Current Events

Does a photo show "Halach Boome," a real pilot from the Israeli Air Force who took out Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the image as 100% likely to be AI-generated, and it contains a watermark from an AI image generator. The creator of the image later posted he "memed" the…

Is a video of Donald Trump with blindfolded children that claims to have come "out of the Epstein files" real? No, that's not true: There is no record of an image or video showing President Trump with blindfolded children with Jeffrey Epstein. The video is a mashup of footage of Trump and Epstein and children that appears to be AI-generated.…

Does a real video show Iranian rockets coming in at a tremendous speed, exploding targets near the Tel Aviv marina? No, that's not true: This video is fake and bears many of the hallmarks of AI-generated imagery. The video is represented as showing Tel Aviv, Israel, but the marina does not look like the waterfront of that city. There is…

Does a video actually show the moment "when Iran destroyed the US Navy fleet in Bahrain"? No, that's not true: The viral clip, which purported to show that, originated from an account that disclosed it was AI-generated. It also contained glitches typical of AI-generated video. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on March 4, 2026.…

Does a photo show damage to the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the American ship was damaged during Operation Epic Fury against Iran. The image actually shows repair crews in 1967 working to fix the damaged deck of the USS Forrestal after a deadly fire in the Gulf…

Does a video show a nuclear test carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran? No, that's not true: The video clip shows a nuclear test in the Nevada desert in 1957. The mislabeled video clip bears the watermark of the YouTube channel @atomcentral who posted the old footage of the atomic test in 2023. The mislabeled…

Does a viral video show a real-life scene from Tel Aviv when the city was hit with Iranian missiles in March 2026? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that disclosed the video was generated by AI. Both online AI detectors and Lead Stories' manual analysis of the video strongly suggested that it was not real footage…

Does a viral photo show the damage from an airstrike against an early warning radar system in Qatar? No, that's not true: This picture is fake and does not show the radar system in question. There are many differences between the fake image and the real facility visible on satellite images. The fake image appeared in a post (archived here)…

Does a viral image actually show the funeral of the children killed during the U.S.-Israel attack? No, that's not true: It contains multiple artifacts characteristic of AI. The account that was the source of the picture later disclosed that it used AI to create it. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on March 3, 2026. The…

Is this picture showing the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia on fire after a drone attack real? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the image 99.7% likely to be AI-generated and it contained a watermark from an AI image generator. Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defense did say there was "limited fire and minor material damage to the…

Does a viral video show soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo leaving a resort in Dubai after an Iranian missile hit his car in March 2026? No, that's not true: The clip predates the most recent escalation in the Middle East. The original video was posted in January 2026, showing him leaving the Bvlgari resort two months before the conflict began in…

Is this a real video of a burning plane and airport terminal in Dubai? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the video as 99.8% likely to be AI-generated. Dubai International Airport did sustain "minor damage" following an Iranian strike, an airport official said, but the fake video does not show it. The claim appeared in a post…

Does a viral clip prove that Iran sank the American aircraft carrier "Abraham Lincoln" involved in the military operation in the region? No, that's not true: The U.S. military denied the rumors twice. No credible media organizations reported the purported news and there were no higher quality versions of the clip or different angles available. The claim appeared in a…

Is a video showing the Burj Khalifa skyscraper on fire amid the U.S. attack on Iran real? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the image 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. There were explosions due to retaliation from Iran in the United Arab Emirates near the skyscraper in Dubai, but the building itself was not hit or on…

Is a video of coffins arriving in the US showing soldiers that were killed in an attack in Kuwait in March 2026 during the U.S. attack on Iran? No, that's not true: The video is from December 2025. It shows the dignified transfer of two National Guard members and a U.S. civilian interpreter who were killed in Syria. The claim…

Does a video show an American soldier named Bishop in "the Gulf" crying because his shattered phone screen prevents him from seeing his daughter's face? No, that's not true: The clip is AI-generated and comes from a social media page known for posting fake videos. It contains several AI "hallucinations" and red flags typical of AI-generated content, such as distorted…

Does a video show women in Iran removing burqas and then burning pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after he died in U.S.-Israeli strikes in February 2026? No, that's not true: The clip being shared does not show people in Iran after recent strikes. It instead shows a demonstration in Paris from January 2026, when a group of activists…

Did Neil Diamond, Eminem, Coco Gauff or any of a long list of celebrities donate $5 million to provide emergency relief and medical aid following the tragic elementary school strike in southern Iran? No, that's not true: The false claim that at least 20 sports, entertainment and political celebs made such contributions was created and distributed by a spam factory…

Does a video show the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln burning in the Red Sea after being hit by Iranian missiles in 2026? No, that's not true: The video appears to have been generated by the Arma 3 video game. It first appeared online on June 23, 2025, in a post making a similar false claim during the 12-day war…

Is this a real image released by Iran of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's body being pulled from under rubble by rescue workers? No, that's not true: The image contains a SynthID watermark indicating it was generated in whole or in part using AI, according to Google's Gemini tool. The image did not appear on any Iranian websites, according to Google's…