International

Did U.S. Navy forces at Guantanamo Bay shoot down uncrewed aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to fend off a "deep state drone attack"? No, that's not true: The U.S. Navy has not released any report about an attempted attack on Guantanamo Bay. The website where this claim was made has a disclaimer that states it publishes fabricated content. The claim appeared…

Is Starbucks leaving Morocco and San Francisco due to boycotts over the Hamas-Israel crisis and pro-Palestinian protests? No, that's not true: Starbucks announced the closure of seven stores in San Francisco on October 2, 2023, five days before the Hamas-Israel war began, the company spokesperson confirmed to Lead Stories. Starbucks also confirmed that the company continues to operate stores in…

Is the International Space Station (ISS) in a swimming pool? No, that's not true: The ISS is in space, orbiting Earth, contrary to images on social media referring to the ISS as "International Swimming Station". The images show NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory with a full-size mock-up of the space station. It includes a large pool with technology used for training…

Did the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, threaten to stop oil supply to the world if bombing in Gaza does not stop? No, that's not true: The statement has never been made by Sheikh Tamim, a Qatari official told Lead Stories. An internet search did not produce any results that would corroborate the claim. The claim…

Was a snow-covered jet frozen on an airport runway in Germany when it was meant to be headed to a "Dubai global warming conference"? No, that's not true: The plane was not scheduled to fly anywhere in the days before or after a massive snowstorm hit Munich, Germany. The jet apparently tipped over due to the weight of the snow…

Does a video on social media provide evidence that Hamas has been staging civilian casualties in Gaza by filming rubber dolls that look like real babies? No, that's not true: The video reused on social media was first posted months before the 2023 Hamas-Israel conflict. Neither the footage nor the pre-war post said anything about Gaza. The claim appeared in…

Did Iceland ban COVID-19 vaccinations? No, that's not true: The Nordic nation has not banned COVID vaccines as of this publication and was actually encouraging at-risk populations to maintain a recommended vaccine schedule. Social media users and publications that pushed the false information regarding a ban did not provide verifiable evidence to support or corroborate the claim. Lead Stories determined…

Was a Black Friday video of a lone man entering a store empty of shoppers taken in the U.S. in 2023, reflecting the U.S. economy under President Joe Biden? No, that's not true: This video was shot in the United Kingdom in November 2017. A BBC News correspondent posted this video on what was then Twitter, now X, in 2017,…

Did Dior fashion house replace Bella Hadid with Israeli model May Tager due to Hadid's support of Palestine? No, that's not true: Hadid left Dior and joined beauty brand Charlotte Tilbury in March 2023, as the company publicly announced on its social media pages. This was seven months before the 2023 Hamas-Israel war erupted. Tager is not new to Dior.…

Does a post on social media confirm that a Palestinian family grieved over a doll wrapped in white for burial, staging their loss? No, that's not true: The available body of evidence strongly suggests that the footage showed the body of an infant. The scene was shot from multiple angles by at least two different people, and both said it…

Does the listing of "Pneumonia mycoplasma" in Pfizer's guidance on adverse event reports associated with its COVID-19 vaccine prove that the shot caused a respiratory outbreak in China? No, that's not true: It's a fundamental misreading of standard vaccine documents, which direct doctors to rapidly report any problems from a long list as a precaution. The Centers for Disease Control…

Does a video of a man, described in a news report as a militant, show a staged arrest on the Gaza border because he is first seen blindfolded and in his underwear, then apparently putting his pants back on with no blindfold? No, that's not true: While social media accounts did not alter the Fox News footage compared to the…

Did the Rothschild family buy or do they own Rothschild Island in Antarctica? No, that's not true: The island, which is part of Antarctica and not owned by anyone, was sighted from a distance by the French Antarctic Expedition between 1908 and 1910. The expedition leader, Jean-Baptiste Charcot, named it after Baron Edouard de Rothschild, the then-head of the French…

Does a video posted on X show Israeli protesters surrounding Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's residence in Jerusalem to demand his resignation? No, that's not true: The video shows a rally taking place in Tel Aviv to call for the release of Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. At least two English-language signs carried by protesters refer to Israelis held hostage…

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin order "the destruction of a Kyiv pharmaceutical laboratory suspected of manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines" owned by Farmak, one of Ukraine's major companies selling medical products, in November 2023? No, that's not true: The company's warehouse near Kyiv had been burned down roughly a year and a half earlier. It happened during the early stages of the…

Was Oprah Winfrey's private jet at Jeffrey Epstein's island 11 different times? No, that's not true: There is no proof that Winfrey's private plane was ever on convicted pedophile Epstein's island Little St. James in the Caribbean. The island is only 75 acres and does not have a runway for Winfrey's private plane, or any planes, to land there. Winfrey…

Was a 3-year-old Palestinian child detained in 2023 in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers as shown in a video? No, that's not true: This incident did happen in the town of Hebron in the West Bank; but it happened in 2018. As recorded in the video, the child's family succeeded in freeing the child from the soldier's grasp. The…

Did U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez say that a ceasefire is when "somebody sees a fire"? No, that's not true: This is a deepfake video originating from a meme account that identified it as such with a "deepfake" hashtag. The voice track that mimics the voice of Ocasio-Cortez was added over a video clip taken from a livestream posted by the…

Did the Irish government deploy military vehicles to stop people expressing public outrage about the stabbings of children and a woman in Dublin? No, that's not true: According to the Irish Defence Forces, an image that showed military vehicles in Dublin posted on X on November 23, 2023, had "no connection" to an attempt by riot police to stop rioting…

Did VG, a Norwegian newspaper, report that the average age of Palestinians killed in Gaza was 5 years old, as claimed by an image on social media? No, that's not true: The newspaper reported that 5-year-olds represented the age group with the highest number of people killed in Gaza between October 7 and October 26, 2023. Taking the largest age…