DailyThe Tea
The rumor mill, after the fact. Only rumors that reputable outlets reported and that have since been denied, debunked or confirmed. The joke is on the mill and the denials, never on an unproven claim.
Monday, November 2, 2026
DebunkedTokyo
Famous for Staying Put
An X account whose author claimed to work at Pfizer posted on 27 October: “Cancel all your plans on October 30th and absolutely stay home!” A video beneath it, seen over a million times, tied the warning to Japan. IBTimes UK found the clip was a 20 September briefing by Shinjiro Koizumi: “At no point does he mention late October, a stay-at-home order or any drug company.” Tokyo’s one precaution for the date was Shibuya’s Halloween fence around Hachiko, a statue famous for staying put.
DebunkedVaranasi
Merely Large
After Narendra Modi attended an Indian Air Force show at Varanasi on 25 October, X users citing Grok and Google’s AI Overview said the BJP had passed off 2025 Maha Kumbh Mela photos as his crowd; AAP’s Assam handle said his PR had to “recycle Mahakumbh photos.” BOOM rated it false: the Hindustan Times photographer said it was shot that day from a Rajghat bridge. Two chatbots spotted a recycled crowd, and a man on a bridge had to confirm it had merely turned up.
DebunkedWashington
Certified Early
A screenshot shared on Facebook and Instagram had President Trump posting on 26 October: “Everybody already knows the Republicans WON the 2026 midterms in a historic landslide!” Full Fact found no such post on his account or in the trumpstruth.org archive, traced the earliest copy to a self-described “satirical news organisation,” and found the image flagged by Google’s AI detector. Polls open on Tuesday. The one result already certified is 36.7k likes, identical on every copy.
Sunday, November 1, 2026
DebunkedCanberra
Upholstered in Grey
A Facebook post on 27 October, from a page managed in Germany and Pakistan that “regularly publishes AI-generated content about Australian politics,” said Opposition Leader Angus Taylor had insulted Senator Fatima Payman in a “Heated exchange in Parliament.” AAP FactCheck ruled: “False. The quote is fake.” Hansard holds no such remark, and the two sit in different chambers. The picture seated them on grey benches; to stage the quarrel, the forgers first had to build Canberra a third house.
DebunkedManila
Passed in Capitals
An Australian Facebook group post announced, in capital letters, that the Philippines “has just passed a law” making corruption a capital offence. AAP FactCheck found the death penalty abolished in 2006 and the likely source, House Bill No. 11211, filed in December 2024, left “pending” in committee. One expert said it “conflates the filing of a legislative proposal with the passage of a law.” In Manila a bill needs three readings, a Senate and a president; online it got through on the shift key.
Saturday, October 31, 2026
DebunkedJerusalem
Declared by Thumb
An X post on 30 October announced that Gadi Eisenkot had been “finally declared the new prime Minister of Israel,” citing Grok and a Reuters photo of him giving a thumbs-up on election night. Lead Stories “found no credible reports confirming such a change” and called it false. A Modern Israel Studies professor put it plainly: “The official results are not even in yet.” Israel’s president must consult every party leader before naming anyone; the post made do with a chatbot and one thumb.
DebunkedMontreal
Ahead of France
A Facebook post on 21 October, copied in Dutch and Portuguese, presented a video as Montreal’s answer to France’s cost-of-living protests: “It’s already happening in Canada and we’re not even part of the EU ‘yet.’” AFP Fact Check found that “the clip was actually filmed during 2024 protests against a NATO conference” in the city, and that demonstrations inspired by France “have remained largely peaceful.” By the post’s own clock, Montreal began copying France about two years before France began.
Friday, October 30, 2026
DebunkedNagpur
The Lap Before the Race
A Facebook reel claimed a crowd dancing with Congress flags was celebrating the party’s win in Nagpur’s legislative council poll, “right under the shadow of RSS headquarters.” BOOM found the clip had been posted by NCP MLA Rohit Pawar on 19 October, ten days before the Nagpur result, to congratulate a Congress-led panel on winning the Gokul Milk Union election in Kolhapur. The rumor mill ran the victory lap first and picked the race afterwards.
DebunkedVentura
Only the Signature Box
A video posted to Instagram on 23 October and reshared on X claimed that holes punched in California’s ballot return envelopes can reveal a voter’s choice. Lead Stories rated it false: the Ventura County registrar said the holes guide vision-impaired voters to the signature box and are “NOT positioned in order to see the vote on a particular contest.” Look through the hole and you see only the place to sign, the one spot the rumor mill never uses.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
DebunkedLucknow
Red, Then Saffron, Then Red
ANI posted a video on 26 October captioned “Akhilesh Yadav removes red cap, ties saffron turban ahead of UP elections,” and NDTV, Times Now and ABP News followed. BOOM checked the Samajwadi Party’s livestream: at 38:07 the turban is red, the shade of the poster behind him. Yadav replied, “Some people’s cameras are such that even the colour red appears saffron to them.” Four newsrooms reported a change of colour, and the only thing that had changed was the white balance.
