International

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…

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 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 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…

Do videos show a migrant toppling a cross and a burning church in Ceuta, Spain? No, that's not true: Neither video used to support the claim is from the Spanish enclave. The first shows an incident from July 2026 in West Bengal, India, while the second shows a fire at a convent in Cuenca, central Spain, in May 2024. The…

Is a video claiming to be from the Daily Express reporting that U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham plans to bring 4,000 migrants from Ceuta into the United Kingdom real? No, that's not true: The Daily Express did not produce the video or publish such a report. The fake story also appeared on a website designed to mimic the newspaper's real…

Is a video real that shows a woman violently falling down stairs, seemingly pushed by something supernatural, after a cat passes by? No, that's not true: The video is clearly marked "made with AI." An online detection tool rated the video as 76% likely to be AI-generated. The claim appeared in an Aug. 17, 2026, video posted on X account…

Does a viral video show people trying to enter the Spanish city of Ceuta from Morocco in August 2026? No, that's not true: The video is older than that, showing an event that began in late July. It has been online since at least July 31, 2026. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) on X published…

Was a video showing a terrified woman pleading for help as she is tortured in a tank filling with water from the Epstein files or from the movie "The Cell"? No, that's not true: The video was a scene from a 2016 Egyptian TV show called "The Exit Series." The video clip went viral on social media in February 2026,…

Did the official White House X account post a map with the Strait of Hormuz circled, calling it a new U.S. territory? Yes, that's true: The White House did post a screenshot of a message posted by President Donald Trump of a map of the Strait of Hormuz. Trump originally posted the graphic, with a banner that read "NEW…

Did Donald Trump refer to the servicemembers deployed at USS Lincoln as "suckers and losers"? No, that's not true: His account on Truth Social didn't show the purported post. Neither an archive of his posts nor credible media reports mentioned the entry in question. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook by a user named "Sharon…

Did the BBC actually publish a news article reporting that the U.S. Department of Agriculture listed the fictional nation Wakanda as a free-trade partner? Yes, but it is not recent: The incident occurred in 2019, which is when the BBC article was released. Additionally, the Wakanda mistake was due to a testing error, not to a genuine belief by the…

Does a real story report that Chelsea Clinton is taking a plea deal from Scotland Yard and getting fined £1.2 million? No, that's not true: The claim originated on a Facebook page known for posting satirical content that carries the disclaimer, "Nothing on this page is real." The image in the original post also bears the same warning label. Lead…

Did President Donald Trump order sailors aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln to sign nondisclosure agreements before coming ashore? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the president issued such an order. The claim appears to have originated with a Facebook account that identifies itself as "political parody" and "satire" in its posts and profile description. The claim appeared…

Did Euronews report that a "Ukrainian gunman" shot and killed three NATO soldiers during the August 2026 military drill held in Latvia? No, that's not true: There is no such report on the news organization's website nor its social media accounts. Also, the Latvian army issued a statement explicitly denying this. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and…

Does a real video show Abdul El-Sayed and Ms. Rachel talking to kids about Israeli "colonizers"? No, that's not true: An AI detection tool concluded that the video showing the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Michigan was generated using artificial intelligence, assigning it a 100% confidence score. The video was posted by an account that self-describes as an AI…