Venezuela

Does a viral video portray the 2024 mass protests in Venezuela in response to the contested results of this year's presidential election? No, that's not true: The footage has been online since 2017. It showed a different rally in the country's capital. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on July 29, 2024.…

Has President Joe Biden "secretly flown 320,000 illegal immigrants from Latin American airports to 43 U.S. cities"? No, that's not true: The Biden administration called the claim "categorically false," noting it had publicly announced the immigration program in January 2023. The program includes individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The announcement stated that those granted permission to enter the…

Does a video circulating on social media show a CNN report with President Joe Biden speaking about oil smuggling in Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela? No, that's not true: The video clip is not authentic. This exact clip is available from a celebrity voice-generating app. This clip featuring the likeness of Joe Biden has an AI-generated voice delivering a customizable…

Does a video on Mexico's Milenio Television channel show a Mexican cartel member carrying a U.S.-made Javelin anti-tank missile? No, that's not true: Raytheon Technologies, which makes the Javelin, told Lead Stories that the video shows another type of shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon. The claim appeared in a post on Twitter (archived here) by Mexican journalist Azucena Uresti on May 31,…

Are any of the men pictured in social media posts Mauricio Garcia, the gunman who was killed during the May 7, 2023, mass shooting at an Allen, Texas, outlet mall? No, that's not true: While a man pictured in two different posts with two different pictures shares a name with the gunman, he is not the same person nor the…

Can the Alaska-based HAARP project, a former military research facility for studying the ionosphere, remotely initiate natural disasters such as earthquakes anywhere on Earth? No, that's not true: An "explanation" of its purported capabilities to manufacture disasters, posted on social media, contradicts well-established scientific facts. The manager of the HAARP project told Lead Stories that the facility "cannot create or…

Did "white hats" in the U.S. military "disable an amphibious cruiser that attacked GITMO" as of January 4, 2023? No, that's not true: The aircraft carrier identified with a photo as the "aggressor" was never put into service and was sold for scrap in 1971. Also, this claim was made on a website known for publishing fabricated content. The claim…

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…

Is this person in this video a 399-year-old woman? No, that's not true: It's a 109-year-old Thai monk, according to a Thai media website. He gained a lot of attention when his granddaughter posted him to her TikTok account. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on July 27, 2022. The video consists of multiple clips of the person, most…

Did a military tribunal sentence Tom Vilsack, the U.S. secretary of agriculture, to hang? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) told Lead Stories that this claim is false. A duty officer for the Pentagon told us that this story was "ridiculous" and "untrue." Real Raw News, the website that published this story, is…