Society

Was pilot Jo Ellis, a transgender woman, aboard the Black Hawk helicopter that was involved in a midair collision with an American Airlines plane in Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2025? No, that's not true: She told Lead Stories "I was not involved." There were no survivors after the crash, and Ellis posted a proof of life video on Facebook,…

Does a post warning of a "dangerous Hispanic couple" who purportedly killed three female police officers describe a real situation? No, that's not true: There is no recent crime involving a couple who killed three female police officers. The two photos in this post are real people but they are not a couple. The woman pictured is currently serving a…

Did the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the fatal plane crash at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025, have a senior military official on board? No, that's not true: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the helicopter involved in the collision over the Potomac River was conducting annual retraining for a "Continuity of Government" mission that would…

Did a Black Hawk helicopter fail to respond to warnings seconds before colliding with a civilian airliner that was preparing to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on January 29, 2025? No, that's not true: Air traffic control audio archives show the helicopter crew acknowledged two advisories from air traffic controllers to avoid the oncoming aircraft. Transportation Secretary Sean…

Did President Donald Trump fire 3,000 air traffic controllers one week before the fatal American Airlines Flight 5342 collision with a military helicopter? No, that's not true: A White House spokesperson told Lead Stories they had not fired any air traffic controllers as of publication date. Trump did direct the head of the Federal Aviation Administration to end "DEI hiring…

Did actor Mark Wahlberg say teachers who remove American flags from classrooms should be fired? No, that's not true: A representative for Wahlberg denied it. A social media post saying he made the statement didn't cite any credible evidence proving he did. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on January 25, 2025. Above a side-by-side image…

Does flight path data on a map prove that Flight 5342 suddenly reversed direction before fatally crashing into the Potomac River? No, that's not true: The reversal shown in a clip streamed by global flight tracking service Flightradar24 was due to a "jump" in data. That was caused by the program switching between data sources, a company spokesperson told Lead…

Was the helicopter involved in the midair collision near Washington, D.C., on January 29, 2025, a police helicopter? No, that's not true: Local police refuted the claim shortly after the crash. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the helicopter that collided with a civilian plane was operated by the U.S. military. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Did ICE announce it was pausing a hotline to report undocumented immigrants because 90 percent of the calls were people reporting Elon Musk? No, that's not true: That claim originated on a satirical X account named "The Halfway Post." The ICE website still lists the number 1-866-DHS-2-ICE to "report suspicious activity," and it currently shows no statements or news releases…

Did Elon Musk decide to withdraw support for the World Boxing Organization unless Imane Khelif's medal and $25 million bonus are revoked? No, that's not true: The article cited in the comments of a social media post making this claim did not offer any quotes or sources to confirm this. A search on X for an announcement by Musk did…

Did newly confirmed Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent post on X that he was "committed to eliminating income taxes, replacing them with a fair consumption tax, and adopting a gold-backed currency"? No, that's not true: X has since suspended the account where the post appeared for violation of its rules, which often includes taking down fake accounts. There is no evidence…

Is a video of a man failing to buy a sandwich with an EBT card at a Subway restaurant from January 2025 and related to the federal funding freeze announced by the Trump administration that month? No, that's not true: The footage was online at least half a year before the second Trump presidency. As of January 29, 2025, the…

Does a video show immigrationt officers carrying out enforcement on Miami Beach in January 2025? No, that's not true: This footage is of Hyundai's 2024 air-and-sea show on Miami Beach. While the official website for the 2025 show promotes Customs and Border Patrol and their "exercise" for the show on Memorial Day Weekend, there is no evidence that they will…

Does an old photo show Elon Musk's grandfather Joshua Haldeman standing in front of the office of Technocracy Inc. in Canada? No, that's not true: The black-and-white image shows Howard Scott, an American engineer who founded the technocracy movement in 1933, according to reverse image search results. Haldeman's obituary says he was a chiropractor in Canada. The claim appeared as…

Did two people who participated in the January 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol die within 24 hours of one another in early 2025, after being pardoned for their actions by President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: Although police killed one pardoned participant in January 2025, the other person in question died three months earlier. There is no evidence…

Does a photo genuinely show a man in a "Latinos for Trump 2024" shirt being taken away by agents wearing "POLICE ICE" labels on their backs? No, that's not true: The photo is based on an original from 2018, and several elements in the picture have been added or edited. The logo on the man's shirt was not present in…

Did Whoopi Goldberg, Megan Rapinoe and Taylor Swift announce they were leaving the United States, presumably after Donald Trump's return as president? No, that's not true: The article cited in the comments of a social media post making this claim did not offer any quotes or sources to confirm this. A review of the social media accounts of Goldberg, Rapinoe…

Did Elon Musk publicly donate $10 million to help the families of January 6 participants "jump-start their lives," as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: The post was published by a page affiliated with America's Last Line of Defense, a network of satire websites run by a self-professed liberal troll who uses various made-up names including "Busta…

Does an authentic photo show Canadian Liberal Party leadership candidate Mark Carney with Jeffrey Epstein in a pool? No, that's not true: Multiple online artificial intelligence detectors judged that this image was almost certainly AI generated. Lead Stories found no real photos of Carney and Epstein together after consulting online news archives and image searching tools. The image appeared in…

Did a North Carolina hurricane survivor seen admiring her new apartment in a widely shared video move in after President Donald Trump's return to the White House? No, that's not true: The woman moved in on January 9, 2025, two weeks before Trump took office on January 20, 2025, according to information found in the original description of the video.…