♪ ♪ >> this is dw news. a reprieve for the former prime minister of pakistan as he is granted bail in a corruption case and he cannot be rearrested in other cases against him. also, the u.s. ambassador to south africa accuses the country of supply and weapons to russia in a naval operation. this drawing a rebuke from the

government as they launch an inquiry into the events. another senior leader of the jihad militant group is killed in an airstrike on the gaza strip. there has been a surge in cross-border strikes, the most violent competition in months between militants and israel. plus, the opposition candidate pulls ahead in the polls ahead of crucial elections in turkey. the challenger, kemal kilicdaroglu, could end in the rule of president erdogan. ♪ nicole: welcome to our viewers around the world. welcome to the show. the former of pakistan, imran khan, has been granted bail and court protection. after spending hours and the

court building, he has headed home now. his departure was the latest move in a dramatic turnaround of events after the supreme court declared his arrest invalid and ruled he could not be arrested again before monday. his arrest previously sparked protests with supporters setting fire to buildings and clashing with police. >> a sigh of relief and a gesture of victory. correspondent: imran khan is a free man, legally, for a few days. the high court barred's arrest in all cases until monday, is arresting him again could trigger more riots in pakistan. he welcome to the court order and said that the judges granted him undo relief. >> relief? relief? i was inside of the high court. i have no justification -- they

have no justification for the arrest. they abducted me. they showed me an arrest warrant inside of jail. what is happening is the law of the jungle. where were the police? where is the law? correspondent: it seems that there is martial law declared here. the pakistani government says it will abide by the court's ruling, but they warn that that leader will be held accountable, following his arrest for corruption charges. >> the attack on sensitive buildings work called for, planned by -- who was the planner? imran. it was the instigator?

imran. correspondent: a cricket hero turned politician who was ousted in 2022 in a parliamentary no-confidence vote. ever since, he demanded new elections, which are expected later this year. nicole: the kremlin says the russian president spoke with is a south african counterpart on friday by phone. russia says that they want to intensify mutually beneficial ties between the two countries. the reported call comes on the heels of a u.s. accusation that south africa approved sending weapons to russia. but ramaphosa says his government is looking into the allegation, which one of his ministers has denied. it stems from an incident in december, when the u.s. says a cargo ship was loaded with arms at a south african naval base. >> the government of south africa is in fact not honest.

among the things we noted was the docking of the russian cargo ship between december 6-8. which we are confident uploaded weapons, ammunitions, onto the vessel as it made its way back to russia. which does not suggest to us the actions of a non-ally country. nicole: our correspondent tells us more about the diplomatic falling out between the u.s. and south africa. privilege: yes. um, the latest we received is the u.s. ambassador, he has apologized to the south african government. i believe this is following his visit to the foreign affairs

minister, earlier. the south african foreign ministry had said that they were going to formerly complain to the u.s. government about the aiko's age and submit by the ambassador on -- about the accusations by the ambassador on saturday. so he has apologized. and more to that, the minister and the presidency is also being reported -- they say that they value the u.s. as a trading partner, but they will not be bullied. the national arms convection committee -- convention committee had not received an application or approved of the sale of arms to any country that is involved in the ukraine conflict.

nicole: so the picture is unclear. earlier today, privilege had a phone call with his russian counterpart, vladimir putin. was this in relation to the accusations? privilege: what we hear out of the phone call that was made between the two presidents is they only talked about them deepening their areas of cooperation. but the subject about the reprimanding or even the -- h appening between south africa and russia, we did not get confirmation on whether it was mentioned in the phone call. nicole: there are long-standing ties with russia but south africa maintains neutrality in the war. so give us background on that. privilege: nc has had a

long-standing relationship with russia, dating back to the years of the soviet union. the soviet union supported them in south africa. taking into consideration that they are part of the liberation movement, being supported by the soviet union against colonialism. yes, they had a long-standing relationship, but is suffices to say that the south african government has maintained it is neutral in the conflict happening in ukraine. nicole: privilege, thank you for the latest update. in will has been the most intense violence in reset months, palestinian rocket attacks and israeli airstrikes have claimed the lives of combatants and civilians.

