If you have a hope or wish for 2024, it can be part of New York City’s famous New Year’s Eve Times Square celebration, albeit in a small way.

Claim- The confetti that drops in Times Square on New Year’s Eve bears people’s hopes and dreams, written or printed on each piece of paper. People can write these hopes and dreams on Post-it notes year round at the Times Square Visitor Center.

In early December 2023, organizers for the annual party started collecting submissions for the “Wishing Wall” — an initiative where anyone can share their wishes for the coming year, and then those messages will appear on confetti that drops over Times Square on New Year’s Eve. The small pieces of confetti will carry people’s dreams and hopes for 2024.

The Wishing Wall is an annual tradition. In 2022, however, a meme misleadingly claimed that a year-round visitor center wall would also allow people to share their hopes and dreams on Post-it notes that would be later used as part of the confetti drop on New Year’s Eve. However, submissions are not accepted year round, contrary to the Pinterest post below:

The Wishing Wall can be found in Manhattan at the Times Square Plaza between 46th and 47th streets, and will be open every day of December except for Christmas Day, from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., until Dec. 29, 2023. For people who cannot submit wishes in person, a digital option allows submissions through an online form until Dec. 28, on the Times Square website, or on the website of its sponsor, Planet Fitness. Digital wishes submitted after that date will be saved for next year’s New Year’s celebration.

According to the official website for Times Square:

Whether it’s a personal goal, a dream for the future or doing something for the very first time, these wishes are added to over a ton of confetti that floats down at midnight onto the revelers gathered in Times Square in celebration of the new year. Be a part of this most magical night by making your wish in person through our mobile Wishing Wall on the plazas or by sharing your New Year’s wish with us below or on Twitter and Instagram using #ConfettiWish. We will add it to the thousands of others released above Times Square at midnight on New Year’s Eve for all the world to see!

According to one report in the New York Post, the Wishing Wall has appeared every December since 2007. Around 3,000 pounds of confetti reportedly will shower down on New Year’s Eve to mark the beginning of 2023. The confetti showering has taken place in Times Square since 1992.

Falling confetti in Times Square on New Year’s Eve does carry people’s hopes and dreams, but there is no option to submit them via Post-it notes year round. As such, we rate this claim as “Mostly True.”

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In November and early December 2023, a rumor made its way across the internet claiming that #ad“Home Alone” actor Macaulay Culkin would be returning to the series in a new movie for Disney+.

Many posts on social media – Facebook & X claimed the new film would be titled “Cabin Alone” and shared what appeared to be a movie poster featuring Culkin all grown up and in a holiday sweater, surrounded by Christmas decor:

Get ready for a hilarious adventure in “Cabin Alone” starring Macaulay Culkin! When his family’s cabin getaway turns into treasure hunt chaos, Kevin must outsmart bumbling treasure hunters convinced DB Cooper’s loot is under his cabin. Will he save the day before his family arrives and crashes the party? Find out in this laugh-out-loud family comedy!

No evidence found that such a film is in the works, including no official confirmation from Culkin or Disney+. The creator of the above image also appears to have edited Culkin’s face onto another body, given the contrast in lighting from his face to his neck as well as the strange blurring effect around his ears.

Originated as Satire – The poster originated from a Facebook page titled “YODA BBY ABY,” which describes its content as satirical in nature: “I’m just here to eat frogs, lift rocks and be satirical,” its profile says.

Culkin’s IMDb page shows, as of this writing, that he has only one forthcoming appearance, which is a retrospective film compiling music videos of Michael Jackson, in which he starred as a child.

Browsing at Disney+ catalog of upcoming movies online, we also found no evidence of the above poster or of any film called “Cabin Alone.” Disney+ already released a “Home Alone” movie reboot in 2021 titled “Home Sweet Home Alone” without Culkin. While there were rumors that Culkin would be involved, an X account that has been attributed to him denied he was acting in the film. The account posted on X: “Hey y’all. Just a heads up since I’ve been getting this question a lot today: I am NOT in the new Home Alone reboot. I wish all involved the best of luck though.”

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Is This a Real Video of Israeli Children Singing ‘We Will Annihilate Everyone’ in Gaza? The video was allegedly posted and deleted by Kan, an Israeli news channel.

