Politics

Is a video that shows Princess Leonor of Spain wearing a yellow mini dress real? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the video as 99.9% likely generated by AI. The fake video appears to have been manipulated from real footage filmed during a July 2024 event when the Spanish national football team met with the royal family…

Did Iranian officials say they would release audio of President Donald Trump begging them to open the Strait of Hormuz so gas prices will go down before the midterms? No, that's not true: This story originated from The Halfway Post, an account which says their content is "Halfway true comedy and satire for your doomscrolling". A search of both Google…

Did Bellingcat produce an investigation and video stating that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was receiving 25% of each financial aid package going to Ukraine? No, that's not true: The organization's website showed no such report. Lead Stories didn't find any other investigations by established media organizations saying that one-quarter of each financial aid package for Ukraine went to Merz. The…

Does a video show Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro telling a Masonic lodge he would give Brazil to "Greater Israel" and Satan? No, that's not true: The man in the video is not Flávio Bolsonaro. Instead, it is his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro. There is also no mention of Israel or Satan in the video. The claim appeared in…

Does a video show young men dressed in black dancing with guns at student protests in France in October 2026? No, that's not true: They were filming a video for the French rap group 8ZT, which can be seen on the group's TikTok channel and on YouTube. There is no evidence that the people in the video were taking part…

Did President Donald Trump post a Truth Social message claiming he spoke to God about a golden throne, an ocean of blood, and Armageddon? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of such a post. At the time of publication, no established news outlets had reported that Trump shared such a statement. The…

Does a screenshot show a real BBC headline about 60 child survivors testifying about being raped in cemeteries during 'pedophilic rituals'? No, that's not true: The screenshot is fabricated and designed to look like a BBC article. The account that posted it is a self-described parody account, and Lead Stories found no evidence the BBC ever published such a story.…

Does a real video show a bus driver named Linda Thompson or Derek Harris being hit by a rock thrown by children? No, that's not true: The names were inserted into template-based stories where the details are essentially the same except for the bus driver's name. There is no evidence that people by those names were involved in such incidents,…

Did E! News publish a report saying that Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy bought a residence from Norwegian royalty? No, that's not true: Such a story did not appear on that website. The viral rumor originated from a different website that was registered only two days before publishing the story. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) published on X by…

Does a video show Sen. Katie Britt of Alabama saying she thinks "America deserved 9/11"? No, that's not true: She was quoting Hasan Piker, a political commentator and Twitch streamer who campaigned with a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan. She repeated the words to criticize Piker at a political rally in Mobile, Alabama, on Oct. 2, 2026, attended by President…

Does a viral image show Trump's aide Natalie Harp sitting next to the president in a car while wearing blue surgical gloves? No, that's not true: The real photo was digitally altered to add two hands wearing blue surgical gloves that do not appear in the original. The account that first posted the edited image said it was not meant…

Is a video that shows Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese collapsing and falling face first into the ground real? No, that's not true: Video published by an international news outlet did not show Albanese falling when he arrived in Fiji on Oct. 5, 2026. An AI detection tool determined the video was 98.8% likely to have been created with AI.…

Does a photo circulating online show a signal jammer installed by police in Dover to block the livestreaming of anti-immigration protests? No, that's not true: The photo predates recent immigration protests by several years. Additionally, there is no evidence that signal jammers were installed at Dover before or during the early October 2026 protests. The claim appeared in a post…

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…