the latest attack killed another commander of a jihand and injured several others. more than 30 palestinians, including children, and one is really have been killed in the strikes. >> rescuers at the scene of another deadly rocket attack on gaza city. women and children fled the apartment building where islamic jihad confirmed another one of its high ranking commanders was killed. the palestinian militant group is listed as a terror group by the european union, the u.s. and others. israel says its air force attacked hundreds of jihad positions in recent days. some deny that their homes were used by militants. >> after the prayer, they asked me to leave the house. they called from a private number and said that they will

fire a bombing, which happened. five minutes later, the rocket struck, as you can see. correspondent: much of that gaza strip has been deserted and shops have been closed for days as residents seek shelter. >> we really need a truce. i'm a worker. if i work, i get food to eat. if not, i will have nothing to eat. the airstrikes is very annoying. we cannot sleep. and we have lots of children. hopefully, they will reach a truce because we are tired of this. correspondent: more than 800 rockets have been launched at israel from gaza in recent days. most of them have been intercepted by the israeli iron dome, but one fell south of jerusalem. in another strike, a man was killed near tel aviv on thursday.

international calls for a truce have so far been unsuccessful. but egypt, a frequent mediator between the two sides, is pressing on with a cease-fire, hopeful of respite from the relentless rocket attacks. nicole: our correspondent is in israel and a short while ago she gave us the latest. rebecca: has been quiet, but it has also been a pretty heavy or intense day here today. the idf making many attacks into the gaza strip. they say the latest round brought 15 more rocket launch positions destroyed. some islamic jihad command centers. and of course, the other senior commander, the top leader of the islamic jihad was also killed in an attack today, taking the total number of commanders killed in four days to six.

that was in response to rocket fire that was coming from gaza. some of the rockets reaching all the way to jerusalem. then they were intercepted by the iron dome defense system, but still significant attacks. something we have not seen for a long time. the first time we have seen it in this current flare up. that instigated those attacks from the idf. this afternoon, late into the afternoon and early evening, we saw quite a few rocket attacks coming from gaza into israel. all that intercepted. there was some shrapnel, some incidents of shrapnel coming down, but no major damage or casualties. a have a day, but it has been quiet for the last couple hours. we were expecting rocket fire, we heard from sources, and the idf expecting retaliation from

the islamic jihad, but things remain quiet. nicole: here is a look at news around the world. the u.n. says 200,000 people have fled sudan since last month. thousands have arrived in recent days. the foreign factions have signed a deal to enable the delivery of humanitarian aid. and political parties in thailand have made closing appeals ahead of the national election on sunday. the vote could give power to an opposition party and kick out the military backed government. a thai chief is promising not to oust whoever is elected this time. iran has released two french men who had been jailed in separate cases commit accused of spreading propaganda and spying. one, who also holds irish citizenship, and the other were both freed on humanitarian grounds while negotiations between tehran and the irish

into french governments happened. still to come. elon musk announces a new twitter ceo. we will tell you who she is. but first, turkey is preparing to head to the polls in a crucial presidential and parliamentarian a that could mark the end of erdogan's rule. kemal kilicdaroglu has a slight lead. he has promised to restore media freedoms and was boosted by the surprise withdrawal of a candidate on thursday. the close race could end two decades of erdogan's rule, first as prime minister, then as president. our correspondent looked at the main concerns likely to drive voters. julia: turkey without erdogan.

for many people here, that was long considered impossible, but soon his days in office could be over. as more than 60 million voters prepared to go to the ballot box, let's take a look at the issues that could threaten a president's grip on power. it's something being felled by everybody here, the cost of living crisis. food prices have skyrocketed in recent years. even the middle class as they find it harder to afford a decent standard of living. the value of the turkish lira has plummeted. with inflation hitting 85% last october. that is the highest it has been 25 years. many blame the situation on erdogan's unconventional economic policies. the president has also been criticized for his slow response

to the devastating earthquakes that struck the southeast only three months ago. more than 50,000 people were killed. experts say that failure to enforce building codes is to blame for the high death toll, and that erdogan's centralized system of power had weakened state institutions. in the 20 years he has been in power, erdogan has hollowed out the democratic system. he has placed party loyalists in key positions commit cracked down on civil right organizations, and brought most of the media under government control. while erdogan still enjoys the support of many religious conservatives, others say that they are increasingly put off by his strongman rule. he also faces an unusually galvanized opposition. there are diverse parties, and

