Fake Telegraph cover praising Pakistan Air Force spreads online

An image that appears to show the front page of the Daily Telegraph on 10 May with the headline: “Pakistan Air Force: The Undisputed King of the Skies” is circulating online. But this is not a genuine cover published by the newspaper, and it may have been created with artificial intelligence (AI).

The image has the Daily Telegraph masthead at the top, followed by the headline, a photo of what appears to be a fighter aircraft and two columns of text. The alleged front page is dated 10 May 2025.

One post shares the image with the caption: “UK newspaper The Telegraph declares Pakistan Air Force as the ‘king of the skies’”.

But this was not the Daily Telegraph’s front page on 10 May, and the paper confirmed to Full Fact that the headline does not appear in its archives. We could find no evidence of the Telegraph referring to the Pakistan Air Force as the “undisputed king of the skies” on its website.

There are also signs that the image may have been generated using artificial intelligence, including jumbled text and other obvious errors that would be very unlikely to appear on a newspaper’s front page, including the Telegraph’s web address being misspelt. We’ve written a guide with tips on how to recognise content made with AI.

This is not the first time we’ve seen a fake Telegraph article, as well as fabricated or edited images of articles supposedly published by other outlets, including the Daily Mail, the New York Times, The Atlantic and the Guardian.

You can find more of our work debunking misinformation relating to the recent conflict between India and Pakistan in our roundup.