Tag: Snopes News

Claim:

In 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration denied protections under the Endangered Species Act to monarch butterflies until 2030.

Rating:

In fall 2026, a rumor spread online that U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration had formally denied protections for monarch butterflies under the Endangered Species Act until 2030. 

In other words, posts claimed that the government had refused to designate monarch butterflies as an at-risk species deserving of specific protections under federal law — and that the government would not consider the issue again until 2030. 

The claim circulated on Facebook (screenshot) and X. 

The claim is largely true, although it omits a few details. On Sept. 30, 2026, the Fish and Wildlife Service reached a settlement with conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, over a delay on the federal agency’s decision as to whether monarch butterflies should be protected under the Endangered Species Act. 

The settlement requires Fish and Wildlife to issue a final decision by June 6, 2030. Technically, that means Fish and Wildlife could issue a decision anytime before that deadline. However, Center for Biological Diversity spokesperson Tierra Curry said Fish and Wildlife “asserted that they do not have the resources to issue the final listing before the agreed upon date because of budget and workload.” 

We reached out to Fish and Wildlife to confirm whether this is true and await a response. 

It’s also worth noting that Trump is due to leave office in January 2029, so it’s possible that a future administration may prioritize making a decision on monarch butterfly protections before 2030. 

Because we can’t predict what the future holds, we have rated this claim as a mixture of truth and undetermined information.

Monarch butterfly conservation

Fish and Wildlife estimates that, by 2080, the probability of extinction for eastern monarchs ranges from 56% to 74% and for western monarchs the probability for extinction is greater than 95%. Threats to the species include loss of habitat, exposure to insecticides and the effects of climate change, the agency said on its monarch butterfly conservation page. 

The Endangered Species Act allows the federal government to designate imperiled species as threatened or endangered. Each designation comes with its own protections and resources for conservation. 

For more on the Trump administration’s changes to the Endangered Species Act, see our explainer. 

Background on conservation efforts

Conservation groups have fought to bring monarch butterflies and their habitats under Endangered Species Act protections since at least 2014, when three groups and a monarch scientist named Lincoln Brower filed a formal petition with the Fish and Wildlife Service. 

In December 2020, under the first Trump administration, Fish and Wildlife announced that protection for monarch butterflies was “warranted but precluded by work on higher-priority listing actions.” 

Fish and Wildlife’s news release on the decision said 161 species were listed as higher priorities for formal protections under the Endangered Species Act ahead of the monarch butterfly. 

“With this decision, the monarch becomes a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), and its status will be reviewed each year until it is no longer a candidate,” then news release said.

Under former President Joe Biden’s administration in December 2024, Fish and Wildlife proposed an official rule that would have designated the monarch butterfly as a protected species under the Endangered Species Act: 

We, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), propose to list the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), the iconic orange and black butterfly, as a threatened species and designate critical habitat under the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). We propose to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species with protective regulations.

Under the Endangered Species Act, Fish and Wildlife is supposed to publish its final decision within one year of publication of a proposed rule, which would put the rule into effect and thus, in this case, officially list the monarch butterfly as an endangered species worthy of protection. 

Trump took office January 2025. His administration did not meet that one-year deadline, which prompted the lawsuit from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Center for Food Safety. 

What the settlement says

The settlement does not prevent the Trump administration from making a decision before 2030. Here’s what it says on Page 2:

On or before June 6, 2030, the Service shall submit to the Office of the Federal Register for publication a final listing determination for the Monarch Butterfly, pursuant to the ESA, 16 U.S.C. § 1533(b)(6).

Curry, the Center for Biological Diversity spokesperson, said in an email that, in effect, the settlement meant the denial of current protections would end in 2030 with a final listing. The Center for Biological Diversity’s news release about the settlement called it a “bittersweet move for conservation groups.” 

In other words, it’s not as if the Trump administration withdrew the proposal to protect monarch butterflies — rather, the settlement means Fish and Wildlife has until 2030 to make a decision on whether to finalize protections for the species. 

There are also additional ways, per the settlement, that the deadline to make a decision could be extended. For example, if the government were to shut down due to a lapse in funding before 2030, the deadline would be extended for the number of days the shutdown occurred (see Page 2). 

In early October 2026, a rumor spread that a worker at a Russian lab that studies Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes the plague, had died of the pneumonic plague.

Some social media users said the lab worker’s death resulted from an accident at the lab. One X post reads, in part, “A lab worker in Russia has died from pneumonic plague.”

