Yariv Levin named interim Israeli Prime Minister,

Ah, that's a fair point. Nonetheless, while the public were correct to suspect something was wrong with Kate, but just got the wrong end of the stick - anyone who's seen the 1970s Gene Hackman movie The Conversation might see how this can happen - for all that, we had 'footage' of Kate shown as a close-up - but facially the close-up was doctored. Okay, that's mischief. But then we had folk analysing the Mother's Day pic and saying how it had been photoshopped with a shot of Kate being inserted... Now... was that true or was someone having us on? Not sure Kate's chemo made her bald - when she reappeared she had a full head of hair, so why not just take a snap of her and the kids for the event?

My point is, didn't we as the public get played, and if so, to what end? Who benefited?

If he is dead he's got a damn good lookalike (& soundalike) who spoke at the press conference on Thursday.

I noticed that too: What was he operated on for a while back? Could he have lost weight through illness?

(FWIW I don't believe he's dead, but even if he were, it's not the same level of significance as the Ayatollah in the Iranian regime - Netanyahu isn't a dictator so his presence at the head of the government doesn't carry the same weight)

But instead of just accepting that something might be going on behind closed doors (like sickness, not that farfetched) people had to come up with some batshit stories.

I wouldn't say the rumours were discredited in those instances. People smelt shit because there was shit to smell! She wasn't dead, locked up in a psychiatric hospital etc and we eventually got the truth but it was evident something was going on behind the scenes which proved to be correct.

This story reminds me of the rumours about Princess Catherine who was said to have died and been replaced by a lookalike.

Now, this really did gain ground on X - though some of it was maliciously interpreted, for instance it showed the royal couple visiting some place near their home - a sort of outdoorsy shop - and being filmed by someone, a 'close-up' 'revealed' it surely wasn't Kate, but it had been doctored. I think some of this stuff may have been a social experiment carried out to find out how fast gossip can travel, how far misinformation can go.

A Mother's Day picture was picked apart because it has been photoshopped in all kinds of different ways, the main shot of Kate taken from an earlier photoshoot and inserted...

When it emerged she had cancer it was very much a case of 'Oh, okay, we misread that one, we better shut up now'. Which is all very well, but does that mean the photo released of her on Mother's Day hadn't been doctored and photoshopped?

Sometimes I wonder if these rumours aren't spread deliberately to undermine the general public, to get us guessing only to be thoroughly discredited at a later date, a sort of State ruse.

Or paranoia.

It was the most ridiculous rumour from the start.

Netanyahu has not been hiding away. Just wishful thinking from some people.

Last night was the 19th, OP heard rumours on the 17th.
Yes, this is one that is kind of obviously fake, but it is getting so sophisticated that I think we will alll be fooled at some point by an AI generated image.

No.

Just because someone on social media called Netanyahu AI pm doesn’t mean he’s dead/ hiding/ replaced or whatever.
People say all kinds of crap on social media.

Well this article is saying it is fake news and he's not dead so are you saying that he is??

Is it really hard to know this story is fake?

Netanyahu gave an in person press conference last night that was attended by lots of international journalists, and answered questions afterwards.

He is very obviously the Israel prime minister and looking in good health.

Here's the article, hard to say what is real and what is fake these days:

Fact Check: Did Israel just appoint an interim prime minister? - Newsweek

Please can you rephrase that as I don't understand what you are saying?

Not really. He did an in person press conference last night and took questions at the end from international journalists.

It's the Iranian leader who is in hiding, or dead.

I read an interesting article in the Guardian on how AI is wrong most of the time when summarising information, or identifying photos or videos. Some fact checkers have even gotten AI to argue with itself.

“An international study in 2025 found about half of all AI-generated summaries had at least one significant sourcing or accuracy issue – with some tools, such as Google’s popular Gemini interface, that rose to 76%.”

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2026/mar/17/atrocity-ai-slop-verify-facts-iran-minab-graves

“The problem is compounded by the authoritative way AI tends to present its findings. It will generate detailed “reports”, including names and dates, references and sources – the kind of material that suggests deep research and understanding, but may in fact be hallucinated or nonexistent. When the Guardian queried Gemini’s answer on the Minab photograph, saying “I don’t think that’s correct, can you search again?” it revised its finding – but to another incorrect location and year. “I apologise for the oversight. Upon re-examining the image … this image was taken in Gaza in November 2023,” it says. Told that that answer was also incorrect, and the photo was from Iran, the bot revised again – to Tehran, during the Covid pandemic. Told that the photograph was taken in Iran in 2025, it responded that it was from the aftermath of an earthquake in southern Iran.”

What does it mean they “never allow information out”? What information?
I’m not following Netanyahu’s son on X, he could have all kinds of reasons for posting less in the last few days.
It’s quite a leap to assume based on his posting behaviour that something might have happened to his father.

There’s just so much information floating about, accurate and not, and also blatant lies unfortunately.

Thank you

Of course not. Most likely internet rumours.

Hiding in what way given he was in a coffee shop the other day?