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Does YouTube restart ads if the viewer looks away, as of June 2024? No, that's not true: It is the self-described satirical, absurd work of designer Soren Iverson. YouTube has not implemented this feature. Iverson is known for creating satirical content involving new features for various products. The claim originated in a Threads post (archived here) on June 13, 2024.…

Does footage on social media show Palestinians celebrating at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem after they heard news of Iran's mid-April 2024 aerial attack on Israel? No, that's not true: The video was shot days before Iran launched drones and missiles against Israel. The video was recorded during the last Friday of Ramadan, according to a BBC reporter. Lead Stories…

Did a U.S. Postal Service report confirm a driver's claims of missing ballots from the 2020 presidential election? No, that's not true: The report released did not corroborate the driver's claims and instead noted that "Investigators confirmed data records indicated all mail contents were properly transported, accounted for, and processed." The claim appeared in an article published by The Gateway…

Do allegedly discovered "dozens of boxes" with "zero Bolsonaro votes" offer evidence confirming election fraud in Brazil? No, that's not true: Brazil doesn't use paper ballots -- voters cast ballots electronically. The claim appeared a tweet (archived here) published on November 7, 2022. It said: Update from Brazilian leaders: Military audit of the election will now be released Wednesday. Dozens…

Does this video show Russian tanks abandoned in the Kharkiv Region during the September 2022 Ukrainian counteroffensive that overran Russian positions in northeastern Ukraine? No, that's not true: Lead Stories has corroborated open-source investigators' use of Google Maps satellite images to identify the long industrial building as being on the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula, more than 300 miles distant from Ukraine's…

Are COVID-19 vaccines 98 times worse than the virus itself? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to suggest that getting sick with coronavirus is a better option for the population as a whole than the benefits of immunization. While a pre-print (non-peer-reviewed) draft of an article discusses the ethics of vaccine booster mandates for university students and their possible…

Does a newly discovered video show late-night deliveries of illegal ballots in Detroit, Michigan? No, that's not true: The ballots were legal votes. The 8 p.m. Election Day deadline was for casting ballots not counting them. The Michigan secretary of state's office told Lead Stories that what took place was "standard and appropriate practice." The claim appeared in an article…

Were ballots used in Republican areas of Georgia different from ballots used in Democratic areas of the state, resulting in a rigged election? No, that's not true: A purported elections expert -- who the Georgia secretary of state's office described as a "failed treasure hunter" -- claimed that since ballots have a unique bar code for each precinct, that "caused…

Were 23,000 "fraudulent" ballots for Joe Biden identified in Georgia? No, there's no evidence that's true. An article making that claim cites as its source a video on YouTube, which relies on unofficial results reported in real time. State election officials have repeatedly defended the integrity of the vote. "We have now counted legally cast ballots three times, and the…

Did a glitch in the Rock County, Wisconsin, vote-counting system swap Donald Trump's votes for Joe Biden's, giving Biden the lead and ultimately the win in that county? No, that's not true: The Associated Press erred in collection and transmission of Rock County tallies. The error made it temporarily seem like Trump had gotten Biden's 46,649 votes and Biden had…