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Does a screenshot show a real Mehdi Hasan social media post with a September 11 photo and the caption, "Make American planes crash again."? No, that's not true: The screenshot is altered. The original Feb. 16, 2025, and later deleted post by Hasan did not have a 9/11 image showing a plane about to crash into the World Trade Center.…

Does a real video show Iranian jets being shot down over Tel Aviv by an Israeli laser defense system? No, that's not true: There is no evidence from credible sources that such an incident ever took place. An AI detection tool concluded that the video was very likely AI-generated, assigning it a 99.1% confidence score, and the video contains visual…

Did President Donald Trump file an emergency motion to "stop his own lawsuit against the BBC"? No, that's not true: The president's lawyers asked a U.S. federal judge for a stay of discovery into his finances in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the British broadcaster, which the judge granted on Aug. 6, 2026. Had Trump wanted to stop his…

Are viral high-resolution images real photos or screenshots actually showing the person suspected of punching a man in broad daylight in Warsaw, Poland? No, that's not true: Two AI detectors said the images were generated by AI. The real recording of the incident had a much lower quality, and thus, the images could not be authentic screenshots of that video.…

Did Abdul El-Sayed, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate in Michigan, "celebrate 9/11"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that El-Sayed celebrated 9/11. In an interview in early April 2026, he said, "I don't think 9/11 was justified," and distanced himself from Hasan Piker, a Twitch streamer he had appeared with on the campaign trail. Piker said…

Have you seen a viral video showing a beautiful policewoman asking for engagement or friendship, a simple "Hello" or a follow? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people or situations although the videos are produced for audiences in several…

Did President Donald Trump post an AI-generated image of himself standing between Gen. George Patton and Gen. Douglas MacArthur, with all three men wearing inaccurate uniforms? Yes, that's true: The image appeared on his Truth Social account. An AI detection tool found a SynthID watermark, indicating the image was generated using OpenAI tools. Another concluded that it was very likely…

Does a real video show the moment a passenger plane made an emergency landing on a highway in Georgia? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The Hive Moderation AI-generated content detection tool found the video was 96.1% likely to be AI-generated. Searches of Google News did not show a recent incident involving a large passenger plane crash landing…

Is a photo real that shows White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, second lady Usha Vance and Katie Miller, wife of White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, holding their babies as President Donald Trump and his wife Melania look on? There is no evidence that the three women, along with the Trumps, posed for such an image. In…

Did an Aug. 3, 2026, procession in Louisville bring the corpse of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to the coroner's office there? No, that's not true: The Louisville Metro Police Department told Lead Stories that reports involving McConnell were "completely false" and said authorities were escorting the body of an officer who had died. As of Aug. 5, 2026, there…