Wikileaks

Did the UN say that 14,000 babies would die if there is no aid to Gaza in 48 hours? Yes, the organization's representative did cite such a figure, but that figure appears to have been drawn from a UN prediction that covered roughly a year between April 2025 and March 2026, not a single day. Here is what we know…

Does a video on social media show crowds gathered in Australia to greet Julian Assange on his return in June 2024? No, that's not true: The video was published in 2023, showing footage from crowds at the May 20 Sydney Freedom March. The video has a clear logo identifying it as being from Aussie Cossack News and the footage was…

Did WikiLeaks.org remove 20,000 leaked Democratic National Committee emails on the day that Julian Assange made a plea deal in a U.S. District Court? No, that's not true: A review of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows that the error notice on the WikiLeaks DNC email database appeared sometime between November 5 and November 8, 2022. It is not a…

Did Hillary Clinton say in 2013 that she "would like to see people like Donald Trump run for office"? No, that's not true: In the extensive publicly accessible record of Clinton statements, Lead Stories found only that she said in 2013 that she would like to see business owners running for office. There is no evidence Clinton specifically said she…

Did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once say, "America is a golden calf and we will suck it dry," and then "destroy" it? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Netanyahu said this years before the Hamas-Israel war, or ever. The quotes are attributed to a transcript purportedly seen by an admitted misinformation peddler in 2015. But no…

Does a photograph authentically show Tom Cruise with his two "stunt doubles"? No, that's not true: An image shared widely on social media in June 2023 was generated using the artificial intelligence program Midjourney, the image creator confirmed to Lead Stories. A version of the claim originated in an image shared to Twitter on June 7, 2023, (archived here) that…

Did Hillary Clinton say she sacrificed chickens to Moloch in a 2009 email? No, that's not true: The line in question was not written by her. The content of the exchange shows that the phrase was used as a figurative expression of cautious optimism. The claim appeared in a video published on Instagram on May 7, 2023, under the title:…

Does an image on social media show WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange pale and disheveled as he awaits extradition from Britain to the United States on espionage charges? No, that's not true: The picture was created using an AI-based image generator. In a German newspaper interview, the person who posted the photo acknowledged creating it and gave his reasons behind sharing…

Did WikiLeaks in December of 2022 release Apollo 11 "moon landing cut scenes filmed in Nevada desert," proving that the moon landing never happened and was instead staged for filming right here on Earth? No, that's not true: The video in this post splices together a scene from a 1977 fictional movie, which was not even filmed in Nevada, and…

Did "Julian Assange's Organization" release a series of clips exposing "brutal WAR CRIMES" of the U.S. and British militaries after WikiLeaks founder Assange was ordered to be extradited to the United States? No, that's not true: When the British government on June 17, 2022, formally ordered Assange to be extradited, the videos cited had already been publicly available for more…