Fact Checking | ReportWire publishes the latest breaking U.S. and world news, trending topics and developing stories from around globe.
[ad_1]
Welcome to our weekly media literacy quiz. This quiz will test your knowledge of the past week’s events with a focus on facts, misinformation, bias,…
The post MBFC’s Weekly Media Literacy Quiz Covering the Week of Feb 1st – Feb 7th appeared first on Media Bias/Fact Check.
[ad_2]
Media Bias Fact Check
Source link
[ad_1]
Media Bias Fact Check selects and publishes fact checks from around the world. We only utilize fact-checkers that are either a signatory of the International…
The post MBFC’s Daily Vetted Fact Checks for 02/07/2026 (Weekend Edition) appeared first on Media Bias/Fact Check.
[ad_2]
Media Bias Fact Check
Source link
[ad_1]
Federal case files related to Jeffrey Epstein, along with a Fortnite account using the handle “littlestjeff1,” confirm the sex offender played the video game both before and long after his reported death.
In early February 2026, social media users claimed the federal case files for sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and a specific Fortnite account handle confirmed he played the popular video game both before and long after his death by suicide on Aug. 10, 2019 — implying he wasn’t actually dead. The rumor circulated in the days after the U.S. Department of Justice released a fresh trove of Epstein files.
Users shared the claim on Facebook (archived), Instagram, TikTok (archived) and X (archived). Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., reposted one user’s post (archived) laying out the alleged evidence.
The user Greene reposted previously posted (archived) three authentic pieces of data as evidence:
The user’s post began, “BREAKING – There are reports of Epstein’s Fortnite account active in Israel, the username ‘littlestjeff1’ that is in recently released Epstein Files, where the account bought $25.95 V-Bucks on May 7, 2019. The account is infact linked to Jeffrey Epstein himself through receipts ,in the recently unsealed Epstein files.”
(@Truthpole/X)
In short, this rumor was false.
The official @FortniteStatus X account, responding to another user, posted (archived) on Feb. 6 that a user changed their name to littlestjeff1 after the name surfaced in the Epstein files, saying in part, “Hey Official Fortnite here – this was a ruse by a Fortnite player. A few days ago, an existing Fortnite account owner changed their username from something totally unrelated to littlestjeff1, following the revelation of littlestjeff1 as a name on YouTube.”
The post also said none of Epstein’s email addresses listed in the public-facing case files exist in the game’s account system.
Cat McCormack, a spokesperson for Fortnite developer Epic Games, confirmed via email to Snopes that the player behind the newly changed account name set their account’s status to private and that the company did not make the user’s stats private.
The @FortniteStatus statement did not offer an explanation for the Epstein files email (archived) documenting a $25.95 purchase of the Fortnite currency V-Bucks. The email’s recipient and sender both were redacted, with only the trailing line for a lowercase “y” bleeding out of the underside of the black lines. Other emails (archived) in the files confirmed the purchase pertained to a mother and her child, whose names both appeared in the poorly redacted messages. The mother’s name matched the placement of the lowercase “y” in the redacted email.
At least one email showed the mother discussing buying the child a new Xbox gaming system in 2013. Additional emails confirmed her purchase of a new Xbox in 2016 and a parental-monitoring device for the gaming system in 2017. A 2018 email included the child’s unredacted name and a mention of the child playing Fortnite.
At least one email mentioned Epstein either owned or had in his possession an Xbox gaming system in 2014, after Xbox Live notified him by email in December 2013 of his account’s permanent ban due to his status as a registered sex offender.
For further reading, we previously debunked an Epstein files rumor claiming a Wayfair receipt for $8,453 confirmed the company participated in child sex trafficking.
[ad_2]
Jordan Liles
Source link
[ad_1]
An authentic letter from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem declared a “temporary suspension” of Second Amendment rights.
In January and February 2026, an alleged letter from U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announcing a “temporary suspension” of Second Amendment rights circulated online.
The purported letter, dated Jan. 26, 2026, and titled, “Notice of Enhanced Protection Policies for Homeland Security Agents,” justified the suspension as a way to “better safeguard the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during upcoming deployment actions in the Houston, Texas area.” Gun rights advocates have criticized President Donald Trump and other members of his administration
An image showing the alleged letter from Noem spread on Threads and X, and was met with a healthy dose of skepticism. Snopes readers also wrote in, asking whether it was real.
Constitutional rights are a privilege for American citizens, not a guarantee. The United States Government is committed to the protection of the brave government agents who safeguard our borders from the tyranny of foreign invaders, but recently those same agents have found themselves under assault from hostile internal adversaries.
In order to better safeguard the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during upcoming deployment actions in the Houston, Texas area, the United States Government is instituting a temporary suspension of the rights granted by the Second
Ammendment of the United State Constitution.
Noem did not send a letter announcing a temporary suspension of Second Amendment rights, as online skeptics correctly suspected. In an emailed statement, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives confirmed that the letter “is a hoax.” Therefore we’ve rated this claim as a fake.
ATF also confirmed that the bureau sent an email on Feb. 5 to federal firearms license holders — in other words, businesses
This is an important message from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. We are aware of the “Notice of Enhanced Protection Policies for Homeland Security Agents” placed on an FFL’s door. We have confirmed with HSI this notice is a hoax. ATF is committed to working with our FFL partners. If you have any questions, please contact your local ATF office. See attached for an example of the hoax.
“HSI” refers to Homeland Security Investigations, the principal investigative arm of DHS. The agency had not responded to our request for confirmation that Noem did not write or sign the letter at the time of publication.
It was not clear who sent the letter(s), how many businesses received them or which
A version of the letter has spread in at least one other state. As first reported by the Vermont Daily Chronicle, Vermont gun shop Green Mountain Sporting Goods alerted ATF that it received a copy of it.
Green Mountain Sporting Goods told Snopes via email that the business found the document in its mailbox on Jan. 29.
“Yes, we got the letter. Which, to us, was very obvious; it was a fake,” the store said.
[ad_2]
Rae Deng
Source link
[ad_1]
Spending to build, expand and rehabilitate manufacturing sites in the U.S. has declined since President Donald Trump took office, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Yet, Trump has repeatedly boasted that “factory construction” is up 41%.
Trump cited the 41% statistic in a White House press conference on Jan. 20 – calling it a “record” increase and suggesting that other presidents cannot compare to this “record.”
“Investment in American factories is up 41%. That’s a record. Nobody goes 41% up. You go 2% up, 1% up. You go down by 3%. If Kamala [Harris] got elected, the 41% up would be 41% down,” Trump said at the press conference, referring to the former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee who lost to Trump in the 2024 election.
A day later, in a Jan. 21 speech at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Trump repeated the 41% figure.
“Factory construction is up by 41%, and that number is really going to skyrocket right now, because that’s during a process that they’re putting in to get their approvals and we’ve given very, very quick, fast approvals,” Trump said.
This claim is part of a theme the president has emphasized of a “manufacturing boom” or “booming” economy due to his trade policies.
At our request, the White House sent us a link to the Census Bureau’s manufacturing construction spending data via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ online database known as FRED. We provide more about the White House response later, but let’s focus first on what the data show.
Under President Joe Biden — who served from Jan. 20, 2021, to Jan. 20, 2025 — there was a significant increase in manufacturing construction spending in all four years, according to the Census Bureau’s annual average estimates. After declining 6.9% in 2020 – the last year of Trump’s first term – manufacturing construction spending started to rise in 2021, the data show.
(Technical note: The Census Bureau provides average quarterly and annual estimates and monthly reports for construction spending, including manufacturing construction spending, based on its monthly Value of Construction Put in Place survey. We use all three in this story.)
