Current Events

Was TV host Joy Behar arrested at the airport trying to flee the country after a $50M lawsuit involving comments about White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt? No, that's not true: The story narrated in a viral video was written by AI according to online detection tools, and there have been no actual news reports about any such lawsuit. An…

Did Germans students participating in a mock federal election known as U18, for people under 18, overwhelmingly vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, resulting in a sweep by a "massive majority" in every polling district? No, that's not true: A graph shared on social media shows the results of one polling place. While the AfD did win…

Does a photo making the rounds online and used on some news sites show the Delta Flight 4819 plane that crashed at Toronto Pearson International Airport? No, that's not true: According to an online detection tool the image was generated using AI. It also featured a Grok AI logo and several artifacts inconsistent with reality. An example of the image…

Does a viral clip authentically show the outgoing Munich Security Conference Chairman, Christoph Heusgen, getting emotional while discussing U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance's remarks at the conference? No, that's not true: The video was edited. The altered version removed more than five minutes of Heusgen's address, separating the moment when he mentioned Vance and when he got emotional coming off…

Did Elon Musk say millions of people over 140 years old get Social Security benefits? No, that's not true: Musk did post a chart that he said was from the Social Security database, showing age categories up to 189 years old "with the death field set to FALSE!" and he jokingly added, "Maybe Twilight is real and there are a…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy say, "The risk that Russia will occupy Europe is 100%," without adding conditions to that statement or qualifying it? No, that's not true: A viral video of an interview on Meet The Press left out the part of the video just before he said that sentence. The full context of the interview shows Zelenskyy saying…

Does a viral screenshot show a real X post from Ashley St. Clair talking about conceiving a baby with Elon Musk using "IVF with PGT-M & CRISPR" and saying the "DNA now includes enhancements from other organisms"? No, that's not true: The post did not appear on St. Clair's X account, and it was not indexed by Google. All versions…

Did a video truly show Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth drink what appears to be bourbon whiskey from a glass during a NATO press conference? No, that's not true: The video that appeared on TikTok appears to have been created by using a phone to film a TV screen, and some kind of sheen made the liquid in Hegseth's glass appear…

Do two viral videos authentically show a 200-foot statue of Jesus Christ being placed on the grounds of the White House in Washington? No, that's not true: Both videos were possibly generated using AI according to online detection tools, and a live webcam of the White House shows no such statue. Details in the videos, such as the number of…

Is the viral Facebook post from an Education Park Ranger named Brian Gibbs who says he was fired from the National Park Service on Valentine's Day legitimate? Here's what we know so far: After the Facebook post went viral, online comments cast doubt on the story because the Facebook profile it appeared on seemed to be relatively empty and a…

Do two photos of Pope Francis posted side-by-side in an X post the day he was admitted to the hospital for bronchitis show two different people, implying he has a body-double? No, that's not true: The photos of the Pope in the post were taken ten years apart. The photo on the left -- showing a younger, healthier Pope Francis…

Did President Donald Trump post to Truth Social that New Zealand and Congo were both "Third World Countries" and that the Democrats were launching a "meme" coin? No, that's not true: Images of such a post circulating on social media appear to have been falsified, indicated by the inconsistent use of upper and lower case "K" in the engagement counts.…

Did the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives just discover $2.7 trillion in improper payments in Medicare and Medicaid overseas? No, that's not true: The report of trillions of dollars in improper payments, which accumulated since 2003, was published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office in the first half of 2024 -- this was…

Did Reuters and Politico receive government funding during the Biden administration but not the Trump administration? No, that's not true: Thomson Reuters, a separate company from Reuters News, and Politico both received federal payments under both administrations. Thomson Reuters provided "software and information services to U.S. government agencies," while Politico sold subscription services to government offices. The implied claim appeared…

Is there a public record of a memo showing President Donald Trump prohibited the use of the word "felon" "inside the White House or on White House grounds" as of February 14, 2025? No, that's not true: The White House couldn't confirm the existence of such an announcement when contacted by a Lead Stories reporter. The White House website doesn't…

Does a military document prove the U.S. Agency for International Development is "actively helping to destabilize nations"? No, that's not true: The 2021 document presented by Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna at a hearing on February 13, 2025, was a scenario involving a fictitious country. Testifying at the same hearing, former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios said the suggestion the agency was…

Did the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rule that 84 of President Joe Biden's last-minute pardons were unconstitutional and did the opinion of "Judge Joe Barron" appear on a court website? No, that's not true: The ruling originated on a satirical Facebook page. The owner of the page is known for tricking conservatives into liking and sharing made-up content.…

Is a video of President Trump's son Barron Trump singing a song on the show "America's Got Talent" authentic? No, that's not true: The YouTube channel that originally published it said the song and video were created with the help of AI technology. This was confirmed using AI detection tools. There were several signs the video was AI generated such…

Did the Trump State Department come up with the idea to order $400 million worth of armored Tesla vehicles? No, that's not true: The original proposal to buy armored electric vehicles for the State Department came during the Biden administration in April 2024. The $400 million line item was included in a State Department Procurement Forecast Fiscal Year 2025 in…

Did the U.S. government pay Reuters to engage in "large scale social deception"? No, that's not true: The U.S. Department of Defense paid Thomson Reuters Special Services to provide "software and information services to U.S. government agencies," a statement from the company's CEO said. Thomson Reuters Special Services and Reuters News operate independently of each other. The claim appeared in…