Category: Fact Check

Social media users are accusing Fox News of conspiring with Israel by staging a Palestinian man’s arrest in Gaza.

“Propagandist Fox News helped the Israeli army to fake a video of alleged Palestinians trying to cross the border fence of Gaza into Israel,” a Nov. 22 TikTok video’s caption read.

The TikTok post shares a video in which a Fox News reporter describes what’s happening as a person is arrested and led away blindfolded and wearing only underwear by the Israeli military. Shortly after — just before the Fox report cuts to a live shot of the reporter — the same underwear-clad man is seen “casually getting dressed again,” the TikTok caption said. 

That proves the man is a “crisis actor,” the caption on the TikTok video alleged.

We found multiple social media posts sharing the video and accusing Fox News of staging the scene.

(Screenshot from TikTok)

The video is authentic and shows Fox News reporter Trey Yingst reporting Oct. 12 from the scene of Israel’s Tribe of Nova music festival in Reim, where Hamas militants attacked concertgoers Oct. 7. 

The video of Yingst aired on Fox News Oct. 12 as he was speaking with “America Reports” anchors Sandra Smith and Bill Hemmer.

But the man in the video isn’t a crisis actor, and the video doesn’t show him getting dressed after his arrest, as the TikTok post purported. Yingst shared raw footage of his reporting on X and Instagram in response to the allegations. It shows the Palestinian man taking his clothes off before Israeli forces took him into custody.

“The truth is important,” Yingst wrote.

A Fox News spokesperson confirmed that raw footage shows the man undressing before his arrest by the Israeli military and attributed the report later showing him undressing to an editing oversight.

The same Palestinian man is seen being forced to undress before being arrested in this video with Sky News reporter Stuart Ramsay. He described the military coming across a suspected Hamas militant who had a knife. Israeli soldiers ordered the man to undress, fearing he may have been wearing a suicide bomb vest.

He can also be seen removing his shirt before his arrest in this CBS News video.

The claim that Fox News staged the arrest of a Palestinian man in Gaza on behalf of Israel is False.

The town in the movie “Footloose” banned dancing. Did a city in Tennessee just ban being openly gay?

That’s what some social media users are saying, but the reality is more complicated.

Murfreesboro, Tennessee, made recent headlines over a city ordinance it passed in mid-June. “A city in Tennessee has banned being gay in public,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom posted Nov. 16 on X. Meanwhile, anti-LGBTQ+ groups such as Gays Against Groomers argued that that Newsom’s comments amounted to “woke homophobia.”

Statements from gay rights advocates and anti-LGBTQ+ voices have oversimplified what unfolded in this 162,000 population city in central Tennessee. The city’s original ordinance cited a 46-year-old statutory definition — that has since been amended — and it’s unclear how broadly a court would have interpreted it, or whether it would be considered constitutional. 

Let’s break down what we know. 

The law’s scope is unclear.  

On June 15, the Murfreesboro City Council, by a 5-1 vote, passed an ordinance to “promote public decency and maintain a family-friendly environment in public places.” 

The ordinance said that, “No person shall knowingly while in a public space engage in indecent behavior, display, distribute, or broadcast indecent material, conduct indecent events, or facilitate any of the foregoing prohibited acts.”

In August, the ordinance was used to remove several books from the county’s public library, meeting minutes show.

On its face, the law does not refer to or “ban” homosexuality in public, but how “indecent behavior” was defined worried LGBTQ+ rights advocates. 

“Indecent behavior means indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct as defined in Section 21-71 of the Murfreesboro City Code,” read the ordinance’s definition. 

Section 21-71 is the ‘Definitions’ section of a chapter outlining inappropriate material for minors, and it has been a part of the city code since at least 1977. The section defined sexual conduct as “acts of masturbation, homosexuality, sexual intercourse,” or physical contact with breasts, bottoms and genitals. A near-identical definition of sexual conduct also appeared in the city code’s section on public indecency.

