World
Anti-immigrant and anti-semitic misinformation plagues Euros online
The UEFA European Championship is entering its final stages, but what should be a celebration of European football has been clouded by false claims online designed to stir up hatred against marginalised groups.
It’s not just the world of politics, science and health that are targeted by online misinformation.
Often, sports and our other favourite pastimes can come under fire from dubious claims, too. This time, it’s the UEFA European Championship 2024.
Here are a few examples.
A picture appeared on social media supposedly showing a football fan dressed as Adolf Hitler in Germany during the first round of matches.
It was shared widely both on Facebook and X, but the photo isn’t from this year’s Euros at all.
Instead, it dates back to a Halloween party in October 2022 and was taken on the streets of Madison, Wisconsin, in the US.
We can find the original image on X, as posted by StopAntisemitism on 30 October 2022.
The group said it was “nauseated” that someone would dress up as Hitler for Halloween and said that the costume was meant to do one thing: spread hate.
Another misleading claim online attempts to blame the post-match mess on migrants.
This video, shared on social networks, shows Römerberg Square in Frankfurt littered with rubbish and empty food and drink containers.
It’s been posted with captions such as “not sure how long Frankfurt will survive the consequences of mass immigration”.
But the video has nothing to do with immigration at all.
What it does show is the mess left by football fans following the match between England and Denmark on 20 June.
Various other videos and posts show the square packed with fans before and during the game or in the aftermath, where the rubbish can clearly be seen.
German police did not tell fans to choose weed over alcohol
Moving away from xenophobic misinformation, a false claim of a different kind emerged towards the start of the championship.
Euronews has already covered allegations that German police were encouraging fans to smoke weed instead of drinking alcohol while visiting Germany to watch the Euros.
The claim seems to have sprung from a report by UK tabloid The Sun, which quoted a police spokesperson as saying they would be more likely to target aggressive people drinking alcohol than a group smoking weed.
Police in Gelsenkirchen have since rebutted this.
They said they’d ensure everyone’s safety regardless of the intoxicants consumed.
“We do not explicitly encourage football fans to smoke weed,” the spokesperson said.
World
Nobel Institute shuts down talk of Venezuelan leader sharing Peace Prize with Trump
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The organization that oversees the Nobel Peace Prize rejected recent suggestions that Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado could give or share her award with President Donald Trump.
The Norwegian Nobel Institute shut down the idea Friday, after Machado suggested that she might transfer the prestigious award to Trump earlier this week.
“Once a Nobel Prize is announced, it cannot be revoked, shared, or transferred to others,” the institute said in a statement. “The decision is final and stands for all time.”
The statement comes after Machado floated the idea during an appearance Tuesday on Fox News’ “Hannity.”
UNITED NATIONS ‘UPSET’ THAT TRUMP TOOK ‘BOLD ACTION’ TO IMPROVE VENEZUELA, SAYS UN AMB. MIKE WALTZ
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado waves at the Grand Hotel in Oslo, Norway, early Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (Lise Åserud/NTB Scanpix via AP)
“Did you at any point offer to give him the Nobel Peace Prize?” Sean Hannity asked. “Did that actually happen?”
Machado responded, “Well, it hasn’t happened yet.”
“I certainly would love to be able to personally tell him that we believe — the Venezuelan people, because this is a prize of the Venezuelan people — certainly want to give it to him and share it with him,” Machado continued. “What he has done is historic. It’s a huge step towards a democratic transition.”
TRUMP ADMIN SAYS MADURO CAPTURE REINFORCES ALIEN ENEMIES ACT REMOVALS
Nobel officials said the Peace Prize cannot be shared after Machado suggested honoring Trump. (REUTERS/Maxwell Briceno and Win McNamee/Getty Images)
On Jan. 3, Trump announced that the U.S. had successfully completed an operation to capture authoritarian Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who is now facing drug trafficking charges in New York.
Trump was asked during an appearance Thursday on “Hannity” whether he would accept the Nobel Prize from Machado.
“I’ve heard that she wants to do that,” Trump responded. “That would be a great honor.”
TRUMP OUSTING OF MADURO DRAWS PARALLELS TO US RAID IN PANAMA – BUT THERE ARE SOME MAJOR CONTRASTS
Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado gestures during an anti-government protest on January 9, 2025 in Caracas, Venezuela (Jesus Vargas/Getty Images)
Machado secretly escaped Venezuela last month and traveled to Norway to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, which she dedicated to Trump.
