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Bolivia recently began overhauling one of its principal mining laws, with the goal of modernizing the industry and improving oversight. Civil society and Indigenous groups have raised concerns about the process, but officials say the new mining code will promote economic development and include environmental protections. “We want a mining code that responds to the current needs of the sector, generates legal certainty, and establishes clear rules to support the development of Bolivian mining,” Marco Antonio Calderón de la Barca Quintanilla, the minister of mining and metallurgy, said in a statement. The ministry says it’s held weekly meetings…

Even in a region beset by turmoil and learning to expect the unexpected, the lightning advance of Yemen’s Houthis along the Red Sea coast has shocked observers. More than 100,000 people have been forced to flee in a country where immiseration and displacement have become routine and half the population depend on humanitarian aid. But outsiders are paying close attention, because by claiming thousands of kilometres in a matter of days, and seizing strategically important islands, the Iran-backed rebels now control the Bab al-Mandab strait – the other major regional energy chokepoint after the Hormuz strait.The Iran war has forced Saudi Arabia…

The US House of Representatives has agreed to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress for defying a legal summons related to its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Black, who had business ties to Epstein, did not comply with a subpoena ordering him to appear before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month and share documents related to Epstein. Lawyers for Black, who has sued over the summons, called the contempt move “outrageous”.After passage of the measure holding Black in contempt, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said: “No-one is above the law. We will continue to seek…

The Greens are just four points behind Labour in urban constituencies across the UK, putting them within touching distance of taking as many as 40 seats if the result was replicated at the next election, according to new polling by a Labour-linked thinktank.The survey by ThinkLabour, which has extensive links to Andy Burnham’s government, finds that urban voters have moved in large numbers towards the UK’s Green parties since the 2024 general election. The research highlights the challenge Labour faces in holding on to the Holborn and St Pancras seat in the face of a challenge from Zack Polanski, the…

Holyrood has voted to pause planning applications for all new AI datacentres for up to a year until the Scottish government has developed a national strategy.On Wednesday, MSPs backed a Scottish Labour motion to halt new schemes for up to 12 months while rules on hyperscale datacentres are developed in what could be a blow to the British government’s AI strategy.Scotland has seen a boom in planning applications for large datacentres as global investment in AI infrastructure has exploded, with British officials encouraging developers to include Scotland in the infrastructure buildout. Datacentres are critical for storing and processing data used…

 Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET’s key takeaways Anthropic is rolling Claude Cowork back into regular Claude. If you prefer regular chat, your experience shouldn’t change. Anthropic also launched Claude Docs. If you’ve gotten attached to the original, more limited Claude chat interface, Anthropic has some bad news: the company is rolling Claude Cowork and chat into a single, all-powerful Claude known as… Claude. And there’s apparently nothing it can’t do. “You don’t have to choose where a task goes. Claude does more of the work,” Anthropic’s announcement said. The change also applies to Artifacts and is…

Microsoft is investigating reports that the Windows 11 KB5124008 security update is breaking domain trust relationships on some enterprise systems, preventing users from logging in with valid domain credentials. Administrators report on Reddit and Microsoft’s Q&A forums that affected computers lose their secure channel with Active Directory after the Windows 11 update is installed and devices reboot. Last week, Microsoft confirmed to BleepingComputer that it is aware of the reports and is investigating. “Microsoft is aware of these reports and is investigating. We will share guidance as it becomes available,” Microsoft told BleepingComputer. While Microsoft has not confirmed the root…

New research suggests that an overactive immune sensor may play a major role in severe genetic disorders linked to rapid aging. By reducing the activity of this sensor, scientists were able to improve tissue health across several biological systems, challenging long-held ideas about how DNA damage drives degeneration. The immune system is designed to recognize and eliminate threats such as viruses. But under certain conditions, that protective machinery can mistakenly react to the body’s own damaged DNA. When fragments of DNA are treated as if they came from an invading virus, the resulting immune response can trigger chronic inflammation that…

Myanmar’s postcoup civil war has raged for more than five years and left the country in a state that has been compared to the apocalypse. Though the conflict is seldom a leading story in mainstream Western media, the United States’ Christian right is paying close attention. Between 2002 and 2018, more refugees were resettled in the United States from Myanmar than from any other country. The majority are from the country’s Christian minority and many have now settled in the Midwest, particularly in Indiana and Minnesota. The money they earn in meat-packing factories, Walmart distribution centers, and sushi shops helped…

The images were published on the heels of a report from the Pentagon’s watchdog, which found Iranian strikes had “damaged and destroyed hundreds of buildings and structures at US bases in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Oman, and Jordan during the conflict”.It also noted that equipment losses have totalled $3.7bn (£2.8bn). Overall, the US spent $33.4bn (£24.7bn) on the war up to 29 June, the report said.In the months after the war began, “dozens of US aircraft were destroyed or damaged”, the report continues.The document lists several of the aircraft damaged, including five refuelling aircraft which were “damaged…