Soros

Did a "deep state" conspiracy lead to Romania's arrest of former kickboxing champion and online celebrity Andrew Tate on December 29, 2022? No, that's not true: Romanian authorities have told Lead Stories that Tate was arrested following an investigation that began in April 2022. No credible evidence exists to support the claim of a "deep state" conspiracy, which was published…

The year is almost over, so it is good to look back. First, the numbers, as of December 15, 2022. This year we have published 1,555 fact checks in English (so far ...) 283 fact checks about COVID misinformation; 244 debunks of Russian propaganda and false claims about the invasion of Ukraine; 140 debunks of false claims about election fraud,…

Did billionaire philanthropist George Soros fund the purchase of voting machines in order to rig the 2022 midterm elections? No, that's not true: Elections are funded by taxpayer dollars and Soros has no connections to voting machine or voting software companies. The claim appeared in a November 6, 2022, Instagram post that uses a long string of hashtags for a…

Did Bill Gates die in July 2013? Was he executed by Africans and Indians who had adverse reactions to incorrect shots they were given by Gates? No, neither of those claims are true: Gates is not a medical practitioner and would not be allowed to administer shots, though he does finance vaccine development. And there is no evidence that Bill…

Was "Chief Justice John Robert" arrested as of August 23, 2022? No, that's not true: The caption in this post is clickbait. There is no publicly available evidence to substantiate the claim, the accompanying video does not mention such an arrest and multiple errors suggest a credible news source did not create this post. The claim originated in a Facebook…

Was George Soros banned from Hungary, his birth country? No, that's not true: According to a communications director at the Open Society Foundations, where George Soros is the founder and the chair, as of this writing he has not been banned from Hungary. The claim appeared in a Facebook post with a video on August 3, 2022, under the title…

Did President Joe Biden, George Soros and former President Barack Obama talk about fulfilling the conspiracy theory of tyrannically taking over the world, otherwise known as the New World Order? No, that's not true: The quotes are legitimate, but they are used out of context. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on April 27, 2022. However, its origin seems…

Does a Stew Peters Show video prove mainstream media and the U.S. government lie about the war in Ukraine? No, that's not true: The video by the radio and TV host repeats debunked claims and misattributes information, often embracing Kremlin talking points. The claims appeared in a Facebook post on April 7, 2022, under the translated-from-Russian title "LIE Mode:" It…

Did a Pentagon official say that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is the cousin of George Soros? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of a Pentagon official saying this or of a familial relationship between Zelenskyy and billionaire philanthropist Soros. This claim was seeded to the public by an account from India, @OsintUpdates, that has a history of planting…

Did Russia issue an international arrest warrant for billionaires Jacob Rothschild and George Soros? No, that's not true: Variations of this hoax have circulated for years. While Russia banned two charities run by Soros in 2015, the Kremlin said an international arrest warrant was never sought for him. Lead Stories found no evidence of an arrest warrant ever being issued…