Initially, the increases during the Biden years were in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Anirban Basu, chief economist for the Associated Builders and Contractors, an industry trade association, told us in an email.
“Supply chain disruptions at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic convinced many producers to reshore capacity, while a sudden and sharp increase in construction materials prices—which rose more than 40% during the early years of the pandemic—also boosted nominal construction spending,” Basu said.
Manufacturing construction spending accelerated after Biden signed legislation in August 2022 designed to encourage private investment in U.S. manufacturing for semiconductors and clean energy. The bipartisan CHIPS Act, for example, included $39 billion to help fund semiconductor manufacturing facilities in the U.S., as explained in an April 2023 report by the Congressional Research Service.
During Biden’s four years, the annual average rate of manufacturing construction spending jumped more than 200%, from $75.5 billion to $235.6 billion, according to Census Bureau estimates. Spending surged 62% in a single year – 2023, a year after Biden signed the CHIPS Act.
But manufacturing construction spending peaked in the third quarter of 2024 and has been trending down slightly ever since. Census Bureau quarterly data show that under Trump, measuring from the last quarter in 2024 through the third quarter in 2025, spending declined 6.7%.
That decline is expected to continue in 2026 and 2027, according to the most recent survey of construction economists that is conducted twice a year by the American Institute of Architects.
“Manufacturing construction spending has seen phenomenal growth in recent years, increasing by over 50% in 2022, another 62% in 2023, and then another 16% in 2024,” the AIA consensus construction forecast published Jan. 15 said. “However, growth paused last year as spending in this category fell about 5% and is projected to decline another 4% this year and 1% in 2027.”
Despite the slight declines, the AIA construction forecast noted that the semiconductor fabrication plants continue to fuel manufacturing construction spending and will do so in the long term.
“The longer-term prospects look much more promising, as construction starts for manufacturing projects have shot up again,” the AIA forecast said. “Since many of these starts are for megaprojects, such as large semiconductor fabrication plants that entail a complex construction process, it may take a while before the activity shows up in the construction spending data.”
In January, Basu analyzed the Census Bureau’s most recent monthly report for nonresidential construction spending, which showed manufacturing construction spending as of October had declined for nine straight months.
“With CHIPS Act-enabled megaprojects winding down and the stiff headwind of trade policy, manufacturing construction spending has fallen by nearly 10% over the past 12 months, accounting for more than the entire decline in private nonresidential spending,” Basu said in an ABC press release issued Jan. 21. (By “trade policy,” Basu is referring to the economic impact of Trump’s tariffs on construction materials.)
On a monthly basis, the Census Bureau shows a 7.3% decline in manufacturing construction spending last year under Trump from January through October, the most recent data available.
Beginning on Jan. 23, we asked the White House on multiple occasions to provide support for the 41% figure used in Trump’s Jan. 20 and 21 remarks. After not receiving a response, we sent another email on Feb. 2 after the president wrote an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 30 that said, “Factory construction is up by 42% since 2022.” We asked how it arrived at a 42% increase “since 2022.” That evening, the White House sent us a link to the Census Bureau’s manufacturing construction spending data, saying it compared “averages of Jan – August 2025 vs 2021-2024 average.”
That’s true — as far as it goes. On an annualized basis, monthly manufacturing construction spending averaged $226.1 billion for January through August — which is 40% higher than the annual average of $161.1 billion in Biden’s four years. But Trump wrote that the 42% increase was “since 2022,” not 2021. (We’ve asked the White House for a clarification.)
More importantly, the White House methodology fails to take into account the 212% increase in factory construction spending over Biden’s four years, which peaked in 2024 at an annual average of $235.6 billion, and how the Biden-era CHIPS Act continues to fuel manufacturing construction spending.
As we noted earlier, Basu attributed the recent decline to Trump’s tariffs and the slowing — not the halting — of construction projects spurred by the CHIPS Act. Asked to elaborate on his analysis, Basu told us that the manufacturing construction spending in 2025 is “largely due” to the CHIPS Act.
“While spending in the segment remains elevated from 2022 levels, that’s partially due to a precipitous increase in materials prices that occurred in 2022 and 2023 — these data are in nominal terms — and largely due to the surge in megaproject activity induced by the CHIPS Act,” Basu said.
He added that Trump’s tariffs have helped drive up the costs of fabricated metal — which has increased manufacturing construction costs.
“[I]t should be noted that spending in the fabricated metal manufacturing subsegment is up 19% over the past year,” Basu said. “Some of the increase can be contributed to tariffs and the resulting increase in demand for domestic production.”
We should note that even with the recent surge in manufacturing construction spending, there has been a decline in the number of manufacturing jobs. As we reported last month, the economy lost 63,000 manufacturing jobs in Trump’s first 11 months. That followed a loss of 98,000 in the preceding 11 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Shortly before Biden left office, Manufacturing Today, a trade magazine, wrote in December 2024 that manufacturing jobs were slow to materialize despite Biden’s incentives to spur manufacturing construction. But the magazine predicted the jobs “will materialize in the future.”
“Unlike traditional industrial projects, today’s semiconductor and clean energy facilities require longer timelines,” the article said. “Factories of this scale can take two to three years to complete, with even longer delays for more complex facilities, such as semiconductor plants. This extended timeline means the full benefits will not be realized for several more years.”
Basu agreed that CHIPS-related spending will result in an overall increase in U.S. manufacturing jobs – but cautioned that the impact of Trump’s tariffs could offset those gains.
“The massive facilities incentivized by the CHIPS Act will employ thousands of people,” Basu told us. “That said, all else is not equal, and recent trade policy and the effects on manufacturing input prices have put downward pressure on the industry’s employment.” (Input prices are costs of materials and other resources manufacturers need to produce goods, with some of those materials being imported.)
Others are bullish that Trump’s trade policies will encourage more manufacturers to expand in the U.S.
In April, when Trump announced higher tariffs on nearly all foreign imports, Morgan Stanley analyst Chris Snyder called tariffs “a positive catalyst” for relocating manufacturing to the U.S. More recently, Snyder said in a podcast last month that the tariffs have changed the “supply chain cost calculation” and will result in new U.S. factories.
“What we’re seeing is the cost of imports have gone higher with tariffs, and now it’s more economically advisable for these companies to make the product in the United States,” Snyder said. “And if that’s the case, that means that when they need a new factory, it’s going to come to the United States. They might not need a factory now, but when they do, the U.S. is at least incrementally better positioned to get that factory.”
In a January news article, the Wall Street Journal wrote that Trump’s tariffs “haven’t worked, so far.” The article said tariffs have increased manufacturers’ costs for foreign parts, adding that the “White House’s stop-and-start” tariff policy announcements have “also led to what many executives view as a lost year for investment.”
In a December interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump cited — as he often does — the value of investments that he says his administration has secured to date. (As we’ve written, he has exaggerated pledges to invest made by various companies and countries that may or may not materialize, experts say.) But he couldn’t say if the investments would show results in time for the midterm elections, when the Republican Party is in jeopardy of losing its slim majority in the House. “I can’t tell you. I don’t know when all of this money is going to kick in,” the president told the Journal, adding that it may happen in the second quarter of this year.
What will happen in the coming months and years remains to be seen. But what we can say is that factory construction so far has declined under Trump and his claim that it has increased 41% depends on a spending surge that occurred under Biden.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
[ad_2]
Eugene Kiely
Source link
[ad_1]
Thousands of social media accounts shared an image of a man with long gray hair and a beard, wearing sunglasses and flanked by two men.
Their guess about who it is? Disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019.
“Israel faked his death,” read one Feb. 5 X post with 5 million views. “Epstein is still alive and walking the streets of Tel Aviv.”
