Deep State

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin say at a "military press conference in Russia" that the U.S. was planning to launch a second pandemic "aimed at disrupting the 2024 election" domestically? No, that's not true: Neither a viral AI-generated article making the claim nor earlier pieces speculating about it offered any proof that Putin actually said that. Lead Stories searched both…

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's wife, Olena Zelenska, buy a Bugatti sports car for almost 4.5 million euros in June 2024? No, that's not true: The invoice supposedly proving the claim contained multiple errors. Both Bugatti and Bugatti's Paris-based dealership denied the authenticity of the document shared online and a video supposedly showing a Bugatti employee confirming the claim appears…

Did Dr. Ben Carson, retired neurosurgeon and former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development secretary, endorse a "government-funded" cure for erectile dysfunction, as a video on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for Carson said the claim is "completely fake." Additionally, a digital forensics website concluded that the audio portion of the clip was "100% likely to…

Is a video that shows naturopath Barbara O'Neill promoting a remedy for prostate inflammation authentic? No, that's not true: Multiple online AI detectors categorized the video as fake. They reported that the images and audio in this video post were most likely AI-generated. Lead Stories has previously debunked similar claims involving O'Neill, an unregistered health practitioner, and AI-generated video manipulation.…

Did WikiLeaks.org remove 20,000 leaked Democratic National Committee emails on the day that Julian Assange made a plea deal in a U.S. District Court? No, that's not true: A review of the Internet Archive Wayback Machine shows that the error notice on the WikiLeaks DNC email database appeared sometime between November 5 and November 8, 2022. It is not a…

Did more than 40,000 Houstonians test positive for sexually transmitted diseases during the week of June 17, 2024, as a post on Facebook claimed? No, that's not true: The Houston Health Department told Lead Stories that the "post includes overstated numbers and incorrect information." The statistics refer to the entire state of Texas, not just the city of Houston. Furthermore,…

Would California bill AB 1955 ban schools and teachers from notifying parents if their child modifies their gender identity? No, that's not true: The bill prevents teachers from being forced to notify parents of their child's preferred pronouns, the state senator who co-authored the bill told Lead Stories. According to the bill, teachers can notify the parents with the student's…

Does a video posted on social media show Russian naval exercises off the coast of Florida in June 2024, as claimed in the post? No, that's not true: The missile launch test shown was performed from the White Sea in May 2018, not off the Florida coast in June 2024. The 2018 test was more than 5,000 miles from Florida.…

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni say, "If Russia does not agree to the terms of the peace summit, we will force it to surrender"? No, that's not true: The comments attributed to her come from a falsified Russian translation of what she said in English at the Ukraine Peace Summit held in Switzerland in June 2024. While Meloni has…

Does a video show a naked Hunter Biden chasing and catching a distressed woman in a hotel hallway and dragging her back to a room? No, that's not true: Although the man in the video and Hunter Biden both have back tattoos, their tattoos are not the same. On June 8, 2024, the video began to circulate with unsupported English-language…