NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out.

No, France did not deploy troops to fight with Ukraine against Russia

CLAIM: France sent troops to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.

THE FACTS: The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement on X that France has not deployed troops to Ukraine, calling the claim “disinformation.” Reports of the deployment cited a May 3 blog post by Stephen Bryen, a deputy undersecretary for the Department of Defense during the Reagan administration.

“France has sent its first troops officially to Ukraine,” the blog post reads. “They have been deployed in support of the Ukrainian 54th Independent Mechanized Brigade in Slavyansk. The French soldiers are drawn from France’s 3rd Infantry Regiment, which is one of the main elements of France’s Foreign Legion (Légion étrangère).”

It adds that 100 French troops out of an expected 1,500 have arrived so far.

Many social media posts included a screenshot of the blog post as it appeared republished on another website. One such X post had received more than 3,000 likes and shares as of Friday.

But the French Foreign Ministry explicitly denied a deployment of French troops to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war.

“FAKE NEWS ALERT,” it wrote on X. “Disinformation campaigns on France’s support to Ukraine are as active as ever. Let’s have a look. France has not sent troops to #Ukraine.”

Macron said in an interview published on May 3 that he hasn’t excluded the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine, echoing comments he has made in recent months. He did not announce any deployments of the French military.

The claim spreading online cited a post published May 4 on Bryen’s blog titled, “France Sends Troops to Ukraine.” The post does not attribute its reporting to any sources.

Bryen published another blog post on Monday, where he acknowledged that he “could be wrong” about France’s alleged deployment to Ukraine. He also provided sources for his original post and explained his reporting ethos.

The earliest source Bryen cited about France sending troops is an April 12 article from a Russian military news website, which notes that it “can neither confirm nor deny this information.” It relies on reports from a Russian Telegram channel and a Russian journalist, who reportedly said the information is unconfirmed.

An April 13 X post from Sputnik, a state-owned Russian news agency, refers to the Russian Telegram channel and quotes a Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman previously warning that “France would prepare 1,500 troops in April to be sent to Ukraine.” The same text is used in a Facebook post published the same day by a page that describes itself as “a gaming platform used for comedy and opinions out of spontaneous dialogue.” Bryen cited both.

Lastly, Bryen listed an April 14 post from a website that regularly promotes conspiracy theories.

In response to a request for comment from The Associated Press, Bryen pointed to the second blog post and wrote “as for denials, the French always deny having anyone at all in Ukraine.” He had deleted the links to all of these sources, aside from the Sputnik post, by Friday.

France’s 3rd Foreign Infantry Regiment, of the Foreign Legion, has been based in Kourou, French Guiana, since 1973. Its responsibilities include protecting the Guiana Space Center and fighting against illegal gold panning.

Hackers did not project the Soviet Victory banner on Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate this week

CLAIM: Images show the Soviet Victory banner projected by hackers onto the east side of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Tuesday night, prior to annual festivities celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

THE FACTS: The images were fabricated. Berlin police and the company that manages the Brandenburg Gate confirmed to The Associated Press that the Soviet Victory banner did not appear this week on the monument, one of Germany’s most significant landmarks.

Social media users shared photos and videos that made it appear the banner was being projected onto the gate ahead of this week’s commemorative celebrations.

“Last night, hackers breached the projection on the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and put the Soviet Victory Banner,” reads one X post that had received approximately 21,000 likes and more than 5,300 shares as of Friday.

A TikTok video viewed more than 198,000 times was similarly captioned: “Last night, hackers hacked the projection on the Brandenburg Gate and reminded authorities of who once defeated them, German police have launched an investigation.”

Other posts claimed that the alleged hack was a response to Berlin banning Russian symbols during the celebrations.

But an investigation into the reports found no evidence of such activity involving the popular landmark, an 18th century city gate that symbolized Berlin’s division during the Cold War and became representative of a reunified Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

“After evaluating all the findings available to the Berlin police, the videos and photos circulating on social media of the alleged projection at the Brandenburg Gate are an optical/graphical fake,” Susann Barahona, a spokesperson for Polizei Berlin, the city’s police force, told the AP in an email written in German.

Johanna Steinke, a spokesperson for BIM Berliner Immobilienmanagement, a real estate company that manages the Brandenburg Gate, wrote in an email, also in German, that the claim spreading online is a “false report.”

It is unclear how the fabricated images were created.

