Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: Japanese House of Councillors
Election Date: 20/07/2025
Japan's House of Councillors election on 20 July 2025 resulted in the ruling LDP-Komeito coalition losing its upper house majority amid record-low support for the LDP under Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, who faced internal dissent and public backlash over scandals and rising living costs. Opposition parties, particularly the CDP, Ishin, and DPP, gained ground through coordinated campaigns and candidate unification in key districts, while right-wing populist Sanseitō and a record number of female candidates also saw electoral success.
#TrumpCheck
Snopes
True: Trump once called Epstein 'terrific guy' who likes women 'on the younger side'
A viral July 2025 post accurately quoted Donald Trump’s 2002 comments calling Jeffrey Epstein a “terrific guy” who liked “beautiful women… on the younger side,” a quote made years before Epstein's sex crime charges. While Trump later distanced himself from Epstein, conspiracy theories resurfaced amid unverified claims by Elon Musk and conflicting statements from officials about the existence of Epstein-related files.
PolitiFact
False: In 2016, after Donald Trump won the presidency, then-President Barack Obama was “trying to lead a coup” with Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton.
DNI Tulsi Gabbard gave the DOJ documents seeking a criminal probe of Obama officials over their handling of Russia’s 2016 election interference. However, no coup occurred, and investigations found Russia interfered but didn’t alter vote results.
Snopes
False: Former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris demanded Trump's arrest and impeachment, as well as the freezing of his financial accounts.
In July 2025, viral social media posts falsely claimed former Vice President Kamala Harris demanded Donald Trump’s arrest, impeachment, and freezing of his accounts during a televised conference. No credible news sources or official statements support this claim, and the videos promoting it used AI-generated narration and misleading footage; similar fabricated posts from the same sources have also spread other false political rumors.
#Politics
Reuters
False: King Charles has called for ‘no borders’ between the UK and France.
Social media posts falsely claimed King Charles called for eliminating borders between the UK and France during a speech at Windsor Castle. In reality, he spoke about shared global challenges that "know no borders" and emphasized UK-France cooperation, without mentioning national border removal.
Snopes
False: Former Rep. Matt Gaetz said "Attraction to newly pubescent girls is perfectly healthy and natural."
A viral screenshot falsely claimed former Rep. Matt Gaetz posted on X that attraction to "newly pubescent girls" is healthy, but there is no evidence he ever made such a statement. The fake post surfaced amid renewed controversy over the Epstein files and past allegations of misconduct against Gaetz, who has denied wrongdoing despite a House investigation finding substantial evidence of legal and ethical violations.
#Economy
PolitiFact
False: The US trade tariffs are going to pay off their deficit.
Two projections show that the Trump administration tariff revenues would not cover the next 10 years of projected deficits.
#Healthcare
FactCheck.org
False: There wont be an increase in preventable deaths as a result of the Republican budget bill.
President Trump claimed no one would die from the Republican budget bill, but a University of Pennsylvania and Yale analysis estimated it would cause at least 42,500 preventable deaths annually due to Medicaid and ACA changes. Additional research from Harvard and CUNY estimated 8,200 to 24,600 deaths from Medicaid cuts alone. Experts agree that stripping health coverage leads to preventable deaths, though the precise number depends on assumptions like state-level funding replacements.
#PopCulture
Lead Stories
False: Simpsons predicted Coldplay kiss cam controversy.
The Simpsons did not predict the kiss cam incident involving CEO Andy Byron at a 2025 Coldplay concert. The viral image is a fake meme, falsely linked to a 2015 episode with an unrelated storyline. This is part of a trend where real events are wrongly connected to the show using doctored or AI-generated content.
#Conflicts
Lead Stories
False: Viral image shows Chinese-Made F-7 fighter jet that crashed at a medical school campus in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
The social media image contradicted what was shown in footage and photographs published by credible media outlets. Authentic visual materials showed that most of the plane's fuselage was obscured from cameras by the debris.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: En gruppe kvinner ble holdt fanget i bur av jihadister i gatene i Mosul.
Et Instagram-innlegg med over 10 000 kommentarer viser angivelig en gruppe kvinner som ble holdt fanget i bur av jihadister i gatene i Mosul før de ble brent levende. Ifølge innlegget er dette fordi de ikke vil konvertere til islam og bli sexslaver. Men forskning viser at bildet faktisk er fra en demonstrasjon i Egypt. Både på sosiale medier og i internasjonale medier har bildet tidligere blitt brukt i feil sammenheng.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Once thought extinct, animals were found alive in Honduras' "lost city" of La Ciudad Blanca.
In Honduras' remote Mosquitia rainforest, scientists exploring La Ciudad Blanca—an ancient site long shrouded in legend—rediscovered three animal species thought extinct, including a snake, bat, and beetle, along with a new species of fish. Their 2019 survey in the Ciudad del Jaguar area also documented hundreds of rare plants and animals, highlighting the region’s extraordinary biodiversity and urgent need for protection.
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