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Benjamin Netanyahu resign calls grow over Israel intelligence failure

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Benjamin Netanyahu resign calls grow over Israel intelligence failure

An Israeli newspaper has repeated its call for Benjamin Netanyahu to resign over the security and intelligence failures that preceded the breach of the Gaza border by Hamas.

A day after the editorial board of Haaretz blamed the Israeli prime minister for the deadliest raid into Israeli territory in 50 years, the left-leaning newspaper ran an op-ed whose headline said “Netanyahu: Resign Now!”

The piece by Nehemia Shtrasler, in a paper that has repeatedly criticized Netanyahu’s time in office, said that the Hamas attack was “the worst failure in the country’s history.”

He criticized how Israeli army battalions were transferred from the Gaza border to guard settlers and when the attacks started, the Israelis living near Gaza “received no help but were abandoned to a terrible death.”

“The shocking videos the terrorists filmed are reminiscent of the Holocaust,” wrote Shtrasler. “For such a massive failure, there is no forgiveness. There is one person to blame for this terrible disaster: Benjamin Netanyahu.”

He said the prime minister had been focusing too much on his indictment in three corruption cases that drove the push for controversial judicial reform, removing the Supreme Court‘s power to cancel government decisions it did not accept.

Netanyahu had also neglected to visit Gaza-area communities or ask questions about the Israeli army’s deployment.

“He said over and over again…Hamas is deterred and does not want war because it does not want to risk its economic achievement,” referring to the money earned by Gaza residents permitted to work in Israel.

“The tragedy is that with this money, Hamas bought pick-up trucks, machine guns, paragliders and rockets, and used them to kills us,” Shtrasler wrote, “For all these crimes, and in order to save the state of Israel, Netanyahu must resign, today.”

Some social media users have also condemned Netanyahu. Journalist David Rothkopf shared another article in Haaretz, written by Alon Pinkas, whose headline said the Israeli prime minister “Must Go Now.” “Unflinchingly, [Pinkas] describes an essential truth: Netanyahu must go now, not after the Gaza war,” Rothkopf wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Steven Strauss wrote on X that the Israeli prime minister has “credibly been accused of massive dereliction of duty” next to an Associated Press report that Israel had ignored Egypt’s warnings about the severity of the situation in Gaza.

The historian Edward Luttwak posted how few troops were deployed in the perimeter around Gaza and so “were easily overwhelmed.”

“After the war, Netanyahu must patriotically resign,” he wrote.

Newsweek has contacted Netanyahu’s office for comment.

On Monday he said Israel had begun a war which would be “for the security of our existence” and would be one “we will win.”

Russian tanks fortified with sandbags, pig heads prompt "Mad Max" jibes

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Russian tanks fortified with sandbags, pig heads prompt "Mad Max" jibes

Images of Russian tanks in Ukraine with some unusual additions have prompted jibes from social users and comparisons to scenes from a famous dystopian film.

The Telegram channel of pro-Russian military blogger Voenniy Osvedomitel (Military Informant) posted an image of what it said was a T-80BV tank with a serviceman sitting on in front of the main gun, looking away from the camera.

Sandbags were on the sides of the tank by the turret while what appeared to be pigs heads were fixed on metal pins on both sides of the vehicle’s hull.

The tank had been “generously littered with various pieces of rubbish to give additional armor to protect it from attack copters and FPV drones of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” added the post.

The unverified image from an undisclosed location was posted on Sunday and as of Tuesday had received more than 347,000 views, as well as sparking a lively discussion in the comments section.

“This is some kind of Mad Max,” wrote one user, referencing the 1979 film starring Mel Gibson as a police-officer-turned vigilante in a near-future Australia during the collapse of society.

“T-80 Mad Max edition,” commented another. Other users thought it looked more like something from the Warhammer fantasy game, although some noted that the tableau displayed a certain “savagery.”

Russia has lost 104 T-80 BVMs since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to Oryx, an open-source website that tracks losses on both sides.

A “Mad Max” comparison was also made by another social media user for a different set of Russian vehicles whose images were posted on X (formerly Twitter) by the account of Challenger Tank in Ukraine, which writes about the war.

