Did a "Lucas Mamdani", brother to New York City's mayor, buy properties with U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders to financially benefit from new city policies on affordable housing? No, that's not true: Lead Stories did not find evidence to support the existence of any sibling of Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The claim originated from a page with a satire label that was…

Was "Steve Grove" identified as the ICE Agent who shot Renee Good in Minneapolis? No, that's not true: The agent's name has not been publicly released by official sources, but the Minnesota Star Tribune has identified the involved ICE agent as Jonathan Ross. Some social media posts are not only using the wrong name, but AI-generated images spun from video…

Does the photo circulating on social media show Renee Nicole Good, the woman shot and killed by ICE in Minneapolis Jan. 7, 2025? No, that's not true: This is not a picture of Good, but another woman who attended Old Dominion University at the same time. Both women were awarded poetry prizes in 2020 and their photos appeared separately in…

Does this viral video clip show Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis saying Renee Good had the right to drive away from ICE officers just before one of them shot and killed her on a Minneapolis street? No, that's not true: The clip is real, but was lifted from a June, 2025 appearance on "The Rubin Report" podcast, six months before Good…

Are photos of an unmasked ICE agent purportedly involved in the shooting of Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis real? No, that's not true: The ICE agent seen in the images was not recorded without a mask before or after Good was fatally shot on January 7, 2026. The unmasked images were created by the Grok AI tool using screenshots of…

Did Keanu Reeves open an "Arch Animal Sanctuary" as claimed by several viral posts? No, that's not true: The image used in the story was generated using artificial intelligence according to the SynthID watermark in it. There were no actual news reports about such a sanctuary being opened. One image used in the viral story was stolen from a fact…

Did Barbra Streisand, British politician Nigel Farage and Kevin Costner each say "Our country would be safer without Somali immigrants -- starting with Ilhan Omar!"? No, that's not true: Nearly identical stories featuring those and other famous people were published by a network of foreign websites and Facebook pages. There were no news articles about such an event and the…

Do these viral videos show the U.S. seizing oil tankers linked to Venezuela on January 7, 2026? No, that's not true: Those clips are unrelated to the U.S. pursuit of the tankers "Bella-1" and "Sophia". The clips can be found in posts that predate the capture of the ships. The claim appeared in a post (archived here and here) on…

Did South Park do an episode featuring Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and the "Quality Learing Center"? No, that's not true: The original video clearly states it was "made with AI." South Park has not aired any episodes since news broke Dec. 26, 2025, about a Minnesota child care center with a misspelled sign. The claim appeared in a January 6,…

Did a federal Judge say the Treasury Department can take back $15 million of USAID money granted to companies owned by Sen. Adam Schiff? No, that's not true: This post originated from a website that produces satire content designed to fool conservatives. The post originally had a visible satire disclaimer but it has been reposted elsewhere with the disclaimer blurred…