Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: 2025 Transnistrian parliamentary election
Infotag
Election Date: 30/11/2025
Parliamentary elections were held in Transnistria on November 30, 2025, to fill all 33 seats in the Supreme Council, with the ruling Obnovlenie party having won 29 seats in 2020. The election featured 45 candidates across 33 districts, with 21 districts having only a single candidate, and was conducted without independent Western observers in a region classified as not meeting democratic standards.
#TrumpCheck
PolitiFact
False: “I have just gotten the highest poll numbers of my ‘political career.’”
Eight widely followed poll aggregators show that President Donald Trump notched his strongest approval ratings, and his smallest disapproval ratings, in January at the beginning of his second term. Since then, his approval ratings have gone downhill. Trump’s current approval and disapproval ratings are the worst of his second term and within a few percentage points of his first term’s weakest showing.
Lead Stories
False: This is a real letter from Trump to Pelosi with a hidden message: Fuck You Cunt.
A search of the Trump White House archives did not produce a match for the screenshot which was posted on social media. There is no official record of this letter – it is a fake.
Snopes
False: A leaked phone call audio recording authentically features U.S. President Donald Trump panicking to White House staffers about the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
A fake audio recording circulated online in November 2025 claiming to feature President Trump panicking about releasing Jeffrey Epstein files, but it was entirely AI-generated using OpenAI's Sora 2 tool. The creator confirmed that both the audio and visuals were fictional content made for artistic experimentation, not real recordings or events.
#Politics
Lead Stories
False: AOC bullied Barron Trump during a hearing, possibly in the Senate, calling him "Trump prince" Barron destroyed her in response.
Contrary to the claim, there is no video recording of an exchange that allegedly happened on the Senate floor. The posts appear to be part of foreign-operated networks that share false statements about public figures to maximize ad revenue.
Factly
False: A woman who contested as an independent candidate in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, saying that she received zero votes.
The woman seen speaking in the video is not an independent candidate who contested the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. She is Shivani Shukla, who contested as a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate from the Lalganj Assembly Constituency, and she received 95,483 votes. Furthermore, no contested candidate in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections received zero votes. The lowest number of votes was secured by Shivam Kumar Sinha, an independent candidate from the Gaya Town Assembly Constituency, who received 90 votes.
#Technology
Lead Stories
False: Germany has installed robotic mailboxes in cities which allow people to return found items to their owners.
The picture on social media features an AI-generated image of several automated kiosks installed on a public sidewalk. The post originated from a page that is mass producing stories of urban infrastructure innovations which are not real, but are presented as fact, naming the country where they are purportedly already in use.
#Healthcare
Lead Stories
False: Pete Buttigieg just opened America's first 100% free homeless hospital.
The picture purporting to show the opening ceremony was AI generated. No credible news organisations published any reports about it.
Agence France-Presse - AFP
False: CDC edits website to include correct theories and details about vaccines and autism.
The US health agency has updated its official website to reflect the vaccine scepticism of a senior Trump official, a move that medical and public health experts widely condemned.
#Economy
PolitiFact
Half-True: Stock prices for health insurance companies are “up over 1,000% over a short period of time.”
Large, publicly traded health insurers have seen stock price increases over the past 15 years, in one case exceeding 1,000%. Information that President Donald Trump appeared to be citing shows stock price increases generally in the 500% to 750% range over 15 years.The information Trump appeared to cite stops in 2024, ignoring a period of time when most of these companies’ stock prices fell.
Snopes
False: The Clinton Foundation lost its status as a tax-exempt charity after a U.S. Department of Defense audit found more than $100 million in military contracts awarded to franchisees of the foundation.
A satirical Facebook page falsely claimed in late 2025 that the Clinton Foundation lost its tax-exempt status after a Pentagon audit found over $100 million in improper military contracts. The claim was entirely fabricated satire, and the Clinton Foundation remained a tax-exempt charity according to IRS records, with no related Pentagon audits existing.
#Conflicts
StopFake
False: Portugal Prepares to Deport 60,000 Ukrainian refugees.
60,000 is the total number of Ukrainian refugees living in the country. Portugal is not planning mass deportations, but only wants to regulate the legal status of migrants after the temporary protection expires. Currently, temporary protection for Ukrainians in Portugal, as in the entire EU, is valid until March 2027.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Halvt sandt: »Islamiske normer« og halal er blevet indført i Københavns grundskoles madordning.
Et Facebook-opslag fra Dansk Folkepartis politiker Mikkel Bjørn hævdede, at en skole i København havde forbudt rødt kød, skolemælk og svinekød og kun serverede halal-mad af islamiske hensyn, men faktatjekkere fandt ud af, at disse ændringer faktisk var kommunale beslutninger, der var truffet af klima- og budgetmæssige årsager, ikke af religiøse årsager. Mens de fleste skoler i København stadig serverer svinekød, var forbuddet mod rødt kød og fjernelsen af skolemælk en politik, der blev implementeret i hele byen i 2023-2024 af hensyn til miljømæssig bæredygtighed og omkostningsbesparelser, og næsten alt kylling i Danmark er halal-slagtet uanset institutionen.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: Florida man attempted to cross the Atlantic in a giant hamster wheel
A Florida man, Reza Baluchi, attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 2023 using a homemade "hydro-pod" resembling a hamster wheel before being intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard, who deemed the voyage "manifestly unsafe." Outlets confirmed the incident occurred and that Baluchi was brought ashore on September 1, 2023, after allegedly threatening self-harm and making a false bomb threat.
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