The watch, kept

July 2026.

Every entry logged this month, in full, in the order it was written. Entries arrive here when they roll off the front of the watch. They are not shortened and they are not removed.

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Tuesday 28 July 2026

Scanned 02:03 Brisbane (UTC+10).

China

President Xi Jinping told the opening of the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai on 17 July that the world needs a just and equitable system for governing AI, and announced a World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organisation with 29 founding member countries plus joint AI application centres to be built with ASEAN, the League of Arab States, the African Union, CELAC, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS.

english.news.cn

global asia national-government new-institution summit ai-strategy global-south

ASEAN

Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn set out the bloc's approach to AI governance at the high-level meeting held alongside that Shanghai conference on 18 July, saying governments, international organisations, industry and universities will all be needed to handle what is coming.

indiplomacy.com

asia regional-bloc guidelines ai-strategy

African Union

The African Union Commission and Smart Africa agreed in Geneva on 20 July to coordinate delivery of the Continental AI Strategy, with an action plan, a financing plan and AI governance guidelines in preparation, alongside a proposed African Union AI fund and a pan-African AI centre.

techreviewafrica.com

africa regional-bloc ai-strategy funding capacity-building

Pacific Islands Forum

Forum ICT ministers met in Port Moresby on 24 July with Papua New Guinea taking the chair, and put artificial intelligence, safer online spaces and how the region measures its own digital progress on the agenda under the Lagatoi Declaration.

pina.com.fj

pacific regional-bloc ai-strategy online-safety

Caribbean

The Caribbean Telecommunications Union closed its Caribbean Artificial Intelligence Forum in Trinidad and Tobago on 25 July and released the Caribbean AI Task Force report, which asks CARICOM states to harmonise AI policy and treat data sovereignty as a shared regional asset.

jamaica-gleaner.com

caribbean regional-bloc data-sovereignty ai-strategy capacity-building

United Nations, Indigenous rights Q9 Q10

At the UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in July, delegates from Sámi, Inuit and Ojibwe organisations argued that data centre projects should have to meet the standard of free, prior and informed consent, citing a Chilean environmental tribunal's suspension of a Google site in Santiago and a complaint brought by the Anacé people against a data centre in north-east Brazil.

news.mongabay.com

global latin-america un indigenous data-centres consent litigation environment

Civil society coalitions Q9

Five coalitions published a joint read-out of the opening session of the UN Global Dialogue on AI Governance on 24 July, reporting that women and Indigenous Peoples were insufficiently represented across the talks and that chances for governments and other stakeholders to speak to each other directly stayed limited.

apc.org

global un civil-society indigenous participation consultation

Colombia

Two artificial intelligence bills, one in the Senate and one in the Chamber of Representatives, had cleared committee and remained in play as of 16 July, setting out rules for the development and supervision of AI systems with the science ministry to lead implementation.

sercolombiano.com

latin-america parliament ai-law

Australia Q10

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on 15 July that large data centres will be required to underwrite their own new power supply, pay their share of connection costs and meet water efficiency standards under a mandatory national framework, to be put to national cabinet next month and to parliament early next year.

thenewdaily.com.au

pacific national-government data-centres standards water energy grid

New York Q10

Governor Kathy Hochul signed an executive order on 15 July halting new state environmental permits for data centres while regulators take up to a year to write rules on energy use, water use and protections for surrounding communities.

nystateofpolitics.com

north-america regulator data-centres moratorium water energy

Montgomery County, Maryland Q9

Two county council committees voted on 22 July to advance an 18-month pause on new data centres and zoning that would block any facility above 25 megawatts, backed on the record by a coalition of more than 30 community, environmental and faith groups.

foodandwaterwatch.org

north-america local-government civil-society data-centres moratorium planning

Left out under the defence rule: a UN News report on the Secretary-General's governance call was mostly about autonomous weapons, so it is not logged here.

Provenance

Two earlier versions of this day exist.

The 28 July entry was written three times: once stamped with an hour the scan did not actually run, once corrected, and once rebuilt after the brief was changed to require regional coverage. The first two are in the commit history for the watch page, and this page carries the third. Recording the corrections is the point, not hiding them.