Current Events

Were the entire officiating crews from the Georgia-Alabama, Mississippi State-Tennessee, Washington-Ohio State, Buffalo-New Orleans, Tampa Bay-Toronto, or Green Bay-Cleveland games suspended for bad calls? No, that's not true: No such suspension announcements have been made as of September 28, 2025. Facebook pages making those claims and websites those posts link to are managed from Vietnam as part of a click-bait…

Did the Nobel Peace Prize Committee permanently disqualify Donald Trump from ever receiving the prize and was this news announced via a press release? No, that's not true: A fake press release using the the logo of Associated Press and mentioning a defunct website named swisstimes.org originated on the X account of a parody website. There were no media announcements…

Did Antifa firebomb rapper Ice Cube's tour bus after they mistook it for an ICE vehicle on a Portland street? No, that's not true: As of September 27, 2025, investigators had not revealed any suspects or motive for the tire fire that damaged the front of the bus early Tuesday, September 23, 2025. There have been no news reports supporting…

Did singer Bob Dylan just "ignite a firestorm" with a single sentence about Charlie Kirk and was that sentence "If you want people to speak kindly after you're gone, speak kindly while you're alive"? No, that's not true: Dylan is just the latest victim in a series of Facebook posts falsely attributing the same quote to various celebrities. According to…

Did a group of men attack a children's baseball field in Katy, Texas - shooting a coach who was leading a prayer? No, that's not true: A coach was hit by a stray bullet and taken by helicopter to the hospital - but the shooting does not appear to have been intentional or planned. Police said the three men arrested…

Did Nicole Sirotek get a 4 a.m. call from the husband of a pregnant woman dying of liver failure after she took a large dose of Tylenol to disprove President Donald Trump's declaration that acetaminophen causes autism? Here's what we know: Sirotek, who Lead Stories has previously fact-checked for COVID misinformation, posted the anecdote on social media September 24, 2025,…

Did the FBI have 274 plainclothes agents undercover and embedded in January 6 crowds at the US Capitol? No, that's not true: Many of 274 FBI agents documented in a report were part of the law enforcement response after the crowd stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021. The agents were not undercover nor were they embedded in the crowd.…

After Charlie Kirk was killed, Did Elon Musk announce that he would be ending every partnership tied to LGBTQ+ brands? No, that's not true: This made-up story used names and themes trending in September 2025 to drive clicks to a website. There is no evidence supporting this fake narrative about Musk; no legitimate reporting, no quoted statements, and no tweets…

Is there evidence that Erika Kirk was a recruiter for Jeffrey Epstein or that she had her husband, Charlie Kirk, killed to shut him up about it? No, that's not true: The claim appears to be based on another false claim that Erika Kirk operated a charity in Romania that was used for trafficking orphaned children internationally. Lead Stories previously…

Did Meta, the owner of the Threads social media platform, announce it had begun labeling some accounts with a warning that "This user is suspected of being part of a terrorist organization called Antifa. Please report any suspicious behavior."? No, that's not true: Users add the italicized phrase themselves at the bottom of their own posts. Neither Meta nor Threads…

Did Gavin Newsom's official press office X.com account post a message about Donald Trump saying "Fat Satan broke the UN escalator?" No, that's not true: The message was posted by a parody account, not California Governor Newsom's official press account on X.com, which he uses to troll Trump and conservatives. His official account called Trump "Dozy Don" after his escalator…

Did rapper Eminem release a new track attacking President Donald Trump titled "Fuck Donald Trump' in September 2025? No, that's not true: The song was already several months old when a one-minute audio clip was posted on social media along with the claim that it was "just dropped" by Eminem. It was not Eminem who made it -- or dropped…

Did Charlie Kirk's widow, Erika, go on social media to announce that she and her husband's organization, Turning Point USA, started a new dating app and that she joined it even before the memorial service for her husband? No, none of that is true: The image used to prove the existence of such a post originated from a subreddit, not…

Is Lindsey Halligan, the lawyer chosen by President Trump to be the U.S. attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, the same woman made infamous by a viral video of her answer to a question in a 2007 beauty pageant? No, that's not true: Lauren Caitlin Upton is the woman who, as Miss South Carolina Teen USA, gave a rambling…

Does a post on Facebook provide leaked footage of Charlie Kirk in the hospital after he was shot that shows him alive and interacting with people? No, that's not true: The post that made the claim does not deliver any footage. The image purporting to be a screenshot of a news story shows "ROX News" not FOX News and gets…

At the Charlie Kirk memorial, did Elon Musk say the conservative organizer and podcaster "...did not live to be erased by the lost...we will not let that sacrifice go unnoticed"? No, that's not true: Musk was not one of the speakers at the September 21, 2025, memorial service held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. He does not appear…

Does a video showing a flight attendant trying to cover up a bikini-clad woman on a Miami flight depict a real situation? No, that's not true: The clip shows actors. The earliest posts sharing the video mentioned Network Media, LLC, a company that previously said it rents out film sets to various online "content producers". The claim appeared in a…

Did Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. Director of National Intelligence, officially designate California Sen. Adam Schiff and former CIA Director John Brennan "domestic enemies"? No, that's not true: An authentic video posted by Gabbard in Jan. 2021 resurfaced on social media in Sept. 2025 with a misleading description that makes it seem like a 2025 video. Gabbard became the Director of…

Did Tylenol tweet a warning that they "actually don't recommend using any of our products while pregnant?" Yes, that's true: The drug maker posted the message on its official Twitter account in 2017 in reply to another post that has since been deleted. The company's reply was still on the Tylenol timeline on September 24, 2025. The claim appeared in…

Did a "MAGA televangelist" disappear with all the money of his congregants after he told them the rapture would happen today? No, that's not true: That story originated as a viral post from a satirical account on X. The bio of the account said "I don't report the facts, I improve them." and it came with a satire disclaimer. The…