Meanwhile, several Snopes readers emailed us asking for details about the story. 

The claim stems from various news reports about a 28-year-old woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia. Around 200 people have reportedly been isolated as a precautionary measure. The articles cited Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian public agency responsible for “federal state sanitary and epidemiological supervision,” according to the Russian government.

In short, it has not been possible to independently verify the rumor without access to primary sources or confirmation from Russian authorities. Therefore, this claim is unrated. We will update this article if we learn more.

Russian authorities reportedly implement containment measures

Snopes could not reach the website of Rospotrebnadzor, therefore we could not confirm the details of the lab worker’s death. On Oct. 4, Russian news agency Interfax reported that the Russian government said she had died of a pneumonia pathogen of “unknown etiology,” meaning its origin is not clear. 

The same report adds that Rospotrebnadzor said no microorganisms associated with the individual’s professional work were detected in that person’s samples following “extensive testing.” If true, it would suggest the lab worker did not die of pneumonic plague.

Local authorities have reportedly implemented preventative measures. Interfax cites the Rospotrebnadzor health agency as saying:

Due to the patient’s professional activities, upon receiving information, a comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures was immediately and fully implemented in accordance with sanitary legislation. This included identifying the widest possible circle of people who had been in contact with the patient, inpatient medical observation, and daily laboratory testing. The results revealed two cases of Covid-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection. No other infectious agents were detected.

View from U.S. Department of State

“We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson said via email. “We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners.”

We contacted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety of the European Union Commission requesting updates on the situation. We will update this report if we receive responses.

There are three main types of plague: bubonic plague, which infects lymph nodes; septicemic plague, which infects the blood; and pneumonic plague, which infects the lungs. The bubonic and septicemic plagues are most commonly transmitted via flea bites and handling infected animals, while the pneumonic plague spreads through the air via infected droplets.

The pneumonic plague “has a nearly 100% case-fatality rate when untreated,” according to the CDC. The illness requires antibiotic treatment that should start as soon as the plague is suspected, even before test results, per the U.S. health agency.

“Plague is a known disease and is treatable with common antibiotics, especially when treatment starts early,” the State Department spokesperson said via email. “Cases occur naturally in many parts of the world.”

For further reading, Snopes covered the 2021 death of a child in Colorado who had a confirmed plague infection.
 

Sources

Claim:

A screenshot authentically shows a September 2026 Truth Social post in which U.S. President Donald Trump wrote, in part, “I have spoken to God and he has given me a vision of an ocean filled with blood a city of dust a golden throne for me to sit on, eternally!!!, Tonight is Armageddon, the final judgement of good and evil!!!!”

Rating:

A purported screenshot circulated online in fall 2026 of a purported Truth Social post, dated Sept. 22, in which U.S. President Donald Trump wrote that he had “spoken to God” and that “tonight is Armageddon.”.

The image spread on multiple platforms, including Instagram, Threads and Facebook. Many commenters appeared to believe Trump actually posted the remarks. The full text of the alleged post read as follows:

I have spoken to God and he has given me a vision of an ocean filled with blood a city of dust a golden throne for me to sit on, eternally!!!, Tonight is Armageddon, the final judgement of good and evil!!!! Lock your doors and do not directly at the flash!!!! God bless us all!!! 

President Donald J. Trump

(X user @ZiemowitSzcze11.)

Despite the username matching Trump’s real Truth Social username, there’s no evidence Trump actually published the post. The earliest version of the image we found appeared on a Polish X account that captioned it (translation via X): “Well, fake, but would you be surprised?” (archived).

We searched Trump’s Truth — an online archive of Trump’s Truth Social posts — for the word “Armageddon,” and none of the three results related to the quote above. 

(Trump’s Truth)

We also looked all posts Trump actually published on Sept. 22 and found he published four that day. None of the four posts matched the timestamp or content of that in the screenshot.

The fake quote appeared to echo whistleblower reports received by the Military Religious Freedom Foundation that U.S. military commanders told troops their action in Iran was “all part of God’s divine plan,” allegedly “referring to Armageddon and the imminent return of Jesus Christ.”

Trump has echoed similarly apocalyptic language, posting in May 2026, for example, that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — referring to U.S. attacks on Iran. He’s also faced criticism for his posting an image depicting him in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Sources

Claim:

U.S. President Donald Trump said he feels “badly” for seven current and former male Cornell University students whom a female former student has accused of sexual assault and rape because they “won’t get a fair shake.”

