Entertainment

Did U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris resign from office on or even before October 12, 2022? No, that's not true: The claim was made in the title of a video on Facebook, but, in the actual video, Newsmax talk show host Rob Schmitt does not mention that Vice President Harris purportedly resigned. The White House did not announce any resignation,…

Will the World Economic Forum (WEF) soon force people to wear "brain implants" so that the global elite can read their minds? No, that's not true: This claim turns a speculative conversation about possible future technologies into a plot for global dominion. Despite public availability of the video, NewsPunch did not provide any other publicly available evidence of a WEF…

Have celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey and country music singer Reba McEntire recently launched their own keto weight loss line of products on live TV? No, that's not true: This is false advertising and follows a formula that is used again and again, featuring spoofed websites that mimic trusted outlets and bounce users to unknown and untraceable affiliate links. There…

Did Jay-Z and Kanye West predict the pandemic and COVID-19 in a 2011 song? No, that's not true: The lyrics in the video are fake and based on their 2011 song "N***as in Paris," which doesn't mention the words pandemic or COVID-19. The claim appeared in a video on Facebook on September 23, 2022. It opened: Jay-Z and Kanye West…

Was actor Elijah Wood, who played Frodo Baggins in "The Lord of the Rings" movies, arrested for child sex crimes? No, that's not true: Contrary to the claim that Wood was arrested by the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps, the Posse Comitatus Act forbids the military from enforcing civilian law. The claim was posted on a satirical website that…

Is Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the son of the late former Cuban President Fidel Castro? No, that's not true: That's an oft-repeated conspiracy theory that is not supported by any official evidence. A recent claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by NewsPunch on August 10, 2022, with a headline that read "Bombshell Evidence PROVES Justin Trudeau Is…

Do rock formations that resemble elephants prove that giants once ruled the world? No, that's not true: These two formations -- one in Heimaey, Iceland, and the other off the eastern shore of Molokai in the U.S. state of Hawaii -- were both created by volcanic activity and ocean waves. They were not carved by the hands of a race…

Is Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, the American wife of Britain's Prince Harry, "a clone or robot"? No, that's not true: The videos repeating this claim borrowed footage from the 2018 Madam Tussaud's live figures events, when actors put on latex masks to impersonate the real couple. The claim about the former Meghan Markle resurfaced in a TikTok video (archived here)…

Did the U.S. Postal Service allow babies and young children to be stamped and sent through the mail until 1913? No, that's not true: Although there are reports of some children being transported by mail carriers in the early 1900s, the practice was never legal. The claim appeared in a September 27, 2022 Instagram post with the title "Until 1913,…

Was Barron Trump kicked out of school because his tuition had not been paid? No, that's not true: This clickbait title for a video is false. The title's claim is not discussed in the video, which contains a montage of stock photos with a robo voice-over reading articles from a tabloid website. The video was posted on Facebook Watch by…

Does a video show Ukrainian children singing the unofficial anthem of the Luftwaffe? No, that's not true: They aren't singing a Nazi German air force song. The song is by Bots, a Dutch folk rock group. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) published by AZmilitary1 on September 23, 2022. The tweet opened: Nothing unusual, just Ukrainian children singing…

Did the death of a child result in a parent's social media offer to give away a Sony PlayStation 5 (PS5) game console for free because it painfully reminds them of their loss? No, that's not true: The post is a device used to initiate a scam that Lead Stories has traced to more than 200 nearly identical posts. The…

Did CNN, the New York Post or Fox News report about "Two nurses fired after being caught at work"? No, that's not true: the New York Post, CNN or Fox News never published a story with this headline. This post is designed to introduce the name of a website to an audience on social media. Similar tactics have been used…

Did Pope Francis slap Donald Trump's hand away when Trump tried to hold his hand? No, that's not true: The pope and Trump did meet at the Vatican on May 24, 2017, but the hand-touching clip is not real. That clip is from "Jimmy Kimmel Live," a late-night TV talk show. A good indicator that this clip is fake is…

Did the movie, "Captain America: The First Avenger" contain secret clues about the coronavirus years in advance -- proving that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned? No, that's not true: The Times Square advertisements appearing in the background of a movie scene and highlighted with red circles in this meme do not contain a hidden message about a plan for a…

Did a video posted to Facebook in September 2022 show the body of the late Queen Elizabeth II being placed into a coffin? No, that's not true: The video in question was originally posted to social media more than three weeks prior to the queen's September 8, 2022, death. While the post does not make the claim outright, its timing…

Did Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, wear a The Smiths T-shirt with the phrase "The Queen Is Dead" on it to mock the September 8, 2022 death of Queen Elizabeth II? No, that's not true: This is an altered photo. An example of the original photo can be found in a People magazine article. Johnny Marr, the guitarist in…

Does this video show an Irish dance group celebrating the death of Queen Elizabeth by dancing to "Another One Bites The Dust" outside Buckingham Palace? No, that's not true: The video was posted more than seven months before her death and appears to have been an homage to the queen, who was alive and well at the time. The group,…

Did the BBC change its home page color from red to black before the announcement of the death of Queen Elizabeth II? No, that's not true: Archived copies of the BBC.com banner show it was black before the Crown's September 8, 2022, announcement about the queen being under medical supervision and was still black when her death was announced hours…

Will eating cabbage stew or soup cause a person to lose "20 pounds in one week"? No, that's not entirely true: A medical doctor specializing in weight loss told Lead Stories that a person would mostly lose water weight, but cannot lose fat that rapidly using this method. A Ph.D. clinical dietician told Lead Stories it is not a well-balanced…