Europe

Did London Mayor Sadiq Khan ban taxi drivers from displaying the flag of England, also known as St. George's Cross, during Euro 2024 football championship? No, that's not true: The regulation prohibits all flags on any taxi in the British capital and does not single out the flag of England. These decisions are made by Transport for London, not the…

Is Israel out of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, as of June 24, 2024, as was claimed in a social media post? No, that's not true: As of this writing, Israel remains on the list of 206 national teams entered to compete. Lead Stories could find no evidence that would corroborate the claim that Israel was "out of the…

Did the Union of European Football Associations force team captains to wear a pro-LGTBQ+ armband during the organization's Euro 2020 competition and was Cristiano Ronaldo the only one not to wear it? No, that's not true: Instances of armbands worn during Euro 2020 in support of the LBGTQ+ community were not an order from the governing body. The OneLove armband,…

Did the CIA issue a warning to U.S. citizens to avoid using the Paris Metro during the 2024 Summer Olympics? No, that's not true: No official statements or credible sources confirm such a warning as of June 18, 2024. Additionally, warnings and travel advisories are typically issued by the U.S. State Department, not the CIA. The claim appeared in a…

Did the Albanian prime minister describe the "three major devils in the world" as being the U.S., the Soviet Union and Israel while speaking in front of the U.S. secretary of state Anthony Blinken? No, that's not true: A video clip used in a social media post is missing context. Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama was explaining the history of…

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, "If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender"? No, that's not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has…

Did Universal Studios first introduce the concept of the world as a globe in 1927 before NASA had photographed it from space in the 1960s? No, that's not true on several counts: It did not take NASA's space program to discover that the Earth was round. Greek philosophers had already described the Earth as a sphere as early as the…

Under U.K. law, can people be fined £1,000 specifically for flying the flag of England, also known as St. George's Cross, on a vehicle? No, that's not true: The law only imposes fines for flags that violate specific regulations regarding size, location or how they are mounted. There is no law prohibiting the act of flying the English flag itself.…

Did President Joe Biden wander aimlessly away from a group of world leaders during a skydiving demonstration at the Group of Seven summit? No, that's not true: Biden did take a few steps away from the group, but it was to give a thumbs up to the paratrooper adjacent to the group who was collecting his gear. The Folgore paratroopers…

Does a video accurately show actress Angelina Jolie in 2024 condemning violence in Gaza? No, that's not true: The version in a social media post is edited from a 2020 video of Jolie giving a message of support to the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The video posted on social media is edited to remove the mention of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a comparison…

Does a viral video show a scene just before Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was attacked in June 2024? No, that's not true: The footage is unrelated to the incident and was recorded in a location about 125 miles away according to geolocation evidence. Copies of the footage have been circulating online since 2020 so the timing doesn't match either.…

Does a video show President Joe Biden trying to sit on "a chair that doesn't exist" on June 6, 2024, during ceremonies commemorating D-Day in France? No, that's not true: The video that went viral on social media has been edited to crop out the moment Biden sits down on an existing, tangible chair. In the extended video, Biden is…

Did Jill Biden lead President Joe Biden out of the Normandy ceremony before it ended, as a post on social media implies? No, that's not true: The ceremony on June 6, 2024, honoring D-Day veterans at the 80th anniversary commemoration of the Normandy landings was ending when Biden and the first lady left the ceremony. French President Emmanuel Macron and…

Did China's Defense Ministry warn it would "intervene militarily" if the United States or NATO attacked Russia? No, that's not true: No credible evidence supports this claim. Additionally, there are no official statements or credible reports from the Chinese government or its Defense Ministry to support this assertion. Nor is there any report of such a statement in China Daily,…

Has Lia Thomas, the first openly transgender athlete to win an NCAA swimming championship Division I title, been exclusively banned from competing in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, as a post on Facebook implied? No, that's not true: The International Olympic Committee outlined a framework for all transgender and intersex athletes. However, national committees oversee athletic participation in their respective…

Does a 50-second video show authentic remarks by U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller discussing "military targets" in the Russian city of Belgorod, with "virtually no civilians left" in that city? No, that's not true: The video mixes video of different briefings, during which Miller made no such remarks. The words falsely attributed to him in the video were AI-generated.…

Did soccer manager Pep Guardiola avoid shaking hands with "the Israeli representative" in May 2024? No, that's not true: A viral video on social media misidentified the man passed over by Guardiola as he greeted a line of well-wishers at a match in 2023. The bypassed man was another soccer manager, Alan Smith. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Does a video on social media show Cristiano Ronaldo offering support to "children of Gaza"? No, that's not true: The original video of soccer superstar Ronaldo was posted in 2016 and he said it was for the "children of Syria," not the children of Gaza. His voice has been altered to change the word "Syria" to "Gaza," and the background…

Do 31 patent citations prove actor Terrence Howard invented virtual reality? No, that's not true: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says that Howard's idea was never patented in the United States, while the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization websites show the patent process was never completed internationally. Additionally, there is no direct correlation between the…

Does an image show a legitimate "pedosexual" acceptance flyer that lumps pedophilia into the acronym LGBT? No, that's not true: The "flyer" is a fabricated document designed and spread by online networks that are biased against LGBTQ+ causes. Pedophilia is not an accepted sexuality under the LGBTQ+ umbrella. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly Twitter,…