United States

Do Canadian researchers propose to mass-vaccinate people with crop duster-style spraying of the populace, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) have paid researchers to develop a needle-free inhaler to inoculate people one at a time against the virus that causes COVID-19. The post that pushes the crop duster idea…

Did a viral TikTok video show the actor Sydney Sweeney responding to backlash over her role in a controversial American Eagle ad campaign? No, that's not true: Sweeney posted the video in question more than four years earlier. At the time, she was responding to trending Twitter posts critical of her appearance. The American Eagle campaign was not launched until…

Did a widely-shared video show authentic footage of a news report describing missing couple Mark and Jennifer Patterson being rescued after having been lost at sea for 25 years? No, that's not true: The clip in question was the product of AI. The account that posted the video is self-described AI and included the words "ai satire news" in the…

Does the scientific community as a whole share the notion that a newly discovered interstellar object 3I/ATLAS is an alien spacecraft heading to Earth for a "surprise attack" in November 2025? No, that's not true: The NASA website says that it's a comet and that it doesn't pose any risk to Earth. Three astronomers told Lead Stories that, as of…

Did a widely-shared doorbell camera video show a little boy and his dad caught "ding-dong ditching"? No, that's not true: The people in the video were simply acting out a scripted scenario. The page that posted the sketch routinely publishes similar scripted "doorbell comedy", and is affiliated with a company that provides marketing and logistical support to digital "content creators".…

Has President Trump's fragrance 45-47 been recalled from retailers because it is extremely flammable? No, that's not true: The fragrance is only available for order online from one website and it is not sold in retail stores. There is no evidence of a recall of the product on the Consumer Product Safety Commission recall database or in media reporting. The…

Did former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warn President Donald Trump that he should not think that "the Mossad alone has a video archive of his past depravities"? No, that's not true: The quote was attributed to "Russia media" by a website that claims to be in Israel, but appears to be managed in Ukraine. Lead Stories could find no evidence…

Is a video of Minneapolis mayor candidate Omar Fateh saying "Look at me, I am the mayor now" authentic? No, that's not true: Fake audio was added to a clip from a real video of Fateh speaking to a state Senate hearing in 2022 in which he never spoke those words. The voice and accent in the fake audio do…

Did President Trump name his former CFO Allen Weisselberg to be director of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics? No, that's not true: A fake news release making the claim was created by the AI tool Grok as a joke and then shared on X hours after Trump fired Erika McEntarfer, as head of the federal agency that reports employment…

Does an image of a large addition that replaces the West Wing and the west colonnade of the White House accurately show what the new ballroom will look like? No, that's not true: The official renderings show the ballroom adjacent to the East Wing, with the east colonnade intact. The fake rendering shared on social media shows the ballroom replacing…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump, in a Truth Social post, bemoan what he described as "disrespect" from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi? No, that's not true: A widely-shared screenshot which appeared to show such a message was, in fact, fake. A search of the president's TruthSocial account, and news archives, yielded no record of his having written those words. The…

Did The Simpsons predict that U.S. President Donald Trump would suffer a heart attack in the first week of August, 2025? No, that's not true: The Simpsons never aired an episode with this storyline. Several videos on social media show fake, AI-generated scenes resembling the style of the animated show, but this fictional prediction was never broadcast as part of…

Did the Federal Bureau of Prisons' inmate search database say that Ghislaine Maxwell was "Not in BOP custody" on Friday, August 1, 2025? Yes, that's true: A search for Maxwell by Lead Stories at 2 p.m. EDT showed a page that indicated she was not in the custody of the federal prison system. A statement from the BOP to Lead…

Did U.S. President Donald Trump post on Truth Social about "fat, ugly losers" criticizing the Sydney Sweeney American Eagle ad campaign? No, that's not true: The entry in question didn't appear on his profile or an archived version of it. A search of news archives yielded no entries that corroborated the purported remarks. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Does a viral video show a "leak" from a FOIA release that proves Hillary Clinton sent an email requesting documents about the "resurrection chamber of Gilgamesh" and "buried Nephilim"? No, that's not true: A publicly available document from the Department of State shows somebody named Denetra Senigar sent in a request under the Freedom of Information Act to ask about…

Does an authentic video capture actress Sydney Sweeney breaking her silence about the controversy over her American Eagle "good jeans" ad? No, that's not true: The video contains a last-frame disclaimer that it is "Unreal." The video was first posted to an X account that routinely releases deepfake/AI-generated videos that show prominent people commenting on current events in shocking or…

Does a recently resurfaced old video show Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un refusing to drink after making a toast? No, that's not true: The original video from the 2019 North Korea-Russia summit shows the world leaders toasting each other and those beside them, and then both taking a sip of their drink. The edited version of this video appeared…

Did basketball player Angel Reese publicly say "Y'all make $1,400 a week, I make $1,400 in 7 days"? No, that's not true: A search of major news websites using two different search engines did not bring up any news reports confirming she ever said this. A search of the public posts on her X account did not bring up the…

Did former President Barack Obama charge the Biden Administration $18 million a year for consulting? No, that's not true: The post spreading that claim originated on a Facebook page with a satire disclaimer and a warning that all the contents of the page are fabricated. The owner of the page is known for tricking conservatives into liking and sharing made-up…

Is the viral video of "Titan" the giant dog authentic? No, that's not true: The creator of the original TikTok video clip labeled it "AI-generated" when posting it on July 27, 2025. Subsequent re-posts and lower-resolution copies did not keep the label and attempted to pass it off as real video of a real dog. The video of the gargantuan…