Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: Samoa General Election
Samoa Observer
Election Date: 29/08/2025
Samoa will hold snap general elections on 29 August 2025 after Prime Minister Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa’s budget was defeated, following a major split in the ruling FAST party that led her to form the new Samoa Uniting Party (SUP). The vote will elect 51 MPs under the first-past-the-post system with compulsory voting, amid a volatile political climate shaped by party defections, court battles, and disputes over voter registration and electoral law inconsistencies.
#TrumpCheck
Snopes
False: The Nobel Committee "quietly removed" Donald Trump’s name from the Nobel Peace Prize nominee list in 2025.
In August 2025, social media posts falsely claimed that the Norwegian Nobel Committee had "removed" U.S. President Donald Trump from the Nobel Peace Prize nominee list, but such a removal is impossible because nominations are kept secret for 50 years, and no official, public list exists. The likely source of confusion was a Ukrainian lawmaker’s decision to withdraw his own nomination of Trump, which was an individual act, not an action by the Nobel Committee itself.
Lead Stories
False: X post from Ivanka Trump in which she claims Trump's penis is not as small as depicted on South Park is real
No such message appeared on Ivanka's X account and Google did not index one either.
#Politics
PolitiFact
Mostly-True: Democrats have voted for national independent redistricting. Republicans have not.
In 2021, all U.S. House Republicans voted against H.R. 1, called the "For the People Act." One part would have required states to establish independent redistricting commissions, non-legislative bodies that would draw political district lines. All House Democrats but one voted for it. The 884-page voting and elections bill was expansive, and Republicans voiced concerns about other provisions. In at least four states, Republican lawmakers have supported independent redistricting commissions.
#Economy
PolitiFact
Barely-True: Donald Trump's Big Big Beautiful Bill gave the biggest tax cut for families ever in the history of the US.
When factoring in that President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill extends 2017 tax cuts that otherwise would have expired — which tax experts say is a plausible way of characterizing it — then the tax savings from Trump’s 2025 law rank third on the list of biggest tax cut laws since 1980.The bottom-line impact on Americans’ tax liabilities beginning in 2026 may not be dramatic because people are already paying the lower tax rates that the 2025 law saved from expiration. The 2025 law adds some new tax breaks, such as for income from tips and overtime and for Americans 65 and older.
Africa Check
False: Humiliated Ibom Air passenger hasn't sued Nigerian federal government for N500 billion
Multiple Facebook posts claim that airline passenger Comfort Emmanson has sued Nigeria’s federal government and aviation agencies for N500 billion (about US$326 million). She debunked the claim and a public interest suit was not initiated by her.
#Healthcare
Snopes
True: In 2025, the U.S. CDC faced a lawsuit that alleged the agency failed to test the cumulative safety effects of its recommended 72-dose vaccine schedule for children.
As of this writing, none of the lawsuit's allegations have been proven in court, and scientific evidence supports the safety of the CDC's vaccine schedule.
Snopes
Mostly True: Pharmaceutical companies behind weight loss and diabetes medication such as Ozempic are facing a lawsuit that could potentially pay out more than $2 billion.
There is an ongoing multidistrict litigation against Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly involving over 2,600 cases, with plaintiffs alleging severe side effects from Ozempic and similar drugs used for diabetes and weight loss. However, there is no public evidence that the total payout could exceed $2 billion; current reports cite unnamed analysts without any documentation, and the final payout amount remains uncertain as cases are still being filed and settled.
#Conflicts
PolitiFact
False: JD Vance said "If you go back to World War II, if you go back to World War I, if you go back to every major conflict in human history, they all end with some kind of negotiation."
JD Vance stated this in relation to Ukraine. In World War II, both Germany and Japan surrendered unconditionally. As the World War I armistice was being negotiated, Germany won small concessions, but the allies generally imposed their will, an approach that strengthened with the Treaty of Versailles. Other unconditional surrenders include the Third Punic War, in which Rome conquered Carthage.
PolitiFact
False: TikTok videos show police clearing out homeless encampments in Washington, D.C.
Artificial intelligence generated TikTok videos that appear to show police in Washington, D.C., clearing out homeless encampments. The videos included watermarks from AI-generators and visual inconsistencies such as disappearing people. Law enforcement officers in Washington, D.C., have been clearing out homeless encampments in the district following President Donald Trump’s takeover.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Statsminister Anders Fogh Rasmussen har aldrig sagt, at Irak havde masseødelæggelsesvåben.
Det hævder han i DR-programmet ›Tæt på sandheden undersøger‹. Men det er forkert. Anders Fogh Rasmussen sagde flere gange, inden Folketinget besluttede at deltage i Irak-krigen, at Irak havde masseødelæggelsesvåben. Han fremhævede dog også Saddam Husseins manglende samarbejde som en begrundelse for at deltage i krigen.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: The first known use of "OMG" as an abbreviation for "Oh my God" was in a letter sent to Winston Churchill.
The earliest recorded use of "OMG" as an abbreviation for "Oh my God" dates back to a 1917 letter from British Admiral John Arbuthnot Fisher to Winston Churchill, decades before its spread through digital media. The phrase remained obscure until it was rediscovered by Oxford English Dictionary researchers in 2011, highlighting that playful abbreviations like "OMG" have long been part of English language innovation, not just a recent trend.
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