China

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…

Is the viral selfie of the seven dogs walking home together in China a real photo? No, that's not true: The picture was likely generated by AI. AI detection results from two tools pointed to AI generation, as did a key detail in the image itself: dogs appearing to take a selfie -- something real dogs cannot do. The claim…

Did U.K. police investigate a man over his X username "ChingChongChinaman" or something similar? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that police in the United Kingdom spoke to a man following a complaint about an "offensive" username. Screenshots of a purported firsthand encounter with law enforcement were traced to a Reddit account that has since been banned. The…

Does a viral video claiming to show a strike on a U.S. military base in Jordan or the Gulf actually show such an attack? No, that's not true: Lead Stories' analysis found multiple inconsistencies pointing to AI, including a fake U.S. flag missing all 50 stars that represent the 50 states. The video did not originate from a credible media…

Did a meme about the "National Intelligence Agency" discovering Bernie Sanders owns several companies and bank accounts in China originate from actual news reports? No, that's not true: It originated on a satirical Facebook page run by a liberal man with a long history of tricking conservatives into sharing made-up content. The meme had an explicit disclaimer from the Facebook…

Did Donald Trump tell Norway's Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, that he wants complete and total control of Greenland because he was not granted the Nobel Peace Prize? Yes, that's true: Some questioned if the text message from Trump to Norway's Prime Minister published on X by PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin was real. Norway's Prime Minister published a statement on…

Is this viral image a real photo of a woman in a pink shirt carrying black-and-white bags standing in front of three black SUVs marked 'ICE' while holding up a phone? No, that's not true: The image is a digital edit made to resemble a famous historical picture known as "Tank Man". That picture showed a man carrying shopping bags…

Is a video of fresh produce being artificially painted in China real? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that labels its content as AI-generated. The video contained multiple inconsistencies strongly pointing to AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Instagram, where it was published on December 2, 2025. The caption read: chemical. This…

Does a video show a graveyard of green electric scooters that ran out of battery life and were abandoned because it is too expensive to replace them? No, that's not true: This video is real, but the reason the electric scooters were taken out of service had nothing to do with the batteries. Slowing demand for the bikes led the…

Did the mother of Christopher Todd Erick discover the body of her deceased son, plastinated and on display in a Real Bodies exhibit in Las Vegas? No, that's not true: The bodies on display in the exhibit originated in China. According to Imagine Exhibitions, owners of the Real Bodies exhibit, the specimen in question has been on continuous display in…