An interview with one of Egypt's few independent journalists. He reports that Egypt holds tens of thousands of political prisoners, most of them charged with "spreading false information" and "belonging to a prohibited organization". Egypt is using the Cop27 climate conference to appoint itself global negotiator for poor countries,

Activists that might criticize the repressive Egyptian state have been excluded. Raising environmental issues is not allowed when that implies criticizing the state.

Protests aimed at the event are limited to a far-away "free speech zone", as they were called in developed countries around 2000. The idea is that no one will notice protests there, but it will serve as an excuse to prohibit protest anywhere else.

Holding an international meeting in a repressive country is a standard technique for silencing the public about it, and this seems to be an example.

The terms "global south" and "global north" are bogus, empty buzzwords. I'd rather speak of wealthy countries and poor countries.