9/11

Did Russia send jet bombers to Venezuela during its ongoing invasion of Ukraine in 2022? No, that's not true: A CNN news report describing Russian bombers that landed in Venezuela to conduct exercises over the Caribbean was broadcast in 2018. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) on February 25, 2022. The post has a TikTok that included…

Did author and self-proclaimed naturopathic practitioner Robert O. Young present legitimate testimony that admits that governments are using medicine to "exterminate" Black people? No, that's not true: The International Tribunal for Natural Justice (ITNJ) is not a real court of law and the statements made by Young in his "testimony" are not based in fact. The claim, which has made…

Did former Vice President Dick Cheney get arrested on Christmas Eve in 2021? No, that's not true: A Pentagon representative told us the claim is false. There is also no evidence online from any reputable news outlet that he was arrested. Also, the claim was posted on a self-described satire website with no verifiable confirming evidence. The story originated in…

Did Africa have half the COVID-19 deaths in 2021 that the United States had, with four times the population and just a 7% vaccination rate? Yes, that's mostly true, but not the whole story: The figures are ballpark, but there's no reason to quibble with them. Understanding the youthful demographic breakdown of the continent is key during a pandemic that…

Did the military arrest former President George W. Bush? No, that's not true: The 43rd president was not arrested on his Texas ranch the morning of November 13, 2021, by U.S. Special Forces. A Pentagon spokesperson told us that this information was "false." Also, the Posse Comitatus Act prevents the current president from calling upon the armed forces to make…

Ed Payne is a staff writer at Lead Stories. He is an Emmy Award-winning journalist as part of CNN's coverage of 9/11. Ed worked at CNN for nearly 24 years with the CNN Radio Network and CNN Digital. Most recently, he was a digital senior producer for Gray Television's Digital Content Center, the company's digital news hub for 100+ TV…

Did World Trade Center Building 7 (WTC 7) collapse due to a controlled explosion right after the collapse of the first two World Trade Center buildings in New York City on September 11, 2001? No, that's not true: Investigators found no evidence of such an explosion and specialists found it was caused by fire. All the World Trade Center buildings…

Did U.S. Border Patrol agents use whips to round up Haitian migrants and refugees who were crossing a river at the Mexican border near Del Rio, Texas? No, that's not true: While photos and video circulating show mounted border patrol agents aggresively attempting to turn back people trying to cross a shallow portion of the Rio Grande, it does not…

Did the president of the United States refuse to pay to fly the body of Sgt. Ryan Knauss, killed in the August 2021 Kabul airport bombing, to Arlington National Cemetery? No, that's not true: The president is not responsible for decisions regarding the burial of soldiers. "That is not within the president's purview," says the director of the civilian funeral…

Did former President Donald Trump end President Joe Biden's antifa meeting with a riot and did Biden say "sorry" to troops and resign? No, none of that is true: This is a clickbait headline that is not supported by the video it purports to summarize. Biden did not meet with antifa, and Trump did not end the purported meeting with…