DebunkedSão Luís
Applause From Before the Count
An X post on 27 October offered a 40-second video of Flávio Bolsonaro, the defeated Brazilian presidential candidate, being hugged and applauded on arrival in Fort Lauderdale. Lead Stories traced it to São Luís, capital of Maranhão, and a campaign stop in September: “The footage predated the runoff election by roughly one month.” He did land near Miami, at Opa-Locka Airport, in a darker T-shirt than the green one in the clip. The arrival was genuine; the applause was from before the count.
DeniedSydney
Completely Fictitious
A Facebook post dated 17 October, viewed more than 280,000 times, set a picture of former prime minister Paul Keating beside a quotation urging that NSW Premier Chris Minns be challenged and removed. The post’s own description said “(not actual quote)”; the image was then shared without it. Keating’s office told AAP FactCheck: “Completely fictitious.” It took the forger a paragraph to sound like Keating, and Keating two words.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
DebunkedChicago
The Machine Has One Opinion
A TikTok video, reshared on X under “It’s RIGGED” to 1.4 million views, said a Cook County voting machine had warned a voter that people “are not typically choosing this person” when she picked Republican judges. The clerk’s office said no Republican judicial candidates are on that ballot, and the notice the machines can show says only that a contest “is undervoted.” PolitiFact rated it Pants on Fire. The machine has one opinion, and it concerns the races you skipped.
DebunkedSuva
No Reptiles Listed
A video of geckos ground into instant noodles drew more than 180,000 views on a Fiji-based Facebook account, and over five million on the Instagram account it came from, which posts only AI videos. AAP FactCheck found a SynthID watermark, an oven door that shuts itself and “distorted and illegible” packaging, and noted “no geckos nor other reptiles listed” among Indomie’s ingredients. The original was labelled “AI content.” Somewhere on the way to five million views, that ingredient came out.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
DebunkedNairobi
Joined Before It Existed
Posts on X and TikTok, viewed more than 335,000 times, announced that Kenyan MP Junet Mohamed had joined former deputy president Rigathi Gachagua’s Democracy for Citizens Party, offering a video labelled “4/08/26” of the two men greeting outside Nairobi’s KICC. Africa Check traced the clip to 9 July 2024, the day President Ruto signed an electoral bill there, and found it false. The party was launched in May 2025. The defection was filmed ten months before there was anything to defect to.
DeniedQuezon City
Right Price, Wrong Vehicle
A Facebook reel posted on 5 October paired a speech by Philippine Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla with footage of fire tricycles, claiming his department had bought them for P10 million each; the posts drew 1,620,100 views. Remulla had been talking about fire trucks, at P10 million each. “To be clear, Nueva Ecija [LGU] ang bumili,” he told reporters; VERA Files rated the claim false. The reel had the right price and the wrong vehicle, the reverse of the usual procurement scandal.
Monday, October 26, 2026
DebunkedAbuja
The Only Counterfeit
A list credited to NAFDAC, Nigeria’s food and drug regulator, spread through Facebook groups from 7 October, naming more than 100 brands and categories as counterfeit, from milk and rice to honey and poultry, without a single batch number. The agency’s spokesperson said “the viral list did not emanate from NAFDAC” and asked the public “to disregard it in its entirety”; Africa Check rated it false. Of everything on the list, only the list has been confirmed fake.
DebunkedNairobi
Everything but the News
A screenshot reposted on X since 1 October, by a small circle of accounts working together, showed a Citizen Digital story headlined “UDP Officials Reject Sifuna Party Launch as ‘Hostile Takeover’.” Africa Check traced the photo and timestamp to a genuine 24 September article about Senator Edwin Sifuna’s candidacy and found “no article with the headline shown in the circulating image.” The forgers kept the photo and the timestamp, and replaced only the news.
Sunday, October 25, 2026
DebunkedAbuja
Discount, Not Subsidy
Facebook posts and Instagram reels this month announced that Nigeria’s government had reintroduced the fuel subsidy at NNPC filling stations, crediting the finance minister. Africa Check rated the claim misleading: NNPC had taken N66 a litre off for independence week, and on 8 October the minister announced a discount “for the next 30 days,” adding, “So, it’s not a subsidy.” The subsidy ended in 2023. Only its effect at the pump has come back, for 30 days.
