Weather

Has a New Jersey supermarket shuttered its windows ever since Nov. 1, 2025 when SNAP payments were cut off? No, that's not true: The store had not, at the time this was written, closed because of a delay in the dispersal of SNAP benefits during the government shutdown. The store manager told Lead Stories they have been open during their…

Does a video posted on TikTok show Hurricane Melissa as it is making landfall in Kingston, Jamaica? No, that's not true: These clips show storms which happened around the world, some fairly recently, and some years in the past. One clip remains unidentified, of the fifteen others, none shows Hurricane Melissa. The miscaptioned video montage (archived here) was published by…

Does a picture widely shared on social media authentically show partial demolition of the East Wing of the White House in October 2025? Yes, it does: The photo was first published by the Washington Post.. The image showed no signs of generative AI or other inconsistencies characteristic of recycled unrelated visuals. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published…

Did ICE post an AI-generated image on its X account to make a point that it was not only protesters but also supporters who showed up in Portland, Oregon, in early October 2025? Here's what we know so far: Lead Stories asked, but ICE had not at the time of publication released to us the original image file. When ICE…

Does a viral post tell a true story of Hank Wilcox, a 71-year-old farmer and the father of a deceased service member, helping migrants with free water in "Henry County,"? No, that's not true: News reports about the farmer cited in viral posts about the story were nowhere to be found. The post contained an image that was likely generated…

Is a story about a former foster child named Lily Tran getting into Stanford and being called on stage to speak alongside Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth real? No, that's not true: The image and the text used to tell the story were generated by artificial intelligence tools, according to AI detectors. There are several versions of the story circulating on…

Does the viral story about missing hikers "Steve and Natalie Brody" who were supposedly found dead in Alaska's Denali National Park add up? No, that's not true: There were no news reports on the case and several details in the posts about the case are verifiably not real. The website of Interpol does not mention the "Lars Anderson" the story…

Does a blue pulse moving from east to west on a Doppler radar map show some sort of "storm pumping" weather modification or HAARP activity? No, that's not true: The radar reflectivity time lapse animation shows that radar signals have picked up the presence of millions of birds in flight who began their southward migration after the sun set. As…

Will the earth experience "colder weather than ever before" during the "aphelion phenomenon" in August, 2025, as its elliptical orbit takes it to its most distant-from-the-Sun position of the year, as multiple social media posts claim? No, that's not true: Earth's distance from the Sun changes daily and at aphelion, the Earth's distance from the Sun is only about 3%…

Are stories about a former foster child named Lily Tran getting into Stanford and being called on stage to sing with their celebrity idol real? No, that's not true: There are several versions of the story circulating on social media in which different celebrities keep a promise to sing together if she got into Stanford. Lead Stories found versions with…