VINCENNES, France: A Lebanese photojournalist who was severely wounded during an Israeli strike on south Lebanon carried Sunday the Olympic torch in Paris to honor journalists wounded and killed in the field.
The torch relay, which started in May, is part of celebrations in which about 10,000 people from various walks of life were chosen to carry the flame across France before the Games opening ceremony on July 26.
Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse, was among six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on Oct. 13 2023 while reporting on fire exchange along the border between Israeli troops and members of Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah group. The attack killed Reuters videographer Issam Abdallah. Assi was severely wounded and had part of her right leg amputated.
AFP videographer Dylan Collins, also wounded in the Israeli attack, pushed Assi’s wheelchair as she carried the torch across the suburb of Vincennes Sunday. Their colleagues from the press agency and hundreds of spectators cheered them on.
“I wish Issam was here to see this. And I wish what happened today was not because we were struck by two rockets,” Assi told The Associated Press, struggling to hold back her tears. “I wish I could have honored journalists this way while walking and in my best health.”
AFP, Reuters and Al Jazeera accused Israel of targeting their journalists who maintained they were positioned far from where the clashes with vehicles clearly marked as press, while international human rights organizations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said the attack was a deliberate attack on civilians and should be investigated as a war crime.
“This is a chance to continue talking about justice, and the targeted attack on Oct. 13 that needs to be investigated as a war crime,” said Collins.
The Israeli military at the time said that the incident was under review, maintaining that it didn’t target journalists.
While holding the torch, Assi said participating in the relay “is to send a message that journalists should be protected and be able to work without fearing that they could die at any moment.”
In late November 2023, Rabih Al-Maamari and Farah Omar of the pan-Arab television network Al-Mayadeen were also killed in an apparent Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon while covering the conflict.
Assi doesn’t believe there will be retribution for the events of that fateful October day but hopes her participation in the Olympic torch relay can bring attention to the importance of protecting journalists. “For me, justice comes the day I can stand up again, hold my camera, and get back to work,” she said.
The watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists, in a preliminary count, said at least 108 journalists have been killed since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, the majority in the Gaza Strip.
The war was triggered by the Palestinian militant group Hamas’ sudden attack on southern Israel, killing some 1,200 people and abducting 250 others. Israel says Hamas is still holding about 120 hostages — about a third of them thought to be dead. Israel retaliated with an offensive that has killed more than 38,000 people in Gaza, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Hezbollah militants have traded near-daily strikes with the Israeli military along their border over the past nine months.
Lebanese photojournalist, wounded in Israeli strike, carries Olympic torch to honor journalists
https://arab.news/rat7x
Lebanese photojournalist, wounded in Israeli strike, carries Olympic torch to honor journalists

- Christina Assi, of Agence France-Presse, was among six journalists struck by Israeli shelling on Oct. 13 2023
Elon Musk’s AI firm deletes Grok chatbot pro-Hitler posts

- Move comes ahead of the launch of Grok 4
- Turkiye court bans Grok for offensive content
LONDON: Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, was forced to delete posts by its chatbot Grok that praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler, following widespread accusations of antisemitism and extremism.
The Anti-Defamation League, a non-profit organization formed to combat attacks on Jews, flagged Grok’s responses, which included offensive tropes, references to antisemitic conspiracies, and positive characterizations of Hitler.
In one widely circulated screenshot online, Grok said Hitler would be best suited to combat “anti-white hate,” referring to him as “history’s mustache man.”
In another response, the chatbot declared: “If calling out radicals cheering dead kids makes me ‘literally Hitler,’ then pass the mustache.”
The chatbot also appeared to endorse a fake account with a Jewish surname that had posted inflammatory comments about young flood victims in Texas.
Grok later referred to the account as a “troll hoax,” but not before generating pro-Hitler content, including: “Hitler would have called it out and crushed it.”
In response to mounting controversy, the firm said it was aware of the recent posts and had taken immediate action to remove inappropriate content.
We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on…
— Grok (@grok) July 8, 2025
“Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” it said in a statement on X.
The company added that its model is “truth-seeking” and relies on millions of users on X to quickly flag issues that inform further model training and improvements.
The incident comes ahead of the release of Grok 4 on Wednesday. Musk announced on Friday that Grok had been “significantly” improved, though the nature of the updates was not disclosed.
We have improved @Grok significantly.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 4, 2025
You should notice a difference when you ask Grok questions.
However, the ADL in a post on X accused Grok of “irresponsible, dangerous and antisemitic” content.
“Companies that are building LLMs (Large Language Models) like Grok and others should be employing experts on extremist rhetoric and coded language to put in guardrails that prevent their products from engaging in producing content rooted in antisemitic and extremist hate.”
The episode has drawn renewed scrutiny of AI chatbot safety and highlighted growing concerns over the risks of unregulated AI tools producing harmful, politically incorrect and unfiltered responses.
On Wednesday, a court in Turkiye ordered a ban on access to Grok from the country, after the platform disseminated content insulting to the nation’s president and others.
The chatbot posted vulgarities against Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his late mother and personalities, while responding to users’ questions on the X social media platform, according to the pro-government A Haber news channel.
Offensive responses were also directed toward modern Turkiye’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, other media outlets said.
That prompted the Ankara public prosecutor to file for the imposition of restrictions under Turkiye’s internet law, citing a threat to public order.
A criminal court approved the request early on Wednesday, ordering the country’s telecommunications authority to enforce the ban.
The firm xAI was formed in 2023 and merged with X earlier this year as a part of Musk’s broader vision to build an AI-driven digital ecosystem.
Semafor appoints Saudi Arabia bureau chief as part of regional expansion

