Your weekly fact-checks
#TrumpCheck
Agence France-Presse - AFP
Mostly False: Donald Trump publicly gives South Korean Lee Jae-myung the cold shoulder.
As US President Donald Trump met world leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in October, an image purportedly showing Trump giving South Korean counterpart Lee Jae Myung the cold shoulder in public circulated on social media. The screenshot is taken from a video report that in fact shows Trump later smiling back at Lee and the duo shaking hands.
Snopes
False: U.S. President Donald Trump was selling pieces of the demolished White House East Wing on his website.
Posts spread online claiming that pieces of rubble from the White House East Wing were being sold for $500 each on Trump's website, accompanied by an image of a purported official news release. The announcement was fake, with no public information suggesting such a sales campaign existed.
#Politics
PolitiFact
False: The New York City ballot form is a scam because mayoral candidates appear twice.
New York City mayoral candidates Zohran Mamdani and Curtis Sliwa are listed twice on the ballot because two separate parties nominated them.Candidates and political parties in New York have operated under this system — known as fusion voting — since the 19th century.
Agence France-Presse - AFP
False: Person illegally voted for Zohran Mamdani six times in the NYC Mayoral Race.
In the days leading up to the highly anticipated New York City mayoral election, users spread a video they claimed showed a person admitting to voter fraud. However, there are security mechanisms in place to prevent people from voting multiple times and the clip was originally posted as a joke playing on the popular "6-7" meme, with the speaker saying they planned to cast six or seven ballots for Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani.
Agence France-Presse - AFP
False: Protesters were seen in Tanzania kicking tear gas canisters and stoning police officers during the general election.
Tanzanians went to the polls in October 2025 in an election where the main opposition parties were effectively sidelined by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government, amid a nationwide internet blackout. During the disruption, social media was flooded with images and clips shared by users in neighbouring countries, purportedly showing protests in Tanzania. Although unrest has since spread, the images in question are old and unrelated to the election.
#Healthcare
Snopes
True: Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, which required emergency rooms to provide emergency health care to anyone, regardless of immigration status, in 1986.
Under the law Reagan signed, ERs that take Medicare payments — which is most of them — must provide emergency care to anyone, regardless of ability to pay or immigration status. Some social media posts claimed the act guaranteed "health services to all undocumented immigrants," but the act required only that hospitals provide everyone with emergency health care, not other forms of health services.
#Economy
PolitiFact
Half-True: "Overall, the inflation since President Trump” took office “has come down."
The most basic measure of year-over-year inflation has risen on President Donald Trump’s watch. After stripping out historically volatile food and energy prices, the inflation rate under Trump has declined modestly.Wages have outpaced inflation under Trump, although economists warn that his tariff policies could put that achievement at risk.
#PopCulture
Lead Stories
False: ABC has cancelled "The View" and replaced it with "The Charlie Kirk Show", hosted by Erika Kirk and other people.
The show continued to be on air after the beginning of this wave of online rumors. Neither the hosts nor the network made a public announcement about the program's cancellation.
#Climate
Snopes
True: Philanthropist and Microsoft founder Bill Gates said climate change "will not lead to humanity’s demise."
In October 2025, posts circulated claiming Bill Gates said climate change "will not lead to humanity's demise," which some users interpreted as a softening of his climate stance. Gates did write those words in a memo arguing against a "doomsday outlook," but he clarified that climate change remains "a very important problem" requiring solutions while maintaining his support for climate innovation and mitigation efforts.
#Conflicts
Lead Stories
False: Gunmen menacing a mother and child in a trench in Sudan.
The day after it was originally posted without an AI label, the original poster edited the description to add, in Arabic: "AI generated video." The scene includes visual anomalies that make it plain it is not a real image: shadows of the soldiers are cast long, from an afternoon or evening angle, while the woman casts no same-direction shadow, and shadows in crevices in the trench wall next to her are straight-down, noon shadows.
StopFake
False: Ukraine Lost a Billion Dollars by Signing a Contract With an American Weapon Store according to Financial Times.
The Financial Times did not write that Ukraine lost a billion dollars on this deal. The newspaper only reported on the arms supply contract that Ukraine signed with an Arizona company in the first months of the full-scale invasion. The company was never able to fulfill it due to the lack of experience in such large-scale deliveries. The irresponsible supplier received 17 million euros in advance, but Ukraine successfully sued for this money after the contract was canceled.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Half True: Indvandringen fra muslimske lande steg eller faldt under Socialdemokraterne.
Ifølge Dansk Folkeparti er indvandringen af muslimer steget med 124 procent, siden Mette Frederiksen tiltrådte som statsminister. Socialdemokraterne kalder Dansk Folkepartis påstande for propaganda, vildledende og forkerte. Faktisk er indvandringen af muslimer faldet markant under deres ledelse, siger Socialdemokraterne. Begge partier citerer officielle statistikker som bevis for deres påstande. Tallene bag striden viser, at begge partier har ret på hver deres måde – afhængigt af, hvordan man bruger tallene.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: JCPenney once advertised a tea kettle that some said resembled Hitler.
Rumours resurfaced that JCPenney once featured a billboard advertising a tea kettle that viewers claimed resembled Adolf Hitler giving a Nazi salute. The claim is true—the billboard appeared in Culver City, California, in 2013, generating widespread media attention before JCPenney quickly removed it, calling the design "totally unintentional" while the kettle sold out online due to the viral controversy.
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