“When read together with the 1977 Definition (of sexual conduct), the Ordinance defines any public ‘acts of … homosexuality’ as ‘indecent behavior,’’ argued the Tennessee Equality Project, a statewide LGBTQ+ advocacy group, in their lawsuit against the city of Murfreesboro. 

But what is an “act of homosexuality”? 

The debate centers on that phrase’s scope.

Would banning “acts of … homosexuality” just have prohibited public sexual intercourse, which was already deemed public indecency for everyone? Or, as the Tennessee Equality Project feared, prohibit “anything from drag performances to advocacy materials … to an advertisement for Will & Grace reruns,” or a same-sex couple holding hands. 

The meaning of “acts of … homsexuality” would ultimately be up to a court, said Jennifer Shinall, a Vanderbilt University law professor. When a statutory definition is ambiguous, courts consult dictionary definitions and legislative history from the time a bill was passed. 

That the definition seems to distinguish homosexuality from sexual intercourse and masturbation may mean it bans something beyond those sexual acts. 

“But what acts?” Shinall said. “Without an additional statutory definition, a court would be puzzled as well.” 

Murfreesboro City Council reversed course

It is also not clear that the inclusion of “acts of … homosexuality” was intentional.

It is common for state legislatures or local city councils to pass bills that refer to previous statutory definitions, Shinall said. “It is plausible…that somebody just didn’t do their homework and didn’t realize what was still in the code.”

We reviewed the recorded city council meetings that included votes on the ordinance and heard no discussion of the specific definition of sexual conduct. No members of the city council responded to requests for comment. 

Murfreesboro’s city attorney did not respond to a request for comment. But Larry Flowers, Murfreesboro’s public safety public information officer, provided a statement on the city’s behalf about the measure.

“The city code provision you’re referencing originated in the 1940’s and was amended in the 1970’s,” it read. “There is no record or recollection of it having even been enforced for purposes of homosexuality. Earlier this month, City Council enacted an ordinance updating the city’s code and removed the term ‘homosexuality’ from this provision.” 

But even if the inclusion was intentional, Shinall said, someone could argue that Supreme Court precedent shows it to be unconstitutional. Recent Supreme Court cases “suggest that sexual orientation is a protected class” under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, Shinall said. This means that laws cannot apply differently to homosexual and heterosexual people unless the government can prove it serves “an important governmental objective.” 

“Public laws and public restrictions that target LGBTQ populations and do not similarly target people who identify as heterosexual, almost certainly run afoul of the equal protection clause,” Shinall said.

And the city ultimately faced a legal challenge over the ordinance. On Oct. 6, the Tennessee Equality Project, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, sued the city in federal district court arguing that this section of the ordinance violated the 14th Amendment. 

On Nov. 2, the council voted to remove the term “homosexuality” from two places in the city code. The meeting agenda explains that “the term homosexuality is an anachronism unenforceable under current law. Therefore, it should be excised from the definitions used in these ordinances.” The change took effect Nov. 17, days after it made national news.

But the lawsuit continues. Gillian Branstetter, communications strategist for the ACLU, said the amended ordinance still “prohibits broad swaths of protected public speech, writing, and expressive behavior,” which the organization argues is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.   

The lawsuit also addresses the city’s refusal to grant event permits or allow the Tennessee Equality Project to rent parks and recreation facilities for the group’s annual Pride parade.

The Republican primaries have yet to start, but social media posts claim former President Donald Trump has already selected and revealed his 2024 vice presidential candidate.

“Trump has selected his pick for running mate — news stuns Republican Party,” a Nov. 21 Facebook video’s caption reads. The video was also shared on YouTube.

“It looks like Donald Trump really has found his running mate,” Carmine Sabia, host of “Explain America,” said in the video. “Explain America” describes itself as a “counter-cultural” news outlet that “do(es) not claim to be without bias.” PolitiFact has previously checked false claims by Sabia, whose “Explain America” Facebook page has 3.3 million followers. 