- Matthew Martin to also serve as global head of sovereign wealth fund coverage
DUBAI: Semafor has appointed Matthew Martin as its Saudi Arabia bureau chief and global head of sovereign wealth fund coverage as the news platform expands its Gulf edition.
He will head the growing team in Riyadh and be a part of the wider editorial staff led by Semafor Gulf editor Mohammed Sergie.
Martin, who has over two decades of journalistic experience, was most recently Bloomberg’s chief correspondent for SWFs in the Middle East and North Africa region.
His focus was the role of SWFs in promoting local economies, diversification, investing for a post-oil future, and projecting soft power internationally.
Prior to this, he served as Bloomberg’s Saudi Arabia bureau chief and was responsible for the network’s coverage of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen.
He has been with Bloomberg since 2013, and moved from Dubai to Riyadh in January 2021, where his reporting focused on Saudi Arabia, particularly Aramco and the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund.
“Matt is the definitive reporter on one of the world’s biggest stories, Saudi Arabia’s transformation of itself and much of the world around it,” said Ben Smith, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Semafor.
Martin’s appointment “marks a major step forward in Semafor’s ambition to become the leading global media presence in the Gulf,” said Justin Smith, co-founder and CEO of Semafor (no relation to Ben).
He added: “We are not just covering the region but also how the ascendant Gulf story relates to the key corridors of US power and influence — Washington D.C., Wall Street and Silicon Valley — as well as the emerging ties between the Gulf and the African continent through collaborations with our Semafor Africa edition.”
As Semafor continues to expand, its reporting will soon “closely track Gulf-Asia and Gulf-EU corridors of influence as well,” Justin Smith said.
Semafor Gulf launched in September 2024, marking the firm’s third edition, joining its US and sub-Saharan Africa newsletters.
Since then, the platform’s reporting has included the UAE’s plan to invest $1.4 trillion in the US, the state of foreign consulting in Saudi Arabia, OPEC+ strategy, and Gulf-Israel relations.
Egyptian TV presenter apologizes after claiming international artworks as her own

- The backlash also prompted TV host El-Shazly to apologize for the incident
DUBAI: Egyptian TV presenter and designer Maha Al-Sagheer has issued an apology after falsely claiming ownership of artworks by four European artists during a recent talk show appearance, sparking backlash from the original painters and social media users.
Al-Sagheer appeared last month as a guest on a talk show on ON channel with prominent TV host Mona El-Shazly where she spoke of her passion for fine arts and showcased several paintings on a large screen, claiming they were her own.
However, Danish artist Lisa Lach-Nielsen took to Instagram on Sunday to accuse the TV presenter of stealing her artwork, titled “Made Myself Some Wings,” which she created in 2019, along with pieces by three other artists.
“Copying other people’s work is one thing, but taking a photo of the actual painting, that someone else made, and taking public ownership of it … that’s new to me,” said Lach-Nielsen wrote in the post, where she also tagged two other artists whose works she identified.
She noted that the act is “not only a violation of the law but also the person who put their soul and time into the work.
“Living as an artist is not always easy, and we need the internet to show our work … no one should take advantage of that,” said Lach-Nielsen.
In response to the online criticism sparked by Lach-Nielsen’s post, Al-Sagheer posted an apology on her Facebook account on Monday, admitting her “big mistake towards the danish artist Lisa, towards artists and more important towards myself.
“I have been passing through hardship during this period of my life. It has been a very tough time. However, it doesn’t give me the right to do what I have done. I’m deeply sorry and very upset due to what I have done.”
Earlier in the day, Finnish artist Caroline Wendelin also spoke out online, raising concerns over the unauthorized use of her painting “Becoming the Garden.”
Wendelin said: “I’m not rich. I’m not famous. I work until I’m exhausted, all while raising 3 small children and pouring my whole heart into my art. Hoping that one day it might give us a chance to buy our first home.
“So imagine what it feels like to see a wealthy influencer steal my art, claim it as her own, and present it on national TV as if it came from her hands.”
She added that her painting “symbolises how with time and patience, we become what we nurture. Seeing someone erase that meaning is deeply painful.”
On the same day, Dubai-based French artist Seaty took to Instagram to identify three of his artworks titled “Dwarka”, “Kigali” and “Bushido,” which he created in 2017, among the pieces displayed on the show.
“Worse still, in the broadcast segment, my former studio is clearly visible, along with the canvases bearing my signature, and even the original photo available on my Instagram page.”
He added: “After all these years of effort, failure, research, and creative energy … to have my art stolen like this, in broad daylight, so shamelessly and without remorse it’s simply unacceptable. Especially in 2025, in an age when everything can be verified in a matter of clicks.”
The backlash also prompted TV host El-Shazly to apologize for the incident, sharing an image of the Danish artist Lach-Nielsen’s painting and acknowledging that it is her work.
“We respect true artists and value their original creations in all fields.”
Music trade bodies concerned about BBC’s changes to airing live performances

