Does a real photo show Edinburgh Castle displaying Argentine flags ahead of the World Cup match against England on July 15, 2026? No, that's not true: The image appears to have been digitally edited. The Argentine flags were added to an older photo of the Scottish landmark. A reverse image search shows the original photo predates the 2026 World Cup…

Are the captions on a video of Norwegian soccer player Erling Haaland saying he will support Argentina over England in the World Cup accurate? No, that's not true: The captions on the video are fake, and Haaland never said he would support Argentina's Lionel Messi and his teammates over England in the 2026 World Cup semifinals. Video of his postgame…

Did the family of Marcus Williams sue a bank for $500,000 after he was electrocuted trying to rob an ATM in Houston? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that such an incident ever happened to anyone named Marcus Williams or anyone else in the United States. No news reports describe someone dying from an electrical shock while trying…

Have you seen viral videos showing Sandra Bullock asking for personal information of followers? 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 the real Sandra Bullock or real situations. They seek private or personal information in order to scam people. This article…

Do viral posts prove that Russia destroyed the Skyfall drone production facility in Ukraine visited by late Senator Lindsey Graham hours before his death? No, that's not true: The posts don't cite any sources. No credible media outlets reported that, and even Russia didn't claim it hit that target. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X published…

Is a video of a man catching his wife "in the act" of kissing another man and walking away instead of getting upset authentic? No, that's not true: The video shows a sketch with actors who are creating a scenario. The TikTok account that originally posted the video has similar scripted content using the same actors. This is a staged…

Did police in the United Kingdom decide not to release CCTV footage of a suspect in the murder of Conservative Member of Parliament Ann Widdecombe to hide his race or ethnicity? No, that's not true: When Devon and Cornwall Police announced they would not release the footage, they had already publicly described the first suspect as "a white British national."…

Does zooming in on the newspaper pictured in a July 12, 2026, press release from Sen. Mitch McConnell's office show that the photo was AI-generated? No, that's not true: The fake close-up image of the newspaper text is the result of an AI hallucination. The newspaper in the real photo is not in crisp focus, but it does match the…

Has a photo of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, released by his office on July 12, 2026, been publicly available since 2023? No, that's not true: A reverse image search found no evidence that the image had been published three years earlier. In addition, the photo released by McConnell's office shows the senator with a copy of The Washington Post…

While investigating a video for a recent fact-check, Lead Stories encountered a bizarre issue with the SynthID AI detector in Google's Gemini chatbot. Over several chats it appeared to contradict an earlier detection result for the same video file. Initially, the chatbot claimed the video file had a SynthID watermark in it, indicating the video was made or edited with…