The video was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

As evidence, Sabia played an audio clip of New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman responding to a question about Trump and former Fox News host Tucker Carlson potentially teaming up. Haberman said the pairing is “a real thing I am hearing as a possibility,” but also noted, “the likelihood of it, I don’t know.” 

PolitiFact asked Trump’s 2024 campaign for comment but received no reply.

Though Trump and his campaign may have internally chosen a vice presidential pick, nothing has been publicly announced on his campaign website or social media accounts. And although The New York Times recently explored who Trump might choose, we found no news reports that said he’d decided.

Running mate nominees are usually announced the summer before the November election, typically after a presidential candidate has become the presumptive nominee during the primaries. For example, during the 2016 election, Trump announced Mike Pence as his running mate in July 2016, after Trump became the de facto winner of the Republican presidential nomination in May.

The Republican Party’s presidential primaries will begin in 2024, and though Trump has a strong lead in many polls, he has not secured the party’s nomination.

Trump has previously said he would consider Carlson as a running mate because Carlson has “great common sense.”

We rate the claim that “Trump has selected his pick for running mate (and the) news stuns Republican party” False.

Social media users are sharing a video that claims to show a military chaplain praying for President Joe Biden’s removal from office — as he stands near Biden himself.

In the video, shared Nov. 22 on Instagram, a military chaplain stands on stage in front of Biden, first lady Jill Biden and a third person. The military chaplain appears to say, “So anyway, please get rid of Joe Biden and bring back the real president, Donald J. Trump. Amen.”

President Biden then makes the sign of the cross as the military chaplain walks offstage.

The Instagram post shows a split screen of this video and a person reacting with shock. Text on the video says, “Joe is standing behind him,” with an astonished face emoji.

(Screengrab from Instagram)

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

This video has also been shared on TikTok and X.

However, the military chaplain did not pray for Biden to be replaced with Trump. The video’s audio was edited.

This video clip was taken from footage of a Thanksgiving event the Bidens held Nov. 19 for military service members at the U.S. Navy base in Norfolk, Virginia.

During the event, the Bidens and Navy veteran Sibrena Sears, spouse of an active-duty military member, spoke to a crowd of military service members and their families. Then, the military chaplain took the stage and said a prayer for about a minute and a half. He mentioned neither Biden nor Trump during the prayer.

The military chaplain ended the prayer by saying, “We ask for your divine favor on this gathering. Bless our fellowship. Bless the food that we will receive. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.”

We rate the claim that a video shows a military chaplain praying to “get rid of” Biden and “bring back” Trump False.

If you’re reading this story, you likely care about the facts. 

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Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom — political rivals from opposite coasts and proxies for red and blue America — are set to square off for a first-of-its-kind debate Nov. 30 in Georgia.

Newsom, a liberal firebrand in his second term as California’s governor, isn’t running for president in 2024. But he goaded DeSantis, in his second term as governor of Florida, to go mano a mano. “I’ll bring my hair gel. You bring your hairspray,” he taunted on social media.

The matchup promises to be a heated brawl between rising political stars who lead two of the nation’s most populous and diverse states. And it will mark the first time the politicians meet in person even as they have very publicly traded barbs and insults, in recent weeks attacking each other in fundraising videos and campaign ads.

Front and center will be homelessness and health care, top priorities for voters — and issues that have largely defined the governors’ policies and leadership styles. From abortion to COVID-19 vaccines, Newsom and DeSantis could not be further apart.

Earlier this year, DeSantis blasted California for being too generous with public benefit programs, such as Medicaid, which the Golden State has expanded to all eligible residents regardless of immigration status. That sweeping policy takes effect in January and goes well beyond the optional expansion of Medicaid that the Affordable Care Act offered states. In Florida, one of 10 states that have refused to expand Medicaid under Obamacare, DeSantis wears the state’s 11% rate of uninsured residents as a badge of honor.

“We’re not going to be like California and have massive numbers of people on government programs without work requirements,” DeSantis said at a presidential primary debate in Southern California earlier this year.

