Yes, normally when people come up with some BS about room temperature superconducting, they really just mean they've observed one of the indirect effects of superconductivity. "If you put an ohmmeter in my funky circuit, it displays zero!" Which usually just means you've come up with a clever way to break an ohmmeter.

Ejecting the magnetic field (the Meissner effect) is a way better sign.

I find it very hard to believe that this could be true, but at least they're measuring the right things.

Yeah, very probably fraud. Only puzzle is why they would choose something so easy for other labs to try (and fail) to replicate.

I haven't touched much physics since college. Could the Meisner effect be observed in a material that is not superconducting? Or would that be new physics if it were the case?

I suppose that would be a useful material even if it couldn't be used for high current applications.