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Don't believe posts claiming Trader Joe's is offering $12 gift baskets for filling out online form

Posted by Emery Winter

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trader-joe-gift-baskets-scam/

Trader Joe's hasn't offered gift baskets to anyone for filling out an online form.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/trader-joe-gift-baskets-scam/

Photos claiming to show Russian man saving drowning bear in Lake Tahoe tell a different story

Posted by Emery Winter

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ivan-stepanov-drowning-bear-rescue/

Social media posts credited an Ivan Stepanov with rescuing a drowning bear in Lake Tahoe. In reality, Adam Warwick rescued a drowning bear in Florida.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ivan-stepanov-drowning-bear-rescue/

Breaking down claim Hegseth believes women shouldn't have the right to vote

Posted by Anna Rascouët-Paz

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/16/pete-hegseth-women-voting/

The defense secretary openly endorsed a church whose elders endorsed repealing the 19th amendment.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/16/pete-hegseth-women-voting/

20 rumors about Vladimir Putin Snopes has investigated

Posted by Rae Deng

https://www.snopes.com/collections/vladimir-putin-claims-collection/

Yes, Putin once took a dog to meet Angela Merkel, who is famously afraid of dogs. No, he did not ride a rollercoaster with Kim Jong Un.

https://www.snopes.com/collections/vladimir-putin-claims-collection/

Unpacking claim Canada PM Carney tied to sale of donated plasma to foreign company

Posted by Anna Rascouët-Paz

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/16/mark-carney-plasma-sale/

Canadian Conservative lawmakers called for an inquiry into the alleged sale, which they say the Liberal prime minister is linked to.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/16/mark-carney-plasma-sale/

Bill McKibben makes a powerful pitch for solar in optimistic new book

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26735560-700-bill-mckibben-makes-a-powerful-pitch-for-solar-in-optimistic-new-book/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

In Here Comes the Sun, environmentalist Bill McKibben argues that the rapid adoption of solar power should quell our worst climate fears. Is he right, asks James Dinneen

https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg26735560-700-bill-mckibben-makes-a-powerful-pitch-for-solar-in-optimistic-new-book/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

AT&T customers could get up to $7,500 from data breach settlement. Here's how to claim it

Posted by Emery Winter

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/att-data-breach-settlement/

People who can show documentation they lost money because of two separate AT&T data breaches may receive up to $7,500 — but most will receive less.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/att-data-breach-settlement/

Exploring claim Trump admin wants to replace PBS with PragerU

Posted by Jack Izzo

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/trump-prageru-pbs-replacement/

The claim spread following Trump's decision to end all federal support for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/trump-prageru-pbs-replacement/

Did 'staff mutiny' force Cotswolds pub to turn away JD Vance? What we know

Posted by Laerke Christensen

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/vance-staff-mutiny-pub/

Staff at The Bull, a pub in Oxfordshire, England, reportedly refused to come to work if the vice president had a reservation.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/vance-staff-mutiny-pub/

Did Tom Cruise refuse Kennedy Center award from Trump?

Posted by ARRAY(0x55806bb693e8)

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/tom-cruise-kennedy-center-award/

Anonymous sources and conjecture formed the basis of this rumor.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/tom-cruise-kennedy-center-award/

Unpacking rumor Trump plans to offer Alaska's natural resources to Putin

Posted by Rae Deng

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/trump-putin-alaska-resources/

According to UK newspaper The Telegraph, offering Alaskan natural resources to Russia could be part of a peace deal in Ukraine.

https://www.snopes.com/news/2025/08/15/trump-putin-alaska-resources/

It is impossible to build a practical quantum broadcaster

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492799-it-is-impossible-to-build-a-practical-quantum-broadcaster/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

A quantum broadcasting system would end up sending slightly different information to every receiver – and efforts to sidestep this problem are too inefficient for practical use

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492799-it-is-impossible-to-build-a-practical-quantum-broadcaster/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Weird microbial partnership shows how complex life may have evolved

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492751-weird-microbial-partnership-shows-how-complex-life-may-have-evolved/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Connecting tubes between bacteria and a kind of microbe called archaea may reflect a symbiotic relationship that led to complex cells more than 2 billion years ago

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492751-weird-microbial-partnership-shows-how-complex-life-may-have-evolved/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Oldest fast radio burst ever seen sheds light on early star formation

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492668-oldest-fast-radio-burst-ever-seen-sheds-light-on-early-star-formation/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

A bright flash of radio waves from 3 billion years after the big bang is illuminating parts of the universe that astronomers can’t normally see

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492668-oldest-fast-radio-burst-ever-seen-sheds-light-on-early-star-formation/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Archaeology Research

https://xkcd.com/3129/

The academic archaeology establishment is suppressing my breakthroughs because of the disruption it would bring to their prepared-core flake-based toolmaking industry.

https://xkcd.com/3129/

ICE plans to purchase eye-scanning tech to ID unauthorized immigrants

Posted by Rae Deng

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ai-ice-unauthorized-immigrants/

ICE released plans in August 2025 to buy a license for iris-scanning, biometric technology that can identify individuals from 10 to 15 inches away.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/ai-ice-unauthorized-immigrants/

We have detected a single electron with unprecedented speed

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492571-we-have-detected-a-single-electron-with-unprecedented-speed/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

An extremely precise detection method for single electrons, which pins down the particles with a resolution of trillionths of a second, may provide a valuable building block for future quantum technologies

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492571-we-have-detected-a-single-electron-with-unprecedented-speed/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Brain activity can predict whether strangers will become friends

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492550-brain-activity-can-predict-whether-strangers-will-become-friends/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

People who have similar neural responses to movie clips are more likely to become friends, indicating bonds form based off shared thought processes

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492550-brain-activity-can-predict-whether-strangers-will-become-friends/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Cancer-killing virus becomes more effective when shielded by bacteria

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492641-cancer-killing-virus-becomes-more-effective-when-shielded-by-bacteria/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Virus-based treatments are already approved to treat several types of cancer, and combining them with bacteria could make them even more effective

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2492641-cancer-killing-virus-becomes-more-effective-when-shielded-by-bacteria/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home

Breaking down claim early Cinderella versions called her 'Cinder-sl**'

Posted by Emery Winter

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cinderella-crude-name-fact-check/

A single translation well after the Victorian-era ended included the insult, but it wasn't exactly an accurate translation of the original insult.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/cinderella-crude-name-fact-check/