2022

Is the site known as Giant's Causeway on the coast of Northern Ireland actually a giant petrified armadillo, visible from the air? No, that's not true: The unusual geometric rock formations seen at Giant's Causeway are basalt columns, which, according to experts, take their shape from the way molten volcanic basalt lava shrinks as it cools. Some stone surfaces resemble…

Did singer Kelly Clarkson and "Tonight Show" host Jimmy Fallon promote weight-loss gummies in a 2024 televised interview, as a Facebook post claims? No, that's not true: Clarkson's publicist denied to Lead Stories that she has any connection with such gummies. A Google search showed there is no evidence that Fallon promoted any weight loss or gummy products. The claim…

Did a jeering crowd chant "Fuck Joe Biden" at the president as he was leaving church with his granddaughter on Mother's Day? No, that's not true: The audio on this video clip has been edited to add the sound of an aggressive crowd chanting. In the original C-SPAN video there is no sound of a chanting crowd. One reporter called…

Does footage exist that shows President Joe Biden possibly naked with a girl? No, that's not true: The image shown in the social media post making that claim is not of Biden. Instead, it is a screenshot from a video that has appeared on pornographic websites under various titles since at least 2015. The claim appeared in a post on…

Does the "real" story of Pinocchio include the details that Gepetto was a slave master who made a puppet from the skin and hair of human slaves? No, that's not true: The fictional story is about a puppet made from an enchanted piece of wood. Gepetto was not a slave master. The story was written by Carlo Collodi in installments…

Did a photo on Facebook show a "Russian SSBN phoon-class submarine" carrying an underwater missile in Los Angeles? No, that's not true: A reverse image search revealed that the vessel shown in the photo is the deep submergence rescue vehicle Avalon as it was secured on the deck of the Sturgeon-class USS Billfish. The image, which shows an American --…

Did Donald Trump announce in a Time magazine interview that "he'd force every pregnant woman to submit to constant government monitoring" to ensure they don't have an abortion? No, that's not true: The former president outlined many other plans for the next term if he is re-elected, but this specific proposition was not one he explicitly argued for in the…

Did the social media platform Truth Social shut down as of May 3, 2024, as claimed in a post on the Threads social media platform? No, that's not true: Truth Social has not experienced any widespread disruptions in service since May 3, 2024. As of May 9, 2024, the platform was functioning as usual. The claim originated in a post…

Did the Biden administration have unfettered access for a large portion of 2021 to Donald Trump's transition documents and papers that were later shipped from storage near Washington, D.C., to Mar-a-Lago in Florida? No, that's not true: The General Services Administration, which provides transition support for outgoing presidents, told Lead Stories that the documents were "accessible only to the former…

Is a video of TV personality Mark Cuban describing a "removed" "Shark Tank" episode that featured a natural cure to high blood sugar real? No, that's not true: Cuban denied the claim to Lead Stories, calling it "an obviously bad deep fake." An AI-detection tool deemed the audio from the claim 99.9 percent AI-generated. Lead Stories found that the visuals…