“This isn’t a scene from Mad Max! It’s the Russian Army. 5 Russian T-62M and a BTS-4. May they all perish quickly!” said the post, next to images of Russian vehicles covered in cages supposedly to help protect them against drones. Newsweek has contacted the Russian foreign ministry for comment.

The image comes as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive that started around June 4, aiming to recapture Russian-occupied territory. Ukraine’s Air Force said on Tuesday that it had managed to intercept 27 out of the 36 kamikaze drones fired overnight by Russian forces in the Odesa, Mykolaiv, and Kherson oblasts.

Ukrainian authorities also said on Tuesday that Russian multi-weapon attacks in 10 regions killed one civilian and wounded another 11 over the past 24 hours.

An attack on Odesa Oblast lasted for three hours, with transport infrastructure hit but no casualties, Governor Oleh Kiper reported.

Israel has no proof of Iran’s involvement in Hamas attacks, IDF says

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Israel has no proof of Iran’s involvement in Hamas attacks, IDF says

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) does not have any substantive evidence of Iran’s role in the devastating Hamas surprise attack that has killed more than 1,000 Israelis over the past four days, though suspicions continue to surround the Islamic Republic’s potential involvement.

“We have no evidence, no proof, no intelligence proof of Iranian involvement in this situation,” IDF Major Niv Dinar said in response to Newsweek‘s question during a virtual press briefing Tuesday.

“Even though we must say that nobody thinks—you have to be very naive in order to think—that someone in Iran woke up at 6:30 on Shabbat on Simchat Toah and was surprised seeing this,” he added.

Iranian officials have denied any connection to the attack, though they have praised the air, land and sea operation that struck Israel on Saturday, a Jewish holiday. U.S. officials have also said they had no indications that Iran had a direct hand in the unprecedented assault.

Earlier on Tuesday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei hailed the “irreparable defeat” of Israel at the hands of Palestinian fighters, who fired thousands of rockets, stormed Israeli towns and cities by land and even conducted at least one naval landing, in Israel’s biggest security setback in decades. At least 150 Israelis were taken hostage, as well as yet unknown number of U.S. citizens.

Khamenei said that this was a Palestinian-led initiative, whose capabilities were “underestimated.”

“Of course, we praise the minds and efforts of the Palestinian youth and the resourceful and intelligent Palestinian designers and are proud of them,” Khamenei said, according to an official transcript.

During a press briefing Monday, White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Director John Kirby told reporters there was “no question that there’s a degree of complicity here” when it comes to Iran, “but Iran has been supporting Hamas for many, many years—tools, training, capabilities—certainly rhetorically but in more much more tangible ways than that.”

“That said,” he added, “we are looking through the information streams, we haven’t seen hard, tangible evidence that Iran was directly involved in participating in or resourcing and planning these sets of complex attacks that Hamas pulled off over the weekend.”

As Israel contends with lingering attacks, including reports of ongoing infiltration attempts, the IDF has begun a large-scale bombing campaign of the Gaza Strip, where Hamas and other Palestinian organizations such as Islamic Jihad are based. The Palestinian Health Ministry located in the effectively besieged enclave has reported on the deaths of at least 830 Palestinians so far.

The sudden eruption of violence is the latest in a decades-long history of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians with overlapping territorial claims, at the heart of which is the contested holy city of Jerusalem.

A statement issued by Hamas’s media office on Monday said the group would continue to defend all territory claimed by Palestinians.

“The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas has stressed that the Palestinian people and resistance will foil all malicious schemes orchestrated by the Israeli occupation to empty the occupied Palestinian territory of its indigenous Palestinian population,” the statement said.

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei trolls Israel in unprecedented Hebrew tweet

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Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei trolls Israel in unprecedented Hebrew tweet

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has taken aim at Israel over social media in a first-ever Hebrew-language message posted on X, formerly Twitter, as the country continues to battle with a comprehensive attack launched by Hamas over the weekend.

“Zionist Tyrants: You will never arise from your defeat on the Sabbath, the 7th of October. You brought this calamity upon yourselves,” Khamenei tweeted Tuesday, as translated from Hebrew to English.

