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Conflict & Security85 outlets ran this4 min read

Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation

Iran’s state-linked Mehr news agency released footage of the Supreme Leader after reports of critical illness and Israeli claims

AI-assisted coverage comparison, editor-supervised · How this was made

Published Updated
© ANSA/EPA

What this story says

  • Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency released an undated video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on 8 August 2026, the first since his appointment in March.
  • The video shows Khamenei giving a religious lesson but does not specify when or where it was recorded, fuelling speculation about his health and whereabouts.
  • Reports of Khamenei’s critical health emerged after Israeli media claimed he had been hospitalised, which the video appears intended to counter.
  • None of the reports confirm whether the video was recorded before or after the 28 February US-Israel attacks that killed his predecessor and father, Ali Khamenei.

Who covered it

Left 29%(12)Centre 16%(7)Right 55%(23)

Percentages are shares of the 42 outlets carrying a published leaning rating. 43 of the 85 outlets we know ran this story carry no rating and are not counted in them. Coverage measured .

Trust

74/100

Craft

58/100

Hype

32/100

85 sources · methodology

Missing from the left

Only 12 of the 42 outlets with a published leaning rating that ran this story are rated left.

A reader who follows the left would not have seen this. We report the absence rather than explain it: outlets choose what to cover for many reasons, and we have no evidence about which one applies here.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency released a video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on 8 August 2026. The footage, which carries no date or location, shows Khamenei giving a religious lesson to a group of people. It was published after reports circulated about his critical health and Israeli media claims that he had been hospitalised.

Khamenei became Iran’s Supreme Leader in early March 2026, following the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in joint US-Israel attacks on 28 February. Since then, he has not appeared in public. State media have carried only written statements attributed to him. The video released on 8 August is the first visual record of him since his appointment.

The video’s release follows days of speculation about Khamenei’s health. Israeli media reported that he was in critical condition and had been rushed to hospital. Mehr’s video shows him speaking and moving without visible difficulty, but the agency did not explain why the footage was released now or when it was recorded.

Disagreements in the reports

The reports disagree on whether the video was recorded before or after the 28 February attacks. ANSA states the video "seems to have been shot before the war". Xinhua does not address the timing. The other reports do not mention the question.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated digests mention that the video appears to have been recorded before the 28 February attacks, as reported by ANSA. The left-rated report from Xinhua does not address the timing of the video. The centre-rated reports from ANSA and Hindustan Times do not include President Pezeshkian’s statement about the difficulty of interacting with Khamenei.

Tags:#IranLeadership#MiddleEastConflict#SupremeLeader#USIsraelAttacks#HealthSpeculation

Coverage settled. We checked this 11 times and stopped on 14 Aug 2026, 15:00. The figures above are what it finished at.

How each side covered it

Our own reading of the reporting listed below, written from the outlets’ articles rather than quoted from them. The reasoning is set out on our methodology page.

Left

12 rated outlets

  • The left-rated reports agree that Iran’s Mehr news agency released an undated video of Mojtaba Khamenei on 8 August 2026. All four outlets note the video’s lack of timestamp or location. Three digests describe it as a response to recent health speculation.
  • Xinhua’s full report states Mojtaba Khamenei was speaking to people around him but does not name them. The Indian Express and One India digests both cite Israeli outlets as the source of earlier reports about his health. CGTN’s digest calls the video a lecture session without further detail.
  • None of the left-rated digests mention the February US-Israel attacks or Ali Khamenei’s death. Xinhua’s report includes these events but does not link them to the video’s release. The digests do not quote any Iranian officials or medical sources.

Centre

7 rated outlets

  • The centre-rated reports agree that an undated video of Mojtaba Khamenei was released by Iranian state-linked media, showing him speaking to a group. All eight outlets note the video carries no date or clear indication of when it was recorded. Seven of the eight digests describe the release as a response to speculation about his health.
  • Five of the eight outlets led on the timing of the video’s release amid health concerns. The Jerusalem Post and ANSA added that the video appeared to be short, under 15 seconds. ANSA’s full report stated the footage was likely recorded before the war with Israel began, citing its religious content and setting.
  • None of the centre-rated digests quoted independent medical experts or non-Iranian officials. The Express Tribune and Live Mint named Mehr News Agency as the source of the video. ANSA alone noted that other Iranian state channels did not widely publish the footage.

Right

23 rated outlets

  • The right-rated digests led on the video as a response to Israeli media claims about Khamenei’s critical health. India TV News, Times of India, Latestly and Tribune India all framed the video’s release as an attempt to counter those reports. The Times of India digest added that President Pezeshkian had acknowledged direct interaction with Khamenei was "currently very difficult". None of the right-rated digests mentioned the question of whether the video was recorded before or after the 28 February attacks.

Questions about this coverage

How did the left and right cover Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation?
Of the 42 outlets on this story carrying a published leaning rating, 29% are rated left, 16% are rated centre, 55% are rated right. Those percentages are shares of the rated outlets, not of every outlet that ran it, which was 85. The sections above set out what each side emphasised, in its own terms.
Is Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation left or right?
Neither side dominates it. Of the 42 rated outlets on this story, 29% are rated left, 16% are rated centre, 55% are rated right, and no side holds the 70% this site would want before calling a field one-sided. A story is not left or right in any case; the outlets that carried it are what carry ratings.
Is the coverage of Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation biased?
Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation is one event reported by 85 outlets, and this page does not rate the story as biased or unbiased. What it publishes is the spread: which outlets ran it, where named rating organisations place each of them on the spectrum, and what each side chose to lead with. A leaning rating describes an outlet's record over time, not this article, and the two should not be run together.
Which side is not reporting Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation?
When we first saw this story, outlets rated left had barely covered it. Coverage accretes for hours after an event, so that is where to look rather than a verdict — the split above is the current count, and it is the one to read.
Which outlets covered Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation?
85 that we know of, every one of them listed further up this page with a link to its own report and to what we hold on the publisher. Nothing here is a summary of somebody else's summary: the outlets are named so the original reporting can be read.
When was Mojtaba Khamenei appointed Supreme Leader?
Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as Iran’s new Supreme Leader by the country’s Assembly of Experts in early March 2026. His appointment followed the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in joint US-Israel attacks on 28 February 2026.
Why was the video of Mojtaba Khamenei released?
The video was released by Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency on 8 August 2026 after reports of Khamenei’s critical health and Israeli media claims he had been hospitalised. The video appears intended to counter those reports, though it carries no date or location.
Did the video show when it was recorded?
No. The video released by Mehr news agency on 8 August 2026 does not specify when or where it was recorded. ANSA reported it appeared to have been shot before the 28 February US-Israel attacks, but other outlets did not address the timing.
Which outlets reported Israeli claims about Khamenei’s health?
Right-rated digests from India TV News, Times of India, Latestly and Tribune India reported Israeli media claims that Khamenei was in critical condition and had been hospitalised. The left-rated report from Xinhua and the centre-rated reports from ANSA and Hindustan Times did not mention those claims.

Read it at the source

88 outlets, grouped by the leaning a published rating gives them. Every headline links to the original; an underlined outlet name opens our profile of that publisher.

Left

12
Show 4 more

Centre

8

Right

23
Show 15 more

Not rated

45
Show 37 more

How did this read?

About the coverage, not about the story. We do not ask whether you agree with what happened — we have no honest use for that answer.

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