2022

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 Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist, publicly say in January 2025 that he "will leave the USA if the Epstein Client List is released"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports to support Gates' supposed announced departure. Court materials detailing Jeffrey Epstein's contacts were made public in January 2024. Neither Gates nor any reputable news organization…

Did a Mississippi state senator file a bill in a sincere attempt to bar men from masturbating? No, that's not true: Bradford Blackmon said he introduced Senate Bill 2319 to highlight what he described as "double standards" in laws affecting men and women. Blackmon said in a press statement, "When a bill has been filed that would regulate what a…

Does a video show people in January 2025 fleeing from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid? No, that's not true: The video shows men running near a construction site in 2024 or earlier. The building seen in the video was finished before September 2024, according to images on Google Maps. The implied claim appeared in a video (archived here)…

Does a viral clip authentically show Donald Trump's son Barron "whispering something to Biden" during his father's second inauguration on January 20, 2025? No, that's not true: The cropped video misled viewers about the scene's content. The footage of the same scene shot from a different angle showed that at that particular moment Trump's son spoke to outgoing Vice President…

Does a video authentically show Vladimir Putin going "past world leaders to shake Trump's hand"? No, that's not true: The version of the clip that went viral in the days leading up to Trump's second inauguration in January 2025 was edited to remove several key frames documenting one of the 2018 events commemorating the end of World War I. Multiple…

Has Oprah Winfrey died as of January 17, 2025, as implied by viral social media posts? No, that's not true: An article attached to a post implying that Winfrey died did not provide evidence of her supposed death nor mention anywhere in the article text that she had died. Winfrey was active on her verified social media accounts the same…

Did Tesla batteries cause the fire at the Monterey, California, power plant on January 16, 2025 or was their presence related to it? No, that's not true: Fire officials said the fire at the Moss Landing facility started inside a building operated by Vistra Energy, not at a nearby Tesla battery storage area. A Vistra Energy spokesperson told Lead Stories…

Does a video show real images from a 2007 episode of "The Simpsons" that predicted the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires? No, that's not true: None of the images in the video posted on social media were shown in the episode cited in the video, episode 12 of season 18 of "The Simpsons." The images used in the video on social…

Does a video show the "son of a famous Ukrainian prosecutor" who "was spotted in Monaco enjoying his car" during the Russian-Ukrainian war in January 2025? No, that's not true: Lead Stories analysis showed that neither the date, place or identity of the person matched the clip's description. The video was recorded in Florida in 2023 and showed a Ukrainian…