Does a video show President Donald Trump patting a Secret Service agent on her backside? No, that's not true: The video appears to show a version of the White House Oval Office that does not match the real one, with visual details that differ from the actual room. There is also no evidence that the incident occurred or that the…
Does a video of Benjamin Netanyahu have a glitch that proves the video was AI generated? No, that's not true: In the video, he moves his hands on and off the sides of a lectern frequently during a speech, and his shirt cuffs are exposed and covered at different moments. Typical of tailored clothing, when he extends his arms, the…
Did German Chancellor Friedrich Merz use $550 million of state funds to build a private "doomsday" plane? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence or proof that Merz commissioned a fortified warplane. The website that published the article was registered one day before the publication of the story and is not an established media organization. An online detection…
Did U.S. President Donald Trump write a post about winning "the Iran thing" in a "Bigly" way on March 19, 2026? No, that's not true: The post did not originate from Trump's account. The image of the entry, as it first appeared on social media, carried a satire label. The claim originated from a post (archived here) published on X…
Did U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer threaten to close U.S. bases at Lakenheath, Mildenhall and elsewhere, and demand rent if President Donald Trump withdraws from NATO? No, that's not true: Contrary to a viral screenshot claiming Starmer posted such a threat on X, there is no evidence he actually did that. Neither news reports nor Starmer's X account support the…
Was a video about Ukrainian drone operator Miroslav Radchenko shared on social media actually produced and distributed by Al Jazeera? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no traces of such a report broadcast or shared online by Al Jazeera or any other media outlet. Spreading false narratives through clips with logos of real media organizations is a well-known tactic…
Does a real video show Iranian missiles striking the middle of an Israeli city at night? No, that's not true: This video is AI generated. Glitches typical of AI-generated content are visible in the video. In the foreground at the start of the video, the building in the lower right corner seems to spontaneously crumble. In the midground, the buildings…
Does a viral video purporting to show the ruins of an Amazon data center in the Middle East document a real scene? No, that's not true: The video contained multiple signs pointing to AI, including an incorrectly spelled company's name and a person who appears headless and then grows a head in less than a second. According to Google, the…
Did the BBC use AI to fabricate remarks by President Donald Trump in a Jan. 6, 2021, speech in a documentary that aired just before the 2024 election? No, that's not true: The $5 billion lawsuit Trump filed against the BBC does not allege that it used AI. Instead, it argues that the network edited together unrelated portions of the…
Do social media posts prove that the Israeli Prime Minister's office reused a photo originally published on Feb. 4, 2026? No, that's not true: The claim appears to have been based on a known Google image search glitch, not evidence of photo reuse. The photo was not part of an article about Spain published on Feb. 4, 2026. Lead Stories…
Does a video on social media show what posts described as Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, "hiding in schools thinking Israel won't bomb them"? No, that's not true: It's not real footage. The clip was made with generative AI from a photo that predated the Feb. 28, 2026, U.S.-Israel attack on Iran, as well as the following escalation. The claim…
Does the screen of the coffee shop register in a video recently shared by Benjamin Netanyahu show a date stamp from 2024? No, that's not true: Lead Stories examined the highest resolution version of Netanyahu's video. The date stamp visible on the register's screen reads "15/03/2026." The claim appeared in a March 15, 2026, post by the X account @merlinscapital…
Is a video showing a Politico report claiming Germany is preparing to take in 400,000 Palestinian refugees real? No, that's not true: There are no reports from Politico or any other news organization that Germany plans to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees, Palestinian or otherwise. In addition, an online AI detection tool determined that the audio in the…
Does a viral image show Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Israeli Defense Forces soldiers in March 2026 amid rumors of his death? No, that's not true: The photo has been online since 2018. As of this writing, no credible media outlet has reported that Netanyahu was wounded or killed in the most recent round of escalation in…
Did Sophie Cunningham and other famous people including Alice Cooper, Ice Cube and Myles Garrett say that President Donald Trump is a "tough man" and "no one has fought harder for the heart and soul of America"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Cunningham and the others ever said that about Trump. The claim was an example…
Does a viral video show Downtism Cafe in Tehran being destroyed by a U.S.-Israeli airstrike? No, that's not true: The video appeared on the internet 25 days before the most recent military escalation in the region. It showed the consequences of a fire, not a strike. The claim appeared in a post published on X (archived here, here and here)…
Was the crowd seen behind President Donald Trump at a Kentucky rally an AI-generated creation, since it didn't appear to be captured on camera phones in the audience? No, that's not true: The phones don't show the people behind Trump because they capture a different angle than the TV camera does, and instead show the white wall above him. The…
Does a screenshot of a video show that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has six fingers? No, that's not true: The screenshot captured a moment when there is a shadow on the side of his hand. The full video from Israel's Government Press Office shows him speaking and gesturing with his hands, each of which has five fingers. The screenshot…
Did Pope Francis order the closure of the Vatican Secret Archives over a scandal revealed in the Epstein files in March 2026? No, that's not true: The post claimed Pope Francis ordered the sealing of the archives in March 2026, but he died in April 2025. There are no legitimate news reports of the Vatican sealing the archives as of…
Does a viral video claiming to show a strike on a U.S. military base in Jordan or the Gulf actually show such an attack? No, that's not true: Lead Stories' analysis found multiple inconsistencies pointing to AI, including a fake U.S. flag missing all 50 stars that represent the 50 states. The video did not originate from a credible media…
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
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