Israel

Did a Texas city require residents to sign an "Israel loyalty pledge" in order to be eligible to get relief funds after deadly floods in 2025? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that any Texas town or county impacted by the deadly flooding of July 2025 established any such loyalty pledge. The meme making the claim did not…

Does a viral video show footage of the downing of an Israeli aircraft released by Iran? No, that's not true: The video originated on a TikTok channel posting gameplay footage from the online game DCS World. It was not released by Iranian authorities. The video appeared in a post on X (archived here) published on July 3, 2025 with a…

Did crowds at Glastonbury boo and sing "God Save the King", drowning out a performance by Irish hip-hop group Kneecap, in June 2025? No, that's not true: A widely-shared video used audio from a different source to give the false impression that British festival-goers defied the band's Irish republican and pro-Palestinian messages. In fact, the original clip showed a soundbite…

Is a child who was slammed onto the floor at the Sheremetyevo airport an Iranian citizen? No, that's not true: According to the Iranian ambassador to Russia, the child seen in the viral video is Afghan. Earlier, a Russian regional commissioner for children's rights said that the critcally injured toddler comes from an Afghan family with Russian citizenship that resides…

Did WWE issue an announcement saying that a World Wrestling Entertainment event scheduled for June 28, 2025, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, "will proceed as planned"? No, that's not true: What looked like a statement from the organization was first published on meme and satire pages. As of this writing, WWE hadn't cancelled the event, but also hadn't confirmed that its…

Did Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian publicly announce his resignation from office as of June 23, 2025? No, that's not true: As of this writing, no such dispatches appeared on websites of credible news outlets. The website of the Iranian president made no such public announcement. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on June 22, 2025.…

Do viral images authentically document fires in Tel Aviv, Israel, in the aftermath of Iranian strikes during the June 2025 escalation of the conflict? No, that's not true: The set that purported to show a badly damaged building of a government-owned Israeli defense company displayed a wrong logo. No credible media organization published any of the images while reporting on…

Does a video authentically show a lightning strike during a nuclear blast at an Iranian nuclear facility during a U.S. bombing attack on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: While Lead Stories cannot confirm whether the video is real or AI-generated, the same video was shared online at least two days before the U.S. attack on three nuclear facilities…

Did a video shared widely in June 2025 show a real military base under Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel? No, that's not true: The computer-generated animation began as a satirical reference to earlier Israeli claims about the hiding of missiles in civilian contexts. The hospital was hit by an Iranian missile strike on June 19. The claim appeared in…

Did a video of a large crowd walking through the streets of a city show people fleeing Tel Aviv en masse in June 2025? No, that's not true: The clip was recorded in Russia. It showed an annual pilgrimage organized by the Russian Orthodox Church. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on June 19, 2025. It…