Politics

Are the screenshots showing President Donald Trump confusing election results from Brazil and India in a post real? Yes, that's true: The president first shared a post noting the first round of India's presidential election, which he said took place on Oct. 4, 2026, but no such election took place on that date. Trump later corrected the post to mention…

Did President Donald Trump write "every Republican vote counts as 3 votes" because of Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of such a post, although one post contained a similarly worded message without the "3 votes" language. At the time of writing, no established news outlets…

Did 80,000 French students go missing in 72 hours amid protests, and were their mass graves spotted from space? No, none of that is true: The account that published the rumor later said that it was satire. No news outlet reported anything remotely close. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published by @IRAN_GHANA…

Do two videos that show two different planes prove that the attempted hijacking of the FlyDubai flight Sept. 30, 2026, was a staged "false flag"? No, that's not true: The clip showing a celebration on a plane is of the Israeli men's basketball team from 2025, as Lead Stories previously reported. Nothing in the video proves that the FlyDubai flight…

Does a real video from NewsGuard show that the Democratic Party orchestrated an attempted terrorist attack on FlyDubai Flight FZ1073? No, that's not true: NewsGuard confirmed to Lead Stories that the organization did not make such a report, and there is no evidence that it ever did. Instead, NewsGuard said the post appears to be connected to a Russian disinformation…

Did a viral video show protests in Iran in the fall of 2026? No, that's not true: The video had been online for months before resurfacing in late September 2026. The earliest posts with the footage went live on social media on Dec. 31, 2025. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X on Sept. 30, 2026,…

Does a real "leaked video" show an argument between FlyDubai pilots? No, that's not true: An AI detection tool assessed the clip and concluded that it was 95.8% "Likely to be AI-generated," while the audio came from a 2017 road-rage video. Lead Stories found no matching news reports about a leaked video involving FlyDubai pilots. The claim appeared in a…

Does a video show a FlyDubai plane plummeting after an incident on board a Tel Aviv flight in September 2026? No, that's not true: The clip shows an aircraft operated by Azul Brazilian Airlines, not FlyDubai. Separately, the video predates the Sept. 30, 2026, FlyDubai incident in which a co-pilot stabbed the pilot and attempted to crash the plane, so…

Does a video show passengers of FlyDubai flight FZ1073 to Tel Aviv celebrating on board with a big speaker after the hijacking attempt on Sept. 30, 2026? No, that's not true: The footage is from August 2025 and shows members of the Israeli men's basketball team on a plane. The original footage showing a man carrying a large speaker celebrating…

Does a video show a large group of Muslims chanting on the streets of Dublin in September 2026? No, that's not true: The video is from about a year earlier and shows a group of fans of the German professional football team FC Schalke 04 marching on Abbey Street in Dublin in October 2025. They were in town for a…

Did evangelist Franklin Graham and Pope Leo XIV have a live discussion on television? No, that's not true: There is no evidence of such a TV show. The claim is an example of so-called "Viet Spam" campaigns consisting of nearly identical, fabricated clickbait stories, each featuring a different famous person and created to drive traffic to overseas web pages, often…

Was Oprah Winfrey's private jet on Jeffrey Epstein's island 11 times? No, that's not true: There is no proof that Winfrey's private plane was ever on the Caribbean island of convicted sex offender Epstein. Little St. James is only 75 acres and does not have a runway for Winfrey's private plane, or any planes, to land there. The claim appeared…

Was the name of the U.S. actually misspelled in Donald Trump's "super intelligence" accord with tech executives as "Unites States"? Yes, that's true: President Trump shared two images of the "White House Accord on Super Intelligence" with the spelling error on his Truth Social account. Several media outlets also reported on the mistake, which happened shortly after the President signed…

Did Donald Trump admit in a speech, "I've done a shitty job as president"? No, that's not true: The president did say those words, but he was joking, and the quote was taken out of context. While announcing a new AI-powered government information hub, Trump was joking by saying "If it is the biggest thing I've ever done, I've done…

Does a real video show 9-year-old Lily Trejo being beaten by Jake Lynch and another boy on Feb. 1 in Florida, with Lynch getting a "stern warning"? No, that's not true: The video combines cellphone footage of a real 2023 attack on a school bus in Homestead, Florida, with photos of an alleged victim and attacker from unrelated cases, while…

Will Kamala Harris be held personally responsible for her campaign's $39 million debt, according to a federal bankruptcy court? No, that's not true: The story originated from a network of self-described satire websites that place multiple disclaimers on their content saying that nothing they publish is real. Lead Stories did not find any matching reports from established media outlets. The…

Did a post mentioning Lebensraum for Israel appear on the Times of Israel blog platform? Yes, that's true: The screenshot that resurfaced on social media in 2026 showed a blog entry that was indeed published there almost two years earlier, but then was deleted. The Times of Israel told Lead Stories that the image is from a blog post in…

Does a photo show that Scott Kretzschmar, accused in the Cornell University "gang rape" case, is now a police officer? No, that's not true: The image used to support the claim does not show Kretzschmar. Instead, it shows his brother, Max Kretzschmar, who the City of Sterling Heights confirmed has served as a Sterling Heights Police Department officer for over…

Did Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wear a Palestinian flag as a cape while at the U.N.? No, that's not true: The AI detector ZeroGPT determined the video of Meloni's alleged protest was created with AI. A visual analysis also revealed that the flag shown in the video does not match the real Palestinian flag, and the U.N. emblem shown…

Did Japan issue a blanket ban on all Israeli tourists, as of September 2026? No, that's not true: No government pages or media reports confirmed the online rumor. While there were some isolated instances of hotels employees invoking "war crimes" and attempting to deny accommodation to Israeli citizens, Lead Stories found no evidence that it affected large groups of Israeli…