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.

77 checks

Did Trump's net worth rise by nearly $3 billion since he returned to office?

X · 60 Minutes clip 6.8K likes / 860 replies; Forbes editor Dan Alexander's 'nonsense' quote-post 10.2K likes; Bluesky trending topic

True

The video is a genuine CBS 60 Minutes excerpt in which Ross Douthat asks President Trump about a Forbes estimate that his net worth rose nearly $3 billion since returning to office — a figure Forbes itself has published. Trump's deflection that everyone's net worth rose the same way is contradicted by the reporting.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did Tinubu borrow ₦120 trillion in three years while 16 past leaders borrowed ₦46 trillion in 63 years?

X · Presidency (SA on social media Dada Olusegun) rebutted the claim on 8 Nov; picked up by The Sun, TheNiche, QED, NigerianEye, First Daily 8 Nov. No view counts for the post · resurfaced

Misleading

The image is a partisan attack graphic whose central numbers are misleading: ₦46 trillion was Nigeria's outstanding public debt at end-2022, not the cumulative borrowing of 16 leaders, and official Debt Management Office data do not support ₦120 trillion of new borrowing under Tinubu. Only the accompanying point that Tinubu removed the petrol subsidy is true.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did Elon Musk criticise Binance for holding 80% of the crypto market?

X · Spreader post 1,574 likes / 351 replies (X syndication, 8 Nov); Musk's denial reply 11,441 likes; CZ reply 7,371 likes; covered by BeInCrypto/Yahoo (7 Nov), Bitcoin Foundation, tech-insider, shattered.io, BigGo Finance (8 Nov)

False

The photo of Elon Musk in a black DOGE cap is a genuine older photograph, but the claim attached to it is fabricated: Musk explicitly denied ever criticising Binance's market share or urging users to move funds, and Binance's Changpeng Zhao publicly flagged the post as false information.

EconomyTechnologyView details→

Did Jennifer Welch's podcast laugh about digging up Charlie Kirk and did sponsors drop the show?

X · Turley post 6,848 likes; origin clip post by @CollinRugg 16,721 likes; @libsoftiktok 19,662 likes; Cash App reply ('we are no longer sponsors of this podcast') 27,835 likes; Boll & Branch 13,897 likes

True

The post's claims check out: on 5 November 2026 Jennifer Welch and Angie Sullivan laughed on their 'I've Had It' podcast at a post about 'digging up Charlie Kirk and doing it again', and by 6 November a conservative-led advertiser boycott had prompted Cash App, Chewy, Boll & Branch and Lola Blankets to say they no longer sponsor the show. The attached image is a genuine campaign contact list, though its framing is openly activist.

CelebrityPoliticsView details→

Did John Healey's Budget cut defence spending to fund welfare?

X · 2,055 likes (X syndication, 7 Nov ~02:40Z); video post

Misleading

This is genuine campaign footage from Kemi Badenoch's official account, and much of what she says checks out — the tax burden is heading for its highest level since the late 1940s and the welfare bill is rising. But her central charge that the Budget 'cuts spending for defence' is contradicted by the Budget itself, which fully funded the Defence Investment Plan and raised defence spending.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did Trump say the stock market suffered one of its worst days in history because of the election?

X · 45,517 likes on the White House post (syndication, 2026-11-07); covered by Fox Business, Forbes, Washington Examiner, IBTimes, KATV, Benzinga

True But

The image is a real screenshot of a genuine Truth Social post in which President Trump blamed the Democrats' midterm wins for a historic Wall Street sell-off on 5 November 2026. The market plunge and the quote are both confirmed by major outlets, but Trump's 'one of the worst days in history' framing and his single-cause blame exaggerate and simplify what drove the rout.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did Andy Burnham hand Caribbean countries £40 million for slavery reparations?

X · X trending story page shows Lowe post at 549K views, 38K likes, 4.1K reposts; TalkTV clip 58K views; TheBritLad 75K views (as displayed on trending page 6 Nov). Debate still live 5 Nov: Guardian slavery-apology pieces, Welby 'group punishment' remarks (GB Trends 'justin welby'), Mirror poll piece 5

Misleading

The £40 million figure is real — Andy Burnham's government approved £40m over three years for Caribbean infrastructure and green energy at the November 2026 Commonwealth summit — but the post misleadingly presents it as a slavery reparations payout made in response to Caribbean demands, when Downing Street said it was unrelated to reparations, drew it from existing budgets, and Burnham has ruled out direct reparations.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did the US stock market lose $2.8 trillion in a single day — the biggest wipeout in history?