“Let me be very clear. As soon as I learned that we had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, I dedicated it to President Trump because I believed at that point that he deserved it,” Machado said on “Hannity.” “And a lot of people, most people, said it was impossible to achieve what he has just done on Saturday, January 3rd.”
Trump said he plans to meet with the Venezuelan opposition leader in Washington next week.
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He has previously stated that Machado “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country” to lead. Trump has supported acting President Delcy Rodríguez, a longtime Maduro loyalist, who previously served as vice president under Maduro.
Fox News Digital’s Landon Mion contributed to this report.
World
Somali minister says Israel plans to displace Palestinians to Somaliland
Somalia’s minister of defence, Ahmed Moalim Fiqi, has accused Israel of planning to forcibly displace Palestinians to the breakaway region of Somaliland, denouncing the alleged plan as a “serious violation” of international law.
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Saturday, Fiqi called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to withdraw his diplomatic recognition of the “separatist region”, calling the move announced late last year a “direct attack” on Somalia’s sovereignty.
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“Israel has long had goals and plans to divide countries – maybe before 20 years – and it wants to divide the map of the Middle East and control its countries… this is why they found this separatist group in northwestern Somalia,” Fiqi told Al Jazeera.
“We have confirmed information that Israel has a plan to transfer Palestinians and to send them to [Somaliland],” he added, without elaborating.
Fiqi’s comments came amid a global outcry over Netanyahu’s decision in December to recognise Somaliland, a breakaway part of Somalia comprising the northwestern portion of what was once the British Protectorate.
The move made Israel the first country in the world to recognise Somaliland as an independent state and came months after The Associated Press news agency reported that Israeli officials had contacted parties in Somalia, Somaliland and Sudan to discuss using their territory for forcibly displacing Palestinians amid its genocidal war on Gaza.
Somalia denounced the Israeli move, with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud telling Al Jazeera that Somaliland had accepted three conditions from Israel: The resettlement of Palestinians, the establishment of a military base on the coast of the Gulf of Aden, and joining the Abraham Accords to normalise ties with Israel.
Officials in Somaliland have denied agreeing to resettle Palestinians from Gaza, and say there have been no discussions on an Israeli military base in the area.
But Fiqi on Saturday reiterated that Israel “wants to create a military base to destabilise the region” on the Bab al-Mandeb Strait, which connects the Gulf of Aden to the Red Sea.
“I see it as an occupation to destabilise the area,” Fiqi added.
He also stressed that Israel has no legal right to grant legitimacy to a region within a sovereign state.
Somaliland first declared independence from Somalia in 1991, but it has failed to gain recognition from any United Nations member state since.
Israel’s world-first announcement triggered protests in Somalia and swift criticisms from dozens of countries and organisations, including Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and the African Union.
Fiqi told Al Jazeera that Israel’s move falls into a decades-long goal to control the Middle East and accused Israel of exploiting separatist movements in the region. Roughly half of the areas formerly known as Somaliland have declared their affiliation with Somalia over the past two years, he added.
The minister praised the countries that had condemned Israel and pledged that Somalia would lean on all diplomatic and legal means to reject Israel’s “violation”.
He also commended United States President Donald Trump’s administration for not recognising Somaliland.
Although the US was the only member of the 15-member United Nations Security Council that did not condemn Israel for the recognition on December 30, it said its position on Somaliland had not changed.
For its part, Somaliland’s governing party has defended its newfound relations with Israel after Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs Gideon Saar travelled to Hargeisa, the region’s largest city and self-declared capital, earlier this week.
Hersi Ali Haji Hassan, chairman of the governing Waddani party, told Al Jazeera days later that Somaliland was “not in a position to choose” who provided it with legitimacy after decades of being spurned by the international community.
“We are in a state of necessity for official international recognition,” Hassan said. “There is no choice before us but to welcome any country that recognises our existential right.”
Hassan did not deny the prospect of a potential military base.
“We have started diplomatic relations… This topic [a military base] has not been touched upon now,” he said.
When pressed on whether Somaliland would accept such a request in the future, Hassan said only to “ask the question when the time comes”, calling the line of inquiry “untimely”.
Israeli think tanks say Somaliland’s location, at the gateway to the Red Sea and across from Yemen, make it a strategic site for operations against the Yemeni Houthi rebel group, which imposed a naval blockade on Israeli-linked shipping before the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza.
The Institute for National Security Studies, in a November report, said Somaliland’s territory could “serve as a forward base” for intelligence monitoring of the Houthis and serve “a platform for direct operations” against them.
The Houthis said that any Israeli presence would be a target, a statement Somaliland’s former intelligence chief, Mostafa Hasan, said amounted to a declaration of war.
World
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