9/11

Does a viral video document that TSA employees stopped screening passengers at U.S. airports as a result of the October 2025 government shutdown? No, that's not true: The clip was generated by AI, and the video's early versions included a watermark disclosing that fact. Additionally, the agency's seal on the uniform of the supposed TSA agent -- which is one…

Did Paul McCartney hold one minute of silence for Charlie Kirk and the victims of 9/11 during a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York? No, that's not true: The story was made up by a Facebook page and website managed by someone in Vietnam. No such concert was listed on the website of the venue and the story…

Did the media report Charlie Kirk was shot dead by an iGaming influencer named Felix Roemer? No, that's not true: That story originated on a website that published nothing but made up stories about a man named "Felix Roemer". The Instagram account connected to the site has a disclaimer that reads "all articles are satire" and the website itself renounces…

Did U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi successfully sue American basketball player Brittney Griner, preventing the athlete from participating in the Olympic Games? No, none of that is true: No credible media organization ever reported that, as of August 19, 2025. When Lead Stories checked specialized legal resources, those searches showed no confirmation that such a lawsuit ever existed. The claim…

Did U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren suggest that Mollie Tibbetts' family has "to remember we need to focus on real problems like illegal immigrants not being able to see their kids"? No, that's not true: The viral meme distorted Warren's 2018 comments on the case in which an undocumented worker was charged and later convicted of the 20-year-old woman's murder. During…

Does an authentic video show U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. he's "declaring war on fat, gay kids, not the kids themselves but whatever is making them so fat, gay, and pathetic?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "a deepfake, quite obviously" appears in the last second of the 55-second clip. The…

Does an authentic video show President Trump saying "Lopping off someone's ding-a-long doesn't make them a woman, it makes them a eunuch?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "a deepfake, quite obviously" appears in the last second of the clip. The video was posted on an X account that has previously shared videos that replaced Trump's…

Does a video show President Trump in the Oval Office calling the collapse of Building 7 at the World Trade Center "the smoking gun of 9/11" and praising Alex Jones as a "national treasure?" No, that's not true: A disclaimer saying the video is "obviously fake" appears in the last second of the clip. The video was posted on an…

Does an old photo show Elon Musk's grandfather Joshua Haldeman standing in front of the office of Technocracy Inc. in Canada? No, that's not true: The black-and-white image shows Howard Scott, an American engineer who founded the technocracy movement in 1933, according to reverse image search results. Haldeman's obituary says he was a chiropractor in Canada. The claim appeared as…

Does a photo show President Joe Biden sporting a red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap during his meeting with incoming President Donald Trump at the White House? No, that's not true: Media coverage of the meeting shows that the two men were wearing different clothing than what's seen in the photo. Online image-analysis tools found substantial evidence that the…