Maui

Did residents of Cape Coral, Florida, take to painting their roofs blue following numerous sightings of planes utilizing "Green Laser Technology," as claimed in a post circulating on social media? No, that's not true: The satellite imagery of Cape Coral, Florida, in the post dates back to a period after September 29, 2022, when Hurricane Ian impacted the area. Through…

Did Joe Biden let slip that there is a "right roof" with a certain color that will protect a home from being destroyed by lasers or directed energy weapons during wildfires as some conspiracists suggest? No, that's not true: In a video clip of Joe Biden speaking in Brownsville, Texas, he does say how in the aftermath of a wildfire…

Does a viral video of a "green laser" authentically show a beam igniting a Texas wildfire that started in late February 2024? No, that's not true: The clip was posted two months before the blaze. It was first published in a social media account of a person describing themselves as a "video creator" who made no references to Texas…

Was former talk show host Oprah Winfrey convicted by the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps and sentenced to death? No, that's not true: The claim appeared in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content, and as Lead Stories previously reported, there is no evidence that Winfrey was ever detained in Guantanamo Bay as the same website…

Was the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate Corps holding 345 Federal Emergency Management Agency employees at a U.S. Marine Corps Base in Hawaii as of February 2024? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that this claim is false. The claim appeared in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. The claim appeared in…

Was "The Rock" booed in Las Vegas for failing to help the victims of the wildfires in Maui? No, that's not true: The video of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is from a WWE event where he was playing a bad character, and the audience was chanting for his opponent. The video had nothing to do with the August 2023 Maui…

Were the 2023 Maui wildfires started because the island holds 120 million tons of lithium? No, that's not true: A U.S. Geological Survey representative and an associate professor emeritus of geology both said there is no evidence that there is that much lithium in Maui or throughout the Hawaiian islands. Lithium is mainly found in Australia, South America and Nevada,…

Did U.S. Navy SEALs save missing Maui children imprisoned in padlocked cages in Honolulu Harbor? No, that's not true: This claim is from a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. If this claim were true, there would be significant news coverage to substantiate it -- and there has not been. The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw…

Does a social-media video show a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "concentration camp" in Hawaii? No, this is not true: This video, according to a FEMA spokesperson, shows a project with which FEMA is not affiliated at all. The project built tiny homes for homeless and at-risk U.S. veterans. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook published…

Did the United States transfer $6 billion to Ukraine by mistake? No, that's not true: In the summer of 2023, the Pentagon admitted that it overestimated the value of military gear sent to Ukraine due to an accounting mistake but the money was not misspent or even spent. It is still there as of this writing and will be used…