Was a letter "S" recently added to LGBTQIA to represent "satanism"? Do the brown and black stripes on the pride and trans flags represent an acknowledgment of stolen Native American land and Black Lives Matter? No, that's not true: The S does not stand for satanism. The S at the end of the acronym can be plural, as in "LGBTQIAs,"…

Is the interior Earth actually hollow, with access points at the North and South Poles that lead to a mythical land that is home to superhumans and extraterrestrial beings with advanced technology? No, that's not true: Though treated as a scientific supposition in the 17th century, the so-called "hollow Earth theory" has been disproved through modern science; yet it remains…

Does aluminum foil cause deadly diseases? No, there's no evidence that's true: This claim distorts a study that looks at the risks of using aluminum foil in food preparation. Although the study found that cooking with aluminum foil can leach aluminum into food and may pose health risks, it did not say that such foil is the cause of deadly…

Did Rep. Elise Stefanik angrily call Rep. Adam Schiff a "lying son of a bitch" during a meeting in Congress? No, that's not true: This post has a clickbait headline apparently to draw attention to a Facebook page. In only a portion of the video in this post, Stefanik criticized Schiff during her remarks over a whistleblower in a 2019…

Did the television show "The Simpsons" predict Queen Elizabeth II's death in 2022? No, that's not true: An image showing the queen in a coffin with the dates 1926-2022 is not a real still from "The Simpsons." The queen's death does not appear in any episodes of this series. Lead Stories previously debunked a claim that used a similar image…

Does a seven-day, once-a-year, water-only fast reduce your risk of cancer by 95%? No, that's not true: There is no scientific evidence to support this claim and Lead Stories spoke to experts who refuted it. The claim appeared in an Instagram post and video published on September 5, 2022 by Ben Azadi with the title "World Renowned Cancer Researcher Reveals…

by: Marlo Lee Did the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Challenger survive the 1986 explosion? No, that's not true: The seven astronauts who were onboard the Challenger died on January 28, 1986. Four of the individuals whom one video narrator presents as survivors of the explosion are individuals without established family or professional ties to the crew. In two cases,…

Did the "entire leadership of NATO" lose their jobs on September 5, 2022? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support this claim. An event of this scale would be intensively covered by media organizations in many countries, including the United States, but there were no such reports. The text of this claim does not name any of…

Did Illinois pass a real "PURGE" law? No, that's not true: A recently enacted law does not allow all crimes to be legal for one night, the plot of the Hollywood horror flick "The Purge." The state did pass a law that would eliminate cash bail for certain crimes, but judges have the final say over whether or not defendants…

Is a major volcanic eruption with catastrophic global consequences in Yellowstone National Park imminent? No, that's not true. Though such an event is possible over the next thousands to millions of years, experts argue that it is extremely unlikely, particularly over the next few centuries. As of this writing, experts have not detected any signs of activity that suggest an…

Does this video show Russian tanks abandoned in the Kharkiv Region during the September 2022 Ukrainian counteroffensive that overran Russian positions in northeastern Ukraine? No, that's not true: Lead Stories has corroborated open-source investigators' use of Google Maps satellite images to identify the long industrial building as being on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, more than 300 miles distant from Ukraine's…

Did Joe Biden's granddaughter, Naomi Biden, say he "died 4 years ago"? No, that's not true: The woman speaking in a video that makes this claim is not Naomi Biden, but a social-media user with a TikTok account labeled "satire." Joe Biden is alive and well, as of September 15, 2022. One version of the claim appeared in an Instagram…

Are COVID-19 vaccines 98 times worse than the virus itself? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to suggest that getting sick with coronavirus is a better option for the population as a whole than the benefits of immunization. While a pre-print (non-peer-reviewed) draft of an article discusses the ethics of vaccine booster mandates for university students and their possible…

Did Ohio high school football player Kaden Clymer get the COVID-19 vaccine before he was found with a 6-foot-long clot in his leg? No, this claim lacks context. A local TV station covering the story later reported that Clymer had been diagnosed with IVC atresia, a vascular anomaly. "Kaden was never vaccinated before the blood clots were found," his sister,…

Was a letter from the British Ministry of Defence about the Ukrainian Armed Forces' non-NATO-compliant level of training legitimate and "leaked" from the UK government to a website? No, that's not true: The published document's authenticity cannot be verified. Given several errors in English grammar and terminology, the document did not originate from the desk of the British Army Secretariat.…

Did Russia publicly confirm the existence of a secret civilization under Antarctica? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a satirical fictional story labeled as such. The Russian government has never publicly revealed anything that would back up the existence of the purported "organism 46B" living under Antarctica. Many of the posts and articles implying the opposite in the…

Did German politician Friedrich Merz issue a warning that something would occur on September 24, 2022, which would be remembered into the future and not be forgotten by any person? No, that's not true: On February 27, 2022, just days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Merz spoke of the first pictures seen, and first thoughts in…

Does a video show Sen. John Kennedy "exposing" Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, in Congress? No, that's not true: The video in a post making the claim shows an unrelated clip of Kennedy questioning voting rights activist Stacey Abrams of Georgia in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. The post has a clickbait headline apparently to draw attention to…

Did the Saxon State and University Library Dresden (SLUB), one of the largest German academic libraries, ask its readers to bring in Russian books "for heating purposes"? No, that's not true: SLUB General Director Katrin Stump denied the leaflet's authenticity and said that the library had filed a criminal complaint about the claim. The claim appeared in a Facebook post…

Has the call-and-response game "Marco, Polo" proven to be a tactic to initiate sex trafficking in stores? No, that's not true: Spokespeople from human trafficking advocacy and awareness organizations told us that there are no confirmed reports of such a scheme being used for human trafficking. The claim, which may have stemmed from a viral TikTok video published on August…