Is a punch hole in a California ballot envelope proof of election rigging in the 2026 election? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that elections in California can be rigged based on just the existence of a punch hole on a ballot envelope. The punch holes serve a dual purpose. The Ventura County Clerk-Recorder & Registrar of Voters…
Does real footage from an endoscopic camera show the junction between the esophagus and windpipe as food is swallowed? No, that's not true: The fake footage is designed to look like the view from a real medical camera in a person's throat, but it was AI-generated. Not only is the footage fake, but the anatomy is depicted incorrectly in both…
Does the viral video actually show Flávio Bolsonaro crying after his defeat in Brazil's Oct. 25, 2026, presidential election? No, that's not true: Lead Stories established that the video had been posted hours before the official election results were announced. The initial caption said that the scene was filmed three days before the election day and the audio in the…
Was podcaster Ethan Klein found dead in October 2026? No, that's not true: There are no reports from established news outlets that Klein has died. However, the H3 Podcast is on indefinite hiatus after his wife and business partner, Hila Klein, publicly accused him of having an affair for more than six months and said they had separated. The claim…
Did a man die while trying to take a photo with a mechanical dinosaur that trapped his head in its mouth? No, that's not true: A Facebook version of the video shows the same man extracting his head from the dinosaur's mouth without life-threatening injuries. The photo identified as the victim is actually of a different man who was shot…
Does a video show Flávio Bolsonaro with fewer votes in the second round of the Brazilian presidential election in October 2026 than in the first, proving fraud? No, that's not true: The vote count was incomplete, with about 93% of the ballots counted, and the video does not show the final results. Once all ballots were counted, Bolsonaro had 3.7…
Does a photo prove that climate activist Greta Thunberg was arrested in Rome for throwing confetti in a fountain at St. Peter's Square in October 2026? No, that's not true: That image of her had been online since 2023, and it showed her arrest in Sweden, not Italy. The rumor originated from a self-described satire network of pages known to…
Is there a real CVE record "CVE-2026-42069" about a critical issue and an exploit called "HTML2Shell" that documents remote code execution in HyperText Markup Language (HTML)? No, that's not true: A viral joke image re-uses the CVE-2026-42069 record number of a real CVE advisory about the open-source publishing software Kirby. The image contained a clear reference to an in-joke among…
Does a video prove that Sweden's King Carl XVI Gustaf did not shake hands with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a meeting in Lviv in April 2026? No, that's not true: The video cuts off before the two leaders actually shake hands. Video and photos published afterward show the king and Zelenskyy shaking hands immediately after the moment in the…
Does a real video show a man who helped a polar bear cub that could not walk until it could be released a year later? No, that's not true: This video was originally posted with a creator-added AI disclaimer label by an Instagram account that focuses on AI-generated videos. The same account published another video with a similar storyline the…
Does a video show a Tesla Roadster jumping off and back onto the Golden Gate Bridge? No, that's not true: An online tool concluded that the video was more than 99% likely to be AI-generated and that the audio was also AI-generated. There is no evidence of matching media reports about such a stunt on a major thoroughfare, which would…
Did the Toronto Sun publish an article reporting that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy purchased a nuclear bunker in Canada in September 2026? No, that's not true: When contacted by Lead Stories, the outlet's deputy editor denied the claim. The article appeared on toronto-sun.ca, an impostor site registered eight days before the claim spread. The claim originated from an article (archived…
Is White House principal deputy press secretary Anna Kelly officially President Donald Trump's next press secretary as of Oct. 23, 2026? No, that's not true: The White House has not announced who will replace Katie Zacharia, who held the job for five days before being fired on Oct. 16, 2026. The White House told Lead Stories that President Trump and…
Have you seen viral videos showing houses being lifted up on hydraulic stilts to avoid floodwater? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such videos and found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. While there are some real projects showing hydraulic lifts that raise a house in floods, the topic has been hijacked by AI content creators…
Are the ballots of early voters in Florida, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and other states being switched after they vote? Here's what we know so far: Some social media posts leading up to the November 2026 midterm elections included claims that votes were being switched in states across the country. States reached by Lead Stories said there were no…
Do real leaked images show satanic rituals taking place on Epstein Island with Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Gates, the Clintons, and Stephen Hawking? No, that's not true: Google's SynthID detection tool found a watermark indicating each of the four images in a 12-second video was made or edited with Google AI. Hive Moderation's AI detection tool rated one image 99.6% likely…
Does a video show touchscreen voting machines selecting the wrong candidates for the Nov. 3, 2026, midterm elections? No, that's not true: The video combines two clips from earlier elections, one from 2019 and the other from 2014. Neither shows a voting machine malfunctioning during the 2026 elections. The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) by the…
Does a viral picture show a real Charlie Hebdo cover featuring protesters chanting 'free Palestine' alongside 'free iPhone' and 'free Balenciaga'? No, that's not true: The magazine's website did not show such a cover published in October 2026. Three online AI detection tools determined the image was AI-generated, not drawn by a cartoonist. Charlie Hebdo confirmed to Lead Stories that…
Does a video prove President Donald Trump waved to nobody outside the White House before boarding Marine One for Kansas on Oct. 19, 2026? No, that's not true: The clip is missing important context. In longer versions of the video and in versions shot from different angles, the people the president is waving at can be seen. The claim appeared…
Do viral images and videos of a person dressed as the cartoon character Pink Panther actually show October 2026 protests in France? No, that's not true: Results from three online tools showed that this content was produced by AI. Manual reverse image searches revealed that, in several instances, AI was used to modify old, unrelated photos that predated the French…