The message followed a televised speech earlier Tuesday in which Khamenei lauded Hamas for its brazen, multi-pronged assault that has killed more than 1,000 Israelis since Saturday. He denied that Iran played a role in the operation.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said they had no evidence of a direct Iranian role in the attack, though they have noted Tehran’s longstanding support for Hamas.

While the message marked a first for Khamenei since his account was established in March 2009, at least one other senior Iranian official has tweeted in Hebrew on several occasions.

In May 2021, then-Supreme National Security Council Secretary-General Ali Shamkhani twice commented via Hebrew-language tweets on another outbreak of Israeli-Palestinian violence as Hamas fired rockets into Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducted strikes on the Palestinian enclave, as well as U.S. plans to withdraw from Afghanistan.

Then, in August 2021, Shamkhani again twice channeled Hebrew on the platform to discuss a recent conversation with his Russian counterpart regarding Afghanistan, Syria and the Persian Gulf, and to assert that Israel would be expelled from the West Bank. In October of that same year, Shamkhani wrote in Hebrew about Iran having thwarted a cyberattack meant to undermine the country.

The official language of Iran is Persian, though it is home to significant populations speaking other languages such as Kurdish. Khamenei’s office regularly disseminates material in Arabic, Azeri, English, French, Hindi, Russian, Spanish and Urdu.

While Iranian authorities have largely restricted access to X outside the use of third-party tools, a number of government officials and prominent figures continue to use the platform. Khamenei’s posts have at times been subject to censorship by the site, however.

X applied a label to an English-language post by Khamenei on Saturday that stated “God willing, the cancer of the usurper Zionist regime will be eradicated at the hands of the Palestinian people and the Resistance forces throughout the region” alongside a video purporting to show a large gathering of Palestinians running in the initial stages of the Hamas attack, saying the post “violated the X rules.” The post remains visible, however, as “X has determined that it may be in the public’s interest” to see it.

X owner Elon Musk weighed in on Sunday, saying “Khamenei’s official position is clear that the eradication of Israel is the actual goal, not just supporting Palestinians.”

“That will not happen. All that actually happens, decade after decade, is a never-ending cycle of violence and vengeance,” Musk wrote on his own platform. “Stoking the fires of hatred isn’t working. Perhaps it is time to consider something else.”

This is a developing story and will be updated as further information becomes available.

Hamas says Biden gave cover to Israeli "massacres" of women and children

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Hamas says Biden gave cover to Israeli "massacres" of women and children

The Palestinian movement behind the wide-scale attack launched over the weekend against Israel has taken aim at President Joe Biden, condemning the U.S. leader for his expressions of support to Israel in a recent speech delivered amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian violence.

“We in the Islamic Resistance Movement ‘Hamas’ reject and strongly denounce the inflammatory statements made by American President Joe Biden, which coincided with the continuation and escalation of the barbaric Zionist aggression against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and the rest of our occupied territories,” a Hamas spokesperson said in a statement shared with Newsweek.

The statement argued that Biden’s speech earlier Tuesday “carried political and legal fallacies with his blatant bias towards the most hideous, racist, hateful settler colonial occupation known to the Middle East and giving full cover to continue its massacres against defenseless children, women and the elderly, and by imposing the ugliest forms of collective punishment on more than two million Palestinians in Gaza, in clear violation of all international customs and covenants, which he claimed to adhere to.”

“We consider these statements an attempt to cover up the criminality and terrorism of the Zionist government, which has infiltrated in the blood of our people,” the statement added, “as he did not refer at all in his speech to the massacres committed by the Zionist forces against our people in cold blood and in full view of the world.”

The remarks came after Biden condemned Hamas’ surprise assault launched Saturday as an act of “sheer evil,” accusing the Palestinian movement of having “butchered” and “massacred” innocent civilians. Israeli authorities have reported on the deaths of more than 1,000 Israelis, while Palestinian health officials have put the death toll in the Gaza Strip at over 900 as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) conducts a powerful bombing campaign against the Hamas-controlled enclave.