“Someone who looks like Jeffrey Epstein was JUST SPOTTED walking in Tel Aviv, Israel,” read another Feb. 5 X post with 5.5 million views. “Could this really be him? It’s literally him.”
This image also circulated on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Threads.
This doesn’t prove Epstein is alive. The image was generated with artificial intelligence.
(Screenshot from X)
Many of the posts shared a cropped version of the image, but the original shows the logo of Gemini, Google’s AI chatbot. A reverse image search showed the image was posted Feb. 1 to a Reddit forum titled “hardaiimages.” The forum’s “About” page invites users to “post your funny, hard AI images here.”
The Reddit user who posted it confirmed in a comment it was made with Gemini. “You can see the Gemini logo at the bottom right of each picture. I didn’t think it would become so viral,” the Feb. 6 comment read.
Other details in the image show it’s fake. The road signs in the background show Hebrew text and its English translation, but the translation is inaccurate. The signs also don’t match a real place in Tel Aviv; a street named “Haangus Ev.” does not show up in Google Maps.
(Image from Reddit; red rectangle shows nonsensical road signs, red circle shows Gemini logo)
This image doesn’t show Epstein, alive, in Tel Aviv. We rate this claim Pants on Fire!
PolitiFact Researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
A post on U.S. President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account in February 2026 depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
A short clip of Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as monkeys briefly appeared during another, unrelated video on Trump’s Truth Social profile. The clip of the Obamas came from a longer video that portrayed Trump as king of the jungle and various Democratic politicians as other animals. A White House spokesperson said a staffer, not the president, posted the video “erroneously.” Snopes could not independently verify this.
In February 2026, a claim (archived) circulated online that U.S. President Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social network that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
One X user who reposted the alleged Truth Social post wrote, “U.S. President Donald Trump posted this on Truth Social, which featured the Obamas as monkeys.”
The video in question started by showing a graph that claimed to track vote counts for Trump and former President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election but switched to a two-second clip that showed the Obamas’ faces on two monkeys’ bodies as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played in the background (time code 0:05).
Claims that Trump posted the video showing the Obamas as monkeys also circulated on Facebook, Instagram (archived), Threads (archived), Bluesky (archived) and Reddit (archived). A number of Snopes readers emailed us to ask whether the video was truly shared on Trump’s account.
Comparing Black people to monkeys is an age-old racist insult that implies Black people are less-developed humans. The baseless argument that Black people are less developed or less evolved than white Europeans has historically been used to justify enslavement of Black people and colonialism of countries with majority-Black populations.
At the time of this writing, someone had removed the video depicting the Obamas as monkeys from Trump’s Truth Social page. It still appeared on Trump’s Truth, a public archive of the president’s posts. A White House official told Snopes a staffer posted the video “erroneously.” Snopes could not yet independently verify this claim.
Before the removal of the post from Truth Social, we asked the White House whether the person who posted the video knew it also included the clip of the Obamas. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt replied in a written statement:
This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.
At that time, Leavitt did not reply to a question about whether anyone would remove the video.
According to a post (archived) by the X user @xerias_x, the clip of the Obamas came from one of that account’s videos. The user wrote, “Last night President Trump posted a video where one of my old clips appears at the very end. You won’t believe which one.”
The user then posted (archived) a 53-second version of the same clip that started by showing the Obamas as monkeys and also included various other Democratic politicians portrayed as a variety of other animals bowing to Trump, whom the video depicted as a lion.
It was not possible to determine why the video on Trump’s Truth Social profile, which otherwise appeared to show an excerpt from a documentary about alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election, contained the clip of the Obamas.
Online searches revealed an identical (archived) video to the one Trump posted that someone uploaded to YouTube around a month before Trump’s Feb. 5, 2026, post. The YouTube video also included the short clip of the Obamas.
Reverse image searches did not reveal the source of the apparent documentary footage. That footage featured Col. Phil Waldron, an Army veteran who reportedly circulated a “detailed and extreme” plan to overturn the 2020 election on Capitol Hill.
Waldron has featured in a number of documentaries since 2020. He is a proponent of a baseless theory that foreign powers hacked or otherwise influenced voting machines from the company Dominion Voting Systems and swung the 2020 election in Biden’s favor. In the apparent documentary clip featured in Trump’s Truth Social post, Waldron claimed machines in several states “stopped counting” at the same time and, when counting resumed, showed vote totals “that favored Joe Biden.”
Trump’s reposting of Waldron’s theory suggested that the president has not forgotten his 2020 loss. In January 2026, the FBI raided an elections office in Georgia seeking records related to the 2020 election. Trump narrowly lost the state in 2020.
During a speech (archived) in Davos, Switzerland, days before the raid in Georgia, Trump called the 2020 election “rigged” and said “people will soon be prosecuted for what they did.”
Snopes has previously reported extensively on claims related to the 2020 election.
Broadwater, Luke, and Alan Feuer. ‘Jan. 6 Panel Subpoenas Retired Colonel Who Shared Plan to Overturn Election’. The New York Times, 16 Dec. 2021, https://archive.ph/i6s0h.
BRUMBACK, KATE. ‘Search Warrant FBI Served at Elections Office near Atlanta Seeks Records Tied to the 2020 Elections’. AP News, 28 Jan. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/fbi-georgia-elections-office-fulton-county-28e736037521b17197760d2394f0ab43.
Election Results. https://results.sos.ga.gov/results/public/Georgia/elections/2020NovGen. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
Joint Statement from Elections Infrastructure Government Coordinating Council & the Election Infrastructure Sector Coordinating Executive Committees | CISA. 12 Nov. 2020, https://www.cisa.gov/news-events/news/joint-statement-elections-infrastructure-government-coordinating-council-election-infrastructure.
‘Phil Waldron’. IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm12120339/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
Sanchez, Julian. ‘Voting Machine Conspiracy Theories Harm U.S. Cybersecurity’. Cato Institute, 20 Nov. 2020, https://www.cato.org/blog/voting-machine-conspiracy-theories-harm-us-cybersecurity.
‘The Ape Insult: A Short History of a Racist Idea’. Find an Expert : The University of Melbourne, https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/news/3043-the-ape-insult–a-short-history-of-a-racist-idea. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.
[ad_2]
Laerke Christensen
Source link
[ad_1]
A screenshot authentically depicted a 2018 email found in the Jeffrey Epstein files claiming World War III would begin on Feb. 8, 2026.
Users on social media shared an alleged screenshot of the email, which appeared to be addressed to Epstein’s email address from a person named James Heywood, across X (archived, archived, archived). The purported email read:
SUBJECT LINE: Off Grid Re: intro, potential angel investmentt app (nuclear)
We need to discuss ww3 the investors want to know if we are still planning Feb 8 2026.
Please be advised that I am on vacation till July 29. I will be attempting to be “off grid”.
My assistant Rachael Haynes .com can help if it is urgent.
-jamie
(@AGDugin on X)
However, the alleged email was fake.
The document matching the file numbers on the bottom right of the fake screenshot — “EFTA_R1_00353105” and “EFTA01914490” — corresponds to this email in the DOJ’s Epstein Library, which is embedded as a PDF below.
The email was clearly used as the basis for the fake screenshot. The creator appeared to use digital editing tools to alter some key elements of the original document and turn it into the image shared online. Snopes was unable to determine who created the fabricated screenshot at the time of publication.
A close comparison of the original and fake emails revealed the alterations. For example, in the original email, Heywood is listed as the sender with no email address present. In the fake version, there’s a black line indicating a redaction of an email address.
