&Quot;New York City&Quot;

Does a real photo show Melania Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell posing with three young women whose faces have been redacted? No, that's not true: This fake photo was made to look like a Polaroid photo from 1998. The high resolution fake image was featured as a clickbait thumbnail for a YouTube video, with black redactions as if it originated from…

Does a real photo of Zohran Mamdani as a child with his mother Nora Nair and Jeffrey Epstein prove the new mayor of New York City is Epstein's illegitimate child? No, that's not true: The image, which includes Ghislaine Maxwell, former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, was made with an artificial intelligence tool. It originated on a parody account…

Were Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein photographed with Mira Nair holding her baby son, Zohran Mamdani? No, that's not true: This image is fake and was posted on X by an account carrying a parody disclaimer. The fake image has a discreet DFF watermark from the account in the place of a monogram on Bill Clinton's shirt. The parody account's…

Does the name of Mira Nair, the mother of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, appear in the Epstein files? Yes, that is true: Lead Stories located an email that mentions her appearance at an afterparty for one of her films. The event occurred in 2009. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on February 1, 2026. It…

Did Robert De Niro say he had to leave New York City now that Mamdani is officially the mayor as some viral posts are saying? No, that's not true: The actor did not make the comments about having "no choice" and Mamdani wanting to take half of his savings because he was wealthy. The story and quote originated on a…

Did the phrase "One of ours all of yours" originate in Nazi Germany after all the residents in a Czech village were killed in retribution for the killing of an SS officer? No, that's not true: The phrase, which was displayed on a lectern at a DHS press conference, is not present in historical records of Nazi slogans, nor is…

Did a "Lucas Mamdani", brother to New York City's mayor, buy properties with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to financially benefit from new city policies on affordable housing? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find evidence to support the existence of any sibling of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The claim originated from a page with a satire label that was…

Does a viral post accurately summarize Zohran Mamdani's words from a podcast recorded more than five years before he was sworn in as New York City mayor? No, that's not true: The quote was shortened, and it changed its meaning. A longer, more elaborate fragment of his speech shows that he suggested that it shouldn't be the police, but specially…

Do viral posts tell a real-life story about a Connecticut woman named "Ada Morrison" who was committed to a psychiatric hospital for "excessive reading and intellectual pretensions unsuitable for woman"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories extensively researched available records but found no mention of the story outside of social media platforms. Those posts were illustrated by an AI-generated image.…

Does a viral image show an "official photo" of Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro after he was captured by the U.S.? No, that's not true: Lead Stories didn't find any evidence that the picture originated from government websites or elected officials. The image showed two unusual rows of windows in the background, a pattern that did not appear in photographs of any…