Biden also affirmed that he would call upon Congress to increase funding to Israel and offer direct support toward resolving active hostage situations, which involve at least 150 Israelis and at least 20 U.S. citizens.

IDF Brigadier General Dan Goldfuss, commander of the 98th Paratroopers Division currently operating in the embattled southern kibbutz of Be’eri, described atrocities said to have been committed by Palestinian fighters during the attacks.

“The last four days have been difficult for us,” Goldfuss told reporters earlier on Tuesday. “We find ourselves under an attack by a cruel and vicious enemy that entered our villages and slaughtered women and children in their houses and their beds, burning them alive, tying them and killing them, and taking some of them back in Gaza as animals in cages and under threats of killing them.”

The Palestinian attack, titled Operation “Al-Aqsa Flood” by Hamas after the revered site in the disputed holy city of Jerusalem, marked Israel’s biggest security setback in decades, as well as a particularly bloody new chapter in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The IDF response has been called Operation “Swords of Iron” and is expected to continue to unfold in the coming days.

Both the U.S. and Israel view Hamas, an Islamist movement that rose out of the Muslim Brotherhood in the 1980s, as a terrorist organization.

The Hamas statement shared with Newsweek referred to the group as “a national liberation movement, fighting on our occupied land against a hideous Zionist occupation, and defending our people and their right to freedom and self-determination.”

“Operation Al-Aqsa Flood came to defend our people, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the prisoners, stop the aggression and siege, and end the occupation that is perched upon the chests of our people,” the Hamas statement said.

Turning back to Biden, the statement went on to “call on the American administration to review its biased position, and to move away from the policy of double standards when it comes to the Zionist occupation.”

“And we affirm the right of our Palestinian people to defend themselves, their land, and their Islamic and Christian sanctities, with the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque at its heart,” the statement added, “until the achievement of their legitimate aspirations for liberation, return and the establishment of the Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.”

This is a developing story and more information will be added as it becomes available.

Researcher warns of "worst-case scenario" for AI energy consumption

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Researcher warns of "worst-case scenario" for AI energy consumption

Worldwide energy consumption could increase if artificial intelligence (AI) were to be incorporated into everyday search engine use utilizing the current technology available, according to research published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Joule.

The written commentary assesses how AI’s energy footprint could change as developers create new tools. It was authored by Alex de Vries, who is identified in the journal as a Ph.D. candidate at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam School of Business and Economics and the founder of the research company Digiconomist.

De Vries notes in the introduction that the last two years have seen “a period of rapid expansion and extensive, large-scale application” of AI, which “raises concerns about the electricity consumption and potential environmental impact of AI and data centers.”

While the amount of energy needed to power the kinds of data centers that make AI possible has been “relatively stable,” de Vries suggests increased AI use and interest in its development could upend that trend. As an example, de Vries raises the possibility of Google parent company Alphabet adding AI capabilities to every Google search conducted. De Vries points to a Reuters interview with Alphabet Chairman John Hennessy published earlier this year, in which Hennessy said engaging with AI large language models (LLMs) may cost 10 times more than conducting basic searches.

In contrast with a “standard” Google search, which de Vries says uses an estimated 0.3 watt-hours (Wh) of electricity, an AI-fueled Google search would thus use 10 times that amount, or 3 Wh.

Before AI’s recent rise in popularity, it was only linked to 10 or 15 percent of Google’s electricity consumption in 2021, according to de Vries. Moving forward, de Vries writes: “The worst-case scenario suggests Google’s AI alone could consume as much electricity as a country such as Ireland (29.3 TWh per year), which is a significant increase compared to its historical AI-related energy consumption.”

Despite these concerns, de Vries is quick to add that the “worst-case scenario” he outlines would depend on “full-scale AI adoption” and the use of currently available technology. Instead, it’s likely widespread AI use won’t be immediate—and as the world catches on, technology is likely to evolve so that it can support AI in an efficient way.

“In summary, while the rapid adoption of AI technology could potentially drastically increase the energy consumption of companies such as Google, there are various resource factors that are likely to prevent such worst-case scenarios from materializing,” the commentary says. De Vries concludes by advising that AI developers and users keep energy consumption in mind while considering how they can and must use the technology, to avoid needless use.