DeSantis has led his state to restrict abortion and gender-affirming care and to ban COVID-related mask and vaccine mandates.

“Join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” Newsom said in a political ad earlier this year.

Newsom has earned the moniker of “health care governor” by catapulting the issue to the top of his policy priorities. He made California an abortion sanctuary and is dramatically expanding health care benefits. He had promised to bring single-payer health care to the nation’s most populous state while campaigning for his first term, but that idea hit stiff political opposition early in his tenure. And now Newsom boasts about bringing the state’s uninsured rate to a record low of 6.5% by expanding coverage in other ways.

These issues are expected to take center stage during the nationally televised 90-minute debate on Fox News, which could have major reverberations for the presidential contest next year and could even help shape the 2028 field of White House contenders.

Ahead of the showdown, KFF Health News analyzed 10 of the governors’ top health care positions and how their policies have improved — or hindered — the health of the residents they represent.

Affordable Care Act

Florida: DeSantis has refused to expand Medicaid eligibility to more people under the Affordable Care Act. Partly as a result, more than 3 million Floridians had coverage through the federal Obamacare exchange as of February, more than any other state. Florida does not have a state-based exchange or offer state-sponsored subsidies.

California: The state has enthusiastically embraced the Affordable Care Act, expanding Medicaid while setting up its own insurance exchange, Covered California. Under Newsom, it has also gone well beyond the provisions of Obamacare and created a state requirement for Californians to have health insurance after the federal mandate was eliminated.

Abortion

Florida: DeSantis approved legislation in April banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. However, the Florida Supreme Court has taken up a challenge to the 15-week ban introduced in 2022, which will determine if the six-week ban can take effect.

California: Newsom spearheaded the effort in 2022 to amend the state constitution to enshrine the right to abortion and birth control. He also approved $60 million to help uninsured patients and people from out of state pay for abortions in California, and signed reproductive health care laws, including one protecting doctors who mail abortion pills to other states.

Transgender care

Florida: Under DeSantis, Florida passed a law this year banning gender-affirming health care for trans minors and mandating that adult patients sign informed consent forms before starting or continuing hormone treatment. The law also restricts who can order hormone therapy to physicians and prohibits the use of telehealth for new prescriptions. A federal lawsuit challenging the law is set to go to trial in mid-December.

California: Newsom and other state leaders have amended state law to ensure all California adults and children are entitled to gender-affirming health care services. And insurance companies doing business in California must include information on in-network providers for gender-affirming services by 2025. State health care agencies are designing “enforceable quality standards” to ensure trans patients have access to comprehensive care.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks Nov. 8, 2023, at the presidential primary debate at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County in Miami. (AP)

Homelessness

Florida: DeSantis has not declared homelessness a priority. In a video filmed on the streets of San Francisco and posted to social media in June, DeSantis used the topic as a campaign cudgel to criticize what he called “leftist policies” in California. Florida is experimenting with using Medicaid funds to address homelessness, but the program is limited. Nearly 26,000 people are homeless in Florida, or 12 of every 10,000 residents.

California: Newsom has plowed more than $20 billion into the homelessness crisis, with billions more for health and social services. For example, some homeless Californians can get social services through the state’s Medicaid program, such as money for rental security deposits, utility payments, and first and last month’s rent. Newsom also led a new state initiative that could force some homeless people into mental health or addiction treatment. More than 171,000 people are homeless in California, or 44 of every 10,000 residents.

Mental health

Florida: DeSantis has kept his pledge to advocate for mental health treatment programs as governor, although Florida still ranks 43rd nationally in access to mental health care and has the fourth-highest rate of adults with mental illness who are uninsured, according to the Miami Center for Mental Health and Recovery. Under DeSantis, Florida has increased state funding for mental health programs in schools and peer-to-peer mental health services for first responders, and directed funding to suicide prevention.

