Death Hoax

Did a variety of musicians, athletes, and coaches issue a lifetime ban against a man who was filmed "celebrating" in the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk's shooting? No, that's not true on two counts: First, the articles about the lifetime bans are not true. They are copy/paste clickbait slop -- a formula to intermingle names of celebrities with Charlie Kirk's…

Was Michael Jackson's son caught on a livestream saying his father is still alive? No, that's not true: The man in boxing influencer Ed Matthews' video is not Michael Jackson's son. In a longer clip the man identified himself as Parker, and says that his father was Michael Jackson's best friend. He did not say that Jackson is still alive,…

Did a California aquarium collapse, killing 50 people, as was claimed in a viral Instagram reel? No, that's not true: A disaster of that magnitude and novelty would have been a worldwide news story and there is no record of such an event in news publications in or out of California. The Instagram account that posted the video consists of…

Did Ohio State football coach Ryan Day donate more than $3.5 million dollars to victims of the 2025 Texas floods? No, that's not true: No credible media organization reported that, nor did Day himself. The viral claim emerged from a website that didn't disclose the editorial team behind it and warns its readers that it functions "without warranty of any…

Did a video shared widely in May 2025 authentically show President Donald Trump describing the 2023 train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio as "the largest environmental terror attack in world history" and "an inside job"? No, that's not true: Trump never made such remarks. The clip in question contained fake audio and edited mouth movements, both likely the products of…

My first memory of the passing of a pope is a traumatic one: someone murdered him. Or at least, that's what everyone around me seemed to believe. I was just 13, but I had a sense that something was amiss: Albino Luciani had been Pope John Paul I for only 33 days, and he was relatively young, in his…

By Raffaella Menichini, Lead Stories Deputy International Teams Manager (Rome) and Lead Stories staff A nine-day mourning period has begun with the death of Pope Francis, who died on Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88, according to a statement released by the Holy See Press Office. The cause of death, declared by the Vatican's Directorate of Health…

Did Laila Ali lose her life while giving birth in a Canadian hospital in March 2025? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the 47-year-old former world boxing champ and daughter of boxing great Muhammad Ali was pregnant in March 2025 or that she died while birthing a child. Ali posted a video on March 30, 2025, to…

Did President Donald Trump speak to Fox News about a "Tesla medbed," calling it an "incredible piece of technology"? No, that's not true: Medbeds -- a term for a device that can carry out miraculous healing and age reversal and defy mortality -- do not exist. Footage which appeared to show Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany interviewing Trump on the…

Do posts alerting different communities in the U.S. that "Xavier, Alvaro" is on the run after "stabbing both my neighbors to death" describe a real manhunt and real crimes? No, that's not true: The posts mislead, using a mugshot of a man with a different name who had already been jailed on another continent two months before the "alert" started…