Does an authentic video show President Trump saying "Lopping off someone's ding-a-long doesn't make them a woman, it makes them a eunuch?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "a deepfake, quite obviously" appears in the last second of the clip. The video was posted on an X account that has previously shared videos that replaced Trump's…
Did U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi publicly confirm a RICO investigation against the Clinton, Obama and Biden families? No, that's not true: Neither the Attorney General's website nor credible media organizations show the purported announcement. The account that posted the claim displayed a satire label. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on…
Did a viral post on X.com authentically show a wave crashing over the rear deck of a yacht and washing "Eliteists" overboard at sea? No, that's not true: The video originates from a YouTube account that labels its material as having been made by generative AI. Clear evidence of the video's artificiality is visible, such as when humans suddenly appear…
Did CNN air a graphic of statistics from the India-Pakistan conflict that showed India suffered far larger losses than Pakistan and that U.S. President Trump helped "curb India's losses?" No, that's not true: A CNN spokesperson told Lead Stories the global news network did not air the graphic and that it was "fabricated." There are no official numbers of jets,…
Does a viral clip authentically show law enforcement bodycam footage capturing officers demanding that an "army colonel" show his ID while at a clothing store? No, that's not true: The video previously appeared on a page on Facebook associated with a privately owned entity, not any law enforcement agency. It published multiple clips imitating authentic body-cam footage but most of…
Did a widely-shared video authentically show President Donald Trump speaking in praise of Pakistan's Air Force, and claiming India had "humiliated itself", in the context of May 2025 clashes between the two countries? No, that's not true: The video contained fake audio of Trump's voice making remarks he never did, in reality. The fake voice and conspicuously fake mouth movements…
Did a relative of U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar named "Yosef Barron Omar" receive $18 million in government grants between 2021 and 2024? No, that's not true: That rumor started on a website that describes its output as satirical in nature. The name "Yosef Barron Omar" is a play on "Joe Barron", an in-joke from the self-described satire of the story's…
Does a video clearly show French President Macron hiding a bag of white powder cocaine as reporters enter a train car where he is meeting with German Chancellor Merz and UK Prime Minister Starmer? No, that's not true: The low-resolution video used to make the claim that the white material in front of Macron is cocaine is too blurry to…
Did UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph publish a story headlined "Pakistan Air Force: The Undisputed King Of The Skies"? No, that's not true: A viral image showing such a title has been fabricated, no such article appeared on the website of The Daily Telegraph. The image contained several mistakes that are indicative of the use of AI tools, such as…
Did Pope Leo XIV release a statement in which he said "Be woke"? No, that's not true: There is no trace of such a statement on the website of the Vatican and no news sources indexed by Google News have reported on it. Had such a statement been made it would have been major news. Lead Stories reached out to…
Does a video authentically show a missile attack by Pakistan on Delhi? No, that's not true: A viral video misrepresents old footage of a ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv in Israel as being related to the 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan. The missiles in the video were fired by Iran at Israel in 2024. The video appeared in…
ROME - That puff of white from atop the Sistine Chapel has long been a starting gun for conspiracists. With a new character in the story, they proclaim they alone tell the truth about dark forces playing pontifical puppeteers. These stories humans tell to make simple sense of complex events move ever faster, now that there's money to be made…
Does a video show President Trump in the Oval Office calling the collapse of Building 7 at the World Trade Center "the smoking gun of 9/11" and praising Alex Jones as a "national treasure?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "obviously fake" appears in the last second of the clip. The video was posted on an…
Was Shiloh Hendrix's campaign to raise $1,000,000 frozen, as of midday May 9, 2025? No, that's not true: The crowd-funding platform told Lead Stories that the money is still available to the campaign owner. While working on this article, a Lead Stories reporter observed that donations were still coming in. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X…
Did Robert Francis Prevost moonlight as "Bobby Prev", a "celebrated jazz trombonist" in Chicago who "headlined several jazz festivals in the '70s and '80s"? No, that's not true: The archives of the Chicago Tribune, which has long provided detailed coverage of jazz, contain no celebrations or even mentions of such a musician. Similarly, a search of the GoogleNews index of…
Does a video of a circular object with sparks and smoke swirling under it as it falls to the ground show an Israeli drone sent by India being destroyed over Pakistan? No, that's not true: The video shows a firework known as a "Thai Girandola" misfiring during a launch in Thailand. The video is an edited version of the original…
Do viral posts prove that the tech billionaire decided to celebrate American ice skater Alysa Liu's gold medal at the 2025 women's championship by giving her a Tesla? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports confirming it. Musk's and Liu's accounts on social media don't offer any support for the claim, either. The claim appeared in a…
Did widely-shared clips show fires and explosions in the Pakistani city of Karachi during May 2025 clashes with India? No, that's not true: Some of the videos in question had been online for several weeks before that conflagration began, and therefore had no link to the later conflict. One was recorded during a market fire in Sadiqabad, Pakistan in March,…
Did the New York Times publish a story headlined "Pope Leo XIV Was a Founding Member of the 2020 Anarchist Portland Autonomous Zone Known as CHAZ"? No, that's not true: A faked screenshot of such a headline also claimed Robert Francis Prevost spent time writing for an "anarchist zine" in Portland about how to "fist-fight police officers". No such article…
Do posts about suspects "Kelvin Buckland" and "Malena Renae Mason" being on the run offer a genuine warning for the members of various local communities? No, that's not true: Such posts were later flipped to promote rental deals. If people click the links promoted in the new versions of the posts, a series of web pages aim to trick social…
