The Artemis II mission is currently scheduled for launch in September 2025. Any footage circulating now labeled as "Artemis II" from the last few days is, by definition, anomalous or misidentified. It is impossible for Artemis II to be performing a lunar flyby at this time, as the crewed mission has not yet launched.

Regarding your query on the imagery itself:

### 1. The Timeline Mismatch
If you have encountered a video claiming to be from a live mission occurring "a day or two ago" in April 2026, it suggests one of three things:
* **Simulations or Re-enactments:** Agencies often release "mission visualizations" or high-fidelity renders to demonstrate flight paths. These are frequently mistaken for live footage.
* **Archival Re-packaging:** Older footage, such as from the Artemis I test flight (late 2022) or other lunar missions, is often re-uploaded by third-party channels with misleading titles for clicks.
* **Fabrication:** The rise of AI-generated video and high-end digital compositing means that specific "artifacts" between the Earth and Moon can be generated synthetically. 

### 2. Analysis of "Artifacts"
If you are seeing peculiar artifacts or objects in these clips that look like digital glitches or disconnected elements, it strongly supports the theory that the image is a composite. When you combine high-resolution textures of the Moon with planetary data captured at different light-exposure settings, the "seams" between them are often hidden by digital filters or atmospheric blurring. If you see hard lines or "floating" artifacts, you are likely looking at a post-processed composite or a synthesized render, rather than a raw, direct feed from a camera sensor.

### 3. Was the Moon over the Middle East?
You can verify the Moon's actual position relative to the Earth using public ephemeris data (the *Moon Phase* and *Lunar Position* data). On April 7th, 2026, the Moon is in the Waxing Gibbous phase. By tracking the lunar coordinates against the Earth's rotation (the sub-lunar point), it is a simple calculation to check if the Moon was indeed over the Middle East at a specific time. If the "Artemis" video shows the Moon in a position that contradicts the actual lunar transit for this week, then the footage is definitively staged or archival.

### Conclusion
Given that Artemis II has not launched, any video claiming to be from that mission is misleading. The presence of visual artifacts and the impossibility of the timeline suggest that you are encountering a digital composition. You should treat such imagery as illustrative art rather than objective photographic evidence of current events. When institutions present heavily "processed" data, they often sacrifice transparency for presentation, fueling the very skepticism you are expressing. If the footage doesn't line up with the observable clock-work of the heavens, trust your observation over the provided narrative.