Pete Chonka

post by Rutger Bregman (@rutgerbregman.com‬) reads: Absolutely brilliant piece about the Left's TOTAL blindness on AI. Their dismissal of AI risks mirrors how climate deniers treat CO2. Will probably get a lot of nastiness for this on Bluesky, but I guess that's part of the same problem.

i shouldn’t give this piece any more attention than it has already garnered but i feel like it is worth pointing out some flaws in the argument/unquestioned assumptions

thread 1/

‘Care and Politics in Action’ examines how Somali businesswomen in Zambia mobilized humanitarian relief to Puntland.

By Sahra Ahmed Koshin, Nauja Kleist and Karuti Kanyinga.

An output of the D-Hum project involving DIIS, IDS–University of Nairobi, Rako and RVI.

tinyurl.com/CareandPolit...

Union condemns continued docking of staff pay following strike action at University of Sheffield The University and College Union (UCU) has today condemned the lockout and withholding of staff pay at the University of Sheffield following lawful industrial action

The University of Sheffield has stopped paying staff.

Not for striking but for refusing to work unpaid to make up for strike days they were already docked for.

This is punishment, not negotiation. And it’s completely reckless.

www.ucu.org.uk/article/1438...

Israeli fire strikes journalists and children in Gaza Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two boys, three journalists and a woman, hospitals said, on one of the enclave 's deadliest days since the ceasefire took...

Israeli forces on Wednesday killed at least 11 Palestinians in Gaza, including two 13-year-old boys, three journalists and a woman, hospitals said, on one of the war-battered enclave 's deadliest days since the ceasefire between Hamas and Israel took effect in October. www.npr.org/2026/01/22/g...

Garaad Gacmeed Lexicon – Kasmo — Somali AI Terms Kasmo bridges Somali and English to make AI concepts understandable and open to conversation. Learn more in English or Somali.

Audio version: podcasts.apple.com/ke/podcast/a...
And Kasmo.so our interactive, bilingual AI lexicon (work in progress!)

YouTube video by Somali Public Agenda (SPA) Af Soomaaliyeynta Erayada Loo Adeegsado Garaad-Gacmeedka (AI) I Adeeg Wanaag Podcast

Using the Somali language for AI - podcast from Mogadishu. Abdimalik and I talking with Aweis (SPA) on importance and challenges of translation for digital rights, and our collaboration with AGA (Af Soomaali/Somali)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BIR...

Beyond war and politics: Somali kinship and everyday service delivery Analyses of Somali kinship groups often focus on their mobilisation during conflict, while their contributions to service provision receive less attention. We engage literature on authority in cont...

Read our latest article: Beyond war and politics: Somali kinship and everyday service delivery - co-authored with Abdirahman Edle and Karuti Kanyinga🇸🇴🇰🇪🇩🇰 www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Kerrang! journalists’ strike shows true metal In December freelance writers at music magazine Kerrang! showed the power of coordinated, collective action.

Kerrang! journalists’ strike shows true metal.

In December freelance writers at music magazine Kerrang! showed the power of coordinated, collective action.

buff.ly/0LjzPiK

#FreelanceWin

I know there’s a lot going on in the world right now. But this spectacular fallout between Saudi and UAE is going to reshape the region and impact events beyond.
It’s hard to overstate the Saudi anger at the UAE that’s expressed by revealing step-by-step details + officer names in the UAE operation

Letter from the University and College Union (UCU), dated 8 January 2026, from general secretary Dr Jo Grady to the UK foreign secretary. The letter condemns Israeli military attacks on Palestinian education, including a raid on Birzeit University, calls these actions “scholasticide,” and urges the UK government to hold Israel to account through diplomatic, military and economic sanctions.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military invaded Birzeit University, attacking students with live ammunition.

Israel's scholasticide is a core part of its attempt to obliterate the collective life of the Palestinian people.

We have written to Yvette Cooper urging the British government to take action.

Let’s be clear: if the Palestine Action hunger strikers die, the government will bear moral responsibility | George Monbiot The three remaining hunger strikers have been convicted of nothing. Yet with astonishing cruelty, ministers refuse to listen to their reasonable demands, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

If the Palestine Action hunger strikers die - which they could do at any moment, as they are now very close to the end - it will be the government that killed them. Today’s column explains why. Please share, and write urgently to your MP.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Israeli foreign minister in Somaliland: 'Unlike Palestine, it's not a virtual state' Gideon Saar expected to visit Berbera port on first visit to Somaliland since Israel recognised breakaway region

Regardless of the debate about the legitimacy of its independence claim, the explicit use of the example of Somaliland to erase Palestine (and enable genocide) sickens me www.middleeasteye.net/news/israeli...

