Did Erika Kirk lose custody of her children, as indicated by Rep. Anna Paulina Luna in an interview? No, that's not true: Rep. Luna said in a podcast interview that Kirk "lost her kids," but later said she "meant to say the kids lost their dad." There is no evidence to conclude that the widow of Charlie Kirk lost custody…

Did a group of "radical libertarian NRA members" face off with ICE agents and their vehicles in Oregon, daring them to move an inch toward them? No, that's not true: A viral message making that claim in the wake of the Minneapolis shooting of a woman by an ICE agent originated on a satirical X.com account. There were no actual…

Is a photograph of Elsa Thora, a blonde woman, aboard a ship during a military operation authentic? No, that's not true: This is not a real photo. Google's Gemini detected a SynthID watermark embedded in the image indicating that all or part of it was created or edited with Google AI. The image was posted on January 7, 2026, on…

Did a "Lucas Mamdani", brother to New York City's mayor, buy properties with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to financially benefit from new city policies on affordable housing? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find evidence to support the existence of any sibling of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The claim originated from a page with a satire label that was…

Was "Steve Grove" identified as the ICE Agent who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: The agent's name has not been publicly released by official sources, but the Minnesota Star Tribune has identified the involved ICE agent as Jonathan Ross. Some social media posts are not only using the wrong name, but AI-generated images spun from video…

Does the photo circulating on social media show Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis Jan. 7, 2025? No, that's not true: This is not a picture of Good, but another woman who attended Old Dominion University at the same time. Both women were awarded poetry prizes in 2020 and their photos appeared separately in…

Does this viral video clip show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying Renee Good had the right to drive away from ICE officers just before one of them shot and killed her on a Minneapolis street? No, that's not true: The clip is real, but was lifted from a June, 2025 appearance on "The Rubin Report" podcast, six months before Good…

Are photos of an unmasked ICE agent purportedly involved in the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis real? No, that's not true: The ICE agent seen in the images was not recorded without a mask before or after Good was fatally shot on January 7, 2026. The unmasked images were created by the Grok AI tool using screenshots of…

Did Keanu Reeves open an "Arch Animal Sanctuary" as claimed by several viral posts? No, that's not true: The image used in the story was generated using artificial intelligence according to the SynthID watermark in it. There were no actual news reports about such a sanctuary being opened. One image used in the viral story was stolen from a fact…

Did Barbra Streisand, British politician Nigel Farage and Kevin Costner each say "Our country would be safer without Somali immigrants -- starting with Ilhan Omar!"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories featuring those and other famous people were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were no news articles about such an event and the…