Author: nick

As Artemis II sets records for human spaceflight’s farthest distance and captures photos of the moon, some social media users shared out of context and fabricated photos they claimed were from the event.   The Artemis II mission, with a four person crew, launched April 1 with the goal of carrying astronauts farther from Earth and closer to the moon than any human has been in over half a century.  Some photos on social media that claim to be from Artemis II show different angles of the moon, while others showcase the natural satellite full of vibrant colors. “Stunning high-res Moon…

Q: I read this on FB. Is it true? The U.S. Treasury just declared the U.S government is insolvent. A: No. That’s the conclusion of an opinion piece that cited a Treasury report showing the government’s liabilities outweigh its assets. But that’s been the case for decades, and unlike an insolvent business, the government can levy taxes. FULL ANSWER Two economists — Steve Hanke at Johns Hopkins University and David Walker, a former comptroller general of the U.S. — published an opinion piece in Fortune last month advocating bills aimed at reining in the national debt. In support of this, they pointed to…

After announcing a ceasefire in the weekslong war with Iran, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared that the U.S. had emerged victorious. When Trump declared April 7 that the U.S. would suspend bombing Iran for two weeks to allow for negotiations, he said the U.S. had “already met and exceeded all military objectives.”  “Total and complete victory. 100%. No question about it,” Trump told Agence France-Presse. Hegseth was similarly triumphant. “Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital-V military victory,” he said during an April 8 Pentagon press conference. “Epic…

Following an executive order from the Trump administration that promotes production of glyphosate, some Democrats have claimed that the herbicide causes cancer. The science, however, is nuanced. While there is some evidence linking glyphosate to cancers in lab animals or to the blood cancer non-Hodgkin lymphoma in agricultural workers, the findings have been inconsistent. Regulatory agencies around the world, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have concluded glyphosate is unlikely to pose carcinogenic risks. In a Feb. 18 executive order, President Donald Trump promoted production of glyphosate-based herbicides — originated in 1974 by Monsanto as the weedkiller Roundup — as…

Within two hours of declaring a ceasefire in the Iran war, President Donald Trump alleged that CNN knowingly published false information. Trump said CNN reported a “fake” statement from Iran and U.S. authorities are probing whether CNN committed a crime by publishing it. It’s unclear what crime, if any, CNN would be charged with. Trump shared a statement from Iran’s minister of foreign affairs that said Trump accepted Iran’s 10-point plan as a “basis for negotiations,” that Iran agrees to a ceasefire and will reopen the Strait of Hormuz for two weeks. As of April 10, the strait was operating…

Article Metrics0CrossRef Citations When a bank run, a pandemic, or an election spirals out of control, the spark is often informational. In 2023, rumors online helped accelerate the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. During COVID-19, false claims about vaccines fueled preventable harms by undermining public trust in health guidance, and election lies in the United States fed into the broader dynamics that culminated in the January 6 Capitol attack. These events reveal that misinformation is not just about false or misleading content, but about how degraded information can destabilize entire social systems. To confront this, we must reframe misinformation as…

President Donald Trump’s executive order denying citizenship to “anchor babies” has caused quite a stir. The media insist that kids born to illegal aliens on U.S. soil are automatic citizens at birth. Although asserted with smug arrogance, they then bury any discussion of the issue in lies. Thus, for example, the entire media claim that Trump’s order is about “birthright citizenship.” That’s rather circular. The precise question at issue is whether kids born to illegals are citizens by right. It would be like calling a case about transgenders a “women’s rights” case. In fact, for nearly a century, no one…

Last week President Donald Trump delivered an address on the Iran war to the American people. In only 19 minutes, he presented Americans with at least eight fabrications. Since I’ve been hearing war-supporting commentators repeating those false claims this week, I’ve decided to provide a helpful dissection of them below. #1. Operation Epic Fury targeted “the world’s number one state sponsor of terror.” Trump has frequently repeated this misleading claim before, most recently in his February 28 video making his case for his war on Iran. Trump made this claim in his speech without evidence and in contradiction of the…

Florida’s Gov. Ron DeSantis has taken time away from running the country’s third-largest state to talk ancient history—literally. Those seeking perspective on troubling current events are better off for this trip down memory lane.  The colloquy started on March 30, when DeSantis X-ed (tweeted) out praise for The Golden Thread: A History of the Western Tradition. “Looks like a volume worth having, especially as we approach America 250,” DeSantis X-ed, adding, “The Founders were products of the Western tradition and they looked to its entire history—from the ancients to the Enlightenment and everything in between—for inspiration and guidance in justifying…

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to declare that “a civilization will die tonight.” By 8 p.m., the U.S. announced a two-week ceasefire with Iran had begun. Whether the ceasefire holds (or even takes hold) is already in question—Iran and the U.S. appear to be offering contradictory accounts of what the 10-point plan they allegedly agreed to actually says. The best hope that it might stick comes from Israel, where TV presenters who spent Monday salivating over a clock counting down the minutes and hours until Trump’s planned genocide of Iranians were left confused and outraged…