Fact check: Weight loss drug trial, US election rules and ‘IDF soldiers’ image

Round up of fact checks from the last week compiled by Full Fact.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting ahead of his speech at the Labour Party Conference. (Stefan Rousseau/PA) (PA Wire)

This roundup of claims has been compiled by Full Fact, the UK’s largest fact checking charity working to find, expose and counter the harms of bad information.

Weight loss drug trial isn’t funded with public money

The government will not be paying the pharmaceutical firm Lilly £280 million to run a widely reported five-year trial into the impact of weight loss injections, despite confusion online.

Last week, health secretary Wes Streeting announced that Lilly would be making a £279 million investment in the UK to trial weight loss injections using the drug tirzepatide for people living with obesity.

But social media users appear to have confused the meaning of this, claiming that the government will be paying the pharmaceutical company at taxpayers’ expense. One post claimed this would see “£280m of taxpayers’ money [go] to Big Pharma”.

This isn’t true. The original press release from the Department of Health and Social Care made clear that the money would be coming from Lilly, not the government. A spokesperson also confirmed to Full Fact that the £279 million will be funded “entirely by Lilly”, adding: “No taxpayer money will be given to the company as part of the announced collaboration.”

What are the rules on foreigners volunteering in US elections?

The rules on foreign nationals volunteering in US elections have been in the spotlight this week, after a row between Republican candidate Donald Trump’s campaign and the UK’s Labour party over alleged “interference” in the upcoming US presidential election.

The Trump campaign filed a complaint to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) demanding “an immediate investigation” after reports of current and former Labour party staff preparing to campaign in support of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Labour has said the staff were volunteering. At Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Deputy PM Angela Rayner said: “People in their own time often go and campaign, and that’s what we have seen. It happens in all political parties.”

But what do the rules say?

The FEC states that foreign nationals (with the exception of green card holders) may not make donations in connection with any federal, state or local election in the US. Foreign nationals are also prohibited from influencing decision making in election-related activities.

The FEC defines a foreign national as either an individual who is not a US citizen or lawful permanent resident, or a “foreign principal”, which includes foreign governments and political parties, as well as businesses and organisations whose principal place of business is not in the US.

It is also against US law to knowingly accept donations or contributions from a foreign national.

However, the FEC also states that foreign nationals “may participate in campaign activities as an uncompensated volunteer”, as long as they are not involved in the decision making process of a campaign.

FEC rules say that individuals “may voluntarily spend up to 1,000 dollars for unreimbursed transportation expenses on behalf of the campaign”, but that travel costs above 1,000 dollars may be considered a contribution (which foreign nationals are prohibited from making). There’s no limit to the amount a volunteer can spend on their own food and housing, though these expenses must be “incidental to volunteer activity”.

Image supposedly showing captured Israeli soldiers almost certainly AI-generated

An image is being shared widely on social media with claims that it shows four Israeli soldiers who have supposedly been captured by Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But the picture, of four men in uniform, kneeling, facing away from the camera and with their hands tied, was likely created using AI, and there’s no evidence it’s a real photo.

Clues include garbled text on the men’s uniforms, discrepancies with some of the soldiers’ feet and a rifle which appears to have two barrels. Professor Hany Farid, who specialises in digital forensics and image analysis at the University of California, Berkeley, told Full Fact it was “almost certainly an AI-generated image”.