DebunkedStockholm
The Missing Ten Seconds
A 20-second clip posted on X on 22 October claimed that King Carl XVI Gustaf refused President Zelenskyy’s handshake when they met in Lviv in April, and added worse. Lead Stories found the longer footage: the king steps out of the car at 3:04, and at 3:41 the two shake hands for 10 seconds. Its verdict: “The video cuts off before the two leaders actually shake hands.” The clip had 20 seconds to fill and could not spare 10 for the handshake.
DebunkedWashington
No Rush
An X account announced on 22 October that principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly was “officially President Trump’s next White House Press Secretary.” Lead Stories found no news outlet reporting it and rated it false. The last press secretary held the job for five days before being fired on 16 October. The communications director said the team was “focused on the midterm elections”; the president said, “We’re in no rush.” The job has been empty for nine days, longer than it was filled.
Saturday, October 24, 2026
ConfirmedNew York
The Pollster’s Only Finding
Wedgewood Polls appeared in June as an “independent” pollster, and outlets from Newsweek to The Hill reproduced its surveys. On 20 October it said on X that most of its releases lacked genuine survey data, a social experiment in how easy the trick was: “The short answer: Far too easy.” Decision Desk HQ removed 17 of its polls; Newsweek retracted three articles. Of everything the firm published, the confession is the one result nobody has disputed.
DebunkedParis
Caught at Last
Images and videos of someone in a Pink Panther costume at France’s student demonstrations spread from a Facebook page this week, one showing the panther in police hands. Maldita rated them “Falso”: Google’s SynthID Detector found the watermark, and the clips had “manos y dedos deformes.” Cybernews, citing the BBC, reports that one image reused an older photo of police carrying a man before a football match. A character who made his name slipping past the law has finally been caught, in someone else’s photograph.
Friday, October 23, 2026
Walked backLondon
Unsure, Officially
Google’s SynthID Detector said five images posted by British politicians between April and August were “made or edited” with AI. The politicians said no AI was used; one image was posted from an iPhone, another by an MP’s dog’s account. Full Fact called them “likely false positives”; Google rolled out an update on 15 October. The five are now rated “Unsure.” The detector has stopped accusing politicians and started answering like one.
DebunkedParis
Someone Else’s Cover
A cover presented as Charlie Hebdo’s issue of 21 October, mocking the protesters in France’s autumn of demonstrations, spread on X that day. The fact-checkers at Lead Stories could not find the cover on the magazine’s website or its October posts; two detectors rated it AI at 99% and 99.9%, and SynthID found an OpenAI watermark. The real cover was about the clocks going back. A weekly that has spent half a century answering for its covers must now answer for other people’s.
Thursday, October 22, 2026
DebunkedManila
Banned in an Afternoon
A Facebook card posted on 12 October said President Ferdinand Marcos had signed an executive order banning meat imports from that day. VERA Files checked the Official Gazette and found that “No such executive order signed by Marcos appears on official records”; the card had no order number, and three detectors flagged it as AI. More than 30 hog-raiser groups had asked for up to 200 days of import restrictions. A graphic card granted them in an afternoon, without troubling the government.
DebunkedNew Delhi
Too Polite as Delivered
A 19-second clip shared on X on 19 October had US Senator Richard Blumenthal calling India “a failed state with a collapsing economy.” BOOM traced it to an Economic Times report in which he urged India and China to “buy your oil and gas somewhere else,” and concluded: “BOOM found that the video has been digitally altered.” The real remarks followed a House bill allowing tariffs of up to 100% on India. Somebody still thought the speech was too polite.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
DebunkedParis
Still Open
An account on X announced on 18 October, with video, that “Mostly peaceful student protestors have burned down the Eiffel Tower.” Lead Stories ran the clip through two detectors, which rated it 85.6 and 99 percent likely to be AI, and spotted windows that had turned into wall. Live webcams showed the tower intact, and its own website said it was available for attendance. The tower declined to comment and stayed open.
DeniedWashington
Three Washingtons
A quote card on X on 10 October had Denzel Washington saying he had “never met anyone braver, smarter, or who cares more about America than Donald Trump.” On 12 October the president shared it on Truth Social. Lead Stories found it in no established outlet, and the actor’s publicist told The Washington Post it was “Not real,” adding: “No idea where it came from.” Three Washingtons in one story, and the only one who never said it was the one quoted.
Tuesday, October 20, 2026
DebunkedMadrid
Visa-Free, as Before
Facebook posts announced that Spain had, from April 2026, opened visa-free visits of up to 90 days to citizens of eight African countries, from Botswana to Rwanda. Africa Check found that “Spain has not announced a new visa exemption for these eight countries.” Six remain on the EU list of countries whose citizens need a visa for short stays; Mauritius and Seychelles were already exempt. The posts were accurate about two countries, the two with nothing to announce.
