Earthquake

Does a video show how multiple laser beams scanned the ground in the instant before the Venezuela earthquakes struck? No, that's not true: One clip in the video was published on TikTok on March 18, 2026, months before earthquakes struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026. The video had already circulated widely with a caption calling it a "converging beam event"…

Does a video show two towers crashing into each other during the Venezuela earthquakes on June 24, 2026? No, that's not true: An AI detection tool determined that the video was 98.6% "likely to be AI-generated" and appears to be a 3D physics simulation or computer-generated imagery (CGI) effect. In addition, the exaggerated physics of the two buildings leaning into…

Does a video show real footage of a horse protecting its owner from a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Japan? No, that's not true: The video shows signs of being AI-generated. Additionally, Lead Stories could not find any reports related to such an event outside of social media posts. The claim appeared in a post made on Bluesky by the account…

Does a real unmanipulated video show Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying "conspiracy theorists were right" and the COVID-19 vaccine maybe causes "gayness" and calling Anthony Fauci a "goblin"? No, that's not true: The audio in the video has been altered. An un-altered original video of RFK Jr. originally making the speech shows that he never claims the vaccine causes those…

Does a video show a nuclear test carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran? No, that's not true: The video clip shows a nuclear test in the Nevada desert in 1957. The mislabeled video clip bears the watermark of the YouTube channel @atomcentral who posted the old footage of the atomic test in 2023. The mislabeled…

Did Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift announce on a livestream that they are spending $250 million to find the truth in the Virginia Giuffre case? No, that's not true: Neither the celebrity couple nor news organizations said anything about it. The claim was promoted by overseas-based pages that publish made-up stories to drive traffic-based ad revenue. The claim appeared in…

Did U.S. Representative Thomas Massie say he obtained a flash drive containing the original versions of all Epstein files? No, that's not true: In an email to Lead Stories, Massie denied that. Lead Stories found no evidence supporting social media posts making the claim that Massie had such a flash drive. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Is a video that shows a man who is unhappy when his french fries are spilled in a McDonald's during an earthquake in Toronto real? No, that's not true: The short clip was created by an artificial intelligence tool, according to an AI-generated content detector. Implausible details in the scene like garbled text and a shape-shifting hamburger also indicate it…

Did either Karoline Leavitt, Sunny Hostin, Whoopi Goldberg, or Joy Behar say that Paul McCartney, Phil Collins, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, or a dozen other major artists is "just a musician"? No, that's not true: The claim was made about at least 16 different entertainers in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at American and European…

Did Karoline Leavitt dismiss various celebrities, saying "complex social policy" was "out of their league" and dismissing them as just a singer, musician, actor or comedian? No, that's not true: The claim about a televised confrontation in a TV studio was made about at least 26 different people in posts published on dozens of fake Facebook fan pages aimed at…