YouTubers Yes Theory used a lookalike to stage the picture, which was widely shared online.
A viral picture which appeared to show Justin Bieber eating a burrito sideways has been outed as a prank – but not before it prompted huge debate online.
Numerous media outlets around the world had shared the image, which appeared to show the singer struggling to fit the food in his mouth while sitting on a park bench.
But after the photo sparked debate online, YouTubers Yes Theory revealed that the image was not only staged, it wasn’t even Bieber.
In a video posted on their social channels, the creators explained that they had hired Bieber lookalike Brad Soussa and flown him to Los Angeles.
The resulting image was then posted on Reddit, where it went viral.
Soon there was online outrage at Bieber's apparent mode of "attacking" the food – with one outlet saying "if you're not offended, you're not American".
The pranksters, Thomas Brag, Matt Dajer, Ammar Kandil and Bobby Derin, even gave interviews with journalists under the pretence of having captured Bieber by chance in a park in West Hollywood.
In reality the image was lookalike Soussa wearing a wig, taken on a day when they also filmed him helping an elderly woman, actually hired from website Rent A Grandma, across the street.
Pop star Bieber, 24, has not yet commented on the prank, but his publicist Scooter Braun shared footage of a phone conversation he held with Yes Theory before the prank was revealed, in which he claims to have worked out early what was going on.
"First of all I know what he looks like," said Braun, speaking with Dajer and Kandil.
"Number two, I found it very amusing because I had so many people hitting me saying why is your boy eating a burrito like this.
"But the best part is how I found out it was you guys. I decided to put it up on my Instagram for one minute and one minute only with a little caption, pretending I thought it was him.
Online photo
"I thought to myself some kid is going to hit me and tell me who did this.
"Within 30 seconds of posting it and taking it down, your manager hits me.
"So I just want you to know that you can't prank a prankster, but I'm going to play along and I'm not going to say anything because it's really funny."
DEIR AL BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — A grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson burned to death in Gaza when their tent caught fire while cooking, as thousands of Palestinians endure colder weather in makeshift housing.
The nylon tent in Yarmouk caught fire Thursday night while a meal was being prepared, a neighbor said. A hospital official said that two Palestinian men were killed by Israeli gunfire on Friday in Gaza.
The shaky 12-week-old ceasefire between Israel and the Hamas militant group has largely ended large-scale Israeli bombardment of Gaza. But Palestinians are still being killed by Israeli forces, especially along the so-called Yellow Line that delineates areas under Israeli control.
On Friday, American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie visited the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Over the past few weeks, cold winter rains have repeatedly lashed the sprawling tent cities, causing flooding, turning Gaza’s dirt roads into mud and causing damaged buildings to collapse.
Aid groups say not enough shelter materials are getting into Gaza during the truce. Figures recently released by Israel’s military suggest it hasn’t met the ceasefire stipulation of allowing 600 trucks of aid into Gaza a day, though Israel disputes that finding.
Israel has said throughout the war that Hamas was siphoning off aid supplies, preventing the population in Gaza from receiving them. Last month, the World Food Program said that there have been “notable improvements” in food security in Gaza since the ceasefire.
Palestinians have long called for mobile homes and caravans to be allowed in to protect them against living in impractical and worn out tents.
Jolie met with members of the Red Crescent on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing and then visited a hospital in the nearby city of Arish to speak with Palestinian patients on Friday, according to Egyptian officials.
Her visit sought to raise support for the displaced and humanitarian workers in the crises in Gaza as well as in Sudan, Jolie's team told The Associated Press in a statement.
“What needs to happen is clear: the ceasefire must hold, and access must be sustained, safe and urgently scaled up so that aid, fuel and critical medical supplies can move quickly and consistently, at the volume required,” Jolie said about Gaza.
Reopening the crossing, which would allow Palestinians to leave Gaza — especially the ill and wounded who could get specialized care unavailable in the territory — has been contentious. Israel has said that it will only allow Palestinians to exit Gaza, not enter, until militants in Gaza return all the hostages they took in the attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which triggered the war. The remains of one hostage are still in Gaza.
Israel also says Palestinians wanting to leave Gaza will have to get Israeli and Egyptian security approval. Egypt, meanwhile, says it wants the crossing immediately opened in both directions, so Palestinians in Egypt can enter Gaza. That’s a position rooted in Egypt’s vehement opposition to Palestinian refugees permanently resettling in the country.
For more than two decades until 2022, Jolie worked with the U.N. refugee agency, including as a special envoy.
On Friday, the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim countries, including Egypt, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, expressed concern about Gaza's humanitarian situation.
The situation has been “compounded by the continued lack of sufficient humanitarian access, acute shortages of essential life-saving supplies, and the slow pace of the entry of essential materials," according to the joint statement.
The Palestinian death toll from the war is at least 71,271, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between militants and civilians in its count. The Israel-Hamas war began with the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and saw 251 taken hostage.
On Friday, two Palestinian men were killed in separate incidents by Israeli gunfire in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza, a hospital official said. Israel's military said troops operating in the southern Gaza Strip killed a person who “crossed the Yellow Line and approached the troops, posing an immediate threat to them."
Meanwhile, Israel continues operating in the occupied West Bank.
On Friday, the Palestinian Prisoners media office said that Israel carried out numerous raids across the territory, including the major cities of Ramallah and Hebron. Nearly 50 people were detained, following the arrest of at least 50 other Palestinians on Thursday, most of those in the Ramallah area.
Israel's military said there were arrests made of people “involved in terrorist activity." Last week, a Palestinian attacker rammed his car into a man and then stabbed a young woman in northern Israel, killing both of them, police said.
The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society says that Israel has arrested 7,000 Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem this year, and 21,000 since the war began. The number arrested from Gaza isn't made public by Israel.
Associated Press writer Sam Mednick in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
Find more of AP’s Israel-Hamas coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war
Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
CORRECTS BYLINE TO EMAD ELGEBALY - American actor and film producer Angelina Jolie, front left, greets Red Crecent workers during her visit to the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip in Rafah, Egypt, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Emad Elgebaly)
Magdi Abu Al-Khair bids farewell to his mother Amal Abu Al-Khair at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, after she and her grandchild Saud were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
The bodies of Amal Abu Al-Khair and her grandchild, Saud, are transferred to Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City after they were killed when their tent caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
Fatima Abu al-Bayd inspects what remains of her mother's tent after her mother, Amal Abu Al-Khair, and grandchild, Saud, were killed when it caught fire overnight at the Yarmouk displacement camp in Gaza City, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi)