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Context

An Oct. 2 video shows Trump fielding reporters’ questions outside the White House. Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked, “What do you think about New York’s governor appointing a special prosecutor in the Cornell rape case, Letitia James?” (James, New York’s attorney general, previously led a civil fraud case against Trump.) Trump thrice called James corrupt, saying he feels “badly” for “whoever” James prosecutes and alleged that defendants she targets “won’t get a fair shake.”

A rumor circulated online in early October that U.S. President Donald Trump said he feels “badly” for the seven current or former male Cornell University students whom a female former student accused of rape. 

Trump purportedly made the remarks while answering a question about New York Attorney General Letitia James’ appointment as a special prosecutor to investigate the case.

Snopes readers asked about this claim via email, with one person inquiring, “I saw something that says Donald Trump said he feels bad for the ‘Cornell 7,’ but can’t find reputable sources. True??”

In sum, people correctly attributed this statement to Trump. A C-SPAN video shows Trump standing outside the White House on Oct. 2 and responding directly to a reporter’s question about the Cornell case, thrice calling James corrupt and saying he feels “badly” for “whoever” James prosecutes, alleging that defendants she targets “won’t get a fair shake.”

James previously sued Trump and his associates in a civil fraud case beginning in 2022, leading to Trump repeatedly targeting her on social media.

In an emailed response, White House spokesperson Lauren Bis referred us to Trump’s own comments, adding that the White House believes James has weaponized the justice system to unjustly target the president.

Digging into the rumor

The Cornell accuser, identified in court documents only as Jane Doe, claims the seven men sexually assaulted her at the Chi Phi fraternity house on Oct. 19 and 20, 2024. She filed a lawsuit against the seven men, the university, the fraternity and others, in mid-September.

On Sept. 28, Tompkins County, New York, prosecutors announced they were reopening the criminal investigation, citing a “discrepancy” between Doe’s original statement and the allegations in the lawsuit.

Prior to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul appointing James as a special prosecutor to investigate the case on Oct. 1, James posted a statement of compassion for Doe on her official social media accounts, writing, “What this young woman has been forced to endure is horrific and unacceptable. I’m holding her in my heart and in my prayers. To her, and to all survivors: you’re not alone. We stand with you.”

In an example of the claim from Oct. 2, a Facebook post (archived) displayed a meme reading, “This is disgusting: Trump just said he ‘feels badly’ for the people accused in the Cornell rape case because Letitia James is now overseeing the investigation. Not one word for the victim.”

(Really American via Facebook)

Other users shared the rumor about Trump’s remarks on Bluesky (archived), Facebook (archived) and X (archived). Some posts didn’t mention James but did include a video showing a reporter’s question about James and Trump’s answer. Examples of those posts appeared on Bluesky (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived).

The remarks occurred when Trump spoke to a group of reporters outside the White House. Videos show Fox News’ Peter Doocy asking Trump about Hochul appointing James as a special prosecutor:

DOOCY: What do you think about New York’s governor appointing a special prosecutor in the Cornell rape case, Letitia James?

TRUMP: Letitia James is a corrupt person. She’s totally corrupt and I can’t imagine it. And, I feel badly for whoever she’s looking at because they won’t get a fair shake. But Letitia James is a corrupt person.

C-SPAN posted remarks on social media. (Readers can also watch the full press gaggle on YouTube, with the pertinent moment beginning at 6:24.)

Trump has made other remarks about the Cornell case. During a similar gathering of reporters on Oct. 1, a video shows an unidentified reporter asking Trump, “Mr. President, do you think that Cornell University has done enough to investigate the alleged rape on campus?” Trump answered, “Well, I don’t know that much about it but Cornell is a fine school, and I’m sure they’ll do what’s right.” (Readers can watch that full gaggle on YouTube, with the Cornell question occurring at 11:43.)

Trump has also posted about the case on Truth Social (archived), labeling it “the highly controversial Cornell University rape case” and questioning why Hochul would appoint James.

For further reading, we previously reported Trump authentically expressed well wishes to Ghislaine Maxwell, the close associate of deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prior to her conviction on federal sex-trafficking charges.

Sources

Photo shows Israeli officials wearing noose pins to support death penalty for some Palestinian prisoners

March 31, 2026

On March 30, 2026, the Israeli parliament passed a law making the death penalty the default sent …

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Claim:

A school district recently fired a California teacher for forcing her students to recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance while facing an LGBTQ+ pride flag, as social media posts claimed in late 2026.