In addition, the timestamps on both versions indicated the email was sent at 9:00:002 p.m. However, the original document showed the send date as July 17, 2014, whereas the fake email showed July 17, 2018.
Further, the original email’s subject line read, “Off Grid Re: Intro, potential angel investment opp (microbiome).” In the fake version, an additional layer of text appears to have been overlaid — likely causing the misspelling
Finally, the original document read:
Please be advised that I am on vacation till July 29. I will be attempting to be “off grid”
My assistant Rachel Haynes [REDACTED] can help if it is urgent.
-jamie
There was no mention of “ww3” or “Feb 8 2026.”
Keen-eyed readers will also notice that the fake email featured copy that differed slightly from the original. In the authentic email, there was no period after “off grid,” but there was in the fake version.
Further, there were no brackets or “.com” after Haynes’ redacted email address in the original document, but there were in the fake.
A thorough search of the DOJ’s Epstein files database for the names “James Heywood” and “Rachael Haynes” revealed a variety of additional emails from July 2014. They showed Heywood trying to set up a meeting with Epstein, but none matched the text in the fake screenshot or mentioned “ww3.”
A further search of the database for “ww3” returned no relevant results. Snopes was unable to verify who Heywood was, but that did not affect our ability to determine the screenshot was fake.
For further reading, Snopes has investigated a plethora of new claims related to the Epstein files.
[ad_2]
Joey Esposito
Source link
[ad_1]
An image of a trapdoor above water shared to social media in February 2026 was a real photo of Jeffrey Epstein’s home from the Epstein files released by the U.S. Department of Justice.
While many social media users suggested that the door opened to the sea for secrecy, it was more likely a door into a concrete water storage tank for use as clean water for the island.
In February 2026, many rumors about the U.S. Department of Justice’s latest release of more than 3 million files related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein spread online. One claim was that the files included a photo that a post (archived) described as a “trapdoor inside Epstein’s House that led to the sea.” The claim included a photo of a
The full text of the post read:
This was a trapdoor inside Epstein’s House that led to the sea
They were on an Island surrounded by water. So why would they need a secret trap door to the sea?
My God, this
s*** is making me sick
Similar posts including the photo and suggesting that the door opened to the sea questioned if the door was used for nefarious purposes related to Epstein’s
The image of the trapdoor opening to water was a real photo of part of a building on Epstein’s private island Little St. James, and it was authentically released as part of the Justice Department’s Epstein files. Therefore, we’ve rated this claim as true.
While the photo is real, meaning not generated or edited with artificial intelligence or other digital editing tools, it’s worth noting that the door was most likely a part of a mundane water collection and filtration system and opened into a storage tank instead of the sea.
As a note, we’re using the word “trapdoor” based on its dictionary definition — any door covering an opening below. By this definition, such a door does not need to be secret or be used to trap anyone.
The photo could be found in the Justice Department’s first release from December 2025, on Page 46 of the files from the first data set, as listed on the Justice Department’s website. The image’s file name is EFTA00002323.
The trapdoor could also be seen in a neighboring image within the data set, EFTA00002322. It’s this image that reveals the most-likely purpose for the door.
Behind the door in the second photo is a
Another photo, EFTA00002321, shows the closed trapdoor, the pallet of Curaçao Calcium and some tanks labeled “Sodium Hypochlorite,” which is a chlorine compound often used as a bleaching and disinfecting agent. Other photos of the same room show that it was some kind of utility room filled with pipes, tanks and tubes, and a door to the outside almost immediately next to the trapdoor.
The photos within the released files suggest that the room, including the trapdoor, was built to be a pricey, sophisticated version of a system common across the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Little St. James is located: a water collection and filtration system.
The Virgin Islands Department of Health estimated in January 2024 that about 90% of U.S. Virgin Islands homes have active cisterns, which are water storage tanks, dependent on rainwater collection systems for their potable water supply. So many homes rely on such systems because there are “limited freshwater sources” in the U.S. Virgin Islands and the territory’s building code requires every building, with a few exceptions, to have such a system including a cistern.
These cisterns are usually built into the house’s foundation, according to the Caribbean Green Technology Center of the University of the Virgin Islands. The building code allow cisterns to be made of a few materials, including masonry and concrete, both of which are the acceptable building materials for a foundation in the islands.
A diagram in VIDOH’s January 2024 brochure placed a cistern beneath the building it used as a visual. It appeared as if the cistern in the diagram was accessible through a hatch embedded in the floor.
That brochure largely focused on the importance of cleaning and maintaining a home cistern to protect people’s health. The brochure recommended “manual chlorination with diluted chlorine” as the simplest form of treating a cistern and recommended using only unscented liquid household chlorine bleach. However, “the most optimized and effective method” for treating cistern water is a combination of methods such as using manual chlorination together with a three-stage filtration system.
While Snopes cannot confirm with absolute certainty how the room and the trapdoor were used, the tanks filled with chlorine bleach, the pallet of Curaçao Calcium and the various pipes and tanks supported the notion that the room was constructed for the purpose of storing water in a cistern and treating it with chlorinated bleach, limestone and a multistage filtration system to turn it into potable water for the island.
Therefore, it is unlikely that the trapdoor opened directly to the sea. It’s more likely that the trapdoor was the access to the cistern, or water storage tank, for the system.
[ad_2]
Emery Winter
Source link
[ad_1]
A video shared online since June 2024 authentically shows actor Kevin Spacey saying “young girls” were on a plane belonging to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein that Spacey flew on with Clinton Foundation members.
Following the late January 2026 release of more files related to the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,
For example, one Facebook user posted the clip on Feb. 3, during which Spacey appeared to say (archived):
In 2015, I started seeing reports online, things on my Twitter account, that I had flown to this guy Jeffrey Epstein’s island and I had abused young girls. And I was like, I mean, if you’d asked me in 2015, maybe even if you’d asked me in 2002, did I know a guy named Jeffrey Epstein, I probably would have said no.
Well, of course, I have since learned who he is and I have since been able to go back and find out that the airplane that we flew on for this humanitarian mission was owned by Jeffrey Epstein, and to then learn, “Oh, he was actually on some of those flights and this Maxwell woman was on some of those flights.”
I didn’t know him. I’ve never spent any time with him. I was with the Clinton Foundation people, that’s who I was with.
[ … ]
I didn’t want to be around this guy because I felt he put the president at risk on that trip to South Africa because there were these young girls, and we were like, “Who is this guy?” So, I will say this, there were young girls on those flights.
The footage appeared elsewhere on Facebook in February 2026, as well as on X. Social media users also posted it in June 2024.
In July 2023, Spacey was found not guilty on all charges of sexual assault against four men between 2001 and 2013 following a trial in London, U.K. In October 2022, a U.S. court also dismissed a sexual assault lawsuit against the actor.
However, as of early 2026 he was set to face civil claims over allegations that he sexually assaulted three men between 2000 and 2013.
In short, Spacey did appear in an interview with Morgan on June 11, 2024. He said he flew with Clinton Foundation members on one of Epstein’s planes that also had “young girls” on it. Therefore, we have rated this claim true.
Morgan’s show, “Piers Morgan Uncensored,” posted the same footage on X on June 11.
The full show was also posted on the Piers Morgan Uncensored YouTube channel that same day. The clip starts at around 1:11:38 and ends at around 1:13:44.
