Fact Check

Does a video show people throwing rocks at a dog in England's Lake District? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the clip shows a scene from the Lake District, and the video originated on a tourism account in Pakistan. It was posted there before being shared with claims that it showed an incident in England, but there…

Does a real video show flood waters in Nepal destroying an entire village street? No, that's not true: An online detection tool rated the video as 97.2% likely generated by AI and not actual footage of the Aug. 26, 2026 flooding disaster. There are several glitches in the video that are the hallmarks of AI. The claim appeared in an…

Does a real video show an elephant rescuing a man in Nepal during the flooding on Aug. 26, 2026? No, that's not true: While the clip is authentic and shows an elephant rescuing a man, it does not depict the flooding in Nepal. Instead, the video was filmed in India more than two weeks earlier. The claim appeared in a…

Does a real video show an F-16 drop a bomb on a dam, causing the floods in Nepal? No, that's not true: The video has been circulating on social media since May 2026, predating the Aug. 26, 2026, flash flood in Nepal. Early copies of the video have an AI watermark and were published at the same time as a…

Is the graphic of "Parental Child Homicides by Gender of Perpetrator" based on a real 2016 paper by Ribaux, L., et al.? No, that's not true: No such article appeared in the journal Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, as cited in the graphic. The issue's table of contents contains no article by an author with the last name Ribaux, nor is…

Did a woman jump from a helicopter to a trampoline by the Colosseum in Rome, and bounce back up to catch hold of the helicopter's tail? No, that's not true: the architecture of the Colosseum and surrounding city do not align with the real location and there are glitches with the shadows in the video. Additionally, one AI video detector…

Is a video that shows a lion reuniting with a female caretaker and allowing the woman to embrace it real? No, that's not true: The original video appears to be AI-generated. The account that originally posted the video has posted other AI animal content. The claim appeared in a video posted by X account @korkuvetitremee on Aug. 21, 2026 (archived…

Does a viral image of a dad dressed in his wife's clothes while picking up his son from school after suspension for bullying show a real-life event? No, that's not true: The image originated from an account with a self-described satire label. Four online AI detection tools ruled that the picture was artificially generated. The claim appeared in a post…

Did an official letter from the London Borough of Bexley ask locals to keep their daughters and dogs indoors? No, that's not true: The fake letter, which included the borough's coat of arms, was distributed to homes in Bexley. In a notice on the borough website, Bexley Council said the letter was not from the Council and referred it to…

Did Donald Trump's Truth Social account post an image of the president walking on water and holding a Bible with the caption, "Pastor. President. Protector."? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post, and there are also no credible reports that he ever shared such an image. The image originated on…

Did U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio say that he would not protect actor Tom Hanks from the supposed Greek "impropriety" investigation? No, that's not true: The story is entirely fictitious. It originated from a network of self-described satire websites that place multiple disclaimers on their content to say that nothing they publish is real. The claim appeared in a…

Does a real photo show a person dressed as Spider-Man winding up to punch Jake Lang? Yes, that's true: This is a real photo taken by photojournalist Chris Juhn on Aug. 22, 2026, in Minneapolis, Minn. This photo, and several more from a series showing the incident, were posted to Juhn's Bluesky and Facebook accounts. The photo appeared in a…

Does a real photo show Hakeem Jeffries eating with Jeffrey Epstein? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that the House Democratic leader ever ate with or met Epstein. The image is AI-generated, according to two online detection tools, with one saying, "Most or all of this image was edited or generated with Google AI," and the other saying…

Does a real photo show someone dressed as Spider-Man punching Jake Lang at a protest in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: This specific image is AI-generated, although a person dressed as Spider-Man was filmed attacking Lang and later both were arrested. The OpenAI Verify tool found a SynthID watermark in the image indicating it was made with OpenAI tools. The…

Is a viral video of a man climbing onto the roof of a moving car and then crashing into a truck real? No, that's not true: The clip originated from an account that publishes AI-generated content. The video contained inconsistencies pointing to AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) published on X by @BricxNews on Aug.…

Does a real video from the Epstein files show a cannibalism party where Epstein is carving into a trussed and cooked human corpse? No, that's not true: Scenes of this cannibalism party came from the production of a fake trailer for a horror movie named Thanksgiving. A mix of real images from the movie trailer production and AI-generated scenes derived…

Does a video show a real incident of a young woman beating up men who harass her and try to steal her bag in a hallway? No, that's not true: The video was created by a French stunt team. The social media account for Campus Univers Cascades, which originated the clip, identifies itself as "Stuntmen | Fighters | Performers." The…

Is a video showing Celine Dion confessing to drinking the blood of children real? No, that's not true: The altered clip posted on social media uses footage from a documentary that shows Dion having a seizure and recovering. She does not say that she ate children or drank their blood in the original video. The claim appeared in an Aug.…

Does a real video show UK police officers tackling scooter thieves? No, that's not true: A visual inspection by Lead Stories found several glitches characteristic of AI-generated content. There are no credible media reports about the incidents shown in the clips. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) made on X by the user @mr_viewX on Aug. 22, 2026.…

Did architect Leonhard Gall submit plans to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler in 1935 for a ballroom next to the Chancellery, with an air-raid shelter and a bunker underneath? Yes, that's true: Gall did submit plans for a large reception hall that could be used as a ballroom, and an air-raid shelter called the Vorbunker was built beneath it. The deeper…