X · 25,065 likes, 1,219 replies (X syndication, 2026-11-06 ~03:00Z); embedded by The Blaze 5 Nov; post-midterm AI-stock selloff widely covered (NBC, Axios, Forbes, Benzinga)

True But

The heatmap is a genuine intraday snapshot of the 5 November 2026 US market rout, and the claim that it produced a record single-day market-cap loss is largely correct: Dow Jones Market Data put the S&P 500 companies' loss at about $2.9 trillion, a record, topping the roughly $2.69 trillion of 16 March 2020, though the $2.8 trillion was an intraday figure and some whole-market estimates are smaller.

EconomyView details→

Did Trump say no one is getting the $5,000 Freedom Dividend?

X · MEAWW says the rumour originated from this Spencer Hakimian X post; fact-check 4 Nov

Misleading

The tweet invents a Trump announcement: in his first post-election appearances on 4 November 2026 Trump never mentioned the $5,000 payment, let alone said no one would get it. The real story is that the payout was conditional on Republicans holding Congress, which they lost — so the money is indeed unlikely, but Trump did not 'say' so.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did Nigel Farage correctly predict Republicans would avoid a midterm rout?

X · Farage mocked for his election prediction; HuffPost UK piece with replies embedded; Guardian sketch

Misleading

The video is a genuine GB News live segment from US midterm election day, but the on-air argument that Republicans would beat the polls and avoid a rout was refuted within hours as Democrats swept both chambers of Congress, and Farage misattributed a 98% Clinton probability to the New York Times.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Does this video show ADNOC facilities burning after an Iranian strike?

X · 613 likes, 19 replies on X (syndication, 4 Nov); copied by other accounts; fact-checked by Misbar and Kashif 4 Nov

Misleading

The video is real firefighting footage, but it is not ADNOC: it shows the June 2016 magnesium-fed warehouse fire in Maywood, California, reposted as a fresh Iranian strike on Emirati oil facilities. The claim is misleading, and Misbar's fact-check reached the same conclusion on 4 November 2026.

ConflictEconomyView details→

Did Trump say "the inflation is solved" on Fox & Friends on Election Day 2026?

X · Clip of Trump statement, 974 likes (verify 2026-11-04); Independent headline 'Trump declares inflation is solved' 3 Nov

True

The clip is authentic Fox News footage of Trump's 3 November 2026 Election Day call-in to Fox & Friends, and he did say "the inflation is solved" and "everything is going good" — statements contradicted by official data showing 3.7 percent annual inflation in September 2026.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did the Trump administration deliver record-low crime and $472 billion in New York?

X · 8,668 likes on @VP post; Community Note added (per HuffPost); Mamdani's meme quote-reply has 1,484,496 likes (syndication); covered by HuffPost, Express Tribune

Misleading

The White House graphic is real and most of the raw numbers it cites exist, but it is packaged to imply they are federal, New York-specific results: the '$472 billion' adds up nationwide corporate pledges, and the '48% drop in murders' comes from New York State's own GIVE programme, not the Trump administration.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did over 1,200 migrants cross the Channel since Thursday, costing £396 million?

X · 3,331 likes about 2h after posting (X syndication, 1 Nov). No news pickup found yet; Channel crossing figures covered by GB News and Daily Mail on 1 Nov

True But

Farage's numbers largely check out: Home Office figures show 1,193 small-boat arrivals from Thursday to Saturday and more on Sunday, and a Dutch study did put the lifetime net fiscal cost of an asylum seeker at about €400,000 (£330,000), cited by the MAC. But the post dresses a discounted lifetime estimate up as an immediate bill and implies Britain has lost control of its borders, when 2026 crossings are down roughly 43% and the pause was weather-driven.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Is inflation "way down under Trump" as his Truth Social post said?

X · Kobeissi post 2.9K likes, 860 replies; covered by Benzinga/MSN, Raw Story, Daily Beast

False

The screenshot is a genuine, accurately reproduced Truth Social post by Donald Trump from 30 October 2026, but the claim it spreads — that inflation is 'way down' — is contradicted by official data showing CPI inflation rising to 3.7% in September 2026, above the level when he took office.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did Trump post on Truth Social that he shouldn't have bought Intel stock?

X · 3.1K likes, 133 replies; Intel's 29% drop on 30 Oct is real (Forbes)

False

The image is a fabricated Truth Social mock-up: Trump never posted the quoted complaint about Intel. The Intel crash it leans on, however, did happen — shares closed down about 29% on 30 October 2026.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did Trump say the Iran war was paid for by hundreds of billions of dollars taken from Venezuela?

X · 6.3K likes, 950 replies on clip of Trump's Oval Office remarks

False

The video is genuine White House footage of Donald Trump on 30 October 2026, and he did say the Iran war spending was more than covered by hundreds of billions of dollars taken in from Venezuela. That financial claim is false: the war has cost about $47 billion and Venezuelan oil revenue is estimated at roughly $13 billion, held in accounts the administration itself calls Venezuelan property.

