Did Al Jazeera publish a video that reported the United Arab Emirates froze the purchase of 80 Rafale F4 fighter jets from France over the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov, as posts on X claimed? No, that's not true: Al Jazeera told Lead Stories that's not their report, and that the video is "fake." Likewise, the French embassy in…
Did the United Kingdom and France issue a "Secret International Arrest Warrant" for Elon Musk? No, that's not true: No news organizations reported anything about the supposedly existing "secret" arrest warrant for Musk approved within jurisdictions of the U.K. or France. The International Criminal Court that issues international arrest warrants denied there is one for the owner of the X…
Did a World Economic Forum report confirm that upwards of 6 billion people of Earth's 8 billion occupants will die in 2025, as online outlet The People's Voice said? No, that's not true: the only "report" cited by The People's Voice to support that statement is an old population-reduction prediction of a much smaller size by a website named Deagel.com…
Did the messaging service Telegram announce that Apple might be deleting the Telegram app from devices in August 2024? No, that's not true: No such announcement has ever been made by Telegram. A false social media hoax from 2021 resurfaced after Telegram's CEO, Pavel Durov, was arrested in France on August 24, 2024. It was debunked in 2021, and it's…
Was Thomas Jolly, "the artist who created the Olympics opening ceremony," hospitalized after being hit by lightning? No, that's not true: The viral claim was based on a fake screenshot of a nonexistent AP article. Lead Stories found no actual news reports or any evidence that such a lightning strike happened. The claim appeared in a reel on Facebook on…
Did Michael Jordan say that kids who "can afford $8 cups of coffee" can also afford "to pay their own student loans" as a viral post on Facebook said? No, that's not true: the quote first appeared on a Facebook page that is part of a network of self-described satire websites and pages known for publishing made-up stories. If a…
Does an image of a post-blast orange cloud confirm that the Ukrainian Armed Forces used chemical weapons during their August 2024 incursion into Russia's Kursk region? No, that's not true: The picture shared on social media was taken in Iraq in 2015. It's unrelated to Ukraine's surprise cross-border attack on Russian territory. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…
Did a Jewish family hire Thomas Matthew Crooks to shoot former President Donald Trump? Or was Crooks trained to shoot by the CEO of BlackRock Security or by a rabbi? Has footage been leaked showing Crooks and the BlackRock CEO together carrying a gun? No, none of these claims are true: Using an AI-detection tool, Lead Stories found that the…
Did Mike Tyson announce he wants to box against "Olympic Dude," a derogatory reference to female boxer Imane Khelif of Algeria's team? No, that's not true: Tyson's representative told Lead Stories: "This is absolutely false." Lead Stories could find no news reports about Tyson making such a statement. Social media posts about the announcement offered no evidence that Tyson ever…
Is there leaked footage showing BlackRock CEO Larry Fink carrying a gun as he walks with Thomas Matthew Crooks, the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The still photo that's a thumbnail preview to a YouTube video is a fake AI-generated image. The scene in the photo does not appear in the YouTube video at…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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