What exactly AI will be capable of accomplishing is still largely unknown. Earlier this week, a computer scientist known as the “Godfather of AI” told 60 Minutes that AI could prove useful in health care and drug development, but could potentially pose employment and law enforcement bias threats, or even one day “take over” as a force more intelligent than humans.

Meanwhile, governments around the world are looking into strategies for AI regulation, with many technology leaders seemingly on board with the idea of introducing some guardrails for future development.

When it comes to energy consumption, the International Energy Agency (IAE) says on its website that it is aware there is likely to be an increase in AI demand, “with potentially significant implications” for AI-related energy use in the near future. The IAE has predicted demand for AI is “likely to outpace” improvements in energy efficiency, and while some AI tools could help reduce energy use, “the rapid and mainstream adoption of AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google Bard are likely to accelerate growth in energy demand for AI.”

Newsweek reached out to the IAE by email on Tuesday for comment.

Fact check: Does video show giant flying jellyfish over Antarctica?

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Fact check: Does video show giant flying jellyfish over Antarctica?

Jellyfish can be found in oceans all over the world. Some species can indeed grow to huge sizes. The lion’s mane jellyfish, for example, can reach 120 feet long.

To see one of these in the wild would certainly be a sight to behold—but what about if you saw one cruising over the snowy slopes of Antarctica? A video recently posted to social media appears to show such a thing.

The Claim

On October 9, a social media user on X, previously known as Twitter, Truechucknorris, posted a video that appeared to show a huge jellyfish-like object floating over a snowy landscape. The video shows the strange object moving slowly across the land as the camera zooms in.

“What looks like a giant flying jellyfish has been spotted in Antarctica,” the social media user said in a caption to the video.

At midday on October 10, the video had received over 28,500 views and was shared by others on the platform.

X users responded to the video, some expressing shock at the bizarre sight.

“Great, now we’ve gone and upset the jellys,” one person responded.

Another X user wrote: “Looks like it has some eyes.”

Other people, however, were not so quick to believe the claim. Some believed it was not a jellyfish at all, but an alien UFO or an unidentified flying object.

“Cool cloud!” one person said.

“Pretty sure I saw that movie,” another social media user said.

Others did not think it looked like a jellyfish at all.

“Looks more like a Mothership…” an X user said.

“I saw that at Macy’s Day parade,” a user on the platform wrote.

The Facts

This footage actually first surfaced at the end of 2017 when it was posted to the YouTube channel UFO SECTION 51.

The footage is not real and has been digitally generated.

The YouTube channel is run by French visual effects artists who, according to the “about” section on the channel, “share [their] point of view on sciences, space, UFO & ancient aliens theories.”

The “jellyfish” was created using CGI and was supposed to look like a UFO flying over the landscape, which is actually in the Northern Caucasus in Russia, and not Antarctica.

It is not clear if the channel’s owners were also behind the creation of the video. The authors’ motive and inspiration for the work is unclear, but Newsweek found one possible source.

A 2009 piece of concept art by digital creator Alex Andreev, posted on his LiveJournal page in December 2009, shares some striking resemblances with the object in the video background, including the apparent “black spot” that appears to be a helicopter.

Despite it being fabricated, the footage was covered by a range of local news outlets at the time.

There have been sightings of mysterious flying objects all over the world—however, these are usually called Unidentified Aerial Phenomena and cannot be confirmed as anything to do with extraterrestrials.

The Ruling

False.

A huge jellyfish did not float over Antarctica. While the footage may look realistic, it was actually developed using CGI, by artists depicting their version of a UFO.

FACT CHECK BY NEWSWEEK

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Lauren Boebert compares migrant numbers to Wyoming population—what to know

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Lauren Boebert compares migrant numbers to Wyoming population—what to know

Colorado Republican Representative Lauren Boebert has consistently campaigned on an anti-immigration ticket, introducing articles of impeachment against Joe Biden, arguing that the president’s actions have caused death at the U.S.-Mexico border.

