Does this video say that the Senate has declared "Corona is a lie" and the media are covering up the truth? No, that's not true: The Senate has made no such statement. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and four colleagues, shown in the video, can't speak for the entire Senate, plus they don't say "Corona is a lie" or "the media…

Has former CIA Director John Brennan been hanged at Guantanamo Bay? No, that's not true: A spokesperson at the Defense Department told Lead Stories that this is "completely false." The claim appeared in an article published by Real Raw News on June 14, 2021, titled "John Brennan Hanged at GITMO" (archived here). Real Raw News has a disclaimer on their…

Are 'giant' sculptures going to be built in 21 states in 2021? No, that's not true: The company creating them plans to use the structures to showcase quasi-animated images of heroes, athletes and celebrities once they have found investors in 21 cities that would want one. The claim originated in an Instagram post (archived here) on June 14, 2021, by…

Did the container ship run by Evergreen Marine, Ever Given, which blocked the Suez Canal in March 2021, catch fire? No, that's not true: The container ship in the video that did suffer a fire off the coast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, is the X-Press Pearl, not the Ever Given. The X-Press Pearl fire started on May 20, 2021, and…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issue a report that compared how states voted in the 2020 presidential election with their vaccination rates? No, that's not true: There is no such report, according to a CDC spokesperson. That said, the agency does collect and release vaccination statistics and it's easy enough for anyone with internet access to…

Did a kid hacker break into a Swiss bank's computer system and transfer $75 billion to his father's bank account? No, that's not true: there is no evidence that such an act occurred in the U.S. or abroad. Additionally, the images used to support the claim are court images of a then-14-year-old Zachary Neagle, who was charged with murdering his…

Must public health agencies discontinue COVID-19 vaccinations for people under age 30 because federal authorities "acknowledge" heart risks to young people? No, that's not true. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted that among the 165 million people who, by late May, received at least one dose, a few dozen reported non-fatal heart inflammation. CDC investigators have…

Did billionaire philanthropist George Soros die on June 10, 2021? No, that's not true: according to the Open Society Foundations, Soros' charitable arm, the 90-year-old is alive at the time of writing. Additionally, Lead Stories could not find any evidence of Soros' alleged death in obituaries, press releases or social media statements. The claim originally appeared on the online bulletin…

Does official data show that more people have died from the vaccines than from COVID-19? No, that's not true: The claim misconstrues what the statistics show. It discounts the deaths of people with COVID-19 and pre-existing conditions and assumes that everyone who dies after getting the shot did so because of the vaccine. As Lead Stories has reported previously, it's…

Did a woman from Pretoria, South Africa, give birth to 10 babies -- seven boys and three girls -- on June 7, 2021? If this is true, this would be a world record, but as of June 14, 2021, there has been no confirmation that 10 babies were born to one woman. They have not been seen in public and…

Did Qantas Airlines CEO Alan Joyce get a pie smashed into his face for trying to force COVID-19 vaccinations onto potential passengers? No, that's not true: This video was published four years before the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, and Tony Overheu committed this act in protest of Joyce's views on same-sex marriage. This claim appeared in a BitChute video…

Were President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris both out of the country at the same time in June 2021? No, that's not true: although there appears to be no law stating that at least one has to remain in the country while the other is abroad, Biden and Harris have not been out of the country at the…

Did Romana Didulo become commander in chief of Canada? No, that's not true: according to a spokesperson from the Canadian government, the head of state of Canada is still Queen Elizabeth II and the head of government is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Didulo is simply the leader of Canada1st, a group that is not "part of or beholden to the…

Did Israel get rid of its version of a vaccine passport because not enough citizens want to get the vaccine? No, that's not true: Israel got rid of Green and Purple Badges program because the number of COVID-19 infections decreased in their country. The story originated from a Facebook post (archived here) where it was published on June 9, 2021,…

Does the government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) provide data or reports that prove the COVID-19 vaccine or other vaccines have caused injuries or deaths? No, that's not true: As the VAERS webpage itself repeatedly explains, its purpose is to collect a wide-open, likely repetitive, messy and incomplete list of anyone's anecdotal, amateur, professional and even malicious reports of…

Did someone install a billboard along a highway featuring an image of Elon Musk and "Defend billionaires. We're just like you" emblazoned on it? No, that's not true: This image of the co-founder and CEO of Tesla on a billboard was originally posted by the artist Martin Sprouse to his Facebook and Instagram accounts. Sprouse frequently posts photoshopped images of…

Did One America News Network (OANN) report 254,000 "bad ballots" in Maricopa County, Arizona? No, that's not true: The claim, made by Sidney Powell, did not include any sourcing. Shortly after she made the claim, she walked it back. An election audit, commissioned by Republicans in the state Senate, was ongoing at the time this was written. The claim appeared…

Does a video of a 2018 lecture by an American professor show him scheming on how to make money from a pandemic? No, that's not true: An 89-second clip included in an article making the claim is edited to exclude the context of statements that people historically have found ways to profit during pandemics by marketing fake cure, spreading misinformation,…

Is there a child sex trafficking facility in Tucson, Arizona? No, that's not true: It's a new migrant facility, built to house people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border while federal agencies review their cases. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published on June 8, 2021. The post includes a photo and reads: this is a child sex trafficking…

Did makers of the COVID-19 vaccine "intentionally" add a component in order to force mRNA into body parts -- a process called magnetofection -- which made vaccinated people magnetized? No, that's not true: While magnetofection is a real thing, this developing nanotechnology was not used in the production of the vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. There is nothing in the…