PoliticsEconomyView details→

Did the Pentagon award $41 million to iX Biopharma for a ketamine wafer?

Facebook · Readers emailed Snopes enough to prompt a check (29 Oct); Google autocomplete leads with 'ketamine wafers for soldiers'

True

The Military Times/Defense News explainer accurately reports a real February 2026 Pentagon contract worth about $41 million with Singapore-based iX Biopharma to develop Wafermine, a sublingual ketamine wafer, plus the company's push for FDA emergency use authorization for troops. Every checkable claim in the clip matches the company's own regulatory filings and mainstream reporting.

HealthConflictView details→

Did US GDP really grow 3.4% under Trump and Republicans?

X · RNCResearch 1,331 likes; David Asman (Fox) 1,982 likes (X syndication, 30 Oct). Trump Truth Social post 29 Oct 18:52Z: 'BOOMING at 3.4 PERCENT — A Historic Level of Economic Growth... Investment in new Equipment EXPLODED by 21%... beating 72% of economists' forecasts'

True But

The clip is genuine MS NOW Morning Joe footage from 29 October 2026, and the panelist's figure is correct: the BEA's advance estimate showed third-quarter 2026 GDP grew 3.4%, above the 3.2% consensus. The only caveat is the political spin — presenting the growth as the achievement of Trump and Republican policies is interpretation, and the caption ignores weaker details in the same report.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did CZ say a Binance hack froze $971 million at Tether and $823 million at Circle?

X · CZ post 28,158 likes; @binance statement 6,539 likes (X, 30 Oct); wide pickup (HT, Mirror, Forbes 'Was Binance hacked?'); 'binance' trending Google Trends IE/PK/PH

True But

The post is a genuine 29 October 2026 statement by Binance founder Changpeng Zhao about a real multi-billion-dollar security breach at Binance, and its core figures — Tether and Circle freezing roughly $971 million and $823 million — check out, though Tether's freeze was later revised upward to about $1.567 billion.

EconomyTechnologyView details→

Did three tankers hit mines in the Strait of Hormuz and catch fire?

X · Post with video 461 likes (check.py 29 Oct); UKMTO confirmed at least one ship on fire, another in distress, no cause given; CENTCOM insists primary routes demined; wire pickup (Reuters via IOL/Dhaka Tribune, Xinhua, Saudi Gazette, CBS) 29 Oct; oil-market relevance

Can't Verify

The IRGC did announce on 29 October 2026 that three tankers hit mines and burned in the Strait of Hormuz, so the post's attribution is accurate — but the mine-strike account is an unverified belligerent claim that CENTCOM disputes, and independent monitors confirmed only a single burning vessel with the cause unknown. The clip is plausible IRGC-released footage of a burning vessel but cannot by itself confirm the specific three-tanker incident.

ConflictEconomyView details→

Did a Houthi ballistic missile hit Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura oil refinery on 27 October 2026 and set off huge fires, as Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claimed?

X · 1,426 likes on @MMY1444 relay of Saree statement (syndication, 29 Oct); wide pickup: Anadolu, Baird Maritime, Marine Insight (28 Oct), Clash Report, Al-Quds, Euronews Arabic; Energy News Beat 29 Oct on oil price reaction

True But

The post reproduces a genuine 27 October 2026 statement by Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree claiming a precise ballistic-missile hit on Saudi Arabia's Ras Tanura refinery with massive fires. Missile launches at the Eastern Province, interceptions and a contained fire near Ras Tanura are corroborated by Reuters, AFP and Bloomberg, but Saudi Arabia never confirmed the refinery was hit and the scale of damage is unverified.

ConflictEconomyView details→

Did Chancellor John Healey announce in the 28 October 2026 Budget a £100 cash payment, paid directly into bank accounts, for 20 million households in council tax bands A to D?

X · 3,145 likes on X ~2h after posting (syndication, 28 Oct 14:40Z); Standard live blog headline '£100 energy payment for millions'

True

Authentic Commons footage of Chancellor John Healey's Budget statement on 28 October 2026, in which he did announce a £100 winter energy payment for 20 million households in council tax bands A to D as part of a £2.6bn scheme.

EconomyPoliticsView details→

Did Saudi Arabia cut daily crude production by 80%?

X · 1,913 likes on X (syndication); MEAWW fact-check 27 Oct

False

The post's central claim — that Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ cut crude production by 80% and locked shipments to the West — is false. No authoritative reporting, OPEC/OPEC+ statement, or official Saudi/US statement supports it; a viral fact-check has debunked the claim.

EconomyConflictView details→