California: Newsom in 2020 signed one of the nation’s strongest mental health parity laws, which requires insurance companies to cover mental health and substance use disorders just as they would physical health conditions. He is funding a $4.7 billion initiative to provide mental health treatment in schools. Newsom is also leading the campaign for a statewide, $6.4 billion bond measure in 2024 to revamp and expand community-based behavioral health programs, including thousands of new treatment beds.

Addiction

Florida: Florida’s drug overdose death rate was 37.5 per 100,000 people in 2021. In August, DeSantis announced a new statewide addiction recovery program billed as a “first of its kind” in the United States, using peer counselors, medication-assisted treatment, and a coordinated network of support services. DeSantis also authorized Florida counties to adopt needle exchange programs in 2019 to reduce the spread of blood-borne diseases and encourage addiction treatment.

California: California’s drug overdose rate was 26.6 per 100,000 people in 2021. Newsom is sending the state Highway Patrol and National Guard into San Francisco to combat the open-air fentanyl trade and is boosting addiction recovery programs statewide. But he vetoed legislation last year that would have allowed Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland to establish safe injection sites.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks Nov. 9, 2023, during a Clean California event in San Francisco. (AP) 

Prescription drugs

Florida: A DeSantis proposal submitted to the FDA in 2020 includes allowing imported medications from Canada. A new state law also sets price limits for pharmacy benefit managers — intermediaries between insurers, pharmacies, and manufacturers — and creates new rules for them around pricing transparency. The law also requires pharmaceutical companies to disclose significant price hikes.

California: Newsom is spearheading a $100 million, first-in-the-nation initiative that puts California in the generic drugmaking business, beginning with insulin and the opioid reversal drug naloxone. California already had a pricing transparency law when Newsom took office. This year, he signed a law that tightens state regulations for pharmacy benefit managers.

Health care affordability

Florida: In 2019, DeSantis signed the Patient Savings Act, which allows health insurers to share cost savings with enrollees who shop for health care services, such as imaging and diagnostic tests. Under his leadership, Florida lawmakers have also allowed short-term health plans lasting less than a year and direct health care agreements between a patient and a health care provider that are not considered insurance and are not subject to Florida’s insurance code.

California: One of Newsom’s first health care initiatives was to fund state-financed health insurance subsidies for low- and middle-income residents who purchase insurance through Covered California. Newsom this year also agreed to lower copays and get rid of some deductibles for plans sold through the exchange. California’s newly created Office of Health Care Affordability is capping industry cost increases and could potentially regulate health industry consolidation. California bans short-term health plans.

Public health

Florida: DeSantis signed legislation in 2021 banning government, schools, and private employers from requiring covid vaccinations. In 2023, he pushed legislators to adopt laws prohibiting certain vaccine and mask requirements. He also formed a Public Health Integrity Committee led by his hand-picked surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, whose official guidance on covid vaccines contradicts the CDC’s recommendations. The Sunshine State’s covid-19 vaccine booster rate for residents age 5 and older is 12.4%.

California: Newsom became the first U.S. governor to issue a statewide stay-at-home order at the start of the covid-19 pandemic. He pushed strong vaccination and mask mandates and accused DeSantis of being weak on public health. Newsom has also signed laws strengthening childhood vaccination mandates, including a measure that cracks down on bogus medical exemptions granted by doctors. The Golden State’s covid-19 vaccine booster rate for residents ages 5 and older is 21.9%.

Immigrant health care

Florida: With DeSantis making immigration a priority, legislators passed a state law requiring all Florida hospitals to ask on their admission forms whether a patient is a U.S. citizen or lawfully present in the country. Doctors, nurses, and health policy experts say the law targets marginalized people who already have difficulty navigating the health care system and will further deter them from seeking care.

California: Beginning in January, all immigrants who meet income qualifications will be eligible for the state’s Medicaid program. Before Newsom took office, California had already expanded eligibility to immigrant children through age 18 living in the state without authorization. Newsom then signed laws expanding the program to young adults up to age 26, adults 50 and older, and, later, immigrants of any age who otherwise meet eligibility requirements.

