Fact-Check Dispatch: Black Hawk down, Trump "threatening" Putin, and old photos emerge during DRC conflict
Issue 11 of the Spotlight Fact-Check Dispatch
Spotlight is a newsletter created by Eurovision News in collaboration with Members of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU). It aims to combat misinformation and promote fact-checking efforts in Europe. The newsletter serves as a platform to showcase the fact-checking work of European public service media broadcasters.
Claim that transgender pilot Jo Ellis was onboard army helicopter that crashed in D.C. is false
A passenger aircraft collided midair with a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan Washington National Airport on Wednesday evening, January 29, prompting a massive emergency response in the Potomac River.
X user Matt Wallace, who says he shares “real-time breaking news”, posted pictures of Ellis saying: “A transgender Black Hawk helicopter pilot for the military wrote a long letter about ‘Gender Dysphoria’ and depression 1 day before the fatal crash! What happened may have been another trans terror attack…”
Ellis took to Facebook on Friday to say she was being wrongly named as one of the army pilots in the helicopter that crashed in D.C., urging social media users to report any accounts incorrectly mentioning her name in relation to the crash.
Image said to be related to current fighting in DRC is from 1994
Deadly fighting erupted in the city of Goma in North Kivu province between the Congolese army and the M23 rebel group, which had been advancing in the region.
A photo was shared on X of a young child crying while standing next to a seemingly lifeless body. The photo was posted with hashtags and a caption claiming that the image is related to the current violence and unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The search using Lens brought up several results, with some dating back eight and 13 years, so we could quickly establish that the photo is unrelated to the current crisis in DRC.
Video claiming Israeli politicians in tears over ceasefire is from 2023
An X account with a follower count listed at over 600,000 posted footage on January 20 described as showing members of Israel’s legislature, the Knesset, crying because of the ceasefire. It also appeared to contain a suggestion — albeit awkwardly phrased — that Ben Gvir’s resignation had contributed to the upset.
Using Google Lens to search a still from the video returned multiple results. While some of these linked to posts repeating the claim that the legislators were distressed over the ceasefire and resignation, others were posted on November 1, 2023.
Photo purporting to show U.S. immigration officer grabbing girl at school is AI-generated
A photo purporting to show a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer grabbing a crying girl was shared on social media on January 24.
Another child, seemingly in distress, is partially visible behind the girl, as a blurred background appears to show an adult, possibly a teacher, in front of a colourful board.
A Google Lens image search pointed to the social media profile that goes by the name “Live On the Chat”, self-described as a “content publisher”, as the first account to share the picture.
Different online tools to moderate and analyse images returned similar results, indicating the photo was 99% likely generated by artificial intelligence.
Video falsely claims to show Hamas celebrating 2025 ceasefire
A video circulating on Facebook claims to show Hamas militants firing guns into the air in celebration following the announcement of a ceasefire in January 2025.
The video was shared by blogger Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib on Facebook with the caption, “Hamas fighters miraculously found their missing uniforms, helmets, body armor & balaclavas. These items disappeared for 15 months while they deliberately hid among civilians & caused unimaginable casualties, but every time other Gazans & I said that, we were called ‘Zionists'”.
Using a Google reverse image search, the video was traced back to its original source: an archival YouTube video uploaded on July 21, 2015, showing Hamas training on December 15, 2007 during a previous escalation with Israel. The original video, released in an Associated Press package in 2008, can be viewed on YouTube here and on the AP website here.
Video of Trump threatening Putin is deepfake
A video emerged on the messaging platform Telegram on January 23 purported to show U.S. President Donald Trump sending a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, telling him to remember the deadly fate of well-known dictators.
“I’m not looking to hurt Russia. I love the Russian people, and always had a very good relationship with President Putin”, Trump said.
“If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States, and various other participating countries. Let’s get this war, which never would have started if I were President, over with!”
In the alleged Trump footage, the skin around his neck is pixelated and merging with the collar of his shirt, while the lines around his lips and teeth are also pixelated and blurred.
The mouth doesn’t fully close when certain letters are pronounced, with a slight mismatch between sound and lip movement.
No evidence that Trump administration blocked $50 million for condoms in Gaza
At her first briefing as White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt claimed that the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, and the Office of Management had blocked a payment of $50 million to fund condoms in Gaza as part of the government’s freeze on foreign aid.
Spotlight verification often requires tools like Google Lens or reverse image searches. However, in this case, as neither Trump nor his administration have provided evidence to support claims that they blocked $50 million set aside for condoms in Gaza—or that Hamas has used condoms to make weapons in the recent war with Israel—we need to track down official figures and verify the facts.
Video claiming to show President Lula responding to President Trump is from 2022
A video shared on social media claimed to show Brazil President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s forceful response to U.S. President Donald Trump amid ongoing tensions between the U.S. and several Latin American countries.
When asked how he sees the relationship between Brazil, Latin American countries and the United States, newly-elected President Trump said Brazil and Latin American countries need the United States more than the U.S. needs them.
“They need us more than we need them. We don’t need them; they need us. Everyone needs us,” Trump said in the Oval Office on January 20.
Following the statement, a video claiming to show Lula’s response was shared across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube in which Lula says “Brazil is not their servant” and “we are nobody’s backyard.”
We transcribed one of the key phrases from the video: “Não somos quintal de ninguém” (“We are nobody’s backyard”). Searching for this phrase in Portuguese on Google led us to a full transcription of the speech on the Workers’ Party website. By using a translation tool, we confirmed that the rest of the soundbites came from the same interview, which took place in January 2022, long before Trump took office for his second term.
Brazilian woman who spoke with Trump at McDonald’s was not deported
Nayara Andrejczyk gained attention in October of last year after asking President Donald Trump not to let the United States “become Brazil” during a campaign event at a McDonald’s in Pennsylvania. “Mr. President, please don’t let the United States become Brazil, my native Brazil, please,” Andrejczyk said. “We’re gonna make it better than ever, ok?” Trump replied
To verify the claim, we checked Andrejczyk’s social media accounts. On January 25, she posted two videos, including a live broadcast in which she responded to the claims that she had been deported.
“I was not deported because I am an American citizen,” Andrejczyk says in one of the videos in which she also points out snow on the ground.
“There’s no snow in Brazil, right?” she said as she drove. “You can see the snow there. You can also see a little bit here behind me, there’s snow, everything is white over there, see? So, this is just to say that I’m in the United States, okay?”
Fact-Check Review #4
In the fourth edition of the SPOTLIGHT Fact-Check Review, members of the European Broadcasting Union joined Maria Flannery, Thais Porto and Thomas Hougaard, who broke down recent fact-checks carried out and published by the Eurovision Social Newswire.
The team presented real examples from the past month, walked attendees through the fact-checking process step-by-step, and discussed the challenges faced during the fact-checks and how they were overcome.