International

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 "leaked photo" authentically show a "city on the other side of the ice at Antarctica," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: The image was created using artificial intelligence, based on the results of three image analysis tools used by Lead Stories. Many conspiracy theorists use the ice wall argument to make unfounded arguments, such…

Does a social media video show pro-Palestinian protesters running onto the field during the annual Congressional Baseball Game on June 12, 2024? No, that's not true: A small group of demonstrators did storm the field at Nationals Park, interrupting the congressional game, but they were not pro-Palestinian protesters as a viral post on X claimed. Instead, they were environmental activists…

Did a passenger flight disappear in 1955 after taking off from New York, only to resurface "37 years later," as a reel on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: This claim appears to be based on a 1985 hoax published by the U.S. tabloid Weekly World News, which wrote that an "airline charter flight that left New York in 1955…

Did the Canadian Cancer Society "apologize" for using the word "cervix" instead of "front hole"? No, that's not true: The organization added a note to one of the articles published on its website explaining a rationale for the Society's current stand on the matter. The disclaimer did not contain any explicit wording indicating that the purpose of the note was…

Did the NFL tell Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles players they were not allowed to wear green in the Brazil opener, citing gang violence, as a post on Instagram Threads claimed? No, that's not true. This rumor originated in a podcast episode where Green Bay Packers running back Josh Jacobs falsely stated that at "the part of Brazil" where…

Does a video show a naked Hunter Biden chasing and catching a distressed woman in a hotel hallway and dragging her back to a room? No, that's not true: Although the man in the video and Hunter Biden both have back tattoos, their tattoos are not the same. On June 8, 2024, the video began to circulate with unsupported English-language…

Did controversial naturopath Barbara O'Neill give a $10,000 guarantee for her arthritis pain management strategies and were they endorsed by director Bruce Beresford, tennis star Margaret Court, and author David Malouf? No, that's not true: A false promotion of an herbal remedy that supposedly cured their joint pain used AI-generated voice-overs to put words in people's mouths. The fake voice-overs…

Does an authentic photo of Claudia Sheinbaum, recently elected to be president of Mexico, bear an uncanny resemblance to the antisemitic "Happy Merchant" meme caricature? No, that's not true: The image was digitally manipulated to introduce some unflattering details that were not present in the original photo -- notably altering Sheinbaum's profile and changing the position of her neck. The…

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.…

Do photographs of Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, taken over the past 144 years, prove that sea levels aren't rising? No, that's not true: According to data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the sea level monitored at a station near Sugarloaf Mountain has increased by more than nine inches in 100 years, when compared to the…

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…

Does a video showing a rail sliding attraction in the Hulunbuir grassland region of Inner Mongolia, China, accurately represent the cloudscapes a visitor can expect? No, that's not true: A viral video promoting the Ribbon River Grass Skiing attraction features a digitally edited rolling storm cloud added on the horizon. The exact same cloud photo with different effects applied appears…

Did former Mossad director Efraim Halevy say in 2024 that Israel armed Al Qaeda? No, that's not true: A viral video did not contain the words described in social media posts. The footage was 8 years old when it resurfaced on social media in 2024. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, by…

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…

Were there 37 presidential candidates killed during Mexico's 2024 election cycle? No, that's not true: There were killings, but the victims were not running for president. A second claim implying the CEO of Blackrock was somehow involved in a plot because he was in a picture with president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum and not with other candidates is demonstrably false because there…

Does a video show the aftermath of a Houthi missile strike on the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier in June 2024? No, that's not true: The video is from 2020 and shows a smoking fire on the naval vessel USS Bonhomme Richard at the Navy's base in San Diego. The incident was widely reported at the time by major news outlets.…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy buy the luxury Vuni Palace Hotel in Cyprus? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence that the Ukrainian leader bought the resort on the northern coast of the island nation. In an online statement, the Ukrainian embassy in Cyprus called the claim "Russian propaganda" and "yet another lie aimed at discrediting Ukraine and…