MANCHESTER, N.H. — On the campaign trail, former President Donald Trump has criticized the shift to electric vehicles, an effort that has been encouraged by his potential 2024 opponent, President Joe Biden.

Trump told a Nov. 11 crowd in Claremont that electric vehicles “don’t go far,” using their state of New Hampshire as an example.

“You can’t get out of New Hampshire in an electric car,” he said. “Where are you going? ‘I’m going to Massachusetts.’ Well, you better get yourself a gas turbine because this car is not going to get you there. Well, you could, if you stop about four times now.”

New Hampshire doesn’t have the greatest public electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Depending on the estimate, the state has 220 to 350 publicly accessible EV chargers, or one for every 4,000 to 6,000 residents. That’s in the middle of the 50-state pack, and it’s far behind the No. 1 state, New Hampshire’s neighbor, Vermont, with about one for every 750 residents.

“Because the state hasn’t invested in publicly available infrastructure, the bigger driving days can be a challenge,” said Sam Evans-Brown, executive director of Clean Energy NH, a green energy advocacy group based in Concord. If you’re spending three hours or more in your car, he said, “you have to get pretty creative in stitching together a road trip.”

PolitiFact reporters learned this firsthand after renting an electric vehicle in New Hampshire to fact-check a series of candidate events in October 2023. 

However, Trump omits an important point: Many EV owners can surmount this challenge by charging their vehicle at home. Multiple EV owners in New Hampshire told us they do precisely that.

A car charger (that didn’t work for us) in Manchester, N.H. (Louis Jacobson/PolitiFact)

Our experience in New Hampshire

Neither of us had ever driven an EV, or charged one. We chose this option because it was significantly cheaper than conventional options at Boston’s Logan Airport.

Our trip involved covering GOP presidential candidates in three cities, Manchester, Nashua and Exeter.

We knew our Airbnb had no home charging station, so we steeled ourselves for charging on the road. We used a free app, ChargeHub, that showed us the locations and availability of public charging stations.

Our black Kia Niro, a compact crossover SUV, had about 250 miles worth of charge when we picked it up. After driving about 100 miles from the airport, we knew we would have to charge on Day 2.

Our first attempt at public charging was clunky. We drove to a downtown Manchester hotel that the app said had a public charger, but the charger wasn’t working. So, we drove to a nearby public garage, connected the plug and headed across the street for coffee and some writing.

About 90 minutes later, we returned to the car … which had only 15 to 20 miles of additional charge. It had to do; we needed to drive to a forum in Nashua to see GOP presidential candidates.

We began Day 3 by returning to the same charger in the Manchester public garage. We figured we’d have another round of coffee and writing, then drive to a town hall with presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy in Exeter. The app told us that one inn in Exeter had a charger, but once we got there, the front desk said it was only for patrons. So, we went to a second inn; the staff took pity on us and said we could charge while we were at the event, for a $15 access fee. 

By the time we unplugged and left the inn, we had about 75 miles of charge left. Google Maps told us that the Nashua hotel hosting the candidate forum’s second day was faster to reach by interstate, but the distance would be shorter if we took a country route. 

So, with little margin for error, we went the nearly 60 miles by country roads. 

As we arrived in Nashua, we found a charger within walking distance of the hotel where candidates Tim Scott and Mike Pence were to speak. (Both have since exited the race.) After the event, we let the car charge and walked 20 minutes along busy roads for lunch and more coffee. (The car needed juice, and so did we.) 

After about five hours of charging, we had enough power to go back to Manchester that night, plus enough for the next morning’s return to Logan, though we were so strapped for charging time that we had to pay a penalty for low charge when we arrived at Logan.

Bottom line: We reached all our events in time, but doing so required careful geographic choreography, and the process was sometimes nerve-racking.

The authors getting some writing done while the EV was charging, at our home away from home, Manchester’s Hometown Coffee.