the nation alliance have united behind one candidate, kemal kilicdaroglu, and their aim is to roll back the powers of the presidency, repair the economy, and renew turkish democracy. in this election, the opposition is presenting voters with a much stronger alternative to erdogan than ever before, with a different vision for the countries future -- country's future, one that appeals to a wider section of people here. combine that with the issues touching people's lives ahead of the election, and it makes a victory for erdogan anything but certain. nicole: we are only two days away from the first round of the presidential vote. i spoke with a spokesperson for the president. and the akp. i asked how worried he was about the polls and erdogan trailing.

>> let me make my remarks regarding your package. i think your package has loaded a lot of accusations. i don't have time to answer all of them, but let me mark my disagreement. i have been campaigning in the last three months with tens of thousands of party volunteers who work day and night tirelessly. let me add, i am very proud to see that we have delivered what we promised five years ago and , people are giving credit to that. the rallies that we do, not small rallies, the rallies we did in istanbul. the participation was 1.7 million people, the highest we have had. nicole: fair enough. fair enough. we are not denying you have a strong supporter base. let me interrupt you. i am very sorry. >> just allow me to say it is

actually a sign that people will give another term to president erdogan. and the party. nicole: you do have a strong base still, but it is a fact you are trailing in the polls. so, how nervous are you going into the election? harun: i do not know which polls you are referring to, but -- nicole: the polls show you five points behind. harun: the polls i have seen from different research groups are showing that president erdogan is leading. and i believe we will have a first round win in the election. like i said, i have been on the ground with tens of thousands of volunteers from the party and the picture we see on the ground is a lot different. nicole: let's talk about the picture on the ground, because turkish citizens have been struggling with a crippling economic crisis. inflation peaked last year at 86% and is still well over 40%.

how can you tell them that next term everything will be better? harun: we are not immune from the global economic challenges. as you know, the global pandemic crisis the russia-ukraine war, , the global energy crisis has impacted all countries. in fact, germany has already seen the inflation in the last four years. we are not immune. we accept these challenges. but inflation has dropped significantly in the last six months, 42%. we have created 2 million jobs in the last year. nicole: what good is that if people do not have enough money to put bread on the table? harun: we have gained the highest tourism and importing count and income in the last two months. nicole: there is nobody denying that. i just want to know what your plans are for fixing the economy?

harun: it is important, if you allow me to add this point. our policy is to continue investing in education, investing in innovation and technology, and we know that they will pay off. and they are starting to pay off. turkey is the best recovering country among all the crisis. and we continue to launch the projects we have, the natural gas in the north sea, the black sea, the nuclear power plant, the renewable energy plans that we just launched in the last six months. these projects will strengthen our economy and people believe that. nicole: they might, but also your president -- his policies have been branded as unsustainable. and, unorthodox, for a lack of a better word, that could end up harming the turkish economy more than they have already done. i want to move on because under the current president --

harun: i do not agree. nicole: let's agree to disagree. turkey has withdrawn from the istanbul convention on violence against women. women's marches have been banned and the president has continually attacked the lgbtq community. how is that the behavior of a democratic government? harun: the women's rights issues is one of the number one issues we have for our party when it comes to human rights. any women's organizations can i knowledge that the biggest achievements on this issue was made under the leadership of president erdogan, and will continue to do so. we would not let any rights that we have gained go over, we are committed to increasing standards. this is why the president and the party are actually considered champions of human rights in the last 20 years. for example, many are free to speak their language today, just because of the laws we passed. nicole: ok, i do believe many

women and other members of minority groups in your country might beg to differ. i do want to ask you we do not , have much time, but two weeks ago erdogan said my people will not hand over this country to a president supported by the pkk, referring to the opposition leader. can you promise here and now that your party will respect the outcome of the democratic process? harun: look, president erdogan did not say that. of course we will respect the decision of the voting. i think that ballot boxes will give the president the first round, but whatever comes out is a decision of the public and of course we will respect that. nicole: ok, i will take your word for that. thank you for joining us. harun: you can take the word of the turkish people who support democracy in turkey. nicole: elon musk has announced who will be taking over for him as the twitter ceo.

