United States

Did Anthropic stage a leak of Claude's code as an April Fools' prank, an "exercise in controlled chaos"? No, that's not true: There was a leak of part of the source code for "Claude Code," Anthropic's AI-powered coding assistant. There is no evidence that the leak was intentional or timed to be an April Fools' joke as stated in a…

Does a real photo show that a bald eagle landed on top of the Artemis II rocket on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center on April 1, 2026, just before liftoff? No, that's not true: The bird is an AI creation, about three times larger than a real bald eagle. Online AI image detection tools also found it to…

Does a court filing definitively state that the bullet that killed Charlie Kirk does not match the rifle allegedly used by Tyler Robinson? No, that's not true: In court documents, defense lawyers said a summary report by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives indicates the agency was unable to match up the bullet recovered from Kirk. The defense…

Is a video of a two-year-old running to their soldier dad authentic? No, that's not true: A detection tool flagged the video with a 99.7% probability of being AI-generated. Lead Stories did not find any version of the video that included identifiable information about the toddler or their family. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X…

Did "Mean Gene" Okerlund interview two "real" guys who bear an uncanny resemblance to the cartoon characters Beavis and Butt-Head? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. Gene Okerlund died in 2019. The AI-generated "real" Beavis and Butt-Head look-alikes are just as fictional as the animated characters. Several versions of the fake interview with the same dialogue have been…

Is this a real photo from the Daily Mail showing Byron Noem wearing a light blue T-shirt with large fake breasts and a dog in the background? No, that's not true: That image of the husband of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is not one of the photos published by the British tabloid. The authentic photos of Byron Noem…

Is Donald Trump being added to the sculptures of the four presidents at Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota as of April 1, 2026? No, that's not true: That was an April Fool's Day joke. The article that started the rumor was written under the pen name Olaf Priol -- an anagram of April Fool. The story appeared in…

Did Oprah Winfrey try to buy Sen. John Fetterman's vote on the "Big Beautiful Bill" for $20 million? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page known for its satirical content. The image supporting the claim is stamped with a warning label that says: "Satire. EVERYTHING on this page is FICTION." The claim appeared in a post…

Does a real image show a wife crying as she hugs her husband goodbye because he is deploying to Iran? No, that's not true: This is an AI-generated image that was published with a request for engagement. The page where this originated posts emotionally charged AI-generated images with captions asking for comments and shares. Other engagement bait themes include children…

Does a video widely shared on April Fool's Day show a real LGBTQ+ flag waving at an entrance to Amerant Bank Arena, a home stadium for the Florida Panthers? Yes, that's true: The video appeared on the hockey team's account on X, among other places. News reports confirmed that the flag was seen during the March 31, 2026, game. The…

Does a viral video prove that a man in traditional clothes once walked holding hands with his underage wife in a public space in Plano, Texas? No, that's not true: Beyond the narrator's allegations, the video contains nothing confirming a marital relationship between the two. The local police department told Lead Stories it had received no official reports of child…

Is a video of a woman crying while tied up from the Epstein files released by the U.S. Department of Justice? No, that's not true: The footage is from a 2007 mockumentary-style horror film titled "The Poughkeepsie Tapes." The video exactly matches footage from the movie that is easily found on the internet. The claim appeared in a post with…

Did country singer Jason Aldean walk off the set of Stephen Colbert's TV show over a joke about Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The story originated on a Facebook page known for its satirical content. The image supporting the claim is stamped with a warning label that says: "Satire. Nothing on this page is real." The claim appeared in…

Did Bad Bunny and other famous people including Blake Shelton, Cardi B, Tom Jones, Andrea Bocelli say that they were supporting peaceful demonstrators via the National Defense Fund? No, that's not true: The claim was an example of so-called "Viet Spam" campaigns of nearly identical made-up clickbait stories, each featuring a different famous person, created to drive traffic to web…

Did single dad Michael Torres get 199 points instead of the 200 needed to win $20,000 in Family Feud Fast Money to pay for his daughter's cancer treatment? No, that's not true: The story was generated by artificial intelligence tools by a spam operation Lead Stories has identified as based in Vietnam. There is no credible documentation that this story…

Does a video show the arrest of a woman who reportedly called Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on men fixing her roof? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the woman's arrest at the beginning of the clip is connected to the detention of the men by ICE later in the video. An ICE spokesperson told Lead Stories…

Does a viral post prove that participants of the "No Kings" rallies in March 2026 were paid hourly to protest? No, that's not true: The claim purporting to show the first-person statement of a real protester was first posted by an account that previously referred to its content as parody. Two online detectors concluded that the account's profile picture was…

Did Israeli Channel 13 and Al Jazeera confirm that Hezbollah partially or wholly captured Kiryat Shmona? No, that's not true: There's no reliable evidence to support that claim. Neither news organization reported that Hezbollah fighters had taken Israel's northernmost city, located near its border with Lebanon, although the community has been largely evacuated due to ongoing cross-border attacks. The claim…

Did a video show a mother donkey defend her foal from a fox attack and damage the barn in the process? No, that's not true: A content detection tool determined with 99.9 percent confidence that the video was AI generated. It was made to look like black-and-white CCTV footage filmed by a security camera. The video was shared in a…

Did President Donald Trump post to Truth Social that the "United States will begin a major Ground Operation in Iran"? No, that's not true: No such message about a "Strong," "Precise" and "Successful" operation appears on Trump's Truth Social account as of this writing. Google didn't index any message with the text from a viral screenshot that appeared to show…