What New Hampshire residents can expect

Most New Hampshire EV owners could have an easier experience. Although longer road trips often require more logistics, everyday driving does not.

Installing a home charging station takes the worry out of finding public chargers. According to Motor Trend, it costs “around $1,150 to $2,750 to purchase and install a 240-volt charging station” for a home, including the hardware and installation. That’s a fraction of the cost of an EV, which starts at $26,000, according to Edmunds. 

Bill Dillon, of Portsmouth, said he drives about 260 miles a week and can get by with one charge a week, available free at his workplace. His apartment building also has charging stations.

“After a few weeks it became evident that driving an electric vehicle has so many advantages over a gas engine — extra room, great pickup, no oil changes or engine repair, and very fun to drive,” Dillon said. “I have no regrets about my purchase.”

The charging architecture for Dillon’s Kia EV6 also allows it to “fast charge,” which further simplifies even longer trips. “It can go from 20% to 80% in as little as 18 minutes,” he said.

Cars that can accept fast charging, and the chargers that enable it, are proliferating. For several quarters running, the number of fast chargers has grown most rapidly of any kind of charger, according to the U.S. Energy Department. And Walmart has deployed 1,300 fast chargers at more than 280 facilities, with plans to expand further. About 90% of Americans live within a 10-mile radius of a Walmart.

Seth Fiermonti of Durham said he’s driven his Tesla as far away as Bar Harbor, Maine (235 miles), Hartford, Connecticut, (160 miles) and Albany, New York, (200 miles) before needing to recharge. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever go back to a gas car,” Fiermonti said. “Any EV I’ve been in is smooth, quiet, efficient and easy to maintain.”

Some EV owners said they need to pick their spots. Jessyca Keeler, president of the group Ski New Hampshire, said she most often uses home charging for 2022 Hyundai Ioniq5, to power and preheat her car before leaving home in New Hampshire’s cold winters. 

However, if she travels beyond her home region, perhaps to visit her association’s far-flung ski resort members, Keeler said she needs “to take the time to plot where I can charge the car, since you can’t just find chargers everywhere like you can gas stations.” 

For remote destinations, Keeler said she sometimes uses her gasoline-powered vehicle.

Confrontational videos are a staple of the modern internet, whether they show a shouting match between neighbors or a parking lot fistfight.

Some influencers are tapping into this trend with manufactured conflict — skits dramatizing hot-button issues. The most recent example is a video that appears to show a self-described “gender-neutral” schoolteacher instructing students on acceptable pronoun use.

“I am not a female nor am I a male, I would be in between,” the teacher said in the Nov. 20, Facebook video. “So, right here would be my pronouns.”

The instructor then pointed to a chart listing multiple pronouns including ze/zir/zirs, sometimes referred to as “neopronouns.” 

(Screenshot of Facebook video)

This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

Off-screen, supposed students express confusion and resistance. “Why do we have to learn this?” asked one. “I’m confused,” said another.

Many people and groups online, including the conservative Young America’s Foundation, shared the video as if it showed something real. The foundation’s post had the caption, “These students are just as confused as we are.”

This video does not depict a real classroom confrontation. It was created as a skit.

A comedian named Jibrizy shared the original video Oct. 2 on his Facebook page. “Hey guys,” he said at the end of the eight-minute sketch, “that was all an act.” He then urged viewers to share the video and discuss it with their friends to find out their thoughts on the subject.

This is not the first time Jibrizy’s videos have gone viral without context. In September, two skits, one of a confrontation on a plane and another in which a woman tears down a pride flag, went viral. Many people, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., shared the videos on X thinking they were authentic.

In his X profile, Jibrizy described his work as directing “social political video out as real life scenarios of the left and right for debate.” When the flag video went viral, Jibrizy posted to clarify his role: “I create video to start discussion,” he wrote. “It’s openly fake. But I want you to debate your point of view.” He regularly creates skits about LGBTQ+ topics and political issues. 

We rate claims this video shows an authentic classroom discussion False.