Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: 2025 Taiwanese referendum
Taipei Times
Election Date: 23/08/2025
On 23 August 2025, Taiwan will hold a national referendum on whether to restart the Maanshan Nuclear Power Plant's second reactor, the only referendum proposal approved by the Central Election Commission after multiple KMT- and TPP-backed initiatives on other issues were rejected or missed deadlines. The vote has sparked sharp political and social debate, with supporters citing energy security and opponents warning of safety, environmental risks, and nuclear waste concerns, while polls show a divided public with narrow overall support for restarting the reactor.
#TrumpCheck
PolitiFact
False: Trump claimed that with voting machines, results could take up to two weeks, whereas with paper ballots, the outcome is known the same night.
Machines that tabulate votes are faster and more accurate ballot-counters than humans, according to studies and past election experience. Eliminating vote-counting machines and relying solely on humans to count paper ballots would, in most cases, lengthen the vote-counting time and require more personnel and money. Large jurisdictions would be particularly affected because they handle larger numbers of ballots, often with numerous races.
PolitiFact
False: Trump stated that “We are now the only country in the world that uses mail-in voting.”
A report from a Swedish organization that advocates for democracy globally found that 34 countries or territories allow mail-in voting. Voting by mail does not look the same in each country. For example, U.S. election officials track ballots throughout the voting process to reduce fraud. Many countries don't track ballots. President Donald Trump said he wants to eliminate U.S. voting by mail. If he does so, he almost certainly will face legal challenges because state laws set rules for voting by mail.
#Politics
Africa Check
False: Ugandan prime minister injured in 2025 party primaries.
A 2014 photo showing Robinah Nabbanja with facial injuries after being beaten while mediating a taxi fare dispute has resurfaced online. Users are falsely claiming it is from scuffles during the ruling party's primaries in 2025.
Lead Stories
False: Kid Rock endorsed Californian Governor Gavin Newsom in mid-August 2025.
The origin of the viral image is satirical. The picture was a parody of Donald Trump's post from the previous year, when he said he accepted Taylor Swift's nonexistent endorsement from an AI generated image.
#Economy
Reuters
False: Heathrow Airport was ‘given away for free’ in the 1980s.
A viral post falsely claimed that Margaret Thatcher "gave away" Heathrow Airport for free, but in reality, her government privatized the state-owned British Airports Authority (which included Heathrow and other airports) by floating it on the stock market in 1987, raising about £1.18 billion net (around £3.42 billion today). Historians note the sale relieved the government of future investment burdens, and Heathrow is now privately owned by a consortium, generating billions in revenue annually.
Lead Stories
False: Any cash withdrawal over £420 will be automatically flagged to the UK's anti-fraud unit starting September 1, 2025.
No such program is part of the record of official proceedings. Neither have UK government leaders announced such a measure.
#Healthcare
Lead Stories
False: North Carolina passed a law allowing foreign doctors to practice medicine in that state without taking a U.S. qualification exam.
On July 1, 2025, North Carolina enacted a law to ease its rural physician shortage by creating new licensure pathways for foreign-trained doctors. These doctors actually must pass both their home country’s exam and a board-approved test, work only at the rural hospital that hires them, and practice under the supervision of a licensed physician.
FactCheck.org
False: RFK Jr said that there is no incentive for vaccine makers to produce safe products.
Companies do face consequences for unsafe products: Their vaccines can be pulled from the market if a serious safety issue crops up — or, in less severe circumstances, be given different recommendations or additional warnings that limit their use. And of course, to get to market in the first place, companies must rigorously test their products and show that at the time, the benefits outweigh the risks.
#Conflicts
Reuters
False: Israeli named ‘Yukhal Yulita’ arrested in the Netherlands for war crimes, say officials.
The Dutch Public Prosecution Service stated it had not arrested an Israeli national for alleged war crimes, and the Israeli embassy in the Netherlands said it had no knowledge of such an incident or of an individual named Yukhal Yulita. The image used in the posts dates to an unrelated August 2016 Daily Mail article.
#Nordics
Faktisk
Feil: 1600 nye forskrifter ble innført i fjor.
Lovdatas oppføring for 2024 viser 1666 lokale forskrifter. 1098 av disse er imidlertid basert på den nye utdanningsloven, som krever melding. Dette er derfor regler som også eksisterte før 2024, men som nå er tilgjengelige på Lovdata.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: In 1981, world famous boxer Muhammad Ali once talked a suicidal man off the ledge of a building.
In January 1981, Muhammad Ali helped save a suicidal 21-year-old man, known only as “Joe,” who was threatening to jump from a Los Angeles building by talking to him, assuring him of love and brotherhood, and guiding him safely down after promising a ride in his Rolls Royce. The dramatic rescue, documented by photos, video, and police reports, was widely covered in the media, though little is known about Joe’s life afterward.
Check out the new Factiverse blog post
This week's blog post:
How AI can neutralize dangerous health misinformation in real time
Health misinformation has long a public health threat. It has even become more dangerous in the digital age due to its speed and reach This makes real-time monitoring of online content essential so emerging false claims can be quickly identified and countered with evidence-based information before they cause harm.
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Factiverse helps media organizations and government teams monitor and analyze real-time reporting, identifying false narratives in elections before they spread. Reach out for a consultation to see how our tools can strengthen your reporting strategy