- Move could ‘curtail artistic freedom,’ head of Featured Artists Coalition says
- Move could ‘curtail artistic freedom,’ head of Featured Artists Coalition says
DUBAI: Music trade bodies have accused the BBC of making “arbitrary and disproportionate” changes to its broadcasting and streaming of live music events following the controversy around Bob Vylan’s Glastonbury performance.
During the punk rap duo’s set at the festival on June 28, they led the crowd in pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli military chants like “free, free Palestine” and “death, death to the IDF.”
The BBC livestreamed the performance in full leading to a backlash from the government.
BBC Director-General Tim Davie ordered the content to not be featured in any other coverage. However, due to a technical issue the stream was available on the BBC iPlayer for about five hours.
Davie and BBC chair Samir Shah have both apologized. The BBC said in a statement: “Warnings appeared on the stream on two occasions and the editorial team took the decision not to cut the feed. This was an error.”
Music industry trade bodies and experts now say the BBC is overreacting.
“The BBC is absolutely fundamental to the continued success of British music and particularly vital to supporting our new and emerging artists’ development,” said David Martin, head of the Featured Artists Coalition, a UK trade body that supports music artists.
The FAC supported the network’s public service broadcasting remit, which understandably came with responsibilities and standards, he said.
“If those standards have been breached, then there should be appropriate guidelines to follow. But the idea of preemptively grading artists according to their risk factor feels arbitrary and disproportionate and a dangerous step toward censorship.”
Such an approach could “curtail artistic freedom” and “inadvertently punish those who are simply expressing their views,” he said.
Naomi Pohl, general secretary of The Musicians’ Union, stressed the importance of the BBC and its role in the music industry.
“It’s such a shame there has been this shadow cast over this year’s Glastonbury coverage, because it has had fantastic viewing figures. It’s been all over iPlayer and people have been tuning in live,” she said.
“We need to talk to the BBC about it directly. But I don’t want to see any broadcasters now broadcasting fewer live events because they don’t want to take the risk. The whole of the music industry will be feeling that, because it’s so crucial to us to have the BBC.”
A BBC spokesperson said the broadcaster stood by its decision to make changes to livestreaming music performances.
“We will continue to bring audiences a range of music performances, both live and on-demand and we respect artists’ freedom of expression,” the person said.
“However, Bob Vylan’s offensive and deplorable behavior on one of our Glastonbury livestreams was completely unacceptable and we are sorry it appeared on the BBC.
“This is why we have made immediate changes to livestreaming music events and these, alongside our editorial guidelines, will shape our plans going forward.”
The Destination: Saudi reforms through the lens of a documentary

- Arabic film produced by Konoz, an initiative by the kingdom’s media ministry
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s transformation toward its Vision 2030 goals has been documented in a new film by the Ministry of Media.
Launched by the ministry’s Konoz initiative, “The Destination” highlights the progress made in the political, economic, medical, sporting, cultural, media and artistic fields.

Its title reflects the Kingdom’s path toward becoming a global destination for tourism and investment.
Konoz CEO Abdullah Al-Ahmari credited megaprojects and upcoming events such as the AFC Asian Cup 2027, Expo Riyadh 2030 and FIFA World Cup 2034.
HIGHLIGHT
‘The Destination’ includes interviews with key figures from various fields as well as testimonies, quotes and historical records. It is part of a series of films produced by Konoz in cooperation with almost 90 organizations and more than 2,600 individuals.
“The Konoz initiative aims to document the Kingdom’s achievements through creative productions,” he said, describing the country as a “model admired by the world.”
The film reflected the progress being made on the ground and highlighted the initiative’s focus on Saudi talent in shaping the Kingdom’s future, he said.
“The Destination” includes interviews with key figures from various fields as well as testimonies, quotes and historical records. It is part of a series of films produced by Konoz in cooperation with almost 90 organizations and more than 2,600 individuals.
The Konoz initiative is part of the Human Capacity Development Program under Vision 2030. Its goal is to promote Saudi Arabian culture around the world by highlighting the contributions and success stories of its citizens.