Top 10 Recent News Headlines That Sound Fake But Are REAL

#10: “Now You Can Turn Your Boarding Pass Into the Bald JD Vance Meme”

In July 2025, Rolling Stone published this story about an app designed by James Steinberg. The app reportedly allowed users to change the backgrounds of their digital airline boarding passes to the viral JD Vance bald baby meme. This didn’t come out of left field, though. Earlier in 2025, a young Norwegian tourist named Mads Mikkelsen – not the actor – claimed he was denied entry into the U.S. after border control agents found the same JD Vance meme in his phone. Although the claim was denied by officials, the incident prompted discussions about censorship. James’s attempt at pushing back against the suspected repression of free expression through tongue-in-cheek satire was hilarious, to say the least.

#9: “Author of Texas Bill to Ban ‘Furries’ in Schools Cannot Come up with Examples of It Happening”

This is the type of headline that makes you do a double-take, just to make sure you’re not reading The Onion. Unfortunately, it is a real headline by KDFW FOX 4 News, from May 2025. It discusses a bill filed by state Representative Stan Gerdes of Smithville, Texas, to prevent kids from exhibiting, quote, ‘non-human behaviors’ in public schools. He called it the Forbidden Unlawful Representation of Roleplaying in Education Act, or the FURRIES Act. Gerdes claimed furry-related incidents were rampant, but reportedly had no solid evidence to back his claims. The bill was absurd to begin with, but the Representative’s inability to cite actual instances of disruptive furries on campus made it baseless. We have to give him credit for the backronym, though.

#8: “She’s Attending College but Can’t Read or Write. Now She’s Suing Her High School District”

This is not an “SNL” parody about the education system. It’s reportedly the true story of Aleysha Ortiz, a young woman who graduated from Connecticut’s Hartford Public High School with honors. Despite the achievement, she admitted to being illiterate and sued the Hartford Board of Education alongside the City of Hartford. CNN, which authored the headline in question, reported that Aleysha had specific learning needs that were not met. What’s worse, she was allegedly harassed by her special education teacher, Tilda Santiago. Nevertheless, with the help of apps that convert text to speech and vice versa, she completed her school work, got accepted to the University of Connecticut on a scholarship, and aspires to be a writer.

#7: “Teacher Drank in Class, Swore at Pupils and Did Macarena”

This BBC report from July 2025 gets increasingly ridiculous with every word. The teacher in question, Alice Ashton, worked at Ysgol Bro Caereinion in Wales. Her students alleged at an Education Workforce Council hearing that Ashton had appeared to be intoxicated and used inappropriate language in class one day. Ashton claimed her behavior was a result of her prescription meds. However, the reportedly panel had no evidence to support this claim, and so, decided to remove her from the EWC register. Her previous DUI conviction didn’t help her case either. Funnily enough, the headline makes it seem like her “Macarena” dance was as offensive as her drunkenly swearing at kids, which is why it sounds so unserious.

#6: “Woman Sues Company After They Paid Her for 20 Years, but Didn’t Give Her Anything to Do”

Your first instinct after hearing this August 2025 Daily Mail headline might be to wonder what she’s complaining about. Being paid to do nothing sounds fantastic in theory. However, it left Laurence Van Wassenhove depressed after she was seemingly rendered ‘invisible’ at work. While employed at the French telecommunications corporation Orange, she reportedly had epilepsy and hemiplegia, which limited her professional scope. The company apparently made her a secretary when she was originally an HR assistant. In her new role, Laurence was allegedly assigned no real work. Speaking to FTV, she recalled feeling like an ‘outcast’. This ‘forced inactivity’, which her lawyer says counts as discrimination, supposedly continued for two decades, taking a toll on her mental health. That is why she is suing Orange.

#5: “Supermarket Gunman Who Targeted Black People Wants Charges Dropped, Says Grand Jury Was Too White”

This headline from ABC News is so infuriating, we wish it were fake. In August 2025, the outlet reported that Payton Gendron, the perpetrator of the 2022 Buffalo shooting, was trying to get his federal charges dropped. The mass shooting reportedly claimed the lives of ten Black people, for which Gendron is serving a life sentence. Ironically, his lawyers are now seemingly arguing that the predominantly White grand jury that indicted him violated his legal right to an impartial jury due to a lack of minority representation. The U.S. Attorney's office reportedly emphasized in a statement that Gendron’s lawyers could not prove their claim.

#4: “Her Mental Health Treatment Was Helping. That’s Why Insurance Cut Off Her Coverage”

This heartbreaking ProPublica story by Maya Miller and Duaa Eldeib was nominated for the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting. That is to say, it is painfully real. Through the story of Geneva Moore, the piece explores how insurers deny mental health care to those in need by citing progress or the lack thereof. Moore’s mental health coverage was reportedly cut off after she was judged to have improved through her treatment. Although her therapist insisted that she needed intensive treatment, the insurer allegedly denied the claim. This seemingly halted her recovery right when she was starting to believe she could get better. Many patients like Geneva are negatively affected by such denials, which is what Miller and Eldeib hoped to highlight with their report.

#3: “DHS Is Considering Reality Show Where Immigrants Compete for Citizenship”

Published in The Wall Street Journal, this has to be one of the most dystopian headlines we’ve seen in recent years. In May 2025, it was widely reported that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was allegedly backing a TV show where immigrants could compete for American citizenship. The idea was reportedly pitched to Trump officials by Rob Worsoff of “Duck Dynasty” fame, who claimed to have received a ‘positive’ response. The Daily Mail specifically named the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, as a supporter. However, the DHS later clarified that it had not approved or rejected any such pitch. Noem also denied having any knowledge of the proposed show.

#2: “Luigi Mangione Musical Sells Out”

Is this Newsweek headline shocking? Yes. Did the internet predict something like would happen sooner rather than later? Absolutely. “Luigi: The Musical” places fictionalized versions of Sam Bankman-Fried, Sean "Diddy" Combs, and the titular accused murderer in the same prison for a “Chicago”-esque satire. It is being harshly criticized, both for being ill-timed, and for not living up to its hype. However, the musical’s popularity is speaking for itself. From June to August 2025, several shows were reportedly sold-out in San Francisco. Later in August, it had a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, too. Clearly, the real Mangione’s ‘folk hero’ status is alive and well, and this musical has no qualms about riding the wave of his relevance.

#1: “The Trump Administration Accidentally Texted Me Its War Plans”

An ordinary civilian ends up on a super secret group chat and accidentally finds out about the U.S. government’s military operations. That sounds like the premise of an action-comedy film starring Ryan Reynolds … except it’s reality. The civilian in question was Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. The Signal chatroom he was reportedly added to contained information about Operation Rough Rider. This was the code name given to the United States’ attacks against Houthi rebels in Yemen from March to May 2025. The Atlantic story broke in March, and the blunder came to be known as Signalgate, raising major questions about national security. Yet, its severity was downplayed by Trump officials, just like Goldberg’s headline farcically makes the leak sound like an oopsie.

Which of these headlines shocked you the most? Tell us in the comments!