Does a video show the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln burning in the Red Sea after being hit by Iranian missiles in 2026? No, that's not true: The video first appeared online on June 23, 2025, in a post making a similar false claim during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel happening at that time. It appears to have…
Did Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei address the world, proving that he is still alive? No, that's not true: The video circulating on social media is from a speech by Khamenei broadcast more than two weeks earlier on Feb. 11, 2026. He died on Feb. 28, 2026, in an airstrike targeting his compound in Tehran, according to Iranian state…
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…
Does a video of a fire recorded from a balcony in Tel Aviv show the aftermath of a missile attack on Israel on February 28, 2026? No, that's not true: The video was shared on social media on October 26, 2024, and there was no claim that a missile started the fire or that the building was used to store…
Did Waffle House announce plans to put floating restaurants on lakes across the southeastern United States to serve boaters, anglers, and waterfront homes? No, that's not true: A Waffle House official told Lead Stories there were no such plans. An image of a floating Waffle House in the middle of a lake, surrounded by boats, was generated by an artificial…
Does a viral image document Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney dining with Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite convicted of sex trafficking girls for Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: The image displayed a watermark pointing to a generative AI tool. Several details in the picture, such as missing temples of a person's glasses or an earring incorrectly attached to an…
Was Ghislaine Maxwell spotted out and about in Québec, Canada? No, that's not true: This video shows a real street scene in Québec, but an AI tool has been used to swap the face of the woman with Ghislaine Maxwell's. The creator who published this face swap video does not have a disclaimer regarding the AI-generated content. But, in a…
Is a video that shows "Specimen 9X" at a place called the "Blackridge Containment Facility" in Nevada legitimate? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the video likely to be AI-generated. The "Blackridge Containment Facility" is not a real place. The claim appeared in a February 23, 2026, post on X (archived here). It opened: This is specimen…
Did California pay the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) more than $100 million mainly to fund protests as a viral social media post said? No, that's not true: California's payments to CHIRLA were overwhelmingly tied to immigration legal services and social welfare programs. There is no evidence in state budget records that any funds were used to pay or…
Is a video of Jeremy Clarkson talking about refusing a "£100 million deal" from Bill Gates to buy his Diddly Squat farm real? No, that's not true: The social media post in which the video appeared came with a lengthy disclaimer largely hidden below a "See more" link. Clarkson also left a comment under a now deleted post that appeared…
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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