Did Donald Trump raise the monthly pension of Medal of Honor recipients to almost $70,000? No, that's not true: The Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed to Lead Stories that those figures show the annual change, not monthly. According to the federal agency, there are 63 veterans and 34 surviving spouses who receive this pension, as of December 3, 2025. The…

Is a "shocking" video of Charlie Kirk murder defendant Tyler Robinson and his lawyer talking in court before a hearing in the case real? No, that's not true: The news media feed from the same moment and the same camera captured an inaudible whispered conversation. The video is a satirical attack on podcaster Candace Owens and the theories about the…

Silvia Cernan Gutierrez is a multidisciplinary professional with almost two decades of experience spanning journalism, digital media, education, marketing, and international program management. She joined Lead Stories in November 2025. Silvia discovered her passion for investigative journalism in New York City, where she worked as part of a newsroom team producing digital news content and managing web and social coverage…

Did Barack Obama, Donald Trump or Marco Rubio "just cut the ribbon on a $150 million free education and health campus, entirely funded "by his own pocket", without a single tax dollar."? No, none of them did: The made-up stories are among dozens cranked out by Vietnam-based publishers building traffic on Facebook with stories attractive to fans of Obama, Trump…

Is a photo showing President Donald Trump using a walker to assist him real? No, that's not true: The image has the SynthID watermark that indicates it was created by Google's AI tool, according to an analysis by Google's Gemini chatbot. The image may have been created for satirical reasons since it was posted soon after President Trump signed an…

Are videos of women being kicked out of court for outfits described as "inappropriate" real? No, that's not true: Multiple low-quality viral videos following the same script and posted by the same creators show signs of AI. Evidence of AI origin includes abnormal hand anatomy and a judge's podium at the back of the courtroom instead of the front. The…

Does an image show an actual Minneapolis warehouse with tiny indoor cottages for homeless people? No, that's not true: The image used is AI generated. There is, however, a warehouse in Minneapolis that holds boxy private dwellings for homeless people. They resemble the containerized housing U.S. troops live in on some overseas military bases. The Avivo Village is a legitimate…

Did House Democrats release photos showing Jeffrey Epstein with a girl in a green skirt who also appears bound and gagged in another image? No, that's not true: These images have both been digitally edited. The original image of Epstein from 2005 showed him posing with Ghislaine Maxwell. It has been in the Getty Images library since 2016. The image…

Did Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem say on Fox News that calling ICE agents Nazis is rude and inaccurate because they don't wear uniforms? No, that's not true: A fabricated Fox News screenshot with that quote had the watermark of an Instagram account carrying the tagline, "Dope Dad. Comedian. Satirist. Amateur Professional." The image was taken from a June 2025…

Did Donald Trump announce that people who had cosmetic surgeries would no longer be eligible for any form of government assistance starting in March 2026? No, that's not true:There were no news stories about any such announcement from Trump, despite claims in a viral video. Neither the White House nor Trump's social media accounts showed anything looking like such an…