During the interview, Spacey said he learned a plane he used to fly to South Africa in for humanitarian work with the Clinton Foundation, the charity former U.S. President Bill Clinton established, belonged to Epstein:
In 2015, I started seeing reports online, things on my Twitter account, that I had flown to this guy Jeffrey Epstein’s island and I had abused young girls. And I was like, I mean if you’d asked me in 2015, maybe if you’d even asked me in 2002, did I know a guy named Jeffrey Epstein, I probably would have said “no.” Well, of course, I have since learned who he is and I have since been able to go back and find out that the airplane that we flew on for this humanitarian mission was owned by Jeffrey Epstein. And to then learn, “oh, he was actually on some of those flights, and this [Ghislaine] Maxwell woman was on some of those flights.” I didn’t know him. I’ve never spent any time with him. I was with the Clinton Foundation people, that’s who I was with.
Spacey also said he had no relationship with Maxwell or Epstein and “never spent time” with the latter.
He then explained he never took anything, such as money, from Epstein, as he “didn’t want to be around this guy,” and that he never visited Epstein’s island, where the late financier
I felt he put the president [Bill Clinton] at risk on that trip to South Africa because there were these young girls; and we were like, “who’s this guy?”… there were young girls on those flights, and that’s been out. They’ve talked about it. But here’s my point, there’s a big difference between not remembering that I met some guy and some woman on a humanitarian trip where my focus was entirely on what we were there to do, and not remembering whether I went to somebody’s island. So, I never went to Jeffrey Epstein’s island. I did not know him.
Snopes has produced dozens of articles related to Epstein.
‘”Grateful” Kevin Spacey Cleared of Sex Assault Charges’. BBC News, 26 July 2023. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-66299485.
‘Justice Department Releases Largest Batch yet of Epstein Documents, Says It Totals 3 Million Pages’. AP News, 30 Jan. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/epstein-files-justice-department-trump-ed743598c320b94bd9d91631618678d9.
‘Kevin Spacey Set to Face Civil Sex Assault Claims in Court in 2026’. BBC News, 26 Nov. 2025, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c93ngqdz5xgo.
‘Kevin Spacey Wins Ruling in UK Civil Trial over Sex Assault Claim’. BBC News, 7 May 2024. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-68969943.
‘New York Court Dismisses Kevin Spacey Sexual Assault Lawsuit’. BBC News, 20 Oct. 2022. www.bbc.co.uk, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-63338929.
Piers Morgan Uncensored. Kevin Spacey Breaks Down As He Faces Debt Of MILLIONS. 2024. YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qktc4-9mXXc.
Schuman, Eric Levenson, Melanie. ‘Jeffrey Epstein Allegedly Sexually Abused Girls in the US Virgin Islands through 2018’. CNN, 15 Jan. 2020, https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/15/us/jeffrey-epstein-virgin-islands-lawsuit/index.html.
‘X.Com’. X (Formerly Twitter), https://x.com/PiersUncensored/status/1800610955535249742. Accessed 12 June 2024.
[ad_2]
Nick Hardinges
Source link
[ad_1]
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a potential Democratic presidential candidate, recently wrote about her accomplishments as she enters her final year leading the state.
“Our approach has led to some pretty remarkable results,” Whitmer wrote in a Feb. 2 Substack entry. “Free pre-K, community college, and school meals for all. Fewer families living in poverty.”
Her statement taps into Americans’ concerns about affordability, which could be a key issue for voters in the midterm elections, including a competitive U.S. Senate contest in Michigan. President Donald Trump’s pledge to reduce prices for groceries, cars and other items is Stalled on our MAGA-Meter, which tracks his campaign promises.
Michigan’s poverty rate declined during Whitmer’s tenure. The drop mirrored national trends, and most of the decline began under her predecessor. Whitmer’s spokesperson pointed to anti-poverty measures during her tenure as the reason for the decline. Experts said poverty rates are affected by numerous factors, not only one governor’s policies.
Whitmer was referring to a decline in the state’s poverty rate compared with what she inherited from her predecessor, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, Whitmer’s political strategist told PolitiFact.
In 2011, when Snyder took office, about 17% of Michigan residents lived in poverty. It peaked at 17.5% in 2012, then fell to 14% during Snyder’s final year in office in 2018, according to U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy think tank.
During Whitmer’s tenure, which began in 2019, the rate hovered between 13.1% and 13.5% in 2024, the most recent year available. (There is no 2020 data because of the coronavirus pandemic’s significant data collection disruptions.)
The official U.S. Census Bureau poverty measure totals a household’s income and compares it with a threshold for the household’s size and age composition, Kristin S. Seefeldt, a University of Michigan social work associate professor, said. If the household’s income is below that threshold the household is considered to be living in poverty. Many experts say the threshold is outdated, but it’s still widely used.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s nationwide poverty threshold for a family of two adults and one child was $25,249 in 2024.
Rates are often the most useful measure of changes because they take into account population changes. However, in sheer numbers, there were more people living in poverty in Michigan (and the nation) in 2024 than 2019. In Michigan, there were about 1.28 million in poverty in 2019 and 1.34 million in 2024.
However, a comparison of poverty rates under two governors doesn’t provide a full picture.
Michigan’s declining poverty rate under both Whitmer and Snyder matches a national trend. The national poverty rate was 15.9% in 2011 and declined most years, ending at 12.1% in 2024.
During economic downturns, Michigan tends to get hit harder and experience longer recessions than even neighboring states, mainly because of its transition from a manufacturing-based economy to a service-based economy, said Nicholas Hess and Patrick Schaefer at the Michigan League for Public Policy, a nonprofit policy institute. That typically puts the state’s poverty rate higher than the national average.
There is usually a lag between the end of a recession and a drop in the poverty rate.
“One could argue that due to the Great Recession (of 2008 and 2009) the Snyder administration was at a much different starting point,” Seefeldt said. “Or, one might say that Snyder didn’t do enough to bring down poverty rates as the economy recovered. But the trend data alone don’t let us say either definitively.”
Charles L. Ballard, a Michigan State University economics professor emeritus, said poverty measures should be taken with several grains of salt.
“The really big story of the Michigan economy is the longer-term story of Michigan’s economy losing ground relative to the national average,” Ballard said. “This is strongly associated with the decline of manufacturing in general, and the auto sector in particular.”
Whitmer hasn’t reversed that decline, Ballard said, but neither did her predecessors, Republican or Democrat.
Whitmer’s spokesperson pointed to the governor’s actions during her administration to help low-income people, including quintupling the earned income tax credit; expanding pre-K for all; expanding affordable childcare; investing in Rx Kids, a children’s prescription program, in the latest state budget; securing free school breakfast and lunch; and ending state taxes on tips and overtime.
Many of the actions Whitmer cited stem from bills that passed the legislature from 2023 to 2025.
“I’d argue it’s really too soon to see the effect of most of these changes in any dataset,” Seefeldt said. “We know that the types of changes she’s put in place matter for the well-being of families with low income. But the official poverty numbers by themselves aren’t ‘proof’ that the changes have resulted in lower poverty rates during her administration.”
The official poverty measure looks only at pre-tax income, which means that impact from some of these measures — such as expanding the earned income tax credit or rolling back the retirement tax — aren’t reflected in the statistic, Seefeldt said. Official measures also don’t consider expenses such as child care.
Another way the Census Bureau seeks to quantify poverty is by using a “supplemental poverty measure,” which takes into account additional factors not included in the basic poverty measure, including government benefits such as food assistance, tax credits and accounts for expenses such as housing and medical costs.
Michigan’s supplemental poverty measure decreased between 2023 and 2024. That aligns with the expansion of the state’s earned income tax credit, the experts at the Michigan League for Public Policy said.
Whitmer said her tenure as governor has led to “fewer families living in poverty” in Michigan.
The poverty rate under Whitmer is lower than it was under her predecessor. In 2011, when Snyder took office, about 17% of residents lived in poverty; that fell to 14% in 2018. During Whitmer’s tenure, the rate has ranged from 13.1% to 13.5%.
