The daily check-in

Trending, checked.

Twice a day we pull the posts going viral on TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook and run them through the record. Each entry is a published verdict — what we found, why, and the sources behind it.

259 checks

Did the left stop winning presidential elections in Latin America after USAID cuts?

X · 91,945 likes (X syndication); screenshot reposted by Trump on Truth Social Oct 7 (image alt text cites 1.3M views); Benny Johnson variant 127,202 likes · resurfaced

False

False. The central claim that 'since we gutted USAID, the left hasn’t won a single presidential election in Latin America' is contradicted by multiple widely reported left/centre-left presidential victories across the region; parts of the tweet about proposed USAID budget cuts and that U.S. funds support democracy programs are rooted in real budget and program activity but the tweet overstates and generalizes those points.

PoliticsView details→

Are Jos. A. Bank suits all made overseas?

X · 35,746 likes (X syndication); picked up by Daily Beast, HuffPost, Forbes, Newsweek, AOL

Misleading

The photo is authentic and shows Donald Trump revealing a Jos. A. Bank label on a suit at a rally. The poster's assertion that 'Jos. A. Bank suits are all made overseas' is misleading: many Jos. A. Bank items are imported, but Tailored Brands operates a New Bedford, MA factory that produces Joseph Abboud 'Made in USA' suits, and not every Joseph Abboud or Jos. A. Bank item is U.S.-made.

PoliticsConsumerView details→

Did celebrities sign an open letter supporting Garvaghy Road residents?

X · 981 likes, 91 replies; TheJournal.ie coverage

True

Verified. Sinn Féin's social-media graphic accurately reports that numerous public figures (including Noel Gallagher, Susan Sarandon, Johnny Marr, Paul Weller, Siobhán McSweeney and Adrian Dunbar) signed an open letter on 6 October 2026 supporting Garvaghy Road residents and calling for an independent mediator; multiple reputable news outlets reported the same signatory list.

PoliticsCelebrityView details→

Did the Centre for Policy Studies hold a session at CPC26?

YouTube · Guardian, Independent (3 pieces), Mirror, GB News, Daily Mail, Luton Today coverage; Badenoch backed him; Bedfordshire Police denial reported

True

TRUE — The Centre for Policy Studies did hold a session titled 'From Boriswave to Brain Drain: How Can We Fix Migration?' at the Conservative Party Conference (CPC26) in Birmingham in early October 2026; multiple reputable news outlets and the CPS conference programme corroborate the event and reporting from it.

PoliticsCrimeView details→

What did Donald Trump say about the Cornell rape allegations?

X · Primary 2,604 likes / 509 replies; Cornell case still live with Fox, NY Post and Newsweek follow-ups 6 Oct

True But

The video is authentic pool footage of President Trump saying he 'feels badly for whoever she's looking at' after New York named Letitia James a special prosecutor in the Cornell case. Reporting shows a civil lawsuit alleges seven members of a Cornell fraternity assaulted a student in October 2024, but those are allegations from a lawsuit (not criminal convictions) and mainstream outlets describe the assault as occurring 'over several hours' rather than uniformly as '7 hours.'

PoliticsCrimeView details→

Did Rima Hassan remove an Israeli flag in the European Parliament?

X · EP President Metsola commented and EP services analysing; condemned by Bellamy (LR); Hassan disputes trampling; Libération CheckNews piece

True But

The video is authentic footage of a parliamentary intervention; its central factual claim — that MEP Rima Hassan removed an Israeli flag displayed at an exhibition commemorating the 7 October attacks — is confirmed by multiple reputable news outlets and by Hassan’s office. The post also contains political accusations (about LFI and the RN) that are interpretive/opinion-based.

PoliticsConflictView details→

Did Trump say to let Iran take out American cities?

X · Shriver post 39,545 likes; Newsom 48,467, Sanders 54,337, CA Gov press office 42,164 likes; White House (Cheung) rebuttal; FactCheck.org and HuffPost coverage

Misleading

Authentic rally footage shows President Trump saying the quoted lines. The caption's claim that he was 'telling Iran to bomb American cities' is an interpretive, stronger reading of the clip and is therefore misleading; fact-checkers and the White House argue the intended meaning was different (arguing higher costs are worth preventing Iran's capability).

PoliticsConflictView details→

Did Argentina’s President declare October 6 a public holiday for Messi's last match?

X · Dubawa: Threads origin post by @rythmroundup ~3,000 likes, 64 comments, 48 reposts, 99 shares; X primary 324 likes (syndication 2026-10-06). Match (vs Benin, Monumental) is today 2026-10-06. · resurfaced

True But

Partly true: multiple reputable sources and the Argentine Football Association confirm Lionel Messi's farewell match is scheduled for October 6, 2026, but there is no evidence that the Argentine president formally declared October 6 a national public holiday or issued an order requiring citizens to stay home.

