By Raffaella Menichini, Lead Stories Deputy International Teams Manager (Rome) and Lead Stories staff A nine-day mourning period has begun with the death of Pope Francis, who died on Monday, April 21, 2025, at the age of 88, according to a statement released by the Holy See Press Office. The cause of death, declared by the Vatican's Directorate of Health…
Does this viral video show scenes of protest in Istanbul with "tens of thousands" demonstrating against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan? No, that's not true: The footage dates back to 2024 and is related to a papal visit to East Timor. It has nothing to do with current events in Turkey. The claim about the video appeared in a post on…
Is an image of what looks like the corpse of a dead Pope Francis seemingly laid out on two pillows, showing various blurry priests in the background, genuine? No, that's not true: The photo was generated using AI, according to an online detection tool. The image included showed a Grok AI watermark, indicating it was created using the AI generative…
Did the U.S. Justice Department just release the 1998-2004 flight logs for Jeffrey Epstein's Boeing 727? No, that's not true: We've had then since early 2015 and have embedded copies of the flight logs in several Lead Stories fact checks. This reporter investigated allegations of Epstein's abuse of young females as a national correspondent for American Media Inc. in January…
Do two photos of Pope Francis posted side-by-side in an X post the day he was admitted to the hospital for bronchitis show two different people, implying he has a body-double? No, that's not true: The photos of the Pope in the post were taken ten years apart. The photo on the left -- showing a younger, healthier Pope Francis…
Does an authentic photo show Kamala Harris posing arm-in-arm with Sean "Diddy" Combs? No, that's not true: Combs' face has been pasted onto the body of the man who was standing next to Harris when the photo was taken in 2001 by Ron Galella as can be seen on Getty Images. The man in the original photo is TV host…
Does a photograph shared to X in August 2024 genuinely show Pope Francis wearing a rainbow scarf? No, that's not true: One digital forensics website concluded that the photograph was "99.9% likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content." Another indicated the photo was 96 percent "artificial." The image also contained several artifacts like weird fingers, inconsistent clothing and odd hair…
Did Pope Francis authorize the World Economic Forum to rewrite a fact checked version of the Holy Bible, and post about it on social media? No, that's not true: The social media post allegedly made by Pope Francis is fake, and there is no evidence of such an authorization reported on the Vatican website, the WEF website, or from credible…
Does a video show displaced Palestinian people who had no place to go sleeping outdoors on the ground? No, that's not true: The video was filmed in early August 2023 in Lisbon, Portugal, during World Youth Day, an international Catholic pilgrimage and gathering with the pope. The video is unrelated to the Hamas-Israel conflict and Israel's October 13, 2023, evacuation…
Did Pope Francis declare World Economic Forum chairman Klaus Schwab a "more important" figure than Jesus Christ? No, that's not true: The People's Voice, the website originally making the claim, provided no sources proving the pope said this. The site has a long history of publishing fake or made up quotes and has a liability disclaimer that seeks to absolve…
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