Iran

Did a letter shared in May 2025 authentically show that Pakistan's Air Force had fired Air Vice Marshall Aurangzeb Ahmed, for supposedly "failing to protect" a nuclear facility? No, that's not true: The fake letter originated on an X account which describes its content as "political satire". The image of the letter also had the word "satire" in the top…

Does a viral image prove that a facility in Northern Pakistan experienced a radiation leak shortly after midnight on May 11, 2025? No, that's not true: What was described as an official government confirmation in posts on social media contained multiple inconsistencies and spelling mistakes, strongly pointing to forgery. The website of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which the "memo"…

Does a video authentically show a missile attack by Pakistan on Delhi? No, that's not true: A viral video misrepresents old footage of a ballistic missile attack on Tel Aviv in Israel as being related to the 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan. The missiles in the video were fired by Iran at Israel in 2024. The video appeared in…

Does a video of a circular object with sparks and smoke swirling under it as it falls to the ground show an Israeli drone sent by India being destroyed over Pakistan? No, that's not true: The video shows a firework known as a "Thai Girandola" misfiring during a launch in Thailand. The video is an edited version of the original…

Did a video show an Indian drone falling to the ground and causing an explosion, after being shot down by Pakistani forces in May 2025? No, that's not true: The video had been online since April 29, one week before India struck locations in Pakistan in response to a terrorist attack by Pakistani militants, and Pakistan, in response, shot down…

Does video labelled on social media as "...footage of the Indian Army's attack on Sialkot, Pakistan" authentically show a 2025 Indian Army assault on its neighbor? No, that's not true: It is misleadingly re-labelled Al Jazeera footage lifted from 2023 coverage of the Gaza war between Israel and Hamas. At the time of writing this, there had been no credible…

Did the United States send three aircraft carriers to Iran on March 17, 2025? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. Navy told Lead Stories that, as of March 18, 2025, there was just one U.S. military ship of this class deployed in the region. As of this writing, the U.S. Department of Defense issued no public statements…

Does a video on TikTok authentically show a patient denied health care by a black female doctor because the man is wearing a MAGA hat? No, that's not true: The video appears to be a mirrored version of a video that originally appeared on a TikTok channel along with other skits. In a second version of the video the "doctor"…

Were the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires intentionally set to implement "smart city" technology across Los Angeles? No, that's not true: While the cause of the wildfires had not been determined at the time of writing, the "smart city" effort to improve technology for municipalities does not include intentionally destroying them first. Los Angeles unveiled its plan to eventually add…

Did Seattle police say that a woman charged with killing her father with an ice ax was overwhelmed by President-elect Donald Trump's election? No, that's not true: The suspect's answer to a routine question about what day it was showed up as a statement of motive in the early version of a news article. A post on X used the…