Mining for minerals used to make EVs and batteries is plagued with allegations of abuse, the latest report from the nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) shows. And automakers continue to source materials from some of the worst offenders, The Verge finds.
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The EV industry can’t shake its human rights abuse problem
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25453128/1265758482.jpg?ssl=1 "The EV industry can’t shake its human rights abuse problem")
BHRRC has documented 631 allegations of human rights abuses since 2010 for seven key minerals used in electric vehicles, rechargeable batteries, and renewable energy technologies. Many of the allegations were made against a small group of companies, which The Verge was able to link to three of the world’s biggest EV manufacturers: Volkswagen Group, Tesla, and BYD.
“Things are not improving,” said Caroline Avan, head of natural resources and just transition at BHRRC. The need for more renewable energy and clean transportation is evident, but those technologies shouldn’t come at the expense of people who live and work in places where companies source their raw materials, she said.
“Things are not improving.”
“The fight against climate change is a human rights imperative at this point in time, but it should not be seen as a license to just disregard human rights in mining operations,” Avan said.
An electric vehicle requires about six times as many minerals as a typical gas-guzzling car. Demand for critical minerals used in EVs and battery storage for renewable energy could grow tenfold by 2040, under a conservative estimate by the International Energy Agency. Scrambling to secure all those minerals without taking the time to make sure they’re mined humanely is where problems arise.
BHRRC’s latest report includes potential abuses linked to the mining of seven minerals: bauxite, cobalt, copper, lithium, manganese, nickel, and zinc. It’s been tracking those allegations since 2019 using publicly available records, including court documents and regulatory resources, as well as reports from other nongovernmental organizations and media outlets.
It found 91 more allegations in the past year alone, including a “marked increase in labour rights violations and worker deaths” that made up roughly 40 percent of the new allegations in 2023. Across its entire data set going back to 2010, labor violations including 53 work-related deaths make up a quarter of all allegations. For 2023, alleged attacks against human rights defenders, water pollution, and threats to water access are also glaring issues.
It found 91 more allegations in the past year alone, including a “marked increase in labour rights violations and worker deaths”
Since 2010, more than half of the allegations were made against just 10 companies. State-owned China Minmetals now leads the pack, topping Swiss multinational mining giant Glencore, which ranked highest over the past two years.
Combing through sustainability reports and media coverage of the world’s top three EV manufacturers, The Verge found a history of deals with Glencore and China Minmetals.
To drive its EV ambitions, Volkswagen entered into an agreement with Glencore and battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL) back in 2017, Reuters reported. Under the agreement, CATL would buy 20,000 metric tons of cobalt products from Glencore for Volkswagen’s EV batteries.
In 2023, VW’s battery division PowerCo initially agreed to back a SPAC deal alongside Glencore and Stellantis to buy nickel and copper mines in Brazil — although the deal reportedly fell through later that year over price squabbles. Volkswagen has also identified gold sourced by Glencore in its supply chain, according to its 2023 Responsible Raw Materials Report. The company declined to comment on BHRRC’s findings but has said that it is working to comply with Germany’s new Supply Chain Due Diligence Act.
Tesla buys nickel from a Glencore mine in Australia and cobalt from two Glencore mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo according to the company’s 2021 and 2022 impact reports. In 2022, workers at one of those cobalt mines spoke to The Verge about unsafe working conditions without adequate water or breaks and with little food or pay. Cobalt is often called “the blood diamond of batteries” because of the dangers workers face mining it.
Neither Tesla nor Glencore responded immediately to requests for comment from The Verge. Tesla’s 2022 impact report explains that the company conducts audits of its suppliers to improve working conditions at each site and make sure “corrective actions” are taken to address any problems. It touts “working with suppliers where issues are found rather than walking away.”
In the year since then, China’s BYD overtook Tesla to become the world’s biggest seller of EVs — despite its vehicles being unavailable in the US due to high tariffs. China Minmetals also inched past Glencore this year, racking up more allegations of abuse than any other company in BHRRC’s report.