Rating:

What’s True

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, California, announced it placed a teacher — whom it did not identify — on administrative leave for posting a video of herself saying the U.S. flag made her “uncomfortable” and suggesting to one student, possibly jokingly, that he recite the Pledge of Allegiance to a pride flag displayed on her classroom wall. However …

What’s False

The video was recorded in 2021, a fact some people omitted from their “breaking” social media posts in 2026. No evidence showed the teacher, who taught English at Back Bay High School, “forced” any students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag, as was falsely claimed in memes and posts using fake, AI-generated images.

What’s Undetermined

A district spokesperson said at the time, “The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.” The statement didn’t identify the teacher by name, nor did it specify whether she departed the school because she resigned or because she was fired. People who claimed she was fired didn’t offer evidence to support it.

A rumor that a California school district fired a teacher for forcing students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance while facing an LGBTQ+ pride flag circulated online in September 2026.

For example, on Sept. 29, a Facebook user posted a meme (archived) showing three images of a woman smiling, laughing and wearing a rainbow-striped shirt and jacket. Pride flags also appeared on the wall in the background. The meme read, “A California teacher has been fired after forcing students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag. Do you believe she deserved to be fired?”

(David J Harris Jr. via Facebook)

The same user previously shared (archived) the same rumor in late August 2026 with a different image and marked it “BREAKING.” Other people shared the same meme, or a similar one, on Instagram (archived), X (archived) and other platforms.

We found these posts contained a mixture of truth, falsehood, speculation and artificial intelligence.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District in Costa Mesa, California, did once announce (archived) it had placed a teacher — whom it did not identify — on administrative leave for posting a video in which she could be heard saying the U.S. flag made her “uncomfortable” and suggesting to one student, possibly jokingly, that he recite the Pledge of Allegiance to a pride flag displayed on the classroom wall.

However, this all took place in 2021, a fact some people omitted from their “breaking” social media posts in 2026. No evidence supported the claim that the teacher, who was reportedly named Kristen Pitzen and worked as an English teacher at Back Bay High School, “forced” any students to pledge allegiance to the pride flag. Images used in the above meme and other posts that supposedly depicted the educator were in fact AI-generated and inauthentic.

At the time of the incident, a district spokesperson said, in part, “The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.” The statement didn’t identify Pitzen by name, nor did it specify whether she departed the school after submitting a resignation or whether she was fired. People who posted the claim she was fired didn’t share evidence that the district had terminated her employment.

Via Messenger, Snopes contacted an account possibly belonging to Pitzen to ask questions. We will update this article if we receive further information.

Here are the facts

On Aug. 27, 2021, an educator — reportedly Pitzen, who was listed at the time as an English teacher for Back Bay High School in Costa Mesa — allegedly shared a video on her personal TikTok account in which she said she had packed her classroom’s U.S. flag away and appeared to indicate she didn’t intend to display it again.

In the clip, she laughed when recalling a story in which a student said her class was reciting the Pledge of Allegiance without a flag, then pointed the camera at a pride flag on her wall. She said she told him, “We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.” She laughed at several moments during the video, suggesting she may have been at least partly joking. No students or other staff were visible in the clip.

People then reposted the video and named Pitzen as its originator, with some X users organizing and calling for her firing that same day. Some users claimed her (now-defunct) TikTok handle on the account on which she shared the video and other clips was @mrsgillingsworth. We could not independently verify whether she truly owned the handle or if the videos originated from a different account.

In the video, she says the following:

Ok, so during third period, we have announcements and they do the Pledge of Allegiance. I always tell my class, “Stand if you feel like it. Don’t stand if you feel like it. Say the words if you want. [You] don’t have to say the words.” So, my class decided to stand but not say the words. Totally fine.

Except for the fact [laughing] that my room does not have a flag. It used to be there but I took it down during COVID because [whispering] it made me uncomfortable. And I packed it away and I don’t know where and I haven’t found it yet. [laughing] But my kid today goes, “Hey, it’s kind of weird that we just stand and then, you know, we say it to nothing.” And I’m like, “Oh, well, you know I’ve gotta find it. Like I’m working on it. I got you.” [laughing, shaking head]

In the meantime, I tell this kid, “We do have a flag in the class that you can pledge your allegiance to.” And he like looks around and he goes, “Oh, that one?” [laughing, pointing to pride flag]

Following a wave of social media backlash, someone posted on the district’s Facebook page the next day — a Saturday — posting (archived) that a teacher had been placed on administrative leave after causing “alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag.” The post did not identify Pitzen by name.

