaccara also said Israel seemed to have no plan on what to do in Gaza after the war.

    “There was never a plan,” he said, adding that Israel did not want Hamas or the Palestinian Authority in the enclave running the administration.

    The Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, quoting a security source, reported that the Red Cross had expressed “outrage” at how the Israel Prison Service handled the Palestinian prisoners being released from Ketziot Prison.

    Ha’aretz said the Red Cross alleged that the prisoners were led handcuffed with their hands above their heads and bracelets with the inscription “Eternity does not forget”.

    The newspaper quoted the Israel Prison Service spokesman as saying that “the prison warders are dealing with the worst of Israel’s enemies, and until the last moment on Israeli soil, they will be treated under prison-like rule.

    “We will not compromise on the security of our people.”

    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

  • Video showing Rahul Gandhi smashing 140 coconuts in apparent dig at BJP is morphed

    On December 19, during the last week of Parliament’s Winter Session, tensions between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and opposition Congress came to a head. The BJP accused Parliamentarians from the Congress party of pushing and shoving its party members amid ruckus in the premises. In the protests, which began over Amit Shah’s remarks on B R Ambedkar, two BJP MPs and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said they were injured. While this was going on, a clip of Rahul Gandhi talking to reporters was being shared by BJP leaders, who claimed that the Congress leader admitted to shoving BJP MPs on camera. However, a fact check by Alt News found this claim to be false.

    Amidst this, another video of Gandhi was doing the rounds on social media. In this, he can be seen breaking over 140 coconuts with bare hands. All in a matter of seconds. This video was shared by several supporters of the Congress and users on social media with the claim that it was a powerful display of strength by the party leader. In an apparent dig at the BJP, they said that the party’s leaders were hospitalised when Gandhi did not actually even push them; “What would have happened if he really did?”

    Congress spokesperson and media panelist Surendra Rajput shared the video on X (formerly Twitter) and said, “What if they actually got shoved?” (Archived link)

    Social media influencer Acharya Confucius also shared the video and wrote, “It is good that he pushed lightly. If he really landed a punch, their skulls would have split open.” (Archived link)

    Digital creator Pardeep Kumar Sharma posted the video on his Facebook and Instagram accounts and wrote, “They were hospitalised after not getting pushed. What if they actually did?” (Archived link 1, Link 2)

     

    The video received much traction on Facebook and X with similar captions.

    Fact Check

    Alt News searched for media reports related to the viral video, but neither did it find any press coverage on the leader achieving this feat nor any information on when and where this happened. Something like this would have received at least some press attention.

    A reverse image search using frames from the viral video led us to similar clips showing other individuals in place of Gandhi.

    We ultimately came across a YouTube short featuring similar footage from October 16 last year. Turns out, this was part of a full video uploaded on the Guinness World Records’s YouTube channel on December 20, 2017 with a Hindi caption saying, “Most coconuts smashed in one minute”. (Archived link 1, Archived link 2)

    We then found a news report by NDTV India from December 23, 2017 featuring this video. The report says that the video shows Kerala resident P Dominic breaking 122 coconuts with his bare hands in just 60 seconds. The feat was recorded by Guinness World Records, the report adds. (Archived link)

    On closely comparing the video shared by Guinness World Records and the latest viral clip of Rahul Gandhi, it is clear that the viral footage has been morphed. As you can see below the people surrounding Dominic in the footage from 2017 are the same as seen in the Rahul Gandhi footage on the left. 

    We also noticed that other similar videos with individuals other than Rahul Gandhi had a ‘Viggle.AI’ watermark, indicating that most of these were created with the help of artificial intelligence. In the Rahul Gandhi video, (screengrab above) the watermark seems to be covered with a ‘Follow’ sticker. (Archived link)

    Thus the viral clip is actually a 2017 video of a man from Kerala smashing coconuts, featured in Guinness World Records. This old video was morphed using AI to make it seem like Rahul Gandhi was breaking the coconuts in a show of strength.

    The post Video showing Rahul Gandhi smashing 140 coconuts in apparent dig at BJP is morphed appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Pawan Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Scripted video from Bangladesh showing fake doctor ‘treating’ patients viral

    A video is viral on social media which shows a man touching and patting the bellies and backs of several persons who are seemingly seeking treatment from him for some ailments. It is being shared with the claim that people were getting examined by a fake medical practitioner. In the posts, users referred to the man as ‘Maulana Sahab’ or ‘Mullah’.

    Verified X user Raushan Sinha, who shares and amplifies communal disinformation on social media on a regular basis, shared this clip stating that the ‘patients’ were to be blamed for the ‘idiocy’ of visiting such quack doctors. At the time of this article being written, the video has accumulated more than 30 Lakh views and has been reshared over 3,200 times.

    Other X users have also made the claim with sarcastic jibes at the ‘treatment procedure’.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check 

    We noticed a watermark on the viral video which said ‘Peace TV’. Taking a cue from this, we ran a relevant keyword search, which led us to this Facebook video, uploaded by a Facebook profile called ‘Peace Tv BD‘. The profile, run from Barisal, Bangladesh, has 14 Lakh followers, and describes itself as a ‘Media/News company.’

    The video was shared on February 2, 2024.

    মাওয়া রাগি পীরের চিকিৎসার ভিডিও ভাইরাল !

    মাওয়া রাগি পীরের গো/পন চিকিৎসার ভিডিও ভাইরাল !

    Posted by Peace Tv BD on Tuesday 30 January 2024

    We went through this video, which is much longer than the clip that went viral across social media platforms. The viral part occurs from the 0:03 minute-mark onward, and goes on till around the 5:19-minute mark.

    The last two frames of the video show a cautionary message and a title card, respectively. The message in Bengali says: “It is your responsibility to protect yourself from such ‘babas’”. The title card says: “Directed by Peace Multimedia”.

