Fact Check

Was Jared Kushner, a businessman, U.S. special envoy for peace and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, one of the people who recently bought .si domain names? Here's what we know so far: There is no evidence that Kushner recently acquired any .si domain names, which use Slovenia's country-code top-level domain. Affinity Partners, Kushner's investment firm, told Lead Stories that "Jared Kushner…

Does a viral picture actually document a real-life event during which U.S. servicemembers shot "reptilians"? No, that's not true: Three online tools said that the image was AI-generated. Available government sources do not support the idea of such an encounter ever taking place. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on Oct. 10,…

Did President Donald Trump's Truth Social account post a 503 "Service Unavailable" error referencing Yandex? No, that's not true: A review of Trump's Truth Social account found no record of the post, and no established news outlets reported that his account shared the error message at the time of publication. The fake post appeared to have originated from a political…

Did "The Simpsons" predict that President Donald Trump would take a picture with a glowing orb? No, that's not true: The image is from a short posted to the official Facebook account of "The Simpsons" after the real picture of Trump was taken. This "prediction" has been debunked since 2017. The claim was made in a post (archived here) by…

Do real photos show Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wearing a bunny costume or an off-the-shoulder cocktail dress? No, that's not true: Hive Moderation found all of the images highly likely to be AI-generated. Searches with Google Lens did not find any copies of these images originating from a verified source. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @cryptocyberia…

Did "South Park" tease an episode featuring Susan Dell and did she rage in response? No, that's not true: The image of Dell appearing with the characters from the TV show is AI-generated and was made by a digital creator. Neither the show nor Dell had posted any messages about such an episode at the time of writing. The claim…

Was an email to Jeffrey Epstein in the Epstein files ending in "Love ya" written by Marco Rubio? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Rubio wrote the email, whose "From" field and signature section are redacted. No authentic photos or official records link Rubio to the Epstein files or establish an association between him and Epstein. The…

Does a recording released on social media prove Texas Senate candidate James Talarico was treated at an Ohio mental health facility? Here is what we know: The facility released a statement saying that Talarico "has never received treatment from Lindner Center of Hope." Talarico posted a message on X saying that he has never been to Ohio. Talarico's campaign released…

Does a real video show the moment a Houthi missile hit a Saudia airliner parked near an airport terminal in Riyadh? No, that's not true: A Saudia airliner really was destroyed in attacks at the King Khalid International Airport on Oct. 8, 2026, but the footage of the missile blowing the plane apart is fabricated. Real photos and videos do…

Does a video show a Muslim passenger being removed from a Southwest Airlines plane after threatening to blow up a Nashville-to-Fort Lauderdale flight in early October 2026? No, that's not true: The video is from more than seven months earlier, on March 6, 2026, when the flight was diverted to Atlanta to "respond to a possible security matter," which was…

Have you seen viral videos showing astonishing "stunt running" up steep ramps, which sometimes end with impossible jumps? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence, probably as clickbait. The word "parkour" that appeared in many descriptions of such clips is a real athletic discipline, but…

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 created by manipulating real footage filmed during a July 2024 event when the Spanish national football team met with the royal…

Does a video show a real instance of a woman rescuing a white baby reindeer on the side of the road? No, that's not true: The account that first shared the video labeled it as AI content, and Meta flagged it as well. A visual analysis found physical impossibilities -- including antlers passing through a person's body. The claim appeared…

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…

Is a video that shows a breast-feeding woman being told to cover up from a real flight? No, that's not true: The video was a skit performed by actors. The Facebook account where it was originally posted features dozens of other similar videos with a bio that notes they produce "silly skits to make you laugh." The claim appeared in…

Does a video show a mass rally in Greece in 2026? No, that's not true: The footage is more than a year old -- it was published on X and aired on Italian TV on Feb. 28, 2025, at a demonstration marking the second anniversary of a deadly train crash. Greece did see protests on the day the video went…

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…

Does a real video show a large ship completely engulfed by a massive wave crashing over the bow? No, that's not true: Two AI detection tools -- Hive Moderation and Sightengine -- determined the video was likely AI-generated, with Hive Moderation identifying ByteDance's Seedance2 as the probable source. Earlier copies of the video found online since at least March 2026…