A round of fictitious stories masquerading as news articles from Fox News — invoking the names and faces of prominent hosts on the channel — and other outlets have been used in recent weeks to hawk dubious products through paid Facebook adv
Snopes→ Afghan Officer Who Fought with US Forces Rescued from Kabul
The rescue of Khalid, as he’s called by friends, came after frantic efforts by his supporters in the U.S. military, who said he was a brother in arms who helped save countless lives and faced certain death if found by the Taliban.
Snopes→ Why Did Thousands of Sand Dollars Wash Ashore in Oregon?
An invertebrate zoologist explains to Snopes what could have caused the mass die-off.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Nashville’s Daily Press And Times Really DID Print These Female Statistics In 1869
Did Nashville's Daily Press and Times publish this accounting of the unmarried females in the Tennessee city on July 19, 1869? Yes it's true: This image of a newspaper clipping, from an unknown newspaper and date, cites the Daily Press an
Snopes→ Big Bird on Water is Mystery, but Town Calls It Just Ducky
The sudden appearance of a giant rubber duck in a Maine harbor is a whimsical whodunit that's defied sleuths so far.
Truth or Fiction?→ Bill Nye ‘There’s Already Enough Plastic in the Ocean’ Response Tweet
On August 16 2021, the Facebook page “Super News Supes” shared a screenshot in which science educator Bill Nye purportedly made a misogynistic comment about Kylie Jenner in a screenshot that was circulating as early as July 9 2019: In th
Snopes→ Soccer-Loving Pope Francis Gets a New Toy: a Foosball Table
Pope Francis has received dozens of soccer jerseys and game balls during his eight-year pontificate but he got a new football-themed toy: his very own foosball table.
Washington Post→ Four dubious claims from Biden’s ABC interview on Afghanistan
The president inflated troop numbers in Afghanistan — and deflated troop numbers in Syria.
Logically→ International Monetary Fund announced that Afghanistan would no longer be able to access its resources.
IMF has restricted Afghanistan from accessing loans or other resources due to a lack of clarity over recognition of a government in the country.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: CNN Reporter ‘Bernie Gores’ Was NOT Executed By The Taliban In Afghanistan — The Name, Story And Accounts That Reported It Are Fake
Was a CNN reporter from the U.S. named Bernie Gores executed by the Taliban in Kabul, Afghanistan? No, that's not true: "Bernie Gores" is not a real CNN reporter, and the Twitter accounts that propagated the claim are all fake news accoun
Truth or Fiction?→ NBC LA ‘Shot On-Site’ Tweet
On August 19 2021, the following screenshot circulated, featuring a tweet from @NBCLA: It was not immediately clear if the tweets from NBC Los Angeles/@NBCLA were real, or if they were intended as humorous fakes. They read: [1] “Come With Vax Pr
Snopes→ 8th-Graders Lead Effort To Pardon Wrongly Convicted ‘Witch’
More than three centuries after a Massachusetts woman was wrongly convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death, she's finally on the verge of being exonerated.
Logically→ COVID-19 vaccines increase the risk of death due to COVID-19 for under 50s by up to 177.5 percent.
A Daily Expose article has misinterpreted data from Public Health England to falsely claim that vaccines increase the risk of death.
Snopes→ Are These Women Wearing Skirts in Kabul During the 1970s?
Yes, but this image does not represent what life was like for the majority of Afghan women during that time.
Snopes→ Did Don Trump Jr. Say Taliban Spokesman Not “Wrong” About Facebook Censorship?
The spokesman faced a question about freedom of speech in Afghanistan.
Full Fact→ Trafalgar Square “Freedom Rally” speech littered with false claims
During an anti-lockdown event on 24 July, dubbed the “The Worldwide Rally For Freedom”, Vernon Coleman (who we have fact checked before, under his online pseudonym “Old Man In A Chair”) made a speech in Trafalgar Square where he
Full Fact→ How long should you wait between vaccines if you’re pregnant?
We’ve been asked on WhatsApp how long pregnant women should wait between getting their routine vaccines in pregnancy, and getting a Covid-19 vaccine. The guidance from NHS England is to wait seven days between the Covid vaccine and any other vacc
Full Fact→ What we know about Covid-19 vaccines and miscarriages
We’ve seen a number of claims over the last few months about the Covid-19 vaccines and miscarriages. Here we debunk a few of the most common ones. What we know so far There is no scientific reason the vaccine might be expected to affect pregnancy
Full Fact→ What do we know about Covid-19 vaccines and fertility?
