Albania

Was a video about Ukrainian drone operator Miroslav Radchenko shared on social media actually produced and distributed by Al Jazeera? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no traces of such a report broadcast or shared online by Al Jazeera or any other media outlet. Spreading false narratives through clips with logos of real media organizations is a well-known tactic…

Did the Albanian prime minister describe the "three major devils in the world" as being the U.S., the Soviet Union and Israel while speaking in front of the U.S. secretary of state Anthony Blinken? No, that's not true: A video clip used in a social media post is missing context. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was explaining the history of…

Did celebrity actor Tom Hanks and singer Taylor Swift boycott the Oscars over its supposedly "woke" policies, and assert that "We stand for true talent"? No, that's not true: This is a clickbait story with no proof to support its claim. Although Hanks did not attend the 2024 Oscars, agency photos prove that he was at an earlier event run…

Was "44-year-old Sahil Omar" confirmed as a suspect in the explosion at the Sandman Signature Fort Worth Downtown Hotel in Texas? No, that's not true: The Fort Worth police department had not named any suspects at the time of writing. "Sahil Omar" has been labeled a suspect in multiple tragedies in states far from one another on the social media…

Was the film "Barbie" banned in Serbia because of a scene containing a map of "Greater Albania"? No, that's not true: The film was not banned in Serbia and such a map doesn't appear in the movie. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted to TikTok on July 5, 2023. It contained a supposed screenshot of an article…

Did Europeans crowd onto a pier and try to flee to North Africa during World War II on the ship shown in this photo? No, that's not true: This image is miscaptioned. It shows the ship Vlora, which had left the port of Durrës, Albania, and crossed the Adriatic Sea in one day, arriving in Bari, Italy on August 8,…

Ms. Susan Wojcicki, It's been almost two years since the COVID-19 pandemic started. The world has seen time and time again how destructive disinformation and misinformation can be for social harmony, democracy, and public health; too many lives and livelihoods have been ruined, and far too many people have lost loved ones to disinformation. As an international network of fact-checking…

Monte Plott is a Senior Editor with Lead Stories and has previously been a reporter and editor with The Associated Press, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, USA Today and the Atlanta Journal- Constitution. Most recently, he was a news editor with CNN Digital News for more than a decade. He has taught journalism at four universities from Emory and Georgia State…

Was Malia Obama busted selling priceless White House trinkets that she stole while she lived there? No, that's not true: The story was published by a liberal satire website that tries to mislead Trump supporters and Republicans into sharing made-up stories that are clearly marked as satire when you actually click them. Articles from the site are frequently copied by…

Did Norway deport Muslims causing the country's crime rate to drop 31 percent? No, that's not true: Norway did increase deportation of immigrants who were sentenced to prison, but Muslims were not targeted and the largest number deported were from eastern European countries. The crime rate in Norway -- which was already low compared to the United States -- has…