Fact Check

Did President Joe Biden misspeak while addressing a picket line of striking United Auto Workers (UAW) in Michigan on September 26, 2023, saying that while he had marched in other UAW picket lines it was the "first time I've ever done it in person"? No, that's not true: Biden was misquoted in a social media post. He was speaking into…

Does a viral video prove that Ukraine now employs bulletproof vests specifically made for "pregnant women fighters"? No, that's not true: The post on social media misleads audiences about the new body armor's design -- it was made not for pregnant people, but for all female military personnel in order to take their anatomy into account. The caption on the…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirm a "143,233% increase in turbo-cancers due to mRNA jabs," including COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: A CDC spokesperson confirmed to Lead Stories that "There is no evidence to date indicating that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer of any sort (including so-called 'turbo cancers')." The article where this claim originated didn't…

Did Bill Clinton and Pope Francis call for "urgent depopulation" to save the planet? No, that's not true: The pope and former President Clinton had a public conversation in September 2023 during the Clinton Global Initiative 2023 meeting where they spoke about climate change but never discussed "urgent depopulation," according to the official transcripts of the event. The website that…

Did Senator Rand Paul show up to work at the U.S. Capitol barefoot wearing a red bathrobe as an apparent comment on a change to the Senate's dress code? No, that's not true: This is an AI-generated image. The poster of this on X admitted that this is a picture made by artificial intelligence. The X user who originally made…

Does a photo of barrels inside the fuselage of a plane show anything strange or is it legitimately unclear what they are for? Nope, these are just water ballast tanks that allow a test plane to be loaded with weight which can be distributed in specific areas. The photo seen on social media is actually a screengrab from a video…

Does data from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) briefing from September 2023 show that mRNA COVID vaccines "CAUSE 100,000-200,000 severe side effects" for every one million shots given to "teens"? Yes, that's the label on a data chart, but it's misleading wordplay that makes vaccine aches and pains sound scarier than they are. The Food and Drug…

Did China pass a law formally prohibiting the use of "all iPhones" in the country? No, that's not true: No credible sources reported about the purported piece of legislation; China's officials denied the existence of such a law, and then, as a new iPhone model became available in mid-September 2023, people in China still could order these Apple devices. The…

Did the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW) report that Poles have started to rename their Wi-Fi networks to insult Ukrainian refugees in Poland? No, that's not true: Both DW and the Ukrainian government refuted the claim. A Lead Stories analysis indicates that the claim's list of supposed Wi-Fi networks may predate Russia's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine that displaced…

Does a social-media video show a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) "concentration camp" in Hawaii? No, this is not true: This video, according to a FEMA spokesperson, shows a project with which FEMA is not affiliated at all. The project built tiny homes for homeless and at-risk U.S. veterans. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook published…

Did New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker wear pink booty shorts at the Capitol after the Senate changed its dress code? No, that's not true: The account that posted the image of Booker in hot pink shorts is clearly labeled satire. It later posted a message calling out the fact that people were not getting the joke. The claim about Booker…

Do photos of Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman show that he lost his forearm tattoos? No, that's not true: Two screenshots taken from videos of Fetterman reacting to a question in an animated manner do not show his tattoos, but the tattoos are visible in other frames of the same videos. This is due to the fact that human arms can…

Are all lakes man-made to cover up ruins of an ancient civilization? No, that's not true: While there are some man-made lakes, ponds and reservoirs, lakes are also naturally formed features created over time through several geological processes, including glacial runoff, river erosion, volcanic activity and groundwater changes. The basis of the claim that "all lakes are man-made" stems from…

Did Pfizer recently agree to pay $2.3 billion for medical fraud, the largest health care fraud settlement in the history of the U.S. Department of Justice and was this related to Covid-19 vaccination? No, that's not true: Pfizer did agree to pay such a settlement in 2009, but not in 2023. The settlement was for the misbranding of the anti-inflammatory…

Does a social-media video of a young woman knocking on a door in distress to seek shelter from a male stalker, who claims to be her husband, depict an actual event? No, that's not true: It's a staged skit. The video, which features actors, is part of a three-part horror story shot by a French content creator. The claim that…

Did an LED billboard at the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan feature the words "Glory to Urine" against a waving blue-and-yellow Ukrainian flag to welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to New York City for the United Nations General Assembly meeting on September 19, 2023? No, that's not true: This video is not current or authentic. Shots…

Have COVID-19 vaccines "killed 20 million people" since their rollout? No, that's not true: The article making this claim cited a 2022 study that estimated COVID vaccines had saved -- not killed -- nearly 20 million lives in the first year of the pandemic, the study's lead author told Lead Stories. Also, the calculations used to produce the 20 million…

Does a photo on social media prove that Ukraine's former minister of defense Oleksii Reznikov went to Europe to enjoy "successful earnings" right after leaving his job in September 2023? No, that's not true: Reznikov posted that image on his Facebook page in 2020. That was before he became the minister of defense, in November 2021. The claim originated from…

Is garlic a "fake food"? No, that's not true: A nutrition expert confirmed to Lead Stories that "Garlic is a real food." The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also recognizes garlic as a food that is safe for human consumption. The claim appeared in a video post on Facebook (archived here) on September 13, 2023. The caption under the video…

Does FEMA have a prison camp just outside Fairbanks, Alaska, that can hold up to 2 million people at a time? No, that's not true: "That is absolutely false," an official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told Lead Stories. The agency said they "do not operate any prison camps in Alaska or elsewhere." There is no credible evidence that…