he will be handing the reins over in six weeks. the new ceo will focus on business operations while he focuses on technology. she has a background in advertising sales and appeared onstage stage last month with elon musk, along with advertisers. musk has been trying to make twitter profitable since he purchased the company for $44 billion last year. our correspondent is in washington and has more. elon musk is a familiar name, but who is linda and why would she chosen for what is arguably the toughest job in tech? correspondent: clearly, elon musk needed somebody else in the company. he bought twitter for only $44 billion, he tried to fend off buying it. he himself felt it was too expensive, so he was trying to negotiate down.

now the company is rumored to be about half of that. advertisers have left. the company is in turmoil after most of the company was sackd. and he needs somebody to give him credibility that he will have his eye on the details. one large detail is advertising. where is the revenue going to come from, because he has not been successful in implementing something like this blue hook that people have lost, which costs money. twitter does not want to spend money, so he still needs advertisers. and the new ceo has credentials, coming in as the former head of advertising at nbc universal. she has the contacts, and she can open up new ways of revenue for him. but i want to stress that he himself said he will remain as executive chairman. it is not like he is handing over the overall executive role.

he will remain her boss, as the executive chairman, and he is the owner of the company. so, that will certainly rein in how much influence she has in shaping twitter. it will still be his brainchild. nicole: he is not yet done with calling the shots. do we know any precise details about what his role is going to be now? michaela: he is going to, he says, "my role will be executive chairman and chief technology officer overseeing the products, software and systems." it does not leave much else, does it? he clearly wants to shape twitter. it is a very interesting question, what kind of social media company it could become in the future, with him having offered -- who was sacked from cnn, to join, or explore the

idea. and tucker carlson, it was fired at the same date as don lemon, who is expected to relaunch on twitter. and it could potentially reshape the company. anything could happen. people are pretty much placing bets on what twitter will be in a couple years from now. nicole: michaela, thank you. that's our time. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪

marianne: 10 p.m. in the french capital, and here are the reports making world headlines. the u.s. releases a report in the city of moreh, during anti-jet's operation. back home on french soil, two men held captive in iran touched down in paris and have reignited with their families. iran's foreign minister describe their release as a humanitarian

action. turkey is days away from a crucial parliamentary election. president erdogan is in a tight race. both men are making a tight push in their campaigns. we will cost to our correspondent. in the biden administration issues a warning to thousands of migrants wanting to cross into the u.s. from mexico, saying the border is not open. this coming as strict rules emerging during the pandemic expire. our correspondent is standing by in el paso, texas. ♪ >> thanks for joining us on france 24. the findings are described as extremely disturbing and represent the worst atrocity in the african country of mali in

more than a decade. the u.n. released a report this friday detailing the executions of 500 people at least who were killed at the hands of the malian army and foreign fighters during what was called an anti-jihadist operation. the foreign fighters have been speculated to be russian mercenaries. our correspondent has the details. >> market day at moreh, a re mote town in central molly. molly and -- malian troops were backed by white men in fatigues and took meant to the riverbanks, where they had their hands tied. >> they lined them up about 100 meters from us, they made them kneel down and they shot them.

it's distressing, unimaginable, hard to speak about it. i think god that i got out of it. a lot of my friends were killed there. >> now come the united nations says hundreds of people were killed in moreh starting march 27, 2022 after a month-long investigation, the u.n. released its findings on friday. >> our report concluded there are strong indications that more than 500 people were killed. the vast majority executed during a five-day military operation in march 2022. >> the report does not say the nationality of the foreign fighters, but sites officials statements on so-called russian instructors helping in the 10 year conflict with islamist groups. mali has called it an

anti-jihadist operation, but the operation included 20 women and several children. these are war crimes that could potentially amount to crimes against humanity. >> two men held captive in iran are back home on french soil. this man, who is french, and a man who holds dual nationality in france and ireland were returned home at 8:00 tonight. there had been concerns about the health of both men, and iran's foreign ministry described their release as a humanitarian action. andrew hillier has the latest from the bourdais airport in paris, where their flight touchdown earlier tonight. >> the plane touching down at

