Does actual drone footage show a giant "eclipse Octopus" in the Gulf of America (sometimes also called the Gulf of Mexico)? No, that's not true: The video originated on a TikTok channel with a disclaimer that says it publishes videos made with artificial intelligence tools and which posted many other faked animal videos. The "octopus" in the video also had…
Did Melania Trump glare at Donald Trump when he chatted with Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum at the FIFA World Cup Final Draw? No, that's not true: The footage showing Melania looking annoyed is not real and has been edited. Donald Trump chatted with Sheinbaum and Mark Carney, as well as the first lady during the event. The altered video was…
Does a video authentically capture Donald Trump saying planned Super Bowl 2026 half-time performer Bad Bunny is from "the Mexican City of Puerto Rico" ? No, that's not true: The audio was lifted from a Trump impressionist's YouTube video and plays while the person in the TikTok video reacts to what is said. There is no publicly available report that…
Did singer Bob Dylan just "ignite a firestorm" with a single sentence about Charlie Kirk and was that sentence "If you want people to speak kindly after you're gone, speak kindly while you're alive"? No, that's not true: Dylan is just the latest victim in a series of Facebook posts falsely attributing the same quote to various celebrities. According to…
Do images described as tree stumps provide proof that there were once giant ancient trees which were felled by angels? No, that's not true: The photos show natural geological features around the world which came to be through several geological processes over millions of years. Volcanoes erupting, erosion of different materials at different speeds, and the lifting and folding of…
Did a Russian visitor named Ivan Stepanov rescue a tranquilized bear that was drowning in Lake Tahoe? No, that's not true: The dramatic story shared on social media is ripped off from the real-life heroics of Florida wildlife biologist Adam Warwick, who pulled a tranquilized bear from the water in a Florida harbor in 2008. The photos used in a…
Has the woman photographed wearing a pink hijab posing next to a swastika been identified as Linda Sarsour, senior advisor of the Zohran for NYC campaign? No, that's not true on two counts. Linda Sarsour is not the senior advisor of the NYC mayoral campaign of Zohran Mamdani -- the "senior campaign advisor" is Zara Rahim. The photo of the…
Does a video show a massive metallic UFO orb over a volcano in Mexico? No, that's not true: The round object in the video is a telescope on the top of the dormant Sierra Negra volcano. The telescope's concave dish-shaped reflector is 50 meters wide, the lighting at the time the video was filmed made an optical illusion of a…
Were Rep. Nancy Pelosi's granddaughters arrested trying to smuggle narcotics into the United States? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer. A search of news archives showed that the rumor was not even inadvertently accurate. The claim appeared in a July 16, 2025, post on Facebook (archived here), which contained a photo…
Does a viral video of flood scenes include real clips of the 2025 Independence Day Weekend flooding in Kerr County, Texas? No, that's not true: The opening scene is an obvious product of generative AI. None of the clips in the montage can be traced to authentic filming of the Texas flood. The clips include news coverage of floods that…
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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