(Newport-Mesa Unified School District – NMUSD via Facebook)

On the following Monday, Aug. 30, the district reportedly published a statement saying the teacher (still not identified) was “no longer in the classroom.” The statement appeared in news articles, including in the Los Angeles Times:

We are aware that one of our teachers posted a video on her personal social media that caused alarm and concern related to saluting the American flag. We assure you that we take matters like this seriously. Showing respect for our nation’s flag is an important value that we instill in our students and an expectation of our employees. The teacher is no longer in the classroom. We follow due process and our investigation continues.

Via email, district spokesperson Annette Franco confirmed the authenticity of the statement. We also asked whether the district fired the teacher mentioned in their statement — or whether the educator resigned. Without naming the teacher, Franco told us, “I can confirm that she is no longer with the District.” We also requested comment from current Back Bay High School principal Scott Mazurier, who started at the school in 2024 and was not present during the incident. We will update this article if we receive more details.

The school district’s policies include information about “patriotic exercises,” including “the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance.” One part of the policy documentation says, “Individuals may choose not to participate in the flag salute for personal reasons.”

For further reading, we previously reported about a video allegedly showing a kindergarten teacher saying she had been fired for helping students discover their gender identity.

Sources

In October 2026, a rumor spread that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had announced the creation of an Office of Religious Affairs at the Pentagon.

The claim spread on social media, including X. One X post included a video of Hegseth speaking on a stage with a U.S. flag background (archived):

“Today, at my direction, I am establishing the Office of Religious Affairs,” Hegseth says in the video. “Starting today, and for secretaries of war after me, the Office of Religious Affairs will report straight to the top. No staff filters. No bureaucratic dilution. A direct line to the secretary.”

Meanwhile, several Snopes readers searched the website seeking more information about the supposed Office of Religious Affairs.

It is true that on Sept. 30, 2026, Hegseth gave a speech he called the “State of the Force” address. In this speech, he said he had ordered the creation of an office dedicated to religious affairs, which Department of Defense spokesperson Sean Parnell confirmed in an X post (archived):

We reached out to the DOD seeking more details about the initiative and will update this story if we learn more.

Here’s what we know about the new DOD office so far:

Office of Religious Affairs

In his speech, Hegseth said the initiative would address what he described as long-neglected spiritual needs among the troops (starting around the 50:25 mark of the DOD’s recording of the speech):

After describing how significant the loss of a religious community could be for military personnel assigned to a new location or deployed abroad, Hegseth said that “political correctness and secular humanism” had allowed budgets for religious support to dwindle and infrastructure such as “base chapels” to go into disarray.

Religious diversity in the force

Hegseth said that “less than 5% of our force identifies as non-religious,” without citing his source for the number. A 2019 congressional report found that while 2.3% of the force identified as agnostic or atheist, the affiliation of 24.4% of active duty personnel fell under “Other/Unclassified/Unknown” (PDF Page 51). 

Meanwhile, the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, an organization that advocates for nonreligious military members but is not associated with the DOD, said 2.05% of the force identified as “Humanists” in 2018 (Humanism is a non-theistic belief; Humanists believe in a moral and ethical code without believing in God). That report also said the chaplaincy did not represent the religious diversity of the military, with an overrepresentation of evangelistic Christians, when only 13.31% of the troops identified as such.

We reached out to the MAAF for comment on the creation of the office. A spokesperson told us the group was in the process of dissolving and directed us to the American Humanist Association, a nonprofit that advocates for secular humanism. We will update this story if the AHA returns our request for a statement on the possible impact of the creation of the office on nonreligious service members.

In May 2026, the DOD released a list of recognized religions in a memorandum signed by Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata. The memo included 31 religions, down from 211, according to Military.com, the news outlet dedicated to reporting on the U.S. Military. Twenty-two of those 31 were Christian denominations.

Hegseth then announced the creation of the Office of Religious Affairs, designed to report directly to him in the Pentagon organizational chart. In his announcement, he said (around 52:32 of the video embedded above):

This won’t be a paper pushing shop. It will have real teeth. It will protect budgets, demand infrastructure, and strengthen religious support. The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels. Policy and resources will serve the mission, not smother the mission. 