7:40 p.m. here at the airport just north of paris. relief for the families of the two men, to give you a bit of context about their detention, one man was detained in october of last year, a dual french-irish citizen. he was detained by iran on the pretext of providing information to another country. the other man had been behind bars for three years, first detained in may 2020, accused by iran of flying a remote-controlled mini helicopter to obtain images near iran's border with turkmenistan. both men have been on hunger strikes in protest of their detention, so this is the end of a long, difficult ordeal for the two. they were amongst two dozen foreigners jailed in iran, and the campaign has accused iran of using those prisoners to extract

concessions from the west, and it comes as iran faces ongoing scrutiny over its fierce crackdown of a protest movement that began last september. these releases are coming at a time of deteriorating relations between iran and the west. >> that's andrew hillier reporting for us here in paris. next to turkey, days away from a crucial parliamentary and presidential election. the current president is in a tough race against the opposition candidate, and both men are making a final push in their campaigns ahead of sunday 's vote. a third-party candidate withdrew on friday, seen as a boost to the opposition candidates chances. the election will move to a runoff on may 28. let's cross to our correspondent, jasper mortimer.

how close of a race does this appear to be? >> last night, two poles have appeared from reputable polling companies. both of them, with the challenger at 49%. he needs 50% plus one vote if he is to win. one poll gave erdogan nearly 47%. the other gave erdogan only 44%. so it was very close. yesterday, a third candidate dropped out. his supporters tend to be young people and they want change. according to metropolitan condor, his supporters were one to 2.2%. they will undoubtedly vote against erdogan, so they could put his opposition over the

magic figure of 50%. the first figure, poles can be wrong. the second, the closer to the race, the more chances of cheating and the likelihood of something funny happening to the election box on the way to the central counting station. >> jasper, i know you attended a rally today, and you were at an erdogan rally in the recent past. how would you compare those experiences? >> both rallies drew hundreds of thousands of people. perhaps the erdogan rally drew more, but his crowd contained many people who had been bused in from towns outside ankara. also, erdogan suffered the fact that hundreds of people started leaving early in his speech. it was clear they had come because they were obliged to come. once they had shown their faces, they thought they could leave.

to the night rally, held in the pouring rain, it attracted more young people and women, and many of them were carrying homemade placards, on which they had drawn the slogans showing their own personal concerns -- women's issues, corruption, that sort of thing. one electrical worker at tonight's rally said he had voted erdogan's party eight times, but on sunday, he would vote for the opposition. why? the effect of inflation and the cost of food. if the opposition wins on sunday, this will be the reason -- the cost of living crisis. we kill -- when he spoke, he spoke at the ballot box and said, we have been working on ballot security for more than one year. also, he promised to send a 3.6 million syrian refugees home

within two years. he was loudly applauded on that. >> we will leave it there. a big day coming up on sunday. jasper mortimer, our correspondent in ankara. thailand is also holding elections, and predictions see young people voting against the military backed government. winning parties can nominate candidates for prime minister with a vote likely this summer, but the upper house or senate is made up of lawmakers appointed by the military following a coup in 2014. next to the u.s., where all eyes are on the countries southern border with mexico. the white house is enforcing a new set of immigration rules after lifting a set of restrictions known as title 42. that was a policy launched during the trump administration, which resulted in the expulsion of more than 2.6 million

migrants. with those rules out the window as of friday, the white house says the new rules are making it easier to deport asylum-seekers who cross illegally while offering new ways for migrants to get into the country. we cross to our correspondent in texas -- i know thousands of migrants have been waiting on the other seida of the border -- side of the border for months to get in. what is the scene like along the border today? >> let me tell you, it has not been easier. it's important to underline, this was no doomsday and there was no invasion, as many people here had feared. but let's talk about those numbers. since title 42 was lifted late thursday night, some 3000 people did cross the border along the southern border with mexico, since title 42 was lifted. thursday was one of the quietest

