Hook: Hook has been verified by provided inline citation
Cited: - Offline/paywalled citation accepted in good faith
Interesting:
QPQ: Done.
Overall: New enough (created on 3 January) and long enough (4937 characters); Sourced, neutral, and free of plagiarism (Earwig says that a violation is unlikely, and didn't find any myself); Hook is cited (source behind a paywall, But the headline and blurb are accessible) and interesting; No pics; QPQ provided.
Approving this with a slight modification to the hook, that is, wikilinking emu - ALT0a:"... that an emu named Emmanuel Todd Lopez was the target of a death hoax by undercover journalists?".
Another hook could be ALT1: "Emmanuel has been described as "arguably the world's most famous emu"? "Source: (Washington Post) The wording on ALT1 is somewhat clunky, so I'd prefer ALT0a. AmateurHi$torian (talk) 21:21, 4 January 2025 (UTC)
If we go with ALT1, I would like it to use the full name "Emmanuel Todd Lopez" because I think it's funnier that way. — Vigilant Cosmic Penguin 🐧 (talk | contribs) 21:29, 4 January 2025 (UTC)