SportsPoliticsView details→

Was Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum involved in a traffic accident in Dubai?

X · Primary post 161 likes (syndication, 2026-10-06); same text spread in Arabic by multiple accounts (akhpwntb 24 likes/17 replies); Misbar fact-check 2026-10-06 rates it misleading (video is a 2024 Dubai accident airlift); MBR posted normally on X on 2026-10-05.

False

A viral video shows a helicopter landing on a Dubai highway, but independent fact-checkers report the clip is misattributed and there is no credible evidence that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum was involved in a traffic accident or airlifted; the social-media claim is false.

PoliticsCelebrityView details→

Did Debra Messing endorse Bruce Blakeman over Kathy Hochul?

X · Blakeman post ~14.3K likes (syndication); NY Post post ~12.7K likes / 711 replies; covered by Fox News, NY Post, Breitbart, RedState, Joe.My.God, Hoodline

Can't Verify

The tweet's central claim that Debra Messing is backing Bruce Blakeman over Kathy Hochul is confirmed by multiple contemporary news reports and local outlets. The rest of the post contains campaign rhetoric and promises, which are political messaging rather than verifiable facts.

PoliticsCelebrityView details→

Did Trump express concern about a pneumonia plague outbreak in Russia?

X · ~8.9K likes / ~1.2K replies (syndication, 2026-10-06); wide pickup (HuffPost, The Hill, Axios, Salon, Fox, Forbes, Al Jazeera); Kimmel monologue joke

True

The video is authentic footage of President Trump speaking to reporters on Oct 5, 2026; he did use the words quoted in the post. Multiple reputable outlets and a press-gaggle transcript corroborate the remarks. His scientific characterization of microbes as 'stronger and smarter' and the suggestion that treatments 'don't work as well anymore' is an overgeneralization and misleading in the specific context of pneumonic plague, which remains treatable with antibiotics when diagnosed and treated promptly (CDC).

HealthPoliticsView details→

Did Trump say Iran could take out Los Angeles and San Diego?

X · HQNewsNow post ~15K likes / ~4K replies (syndication, 2026-10-06); Newsom post ~35K likes, Todd Gloria ~36K likes; CNN's Daniel Dale said caption 'isn't a direct quote' and not a correct paraphrase; White House (Cheung, RapidResponse47) pushed back; covered by Forbes, ABC7, KTLA, Mediaite, CNN, Twit

True

Video and contemporaneous reporting confirm President Trump spoke the quoted words at a campaign rally in Grand Island, Nebraska on Oct. 5, 2026; major U.S. outlets reported and transcribed the same passage.

PoliticsConflictView details→

Does the Department of War backdrop at Hegseth's Air Force Academy speech copy the Nazi Reichsadler eagle?

X · 2,841 likes on primary; related @adammocklerr post 117,474 likes; Fast Company, Advocate, AOL pickup; an AI-altered seal version also circulates

Misleading

The image is authentic official footage of the Secretary of War's Oct. 3, 2026 speech; social-media users compared the backdrop's stylized eagle to Nazi imagery, but the emblem shown is the Department of War/DoD-style eagle motif (not the Reichsadler with a swastika). The post's juxtaposition implying equivalence is therefore misleading.

PoliticsConflictView details→

Did official police reports indicate over 3 million people in London?

X · 13,294 likes / 332 replies on primary; 4,794 likes on a copy (X syndication)

False

False — police did not report over 3 million people in the streets of London. The Metropolitan Police’s contemporaneous estimate and independent fact-checkers placed attendance at roughly 110,000–150,000 for the 'Unite the Kingdom' rally on 13 September 2025, contradicting the post’s claim.

PoliticsView details→

Did Trump sign an Executive Order for dyed diesel use?

X · 5,494 likes / 922 replies on X; 'red dye diesel' 1000+ on Google Trends US

True

Confirmed. The White House posted and published a fact sheet on Oct. 5, 2026 saying President Trump signed an executive order to temporarily allow red/dyed off-road diesel for highway use and defer the federal excise tax; multiple major outlets reported the signing the same day.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did 125 million people vote in India's presidential election?

X · Covered by Newsweek, Daily Beast, Yahoo, Business Standard, India TV; Trump later edited 'India' to 'Brazil'; post also claims US results take weeks

False

The post is an authentic screenshot of a Trump Truth Social post, but its factual core is false: India did not hold a popular presidential vote of 125 million people — the president is elected by an electoral college — and the 125 million figure instead matches Brazil's 4 October 2026 presidential first round, so the post confuses Brazil with India.

