United Kingdom

Did a video show passengers on board an Air India flight as it crashed in June 2025? No, that's not true: The clip was in fact recorded on board a plane that crashed after leaving Kathmandu, Nepal, in January 2023. On June 12, 2025, a London-bound Air India flight with 242 people on board crashed shortly after leaving Ahmedabad airport…

Did Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr announce they are bringing The Beatles back to the U.S. with a reunion tour? No, that's not true: No announcement can be found anywhere in the news media, on the artists' websites, or with online ticketing websites. The post making the claim used an AI-generated image, which would not be expected in an official…

Did a widely-shared image of a bearded man show the individual arrested in Liverpool after a car drove into a crowd of celebrating soccer fans in May 2025? No, that's not true: Merseyside Police confirmed to Lead Stories that the photo doesn't show the man arrested in that case. That person was described as a "53-year-old white British man from…

Do viral videos authentically show the British porn actress known as Bonnie Blue being arrested? No, that's not true: The police vehicle is painted to look like police cars in Britain, but licensed to a prop service that provides cars to film and video makers. If the actress, born Tia Emma Billinger, had been arrested, England's notoriously competitive press corps…

Did Sam Smith and Pamela Anderson trade insults in May 2025, after Anderson's appearance at that year's Met Gala in New York City? No, that's not true: An account of a "bitter feud" between them was no more than a fabrication. The original source, Wakefield News, describes its output as satirical in nature. The exchange of insults was presented as…

Did the UK government or Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves institute a levy on windows consisting of a £3.70 monthly fee on each, as of May 13, 2025? No, that's not true: No official sources made such an announcement. The window tax was abandoned in the U.K. by the mid-19th century. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Did UK newspaper The Daily Telegraph publish a story headlined "Pakistan Air Force: The Undisputed King Of The Skies"? No, that's not true: A viral image showing such a title has been fabricated, no such article appeared on the website of The Daily Telegraph. The image contained several mistakes that are indicative of the use of AI tools, such as…

Did Robert Francis Prevost moonlight as "Bobby Prev", a "celebrated jazz trombonist" in Chicago who "headlined several jazz festivals in the '70s and '80s"? No, that's not true: The archives of the Chicago Tribune, which has long provided detailed coverage of jazz, contain no celebrations or even mentions of such a musician. Similarly, a search of the GoogleNews index of…

Does a video on social media show Britain's Princess Anne's authentic public statement that she rejects the idea of bowing to Queen Camila? No, that's not true: In that clip, the sound was added over a series of shots, but the video never showed Princess Anne actually saying what was attributed to her. No credible media organization reported such a…

Did Indians or Pakistanis set fire to a church in Wales in April 2025? No, that's not true: In response to widely-shared social media rumors, South Wales Police told Lead Stories there was "no link to India or Pakistan at all" in their investigation into a fire at the Bethany English Calvinistic Methodist Chapel in Port Talbot. Two local teenage…

Did The Sun publish a video claiming Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle sold Princess Diana's iconic revenge dress to Ukraine's first lady Olena Zelenska for $2.9 million in April 2025? No, that's not true: There is no such story or video on The Sun's website or social media. The quote from "Royal expert Richard Fitzwilliams" in the video was cut…

Did a video shared in April 2025 show a real prison guard smoking and partying with real prisoners in a prison cell? No, that's not true: The clip, which bore the caption "Jail Life", was recorded at a party attended by participants in "Banged Up", a prison-based reality TV show that aired in the U.K. in 2023. The woman in…

Did the U.K. newspaper The Guardian publish an opinion column withe the headline "The next Pope must be Muslim or there will be violence on the streets of Europe" by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, in April 2025? No, that's not true: A screenshot that appeared to show such an article was originally published by an account on X that says it publishes…

Did authentic security camera footage show U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer kissing Waheed Alli, a television entrepreneur and prominent supporter of the governing Labour Party? No, that's not true: The video, which was shared widely in April 2025, was clearly fake, and likely a product of generative AI. The clip contained several tell-tale glitches typical of AI-generated videos. The video…

Did Statista publish a graph detailing the nationalities of the people described as "mercenaries" who fought for Ukraine and were killed in the Kursk region of Russia? No, that's not true: The data on the Statista website doesn't show the graph shared on social media. Unlike authentic charts published by that company, the graph omitted the source of the figures…

Did an image shared on social media capture the recent arrest of a "45-year-old British mother in the UK" later sentenced to nine months in prison for a Facebook post? No, that's not true: The image first appeared online in 2017. It documented a drug bust. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on April 16,…

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…

Are emails sent via the public.govdelivery.com email domain and claiming to be about an "unclaimed balance" at Bittrex legitimate? No, that's not true: They appear to be part of an email scam aimed at former users of the now defunct company Bittrex Global. The company itself warned users on its website only to trust emails coming from a limited set…

Did the U.K. make Islam the "main study" in schools on March 26, 2025? No, that's not true: No credible media outlet reported such a policy. Religious education covering different religions has been part of the national curriculum for decades, and students can opt out of attending those classes. The story appeared in a post (archived here) published on Facebook…

Did King Charles III give official notice that he has revoked U.S. independence, effective immediately, will reign as monarch and that "The nincompoop you've elected as President will go to gaol", as social media posts claim? No, that's not true: There was no official statement to that effect from the British monarch. No such statement appeared on Buckingham Palace social…