Fact Check

Was the crashed Learjet in Florida piloted by Emily Shelton, who posted on Facebook about flying Lenny Kravitz? No, that's not true: Shelton, who is famous for performing an emergency landing on I-10 in Florida, posted a denial to her TikTok account after the crash. There is no evidence she or Kravitz were on the jet that crashed in Palm…

Does a real, sharp photo that went viral on social media actually show the Learjet that crashed in Palm Beach, Florida, on Nov. 1, 2026? No, that's not true: The image, which shows the plane with a missing wing, a deformed engine without its cowling and a bent tail, appears to have been edited using AI tools from OpenAI. A…

Did President Donald Trump help "an old woman" walk home after a rally in Iowa on Oct. 22, 2026? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Trump left the airport rally location by car. Hive Moderation determined the image attached to the story was 99.9% likely to be AI-generated. The story was posted on an account known for…

Was Gadi Eisenkot declared the new prime minister of Israel, as of Oct. 30, 2026, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu in this role as a result of the 2026 legislative election? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible reports confirming such a change in established Hebrew- or English-language news outlets. As of this writing, the PM's Office government page didn't…

Did the German digital news outlet FOCUS Online report about an "Eco Sanitation Act" that will limit Germans to three flushes a day and five minute showers by 2027? No, that's not true: Online searches show FOCUS Online has not reported about this topic. The video posted on X with a FOCUS Online logo in the corner appears to be…

Did James Talarico, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Texas in the 2026 midterm campaign, say that the U.S. should have a "welcome mat" on the southern border? Yes, he did, but that was not a full quote of his words: Talarico said the border should have a "giant welcome mat," and then he added that it should have "a…

Did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threaten Spain in 2026 by saying, "There could be sudden power outages and train accidents"? No, that's not true: The video is a copy of an April 10, 2026, statement in which Netanyahu said he would not "allow any country to wage a diplomatic war against us without paying an immediate price," but he…

Does a video show a Trump supporter who was stabbed outside a rally in Chillicothe, Ohio, on Oct. 28, 2026? No, that's not true: A Chillicothe Police spokesperson said "there was no stabbing". During a fight an officer broke up, the clip on the officer's pocketknife caught in a person's shirt, but the knife never opened. Lead Stories found no…

Did analyst Pat McAfee say he would join ESPN's College GameDay by Zoom due to security concerns? No, that's not true: The claim originated from a parody account. Lead Stories found no matching reports from established news outlets confirming the claim and no evidence that McAfee made the statement. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @No3sports…

Does a real video show philanthropist Susan Dell wearing a red dress and dancing at an outdoor patio gathering? No, that's not true: The video is AI-generated and was posted with AI disclaimers on Instagram on Oct. 16, 2026. Content detection tools also flagged the video: Hive Moderation rated it 87.5% likely AI-generated, and Sightengine's reading reached as high as…

Does a video show a C-17 Globemaster aircraft making a real-life emergency landing in a field? No, that's not true: Two online tools confirmed that it was AI-generated. The earliest known post of the video disclosed that the dramatic scene was created with AI. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X by @SaiyidYasir on Oct. 28, 2026.…

Did 8 million people in Brazil vote without ID after polls were scheduled to close in the Oct. 25, 2026, runoff election? No, that's not true: Brazil's Superior Electoral Court told Lead Stories the claim that 8 million people voted after polling stations closed is false. Its data shows only 34,393 votes were cast after 5 p.m., while Luiz Inácio…

Does a video of jostled passengers show the moments inside a high-speed train before a fatal crash in Urda, Spain, on Oct. 28, 2026? No, that's not true: The video was posted on Facebook on Feb. 2, 2020, more than six years before that crash. The passenger who posted the 2020 video said in the caption that the Alvia train…

Does a real WABI-TV 5 news report show Maine's Democratic U.S. Senate nominee, Troy Jackson, threatening to cut staff in half with an axe? No, that's not true: Station General Manager Kim Petry confirmed that the video is fabricated and "was not produced, aired, or authorized by WABI." Hive Moderation determined the audio was 99.1% likely to be AI-generated. Lead…

Does a viral video show a life-threatening attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu one day after the Oct. 27, 2026, election? No, that's not true: The low quality of the video obscured that it showed a different politician giving a speech in a different country in 2013. It was Ahmed Dogan attacked in Bulgaria. The claim appeared in a…

Does a viral post retell a real-life story of a human-chimpanzee love affair resulting in the birth of a 12-year-old son? No, that's not true: Lead Stories found no credible evidence confirming the claim. Contemporary humans and chimpanzees have a different number of chromosomes, which makes interbreeding close to impossible. Lead Stories also found no evidence that the national park…

Do real photos show former first daughter Sasha Obama with a baby bump? No, that's not true: The photos were modified using OpenAI, and there is no evidence that they depict a real pregnancy. Lead Stories found no matching reports from established news outlets confirming the claim or indicating that she is pregnant. The claim also misspelled her name as…

Did WOIO, Cleveland's Channel 19, report that "Four former staffers have accused Sherrod Brown of sexual assault" in a one-minute segment? No, that's not true: According to Hive Moderation, the voiceover of this fabricated clip is AI-generated and a search of the WOIO website shows no matching news reports. Searches of Google News and Yahoo News did not find any…

Were four U.S. Secret Service agents placed on leave after tampering with the air defense systems at Mar-a-Lago, President Donald Trump's Florida home? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the U.S. Secret Service told Lead Stories, "there is zero truth to that post." The X account that posted the claim is from a website with a disclaimer stating it…

Does a viral video show defeated Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro receiving an ovation upon his arrival in the United States in October 2026? No, that's not true: The footage predated the runoff election by roughly one month. The video showed Bolsonaro still campaigning in Brazil. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published…