Europe

Does a video show President Joe Biden trying to sit on "a chair that doesn't exist" on June 6, 2024, during ceremonies commemorating D-Day in France? No, that's not true: The video that went viral on social media has been edited to crop out the moment Biden sits down on an existing, tangible chair. In the extended video, Biden is…

Did Jill Biden lead President Joe Biden out of the Normandy ceremony before it ended, as a post on social media implies? No, that's not true: The ceremony on June 6, 2024, honoring D-Day veterans at the 80th anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings was ending when Biden and the first lady left the ceremony. French President Emmanuel Macron and…

Did China's Defense Ministry warn it would "intervene militarily" if the United States or NATO attacked Russia? No, that's not true: No credible evidence supports this claim. Additionally, there are no official statements or credible reports from the Chinese government or its Defense Ministry to support this assertion. Nor is there any report of such a statement in China Daily,…

Has Lia Thomas, the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship Division I title, been exclusively banned from competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, as a post on Facebook implied? No, that's not true: The International Olympic Committee outlined a framework for all transgender and intersex athletes. However, national committees oversee athletic participation in their respective…

Does a 50-second video show authentic remarks by U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller discussing "military targets" in the Russian city of Belgorod, with "virtually no civilians left" in that city? No, that's not true: The video mixes video of different briefings, during which Miller made no such remarks. The words falsely attributed to him in the video were AI-generated.…

Did soccer manager Pep Guardiola avoid shaking hands with "the Israeli representative" in May 2024? No, that's not true: A viral video on social media misidentified the man passed over by Guardiola as he greeted a line of well-wishers at a match in 2023. The bypassed man was another soccer manager, Alan Smith. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Does a video on social media show Cristiano Ronaldo offering support to "children of Gaza"? No, that's not true: The original video of soccer superstar Ronaldo was posted in 2016 and he said it was for the "children of Syria," not the children of Gaza. His voice has been altered to change the word "Syria" to "Gaza," and the background…

Do 31 patent citations prove actor Terrence Howard invented virtual reality? No, that's not true: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says that Howard's idea was never patented in the United States, while the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization websites show the patent process was never completed internationally. Additionally, there is no direct correlation between the…

Does an image show a legitimate "pedosexual" acceptance flyer that lumps pedophilia into the acronym LGBT? No, that's not true: The "flyer" is a fabricated document designed and spread by online networks that are biased against LGBTQ+ causes. Pedophilia is not an accepted sexuality under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter,…

Does a viral image prove that U.K. Labour Party leader Keir Starmer socialized with Jimmy Savile, a British TV personality accused of dozens of sexual offenses? No, that's not true: The image was digitally altered to place Savile in the room with Starmer. The original photo showed Starmer sitting next to Gordon Brown. The image appeared in a post (archived…

Can the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, or EISCAT Scientific Association, use its technologies for mind control, as a video on social media claims? No, that's not true: EISCAT Scientific Association Director Axel Steuwer told Lead Stories that there is "absolutely no mind control possible" with the program's systems, which primarily measure physical elements of the upper atmosphere using the…

Does a social media video show an incident on May 21, 2024, in which a Boeing Singapore Airlines plane hit extremely rough air? No, that's not true: The clip is from nearly five years earlier. Instead of the Singapore Airlines flight, the video shows another case of heavy turbulence from June 2019, involving an ALK Airlines plane over Europe. The…

Was there a debate that took place in the UK in May 2024 about removing the Holocaust from school curricula? No, that's not true: A social media post making the claim in May 2024 began circulating in 2019. Years earlier, a 2007 report circulated about one UK school where the Holocaust was not taught as an optional topic. The British…

Is the wife of the suspect in the attempted assassination of Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico a Ukrainian refugee? No, that's not true: The head of the country's national police said that such speculations on social media are "definitely a hoax." Lead Stories found no credible news reporting corroborating the claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on…

Does a video show French prisoners celebrating the killing of two police officers in an ambush in May 2024? No, that's not true: The video predates the attack by almost a year. The ambush happened as a prisoner named Mohamed Amra rode in a prison van; a car struck the van and gunmen shot the two officers, allowing Amra to…

Is a man suspected of shooting Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico a member of the Progressive party opposing Fico's policies? No, that's not true: Both Progressive Slovakia's chairman and the interior minister rejected such claims. As of this writing, no credible media reports corroborated the claim. The story appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter,…

Does video show Irish police walking with schoolchildren in Dublin to protect them from asylum-seekers living in a tent camp? No, that's not true: The police told Lead Stories that the videos shared on social media showed a routine practice of community units helping local schools navigate field trips. The statement "categorically rejected" the connection between camps and law enforcement's…

Was German politician Björn Höcke fined in May 2024 for simply using a patriotic phrase in a speech three years earlier? No, that's not true: His conviction and fine were related to a phrase deemed to violate German laws regarding Nazi propaganda and slogans. The German Criminal Code is particularly strict about language that could be interpreted as promoting Nazi…

Did Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico "formally and publicly" reject the World Health Organization Global Pandemic Accord "only days" before an assassination attempt on May 15, 2024, as a post on X claimed? No, that's not true: The pandemic accord has not been finalized, a World Health Organization spokesperson told Lead Stories on May 15, 2024. Although Fico had voiced…

Was an approximately 2-year-old-child, who was never reported missing, found in a town -- and are police keeping the child safe while looking for the child's guardian? No, that's not true: While this situation may have occurred somewhere at some point in time, posts circulating on Facebook in May 2024 are part of a scam and are not true. The…