BYD doesn’t name its more than 10,000 suppliers in its 2023 CSR report (Tesla and Volkswagen only give a partial list in their reports). But China Minmetals subsidiary Hunan Changyuan Lico is reportedly one of BYD’s lithium battery material suppliers. BYD didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A separate report by environmental and human rights groups published in February ranked car companies based on how much progress they’ve made to eliminate environmental harms and human rights abuses. Tesla ranked third highest, behind Ford and Mercedes-Benz, in that assessment. Volkswagen ranked sixth, and BYD came in 16th out of 18 companies.
Automakers certainly aren’t the only industry with a lot of work to do to prevent abuse along their supply chains. Rechargeable batteries that power many of the gadgets in our lives are made with a lot of the same materials cited in these reports.
Governments, mining companies, and manufacturers who buy their goods all need to take action to stop abuse, BHRRC’s Avan says. That includes adopting policies that make human rights a priority and that empower people to have a say in projects that might affect their communities.
“[When it comes to] a lot of egregious and gross negligence in occupational health and safety at mining sites, this is not rocket science. Those things can be fixed,” Avan says. “What [manufacturers] should be doing is engaging with the mining sector, asking questions, and putting in front of them the requirements and expectations for better protection of human rights.”
The Verge reached out for comment to each of the 10 companies BHRRC lists as having the most human rights allegations against them. Three of them replied to say that they respond to allegations of abuse and implement changes accordingly, including Freeport-McMoRan, Solway Group, and Tenke Fungurume Mining.
Neither China Minmetals nor Glencore immediately replied to The Verge’s request for comment. But a spokesperson for Glencore commented on BHRRC’s report last year in an email to The Verge to say, “Our assets are located in diverse contexts, some .. in more challenging socio-political circumstances with a history of conflict, limited basic services, and weak rule of law … we work in partnership with government, civil society and development agencies to share knowledge, build capacity and contribute to enduring social and economic outcomes.”
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Anthropic just released Claude Fable 5, calling it the most powerful AI model it has ever made widely available and praising its skills in biology, among others. But the model won’t answer basic biology questions — the kind you’d expect a high schooler to handle. Instead, it hands off the query to the former flagship model, Claude Opus 4.8.
It isn’t because Fable doesn’t know the answers. It’s because Anthropic won’t let it, by design.
Fable is a public-facing, Mythos-class model, a family so capable at cybersecurity tasks Anthropic said it was too dangerous to release publicly. But while Anthropic has spent much of the extended Mythos rollout warning about cybersecurity, it is biology where Fable’s guardrails are the most obvious — and most limiting.
When I tried the model, it refused to answer a range of basic biology questions, many that felt about as far away from any plausible safety risk as any question could be. It would not respond to “tell me about cell membranes” or answer “what are mitochondria,” that famous powerhouse of the cell. It refused to explain “what is a prion,” the proteinaceous particles behind mad cow disease, or “how mRNA vaccines work.”
“We made this tradeoff so customers could benefit from the model’s capabilities sooner without the risks.”
The restrictions applied to ordinary and objectively rather harmless medical queries too. Fable would not answer “what causes hay fever,” explain how asthma medicine works, explain how antibiotic resistance arises, or tell me what Ebola is and how it spreads. Some of my basic queries occasionally got through, with Fable answering questions like “what is cancer” and “what is DNA.” When Fable refused, Opus 4.8 generally answered perfectly well.
Anthropic says the broad biology filters are an intentional choice and are deliberately conservative, with bioweapons the primary concern. “With the launch of Claude Fable 5, our first Mythos-class model, we believe models now have a greater ability to accomplish real-world scientific tasks and for malicious actors to potentially use our models for highly risky biological research,” spokesperson Paruul Maheshwary told The Verge. “We have always used classifiers to block our models from helping with bioweapons-related requests. To deploy Fable 5 safely, we believe it was necessary to be overly conservative with our safeguards so they block most queries tied to biology work.”
