Did a suspect named "Samoylo Haidyuk" have anything to do with the recent killing of Aleksandr Dugin's daughter Darya Dugina? No, that's not true: A tweet making the accusation was using a photoshopped image of comedian Sam Hyde, the latest in a long internet trolling tradition of blaming Hyde for every assasination or shooting that goes viral online. In the…

Did the cybersecurity conference Cyber Polygon, a partner of the World Economic Forum, release plans for Canada's July 8, 2022 nationwide Internet outage? No, that's not true: No documentary evidence links the shutdown to either the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Switzerland-based non-governmental organization or Cyber Polygon, a conference co-sponsored by WEF. The outage left millions of Canadians served by…

Will a 6-month-old baby get more shots this year than a 40-year-old has already had in their lifetime? It depends on the person choosing their vaccinations. Using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Child and Adolescent Immunization Schedule that was available on August 19, 2022, Lead Stories counted 16 recommended childhood shots through the first six months of…

Are Russia and China creating a "new global reserve currency" based on "rare earth minerals" as videos on social media claim? No, that's not true: The original source of the story, Russian President Vladimir Putin, brought up the idea of a reserve currency based on a basket of currencies of BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa…

Did the World Economic Forum (WEF) announce the recruitment of "information warriors" to control the narrative on social media? No, that's not true: The WEF has recruited no such people. An article making the claim misrepresents a UN initiative called "Verified," which was launched in May 2020 in an effort to fight misinformation around COVID-19. The article (archived here) was…

Did Sen. Ted Cruz say he has Hunter Biden's laptop and leak a secret document implicating U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland? No, that's not true: This video does not include any of those claims. The video is an exchange between Cruz and Franita Tolson, the George T. and Harriet E. Pfleger Chair in Law at the University of Southern California…

Did former President Donald Trump say in a Truth Social post "Can't trust a guy named Weisselberg - know what I mean?" after Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg pled guilty to tax fraud? No, that's not true: The quote was a joke, according to professional comedian and former U.S. Sen. Al Franken, who tweeted it after news reports that Weisselberg…

Does a video of Sen. Ted Cruz questioning current FBI Director Christopher Wray or former FBI Acting Director Andrew McCabe expose either man in a lie about the circumstances surrounding the August 8, 2022, search of Mar-a-Lago, the Florida home of former President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The video of Cruz is spliced together from separate congressional hearings…

Did governments around the world kill 12 million people by giving them COVID-19 shots? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that anywhere near that number of people have died due to vaccination for the disease as of mid-August 2022. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have only identified "nine…

Did a social media video contain authentic audio recordings of a Secret Service agent bemoaning President Joe Biden's difficulty in putting on his jacket? No, that's not true: The video was a satirical clip originally posted online by a comedian and labeled with the hashtag #comedy. The video first appeared in an August 10, 2022, TikTok post (archived here) published…

Did Donald Trump Jr. tell Trump supporters via Twitter to not come to Mar-a-Lago because "many important people are coming through the club and we need to keep it clean"? No, that's not true: Trump Jr. did not tweet this; it's not on his verified Twitter account. The tweet was fabricated. The claim appeared in a tweet posted on Instagram…

Does this video show footage of new IRS agents in training? No, that's not true: The footage is from a university event held in 2017 for accounting students that allowed them to perform a mock investigation with IRS Criminal Investigation unit agents for a day. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on August 17, 2022. The post included a…

Does a Facebook video show the Ukrainian navy destroying "13 Russian warships in the Black Sea"? No, that's not true: The clip recycles old unrelated footage of Russian -- not Ukrainian -- ships in action. More importantly, the video never discusses the 13 "destroyed" ships mentioned in the caption -- the narrator only says that those are "on high alert."…

Was a woman found dead in the Arkansas River linked to the "suspicious death" of former Clinton advisor Mark Middleton? No, that's not true: A report in radaronline.com quoted an anonymous source -- purportedly an associate of Middleton's -- to link Ashley Haynes and Middleton. The alleged link first appeared in a radaronline.com article, and nowhere else, on May 27,…

Were New Yorkers advised to pack "go bags" because there is an immediate threat from "Project Blue Beam"? No, that's not true: While city emergency managers have recommended residents create this type of emergency kit, it's not associated with any imminent or specific concern or threat. The claim appears in an August 15, 2022, Instagram video on the "unanswered_universe" account…

Was Anne Heche in a movie about pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, which some conspiracy theorists claim led to her death? No, that's not true: The Hollywood star crashed her car into a house August 9, 2022, succumbing to her injuries five days later. The Los Angeles County Coroner on August 17 ruled her death accidental. At the time of her…

Can schools prescribe students Adderall, a drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? No, that's not true: According to federal law, public schools are not allowed to prescribe Adderall to students. Lead Stories did not find evidence that private schools can prescribe ADHD medication to students, either. The claim was implied in an Instagram post on August 4,…

Is the CERN physics laboratory powered by child sacrifices or human blood? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that the lab, which is often referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, is being powered by anything other than the French electrical grid. In an August 17, 2022, email to Lead Stories the agency said, "CERN is powered…

Does a video on social media in August 2022 show an act of aggression against a French priest? No, that's not true: The clip shows a 2020 incident in Guyana. Some of this claim's variations had such hashtags as "diversity," "multiculturalism" and "openborders," implying that the attacker could be an immigrant. According to previous media reports, it is not the…

Are the 30 percent of signatures that did not qualify for the recall of the Los Angeles County district attorney the same as ballots rejected in the 2020 election? No, the claim is missing context: Nothing stops an unqualified person from signing a petition to have an issue placed on a ballot. The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk verifies that…