The images are of two events that occurred in different places and on different dates and reflect a pattern of misinformation and clickbait.
It is false that two photos depicting what is supposedly the same accident are from the same incident and that this one “just happened” and left 34 dead, as stated in the text accompanying a post shared on Facebook . The images are from two different events, are not current, and are from different countries.
“National mourning has just occurred, a massive accident [ sic ] has left 34 dead…” is all that the text accompanying the photos says. In the top image, you can see what appears to be a yellow bus crushed by a truck, with firefighters working at the scene surrounded by people. In the photo below, several people watch a burning bus that is crossed in the middle of a multi-lane highway.
The first comment leaves a link that, in theory, leads to a video with more details about the accident. But in reality, it leads to a website that talks about a supposed weight-loss remedy.
A reverse image search on Yandex of the photo of the yellow bus reveals that the crash actually occurred in Honduras in February 2017, more than seven years ago.
Fox News covered the incident, which left 15 dead , and the caption of the photo illustrating the story, which is of the same incident but taken from a different angle, provides the name of the person who took it: Fernando Antonio, for the American news agency
AP .
A search of the photo section of that media outlet found the photograph used in the post circulating on social media to announce the alleged accident that “just occurred.” The description reads: “Emergency personnel responded to an accident involving a cargo truck and a bus on the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Sunday, February 5, 2017.”
“The cargo truck crashed into the bus on the highway outside the Honduran capital on Sunday, killing more than a dozen people, authorities said,” it added.
As for the second image, which shows a burning bus, a reverse image search on Google Lens returns several posts that place the photo on the outskirts of Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, in mid-December 2023. That’s eight months ago. According to reports, at least 30 people died .
While the Facebook post doesn’t specify where the incident occurred, it’s logical that the “massive accident that left 34” dead would be the same.
As for the link that supposedly leads to the video showing the accident, it opens a website that offers a supposed weight-loss remedy.
At elDetector, we ‘ve verified posts that falsely reported accidents and directed readers to click on a link that would take them to the full information, but instead directed them to an unrelated website. This is what’s known as
clickbait , and its purpose is to attract visitors to a website through eye-catching text. These visits can be converted into revenue.
Democratic-aligned voting rights organizations are bracing for what they describe as a potential crisis if the U.S. Supreme Court moves to weaken a central provision of the Voting Rights Act, one of the nation’s cornerstone civil rights laws.
The concern centers on Louisiana v. Callais, a case the justices heard on October 15. The outcome could determine the future of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits redistricting plans that dilute the voting power of racial minorities.
Two prominent voting rights groups have warned that striking down or narrowing Section 2 would allow Republican-controlled legislatures to redraw as many as 19 congressional districts in their favor, Politico reported.
That projection — outlined in a new report from Fair Fight Action and the Black Voters Matter Fund and shared exclusively with POLITICO — suggests that striking down Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act could all but ensure continued Republican control of the House of Representatives.
While a ruling before next year’s midterm elections remains uncertain, the organizations behind the report said it is still possible. In total, the groups identified 27 congressional seats nationwide that could be redrawn to favor Republicans if current legal and political conditions hold — with 19 of those shifts directly tied to the potential elimination of Section 2 protections.Doing so would “clear the path for a one-party system where power serves the powerful and silences the people,” Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown claimed, without addressing the constitutional impropriety of drawing congressional districts based solely on race – which is the issue before the high court.
Republicans have for years sought to limit or dismantle Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which bars racial discrimination in voting laws and redistricting. They argue that the provision unfairly benefits Democrats by requiring the creation of minority-majority districts that often lean Democratic.
The Supreme Court has previously rejected those arguments, but voting rights advocates fear the upcoming Louisiana v. Callais case could mark a turning point.
Democrats, meanwhile, could also seek to capitalize on any changes to the law by redrawing district lines in deeply Democratic states where VRA protections still apply. However, analysts say such opportunities would be limited compared with the broader redistricting advantages that Republican-controlled legislatures could gain, Politico added.
Under current law, the Voting Rights Act is used in redistricting to prevent racial gerrymandering that weakens the influence of minority voters. States typically comply by drawing districts that give racial and ethnic minority communities a fair opportunity to elect their preferred candidates.
However, many election law experts anticipate that the Supreme Court could narrow the scope of the VRA in its upcoming ruling, potentially triggering significant shifts in congressional representation across the South, noted Politico.
According to the report, such a decision could result in Democratic lawmakers being ousted entirely from states such as Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Other states — including Louisiana, Georgia, North Carolina, Texas, and Florida — would likely retain at least one Democratic member of Congress, but their overall Democratic representation would shrink considerably.
The report is being released as Republicans undertake a nationwide redistricting push ahead of the midterm elections — a strategy that has received strong backing from the White House and could help the GOP preserve its slim House majority. The mid-cycle redraws, while uncommon, are not without precedent and have already produced six additional Republican-leaning districts across two states.
Several other GOP-led states are expected to follow suit, a number that could grow substantially if key protections under the Voting Rights Act are rolled back.
In response, Fair Fight Action and the Black Voters Matter Fund are urging Democrats to mount an “aggressive and immediate” counterstrategy to combat Republican redistricting maneuvers already in motion.