What’s wrong with White House clocks? London and Moscow’s 3-hour time gap sparks wild theories

It was quite perplexing for social media users as they wondered why the clocks for London and Moscow, which are two hours apart, were showing a three-hour gap in a White House photo of President Joe Biden meeting with the vice president and the national security team about the ongoing situation in Afghanistan.

The photo came into focus after news of Taliban completing its takeover of Afghanistan with the capture of Kabul made headlines. As Taliban troops took control of nearly all major cities in Afghanistan, the US struggled to evacuate almost 10,000 American civilians from the capital. In the midst of countrywide upheaval, defense authorities are allegedly attempting to reach an agreement with the extremist group.

In the meanwhile, the Taliban has threatened to release radical troops unless the United States decreases its attacks. Biden has stated that any Taliban activity endangering American lives “will be met with a swift and strong US military response.” Frustrated Afghan war veterans have gone to social media to criticize Biden, questioning why their comrades had to die when Kabul fell. But on August 15 Twitter was abuzz trying to work out the mystery of the time on the two clocks.

Following a photo tweeted by the White House showing Biden in an empty conference room meeting with the VP and the national security team via webcam, Internet sleuths were quick to notice something was definitely wrong with the picture. ‘London and Moscow’ was trending through Sunday, as the cities showed a three-hour time difference instead of two. Moscow, Russia is two hours ahead of London, UK. Many went so far as to say that the photo was old at best or a stock photo at worst.

‘Is this a stock photo?’

“Ummmm either their clocks are wrong (doubtful) or this is an old photo just recycled and not even from this weekend. There’s currently only 2 hours between London and Moscow. What’s actually going on?,” a Twitter user said. “Old photo. Look at the clocks. London and Moscow haven’t been 3 hours apart since March… But nice try,” another added. “Recent White House photos show a 3-hour time diff. b/w London & Moscow. There are a few good explanations for this. Either Camp David’s clocks are wrong or the photos are from before March 28, when London went ahead on Daylight Savings Time, but Moscow didn’t. This is *fine*,” wrote journalist Kyle Becker.

“Tehran is 1.5 hours ahead of Moscow but only 30 mins in this pic!” a Twitter user quipped. “Note the time in London and Moscow on the clocks. Clocks show 3 hour time difference. However, there is currently only a 2 hour difference. Before March, London and Moscow have a 3 hour time difference because of daylight savings. Is this a stock photo?,” a tweet read. Others suspected photoshop.