On May 20, 2025, a senior UN official told the BBC that 14,000 babies would die in the next 48 hours.
The claim spread instantly. Front-page headline in the New York Times. Breaking news segment on the BBC and CNN. It felt true — it was designed to. What the UN official actually said was that 14,100 children were at risk of severe malnutrition over eleven months — a wildly contested figure — not 48 hours. Three days later, most ran a small correction. Nobody saw it.
The next day, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim — a young couple days away from getting engaged — were shot dead outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington D.C. The shooter, Elias Rodriguez, screamed “Free Palestine” and told police he did it for Gaza as he was arrested.
Yaron & Sarah
The pattern was there. It always is. Most people just don't have the tools to see it before it spreads.