In a recent social media post, Boebert made her criticism clear again, claiming that figures for crossings in the past two months had reached a remarkable number, nearing the total number of people living in Wyoming.

The remark on X, formerly Twitter, posted on October 1, 2023, and since viewed more than 490,000 times, stated: “In the past two months, we’ve received just about as many illegals into our country as Wyoming has people.”

“This is an invasion and can be spoken of in no other terms than that.”

However, the congresswoman’s claim includes some caveats that weren’t immediately clear.

How To Define Migration Stats

A spokesperson for the congresswoman told Newsweek that the post was based on U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) figures for “encounters” at the Southwest border in August 2023 and figures for the same metric in September 2023, as reported by the New York Post.

“Encounters,” according to a terminology guide published by CBP, refers to the apprehension of individuals between ports of entry or interactions with individuals at ports of entry where they could not legally enter the country.

Boebert’s claim about migrants being “received” could therefore cause confusion as these figures refer to individuals who were dealt with by authorities as they attempted to cross, not migrants processed into the United States.

It is also worth noting that “encounters” at the border refer to interactions between individuals and the authorities, not the total number of individuals who attempted to enter. The total number of encounters can include people authorities have come across more than once in a 12-month period.

What the Numbers Say

The number of “unique individuals” encountered at the Southwest border in August was 164,911.

The Post article, published September 30, alleged that according to CBP sources who had spoken to Fox News, total migrant encounters for September 2023 had exceeded 260,000 people. That figure has yet to be published by CBP. A department spokesperson did not confirm to Newsweek if other media outlets’ numbers were accurate.

The official figure for August 2023, however, is available, with a total of 232,972 encounters recorded along the Southwest border that month. Combined with the unofficial figure published by Fox News, total encounters for August and September 2023 came to 492,972.

A separate CBS News story published several hours after Boebert’s tweet did not include the 260,000 figure, saying only that about 210,000 migrants were apprehended between official ports of entry. “Tens of thousands” were additionally processed at the ports of entry, CBS said. This could equal the 260,000 quoted by Fox, although the number was not repeated by CBS.

According to the Census Bureau, the total population of Wyoming when last recorded in July 2022 was 581,381.

That means Wyoming’s population figure is 88,409 higher—or about 15 percent more—than the total combined number of border encounters for August and September.

A spokesperson for Boebert told Newsweek: “There were in fact about as many illegal crossings per CBP data as the population of Wyoming…When someone says ‘about as many’ it’s a ballpark number, not an exact comparison.”

The spokesperson added that Boebert did not provide a specific number, nor did she say that it exceeded the population of Wyoming.

A CBP spokesperson told Newsweek: “We remain vigilant and expect to see fluctuations, knowing that smugglers continue to use misinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals.

“We are safely and efficiently vetting and processing migrants to place them in immigration enforcement proceedings consistent with our laws and operational planning efforts.

“DHS has used its executive authorities to improve processing, strengthen consequences at the border, and more quickly remove individuals who fail to establish a lawful basis to remain in the country. As a result, since May 2023, DHS has repatriated over 281,000 individuals, including more than 41,000 individual family members.”

Needs Context: The claim requires more information to set it in the appropriate context. The claim as presented may be partly true, but cannot be fully or correctly understood without the right context. Read more about our ratings.

Fact Check: Are Skittles banned in California?

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Fact Check: Are Skittles banned in California?

Bans or warnings about food products can often cause confusion, with claims about the harm of controversial ingredients leading to misinformation online.

The World Health Organization caused a stir this year after announcing that aspartame, an ingredient found in Diet Coke, was a potential carcinogen, later saying that an adult weighing 70kg (about 154 pounds) would need to drink between nine and 14 cans a day to “exceed the acceptable daily intake.”

In a similar vein, news that a ban on product additives, signed into law in California, would lead to a prohibition, specifically or at least in part, of Skittles.

The Claim

A post on X, formerly Twitter, by Hip Hop/Viral News outlet Daily Loud, posted on October 10, 2023, viewed 10.9 million times, said: “California will officially ban Skittles and other candies from the state starting 2027 as Governor Gavin Newsom signed bill AB 418, also known as The California Food Safety Act.