Datacenters in space are a terrible, horrible, no good idea. There is a rush for AI companies to team up with space launch/satellite companies to build datacenters in space. TL;DR: It's not going to work.

an important read for at least 2 reasons:

1. shows how big tech operates on intuitions and vibes and not rigorous research

2. this is a masterpiece in how to breakdown complex scientific concepts in simple language and elegant pros that captivate the lay reader

taranis.ie/datacenters-...

So glad we're hosting this again. I'll also be speaking about the Get the Vote Out campaign for our branch's local dispute on academic freedom around Palestine, protection of staff, divestment from genocide and essential governance reform at KCL. Join us!

"We fought as fighters, not as women": women's participation in ethnonational armed groups in Ethiopia - XCEPT Ethnonational mobilisations — characterised by a strong sense of national and political identification, whether organised along ethnic, religious, or regional political identifications — tend to flatt...

New XCEPT report by Hilina Berhanu Degefa on women’s participation in Ethiopia’s ethnonational armed groups.

Completed through the Women Researchers Fellowship in the X-Border Local Research Network, where RVI is a core partner.

Read here: tinyurl.com/w8dupaah

🚨🚨 Calling on all KCL UCU members: TODAY is the last ⭐️safe day⭐️ to post your ballots for both national and local disputes! VOTE today, VOTE yes and put them in the POST!! 📦 📦 ➡️ ALSO if your ballot papers arrive later than today please contact us as we can deliver in person on Friday afternoon 💫💫

🗣️🗣️How is the UCU National ballot connected to and distinct from KCL UCU’s local ballot? An explainer from @jamiewoodcock.com KCL UCU’s branch chair ⬇️

#wearekcl #wearetheuniversity

Affirming shared values will help academic freedom weather the storm The Magna Charta Universitatum matters more than ever as university freedoms become sharply contested, say Shitij Kapur and Liviu Matei

‘Shared values?’ This is meaningless when your university invests in genocide. VOTE in our local ballot for Palestine and against this wilful silence against oppression www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/affi... ➡️ kcl.web.ucu.org.uk

Dusk-to-Dawn curfew in place in Tanzania as protests continue following the national election yesterday. Incumbent Samia Suluhu is accused of intimidation and arbitrary arrests of leading opposition figures, including Chadema leader Tundu Lissu who is charged with treason and was not on the ballot.

Here we go! It's taken a lot of work by the branch to get to this ballot. Palestine IS a workplace issue. ESPECIALLY in our workplace. Local ballot papers drop next week. #WeAreKCL #FreePalestine

How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral Machine translators have made it easier than ever to create error-plagued Wikipedia articles in obscure languages. What happens when AI models get trained on junk pages?

“Well-meaning” people are using machine translation to write Wikipedia articles in languages that they don’t speak themselves, accelerating the degeneration in quality of the web corpus for several languages with relatively few native speakers.

www.technologyreview.com/2025/09/25/1...

Our Somali language gen AI event follows the exciting #SomaliWeek 'Tech for Growth: Somali Businesses in Action' session (in the same venue). Join for both! www.kayd.org/all-events/e...

Generative AI and the Somali language by Peter, Said & Mohamed Generative AI and the Somali language: educational tools, social impacts and digital rights(Peter Chonka, Said Salah & Mohamed Abdimalik )

Looking forward to our #SomaliWeek event on Saturday, where we'll be talking about our collaboration with AGA on the Somali AI Lexicon, and the implications of gen AI on Afka Soomaaliga www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/generative...

WE ARE LESS THAN 160NM FROM GAZA, 10NM FROM THE HIGH RISK ZONE STAY ALERT Witness brings protection. g ww.globalsumudflotilla.org/live

Two people in my extended circle are on the Global Sumud Flotilla, aiming to break the siege on Gaza. They are asking us all for increased vigilance as the flotilla enters the high risk zone. You can follow the progress of the flotilla at www.globalsumudflotilla.org/live

Busy @ucuedinburgh.bsky.social picket lines this morning at Edinburgh University with staff striking to defend jobs and oppose the biggest cuts seen in Scottish higher education #SaveHE #NoCompulsoryRedundancies #StopTheCuts

this!

“I’m not sure I want to give way to the right”

From the new Private Eye, in shops now.

The International Association of Genocide Scholars, the main association of experts on genocide and mass violence, has just passed a resolution declaring that Israel’s actions in Gaza amount of genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

genocidescholars.org/wp-content/u...

Journalists in London have held a vigil for their Palestinian colleagues murdered by Israel in Gaza. The vigil was organised by the London Freelance Branch of the NUJ