Electricity Minister and French Ambassador Discuss Energy Cooperation
According to Bahrain News Agency, the minister praised the longstanding relations between Bahrain and France, emphasizing the progress made in energy cooperation. The discussions revolved around strengthening coordination and joint efforts, with a particular focus on exchanging expertise in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
The French ambassador reiterated France's commitment to deepening cooperation and expanding partnerships. This initiative aims to support shared objectives and deliver mutual benefits to both nations and their citizens.
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Daily Tribune
2 days ago
- Daily Tribune
Europeans plan Ukraine talks with Trump before he meets Putin
European leaders plan talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump on Wednesday, two days before Trump is set to meet Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska to discuss the Ukraine war, Berlin said. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has invited the French, British and other European leaders and the EU and NATO chiefs to the virtual talks, his spokesman said, amid fears across Europe that any deal made without Ukraine could force unacceptable compromises. Merz's office said yesterday the video conference in various rounds of talks would discuss 'further options to exert pressure on Russia' and 'preparation of possible peace negotiations and related issues of territorial claims and security'. French President Emmanuel Macron's office said he and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer were also involved in planning Wednesday's meeting of the 'coalition of the willing'. Trump and Putin will meet in the US state of Alaska on Friday to try to resolve the three-year war but the European Union has insisted that Kyiv and European powers should be part of any deal to end the conflict. Trump said yesterday he expected the meeting with Putin to be 'constructive' and expressed unhappiness with Zelensky for ruling out territorial concessions to Russia. 'I'm going to speak to Vladimir Putin and I'm going to be telling him 'you've got to end this war,'' Trump said at a White House press conference. As EU foreign ministers began an emergency meeting on Ukraine yesterday, Merz announced the initiative to keep Europe at the table. Merz's office said he would on Wednesday talk to leaders from 'Finland, France, the UK, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, the heads of the European Commission and Council, the secretary general of NATO, as well as the US president and his deputy'. According to Germany's Bild daily, a first conference call will include the European leaders, Zelensky, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. This would be followed by a joint call with Trump and Vice President JD Vance, the newspaper said. The idea of a US-Russia meeting without Zelensky has raised concerns that a deal could require Ukraine to cede swathes of territory, which the EU has rejected. Over the weekend, several European leaders pushed Trump to exert more pressure on Russia in a joint statement and warned that 'the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine'. 'Testing Putin' Ahead of yesterday's EU talks, Zelensky warned against capitulating to Putin's demands. 'Russia refuses to stop the killings, and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits. And this is not just a moral position -- it is a rational one,' Zelensky wrote in a statement published on social media. 'Concessions do not persuade a killer,' he added. Asked on CNN on Sunday if Zelensky could be present at the Alaska summit, US ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker responded that 'yes, I certainly think it's possible.' 'Certainly, there can't be a deal that everybody that's involved in it doesn't agree to. And, I mean, obviously, it's a high priority to get this war to end.' The EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also said any US-Russia deal to end the war had to include Ukraine and the bloc. 'The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously,' she said. 'Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine's and the whole of Europe's security.'
