Did the New York Post report that USAID paid TIME Magazine $4 million to make Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy the 2022 Person of the Year, as a post and video on X.com claimed? No, that's not true: As of this writing, the newspaper's website did not show such a story. A search across a government spending database did not produce…
Did President Donald Trump's eldest son Don Jr. say on his podcast that "the U.S. should have been sending weapons to Russia" instead of Ukraine, as an X post claims? No, that's not true: The episode in question did not contain such a statement. Two AI detectors indicated that the audio in the viral clip was likely a product of…
Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spend 14.2 million euros ($14.7 million) to buy the legendary "Eagle's Nest" previously owned by Adolf Hitler? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Kehlsteinhaus, as the Eagle's Nest is known, told Lead Stories the claim was not true and that it had not been sold as of publication date. The German state of…
Did E! News report USAID paid celebrities like Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Orlando Bloom or Jean-Claude Van Damme millions of dollars to visit President Zelenskyy in Ukraine? No, that's not true: E! News told Lead Stories the video is "not authentic" and did not originate with them. Stiller denied he received any USAID money, posting on X that…
Has Oprah Winfrey died as of January 17, 2025, as implied by viral social media posts? No, that's not true: An article attached to a post implying that Winfrey died did not provide evidence of her supposed death nor mention anywhere in the article text that she had died. Winfrey was active on her verified social media accounts the same…
Does a video show the "son of a famous Ukrainian prosecutor" who "was spotted in Monaco enjoying his car" during the Russian-Ukrainian war in January 2025? No, that's not true: Lead Stories analysis showed that neither the date, place or identity of the person matched the clip's description. The video was recorded in Florida in 2023 and showed a Ukrainian…
Did the Ukrainian government state that "eight mansions owned by Ukrainian military officials" were "burned down in wildfires in Los Angeles" in January 2025? No, that's not true: A video that made this assertion contained the logo of United24, the official fundraising platform of the Ukrainian government. A United24 spokesperson and Ukraine's Center for Countering Disinformation said this video is…
Did President-elect Donald Trump call Elon Musk a "two bit car salesman" in a post shared on Truth Social? No, that's not true: Lead Stories searched Trump's Truth Social account and found that he did not share such a post as of this publication. No information about this supposed post has been reported on the website of any news outlets…
Did President-elect Donald Trump tell Elon Musk to "stay in your lane" in a post shared to Truth Social? No, that's not true: This supposed post was fabricated. Lead Stories checked Trump's verified Truth Social account and did not find such a post as of this publication. The post in question was also not included in a website that archives…
Did an authentic ABC newscast state that "in 2.5 years of war, about a million Ukrainian soldiers have died"? No, that's not true: TrueMedia's AI detector found "substantial evidence" that the voice heard in the social media post was created by artificial intelligence. The ABC video was originally about wounded Ukrainian soldiers receiving prosthetic legs from a nonprofit. The claim…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.
Get more fact-checks in your Google Search results by setting up leadstories.com as one of your preferred sources.
