(7/7) 3. Local orgs who do the work without any direction. Basically, people who are stupid but don’t know that they are. It’s really hard to work with them, and that’s the end of the story.
(1/7) Red flags in the NGO world (as a person or entities) 😒
1. Stupid ppl in a big established org (usually an international org) with sky-high ego and superior mindset who don’t realize the ecosystem that surrounds the NGO work.
The world prefers more affordable AI, but it also shouldn’t come with a hefty price of privacy. Being open source doesn’t mean that DeepSeek is safer. It’s still subject to China’s surveillance laws. https://t.co/sUHx0dly9c
RightsCon cancelled by Zambia government, likely pressured by CCP
A global digital rights conference just got killed at the eleventh hour—and how it happened tells us a great deal about how power works in 2026.
#Zambia was set to host RightsCon from May 5–8 in Lusaka. Thousands of delegates were already boarding flights when the government abruptly cancelled it, citing vague “security concerns” and the need to align with “national values.”
Reporting by News Diggers! points to the underlying issue. The venue was a Chinese government–donated facility. The agenda included Taiwanese civil society participants, including Amnesty International #Taiwan’s 邱伊翎, speaking on digital repression. And just days earlier, on April 25, #Xinhua News Agency announced a new China–Zambia cooperation agreement. In other words: critics of #Beijing were about to speak, on a Beijing-funded stage, about Beijing’s dismal global rights record.
Zambia is operating under real constraints—debt exposure, infrastructure dependence, and deep economic ties with #Beijing. In that environment, governments don’t need explicit instructions. They learn where the red lines are. The #CCP’s supposed doctrine of “non-interference” remains rhetorically central—but in practice, it functions asymmetrically: as a shield against scrutiny at home, and a flexible boundary-setting mechanism abroad, especially where #Taipei is concerned.
What just happened in #Zambia is a case study in how authoritarian preferences go global—not through invasion or overt censorship, but through architecture, debt, and the quiet, rational calculations of governments trying to keep their biggest creditor happy.
A forum built to examine exactly this dynamic has just become its latest victim. HRIC is planning to move its session online at the original time. The venue may be gone—the conversation isn't.
The situations can turn really complicated. As raised in the article, AI can be integrated into the LEO satellite constellations, and “risks of an intelligent system capable of real-time global surveillance might happen.”
The growing role of LEO constellations in politics is to watch. With Starlink currently dominating the space, it gives Musk so much power in geopolitics and raising concerns about the potential over-reliance on a single entity. https://t.co/itQP1rqq11
However, with the substantial role of LEO satellites, it has attracted more players to developing the technology, particularly China. Given China’s significant role in geopolitics, it would be crucial to closely monitor the development.
The irony of this situation is that Thailand, a country that allows public referendums to amend its constitution, the supreme law of the land, is unable to modify a provision within its criminal code. https://t.co/0J3OTqWlmY
Interpretation: Thailand has turned a blind eye to how Min Aung Hlaing and his government have come to power and now wants to persuade other ASEAN members to accept it too. How lame. https://t.co/BaUsiNscxR
There’s also a risk that the acquiring entity could use the company’s global supply chain to bypass international sanctions or export controls that restrict the sale of high-precision machine tools to countries or entities developing weapons of mass destruction.
Interesting news to follow. The Makino Machine is dual-use. As it can produce a titanium engine block for a commercial airliner, this also makes it capable of milling armor-piercing projectiles, tank transmission components, or rocket motor casings. https://t.co/0zBHZHtw0f
The primary security concern is the proprietary software, SGI.5, designed to process high-resolution data at incredibly high speeds. Access to this software by a foreign entity could potentially repurpose the machine to produce weapons components.