    Click to view slideshow.

    These suggest that the video is a scripted one made for awareness purposes.

    The Facebook page also has a a link to a YouTube channel, which shared the same video. The channel describes itself as an organisation from Bangladesh, covering, among other things, ‘short film(s)’ and ‘Islamic drama(s)’.

    We also noticed that the other videos uploaded by this channel dealt with similar social and domestic issues, ranging from infidelity to gender injustices, as well as instances of imposters getting caught and punished.

    Moreover, the actor who is depicted as the fake doctor in the viral video can be seen in several other videos from the channel, donning different avatars.

    Click to view slideshow.

    This proves that the videos are dramatic ones and do not depict real incidents.

    It can be concluded that the viral video of the fake doctor is scripted and from Bangladesh.

    Prantik Ali is an intern at Alt News.

    The post Scripted video from Bangladesh showing fake doctor ‘treating’ patients viral appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Viral India Today exit poll graphic showing BJP leading in Amritsar is fake

    An exit poll graphic credited to India Today has gone viral across social media platforms, which shows the BJP in the lead in Amritsar. According to the viral graphic, the BJP is getting 33% of the vote share in the Lok Sabha seat.

    Users have amplified it pointing out that BJP candidate Taranjit Singh Sandhu was winning in Amritsar against AAP’s Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal, Congress’s Gurjeet Singh Aujla, and SAD’s Anil Joshi.

    X user Michael Rahul tweeted this graphic on May 27. His post has been viewed more than 25,000 times, at the time of the writing of this article. (Archive)

    Several other users on Facebook also posted the exit poll graphic with the same claim.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    To begin with, it must be noted that exit polls were banned till June 1, the last day of poling. This was announced by the election commission at the beginning of the polling process.

    Moreover, the Amritsar LS constituency went to the polls on June 1. Hence, exit poll data could not be available on May 27. These suggest that the viral graphic is not genuine.

    We also noted that Rahul Kanwal, the news director of Aajtak & India Today, tweeted about the viral exit poll graphic, confirming that it was fake.

    Hence, it is clear that Amritsar exit poll data attributed to India Today which became viral on May 27 is false.

    The post Viral India Today exit poll graphic showing BJP leading in Amritsar is fake appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Prantik Ali.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Video showing VVPAT slips being taken out after counting falsely viral as BJP tampering with EVMs

    A video has been circulating on social media showing some men taking out ballots from several Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines and placing them into a black bag. The claim accompanying this video suggests that the footage is related to the first phase of polling in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections, held on April 19, 2024. Users have also claimed that ballots were being stolen from VVPAT machines by BJP functionaries.

    A user named Sandeep Varma tweeted the video, alleging that after the elections on April 19, ballots were being stolen from VVPAT machines kept under tight security, and the BJP was carrying out the exercise.

    A user named Jennifer Fernandes tweeted the video, questioning the Election Commission and asking why these machines were being tampered with.

    A user named Kiran Patnaik also raised questions while tweeting the video, asking where the ballots were being taken without them being counted.

    Fact Check

    Alt News performed a reverse image search using one of the frames from the viral video on Google. This led us to the original video, which was uploaded by a user on December 13, 2022. In other words, the video is old and has no connection to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

    The Collector of Bhavnagar had also issued a reply from their official handle, stating that as per the Election Commission’s guidelines, after the completion of counting, the ballots were removed from the VVPAT machines, placed into a black envelope, and sealed for future elections. He added that the entire process was videographed, with one copy stored in a strong room and another kept with the relevant district election officer.

    To sum up, several social media users shared an old video of the routine process of removing ballots from VVPAT machines, falsely linking it to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and making the false claim that ballots were being stolen from the machines by BJP workers.

    The post Video showing VVPAT slips being taken out after counting falsely viral as BJP tampering with EVMs appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Fake Dainik Bhaskar clip with survey showing INDIA alliance ahead in 10 states viral

    A newspaper clipping from Hindi daily Dainik Bhaskar has been doing the rounds online in which an infographic claims that according to a survey jointly conducted by Dainik Bhaskar and Nielsen, the INDIA alliance was leading in 10 states of the country and could cross the 200-mark in these states alone. There is also a related report on the page.

    Telangana Congress spokesperson Asma and many Congress supporters such as the Spirit of Congress account and Priyamwada, shared this, claiming that Modi’s image was not enough to secure votes in the Hindi belt states and added that the NDA was scared of losing the polls in Bihar, Bengal, and Maharashtra.

    Click to view slideshow.

    Fact Check

    Alt News observed that there were differences in the fonts in the different stories on the page. A reverse image search on Google led us to a tweet which contained an image of the entire page. A close look at the image makes it clear that the page has been tampered with. Signs of editing are visible in the image, and as a result of these edits, some of the text has been concealed.

    We noticed that the viral newspaper clipping is the Bhopal edition dated April 13, 2024. Upon checking the Bhopal edition of Dainik Bhaskar on April 13 on their website, we found that there was no such content on any page. This newspaper clipping has been doctored. The survey and the related story have been inserted replacing the lead story of the page which was about rainfall in Bhopal and a BJP banner ad.

    Dainik Bhaskar national editor L P Pant issued a statement on X (Twitter) declaring this newspaper clipping as fake and stating that Dainik Bhaskar had not conducted any such survey.

    To sum it up, a number of Congress supporter handles and other users shared a fake clip of a newspaper claiming that according to a Dainik Bhaskar-Nielsen survey, the INDIA alliance was leading in 10 states of the country.

     

    The post Fake Dainik Bhaskar clip with survey showing INDIA alliance ahead in 10 states viral appeared first on Alt News.


    This content originally appeared on Alt News and was authored by Abhishek Kumar.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.