We’ve been asked on WhatsApp for information regarding the Covid-19 vaccines and womens' fertility. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) which is the professional association of pregnancy, childbirth, and women's reproduct
Snopes→ Dan Stock’s Speech to Mt. Vernon School Board Is Not Scientifically Credible
You would be hard pressed to find a single sentence in Dr. Stock's speech on "the futility of mask mandates and COVID-19 protocols" that is not misleading or explicitly false.
Snopes→ Police Probing Report of Explosive in Truck Near Capitol
Police were investigating a report Thursday of a possible explosive device in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress on Capitol Hill and have evacuated multiple buildings on the sprawling Capitol complex.
AllSides→ Fact-checking Biden’s claim that Afghans didn’t want to leave
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/19/politics/biden-afghan-visa-fact-check/index.html The Biden administratio
Full Fact→ How media reporting of modelling has shaped our understanding of the pandemic
Over the course of the past 18 months, it’s overwhelmingly likely that you’ve seen a scientific model about Covid-19 reported in traditional media like newspapers and television, or on social media—and they’re informing policies
Logically→ The global elite has chosen to begin the Great Reset in Australia.
The Great Reset is an initiative launched by the World Economic Forum. Conspiracy theorists have used to make outlandish claims.
Snopes→ No, 229 Christian Missionaries Were Not Sentenced to Death in Afghanistan
In the midst of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, a bogus, 12-year-old prayer chain about imperiled missionaries was revived on social media.
FactCheck.org→ Tweets Misrepresent Border Data
As of July, there had been more than 1.3 million “encounters” at the southwest border in fiscal year 2021, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. That does not mean that 1.3 million people crossed the border, nor does it mean
Logically→ Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are damaging to the environment.
Non-fungible tokens use huge amounts of energy, leading to high carbon emissions.
Snopes→ US Jobless Claims Hit a Pandemic Low As Hiring Strengthens
America's job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand.
Logically→ The Indian government advised caregivers of quarantined patients to take hydroxychloroquine prophylaxis as a preventative measure.
It was previously suggested that COVID-19 caretakers take Hydroxychloroquine by the Indian government, but in May 2021, the advice was dropped.
Poynter→ Lessons learned from a year covering fact-checking
Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and misinformation from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. Sign up here to receive it in your email every Thursday. The rolling boulder This will be my last edition of Factually. I’m moving
Logically→ Women and children did not leave Afghanistan.
A miscaptioned image states that no women or children left Afghanistan. However, this image shows Afghan refugees being deported in 2018.
Snopes→ Did Fauci Spend Taxpayer Dollars on ‘Cruel and Unnecessary’ Test of Vaccine on Beagles?
Allocated government funds for the experiment reportedly totaled nearly a half-million dollars.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Of A Woman’s Execution Did NOT Just Happen In Afghanistan — It Was In Syria In 2015
Does this video show a Taliban killing in Afghanistan in the summer of 2021? No, that's not true: This footage of the public execution of a woman accused of adultery was identified in 2015 as having been carried out by Nusra Front jihadis
Snopes→ Does Oregon Allow H.S. Students to Graduate Without Proof of Reading, Math Proficiency?
In August 2021, news outlets and commentators reacted with outrage to Gov. Kate Brown's signing of Senate Bill 744 — but they failed to mention some key context.
Snopes→ Desperation, Pressure for Aid Increase in Haiti After Quake
Pressure for a coordinated response to Haiti's deadly earthquake mounted as more bodies were pulled from the rubble and the injured continued to arrive from remote areas in search of medical care.
Snopes→ Taliban Militants Violently Disperse Rare Afghan Protest
Taliban militants attacked protesters in Afghanistan who dared to take down their banner and replace it with the country’s flag, killing at least one person and fueling fears about how the insurgents would govern this fractious nation.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Masks Are NOT As Ineffective At Blocking Virus As Chain-Link Fencing Is At Blocking Mosquitoes
Is wearing a face mask to prevent the transmission of an airborne virus as ineffective as building a chain-link fence to keep mosquitos out of a yard? No, that's not true: This is a misleading analogy, but it was made as a joke. The gapin
Snopes→ CNN’s Clarissa Ward Says Kabul Colleague Nearly Pistol-Whipped
“I've covered all sorts of crazy situations,” Ward said in a report that aired on CNN. “This was mayhem. This was nuts.”
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: These Images Do NOT Show Kabul After Taliban Took Control — They’re From Call Of Duty Video Game
Were images of a crashed helicopter and destroyed homes taken less than 24 hours after the Taliban took control of Kabul, Afghanistan's capital city? No, that's not true: The images are stills of multiplayer maps from the video game Call
Snopes→ FBI Joins Criminal Probe in Colorado Voting Equipment Breach
The agents are working with Mesa County prosecutors to determine if there was a criminal violation, FBI spokeswoman Courtney Bernal said in a statement.