Whitmer’s statement omits that the drop mirrored national trends; that Michigan’s rate is higher than the national average; and that the sheer number of people living in poverty increased from 2019 to 2024. Poverty rates are influenced by multiple factors, not a governor’s policies alone.
The statement is partially accurate but leaves out important information. We rate it Half True.
Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this fact-check.
[ad_2]
[ad_1]
Claim via Social Media and News Outlets Social media users and news outlets claim that President Donald Trump posted a video on Truth Social that…
The post Fact vs. Fiction: Did Donald Trump Post a Racist Video Depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as Apes? appeared first on Media Bias/Fact Check.
[ad_2]
Media Bias Fact Check
Source link
[ad_1]
This page hosts daily news stories about the media, social media, and the journalism industry. Get the latest Hirings and Firings, Media Transactions, Controversies, Censorship…
The post Media News Daily: Top Stories for 02/06/2026 appeared first on Media Bias/Fact Check.
[ad_2]
Media Bias Fact Check
Source link
[ad_1]
Media Bias Fact Check selects and publishes fact checks from around the world. We only utilize fact-checkers that are either a signatory of the International…
The post MBFC’s Daily Vetted Fact Checks for 02/06/2026 appeared first on Media Bias/Fact Check.
[ad_2]
Media Bias Fact Check
Source link
[ad_1]
A rumor that Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk removed his wife, Erika Kirk, from his will before he was assassinated circulated online in February 2026.
For example, a TikTok video (archived) from the account Bull Nose News with more than 6 million views claimed Charlie Kirk suspected his wife of having an affair and decided to leave his estate to his children. The TikTok user began:
Charlie Kirk has apparently written Erika Kirk out of his will, meaning she will get no money from his passing after he assumed she was having an affair, leaving Erika Kirk reportedly furious. Charlie Kirk’s will has finally been read several months after his death with him reportedly leaving all of his money, including all of the Turning Point USA merch sales, to his children and not to her.
The video then went on to describe how Erika Kirk allegedly “explosively” yelled at Charlie Kirk’s lawyers and alluded to rumorsshe was somehow involved in her husband’s death (he was fatally shot on Sept. 10, 2025).
@bullsnosenews Charlie Kirk’s last will & testament finally read revealing he left all his money to his children after suspecting Erika Kirk was having an affair #fyp #charliekirk #parody #BullsNoseNews #satire ♬ original sound – Bulls Nose News
The TikTok video also said the man Erika Kirk reportedly had an affair with was referred to as “couch shagger” in the will — a reference to a rumor from October 2025 that Erika Kirk and U.S. Vice President JD Vance had an affair as well as a false claim that Vance wrote in his memoir about having sex with a couch.
Variations of the rumor spread on X (archived, archived, archived), Instagram (archived) and YouTube (archived).
Some readers seemed to interpret the rumor as a factual recounting of real-life events. However, there was no evidence of Charlie Kirk’s will being read, nor that he cut Erika Kirk out of it. The creator of the video did not point to any primary evidence or reports from credible media outlets, and we found no evidence to suggest the claims were true.
Rather, the rumor about Erika Kirk being cut out of Charlie Kirk’s will originated with Bulls Nose News — a social media account that describes its output as being humorous or satirical in nature. Its bio states: “Satire/Parody.” The video’s caption also included the hashtag #satire.
Snopes has addressed satirical claims about Erika Kirk in the past, including the assertion that she filed a $40 million defamation lawsuit against ABC and “The View” and a rumor that she announced the launch of a Christian dating app called “Faith & Fellowship.”
For background, here is why we alert readers to rumors created by sources that call their output humorous or satirical.
[ad_2]
Taija PerryCook
Source link
[ad_1]
An emailed receipt appearing in the Epstein files for a Wayfair order totaling $8,453 confirms the online retailer participated in child sex trafficking.
In early February 2026, social media users claimed an emailed Wayfair receipt in sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s case files confirmed the online retailer participated in child sex trafficking. The rumor circulated in the days after the U.S. Department of Justice released a fresh trove of Epstein case files.
For example, on Feb. 3, an X user posted (archived) a screenshot of an authentic PayPal email invoice or receipt (archived), mentioning Wayfair in the Epstein files with the caption, “Jeffrey Epstein’s assistant bought a single, unlabeled $8,453 dollar item from Wayfair.” The receipt displayed the date of June 28, 2018, with a blank description field for the alleged single-good purchase. The email showed a person named Karyna Shuliak forwarded the receipt to another person.
(@fleshsimulator/X)
Other users shared the same email screenshot and rumor on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived), Instagram, Reddit (archived) and X (archived).
In short, this rumor was false. Product and cost information, combined from two other (archived) emails (archived) in the Epstein files confirmed the $8,453 charge was the total price for 25 individual items consisting of four different products, in various quantities, including bathroom decor and furniture, as well as lighting fixture mounts.
We first reported about the false Wayfair child sex trafficking conspiracy theory in July 2020. One aspect of the conspiracy theory — which some social media users repeated in February 2026 — claimed Wayfair named pricey items with the first names of minors featured in recent missing children reports, allegedly so people could identify and buy those children. Users offered no credible evidence to verify those allegations.
Wayfair spokesperson
Regarding Shuliak, the British newspaper The Times reported she is a 36-year-old Belarusian dentist and described her as Epstein’s last girlfriend and the prime beneficiary in his trust — which Epstein signed Aug. 8, 2019. Two days later, officials said Epstein killed himself in his New York City jail cell. A medical examiner’s report ruled Epstein’s death a suicide by hanging.
We did not yet locate a working contact method for Shuliak.
On June 28, 2018, an email (archived) to Shuliak read, “Thanks for your AllModern order!” The email displayed the order number 2662781092, a subtotal of $7,529, shipping charge of $396.97, taxes of $527.03 and total cost adding up to $8,453. A note read, “All charges will appear as Wayfair.”
A subsequent email (archived) from AllModern minutes later confirmed the buyer’s
Another email showed the confirmation of an order of the same cost, reflecting a person placing the same order a second time, with order number 2732756622. Subsequent emails reflected Wayfair’s automated order-update messages as explaining the company was unable to cancel some items from both orders, adding the recipient could return the items free of charge. Other emails mentioned a credit card charging issue due to a spending limit. In other words, this matter concerned nothing more than online ordering issues.
A July 11 email (archived) from Shuliak to two people noted “LSJ” — short for Epstein’s Caribbean island Little Saint James — as the destination for the 14 units of “Alume 1-Light Outdoor Flush Mount by LumenArt.”
Many other emails detailed the purchases of appliances, decor, landscaping and other goods for the island, including describing the logistics of sailing the goods to the remote destination.
Ball, Tom. Epstein’s Last Girlfriend ‘Bequeathed $100m in His Will.’ 5 Feb. 2026, https://www.thetimes.com/us/news-today/article/jeffrey-epstein-girlfriend-belarusian-dentist-karyna-shuliak-pkttn9lnf.
“Epstein Library.” U.S. Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein.
Evon, Dan. “Is Wayfair Trafficking Children Via Overpriced Items?” Snopes, 10 July 2020, https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/wayfair-trafficking-children/.
Goldstein, Matthew. “Epstein’s Trust Reveals Who Would Inherit His Fortune.” The New York Times, 3 Feb. 2026, https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/03/business/jeffrey-epstein-trust-inherit-karyna-shuliak.html.
Klepper, David, and Jim Mustian. “Epstein: How He Died and What It Means for His Accusers.” The Associated Press, 11 Aug. 2019, https://apnews.com/article/b76666895e674991a6782d77b726d085.
