Society

This fact check focuses only on claims surrounding a purported bombing of Saint Porphyrios Church on October 9, 2023. Was the nearly 900-year-old Saint Porphyrios Greek Orthodox Church In Gaza destroyed by Israeli bombs? No, that's not true: After claims went viral that the church had been destroyed, the church posted messages on its Facebook account, reassuring the community that…

Did CNN show footage capturing Iranian lawmakers chanting "death to America" in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack of Israel? No, that's not true: The video circulating on social media was aired in 2020. The chanting was the reaction to the death of Qasem Soleimani, a high-ranking Iranian military official killed by a U.S. airstrike in Iraq…

Does this video show a salvo of rockets fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip toward Israel in October 2023? No, that's not true: This video was posted over three years earlier on YouTube, on February 28, 2020, with a Russian-language caption naming the location as north Syria. Although Lead Stories could not verify that the footage shows rockets that…

Do several videos shared on social media in October 2023 genuinely show combat footage from the military conflict between Israel and Hamas? No, that's not true: A reverse image search revealed that one such clip originated from the combat video game Arma 3. Several other similar clips are making the rounds often posted by accounts looking to monetize views and…

Did Vladimir Putin say on October 5, 2023, that World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab is a "global terrorist" and that "his days are numbered"? No, that's not true: the Russian president never referred to Schwab during a speech. Contrary to the claim in an online article, Putin did not describe Schwab as a "global terrorist" during the address. The…

Does a video show festival attendees running for their lives amid the attack by Hamas gunmen at a rave in Israel on October 7, 2023? No, that's not true: The footage is from three days before Hamas' attack; It shows people rushing into a Bruno Mars concert in Tel Aviv on October 4, 2023. It does not show the festival…

Was Donald Trump stating his opinion of Israel when he said "Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel"? No, that's not true: Trump, speaking at a 2019 Minneapolis rally was quoting a social media post by Representative Ilhan Omar, a member of Congress from Minnesota. A video circulating…

Did Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, spend over a million dollars on Cartier jewelry in New York City while accompanying her husband on his recent official trip to the United States? No, that's not true: Zelenska was in Canada on the day of the purported shopping spree. Media provided extensive coverage of the…

Does a photo show Elon Musk reading a book titled "The Flat-Earth Conspiracy"? No, that's not true: The image in the post has been digitally altered. The photo, which originated from another author's official social media page, displays Musk reading a book with a different cover and title. The claim appeared in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter,…

Did Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre endorse a "QuantumAI" platform? No, that's not true: The video showing Poilievre speaking has been doctored to make it appear he is extolling the virtues of a money-making program that shares the name Quantum AI, a cryptocurrency-trading platform. The original footage of Poilievre dates from a March 2023 interview he gave to…

Is President Joe Biden offering Black individuals $300 an hour to pick cotton? No, that's not true: This meme is satire and is not based on any current events or proposals from the U.S. leader. The meme appears to be a spin-off from a satrical Instagram page named Hoods News that boasts it has "The best memes and fake news…

Can a combination of bentonite clay, calcium carbonate, crushed cloves and kaolin clay help heal cavities? No, that's not true: No reliable scientific studies show bentonite clay can cure cavities, according to the American Dental Association. They do not recommend the clay for any dental hygiene practice. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on July 3,…

Does Canadian government data show that people double-vaccinated for COVID-19 have lost 74% of their "immune system capability," and that those who are triple-vaccinated have lost 73%? No, that's not true: The Public Health Agency of Canada told Lead Stories, "These claims are false." Additionally, there is no publicly available credible Canadian government data or scientific evidence to support such…

Did the head of the CIA acknowledge in a speech that "chemtrails" are real? No, that's not true: In a 2016 speech then-CIA Director John Brennan was discussing a controversial and untested solar geoengineering method called Stratospheric Aerosol Injection technology. "Chemtrails" are not the same thing as Stratospheric Aerosol Injection, which aims to potentially reverse global warming by reflecting a…

Did the Canadian government "admit" that 74 percent of people who are triple-vaccinated for COVID-19 now have "vaccine acquired immune deficiency syndrome"? No, that's not true: The Public Health Agency of Canada told Lead Stories an article making that claim is "false." Also, there is no credible information or reports suggesting that those who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 three…

Did New York state Attorney General Letitia James lose 80 percent of the civil fraud case against Donald Trump, as a social media post claimed? No, that's not true: The judge in the case did not dismiss any portion of the charges filed by James in New York against the former president, a legal expert told Lead Stories. Trump's legal…

Did "United States Special Forces" save children from "deep state ritual sacrifice"? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer confirmed for Lead Stories that this claim is false. The claim is in an article on a website that regularly publishes fabricated content. The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on October 2, 2023, titled "Special…

Did Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, say in a video that Elon Musk is acting as a "dangerous extremist fuse in the internet"? No, that's not true: The clip does not mention Musk and it was taken out of the context of a longer video. The footage was filmed as a message about a…

Do images in a social media post show rapper Boosie celebrating Pride Day in downtown Baton Rouge, Louisiana? No, that's not true: These pictures have been created using artificial intelligence. An AI content detector assessed that there is a 99.5 percent chance that these images were likely to be AI-generated. A Google News search also did not find reports that…

Did star tennis player Venus Williams receive a standing ovation for "refusing to play a trans woman"? No, that's not true: The claim came from an article on a website that's part of a satirical network. The publishing network's Facebook page says "Nothing on this page is real." The claim appeared in a post on Facebook (archived here) on October…