International

Did a U.S. Congressman named "Jack Kimble" post an apology on X for confusing Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador, with the name of a sex act? No, that's not true: As of April 2025, there is no member of the U.S. Congress named Jack Kimble. An X account with the handle "RepJackKimble" posts content that is intended to be…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write on social media that he would increase tariffs on China for every 1,000 "likes" he gets? No, that's not true: The viral image of the supposed screenshot of his account was fake. The promise to increase levies on China based on likes did not appear on Trump's social media, as of this writing. The…

Did the rapper Eminem announce in April 2025 that he would hold a concert in Israel in June? No, that's not true: A poster shared widely on social media billed the show as the star's "first time in Israel" and gave a date of June 1, 2025. However, no such announcement could be found on Eminem's official website or social…

Did the Taliban return Bagram Air Base base in Afghanistan to the United States? No, that's not true: On April 8, 2025, the Pentagon refuted the claim, replying to Lead Stories' questions. Two AI detectors found a significant presence of generative AI in an article that started the rumor. The claim originated from a story published on Medium on April…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump post a meme of Winnie the Pooh on X to troll China's Xi Jinping in 2025? No, that's not true: Lead Stories manually reviewed Trump's account on X and did not find the image social media alleged he published. No credible media organization reported the purported news. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Did President Donald Trump's economic advisor Peter Navarro once attribute quotations to a supposed expert named "Ron Vara", who turned out to have been invented by Navarro himself? Yes, that's true: Navarro admitted in 2019 to having invented "Ron Vara", which is an anagram of "Navarro". He cited Vara's supposed opinions and quotations in several books dating back to 2001.…

Did Joe Rogan podcast guest Dr. Suzanne Humphries accurately describe problems with the polio vaccine and with organized medicine's responses to polio? No, that's not true: A Brown University Medical School professor said Humphries made several errors of fact. She erred in claiming DDT pesticide caused polio and that symptoms of arsenic poisoning match those of polio, leading to misdiagnosis.…

Is the pyramidal peak in Antarctica's Ellsworth Mountains the topic of an expert debate over whether it is a masonry pyramid constructed during Antarctica's last warm period, millions of years ago? No, that's not true: There is no credentialled scholar or explorer with on-the-ground knowledge making that case. The nameless mountain in Antarctica's Ellsworth Range sits in a well-studied range…

Did Senator Rand Paul call U.S. President Donald Trump "a tyrant" while speaking in Congress on April 2, 2025? No, that's not true: As the full recording of the speech shows, Paul did not even use the word "tyrant" on that occasion. His single reference to tyranny concerned a broad historical context that predated Trump's birth by centuries. The claim…

Did the BBC report that Ukraine's First Lady Olena Zelenska tried to escape to Europe and was put under the guard of the national Security Service when the attempt failed? No, that's not true: In a statement to Lead Stories, a BBC spokesperson refuted the claim, referring to the viral video as "fabricated content that impersonates the BBC." No credible…

Did a photograph shared in April 2025 authentically show Diana Fox Carney standing alongside her husband, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney? No, that's not true: the image was digitally edited. The original was taken by the Reuters news agency in March, when Carney won the race to replace outgoing prime minister Justin Trudeau as Liberal Party leader. The fake picture…

Was there credible information behind a tweeted report that President Donald Trump on April 7, 2025 was considering a 90-day pause in imposition of the worldwide tariffs he announced April 2? No, that's not true: The White House "rapid response" social media account called the claim "fake news" soon after its appearance had caused stock prices to briefly rise and…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write "No crying in the casino" in a Truth Social post on April 7, 2025? No, that's true: A fake screenshot purporting to show such a post was the result of digital editing. The fake post was shared widely amid stock market turmoil in response to the Trump administration's implementation of tariffs in April 2025.…

Did the South African Broadcasting Corporation air a news segment saying Ukrainian President Zelenskyy bought a 51% stake in mining company Northam Platinum? No, that's not true: No such video appears on the website or social media accounts of SABC News. The audio in the segment was generated using Artificial Intelligence according to online detection tools and Northam confirmed to…

Did investor Warren Buffett pay $1 trillion in cash to acquire Elon Musk's Tesla Motors company? No, that's not true: The story originated as an April Fools joke and went viral online. No actual news websites reported on any such investment or acquisition. The story appeared as an article (archived here) on GoBankingRates on April 1, 2025 titled "Warren Buffett…

April 2 is International Fact-Checking Day, a global celebration of truth and accuracy. Like every year we want to take the opportunity to say that "Facts Matter". Usually at Lead Stories we are quite content to let the facts speak for themselves, but this year we have a much more eloquent guest speaker, world-famous actor Stephen Fry: Some of our…

Did President Trump post a message to Truth Social about denaturalizing and deporting dual citizens as "traitors" under the espionage act? No, that's not true: A viral image purporting to be a screenshot of such a post was fabricated. The post did not appear on Trump's account. An example of the image appeared in a post on X (archived here)…

It's that day of the year again! April Fools' Day is upon us. We're keeping a running list of the online jokes we spot this year. Seen one we missed? Email [email protected] and let us know! Flightradar24 Airplane tracking website Flightradar24 revived the supersonic Concorde aircraft and made one fly from London to New York, currently being tracked by over…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump write "I am ending all the tariffs today against China, Canada and Mexico" in an April 1, 2025, post on Truth Social? No, that's not true: A screenshot shared by users on other social media platforms was fake. Trump has marked April 2 as a day on which his administration will roll out new tariffs.…

Did United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer post on social media about the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, on March 30, 2025, but fail to post about Mother's Day on the same day? No, that's not true: Starmer posted about Mother's Day on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. He also wished Muslims a blessed Eid-al-Fitr, the festival which marks the end…