Did Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, say he "celebrated 9/11"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that El-Sayed celebrated 9/11. In an interview in early April 2026, he said, "I don't think 9/11 was justified," and distanced himself from Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer he had appeared with on the campaign trail.…
Did President Donald Trump post an AI-generated image of himself standing between Gen. George Patton and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, with all three men wearing inaccurate uniforms? Yes, that's true: The image appeared on his Truth Social account. An AI detection tool found a SynthID watermark, indicating the image was generated using OpenAI tools, while another concluded that it was very…
Does a real video show the moment a passenger plane made an emergency landing on a highway in Georgia? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool found the video was 96.1% likely to be AI-generated. Searches of Google News did not show a recent incident involving a large passenger plane crash landing…
Is a photo real that shows White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, second lady Usha Vance and Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, holding their babies as President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look on? There is no evidence that the three women, along with the Trumps, posed for such an image. In…
Have you seen a viral video showing a beautiful policewoman asking for engagement or friendship, a simple "Hello" or a follow? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people or situations although the videos are produced for audiences in several…
Did an Aug. 3, 2026, procession in Louisville bring the corpse of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to the coroner's office there? No, that's not true: The Louisville Metro Police Department told Lead Stories that reports involving McConnell were "completely false" and said authorities were escorting the body of an officer who had died. As of Aug. 5, 2026, there…
Does a viral image show a real restaurant bill from Le Club 55 in St. Tropez for 689,235.43 EUR? No, that's not true: It displayed a nonexistent business code and contained math errors. Le Club 55 told Lead Stories that the restaurant doesn't even serve what appeared on the receipt. Four online tools said that the image was generated by…
Does a real video show a transgender woman threatening her neighbor with guns after she was misgendered? No, that's not true: The scene depicted in the video is a skit from the social media creator Spicy Jayy. The apartment door with a Ring doorbell camera appears in several Spicy Jayy videos -- sometimes with the door open and members of…
Maryna Stupak is a freelance fact-checker and journalist. She has worked as a Kyiv-based freelance journalist for international media outlets, including a joint project by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America, as well as a project by Poland's public broadcaster, Telewizja Polska. She has also been a presenter on an analytical news programme produced for YouTube by Suspilne,…
Was a man named "François Faivre", the supposed surgeon who "announced Brigitte Macron's transgender transformation," found dead in Paris in June 2026? No, that's not true: Lead Stories searched the French national registry of the deceased but found no exact matches. The claim came from a video showing AI-generated people that has resurfaced on the internet multiple times since 2025.…
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