days in recent weeks. earlier this week, we saw over 10,000 people being apprehended per day along the southwestern border, this part of the border with mexico. yesterday was less than that, but despite the lower numbers yesterday, the lower numbers today, so far at least, we are seeing some significant overcrowding issues at several of the detention facilities along the border with mexico. that's why yesterday afternoon, the biden administration announced they would be referring, rather relying on something called parole authority. basically giving them the authority to release some of these migrants who were in those detention facilities without any court date or having been heard by a border patrol agent. with just a piece of paper saying, please get in touch with us in the next few days and get an appointment, court date, rather, when we are dealing with

less numbers. but that was a measure that had been used in the past by both democratic and republican administrations. however, a trump appointed federal judge stepped in late last night, saying he did not agree with this measure and suspended it for two weeks. so there will likely be a legal battle in the next exam head -- next weeks ahead, in regard to this particular issue. because of this pressure valve that has been closed up, there is a big concern of overcrowding in the detention facilities. what we do know, as you mentioned, those stricter rules coming into effect, the beefed title viii by biden administration -- anyone crossing the border will be detained, expelled, and liable for prosecution, and will be banned for five years from making an asylum claim in the united states. the biden administration hopes that will be enough to deter

anyone trying to cross the border illegally as of now. >> france 24's correspondent in the u.s. reporting to us from el paso. thank you. imran khan is a free man. the former prime minister of pakistan was released from jail following the court appearance earlier this week. he was ousted as pm last april, but remains a major opposition leader as supporters took to the streets by the thousands following his arrest. jenny chen has the latest. >> a gesture of victory for his supporters. surrounded by security forces, imran khan walks out of court after he was granted bail. the former prime minister's arrest has been ruled invalid and unlawful. >> i was in court. they had no justification in arresting me. they just took me away.

they showed me an arrest warrant for the first time inside the prison. it's called the lol -- the law of the jungle. they arrested me. >> clashes between law enforcement and con's supporters have turned violent. outside his home, the news was met with joy and jubilation. >> this is a sensible decision. it will bring stability to our country. we hope our courts will continue to make wise decisions like this and lead the country to a better future. >> with the court's decision, imran khan is protected from other arrests is then -- within two weeks, but is not out of the woods yet. he could face legal action for dozens of actions,

including fraud. since he was ousted in april, he has been a widely popular opposition leader and has waged a campaign of defiance against the military leadership. >> as the race for green tech heats up, the french president was in the northern city of dunkirk to announced some major foreign investments. >> this is the drive to revive france's industrial heartland through clean technology. some have already been dubbed the country new silicon valley. >> two mega deals back to back. france had been chosen for a 5.2 billion dollar gig factory, and a joint venture with china's xtc worth $1.5 billion, both in

dunkirk. on industrial port city where the president was hardly welcome, after forcing through his pension reform. but he hopes the policies and anti-regulation stands could revitalize industrial regions long plagued by factory closures. >> we have invested massively in the industrial heartland's like dunkirk. it has allowed us to create jobs across france. when coronavirus ended, we created relaunch france, which helped us create thousands of new jobs. >> according to the president's office, france has lost 50,000 industrial jobs a year over the last four decades. electrical vehicles are at the heart of europe's green vision, and the scramble is afoot to develop a european battery sector, as the country still depends heavily on china for its batteries. aside from the projects announced this week, other projects are already in the works.

and one giga factory is only weeks from starting production. >> we have 400 of us working here by the end of the first year, 1000 next year, so it is an upward curve and we will have lots of jobs. >> northern france could soon be a european hub for battery production, already being dubbed france's electric valley. >> elon musk has revealed who is running twitter, week after saying he has found his replacement. a veteran advertising executive who has been with nbc universal since 2011 and worked with several other media outlets. marsh says she would focus on media at twitter, while he would focus on other issues. tesla has just agreed to run a

software update on more than one million cars in china to fix breaking issues, with the regulator describing it as a product recall. let's have a look at some of the day's market action now. wall street ended the day on a weaker note, with all three indices pairing back some of their earlier losses in the final hour of trading. the dow and the s&p both posted a second consecutive weekly laws, after new data showed u.s. consumer sentiment slumped to a six-month low. british authorities have extradited businessman mike lynch to the united states, where he is set to stand trial for alleged fraud. lynch faces 17 charges related to the $11 billion sale of his company to hewlett-packard back in 2011. once lauded as britain's answer to bill gates, the tech entrepreneur is accused of inflating the value of autonomy

