Did Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas claim "aborted fetus cells" are in COVID vaccines in writing a decision by the Court to not take up a legal challenge by New York health care workers who opposed the state's vaccine mandate on religious grounds? No, that's not true: Thomas was quoting the petitioners' argument in the case. COVID vaccines are developed…

Does the Rothschild family have an amassed wealth of $2 trillion? Do the pope and Vatican City have a net worth of $20 trillion? No, a post making those claims does not substantiate the numbers. Both of these groups are extremely wealthy, but those numbers are not accurate based on public information. The Rothschilds' investment banking company had a net…

Were Mafia assassins dispatched to Rome during the Christmas holiday season to avenge the murder of Pope Francis? No, that's not true: The pope was alive on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Additionally, the claim primarily relies on several conspiracy theories to "prove" its case. The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by BenjaminFulford.net on December 27, 2021,…

Did authorities send out an arrest warrant for Pope Francis on November 1, 2021? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that an arrest warrant for Pope Francis has been issued, that he is going to court for crimes against humanity or that he could be imprisoned any time soon. This is a completely fictional claim. The claim appeared…

Did President Joe Biden tell Pope Francis that the latter was a "famous African-American baseball player?" Yes, he did. Biden was setting up a metaphor about age. After the comment, Biden proceeded to tell the pope about Leroy "Satchel" Paige, a Negro leagues and major league pitcher who played professionally well into middle age. Biden used a quote from Paige…

Have 229 Christian missionaries been sentenced to death "tomorrow afternoon" by "Afghan Islamists"? No, that's not true: Variations of this specific prayer request have been circulating since at least 2009 with some changes and various details added. The Taliban rapidly took over Afghanistan in the summer of 2021 and many people in that country faced dangerous situations, but there is…

Did Pope Francis die in mid-April 2021 and did a leading American conspiracy theorist break the "news"? No, that's not true: The pope made several public appearances that offer proof of life and Lin Wood's off-the-cuff comment was a question, not a declaration. The claim that Wood had revealed the pope's death circulated on numerous QAnon-linked websites and social media…

Was Pope Francis arrested in Vatican City after a supposed blackout and was he indicted for child trafficking and fraud? No, that's not true: there is no evidence for any of this and the claim went viral through a website run by an anonymous person using a fake identity that has published several other arrest hoaxes in the past. The…

Abbie Richards, a climate science student in the Netherlands, was looking with bewilderment at the state of her home country of the United States. So many conspiracy theories echoing, particularly ahead of the election. Struggling to wrangle all of them for a paper, she made a chart naming some 100 conspiracies dominating the social media world to, she hoped, make…

Do flight logs show that former President Bill Clinton visited Jeffrey Epstein's "pedo-island" but the media ignored it? No, that's not true: There are no flight logs that document Bill Clinton -- the only former U.S. president named in the logs -- as landing at Jeffrey Epstein's Caribbean island. Yes, an Epstein victim did tell this to Lead Stories editor-in-chief…