Your weekly fact-checks
#TrumpCheck
Politifact
Mostly False: The AI industry needs "more energy than the entire country produces right now ... In fact some people say almost double."
Multiple recent federal or independent analyses project that from 2028 to 2050, data centers’ energy needs will account for 6% to 25% of total U.S. electricity demand. That would represent a significant increase compared with today’s levels, but it still would not be close to the 100% or 200% increases Trump cited.
Politifact
Mostly False: President Joe Biden "raised the cost of housing by 40 and 50% — the cost of (a) rental — because they were housing illegal aliens in all of those empty units."
A March Federal Reserve working paper found that U.S. rental housing prices as a whole increased by 22.6% from 2021 to 2024. The paper attributed 4.3 percentage points of that increase to illegal immigration. No evidence the Biden administration housed immigrants without legal status in vacant rental housing units.
#Politics
Factcheck.org
False: Republican senator Susan Collins “doesn’t think” that insider trading “should be illegal.”
A Democratic-aligned ad falsely claims Sen. Susan Collins doesn't think insider trading should be illegal—in fact, she helped write the 2012 STOCK Act that explicitly bans it. What's true is that she opposes a full ban on lawmakers trading stocks, preferring independently managed blind trusts instead, though critics say the STOCK Act has been weakly enforced.
Lead Stories
False: Armenia faces mandatory LGBTQ+, transgender quotas for cabinet members.
There is no EU requirement for Armenia to fill 20% of cabinet posts with LGBTQ+ individuals, including 5% transgender, as a condition of membership. Official EU accession guidelines contain no such quota; neither the European Parliament's nor the European Commission's websites mention it, and no legitimate news outlets reported it. The claim was made on a copycat website impersonating LGBTQ+ outlet PinkNews.
The Quint
False: PM Modi said India is the 'second-largest beef producer '.
A viral video claims PM Modi boasted about India being the world's second-largest beef producer during his New Zealand address. This is false: he actually said India is the second-largest producer of wheat (and largest producer of milk, second-largest of fish). Beef was never mentioned, as confirmed by the full video and an official transcript.
Factcheck.org
False: Barack Obama still owes contractors or subcontractors money for work done on his presidential library in Chicago.
Some subcontractors have said they were not paid for their work. The Obama Foundation has stated that the construction project manager (Lakeside Alliance) has the “primary responsibility” to “hire and manage all the subcontractors for the project.” The foundation said it has “no outstanding disputed charges” with Lakeside Alliance nor “direct legal agreements or contracts” with subcontractors.
#Healthcare
DW
False: According to the National Cancer Institute, since the introduction of sunscreen in 1940, melanoma has increased by over 200%.
A viral claim calls sunscreen a "poison" that blocks sunlight absorption and blames it for a 200% rise in melanoma since 1940. This is misleading: sunscreen actually reduces melanoma risk, and rising cases are linked to increased sun exposure, climate change, and inconsistent use, not to sunscreen itself.
#Climate Change
Euronews
False: A US military programme is manipulating the weather and causing the continent's high temperatures.
Claims that HAARP or US weather-manipulation programmes are causing Europe's heatwaves are unsupported. A viral clip of a French presenter discussing geoengineering has been misrepresented—it was about theoretical research, not active manipulation. HAARP studies the ionosphere, far above where weather actually forms, and scientists say it has no mechanism to influence weather. The real cause: a persistent high-pressure system, intensified by climate change.
#Conflict
Lead Stories
False: Russia destroyed the Skyfall drone production facility in Ukraine visited by late Senator Lindsey Graham hours before his death
This is false. The posts don't cite any sources. No credible media outlets reported that, and even Russia didn't claim it hit that target.
#Nordics
Tjekdet
Falsk: Afrikanske fodboldspillere er født stærkere og hurtigere end europæiske spillere.
Under VM i 2026 tilskrev en ekspert de afrikanske holds stærke præstationer deres overlegne fysiske egenskaber, men forskere siger, at virkeligheden er mere nuanceret: Selvom visse muskelfibre og kropssammensætninger kan fremme hastighed eller udholdenhed, er der tale om befolkningsgennemsnit med store individuelle forskelle, og fodboldens mangeartede krav betyder, at fysiske egenskaber alene ikke kan forklare succesen. Eksperter tilføjer, at kulturen også spiller en stor rolle, ligesom Norges dominans inden for langrend afspejler tradition snarere end genetik.
#WTF?! What The Fact of the week
Snopes
True: The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control approved a young girl's request to keep a unicorn in her backyard.
In December 2022, LA County's Department of Animal Care and Control charmed the internet by publishing a heartfelt, whimsical reply to a young girl named Madeline, "approving" her request to keep a unicorn in her backyard, complete with mock licensing conditions and a stuffed unicorn gift. Director Marcia Mayeda said the gesture, likened to the famous 1897 "Yes, Virginia" editorial, offered a welcome moment of joy amid the department's often emotionally taxing work with animals.
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