Alright, let’s kick off another Fact Check Friday! This means it’s time to uncover the lies, the exaggerations and the misleading headlines that no one else in the media feels like confronting. We’ve got an arrest threat, a war and a tax comparison coming up this week so let’s dive right in!

1. Was the Mayor Really Going To Arrest Netanyahu?

The headline: “NYC Mayor Mamdani Vows to Arrest Netanyahu,” or some variation of it, screamed across media outlets this week, and no doubt echoed throughout your social media feeds.

The real story: NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani spoke on the

New York Times

“The Interview” podcast with

Lulu Garcia-Navarro. During this interview, Mamdani stated that Netanyahu was a “war criminal” who “belongs in The Hague,” referencing the ICC’s arrest warrant for him over the Gaza war, which is true enough. Where headlines and social media posts featuring quotes from this interview went astray, however, was in the alleged quote about arresting Netanyahu himself. In response to Ms. Garcia-Navarro asking him what he intended to do about it, he did not say that the NYPD would be waiting for Netanyahu upon his arrival in the city, as some suggested. What he actually said was that his administration was pursuing “an active conversation with our legal department” about the matter, and any action they took would be carried out “in accordance with the laws that we have here in New York City.” So, while the mayor did say some pretty harsh things about Netanyahu, calling him a “war criminal,” there was nothing in his quote suggesting that he would go above the law when it came to arresting him

Here’s where it gets a little more complicated. Could he actually do it if he wanted to?

Short answer: Almost certainly not. This is, perhaps, not as prominent in the news cycle, but both sides of the aisle have been circling this particular topic, and for good reason. US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz spoke on it this week, giving us three reasons why such an arrest would be logistically impossible

The US didn’t ratify the Rome Statute, which founded the ICC, and is therefore not bound by any of its rulings.

The UN Headquarters Agreement affords visiting heads of state protection while in the US, which is exactly where Netanyahu is set to be in September for the UN General Assembly

and

Head-of-state immunity is a thing, one that’s even recognized in the Constitution, and would supersede anything a local official would be able to do in terms of arresting him. Legal experts quoted in this week’s stories agreed, noting that it would be incredibly difficult for a local official to arrest a foreign leader without running afoul of federal government policies, at best, and potentially subject to conspiracy charges at worst. A Syracuse University law professor even quoted in one of this week’s stories noted that the constitutional and federal arguments made against Mamdani doing so would be virtually insurmountable.

So here’s your TL;DR on this one: Zohran Mamdani made some pretty inflammatory remarks about Netanyahu, and then engaged in some fairly wishy-washy language on whether he would arrest him when asked directly. If Netanyahu were to arrive in NYC and declare himself immune from his arrest, Mamdani would almost certainly be out of luck, if he had even wanted to go through with it in the first place. The easiest way to tell if someone is presenting accurate information on this topic is to look at the context of the quote in question, rather than trying to extract some sort of sensationalized soundbite from it.

2. What in the World is Going on With Iran?! (Because it’s been going on for 9 nights and nobody feels like telling us!)

The headline: “US Launches Ninth Night of Strikes on Iran” or something along those lines, probably buried in your social media feed with the latest World Cup highlights and vacation pics.

The real story: We’ve been having a war with Iran, folks, and it’s been going on for the better part of this week! CENTCOM confirmed that our military has been launching strikes on targets inside Iran on nine consecutive nights, hitting things like command posts, air defense sites, coastal surveillance radar systems, communication sites, and launch sites for drones and missiles. Attacks launched from both Jordan and Iraq have been taking a toll on Iranian military assets and facilities as the US retaliates for attacks there, as well as attacks on American forces in Iraq. American soldiers have also been dying as a result of this, with 17 total killed in the conflict, with 12 of those deaths occuring in Jordan or Iraq, and one more recently in what was, until recently, northern Iraq. The latter death was described by Trump as a “controlled explosion” during recovery operations there but Iran isn’t going to be the one doing the recovering any time soon, as their state media reported that their military had fired several missiles from the Lorestan province. Explosions have also been reported in Tabriz, Chabahar, Konarak, Bandar Mahshahr and other Iranian cities as attacks continue on Iran’s strategic sites that can threaten the Strait of Hormuz.

