A Machine Knitter's Guide to Creating Fabrics by Lewis & Weissma

Are people who have five inches of fat on their body "bulletproof"? No, that's not true: Body fat may slow a bullet but it does not stop the projectile nor does it render a person "bulletproof." The claim appears in a 13-second reel published on Facebook on May 13, 2022, without a caption. The transcription of the video is: I…

Did an Arkansas district attorney get a court order to exhume the body of former deputy White House counsel Vince Foster? No, that's not true: The claim, which suggests that former first lady Hillary Clinton was responsible for Foster's death, is satirical. Foster's death was ruled a suicide, although conspiracy theories dating back to the 1990s have reasoned that Foster…

Is there proof of law enforcement raids on multiple Arizona nonprofit organizations in a "2000 Mules"-driven ballot trafficking investigation? No, there's no evidence that's true: Reporting by The Arizona Republic puts two uniformed officers and two plainclothes investigators from the Arizona attorney general's office at the office of just one nonprofit: Comité de Bien Estar in San Luis in May…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Finland transferred tanks to the Russian border at the beginning of May 2022? No, it's not true: A video showing trains carrying military equipment captured the Finnish army heading to a scheduled military exercise in the opposite direction. One of the first English-language posts claiming that the Finnish army moved dangerously close to…

Will a suburban Chicago high school use a race-based grading system during the 2022-2023 school year? No, that's not true: According to Oak Park and River Forest High School, such a policy has neither been proposed nor implemented at the school. School officials clarified that the school is conducting research into equitable grading policies and that some teachers have tested…

By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that Warsaw is going to send troops to the western parts of Ukraine to repossess the lands Poland used to own in the distant past? No, it's not true. Claims about the allegedly planned Polish invasion of Ukraine started to spread on social media on April 28, 2022, following the statement made by Sergei…

Is Elon Musk considering buying the Keystone XL pipeline? No, that's not true: This claim appeared on a satirical website with a clear disclaimer on its About Us page. It is the work of Christopher Blair, a notorious liberal prankster who produces fake claims to troll conservatives. The claim appeared in an article published by the Patriot Party Press on…

Did two different television networks report on the same Uvalde school shooting victim with two different fathers? No, that's not true: Both the biological father and stepfather of Amerie Jo Garza, 10, gave interviews to different networks but were both initially identified as her father. News reports clarified their relationship with her but a social media post said "same victim,…

Did Jacob Albarado, an off-duty Border Patrol agent, kill Salvador Ramos, the gunman who killed 19 children and two teachers at a Texas elementary school? There's no such evidence: Albarado, whose wife worked at the school and child attended the school, went to the scene and helped evacuate children during the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. In…

Did Elon Musk leak the news that Russian President Vladimir Putin had cancer surgery that failed? No, that's not true: This video and others like it offer no factual proof that Musk leaked such unconfirmed news to the media. Rumors about Putin's health remained just that -- unsubstantiated rumors -- at the time of writing. The claim appeared in a…

Did a digital display screen at a Costco Wholesale gas pump display a message that said, "Don't blame us. Blame Joe Biden"? No, that's not true: This image has been edited. The digitally altered image began appearing on Facebook on about May 27, 2022. One example was published with a caption: Forget Stickers. Costco just went digital. The text of…

Does the Rothschild family own The Associated Press and Reuters? No, that's not true: A Reuters spokesperson told Lead Stories that this is not true. Also, Reuters 2021 annual report notes that, "As of December 31, 2021, the Company's principal shareholder, The Woodbridge Company Limited ('Woodbridge'), beneficially owned approximately 67% of the Company's common shares." The Associated Press describes itself…

Was the elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, "100% a planned attack" that cops were "in on"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the shooting was planned or orchestrated by anyone other than the shooter, Salvador Ramos. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 28, 2022. The post features a video taken outside Robb Elementary…

Did Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla say by 2023 that "we will reduce" the number of people in the world by 50%? No, that's not true: This is a doctored video and Bourla did not say that. The phrase clipped out of this video -- about reducing the number of people who can't afford medications -- changes Bourla's meaning. The video…

Did a retired nurse in hospice care just reveal that she had swapped 5,000 babies over over the course of her 44-year career working at many hospitals in the St. Louis, Missouri, area? No, that's not true: There is no evidence supporting this claim. There is however, a very similar story that circulated in 2019 regarding the purported "confession" from…