On Nov. 19, 2023, The Electronic Intifada, an online publication that focuses on Palestinian perspectives, claimed that a video showing Israeli children singing about the “annihilation” of Gaza had been shared, then deleted, on Israeli public broadcaster Kan News’ online platforms.

????WATCH: Israeli children sing, “We will annihilate everyone” in Gaza, against a background of destruction.

Disturbing video was posted, then deleted by Israeli national broadcaster @kann_news.

We captured it and added English subtitles

FULL STORY: https://t.co/fzS5bu2NBx pic.twitter.com/pKut1WYixi

— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) November 19, 2023

Titled “Friendship Song,” the video in question featured a group of children reportedly singing in a re-recording of an old song originally written by Israeli poet Haim Gouri after the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel, but with amended lyrics referring to Gaza. David Sheen, an independent filmmaker and writer, translated these new lyrics for The Electronic Intifada into English from Hebrew. Per his translation, the children sang:

Autumn night falls over the beach of Gaza

Planes are bombing, destruction, destruction

Look the IDF is crossing the line

to annihilate the swastika-bearers

In another year there will be nothing there

And we will safely return to our homes

Within a year we will annihilate everyone

And then we will return to plow our fields

The above video is indeed real and was created by Israeli advocacy group The Civil Front, which frequently does public campaigns to support the Israeli armed forces. The children in the slickly-produced video wore black T-shirts with the same blue logo as that on The Civil Front’s YouTube page.

The video was also available on the group’s YouTube page and was published on Nov. 19, 2023:

After the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks by Hamas in Israel, The Civil Front carried out a billboard campaign in Tel Aviv in order to show support for Israeli soldiers and police officers. Some of the billboards, according to The Jerusalem Post, used AI-generated images of Hamas and Hezbollah leadership showing them beaten and captured by Israeli soldiers.

While the video was not created by Kan News, it was shared on Kan News’ website with the new lyrics before being deleted. The archived link is available here. The same video was shared on Kan News’ X account, @kann_news, before being deleted, but the post remains archived here. While @kann_news has no check mark to signal its authenticity, its content is frequently reposted by the broadcaster’s main X account, @kann.

When we ran the lyrics in the archived link through Google Translate, we found the translation was very similar to the above lyrics shared by The Electronic Intifada:

Autumn night is falling on the Gaza coast

Planes are shelling, destruction, destruction

Here the IDF is crossing the line

To eliminate the swastika bearers

In another year there will be nothing there

And we will return safely to our home within a year

We will eliminate them all

And then return to plowing our fields

Middle East Eye reported that the new lyrics were co-written by Ofer Rosenbaum, the chairperson of The Civil Front, and Shulamit Stolero (according to the Jewish Press).

Jewish Press, a U.S.-based news organization that describes itself as an “advocate on behalf of the State of Israel,” also covered the removal of the video from Kan News’ platforms. The report claimed that the children in the video ranged from the ages of 6 to 12 years old and were singing an updated version of Gouri’s poem. The children were reportedly among those evacuated “from the Gaza envelope settlements.”

Jewish Press also published its own translation of the lyrics:

On the Gaza beach the autumn night is descending

Planes are bombing, ruin follows ruin

See the IDF crossing the borderline

To annihilate the Swastika carriers

In one more year

There won’t be anything left there

And we’ll return safely to our home

In one more year

We’ll eliminate them all and go back to plowing our fields

The above translations use both “annihilate” and “eliminate” to refer to the destruction of Gaza.

There is no publicly known reason for why Kan News deleted the video, but Electronic Intifada argued, “It is possible that someone there was concerned that it could make the channel complicit in genocide.” Electronic Intifada also noted that Israelis and other users criticized the post. Middle East Eye reported that the posts resulted in many online accusing the news agency of advocating genocide. We have reached out to the network and will update this post if we receive more information.

The Jewish Press was critical of Kan’s decision to remove the video, writing sarcastically that “someone at Kan 11 found the harsh sentiment pronounced by the six girls in the video unacceptable for viewing – by a nation which just watched more than a thousand of its people being raped, beaten, beheaded, and burned alive. So they took it down.”

On Nov. 16, 2023, U.N. experts and scholars warned that grave violations committed by Israel against Palestinians point to a “genocide in the making.”

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