‘Spiritual readiness’ and ‘spiritual resilience’

A memo issued on the same day confirmed the creation of the office. It read, in part:

The Department of War is committed to fulfilling its duty to support the Department’s Service members, their families, and the Department’s civilian personnel in the free exercise of religion as protected by the Constitution of the United States and applicable Federal law. While the Department accomplishes this mission primarily through the chaplaincies of the Military Departments established under title 10, U.S. Code, the establishment of the ORA will ensure resources are adequately provided and, where necessary, policy is properly aligned to prioritize the free exercise of religion and the spiritual readiness across the Total Force.

Still, Hegseth’s memo said, this effort to support the spirituality of military personnel should not “be construed to compel religious participation or to diminish the free exercise rights of any Service member, civilian employee, or family member of any faith or no faith.” 

The memo also said the new office had 90 days to present a plan of action to rebuild the spiritual force of the military:

Within 90 days of the date of this memorandum, the Secretaries of the Military Departments, in coordination with their respective Chiefs of Chaplains, will submit to the Director a comprehensive baseline report of all unfunded and underfunded religious affairs requirements, including, but not limited to, delivery ofreligious ministry, facilities and infrastructure, logistics, chaplain-led programs, chapel youth programs, faith-based homeschool support for military families, programs related to suicide reduction, and contracted services from faith-based non-Federal entities; research, technology, and analytical tools to support spiritual fitness, spiritual readiness, and spiritual resilience; chaplain in-service procurement programs, chaplain and religious support team training and education. 

For further reading, Snopes examined another announcement Hegseth made that day, the launch of “Project Meridian,” set to study the “future of warfare.”

In early October 2026, after the Tennessee Department of Correction failed to execute death row inmate Christa Pike on Sept. 30, 2026, a claim circulated online that Pike’s execution team had been all female. 

Pike was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death in 1996 for the killing of her Jobs Corp training program classmate, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer. She also was convicted of attempted first-degree murder in 2001 after attacking another inmate.

The department halted Pike’s execution in the evening of Sept. 30 after she appeared to survive receiving two doses of the sedative pentobarbital. Pike was taken to a hospital and her lawyers said on Oct. 1 that she was in critical condition, The Associated Press reported.

Some social media users appeared to suggest that there was a connection between the failed execution and the alleged all-female lethal injection team. One X user wrote (archived), “I’m just going to say it, I think that the all-female execution team botched this on purpose.”

I’m just going to say it, I think that the all-female execution team botched this on purpose.

— Cassandra MacDonald (@CassandraRules) October 1, 2026

The claim also circulated elsewhere on X (archived). Snopes readers searched our site for more information about the rumor.

At the time of this writing, conflicting claims circulated about whether an all-female team had carried out Pike’s botched execution.

Speaking at a news conference after the execution attempt, Pike’s lawyer Randy Spivey appeared to confirm that her execution team had all been women by saying that the team he saw at the execution was “consistent” with a reported request Pike made for an all-female team.

However, local media in Tennessee reported that Dr. Mark Fowler, a man who also was involved in the botched execution of Tony Carruthers in Tennessee in May 2026, administered the lethal injections or “oversaw” Pike’s attempted execution.

When reached by Snopes via phone on Oct. 2, Fowler would not comment on whether he was involved in Pike’s attempted execution. The Tennessee Department of Correction also declined to comment on whether Pike had an all-female execution team.

Given the lack of confirmation from official sources to settle conflicting claims, we leave this claim unrated.

The Tennessee Department of Correction had not confirmed at the time of this writing exactly what led to the failure to execute Pike. Therefore, it was impossible to say whether an all-female team affected the outcome of the execution.

Snopes contacted reporters for WSMV and WVLT, the two local news stations that reported Fowler’s apparent involvement in Pike’s attempted execution, to ask how they knew Fowler was present. We also contacted lawyers for Pike for the latest update on her health and case. We await replies to our queries.

The New York Post reported in September 2026 that Pike had requested an all-female execution team “citing past sexual abuse.” Pike reportedly also said that if her request was not possible she would prefer to be executed by hanging.

Snopes contacted lawyers for Pike to access a copy of this reported request and await a reply. Spivey appeared to acknowledge the existence of the request when he responded to a question about it during a news conference (archived) after the failed execution (at 33:41):

MODERATOR: We have a question from Heather Derell. Was she granted the all-female execution staff she requested?