DebunkedNairobi
The Poll Nobody Took
A graphic dated 22 September and shared across Facebook pages ranked Kenya’s ten best-performing senators, credited to the pollster Ipsos, with Meru’s senator on top at 91%. Africa Check searched Ipsos Kenya’s website and accounts and found no such survey; the graphic gave no dates, no sample and no questions. The latest poll on the firm’s website dates from August 2022. Ninety-one percent of nobody is a hard crowd to disappoint.
Monday, October 19, 2026
DebunkedBentonville
Receipts From Nowhere
An Instagram post on 13 October offered two Walmart receipts, from 2002 and 2026, as proof of grocery inflation: a dozen eggs at $1.29, then $9.48. Lead Stories found that the store’s address does not exist, there is no store #4821, and a detection tool rated the image “99.9% likely to be AI-generated.” Walmart’s own dozen currently costs $1.67. Prices have risen since 2002, though not at a store with no address in a town with no postcode.
DebunkedMumbai
Two Dates, One Photographer
Users in India dismissed a photo of a Mumbai students’ march with a Gemini screenshot dating it to a 2024 protest. Asked by BOOM, Gemini then pointed to a 2023 incident in Kerala. “A reverse image search led BOOM to original news reports”: a Hindustan Times photographer took it on 7 October 2026. NDTV aired a fact-check using Gemini’s answer, then deleted it. The chatbot gave one photo two years and two states; the photographer needed only the one day.
DeniedPutrajaya
The Fee That Never Cleared
A poster carrying a “Vyra News” logo spread on Facebook and Threads in Malaysia, announcing service charges on QR code payments from 1 November. The Ministry of Finance called the claim “false” and told the public not to believe or share it. PayNet, which runs the DuitNow QR network, says QR payments are free for consumers. Paying by QR code remains free of charge; so, unfortunately, does reposting a poster.
Saturday, October 17, 2026
DebunkedOslo
The Committee Member Who Was Not
A screenshot posted on X on 14 October showed Donald Trump attacking a “Nobel Committee member” over the Peace Prize. Lead Stories found no such post, and no such member: the man named sits on no 2026 Norwegian Nobel Committee, and the account belongs to a self-described satirist. The screenshot carried the handle “@notRealDonaldTrump.” The fake had signed its own confession.
DebunkedParis
Water, Prioritised by Satire
An Instagram “cover” claimed Jeff Bezos said water should be prioritised for data centres over human consumption, supposedly at a VivaTech panel in Paris. ThePrint reported it, then corrected itself. Lead Stories checked the 49-minute panel, where “water” came up three times and Bezos “said nothing remotely similar.” The account describes itself as “Satirical Page Meant for Humor.” Of everyone involved, only the satirist described the page accurately.
DebunkedRaleigh
The Ballot Rumor, Reissued
Posts on X, TikTok and Facebook warned that a ballot “could be disqualified” if a poll worker writes on it, and urged voters to “request a new ballot.” North Carolina’s elections board said the posts “have been circulating for several years and have resurfaced recently” and “are still false”; some marks are required by law. PolitiFact rated it False, as it did in 2024. The ballots are printed fresh for each election; the rumor arrives pre-owned.
Friday, October 16, 2026
Walked backLynchburg
Familiar With the Matter
MS NOW reported on 14 October, citing two people familiar with the matter, that FBI Director Kash Patel had landed in Russia. He was at Liberty University in Virginia, at a law enforcement appreciation event, as the FBI pointed out with a side-by-side picture. By evening the network told viewers: “We’ve since learned that Patel did not, in fact, land in Russia today.” Both sources were familiar with the matter. The matter was in Virginia.
DeniedQuito
Blackouts, by Appointment
A timetable of power cuts for Quito, dated 14 and 15 October, spread across social media. The city’s electricity company called it “un cronograma falso no autorizado por la institución” and said no rationing plan exists. That night outages did hit Sangolquí, Alangasí and San Antonio de Pichincha, from an insulation fault. Only the fake blackouts came with a schedule; the real ones turned up unannounced.
DebunkedWellington
A Pledge Nobody Made
A Labour campaign poster doing the rounds in New Zealand before the 7 November election promised to make Jacinda Ardern governor-general. Google’s SynthID flagged the image as AI-generated, and AAP FactCheck traced the photo to a clickbait page. “This is fake, and not a Labour commitment,” a party spokesperson said. The campaign’s most discussed pledge this week was written by a machine, and the party’s main policy work was disowning it.