“The bill targets food products that contain the substances brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben or red dye 3. Red dye 3 is found in Skittles and other confectionaries like PEZ, Hot Tamales and Dubble Bubble gum, while brominated vegetable oil is normally concocted in citrus soft drinks.”

The Facts

California is not banning Skittles.

As signed by Newsom on October 7, 2023, California has banned any food product that contains brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben or red dye 3.

These four additives are found in thousands of foods, as stated by the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit activist organization that, among other roles, profiles additive lists for food products listed across the U.S.

The ban would prohibit the use of the listed chemicals above but does not outright ban products that contain them.

As was stated in an announcement upon signing the bill, Newsom included a photo of a packet of Skittles from the European Union, saying: “This is demonstrable proof that the food industry is capable of maintaining product lines while complying with different public health laws, country-to-country.”

While some outlets and social media posts still called the bill a “Skittles ban,” this appears to be a hang-up from an early iteration of the bill that proposed the prohibition of titanium dioxide, an ingredient found in Skittles. It is not in the version of the bill passed this month.

Newsweek has reached out to Mars Incorporated and Newsom’s office via email for comment.

The Ruling

False.

There is no ban on Skittles in California. The state recently banned four additives that are used in thousands of foods and food products around the United States. However, that does not mean products have been banned.

The Skittles ban was a moniker attributed to earlier versions of the bill that proposed the removal of titanium dioxide, which is found in Skittles. The proposal was later removed.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team

False: The claim is demonstrably false. Primary source evidence proves the claim to be false. Read more about our ratings.

Fact Check: Bogus video posted of Hamas destroying Israeli war helicopters

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Fact Check: Bogus video posted of Hamas destroying Israeli war helicopters

The war in Israel has led to a stream of misinformation, with politicians, popular figures, and online media channels sharing baseless content and misleading claims only days into the conflict.

On Saturday morning, the armed wing of Hamas launched thousands of rockets at Israel and reportedly dispatched fighters by both land and sea during a widespread operation it named “Al-Aqsa Flood,” in reference to the revered holy site in disputed East Jerusalem. Following the attack, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his country was now “at war”.

As the fighting continues, videos claiming to show the course of the battle have flooded online, such as one clip on Twitter suggesting Hamas had taken out Israeli helicopters from the ground.

The Claim

A post on X (formerly Twitter) by user @Khang566565, posted on October 9, 2023, viewed 134,200 times, stated “Hamas Shot down Isreal’s war Helicopter in Ghaza. Palestine 🇵🇸 will be free ♥️ #Israel #Hamas #Ghaza #savas #طوفان_الأقصى #حماس #FreePalestine #الأهلي_الاتحاد“

The video shows what appears to be two helicopters being shot down over the countryside by surface-to-air missiles.

The Facts

Since Saturday, Israel’s military has carried out air strikes against Hamas in Gaza. In an update at 11 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the Israeli Defense Forces said the Israeli military had struck 1,352 Hamas targets, with more than 4,500 rockets fired from Gaza.

Israeli officials have said that its helicopters have begun striking in Lebanon, with other videos circulating of what has appeared to be an Israeli-operated Apache helicopter striking Hamas militants.

The clip shared on X of what’s claimed to be Hamas firing back at Israeli helicopters is, however, completely bogus.

The original footage was found by reverse image searching frames from the video. It revealed that the clip is a recording from the video game series Arma, posted as a YouTube Short on October 3, 2023, four days before Hamas’ attack on Saturday.

While the video posted on October 3 contains no reference to Israel or Hamas, the reverse image searches also showed that the clip was reuploaded on a number of occasions to YouTube with descriptions linking it to the conflict. Many of those reuploads have since been taken down.

As of Tuesday morning, more than 900 people in Israel and over 700 people in Gaza have been killed in the violence, according to Reuters and the Associated Press, with thousands more injured on both sides.

The Ruling

False.

The video does not show Hamas shooting down Israeli war helicopters. It is footage taken from a video game posted online four days before the Hamas attacks in Israel on Saturday, October 7.

FACT CHECK BY Newsweek’s Fact Check team

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