SPIVEY: I want to be careful with that because I understand the rules around identifying that, and I will say that I think what TDOC has said is that they would make every effort to comply with that, and what I saw was consistent with that.

At a news conference on Oct. 1, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said (at 0:54, archived) he had called for a “thorough and comprehensive and third-party review and investigation into the protocol” at the execution attempt. Lee also said that the state’s last planned execution of the year would not take place while that investigation was ongoing.

Pike appealed to Lee for clemency and to have her death sentence converted to life in prison without the possibility of parole on Sept. 14. Lee rejected that appeal on Sept. 28.

Sources

In September 2026, a lawsuit brought against Cornell University and seven of its male students alleged the men drugged and raped a 20-year-old female student in October 2024. The story spread online along with claims that the accused students faced little or no consequences, though some allegedly lost their jobs or were expelled.

As Snopes previously reported, the lawsuit named seven male students as defendants: Matthew Ingalls, Johnathan Newell, Winston Lee, Gillio Lopes, Diego Sarabia, Scott Norris and Scott Kretzschmar. According to the lawsuit — filed on behalf of the plaintiff, identified only as Jane Doe, on Sept. 14 — the drugging and multiple assaults occurred the night of Oct. 19, 2024, into the early hours of Oct. 20 at the Xi chapter of the Chi Phi fraternity. 

According to Doe’s lawsuit, Cornell temporarily suspended the accused students on Nov. 8, 2024, (Page 29) but they were given the opportunity to mitigate their conduct by writing an essay to the university. Cornell has denied that the students only had to write essays as a disciplinary measure. 

Posts on X, Facebook and Instagram claimed two of the accused students, Sarabia and Ingalls, lost their jobs at Wells Fargo and Data Annotation Tech, respectively. Jane Doe’s attorney also reportedly claimed two of the students were expelled from the university, without naming them. 

Snopes emailed a spokesperson for Cornell University to determine the enrollment status of each of the accused students. The university declined to respond to specific questions about the accused, directing us to its official statement. The statement says that students were expelled and/or suspended but would not identify which students:

Temporary suspensions and other restrictive measures were issued when the conduct was reported. Chi Phi, Xi Chapter was closed in 2024 and remains barred from campus. Following the university’s Title IX investigation, sanctions including expulsions and suspensions were issued by a hearing panel comprising trained faculty and staff. Federal privacy law prohibits Cornell from disclosing specific information regarding individual students, and the university is therefore unable to make a public statement regarding any other disciplinary response. 

Below we break down everything we know about the education and employment status of each of the seven accused students. We will update this story as we learn more.

Diego Sarabia

Student newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun and Cornell’s online directory say Sarabia is an alumnus from the class of 2025. 

Gossip outlet TMZ reported, citing anonymous sources, that Sarabia is no longer employed at a Wells Fargo bank branch in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was not possible to independently verify this ourselves. According to the report, Sarabia had worked at the branch since 2022. Wells Fargo has not publicly commented on the story as of this writing. 

Snopes has contacted several Wells Fargo representatives to learn more about Sarabia’s role, employment status and the circumstances around his alleged termination. The company has not responded to our queries. 

Snopes has also reached out to Sarabia through an email address in the student directory.

Matthew Ingalls

On Sept. 30, Data Annotation Tech responded to the claim that it had employed one of the accused. The company, which hires independent contractors to train artificial intelligence models, said on Instagram (archived) that one of the accused was blocked from its platform in May 2024, long before the lawsuit. 

According to its Instagram post, which does not name Ingalls, the claim that the company employed one of the accused is “incorrect.” It continues, “He has had no access to our platform or our company at any point since then.”

We contacted Data Annotation Tech to learn more about whether Ingalls, specifically, had ever been a contractor or employee there. 

The Daily Sun reported that Ingalls was a member of the class of 2027. Cornell’s online database initially listed Ingalls as a student but his college affiliation as “not applicable.” When Snopes returned to the directory on Oct. 2, his name had been removed.

Snopes has reached out to Ingalls through an email address in the student directory. 

Gillio Lopes

The Daily Sun reported that Lopes was a member of the class of 2027 and was still listed in the directory as a student in the College of Arts and Sciences. Snopes was unable to confirm the directory listing.

