Did the British Broadcasting Corp. publish a video report that French President Emmanuel Macron is deploying 800 French Foreign Legion soldiers to Armenia? No, that's not true: The British news channel did not report that Macron is running a personal security service for a panicked Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. There are no other reports from credible news organizations that…

Did the White House publish a post commemorating the tenth anniversary of the death of Harambe the Gorilla? Yes, that's true: The official White House account on X (formerly Twitter) made a post on May 27, 2026, on Harambe's birthday, and the eve of the 10-year anniversary of his death at the Cincinnati Zoo. The post (archived here) was published…

Did Israeli-based news outlet Haaretz report that Zelenskyy's former associate Timur Mindich fled to Israel carrying "800kg of gold" on a private jet? No, that's not true: The claim shared in viral posts originated from a counterfeit website that mimicked Haaretz. No credible news organizations reported on "800kg of gold" supposedly carried by Mindich on board the plane bound for…

Does a real video show a woman stuck upside down in a water slide? No, that's not true: The clip is digitally generated, not authentic footage. An AI detection tool concluded that the video was 100% likely AI-generated, and a visual analysis revealed additional AI artifacts. Lead Stories found no credible news coverage or eyewitness video of such an incident.…

Is the color footage showing a 1923 demonstration of one-wheeled roller skates or cycle-skates real? Yes, that's true: The movie footage from 1923 is real, but it has been colorized. This design of the skates by a French inventor was promoted with some races in 1923. Black and white archive footage of a skating demonstration and one of the races…

Does an online graphic accurately depict changes in the net worth of recent presidents from Bill Clinton to Joe Biden? Yes, that's true: Despite some formatting glitches, the figures in the AI-generated infographic were originally compiled by two personal finance publications using publicly available information and estimates from universities, as well as financial media outlets. While exact net worth figures…

Does a viral video show alleged Muslim crowds attending Hajj 2026? No, that's not true: An AI-Generated Content Detection tool concluded the video was 95.5% likely made by AI. It contained a watermark pointing to a specific generative video model. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by @dom_lucre on X on May 26, 2026. It opened: 🔥🚨DEVELOPING:…

Does a video show "illegal cutout windows" in Maricopa County, Arizona, ballot envelopes in order to make it easy to identify Republican ballots for election-fraud purposes? No, that's not true: The window in the outgoing enveloppes is there so the QR code can be scanned as part of ballot-quality control during primaries, former Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told Lead…

Does a viral clip of a hailstorm actually show India under siege from massive chunks of hail? No, that's not true: Earlier versions of the claim said it happened in the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka. Lead Stories found multiple inconsistencies in the video that strongly pointed to AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published by…

Does real police bodycam footage capture the moment a woman appeared to vanish into thin air during a traffic stop? No, that's not true: This simulated footage shows actors in a skit depicting a "rapture pre-enactment." The end of the video clip was edited to remove the credits, obscuring that this short skit is part of the Perhaps Today campaign…