PoliticsView details→

Did Trump claim his IQ is 1775?

X · IBTimes UK story; Irish Star coverage of Trump's IQ boasts; strong claim-matching autocomplete

True

The video is authentic rally footage and does show Donald Trump saying he is "a high IQ person" and referencing '1,775' as an IQ; that part of the post is true and confirmed. The numeric IQ claim is misleading and implausible because modern IQ scores are normed (mean ~100, SD ~15) and there is no evidence of a test result of 1,775.

PoliticsView details→

Did a Muslim group report John Cleese to the UK government's Prevent program?

X · Cleese replied publicly ('I can't wait to be arrested'); The Blaze coverage; 'john cleese prevent' is top autocomplete

Can't Verify

There is corroborated reporting that a Prevent referral concerning John Cleese was submitted and published by 5Pillars (referral dated Sept 22, 2026). The post's headline correctly reports a Prevent referral over incendiary posts, but it overstates the provenance by saying a 'Muslim group' reported him — the published referral is described as submitted by 'a member of the public' and it is not clearly attributable to a named Muslim organisation.

PoliticsCelebrityView details→

Did Trump speak at a rally in Ohio about data centers?

YouTube · MeidasTouch video narrated by Ben Meiselas; Daily Beast story on the 'slumped over' images and viewer reaction

True But

The rally at Butler High School in Vandalia (Dayton) on Oct. 3, 2026 is real and widely reported; several concrete moments the podcast highlights (Trump's data-centers/aspirin remarks, Vivek Ramaswamy's awkward child-lift, heckling/protester interruption) are corroborated. The podcast's characterization that Trump 'returned wrecked' and definitively 'fell asleep standing up' relies on interpretive readings of brief clips and is not fully corroborated by independent reporting.

PoliticsHealthView details→

Is the DOJ sending 1,000 monitors to the polls?

X · Clip of Blanche's Fox interview rebutting claims of armed agents at polls; MEAWW coverage; strong autocomplete demand

True But

The video is an authentic Fox News Sunday interview in which Attorney General Todd Blanche repeats the Justice Department's plan to deploy roughly 1,000 election monitors and denies the claim they will be armed. Independent reporting (e.g., CBS News, Washington Post) confirms the DOJ announced plans to field about 1,000 monitors for the November 2026 midterms; the actual deployments and any on-the-ground details will only be verifiable once they occur.

PoliticsView details→

Did Anak Krakatau Volcano Erupt in September 2026?

Facebook · Spread by Indian social media accounts with AI-generated images claiming to show SSG insignia; disputed by Pakistan military (DG ISPR)

True But

The underlying event is real — Anak Krakatau did erupt in early September 2026 with ash reported up to about 50,000 ft — but the viral visual attached to this post is not authentic: independent fact-checkers have analysed the clip posted by Jagoron and concluded it was AI-generated and does not show genuine footage of that eruption.

ConflictPoliticsView details→

Are there mass protests in Kenya calling for Nigerians to leave?

Facebook · 75,000+ views, 4,900+ likes, 2,000+ comments across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X. Fact-checked by Dubawa, Africa Check, PesaCheck. · resurfaced

Can't Verify

The video pairs a commentator with an inset clip of a large protest, and the post implies Kenya is experiencing mass anti-Nigerian protests. Reputable reporting shows Kenya took steps in early September 2026 to regularize foreign businesses and that immigrant communities were alarmed, but I found no credible coverage confirming mass street demonstrations specifically calling for Nigerians to leave. The claim as presented is unsupported.

PoliticsConflictView details→

Did John Cleese post a video of Muslims chanting in Dublin?

X · Posted by actor John Cleese (@JohnCleese) with significant engagement. Fact-checked by Lead Stories and Yahoo News.

False

The video John Cleese shared is authentic footage but misattributed: it dates to October 11, 2025 and shows FC Schalke 04 supporters marching in Dublin, not Muslims chanting in late September 2026. The post’s implication is therefore false and misleading.

PoliticsConflictView details→

Are thousands of Iranians on the streets taking back their country?

X · Posted by @realJohnJohnJr; later re-shared by President Trump on October 1. Lead Stories, Snopes, NBC News fact-checked. · resurfaced

False

The video appears to be authentic protest footage but is not new: fact-checking and archived uploads show it first appeared around December 31, 2025. The post's caption frames the clip as a current, unreported mass uprising in Iran; that framing is misleading and the claim is false.

PoliticsConflictView details→