Sisak, Michael R., et al. “Medical Examiner Rules Epstein Death a Suicide by Hanging.” The Associated Press, 16 Aug. 2019, https://apnews.com/article/a947e0d85d31496eb5bd9ff4994c9718.
Tucker, Eric, et al. “Justice Department Releases Largest Batch yet of Epstein Documents, Says It Totals 3 Million Pages.” The Associated Press, 31 Jan. 2026, https://apnews.com/article/epstein-files-justice-department-trump-ed743598c320b94bd9d91631618678d9.
[ad_2]
Jordan Liles
Source link
[ad_1]
In early 2026, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers illegally arrested civil rights attorney Sandra May Watkins in her own driveway — but she revealed she had been recording them and the evidence she gathered of the officers’ wrongdoing led to their arrests.
In
According to the rumor, Watkins then revealed that she had been recording her wrongful arrest, leading to the officers’ arrests and convictions.
The claim primarily circulated on Facebook (screenshotted). Snopes readers also asked us to verify the story.
This rumor appeared to have originated with the Facebook account shown above, “Stories point,” whose page stated, “We post fictional stories” (screenshotted).
The story also contained numerous signs that it was generated using artificial intelligence (AI). Furthermore, a Google search returned no results for reputable news organizations reporting on such an incident, which would almost certainly have happened if it were true.
As such, we have rated this claim false.
One of the biggest inconsistencies in the story is the name of the arrested woman. She is said to have first identified herself as “Congresswoman Ela Harris” before the story states that her name is “Sandra May Watkins.”
There was no U.S. congresswoman named Ela Harris as of this writing. Furthermore, a search for “Sandra May Watkins civil rights attorney” returned no relevant results. If Watkins were a prominent civil rights attorney, as stated in the story, she would likely have an online presence, such as an “about” page with her law firm.
The story also claimed that the FBI arrested an agent identified as “Robert Castellano” and other officers, and they later received criminal convictions due to Watkins’ wrongful arrest.
High-profile convictions involving federal agents typically take time and often involve multiple court decisions and public statements from attorneys. This makes it even more suspicious that a search for reputable news articles about the alleged incident returned no relevant results.
Furthermore, the story claimed that the officers did not know Watkins recorded them and that she did not reveal this particular detail until Castellano arrested her.
Those details directly contradicted the fact that the story was shared alongside ahigh-definition
The level of definition in the image of the woman holding a phone is also more typical of a professional camera, not an iPhone or a surveillance recording. The unnaturally smooth and high-definition look of the images also pointed to AI generation.
Several Facebook accounts that reposted the story used a different image of the
Multiple AI-detection tools, including Hive Moderation and ZeroGPT, indicated that these
Snopes previously published an explainer on how to determine whether content was generated using AI.
[ad_2]
Rae Deng
Source link
[ad_1]
Q: Is it true that ICE agents are financially rewarded for the number of people taken into custody?
A: The Department of Homeland Security has said there is no such policy, and an immigration think tank told us it is unaware of any payments per arrest. The Wall Street Journal reported that agents “are rewarded for making arrests“ but didn’t say how they are rewarded. Immigration and Customs Enforcement quickly scrapped a proposed program to pay bonuses to speed up deportations.
We’ve received several questions from readers about whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents get a bonus for each person they arrest. One reader asked if agents are paid $1,500 for each immigrant they arrest. Versions of this claim have circulated on social media, with some posts pointing to a Wall Street Journal article that said ICE officers were “under pressure” to meet a daily nationwide arrest goal and were “rewarded for making arrests.” Some have interpreted this to mean a financial bonus.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE didn’t respond to our multiple inquiries asking whether agents receive a bonus payment for each arrest. However, a DHS spokesperson told Snopes, which wrote about these claims, that “this policy has never and never was in effect.”
The Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, also told us it wasn’t aware of any per-arrest bonus structure. Michelle Mittelstadt, MPI’s director of communications and public affairs, said, “We do not believe these claims regarding bonuses for arrests are accurate. ICE and its parent agency, DHS, have never indicated that they would set up a bonus payment structure rewarding personnel per arrest.”
In August, the New York Times reported on an ICE proposal to pay bonuses for quicker deportations — but it was canceled before it started and didn’t pertain to arrests. According to the Times, an internal ICE email proposed “cash bonuses to agents for deporting people quickly, an incentive meant to motivate the staff to speed up President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Less than four hours later, the agency abruptly canceled what was supposed to be a 30-day pilot program.”
The Times reported that documents it reviewed called for $100 and $200 bonuses for each immigrant deported within one or two weeks of arrest. But a subsequent email to ICE field offices from Liana J. Castano, an ICE field operations official, told staff to “PLEASE DISREGARD” the program, the newspaper reported.
As we said, some social media posts about arrest bonuses have pointed to a Jan. 17 Wall Street Journal article. The article about immigration enforcement in Minneapolis said that “officers here and elsewhere are under pressure from daily arrest quotas that leadership has set at 3,000 a day across the country—the number it would take to reach one million arrests in a year, according to ICE officials familiar with the matter. Though ICE has never come close to meeting that daily goal, officers are rewarded for making arrests, even if the immigrants they take in are later released.”
The administration has publicly acknowledged the 3,000 arrest goal. In May, senior White House adviser Stephen Miller said on Fox News that the administration was “looking to set a goal of a minimum of 3,000 arrests for ICE every day and President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day.”
It’s unclear from the Wall Street Journal article how officers are “rewarded for making arrests”; the story says nothing about financial payments and doesn’t offer any more explanation about these rewards. We reached out to the Journal reporters for clarification, but we did not receive a response.
We also didn’t get a response from DHS or ICE when we asked for comment on the Journal’s article.
Some, including Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, posted that ICE was “rewarding” agents, an accurate summary of that article. Others interpreted this as a “bonus.” For instance, David J. Bier, the director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute, posted part of the article on X and said, “ICE agents get bonuses when they make wrongful arrests of US citizens.” Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego, of Arizona, shared Bier’s post and said, “Mistakenly arrest a US citizen? You get a big fat bonus.”
Beyond these interpretations of the Journal’s article, we were unable to find evidence regarding claims about per-arrest bonuses. Bier told us the Journal story was the only information he had. Gallego’s office hasn’t responded to our inquiry.
Snopes reported that some of its readers appeared to misconstrue the daily 3,000 arrest goal with a “$3,000 bonus for each arrest,” as some readers asked about.
According to DHS press releases, there is a signing bonus of up to $50,000 for new ICE hires. But that’s a recruitment and retention incentive, and there’s no indication it is tied to the number of arrests, or deportations for that matter, that an agent performs.
The Republicans’ 2025 budget bill, called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, provided $858 million for the signing bonuses, which, the legislation says, would be for new agents, officers or attorneys who agree to serve for five years or those already working for ICE who agree to stay with the agency for two more years.
Last year, DHS announced incentive funding to state and local law enforcement agencies that partner with ICE to arrest immigrants living in the country illegally. Beginning Oct. 1, DHS said that participating agencies would receive reimbursement for trained officers’ salaries and benefits along with quarterly performance-based bonuses. These monetary awards range from $500 to $1,000 per “eligible task force officer,” depending on “the successful location of illegal aliens provided by ICE and overall assistance to further ICE’s mission to Defend the Homeland.”
But that quarterly bonus program is for state and local police that cooperate with ICE, not a payment per arrest for ICE officers.
Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, P.O. Box 58100, Philadelphia, PA 19102.
[ad_2]
Sanjana Juvvadi
Source link
[ad_1]
In early February 2026, social media users began circulating claims that the Puerto Rican singer Bad Bunny wore a bulletproof vest under his clothes while attending the Grammy Awards. The rumor gained traction amid online backlash after Bad Bunny criticized U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in a Grammys speech, with some posts casting him as a target who might be in danger and treating his appearance in photos and clips as supposed evidence of extra protection.
