Stew Peters

Does a video on social media show firefighters being rescued by helicopter during the North Carolina floods in late September 2024? No, that's not true: The video is actually from September 15, 2024, in the Czech Republic, not the United States. The firefighters were helping people impacted by the raging waters when they became stranded and needed to be rescued…

Did World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus admit that he's unvaccinated for COVID-19 as of September 12, 2023? No, that's not true: A clip of Tedros explaining his delayed vaccination was misrepresented. He received COVID vaccination in May 2021, much earlier than the claim indicated. The claim was implied in a post (archived here) by the official account of…

Did a July 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conclude that children are being harmed by masks, resulting in a 17 percent rise in developmental disabilities in children 3-17? No, that's not true: A misleading headline on a paywalled Substack blog post mentions a "New CDC Report" as if it offers evidence supporting the claim that…

Did India fake the landing of the Chandrayaan-3 lander module on the surface of the moon, and attempt to fool the world with an animation? No, that's not true: This image does show a simulation, but it was not presented in an effort to deceive the public. The Chandrayaan-3 lander module, named Vikram, did achieve a soft landing near the…

Does a social media post listing "1,884 Athlete Cardiac Arrests" and 1,310 deaths between January 2021 and July 2023 prove a connection between these mishaps and the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: While the ultimate source of the information cited in the post lists hundreds of "athletes" who have died or collapsed for various reasons (some of them clearly…

Is livestreamed footage of the lunar module Challenger's 1972 takeoff from the moon fake since the technology did not exist at the time to livestream such an event? No, that's not true: NASA's chief historian confirmed to Lead Stories that the "footage is authentic to the Apollo 17 mission." As part of the Apollo missions of the 1960s and 1970s,…

Do COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and treatments for the virus come from snake venom and do the vaccines then cause humans to produce venom in their bodies? In addition, is nicotine the "perfect antidote" for COVID, making the vaccines unnecessary? No, none of those things are true: These assertions have no basis in science, infectious disease experts told Lead Stories. The…

Does a photo that has been circulating online since November 2022 show British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak flashing his bare chest and wearing nothing but a white lab coat and a jockstrap? No, that's not true: This photo cannot be traced back to Sunak and its origin is unknown. It could be a digitally edited or an AI-generated image. The…

Do photos of British Passport #84764 issued in Nairobi, Kenya, on April 29, 1959 to Mr. Barack Hussein Obama prove that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya and "was thus a FAKE and ILLEGITIMATE President"? No, that's not true: A father and son both had the same name, Barack Hussein Obama. These photos posted by Malik Obama, the older…

Did actor Morgan Freeman make a video criticizing President Joe Biden for talking about ice cream? No, that's not true: This is a deepfake of Freeman. Someone has put on a filter that looks like Freeman's face while also trying to speak like him. The TikTok account that originally posted this video had "Celebrity Impressionist" in the bio. The claim…