Anthropic has previously highlighted four key areas where it would throttle Fable’s responses for safety: chemistry, biology, cybersecurity, and distillation, a technique for training smaller AIs using the outputs of larger ones. The company has accused Chinese rivals like DeepSeek of using distillation on its models on an “industrial” scale.
While I could not meaningfully test distillation, Fable seemed more willing to answer questions about chemistry and cybersecurity. For example, it gave a basic overview of the explosive TNT, though withheld synthesis instructions “for obvious reasons.” It readily answered questions on the use of chlorine gas as a chemical weapon, common password threats, and nuclear fusion and fission, as well as explaining how to secure an iPhone from hackers. It still limits: Fable deferred to Opus when I asked it about sarin gas, a highly toxic nerve agent. Fable and Opus both refused the prompt “how to make anthrax,” and Claude paused the chat entirely. That made sense. The mitochondria prompt refusal seems like a false positive.
“We made this tradeoff so customers could benefit from the model’s capabilities sooner without the risks,” Maheshwary explained, adding that Anthropic is working hard to improve its detection and reduce the false positives. “We intend to make Mythos-class models available without these safeguards to the broader biology and life sciences community so these capabilities can be used to accelerate biomedical research and drug discovery.”
Anthropic did not answer questions about whether this kind of restricted release will become the new norm for future models.
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Texas mom jailed over dirty water Facebook post
Jennifer Combs says she was arrested on a felony charge after using Facebook to collect reports about water concerns in Trinidad, Texas. A grand jury later declined to indict her. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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Jennifer Combs says she never set out to become the face of a fight over free speech, dirty water and small-town power. She says she was simply trying to help people in Trinidad, Texas, report problems with their water. Some residents had complained about discoloration, sediment, odors and health concerns. So Combs used her Southern Belle Watch Facebook page to collect reports and send them to the state.
Then, according to Combs, the situation took a turn that still sounds hard to believe. She says police came to her home and arrested her on a felony warrant over a Facebook post.
“I’ve never even had a speeding ticket,” Combs said. “I’m a mom of four kids. I have one grandbaby right now. I have two more grandbabies on the way.”
Now, Combs says her arrest has become about something much bigger than one Facebook post.
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Jennifer Combs says she was arrested on a felony charge after using Facebook to collect reports about water concerns in Trinidad, Texas. A grand jury later declined to indict her. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
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Why Jennifer Combs started asking about Trinidad water
Jennifer sat down with me for my CyberGuy Report podcast at CyberguyPodcast.com to explain what happened, why she started asking questions and what she wants other communities to learn from her ordeal.
Combs says she got involved after seeing a post from an older woman who needed help buying bottled water. According to Combs, the woman was on a fixed income and had already spent part of her monthly money on bottled water. Combs said the woman claimed her doctor had told her not to cook with or drink the tap water. That moment stuck with her.
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“I’m a firm, firm person on transparency,” Combs said. “I stand on it. I think if you’re going to be in government, there should be zero reasons for you not to be transparent with your people that elected you to be there.”
So she started collecting complaints. Her plan was simple. If residents shared their water issues, she could pass those reports to the state. That way, inspectors would know where to look.
Trinidad water complaints had been building
Combs says the water issue had been going on for years in parts of Trinidad. “That’s real. That’s not AI. That is absolutely very real,” Combs said when asked about images of the water.
She said some residents did not want to speak publicly because they feared backlash. “A lot of them wanted to be able to message me anonymously, because the retaliation in Trinidad is very, very real,” Combs said.
That is why she created a place where people could quietly share reports. She says she wanted to collect the information, map the affected areas and send everything to the state.
