Manipulated video from an Associated Press report circulated on the eve of the match between Slovakia and Ukraine at this year’s European Championship, with the false claim that Slovak flags had been banned from all games because of their similarity to the Russian flag.
“UEFA has banned the Russian flag from being carried to all matches of the Ukrainian national team at Euro 2024 after some of them were hung in the stands in other matches,” says the voiceover made to sound like an AP reporter. “Security staff will seize Russian flags from all fans, regardless of the country of the rival. It also became known that the ban will also apply to the flags of Slovakia at the upcoming match with Ukraine. The organizers claim that the Slovak flag is very similar to the Russian one, which can cause provocations against Ukrainians.”
No such video exists and the AP has not reported that there is a ban of Slovak flags at the soccer tournament.
Here are the facts.
CLAIM: A video shows an AP report that says Slovak flags will be banned at Euro 2024 games because of how similar they are to the Russian flag.
THE FACTS: The 33-second video was created using fabricated audio combined with an actual AP video about a Tesla shareholder vote.
In the video, footage from Euro 2024 is shown over what is a voiceover purportedly by AP reporter Tom Krisher. After about 28 seconds, Krisher appears on screen. The voiceover claims that given the flags’ similarities, Slovak flags will not be permitted at the tournament.
Both flags have white, blue and red horizontal stripes positioned in the same order. Slovakia’s flag also includes the country’s coat of arms on its left side.
But the video was fabricated. The AP has not reported that there is any such ban.
“The video circulating on social media is not an AP video and features a false and manipulated clip of an AP staffer,” AP spokesperson Nicole Meir wrote in an email. “The AP did not report on a UEFA ban of Slovak flags.”
The footage of Krisher was taken from an AP video published on June 13 about a Tesla shareholder vote to restore CEO Elon Musk’s $44.9 billion pay package that was thrown out by a Delaware judge earlier this year. Krisher covers the auto industry for the AP, Meir confirmed.
After Russian flags were displayed in the stands at other matches, the UEFA said that security staff would try to intercept and remove Russian flags from being displayed at the Munich stadium where Ukraine played Romania on Monday afternoon in its first Euro 2024 match, the AP has reported.
Russian teams were banned by UEFA from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022.
German authorities previously said they only wanted to allow flags of the participating teams to be brought to stadiums and official fan zones broadcasting games on big screens in the 10 host cities.
This is part of the AP’s effort to address widely shared false and misleading information that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.
In this image taken from video, AP reporter Tom Krisher discusses a Tesla shareholder vote to restore CEO Elon Musk's $44.9 billion pay package, June 13, 2024. Manipulated video from the report circulated on the eve of the match between Slovakia and Ukraine at this year's European Championship, with the false claim that Slovak flags had been banned from all games because of their similarity to the Russian flag. No such video exists and the AP has not reported that there is a ban of Slovak flags at the soccer tournament. (AP Photo)
Should a review of a “Despicable Me” movie be a thoughtful analysis or just a list of the funny stuff the Minions do in it? As much as I might believe in the value of film criticism, I kind of suspect that even the finest points of assessment would be dismantled about as fast as a Minion can says “Bello!”
Since they first emerged in the original “Despicable Me” in 2010, the Minions have marauded through movie theaters with impunity, soaking up some $4.6 billion in ticket sales and spawning a franchise that with its latest entry, “Despicable Me 4," and counting the multiplying “Minions” spinoffs, numbers six movies and counting.
Along the way, they’ve accumulated bits of vocabulary from around the globe to add to their gibberish squeals. In “Despicable Me 4,” I heard “antipasti,” “bazooka” and something that sounded a little like the old “Goonies” line: “Hey you guys!”
So the Minions continue to evolve even if the movies don’t. Six films in and with more on the way, too much of a good thing is becoming more of a pressing question in “Despicable Me 4,” a silly and breezy installment from Illumination Entertainment that passes by with about as much to remember it as a Saturday morning cartoon.
That’s not all bad. Much of what makes the “Despicable Me” movies fun is that they avoid any sense of seriousness like the plague. They stand proudly in the Looney Tunes realm of animation, with little aim beyond loosely stitching slapstick sequences together. There’s a good chance you might cry during a Pixar movie, but if you wept during a “Despicable Me” movie, someone might call for help.
For “Despicable Me 4,” which opens in theaters July 3, the filmmakers have, as if unsure about where to go next, smashed four or five sequel plotlines together. The film starts with a school reunion — the Lycée Pas Bon School of Villainy Class of ’85 — where Gru encounters an old rival, Maxime le Mal (Will Ferrell), a French-accented cockroach-obsessed villain.
Gru is attending, though, as an agent for the Anti-Villain League. (One hopes there is somewhere an Antihero League led by Travis Bickle and Walter White.) Gru traps Maxime and arrests him, but in short order, Maxime breaks out of prison and vows revenge on Gru, sending their family — wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig), and their three adopted children, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier), and Agnes (Madison Polan) — into witness protection.
This gives the movie a few jokes about Gru, who may be a family man now but who still has the bearing of a supervillain, trying to blend in. He tries to impress their next-door neighbor, a snobbish country club member named Perry Prescott (Stephen Colbert). But there’s also a new character at home: baby Gru Jr.
That allows for some decent gags — the Minions, dressed like a race car pit team, help change dirty diapers with t-shirt gun — but overly familiar ones. Gru Jr. is crawling in the footsteps of another child born into an atypical family with a big-torso'ed, spindly-legged father: Jack-Jack of “The Incredibles 2.”
That may be why “Despicable Me 4” also quickly moves on from this narrative, shifting for a time into a heist movie. Gru is blackmailed by the Prescott daughter Poppy (Joey King) into stealing a honey badger from his old school. Meanwhile, the Minions, back at AVL headquarters, are used as guinea pigs for a new serum. Five of them are turned into the Mega Minions, a Fantastic Four-like assemblage of Minion-ized superheroes that have powers (flight, elasticity, a ray-gun eyeball) that they’re predictably useless at controlling. One boulder-shaped Minion is keen enough to swallow a bomb before it detonates but not to prevent his belch from causing just as much damage.
So, yes, it will take a lot more than a so-so sixth film to slow down the Minions. Though there’s little that distinguishes this latest, overstuffed “Despicable Me,” series veteran director Chris Renaud (with co-director Patrick Delage and writers Mike White and Ken Daurio) are in something between cruise control and autopilot on this careening, carefree sequel.
The “Despicable Me” movies have always benefitted from the somewhat judiciously meting out their Minions. Even if they very handily upstage the franchise’s main characters, they’re second-banana henchmen who patiently wait for their many cameos. In “Despicable Me 4,” one gets trapped in a vending machine and nonchalantly spends the rest of the movie there. If that’s not a show of force, what is?
“Despicable Me 4," a Universal Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association for action and rude humor. Running time: 95 minutes. Two stars out of four.
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, left, and Lucy, voiced by Kristen Wiig, holding Gru Jr. in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Maxime, voiced by Will Ferrell, left, and Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, and Gru Jr. in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows Gru, voiced by Steve Carell, in a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)
This image release by Illumination & Universal Pictures shows a scene from "Despicable Me 4," (Illumination & Universal Pictures via AP)