Footage shared online purported to show a woman confronting Lopes on Cornell’s campus in late September 2026. Lopes’ lawyer confirmed the veracity of the footage to TMZ, saying:

What has emerged today only reinforces how dangerous it is to rush to judgment. The contemporaneous texts and other evidence now being reported show a far more complicated and evolving factual picture than the one initially presented to the public.

[…]

Due process exists for precisely this reason. Publicity is not evidence. Repetition is not proof. An accusation cannot be allowed to become its own proof. He is entitled to have the evidence tested through the legal process—not by headlines, social media, or people confronting him in public or threatening his family.

Snopes has reached out to Lopes’ lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, to learn more. 

Winston Lee

The Daily Sun reported that Lee was a member of the class of 2027 and was still listed in the directory as a student in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Some social media users claimed (archived) Lee was still on campus and had changed his name to Jay Lee. As of this writing, Snopes was unable to independently verify this claim.

Snopes was unable to determine Lee’s status via the student directory or to find contact information for him. 

Scott Kretzschmar

The Daily Sun reported that Kretzschmar is an alumnus from the class of 2026. When Snopes first looked at the student directory, it listed him as a student, but his college affiliation was “not applicable.” When Snopes returned to the directory on Oct. 2, his name had been removed.

Snopes has reached out to Kretzschmar through an email address in the student directory. 

Johnathan Newell

The Daily Sun reported that Newell was a member of the class of 2027. When Snopes first looked at the student directory, it listed a “Jonathan Newell” (with a different spelling) as a student, but his college affiliation was “not applicable.” When Snopes went back to the directory on Oct. 2, there was no record of a Johnathan or Jonathan Newell.

Snopes has reached out to Newell through an email address in the student directory. 

Scott Norris 

The Daily Sun reported that Norris is an alumnus from the class of 2026. Cornell’s online database initially listed him as a student but his college affiliation as “not applicable.”  When Snopes returned to the directory on Oct. 2, his name had been removed. 

Snopes has reached out to Norris through an email address in the student directory. 

For further reading, Snopes has reported on what we know about several claims surrounding the “Cornell 7” lawsuit, including a rumor that the Ivy League had dropped Cornell. 

Claim:

Water levels at Yellowstone Lake in Wyoming dropped 11 feet between Sept. 26 and 27, 2026.

Rating:

In September 2026, a rumor (archived) circulated online that water levels in Wyoming’s Yellowstone Lake dropped 11 feet between Sept. 26 and 27.

For example, a Facebook user wrote on Sept. 29:

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK –  Scientists are investigating after portions of Yellowstone Lake reportedly dropped nearly 11 feet overnight when an unknown underground channel opened beneath the lake bed. 

Rangers first noticed the change Sunday morning after several docks were found sitting completely above the waterline. Geologists believe shifting rock beneath the lake may have opened a previously sealed underground passage, allowing millions of gallons of water to drain into Yellowstone’s extensive subterranean geological system.

 

The rumor also spread on X and Threads (archived, archived).

The rumor originated from the Facebook page Casper Planet, which described its content as satire. The page’s About section read, “Snews that doesn’t matter directly to your Snews feed. Did we say this is satire? Well it is, names/locations are made up.”

In addition to Casper Planet’s own declaration of the satirical nature of its content, we found no reporting from reputable sources on Google, Yahoo or DuckDuckGo (archived, archived, archived) that supported the Facebook page’s claim about Yellowstone or cited the “geologist Dr. Aaron Keller” who featured in Casper Planet’s post.

The image that Casper Planet used to illustrate the satirical story was fake. The highly regarded Pangram artificial intelligence detection tool found the image to be “fully AI.” Open AI’s Verify scanner found that someone had generated the image using Open AI’s tools.

Though Casper Planet did note on its page that its content was satire, it did not say so on the actual post. Shares of Casper Planet’s posts on X and Threads contained no indications (aside from the nature of the content) that the story was satire.

The United States Geological Survey’s water level readings from the Yellowstone River at its inlet into Lake Yellowstone did not show an 11-foot drop in water levels between Sept. 26 and 27. The USGS found that water levels between 9 a.m. on Sept. 26 and 9 a.m. on Sept. 27 varied by inches, not feet.

Snopes has previously investigated other satire claims shared by Casper Planet, including whether an ancient city appeared under Wyoming’s Horse Peak Mountain or whether Wyoming wolves mauled a Colorado man who tried to join their pack.

Since the effectiveness of satire is subjective, we use “originated as satire” or “labeled satire” ratings based on creators’ description of their work. It’s your call on whether you agree.