Fact Check

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…

Does a real video filmed from a helicopter show the excavation of Noah's Ark near the top of Mount Ararat? No, that's not true: This video is AI-generated. The OpenAI Verify tool found a SynthID watermark indicating that the video was made with OpenAI tools. The video appeared in a post (archived here) by the @JohnmichealC1 account on X on…

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,…

Is a video that shows gymnasts forming a human pyramid in 10 seconds real? No, that's not true: The video carries an "AI content" label in certain areas of the world due to automated labeling rules and transparency displays. While the human pyramid in the video takes 10 seconds to build, the Guinness World Record for the tallest human pyramid…

Does a real video show an officer helping to free a baby bear stuck in a concrete highway median when the mother bear failed? No, that's not true: The video is AI-generated. The OpenAI Verify tool found a SynthID watermark indicating that the video was made with OpenAI tools. The video appeared in a post (archived here) by the @0ivankaTrump1…

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.…

Are receipts from Sam's Club in 1983 and 2026 that show a huge price increase over the years real? No, that's not true: There are several signs that the receipts are fake, including nonexistent addresses, an incorrect logo from 1983 and wrong price totals on the receipts. An online detection tool rated the image as 88% likely to be 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…