before the acquisition. he has b -- consistently denied any wrongdoing. finally, the long wait is over for fans of zelda around the world. nintendo released the latest installment of its gaming saga this friday, tears of the kingdom, a sequel to breath of the wild, come six years after the previous episode of princess elda and link's adventures, and nearly 40 years after the franchise launch in 1986. i may play a bit of that. after getting home tonight. my daughter ordered a copy online. >> i am not a gamer, but six years is a long time to wait. we know what you will be doing

tonight -- ok. thanks a lot. time for our daily fact checking segment -- with the elections in turkey coming up on sunday, you have been looking into the extent that misinformation has affected the campaign. >> yes, it's a tight jewel between the incoming president and his opponent, and the coalition that threatens to unseat erdogan's nearly 20 years in power. in this tight race for the top spot, targeted misinformation has been rife on social media. one strong example is this video against president erdogan, circulating since last week, primarily on turkish speaking social media. there are nearly 700,000 views on this version of the tweet alone. we hear from a far right politician and a member of erdogan's coalition of governments -- let's take a look at that video there.

in this video -- oh, we appear to -- yes, in this video, we can hear him saying, when i assumed the responsibility of power, i will hold seven dynasties of erdogan to account. pretty strong and quite critical words, saying he will hold erdogan responsible. this video is real, i can confirm that. it is from the 20th of february this year, just after the devastating earthquakes in turkey, where he appeared alongside president erdogan for a speech. in this speech, he spoke at great length about the earthquakes and its devastation, but contrary to the soundbite we just heard, he did not make any criticisms towards president erdogan at all. at the end, he says we stand by our president in this regard and

would like to support him in all matters. the sound of this video has been manipulated and overlaid with the current video. we can in fact see that the montage also has been manipulated as well -- there appears to be a thought bubble coming out, but it is more than visuals, it's primarily the sound. charlie used to be a vocal critic of president erdogan, and the sound was taken from a 2014 video uploaded here, 10 years ago, where he made the same soundbite. this is misleading overall and clearly made to spread distrust against president erdogan. >> not just misinformation and fake news about president erdogan, but also his opponent. >> yes, the opposition as well. in this case, it is glorifying president erdogan. this video has circulated on tiktok with over one million views, claiming that he said my

dear people, erdogan is the leader of the century. this is a deepfake and not a good one at that. as you can see, the movements are jerky and robotic and unnatural. his eyes are extremely black and do not seem to be moving either, and there is a waxy quality to his skin as well. all massive signs of a deepfake, which we have covered before. a reverse image search so does that this video was taken from this youtube video, which is ironic, considering the youtube video is meant to demonstrate exactly how dangerous deepfake technology can be. whoever has created this video has completely flipped the switch on how it was meant to be used and the opposite purpose, against the opposition. >> and it is posing a challenge for media in turkey that are trying to do their own fact checking.

>> yes, it is. we spoke with the head of editorial at turkey's largest fact checking media, like the turkish equivalent of what we do here at the france 24 service. he told us they publish nearly 150 articles, fake news, since the campaigning began for the turkish election in that whole p eriod. he says the country has struggled economically and the devastation from the earthquake, of course, and how social media and politicians have used the crises to further misdirect and misinform. let's take a listen. >> for example, some of them are targeting the lgbtq minority, or saying, this is the main opposition's allies. sometimes it is hard to dispute

these kinds of claims, but we try to tell the full story on these kinds of things. if we try to give information for turkish commentary, it's important to empower democracy. >> there you have it, a little election misinformation, an election round surrounding turkey. we will have to see what happens. >> interesting also to see how the fake news ramps up as we get closer and closer to the election coming up in a couple of days. we are back after the break with moral world news, next on france 24 -- more world news, next on france 24. stay with us. ♪

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05/12/23 05/12/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> behind us we have migrants who are asylum-seekers, who have been here for six days, seven days. some of them have just arrived last night. they are in squalid conditions. they don't have access to food or water. amy: the trump-era title 42