“This made me so sad… the way Bad Bunny had to wear a bulletproof vest and sit by himself at the Grammys. AMERICAN CITIZEN BTW! Lord protect him at the Super Bowl,” one X post (archived) read.
(X user @stuncalis)
Similar posts appeared across X, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube and Facebook, often paired with still images or short clips from the red carpet and inside the venue. Posts spreading the claim speculated that the singer’s torso appeared “unusually swollen,” stiff or boxy, suggesting that the silhouette could only be explained by protective body armor. As the rumor spread, readers searched our website for information about whether Bad Bunny had actually worn a vest to the ceremony.
However, no evidence shows that Bad Bunny actually wore a bulletproof vest at the Grammys. The claim appears to rest entirely on interpretations of how his outfit looked in photographs and videos, rather than on any confirmation from Bad Bunny, his representatives or event security. Images from the event show him wearing a custom corset-inspired tuxedo with tailoring designed to sculpt the silhouette, making parts of the torso appear unusually bulky from certain angles. We were unable to independently verify whether he wore any type of protective vest under the tuxedo. As such, we have not rated this claim.
We contacted the Recording Academy (which organizes the Grammy Awards), Bad Bunny’s representatives and the fashion house behind his outfit for comment, and we will update this article if we hear back.
Fashion coverage of the event suggests a far more straightforward explanation for Bad Bunny’s unusual proportions at the awards ceremony.
At the 2026 Grammys, Bad Bunny wore a custom Schiaparelli haute couture look that featured dramatic, sculptural tailoring. According to Vogue, the outfit included a black velvet tuxedo jacket with a sharply defined silhouette and a distinctive lace-up, corset-style back that was clearly visible in photos taken from behind and at angles along the red carpet.
Below is a Getty Images photograph that shows the jacket’s shape and construction:
(Getty Images)
Vogue described the look as rooted in women’s fashion, adapted for menswear.
Bad Bunny’s outfit was also featured in a Vogue behind-the-scenes video, “Inside Bad Bunny’s Grammy Awards Look” which follows his final fitting the day before the ceremony.
The video highlighted the jacket’s exaggerated shoulders and rigid, sculpted construction, but it did not mention any protective gear. It also showed a waist compression band as part of the styling, suggesting the team used it to shape Bad Bunny’s silhouette — a detail that could have affected how the singer’s proportions appeared on camera.
In other words, while the outfit may have made Bad Bunny look more rigid or broader than usual, that effect was consistent with his high-fashion tailoring choices rather than evidence of body armor. None of the posts promoting the claim offered proof beyond visual speculation, and no credible source has confirmed that Bad Bunny wore a bulletproof vest at the event.
A video from the ceremony posted on Bad Bunny’s own TikTok account likewise did not suggest that he was wearing protective gear beneath his clothing. The clip shows him moving comfortably in the outfit, without any visible indicators of a bulletproof vest:
Another moment cited in some posts as supposed evidence involved footage of a brief interaction in which Bad Bunny appeared to tense up as Lady Gaga approached him while he was seated at a table. But such a reaction is consistent with a normal reflex or a response to someone suddenly entering one’s personal space, and it does not indicate or prove that he was wearing protective body armor.
All in all, the rumor that Bad Bunny wore a bulletproof vest to the 2026 Grammys was based on mere interpretations of his designer outfit and lacks any factual support. Available reporting shows he wore a custom Schiaparelli tuxedo with structured tailoring, rather than a bulletproof vest.
[ad_1]
In late January 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice released more than 3 million files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In the days after the release, numerous social media users shared an April 2009 email that Epstein sent in which he praised a “torture video” he received from someone who was in China.
Many people online claimed the recipient, whose name was redacted, was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who they said was in China at the time of the email exchange. Screenshots of the files circulating online indicate the email exchange occurred on April 24 and 25, 2009. The exchange is as follows:
EPSTEIN: where are you? are you ok , i loved the torture video
REDACTED EMAIL ADDRESS: I am in china I will be in the US 2nd week of may
Some social media users who shared the rumor included a screenshot of a purported news article, which they suggested showed the Israeli prime minister was in China in April 2009. Another screenshot of a Wikipedia article shows Netanyahu was in the United States on May 18, 2009, which some users claimed further supported the theory he was the person emailing with Epstein.
(X user @jakeshieldsajj)
Epstein did send the above email about a “torture video” to an unknown recipient who claimed to be in China. However, there is no evidence Netanyahu was the person exchanging emails with Epstein. He was not in China at the time, according to various sources. Epstein was in jail during the exchange.
However, because the email address was redacted and we could not independently confirm the recipient of Epstein’s email at the time of publication, we’ve left this claim unrated.
According to the Epstein email files released by the DOJ, Epstein sent the email in question to a redacted recipient on April 24, 2009. On April 25, Epstein also wrote back saying, “Hope to see you,” after the recipient said they would be in the U.S. in May.
(Department of Justice)
On May 18, 2009, Netanyahu met then-U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington, D.C., where they gave shared remarks to the press. On May 19, Netanyahu met with congressional leaders, according to news reports. By May 20, he was back in Jerusalem, The New York Times reported.
It is unlikely that Epstein was planning to meet Netanyahu within that time frame, too. Between 2008 and 2009, Epstein was serving an 18-month sentence in a Palm Beach County, Florida, jail for sex crimes involving a minor. According to The Washington Post investigation, Epstein was allowed to leave jail to go to his office during the day and return at night as part of a work-release program. He served 13 months in jail and was released in July 2009.
Given Epstein’s timeline in jail and Netanyahu’s travel schedule, it is improbable that the two exchanged the emails referenced in social media posts and that they planned to meet.
Snopes has reported extensively on various claims related to the Epstein files.
“A Timeline of the Jeffrey Epstein Investigation, Now 20 Years Old.” AP News, 23 July 2025, https://apnews.com/article/trump-epstein-investigation-records-timeline-545c371ee3dd3142355a26d27829c188. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Epstein Files Articles | Snopes.Com. https://www.snopes.com/tag/epstein_files/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
“Epstein Library.” Department of Justice, https://www.justice.gov/epstein. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
“Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Meets with Yang Jiechi.” Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People’s Republic of China. https://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/gjhdq_665435/2675_665437/2828_663646/2830_663650/202406/t20240607_11408807.html. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
Landler, Mark, and Helen Cooper. “Keeping Score on Obama vs. Netanyahu.” The New York Times, 20 May 2009, https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/21/us/politics/21diplo.html. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Netanyahu Presses Congress over Threat of Nuclear Iran – CNN.Com. https://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/19/mideast.netanyahu.dc/index.html?iref=newssearch. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.
“Remarks by President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu in Press Availability.” Whitehouse.Gov, 18 May 2009, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/remarks-president-obama-and-israeli-prime-minister-netanyahu-press-availability. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Rozsa, Lori. “For ‘Client’ Jeffrey Epstein, an Unlocked Cell in a Florida Jail.” The Washington Post, 19 July 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/captain-at-jail-where-epstein-served-time-in-2008-ordered-that-his-cell-door-be-left-unlocked/2019/07/19/93e38934-a972-11e9-86dd-d7f0e60391e9_story.html. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
“The ‘completely Unprecedented’ Plea Deal Jeffrey Epstein Made with Alex Acosta.” PBS News, 8 July 2019, https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/the-completely-unprecedented-plea-deal-jeffrey-epstein-made-with-alex-acosta. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
[ad_2]
Nur Ibrahim
Source link