BENGALURU/LUCKNOW — Manipulated videos are taking center stage as campaigning heats up in India’s election, with fake clips involving two top aides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi triggering police investigations and the arrest of some workers of his rival Congress party.

In what has been dubbed as India’s first artificial intelligence (AI) election, Mr. Modi said last week fake voices were being used to purportedly show leaders making “statements that we have never even thought of,” calling it a conspiracy “to create tension in society.”

Indian police — already investigating the spread of fake videos showing Bollywood actors criticizing Mr. Modi — are now investigating a doctored online clip that showed federal home minister Amit Shah saying the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party will stop certain social guarantees for minorities, a subject sensitive for millions of voters.

Mr. Shah retorted on X, posting his “original” and the edited “fake” speech and alleging — without providing any evidence — that the main opposition Congress was behind the video it created to mislead the public. The minister said “directions have been issued to the police to address this issue.”

Indian police arrested at least nine people, including six members of Congress’ social media teams, in the states of Assam, Gujarat, Telangana and New Delhi last week for circulating the fake video, according to police statements.

Five of the Congress workers were released on bail, but the most high-profile arrest made by the cyber crime unit of New Delhi police came on Friday, when they detained a Congress national social media coordinator, Arun Reddy, for sharing the video. New Delhi is one region where Mr. Shah’s ministry directly controls police. Mr. Reddy has been sent into three-day custody.

The arrest has sparked protests from Congress workers with many posting on X using the #ReleaseArunReddy tag. Congress lawmaker Manickam Tagore said the arrest was an example of “authoritarian misuse of power by the regime.”

Congress’ head of social media, Supriya Shrinate, did not respond to messages and an email seeking comment.

MISINFORMATION
India’s election from April 19 to June 1 will be the world’s largest democratic event.

With nearly a billion voters and more than 800 million internet users, tackling the spread of misinformation is a high stakes job. It involves round-the-clock monitoring by police and election officials who often issue take down orders to Facebook and X as investigations start.

In India’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, more than 500 people keep tabs on online content, flagging controversial posts and coordinating with social media companies for their removal when needed, police chief Prashant Kumar told Reuters on Saturday.

Another fake video that sparked a storm last week showed Yogi Adityanath, the state’s chief minister, criticizing Mr. Modi for not doing enough for families of those who died in a 2019 militant attack. Though fact checkers said the video was created using different parts of an original clip, state police called it an “AI generated, deepfake.”

Using internet address tracking, state police arrested a man named Shyam Gupta on May 2 who had shared the fake video post on X a day earlier, receiving over 3,000 views and 11 likes.

The police have accused Mr. Gupta of forgery and promoting enmity under Indian law provisions that can carry a jail term of up to seven years if convicted. Reuters could not reach him as he is currently serving a 14-day custody period.

“This person is not a tech guy. Had he been tech savvy, arresting him quickly would not have been possible,” said police officer Kumar. — Reuters

PARIS — China’s President Xi Jinping was headed to Paris on Sunday for a rare visit, with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron set to press him to reduce trade imbalances and try to convince him to use his influence on Russia over the war in Ukraine.

Neither aim will be easily fulfilled during Mr. Xi’s two-day stay in France, where he arrives at a time of growing trade tensions between Europe and China.

France is backing a European Union (EU) probe into Chinese electric vehicle exports and in January Beijing opened an investigation into imports of brandy — which is mostly made in France — a move widely seen as tit-for-tat retaliation amid a growing set of EU probes.

“We must continue to push Chinese authorities to give us more guarantees on trade issues,” an Elysee advisor said ahead of Mr. Xi’s visit, his first trip to Europe in five years.

Mr. Xi was due to arrive at around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT). His official meetings will include joint talks with Macron and European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen.

Divisions within European Union’s 27 members — and in particular between France and Germany — undermine their ability to influence China. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not join Mr. Macron and Mr. Xi in Paris due to prior commitments, sources said.

“Leverage flies out the window if European leaders are sending different messages to Xi,” said Noah Barkin, a senior adviser at the Rhodium Group and close follower of EU-China relations.

France will also seek to make progress on opening the Chinese market to its agricultural exports and resolve issues around the French cosmetic industry’s concerns about intellectual property rights, officials said.

UKRAINE TALKS
France has been keen to nudge China into pressuring Moscow to halt operations in Ukraine, with little progress so far, apart from Mr. Xi’s decision to call Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time shortly after Mr. Macron visited Beijing last year.

“China being one of Russia’s main partners, our objective is to use the leverages it has on Moscow to change Russia’s calculations and help contribute to solving the conflict,” the same Elysee adviser said.

A French diplomatic source said: “If the Chinese seek to deepen the relationship with European partners, it is really important that they hear our point of view and start taking it seriously.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Macron will take Mr. Xi to the Pyrenees, mountains he holds especially dear as his maternal grandmother’s birthplace.

The gesture is meant as an echo of Mr. Xi’s decision to take Mr. Macron to share a tea ceremony in the former residence of Mr. Xi’s father in the city of Guangzhou.

“Macron is always in charm mode, he is trying to get foreign leaders on side by establishing a personal rapport with them,” Mr. Barkin said.

“But I hope that he isn’t under any illusions that bringing Xi to a place that is important to him from his childhood is going to bring Xi to tears and lead to compromises from Beijing.”

Mr. Xi will leave France on Tuesday afternoon to head to Russia-friendly Serbia and Hungary. — Reuters

SEOUL — Efforts led by the US and other Western countries to form new groups to monitor sanctions on North Korea will fail, the country’s United Nations (UN) envoy said on Sunday, according to state media KCNA.

Ambassador Kim Song made the comment in response to a joint statement the US and its allies issued this week calling to continue the work of a UN panel of experts monitoring longstanding sanctions against Pyongyang for its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Earlier this year, Russia vetoed the annual renewal of the panel amid US-led accusations that North Korea has transferred weapons to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.

“The hostile forces may set up the second and third expert panels in the future but they are all bound to meet self-destruction with the passage of time,” KCNA quotes Mr. Kim as saying in a statement.

Last month, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield visited the Demilitarized Zone, a heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, which remain technically at war and urged Russia and China to stop rewarding North Korea for its bad behavior.

Her trip came after Russia rejected the annual renewal of the multinational panel of experts that has over the past 15 years monitored the implementation of UN sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. — Reuters