Was the Russian ruble named the "world's best-performing currency" in May 2022? Yes, but that claim requires significant context: Bloomberg did publish an article on May 11, 2022, stating that the ruble was the "year's best performing currency." However, the Bloomberg article also provided the necessary information to clarify the claim, explaining that the ruble appears much stronger theoretically than…

Did President Joe Biden, George Soros and former President Barack Obama talk about fulfilling the conspiracy theory of tyrannically taking over the world, otherwise known as the New World Order? No, that's not true: The quotes are legitimate, but they are used out of context. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on April 27, 2022. However, its origin seems…

Was the founder of the Timberland boot company an 18th-century slave owner in Mississippi named Timberland Hawkins who hung slaves he couldn't auction from a tree in his field that's still standing and is now featured as the Timberland company logo? No, none of that is true: This post is a spinoff from earlier false social media rumors that the…

Is there an orchestrated globalist plot to control the world's population that includes burning down food processing plants, introducing bird flu to commercial poultry flocks, raising the price of fertilizer and disrupting the growing season in Ukraine and Russia with war? No, that's not true: The title of this video is clickbait, there is no "shocking truth" revealed. Many of…

Did Polish armed forces write a letter in April 2022 announcing a plan to send "airborne units" to Ukraine? No, that's not true: The Armed Forces General Command of Poland debunked the claim. There are also no other credible reports of such an order. The claim appeared in this tweet (archived here) posted on May 2, 2022. The tweet included…

Did a NATO Patriot missile attack hit Russian troops near the Ukraine border? No, that's not true: A NATO official confirmed there was not any kind of NATO attack on Russian troops in late April 2022. The Patriot is used by more than 17 nations as part of defensive -- not offensive -- military measures. It is the U.S. Army's…

Did Ukrainian troops attack a Russian armored vehicle convoy with dozens of "U.K.-sent tanks"? No, that's not true: The video posted, which is filled with footage of tanks, has absolutely no footage of Ukrainian troops attacking a Russian convoy. The U.K. did not send tanks to Ukraine but to Poland so that Poland could send older Soviet-era T-72 tanks to…

Did a Ukrainian drone drop dozens of bombs and destroy 530 Russian tanks on May 4, 2022? No, that's not true: There were no reports of such an attack, and a video with the claim features footage of totally unrelated, earlier events. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 3, 2022. The post features a video of war…

Was the "Ghost of Kyiv" identified after dying in battle? No, that's not true: The Ghost of Kyiv is not a real person. The mythical aviator "embodies the collective spirit of" Ukrainian pilots, according to the Twitter account of the Ukrainian air force. The Ghost of Kyiv has been both a rallying point and a source of pride for the…

Does this video show the moon eclipsing the sun over the North Pole at "the border of Russia and Canada"? No, that's not true: A NASA spokesperson told Lead Stories that this video "isn't showing a real phenomenon." This footage is from a computer-generated image (CGI) video created by a Ukrainian digital artist. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived…