Did President Donald Trump really make a post threatening to close the 9/11 Memorial in New York because he wasn't allowed to speak at the annual remembrance ceremony? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of such a post. There are also no credible reports that he ever made the online statement or…
Did President Donald Trump post an AI-generated video along with the caption about Kharg Island being "blown to smithereens" on Truth Social? Yes, that's true: The post was published on Trump's official Truth Social account on Aug. 30, 2026. There are no reports indicating that the video or such an attack are real. The claim appeared in a post (archived…
Did Donald Trump make a post on Truth Social announcing plans for the Melania Canal to bypass the Welland Canal for direct access to Lake America? No, that's not true: Donald Trump never made this post. The fake screenshot has satire watermarks from the account 'Mrs. Putin' as well as intentional clues such as the backwards verification check and fake…
Does a video of a sobbing 23-year-old actually show a real Ukrainian conscript begging for help because he does not want to die on the battlefield? No, that's not true: The video has been online since 2025. The crying man was created by AI, most likely by using the likeness of a Russia-based streamer. The claim appeared in a post…
Is the suspect in a Canadian church fire in New Brunswick in August 2026 a Palestinian Muslim migrant? No, that's not true: As of Aug. 31, 2026, there was no evidence that Gilles Mallet is Palestinian, Muslim, or a migrant. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said its investigation has found no evidence that the fire was motivated by religion or…
Did President Donald Trump post an AI-generated image of a six-fingered sailor enjoying a heaping tray of food, with the caption "Our military eats the best!" on Truth Social? No, that's not true: Trump never made this post. An early copy of the fake screenshot was posted on the 4chan board Politically Incorrect on Aug. 30, 2026, and was reposted…
Were three men responsible for kidnapping 163 missing children in Florida? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Michael Prescott, Jayden Harwood, and Robert Allison were responsible for the disappearances of all the children recovered during Operation Statewide Shield. The three men cited in the claim were charged with crimes involving individual victims, not all 163 children. The…
Did Fox News publish or broadcast a report alleging that Canada refuses permission to ships crossing the Welland Canal if they list "Lake America" in their documents? No, that's not true: A Fox News representative denied the claim. As of Aug. 31, 2026, neither the Fox News website nor Google News showed any news articles about anything remotely similar to…
Does a video show the strewn-about bodies of women who were really killed by floods? No, that's not true: This video is staged and shows living women who are pretending to be dead. The video was first published on Instagram on July 3, 2026, predating both the July 19, 2026, Assam floods in India, and the August 26, 2026, floods…
Does a video show the rescue of people trapped in mud from the Nepal flooding disaster in August 2026? No, that's not true: The footage is of workers escaping from a collapsed mine in Democratic Republic of Congo in 2023. The original footage was a viral video published by Reuters in 2023 and does not show the rescue of victims…
Do a pair of real images show a Nepal town before and after a flash flood washed through the valley? No, that's not true: Both the before and after images are AI-generated. The OpenAI Verify tool found SynthID watermarks in each image, indicating the images were generated using OpenAI tools. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published by…
Does a real video show a bridge in Nepal collapsing during flooding in the region? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the clip as 100% likely to have been generated by AI, rather than actual footage of the Aug. 26, 2026, flooding disaster. The video also contains several glitches that are common signs of AI-generated content. The…
Does a real video show flood waters in Nepal destroying an entire village street? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the video as 97.2% likely generated by AI and not actual footage of the Aug. 26, 2026 flooding disaster. There are several glitches in the video that are the hallmarks of AI. The claim appeared in an…
Does a real video show an elephant rescuing a man in Nepal during the flooding on Aug. 26, 2026? No, that's not true: While the clip appears to be authentic and shows an elephant rescuing a man, it does not depict the flooding in Nepal. Instead, the video was published with an India locator more than two weeks earlier. The…
Does a real video show an F-16 drop a bomb on a dam, causing the floods in Nepal? No, that's not true: The video has been circulating on social media since May 2026, predating the Aug. 26, 2026, flash flood in Nepal. Early copies of the video have an AI watermark and were published at the same time as a…
Is a video that shows a lion reuniting with a female caretaker and allowing the woman to embrace it real? No, that's not true: The original video appears to be AI-generated. The account that originally posted the video has posted other AI animal content. The claim appeared in a video posted by X account @korkuvetitremee on Aug. 21, 2026 (archived…
Does a viral image of a dad dressed in his wife's clothes while picking up his son from school after suspension for bullying show a real-life event? No, that's not true: The image originated from an account with a self-described satire label. Four online AI detection tools ruled that the picture was artificially generated. The claim appeared in a post…
Did an official letter from the London Borough of Bexley ask locals to keep their daughters and dogs indoors? No, that's not true: The fake letter, which included the borough's coat of arms, was distributed to homes in Bexley. In a notice on the borough website, Bexley Council said the letter was not from the Council and referred it to…
Did U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio say that he would not protect actor Tom Hanks from the supposed Greek "impropriety" investigation? No, that's not true: The story is entirely fictitious. It originated from a network of self-described satire websites that place multiple disclaimers on their content to say that nothing they publish is real. The claim appeared in a…
Does a real photo show a person dressed as Spider-Man winding up to punch Jake Lang? Yes, that's true: This is a real photo taken by photojournalist Chris Juhn on Aug. 22, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. This photo, and several more from a series showing the incident, were posted to Juhn's Bluesky and Facebook accounts. The photo appeared in a…
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