AP Fact Check

CLAIM: A proposed California bill would allow school mental health professionals to remove minors from the custody of their parents or guardians who don’t consent to the child receiving gender-affirming surgeries. 

CLAIM: Farmers and ranchers are required to inject livestock with mRNA vaccines.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. There is no mandate in the U.S. that livestock receive certain vaccines and there are no COVID-19 mRNA vaccines licensed for animals, as some online have suggested.

CLAIM: Fox News covered a new chicken sandwich from Popeyes on Monday morning instead of a deadly mass shooting in Louisville, Kentucky.

CLAIM: Photos posted by former President Barack Obama’s half-brother show a passport issued to Obama that proves that he was born in Nairobi, Kenya.

CLAIM: A video shows Bud Light drinkers using a “steamroller” to destroy beer cans in response to the brand partnering with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender social media influencer.

CLAIM: A proposed bill in Canada would subject anyone who misgenders others or engages in anti-LGBTQ protests to prosecution and a $25,000 fine.

CLAIM: There are no longer new variants of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Public health officials continue to track and monitor emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants.

CLAIM: An advertisement shows that the International Legion for the Territorial Defense of Ukraine, which the government formed for foreign fighters, is recruiting homeless Americans to join the fight against Russia.

CLAIM: Brewing company Anheuser-Busch fired its entire marketing department in response to its partnership with a transgender influencer and the rollout of LGBTQ Pride-themed Bud Light cans that feature various pronouns. 

CLAIM: The National Gallery in London is removing a portrait by Jan van Eyck due to complaints that the painting resembles Russian President Vladimir Putin.

CLAIM: A photo shows former President Donald Trump alongside both his pregnant wife, former first lady Melania Trump, and porn star Stormy Daniels.

CLAIM: The World Health Organization now says COVID-19 vaccines are “not recommended” for healthy children and teens.

CLAIM: George Floyd posted a derogatory tweet about “trans folk” in 2011.

CLAIM: A video shows President Joe Biden essentially confirming that his team coordinated the indictment of former President Donald Trump to “stop Trump from taking power again.”

CLAIM: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is charging a New York City parking garage attendant for attempted murder after he shot an alleged armed robber.

CLAIM: Twitter CEO Elon Musk just revealed that Twitter’s algorithm “shadow banned” accounts using a list of terms and phrases, including “trump,” “epstein,” “soros” and “simulation.”

CLAIM: A transgender woman posted a photo of herself holding a gun and calling for violence against Christians, referencing a “Trans Day of Vengeance.” 

A series of images shows a great white shark that washed up on an Outer Banks beach in North Carolina.

CLAIM: A close-up photo shows Wikileaks founder Julian Assange looking physically unwell and disheveled in London’s Belmarsh prison. 

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False.

CLAIM: California lawmakers are weighing a bill that would ban the Bible. 

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. A yearsold video being shared on social media discusses a 2018 bill proposed in the California State Assembly that has long been withdrawn and didn’t call for banning the Bible.

CLAIM: More than 90% of all mass shootings have happened in so-called “gun-free zones.” 

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. The oft-cited figure comes from a study by a gun rights advocacy group that gun violence experts say is flawed.

CLAIM: A disheveled room with transgender and NATO flags seen in a widespread photo belonged to the shooter who killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, this week.

CLAIM: A photo of a person holding a sign featuring pink, blue and white guns and the words “trans rights… or else” shows the shooter who killed six people at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.

CLAIM: Air fryers emit a dangerous electromagnetic field that can harm a person’s DNA and cells.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Experts and appliance companies say the fryers don’t use radiation to heat food, as a microwave would.

CLAIM: It is a double standard that former President Donald Trump may be indicted over alleged hush money payments to a woman who accused him of sexual encounters, while former President Bill Clinton faced no criminal charges for paying a sexual harassment accuser $850,000.

The gay dating app Grindr says if Florida doesn’t stop passing homophobic and transphobic laws, it will reveal every Republican legislator and party official who secretly uses the app.

CLAIM: Rudy Giuliani has fired Alvin Bragg, Manhattan’s district attorney, for his “fake prosecution” of former President Donald Trump.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Giuliani is a former New York City mayor and U.S.

CLAIM: A video shows a “triple jabbed Australian surgeon” in a green gown experiencing a stroke.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The clip has been online since January 2020, before COVID-19 vaccines were available, and was reported to show a Chinese doctor fainting.

CLAIM: A study published in The Lancet proves that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are increasing people’s chances of contracting the disease after seven months, providing further evidence that people should not get vaccinated.

CLAIM: Photos of the Statue of Liberty from 1898 and 2017 show that sea levels have not risen significantly.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Sea level rise in the New York City area as well as globally has been documented by scientific bodies.

CLAIM: A video of a caravan of cars filling the streets outside Trump Tower in New York City shows supporters of former U.S.

CLAIM: A photo of a man with a bloody face shows Lagos State House of Assembly candidate Olumide Oworu after his team was attacked while campaigning in March 2023.

CLAIM: Australia is seeing its sharpest rise in deaths in 80 years because of the coronavirus vaccine.

CLAIM: Greta Thunberg recently deleted a tweet she posted in 2018 in which she said that the world will end in 2023.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context.

CLAIM: The Canadian Cancer Society recommends that transgender women get screened for cervical cancer.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context.