The Soviet Victory banner was raised by the Red Army atop the destroyed German Reichstag on April 30, 1945, during the Battle of Berlin, in which the city fell to the Soviets. German dictator Adolf Hitler committed suicide the same day in his underground bunker.

Flags with a Russian connection, among other symbols, were banned from Soviet memorials in Berlin and their immediate surroundings on May 8 and 9 amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, according to a press release from the Berlin police. World War II veterans, diplomats and other representatives taking part in commemorative events marking the end of the war at these locations were excluded from the regulations. Bans were also in place in 2023 and 2022, the year Russia invaded Ukraine.

Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

FILE - Soviet troops march past the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, May 20, 1945, while carrying a victory banner that was raised over the defeated German capitol at the end of World War II. On Friday, May 10, 2024, , The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming images show the Soviet Victory banner projected by hackers onto the east side of Brandenburg Gate in Berlin on Tuesday night, prior to annual festivities celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945. (AP Photo)

FILE - French President Emmanuel Macron waits on the steps of the Elysee Palace, Monday, March 11, 2024 in Paris. On Friday, May 10, 2024, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming that France sent troops to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams defended the police department's response to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men lying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.”

“Look at that entire incident,” Adams said on the “Mornings on 1” program on the local cable news channel NY1. He complained that protesters who marched through Brooklyn's Bay Ridge section on Saturday had blocked traffic, spit at officers and, in once instance, climbed on top of a moving city bus. “I take my hat off to the Police Department, how they handled an unruly group of people.”

“People want to take that one isolated incident that we’re investigating. They need to look at the totality of what happened in that bedroom community,” Adams added.

Footage shot by bystanders and independent journalists shows police officers intercepting a march in the street, shoving participants toward the sidewalk, and then grabbing some people in the crowd and dragging them down to the asphalt. Officers can be seen repeatedly punching at least three protesters, in separate incidents, as they lay pinned on the ground.

A video shot by videographer Peter Hambrecht and posted on X shows an officer in a white shirt punching a protester while holding his throat. Hambrecht said the arrests took place after police told the crowd to disperse.

“They were aware they might get arrested, but many times people use that to justify the beating which is obviously ridiculous,” Hambrecht told The Associated Press in a text message.

Independent journalist Katie Smith separately recorded video of an officer unleashing a volley of punches on a man pinned to the ground, hitting him at least five times with a closed fist.

At least 41 people were arrested, police said.

The NYPD later released its own video showing misbehavior by protesters, including people throwing empty water bottles at officers, splashing them with liquids and lighting flares and smoke bombs. It also showed one protester sitting on the roof of a moving transit bus waving a Palestinian flag.

“We will not accept the narrative that persons arrested were victims, nor are we going to allow illegal behavior,” NYPD Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said in a statement on X.

The NYPD agreed to change the way it handles public protests last summer after it had to pay out at least $35 million to settle claims of police misconduct during the large protests against racial injustice after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.

The legal settlement required the department to reduce the number of officers it sent to most protests. It also required police to allow most demonstrations to take place on public streets, even if they temporarily block traffic, as long as they are nonviolent and don't involve a threat of major property damage. Police can still step in under the settlement to redirect protest marches to prevent them from blocking access to bridges and tunnels, or places like hospitals and police precincts. But the written agreement says “the fact that some individuals in a crowd have engaged in unlawful conduct does not by itself provide grounds” to end demonstrations and order a crowd to disperse.

The City Council member who represents Bay Ridge, Justin Brannan, said the demonstration broken up by police was one held annually in the neighborhood to protest the displacement of Palestinian people following the establishment of Israel in 1948.

“Bay Ridge is home to the largest Palestinian community in NYC,” Brannan wrote on X. “There has been a Nakba Day demonstration here every year for the past decade without incident. I saw no evidence of actions by protestors today that warranted such an aggressive response from NYPD.”

New York Civil Liberties Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman criticized the arrests and called them an escalation of police tactics against demonstrators.

“The aggressive escalation by the NYPD’s Strategic Response Group yesterday in Bay Ridge was a violation of New Yorkers’ right to speak out and risks chilling political expression," Lieberman said, naming the NYPD unit that is often called to protests.

FILE - New York City Mayor Eric Adams gestures as he attends a news conference at City Hall in New York, March 19, 2024. Adams defended the police department’s response Monday, May 20, 2024, to a pro-Palestinian street demonstration in Brooklyn over the weekend, calling video of officers repeatedly punching men lying prone on the ground an “isolated incident.” (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)