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Does an authentic picture show a plane on fire, a purported retaliation following the Feb. 22, 2026 killing of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader in Tapalpa, Jalisco, Mexico? No, that's not true: An AI-generated content detector concluded that it was 93.2% certain the image was created by an artificial intelligence tool. At the time this was published, authorities in…

Does a viral panoramic image really show Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, during the unrest that followed the killing of drug lord Nemesio Oseguera? No, that's not true: What looked like a Google Earth image was digitally modified to add fires. According to Google and two online detectors, the picture with buildings on fire was created using generative AI tools. The claim…

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 Jon Stewart broadcast a livestream about the Virginia Giuffre case and did the show get 3.2 billion views globally? No, that's not true: Giuffre was one of the women who accused Jeffrey Epstein and others of sexual abuse as a teenager. There is no evidence such a show was ever broadcast. The website and Facebook pages spreading the claim…

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…

Does a video of passengers on a plane screaming while an "unknown creature is loose" show a real incident? No, that's not true: The video clip of the passengers screaming and jumping up on their seats to avoid an unknown critter running around the plane was a skit with actors. The TikTok page where it was originally posted features dozens…

Did comedians Stephen Colbert or Jon Stewart or actor Tom Hanks broadcast a television program to disclose the names of numerous people not previously known to be implicated by the files of investigations into Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories mentioning those and others were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were…

Did the family of Epstein's late survivor Virginia Giuffre, Stephen Colbert or Elon Musk spend millions of dollars to file a lawsuit against U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other people? No, that's not true: A federal court database showed no such case filed by Giuffre's surviving brother, and credible media organizations did not publish any reports of such a…

Was Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor arrested 666 days after blood-soaked horses associated with the Royal Family escaped in London? Yes, that's true: The former Prince Andrew was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office on February 19, 2026. This came 666 days after a separate incident on April 24, 2024, in which five horses from the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment threw…

Does a video of a heckler, who was assaulted after shouting at Prince Andrew, show a 2026 incident? No, that's not true: The video is authentic, but was more than three years old at the time of the former Duke of York's arrest on suspicion of "misconduct in office". It shows the October 2022 procession carrying the coffin of Queen…