Your weekly fact-checks
#Elections2025
This week's election: 2025 Ivorian parliamentary election
MedaFrica
Election Date: 27/12/2025
Ivory Coast's Independent Electoral Commission has proposed holding legislative elections on 27 December 2025, days before the current parliamentary term ends, but opposition parties are demanding a voter roll revision to allow more young people to register. CEI president Ibrahime Coulibaly-Kuibiert rejected this demand, citing constitutional deadlines and noting that a registration drive was conducted just months earlier with limited participation.
#TrumpCheck
Lead Stories
True: President Trump posted a claim that actor Rob Reiner and his wife Michele were murdered due to "Trump Derangement Syndrome".
The post appeared on the president's timeline at 9:51 am EST Monday, December 15, 2025, about 15 hours after the Reiners' daughter discovered their bodies in their Los Angeles home. The president's message claimed Reiner drove people "CRAZY" with his anti-Trump "obsession." The Reiners' son has been charged with the stabbing murders.
Snopes
True: A social media graphic accurately compared the gold-decorated interiors of Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse and Donald Trump's renovated Oval Office.
A viral social media post comparing gold-trimmed decor in Trump's renovated Oval Office with Jeffrey Epstein's Manhattan townhouse is accurate. Both photographs are authentic—the Epstein image comes from FBI evidence submitted during Ghislaine Maxwell's 2021 trial, while the White House photo appears on the official White House website documenting Trump's privately funded Oval Office renovation completed in August 2025, which incorporated gold filigree and designs inspired by his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Lead Stories
False: Trump raised the special monthly pension provided to living Medal of Honour recipients from $16,880 to about $67,500.
The Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed that those figures show the annual change, not monthly. According to the federal agency, there are 63 veterans and 34 surviving spouses who receive this pension, as of December 3, 2025.
#Politics
Lead Stories
False: Barack Obama announced a potential comeback as president through "legal avenues" or a "proxy candidate".
Contrary to the posts citing his "exclusive interview on a major news network" on December 7, 2025, the former president did not talk to any TV stations on that day. He didn't make the purported announcement on his X or other channels.
#Technology
Snopes
False: Oura, the maker of the Oura ring, shares its users' biometric data with Palantir Technologies.
Online rumours claimed that Oura Health's partnership with Palantir Technologies gave the software company access to all Oura ring users' biometric data. While Oura does have a voluntary DOD employee program and acquired a platform in 2024 that had an existing Palantir relationship, only consenting Defense Department employees can choose to share their health data with their employer through a separate system, and Oura stated it had not yet begun sharing data through Palantir as of August 2025.
#Healthcare
Africa Check
False: There is a secret approach that enables families to obtain private healthcare while avoiding expensive private medical costs in South Africa.
A video circulating on Facebook uses a US news anchor's image and fabricated credentials to promote a dubious "affordable medical cover" website targeting South Africans. The video and associated website contain multiple red flags, including a non-existent news organisation, false Better Business Bureau accreditation, and a lack of compliance information required by South African medical scheme regulations.
Lead Stories
False: Camel tears contain anti-venom for poisonous snake bites.
Scientists have not proven that camel tears contain antibodies capable of neutralizing venom from 26 snakebites, despite what social media claims suggest. While researchers are studying antibodies from immunized camel-like animals as potential snakebite treatments in mice, no evidence supports the claim that camel tears alone serve as an effective antivenom for humans.
#Economy
Snopes
Mostly true: Massachusetts voters approved a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million that generated $1.5 billion in revenue.
Massachusetts voters approved a 4% surtax on incomes over $1 million in November 2022 that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2023. The Department of Revenue initially estimated the tax would raise around $1.5 billion from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, also known as fiscal year 2024. However, the tax surpassed the state's estimates, ultimately generating nearly $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2024 and nearly $3 billion in fiscal year 2025.
#Conflicts
StopFake
False: Zelensky downplayed Irish deaths in Ukraine’s Armed Forces.
Neither Ukrainian nor Irish authorities have ever stated that only three Irish nationals were killed while serving in Ukraine’s armed forces. In November 2025, media outlets reported the confirmed death of a fourth Irish citizen, Alex Ryzhuk, underscoring that the figures cited in viral claims do not reflect official records.
StopFake
False: Top Ukrainian commander threatens revolt over capitulation by Zelensky.
The commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ Unmanned Systems Forces, Robert Madyar Brovdi, did not issue any threat to unseat President Volodymyr Zelensky. Pro-Kremlin media outlets are circulating an old video of Brovdi, repackaging it to imply a link to current peace discussions or to specific Ukrainian officials — a connection that does not exist.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Volodymyr Zelensky købte en kæmpe ranch i Wyoming for cirka 70 millioner dollars.
Der cirkulerede falske påstande på sociale medier om, at den ukrainske præsident Volodymyr Zelensky havde købt en kæmpe ranch i Wyoming for cirka 70 millioner dollars, spredt gennem en falsk nyhedsvideo, AI-genereret fortælling og en forfalsket ejendomsmæglerhjemmeside. Ejendomsmæglerfirmaet Swan Land bekræftede, at ranchen faktisk blev solgt til et amerikansk familieejet firma, og at deres hjemmeside blev kopieret for at skabe hoaxet, som følger et mønster fra russiske desinformationskampagner, der har til formål at underminere Vestens støtte til Ukraine.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: A Japanese town used a pair of robots disguised as wolves to scare away bears from the area.
A small Japanese town deployed robotic "Monster Wolf" units with glowing red eyes, motion sensors, and 60 different sounds to deter bears from farmland in late 2020 amid record sightings and attacks. Officials reported no bear encounters after installing the robots, which mimic wolves that were hunted to extinction in Japan over a century ago.
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