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 Donald Trump's Truth Social account post an image of the president walking on water and holding a Bible with the caption, "Pastor. President. Protector."? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post, and there are also no credible reports that he ever shared such an image. The image originated on…
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…
Does a real photo show Hakeem Jeffries eating with Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the House Democratic leader ever ate with or met Epstein. The image is AI-generated, according to two online detection tools, with one saying, "Most or all of this image was edited or generated with Google AI," and the other saying…
Does a real photo show someone dressed as Spider-Man punching Jake Lang at a protest in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: This specific image is AI-generated, although a person dressed as Spider-Man was filmed attacking Lang and later both were arrested. The OpenAI Verify tool found a SynthID watermark in the image indicating it was made with OpenAI tools. The…
Is a viral video of a man climbing onto the roof of a moving car and then crashing into a truck real? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that publishes AI-generated content. The video contained inconsistencies pointing to AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X by @BricxNews on Aug.…
Does a real video from the Epstein files show a cannibalism party where Epstein is carving into a trussed and cooked human corpse? No, that's not true: Scenes of this cannibalism party came from the production of a fake trailer for a horror movie named Thanksgiving. A mix of real images from the movie trailer production and AI-generated scenes derived…
Does a video show a real incident of a young woman beating up men who harass her and try to steal her bag in a hallway? No, that's not true: The video was created by a French stunt team. The social media account for Campus Univers Cascades, which originated the clip, identifies itself as "Stuntmen | Fighters | Performers." The…
Is a video showing Celine Dion confessing to drinking the blood of children real? No, that's not true: The altered clip posted on social media uses footage from a documentary that shows Dion having a seizure and recovering. She does not say that she ate children or drank their blood in the original video. The claim appeared in an Aug.…
Does a real video show UK police officers tackling scooter thieves? No, that's not true: A visual inspection by Lead Stories found several glitches characteristic of AI-generated content. There are no credible media reports about the incidents shown in the clips. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) made on X by the user @mr_viewX on Aug. 22, 2026.…
Did architect Leonhard Gall submit plans to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1935 for a ballroom next to the Chancellery, with an air-raid shelter and a bunker underneath? Yes, that's true: Gall did submit plans for a large reception hall that could be used as a ballroom, and an air-raid shelter called the Vorbunker was built beneath it. The deeper…
Does a video show a real Emergency Broadcast System (EBS) or Emergency Alert System (EAS) notice broadcast in major cities across the United States in August 2026? No, that's not true: This video shows a prank that a young man pulled on his mother in 2024. The emergency alert playing on the family TV originated on YouTube in December 2022,…
Have you seen viral videos showing dogs being rescued from train or subway tracks? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people risking their lives to save their real pets and many of them seem to have been created to exploit…
Does a video show Indian people dumping plastic waste into a river? No, that's not true: The video does not show garbage dumping but the final religious ritual of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, Ganesh Visarjan, where idols made for this purpose are immersed in water. The environmental impact of the festival can vary depending on what the statues and decorations…
Does a video show a real incident where a flight attendant pulls a blanket off a woman who says she has a baby, revealing a lynx on a plane? No, that's not true: The video is a skit created by online content creators. The social media account that originated the skit includes a disclaimer stating that the page's "videos are…
Does a real video show an actual subway line collapse that happened in Taiwan? No, that's not true: the Hive Moderation AI detection tool rated the video as 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. There are no credible sources that have reported on such an incident. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) made on X by @ai_videoss, published on…
Did Italian newspaper La Repubblica publish an article saying that one of the 2027 French presidential candidates, Édouard Philippe, acquired a villa for 15 million euros? No, that's not true: The newspaper denied it. Lead Stories found no credible sources confirming the claim. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by the @Elissamaiss account on August…
Is there a real video of Rep. Nancy Mace dancing and grimacing in a sexy black dress? No, that's not true: The original video was posted by a comedian on Instagram. The video has been doctored to add Mace's face and arm tattoos to the footage. The claim appeared in an Aug. 20, 2026, video posted on X account @SpencerHakimian…
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