Rubaya produces around 15% of the world’s coltan, all dug manually by impoverished locals who earn a few dollars per day. The area was seized in April 2024 by M23, a rebel group the United Nations says has plundered Rubaya’s riches to help fund its insurgency, backed by the government of neighboring Rwanda. The heavily-armed rebels, whose stated aim is to overthrow the government in Kinshasa and ensure the safety of the Congolese Tutsi minority, captured even more mineral-rich territory in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) this year.

A slur for robots and AI has emerged online in recent weeks, offering some sense of growing societal anxiety with increasingly capable technology.

Staffing cuts and politics have left some state election heads unsure of how they would work with the federal government if they are hacked.