Business

Does real video show a court case involving a teen who illegally worked night shifts in order to care for his sister after their parents died? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The story does not include any specifics about names, locations or dates. The video appears to show three different courtrooms and contains glitches typical of AI-generated…

Does a viral image of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi wearing "Don't ban insider trading" lapel sticker show what she wore to the 2026 State of the Union speech by President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: A picture of her was digitally edited to change the words on her sticker. The real badge worn by the former speaker of the House…

Did Sam Bankman-Fried write a post on X, offering Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez money in bitcoins to fund a 2028 presidential run? No, that's not true: As of this writing, there was no such post on his account. No credible media organizations published reports about the purported entry. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on February 24, 2026.…

Did Kash Patel, Sen. John Kennedy, Pete Buttigieg, Vince Gill and others demand that former President Barack Obama return millions he earned through ownership related to "Obamacare"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories that swap-in those and other names are part of an international network of websites and Facebook pages that publish fake news stories about famous people to…

Did a meme about the "National Intelligence Agency" discovering Bernie Sanders owns several companies and bank accounts in China originate from actual news reports? No, that's not true: It originated on a satirical Facebook page run by a liberal man with a long history of tricking conservatives into sharing made-up content. The meme had an explicit disclaimer from the Facebook…

Is a video of Jeremy Clarkson talking about refusing a "£100 million deal" from Bill Gates to buy his Diddly Squat farm real? No, that's not true: The social media post in which the video appeared came with a lengthy disclaimer largely hidden below a "See more" link. Clarkson also left a comment under a now deleted post that appeared…

Did NBA player Victor Wembanyama, or NFL players Jeremiyah Love, Jalen Hurts, or Micah Parsons, reward Maria Thompson with a pickup truck or SUV after she helped him when he was having car trouble? No, that's not true: This story is a copy/paste clickbait formula which has been circulating on social media. Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names…

Did school picture contractor LifeTouch put "you and every other American kid" in the Epstein files? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that all 49 million American schoolchildren are in the Justice Department's files. The company name appears in the Department of Justice's online library of released files about pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, but only once, on a minor…

Did tabloid news outlet TMZ publish a report saying Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought a Los Angeles mansion belonging to Sean "Diddy" Combs for $61 Million? No, that's not true: Using TMZ's search box, Lead Stories found no such story about Diddy. Searching for Zelenskyy's name similarly showed no such TMZ story. The claim appeared in a Feb. 18, 2026…

Was President Trump originally mentioned in the claim that 4,725 wire transfers totalling $1.1 billion were made to Jeffrey Epstein using Russian banks? No, that's not true: This appears to be based on a mangled version of a statement made by Senator Ron Wyden about various transfers flowing in and out of Epstein's account. The Congressional Record shows that when…

Did a dozen celebrities including Rob Schneider, Jerry Seinfeld, Pete Buttigieg and Pete Hegseth each launch "the first anti-woke morning show" on Fox, as Facebook posts claim? No, that's not true: Fox made no such announcement, nor did the celebrities whose names were pasted into identical fake stories about the claim, written with no apparent understanding of federal employment rules…

Did Rowan Atkinson, Barbra Streisand, Jon Bon Jovi and Stevie Nicks, and other celebrities all give the same speech to Mark Zuckerberg and a roomful of the rich and powerful on Dec. 20, 2025, saying "you are not creating change -- you are creating noise"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning those and other names were published by…

Did the website pizzaamorestthomas.com that is mentioned in a 2015 email in the Epstein files look in February 2026 as it did in 2015 when the email was sent? No, that's not true: A prankster re-registered the expired domain name in 2026 after the Epstein files were released. The website currently features an AI or manipulated image of comedian Sam…

Does the Department of Justice library of Epstein investigation documents include Document "DOJ-2024-EF-7721" or any documents discussing "Medical regeneration technology" or "MedBeds" or "PROJECT MEDBIRTH"? No, that's not true: The online library of released files from its investigations of the now-dead sex trafficker doesn't include that document ID number. Searching for those phrases without the file number yields zero matches.…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump threaten a 250% tariff on Norwegian salmon because "Norway is about to win the most golds" at the Winter Olympics? No, that's not true: The viral image of his supposed Truth Social post is not real. Lead Stories searched his account and news reports, but found no confirmation that he wrote what some on social…

Is a viral image showing Mark Zuckerberg, Reid Hoffman and Jeffrey Epstein eating sushi together a real photograph? No, that's not true: The image originated on an X account that says it posts "high quality AI videos and memes" to expose "dumb" people. According to Google's Gemini tool the image contained a SynthID watermark, indicating it was made with AI.…

Did the White House post an alert that all flights were grounded, airspace was restricted and the National Guard had been activated on Feb. 6, 2026? No, that's not true: Nothing on the White House website, the FAA alert history or in real news reporting shows any such actions were taken. The hoax has circulated through traffic farming accounts and…

Is the business featured in a recent video by Dr. Mehmet Oz related to hospice and home care fraud in Los Angeles? No, that's not true: The business is a family-owned and operated bakery and market and there is no evidence that implicates the business in any fraud prosecution or to the hospice and home care industry. Several other businesses…

Is a photo that shows Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein with young girls and boys authentic and part of the Department of Justice's publicly released Epstein files? No, that's not true: The image shows clear signs of being created by AI. The photo has not been released in the Department of Justice Epstein files as of the publication date of…

Does the size difference between two bars in a White House chart of U.S. steel production show the actual rate of growth from 2024 to 2025? No, that's not true: The bar representing 2025 is twice the size of the 2024 bar, which visually suggests a 100% increase. That's the result of what statisticians call a "truncated axis" that tends…