War

Did Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy react to his August 2025 meeting at the White House by suggesting that Donald Trump rejects a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, believing it would hurt his chances of winning the Nobel Peace Prize? No, that's not true: Official government webpages of the Ukrainian president don't contain such a statement. Lead Stories could not find…

Does a viral image authentically show several European leaders like Emmanuel Macron and Ursula von der Leyen sitting on chairs in a White House corridor? No, that's not true: The image did not appear on any news sites. It contained glitches and discrepancies typical of AI generated images and at least one detection tool found signs of deepfake content. One…

Does a viral video show Cambodia firing RM-70 rockets at Thailand in 2025? No, that's not true: A viral post with over with 2.8 million views on X making that claim used footage that was already available on TikTok in 2022. The clip likely shows events from the Russia vs. Ukraine conflict. One example of the video showed up in…

Does a viral clip show a fighter jet shooting down another one during July 2025 clashes between Thailand and Cambodia? No, that's not true: The video predates the violence that broke out in that region in late July of 2025. Earlier version of the clip have been online at least since mid-June 2025 and were described as footage from the…

Was American Derek Huffman killed in a drone strike while fighting for the Russian military in Ukraine in July 2025? A YouTube account used by his wife claimed in a comment that Huffman is alive and well. Another American acquaintance of Huffman also told Lead Stories that Huffman is alive, but definitive proof was not immediately available. Here's what we…

Does a viral video on social media show Gazans who are fleeing Palestine arriving in Sweden? No, that's not true: The Ruahel Charity Association soccer team shown in the video represents various cities in the West Bank, not Gaza. The video shows players and coaches on a plane as part of a multi-city tour of Europe in July and August…

Does a viral video show Israeli soldiers celebrating the 2024 release of comrades who had been detained in connection with charges that nine soldiers had raped a Palestinian at a desert prison camp? No, that's not true: The video was first posted to X on November 10, 2023 and depicts a rowdy party unrelated to the Sde Teiman camp rape…

Does a viral video show footage of the downing of an Israeli aircraft released by Iran? No, that's not true: The video originated on a TikTok channel posting gameplay footage from the online game DCS World. It was not released by Iranian authorities. The video appeared in a post on X (archived here) published on July 3, 2025 with a…

Does a video authentically show a retired military K9 jumping into a casket to sit on a dead soldier? No, that's not true: A close inspection of the video reveals unreal details of the soldiers' uniforms indicating the video was generated by an artificial intelligence tool. A test using a tool to detect AI-generated content concluded with a 99.9% certainty…

Is a child who was slammed onto the floor at the Sheremetyevo airport an Iranian citizen? No, that's not true: According to the Iranian ambassador to Russia, the child seen in the viral video is Afghan. Earlier, a Russian regional commissioner for children's rights said that the critcally injured toddler comes from an Afghan family with Russian citizenship that resides…

Did Ali Khameini, Supreme Leader of Iran, post a congratulatory message on X.com, telling New York mayoral primary election winner Zohran Mamdani "Our work has only just begun"? No, that's not true: The owner of the account where the post first appeared followed it up with a comment that reads: "In case it wasn't obvious, I made it up." Khameini's…

Does a viral video document Iranian missiles being made ready for an imminent launch? No, that's not true: It's an AI-generated video. Several visual artifacts call attention to the kinds of inconsistencies and illogical details found in AI images. Also, the missiles shown do not visually match any of the 25 missile systems Iran had as of June, 2025, according…

Did Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian publicly announce his resignation from office as of June 23, 2025? No, that's not true: As of this writing, no such dispatches appeared on websites of credible news outlets. The website of the Iranian president made no such public announcement. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on June 22, 2025.…

Did Vice President Kamala Harris say "If we elect Trump, we will be at war within 6 months" as multiple viral memes claim she did? No, that's not true: There is no publicly available proof she said it. None of the multiple versions of the meme provides the time or place when she is supposed to have said it. Had…

Does a viral video document U.S. Army soldiers deploying to Iran on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: The post provides no evidence where those soldiers are going, nor when. No Army deployments have been documented by evidence-based news sites and neither the White House nor Congress have announced U.S. troops will be sent to Iran. The video was…

Does a video authentically show a lightning strike during a nuclear blast at an Iranian nuclear facility during a U.S. bombing attack on June 22, 2025? No, that's not true: While Lead Stories cannot confirm whether the video is real or AI-generated, the same video was shared online at least two days before the U.S. attack on three nuclear facilities…

Did a video shared widely in June 2025 show a real military base under Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, Israel? No, that's not true: The computer-generated animation began as a satirical reference to earlier Israeli claims about the hiding of missiles in civilian contexts. The hospital was hit by an Iranian missile strike on June 19. The claim appeared in…

Did President Donald Trump threaten, in a TruthSocial post, to "drop Chris Christie" on Iran, in June 2025? 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 yielded no record of his having written those words. The fake post appeared in a June 18,…

Did a viral video show passengers singing with a flight attendant waving an Israeli flag, in June 2025? No, that's not true: Posts on social media reused an old recording. The footage had been on the internet since October 2023. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on June 19, 2025. It read: Israel carries out a…

Did Paul McCartney give his private jet to a WW2 vet to help the 102-year-old American reunite with his wartime lover? No, that's not true: The text and supporting images in a story making the claim were generated by artificial intelligence tools. There is no documentation that the former Beatle lent his plane to an elderly veteran for a flight…