Did Russian President Vladimir Putin say "Don't dare to touch the Strait of Hormuz" on April 1, 2026? No, that's not true: The posts attributing those words to him originated from self-described satire and parody accounts. The fake story was spreading across social media platforms paired with a well-known video meme showing Putin walking. The claim appeared in a post…
Does a video of a burning ship actually show an oil tanker hit in the Strait of Hormuz on March 27, 2026? No, that's not true: No credible news organizations reported an oil tanker being hit in the Strait of Hormuz on that day. The video showed signs of AI generation. The claim appeared in a post (archived here, here…
Did Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyár, who is challenging sitting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the April 2026 election, describe U.S. President Donald Trump as "a senile grandpa" in a public speech? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a fake report that stole the logo of Euronews, a real news organization, in an apparent attempt to make the…
Did German Chancellor Friedrich Merz use $550 million of state funds to build a private "doomsday" plane? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence or proof that Merz commissioned a fortified warplane. The website that published the article was registered one day before the publication of the story and is not an established media organization. An online detection…
Was a video about Ukrainian drone operator Miroslav Radchenko shared on social media actually produced and distributed by Al Jazeera? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no traces of such a report broadcast or shared online by Al Jazeera or any other media outlet. Spreading false narratives through clips with logos of real media organizations is a well-known tactic…
Is a video showing a Politico report claiming Germany is preparing to take in 400,000 Palestinian refugees real? No, that's not true: There are no reports from Politico or any other news organization that Germany plans to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees, Palestinian or otherwise. In addition, an online AI detection tool determined that the audio in the…
Does a video show U.S. fighter jets in a real dogfight over Iran in the Feb. 28, 2026, conflict? No, that's not true: The clip from a video game was posted on a U.S. Army spoof account two days ahead of the conflict and has been circulating on social media since at least May 2025. It was originally purported to…
Was President Donald Trump originally mentioned in the claim that 4,725 wire transfers totaling $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 Sen. Ron Wyden made about various transfers flowing in and out of Epstein's account. The Congressional Record shows that when…
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…
Does a video show ICE agents raiding a man's home without a warrant after he shouted about ICE's treatment of his neighbor, saying they "ain't supposed to smack him like that"? No, that's not true: The video shared in January 2026 with claims it showed ICE agents was recorded by Nick Pettit from the porch of his Columbus, Ohio, home…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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