Politics

Did the U.S. government file a patent to use an enzyme called luciferase to track the vaccination status of individuals? No, that's not true: While the patent is authentic it was filed on September 16, 2019, predating the COVID-19 pandemic, and was accepted in November 2020. Separately, the claim is not supported with credible public documentation that the U.S. government…

Did Shannon Corless, assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis for the Department of the Treasury, voluntarily surrender to "Judge Advocate General's Corps (JAG) investigators" for committing a crime? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that this claim is false. Real Raw News, the website from which this claim originated, is known for publishing fabricated content.…

Are Pope Francis, the late Queen Elizabeth II and U.S. President Joe Biden members of the same family? No, that's not true: There is no evidence supporting this online rumor, which recycles a 24-year-old conspiracy theory. The claim appeared in a post on Instagram on October 14, 2022. The caption says: I KNOW SOME WEIRD SHIT WHEN I SEE SOME…

Does a Boston University (BU) study of a COVID-19 strain with an "80% lethality" have implications for humans? No, that's not true: The kill rate refers to mice used in the lab tests, and BU's manipulated virus was less lethal than existing wild viruses, which showed a kill rate of 100 percent. The experiment conducted at BU manipulated the SARS-CoV-2…

Are Australian farmers being forced to inject livestock with mRNA vaccines that are killing cows? No, that's not true: Some biotechnology firms and governments have announced plans to research and eventually roll out less expensive and more efficient mRNA vaccines made for livestock, but no such "mandate" has been announced, and thus no mass die-off of vaccine-receiving animals has been…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) mandate that students get COVID-19 shots? No, that's not true: While an independent CDC advisory committee did vote on October 20, 2022, to add the COVID vaccine to its list of recommended childhood shots, each state sets its own vaccine requirements. The CDC already recommends COVID shots to everyone 6 months…

Was the state of Texas, not Saudi Arabia, the largest oil producer in the world on October 7, 2018? No, that's not true: In 2018, Texas produced, on average, roughly 4.42 million barrels of oil a day, while Saudi Arabia produced nearly 10.6 million barrels a day on average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration's website. An energy expert…

Did the U.S. military hang U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink for committing treason? No, that's not true: The story is entirely fabricated and Brink remains an ambassador in good standing. The claim originated on the website Real Raw News on October 17, 2022 under the title "Military Hangs to Death US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink" (archived here). It…

Does a video of first lady Jill Biden singing at a Philadelphia Eagles football game include genuine audio of crowds loudly booing her? No, that's not true: While Lead Stories could not verify whether Biden was booed during the game on October 16, 2022, we can verify that the audio used in this video is not authentic. The original video…

Did Kaiser Permanente, a major American non-profit healthcare provider, admit that the risk of COVID-19 infection "increases with each [vaccine] shot"? No, that's not true. Lead Stories spoke with the lead author of the study, an assessment of the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine, that this claim targeted. He said that online commentators cherry-picked the study's findings and twisted the results to…

Does a video show President Joe Biden singing the popular children's song "Baby Shark" during a news conference? No, that's not true: The video is a deepfake created for entertainment purposes and apparently first posted by a social media creator whose bio explains they regularly post video content that has been artificially created. The claim appeared in an October 17,…

Does this video show an incident that recently happened in Russia, where a conscript was knocked down and run over by an armored personnel carrier? No, that's not true: This accident happened eight years ago, on June 12, 2014. During the swearing-in ceremony of Russia's 83rd airborne brigade, an armored personnel carrier knocked down and ran over one of the…

Is it possible to cheat the mail-in ballot elections system in Live Oak County, Texas, and vote on behalf of a deceased person? It's possible, but it would be extremely difficult. Many safeguards are in place to prevent that from happening. In a phone interview with Lead Stories, Live Oak County Voter Registrar Deanna Atkinson said there are "a lot…

Did former President Donald Trump collapse on the golf course? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of his collapse and the assertion is a ruse used to entice readers into clicking on a video about a different Trump-related topic. The claim appeared in a Facebook post from October 10, 2022, under the title "George Conway Just Dropped a…

Does a photograph show House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pretending to speak into a cellphone during the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol? No, that's not true: Official footage from which a widely shared screenshot was taken clearly showed an active call before Pelosi's iPhone screen went dark, likely the result of an activated internal proximity sensor. The claim…

Did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi put President Joe Biden in jail and restore Donald Trump to the presidency for two terms? No, that's not true: Pelosi has no authority to remove the president from office. The claim appeared in an October 9, 2022, Facebook post with a video under the title "Pelosi Puts Biden in Jail After Admits 'Green Deal'…

Did Elon Musk let Donald Trump return to Twitter on October 9, 2022? No, that's not true: As of October 17, 2022, the former president's account was still suspended. At the time of writing, Musk didn't have the power to reverse the previously imposed ban: Despite persistent talks, Musk hadn't completed the acquisition of the microblogging service as of October…

Did the U.S. deploy M1A1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine? No, that's not true: A video with a headline that makes this claim offers no proof. A tag in its lower right-hand corner says that "Video footages are used for illustration purposes only." The claim appeared in the headline of a video posted on Facebook on October 9, 2022. The headline…

Did a student called Fluffy Janow win a "lawsuit to have cat litter installed in high school bathrooms" in Rhea County, Tennesee? No, that's not true. A satire account on Facebook published the claim following a meeting of Tennessee legislators that addressed cat litter boxes in school bathrooms. The post was not intended to be taken seriously. The Tennessee court…

Was a refugee from Ukraine recently caught defacing a tile floor with a swastika in a UK shopping center and then made to clean it off? No, that's not true: A bystander video of the incident first surfaced online in 2018, and no evidence exists that the young man scrubbing the swastika off the floor is a Ukrainian refugee. He…