Daily Tribune
4 days ago
- Daily Tribune
Grok, is that Gaza? AI image checks mislocate news photographs
AFP | Paris This image by AFP photojournalist Omar al-Qattaa shows a skeletal, underfed girl in Gaza, where Israel's blockade has fuelled fears of mass famine in the Palestinian territory. But when social media users asked Grok where it came from, X boss Elon Musk's artificial intelligence chatbot was certain that the photograph was taken in Yemen nearly seven years ago. The AI bot's untrue response was widely shared online and a left-wing pro-Palestinian French lawmaker, Aymeric Caron, was accused of peddling disinformation on the Israel-Hamas war for posting the photo. At a time when internet users are turning to AI to verify images more and more, the furore shows the risks of trusting tools like Grok, when the technology is far from error-free. Grok said the photo showed Amal Hussain, a seven-year-old Yemeni child, in October 2018. In fact the photo shows nineyear-old Mariam Dawwas in the arms of her mother Modallala in Gaza City on August 2, 2025. Before the war, sparked by Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Mariam weighed 25 kilograms, her mother told AFP. Today, she weighs only nine. The only nutrition she gets to help her condition is milk, Modallala told AFP -- and even that's "not always available". Challenged on its incorrect response, Grok said: "I do not spread fake news; I base my answers on verified sources." The chatbot eventually issued a response that recognised the error -- but in reply to further queries the next day, Grok repeated its claim that the photo was from Yemen. The chatbot has previously issued content that praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler and that suggested people with Jewish surnames were more likely to spread online hate. Radical right bias Grok's mistakes illustrate the limits of AI tools, whose functions are as impenetrable as "black boxes", said Louis de Diesbach, a researcher in technological ethics. "We don't know exactly why they give this or that reply, nor how they prioritise their sources," said Diesbach, author of a book on AI tools, "Hello ChatGPT". Each AI has biases linked to the information it was trained on and the instructions of its creators, he said. In the researcher's view Grok, made by Musk's xAI start-up, shows "highly pronounced biases which are highly aligned with the ideology" of the South African billionaire, a former confidante of US President Donald Trump and a standard-bearer for the radical right. Asking a chatbot to pinpoint a photo's origin takes it out of its proper role, said Diesbach. "Typically, when you look for the origin of an image, it might say: 'This photo could have been taken in Yemen, could have been taken in Gaza, could have been taken in pretty much any country where there is famine'." AI does not necessarily seek accuracy -- "that's not the goal," the expert said. Another AFP photograph of a starving Gazan child by al-Qattaa, taken in July 2025, had already been wrongly located and dated by Grok to Yemen, 2016. That error led to internet users accusing the French newspaper Liberation, which had published the photo, of manipulation. 'Friendly pathological liar' An AI's bias is linked to the data it is fed and what happens during fine-tuning -- the socalled alignment phase -- which then determines what the model would rate as a good or bad answer. "Just because you explain to it that the answer's wrong doesn't mean it will then give a different one," Diesbach said. "Its training data has not changed and neither has its alignment." Grok is not alone in wrongly identifying images. When AFP asked Mistral AI's Le Chat -- which is in part trained on AFP's articles under an agreement between the French start-up and the news agency -- the bot also misidentified the photo of Mariam Dawwas as being from Yemen. For Diesbach, chatbots must never be used as tools to verify facts. "They are not made to tell the truth," but to "generate content, whether true or false", he said.
Daily Tribune
4 days ago
- Daily Tribune
Vatel Bahrain Grads All Hired
Every student completing Vatel Bahrain's International Hotel Management programme has secured a job offer before graduation, and the hospitality school is now welcoming applications for the 2025–2026 academic year. Located in Jasra, the campus offers a bachelor's degree that combines classroom learning with nearly two years of practical training at leading hotels in Bahrain and abroad. Students also gain French language skills to strengthen their prospects for high-quality internships and international careers. Acting Manager of Admissions and Marketing Neda Jahromi said the programme's blend of academic instruction and real-world experience 'enables students to acquire proficiency in French, which enhances access to high-quality internships and international career opportunities.' Global recognition The degree is aligned with both the European Qualifications Framework and Bahrain's National Qualifications Framework. Vatel has been ranked first in France for four consecutive years and is placed 12th globally in hospitality management, according to the latest QS rankings. Founded in France in 1981, Vatel operates more than 50 campuses across over 30 countries and counts 45,000 graduates worldwide. The Bahrain campus joined the network in 2018. How to apply Applications can be submitted online or in person at the Jasra campus from Sunday to Thursday between 9:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. Details are available by calling 17616061 or emailing admissions@ Vatel Bahrain's perfect graduate employment rate underscores its role in supplying talent for the Kingdom's growing tourism and hospitality sector.
