Does a viral image show the real face of a woman who seemed to have waved at migrants in Ceuta, Spain? No, that's not true: The picture portrayed the woman with an anatomically impossible nose. The image was generated by AI, according to AI verification tools and instructions for the original version of the image. The claim appeared in a…
Does a video show a guard in Morocco opening a border fence located at Ceuta, a Spanish territory, in July 2026? No, that's not true: The footage was posted online in 2021. According to a Spanish police union, it does show Moroccan people crossing into Ceuta. The claim appeared in a post by @alberto_hispanista on Instagram on July 31, 2026…
Does a video show a migrant crisis in Ceuta, Spain? No, that's not true: The clip was uploaded to social media weeks earlier. Two online AI detectors suggested the presence of generative AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on Facebook on July 30, 2026. It opened: Is this an invasion of Spain? This is…
Did people born outside France or French territories set the Saint-Michel Basilica in Bordeaux on fire in July 2026? No, that's not true: The City of Bordeaux denied that when contacted by Lead Stories. The fire occurred near the church and caused no damage to it. Talking to Lead Stories, a Bordeaux deputy prosecutor rejected the online rumor that the…
Does a viral video actually document an incident in which a man was attacked by three migrants in London while having breakfast? No, that's not true: A Lead Stories visual analysis showed many hallmarks strongly suggesting that it is not real footage. Two online AI-generation detection tools concluded the video was between 99% and 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. The…
Does a real video show a machete-wielding migrant yell, "This is the end of England!"? No, that's not true: This AI-generated video was made using a still frame from another video. Several glitches in the video point to it having been made with AI. This, coupled with both videos sharing the same thumbnail image, suggests one video was made using…
Did U.K.'s Prime Minister Keir Starmer publicly threaten to arrest X owner Elon Musk along with other "336 million Americans"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories reviewed Starmer's public comments about Musk and did not find anything remotely close to what social media attributed to the prime minister. The claim about hundreds of millions to be arrested is implausible on…
Does a viral video of fires capture the aftermath of the June 9, 2026, anti-immigration protests in Belfast, Northern Ireland? No, that's not true: The recording showed explosions that same day on a gas pipeline in Russia's Dagestan. The original sound did not include any chants -- that was later digitally added to the version of the video that went…
Does a video from June 2026 show a fire lit by rioters in Belfast, Northern Ireland after a knife attack incident involving a refugee from Sudan? No, that's not true: The video predates the June 8, 2026, knife attack in Belfast. Video of the individuals setting fire to a home was originally published on X almost a year ago, on…
Does a real video show a crowd who just crossed the English Channel and a man who thinks he's entitled to money and a free house from the "England Government"? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The image-to-video scene was made using a real newspaper photo as a source frame. The photo originally appeared in a 2015 New…
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