President Trump was saying last week that Iran has been “very, very badly damaged” militarily, and threatened to take the fight into Iran’s oil and energy sectors if attacks on his people continued, as well as considering sending in ground troops if necessary. He also stated that he was considering seizing Iran’s oil from the strategically important Kharg island, which would be a major escalation from what’s already been happening since he first announced large scale attacks on Iran alongside Israel last month.

On that note, let’s discuss the things that aren’t true about this whole ordeal

This conflict has been a breeding ground for lots of misinformation, and it’s worth talking about this specifically because it’s not immediately obvious what the truth is when you’re looking at it. Researchers compiling information about this conflict this week noted instances of social media posts containing AI-generated propaganda going viral, with one such post featuring a fake attack on Tel Aviv that was shared by a former French ambassador before being taken down. There were also reports of fake photos of children’s backpacks in the rubble of an attacked school going around, or a fake photo of a destroyed radar installation in Qatar that was falsely attributed to an American unit. In fact, X even placed a 90-day demonetization ban on accounts that were spreading fabricated material about this conflict, as it became a growing issue.

The bottom line on this entry is that if you see something that makes you feel some strong emotion immediately after seeing it, and before seeing any additional context, it’s a good idea to wait to share it. Misinformation tends to travel fastest when it contains some sort of an emotional trigger, and this particular conflict has seen plenty of those.

3. Undocumented Immigrants Paid More in Taxes Than Amazon, GM, IBM, Netflix Combined Last Year?!

The headline: Undocumented immigrants paid more in taxes last year than Amazon, GM, IBM, and Netflix combined, is the sort of claim that has been making the rounds on social media, usually attached to a post by a certain type of account, for the better part of the last year, with no sourcing available.

The real story: Well, here’s the thing. This claim has been debunked, and then reaffirmed, multiple times since it began being circulated in 2024. It really depends on which fact-checking outlet you ask, as most of them seem to lean towards it being true, but with plenty of caveats.

This particular claim was based on research coming out of the

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, which put out a report in 2024 that stated that undocumented residents paid nearly

$100 billion in total federal, state, and local taxes in 2022, including roughly $7 billion in federal income taxes alone

according to their research. A separate study coming out of Yale put that number at around

$19.5 and $22 billion in 2023.

In 2024, those four companies mentioned in the quote each paid

$4.2 billion in federal income taxes in 2022 according to their own public financial disclosures, and roughly $15 billion in federal income taxes combined

, meaning it’s possible, depending on which year you’re using as a reference, that undocumented residents could conceivably pay more in taxes in a given year than those companies do in a span of years put together

There are, as with most things, exceptions and details to this that people should be aware of before sharing this claim

The meme itself usually states that this was true “last year”, but the numbers usually used for undocumented residents’ taxes are from 2022 or 2023, whichever is more convenient, while the companies’ numbers can vary from year to year depending on which one is more convenient to use, as well. Fact-checkers have noted that the “last year” part of these claims have been used in similar memes going back to 2025, which is a little dishonest, in context

Some of the comparisons only take federal income taxes into consideration when they should include payroll, as well

and

While ITEP is considered a nonpartisan think tank, it is widely regarded as leaning left, so keep that in mind when reviewing this information

The Bottom Line This Week

Three stories, three issues with how the news gets presented in 2026.

A politician’s quote was misrepresented, a major conflict was buried under both misleading information and less important events, and an undocumented residents’ tax claim was presented as true, but with lots of misleading details attached to it.

These sorts of things tend to happen, and are exactly why we have Fact Check Friday in the first place! The truth is rarely black and white, but we’ll always try to give you the most detailed version of it we can.

See you next week, everyone!

- Kameron