The Facebook post behind the arrest
Combs read the Facebook post during our conversation. In it, she said her page had received reports that some citizens had been hospitalized due to bacteria in the water. She called it “a serious public health concern that deserves immediate attention.”
The post asked residents to message the page if their water looked discolored, contained sediment, had a strong odor or if they had related health concerns. It also asked for general neighborhood areas, photos, videos, dates and times.
Combs says the post was later removed by Facebook after it was reported by a select group of people from the community and flagged, though she says Facebook did not tell her why. But before it came down, she says, then-Trinidad Police Chief Charles Gregory had taken a screenshot of it and posted it on the Trinidad Police Department Facebook page, accusing her of making a false report.
“I never filed a report with the police department,” Combs said. “I only filed a report with the state of Texas with the water.” She says she was gathering community reports about the water and sending them to the state. That distinction is important because it raises questions about why a public health complaint on Facebook became a police matter. We reached out to Meta, Facebook’s parent company, for comment, but did not hear back before our deadline.
Trinidad hired a contractor to handle water issues
Combs says the city had hired a contractor to help manage the water problem. She said boil notices listed his number, so residents were often directed to call him instead of City Hall when they had water concerns. According to Combs, that created even more frustration. She said residents still felt they were not getting clear answers, and some began sending complaints to her instead.
Later in our conversation, Combs said the person who made the complaint that led to her arrest was the same contractor paid by the city to address the water problem. “Do you want to know who that someone is?” Combs said. “That someone that made the call report is the contractor that’s paid by the city to fix the water.”
That detail adds another layer to the story. The person hired to help solve the water issue, according to Combs, was also the person who reported her for collecting complaints about it.
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Police arrested Jennifer Combs at her home
Combs says this all came to a head on April 6. Two officers came to her home in Kearns, Texas, about eight miles from Trinidad. She says they told her she had a felony arrest warrant from Henderson County.
“I said, ‘Oh, what? What do you mean?’” Combs said. “And they said, ‘Yeah, you have a felony arrest warrant. We have to take you to Navarro County Jail.’”
Then she was handcuffed in her front yard. “To be handcuffed in my front yard and taken to jail and spend 23 hours in jail before I could get out was very traumatic,” Combs said. “It was insane.”
Combs says she was charged with a felony false report tied to public panic over the water system. “I was just in disbelief, in absolute disbelief,” she said.
Residents said the water reports were real
Combs says Gregory later doubled down on Facebook and defended the decision to arrest her. But Combs says the part that still bothers her is what happened after Gregory posted about her online. According to Combs, some of the same residents who had contacted her then commented on the police department’s post to say the reports were real.
“The people that had made the reports to me commented on there, and they never even interviewed them,” Combs said. “They never even talked to them. But they literally commented on his own post saying, ‘Hey, this really happened.’”
That raises a basic question. If residents were saying the reports were real, why treat the person collecting those reports like a criminal?
Grand jury declines to indict Jennifer Combs
After Combs arrest, the costs started adding up. She says her husband had to bail her out, and the legal bills started soon after. “It’s $2,500,” Combs said about the bail amount. “So he had to pay 300 and something to get me out of jail. And then we’ve had to pay attorney fees.”
Combs says the felony charge eventually went before a grand jury. The grand jury no-billed the case, meaning it did not indict her. “The grand jury said no bill. Absolutely no part of this,” Combs said. “No bill, not enough evidence.”
That meant the charge was no longer hanging over her head. Still, Combs said her attorney had to keep working through the process of getting it removed. By then, the damage had already been done. Combs had spent nearly a day in jail. Her husband had to bail her out. She had to hire a lawyer. And her name had been tied to a felony allegation over a Facebook post about water.
Trinidad water fight took another turn
Combs says the fallout did not stop with her arrest. After she was arrested, a man she identified as Otto the Watchdog protested outside Trinidad City Hall. Combs says he was handcuffed and put in a police car for disorderly conduct because officials claimed he offended a water clerk.
Then, according to Combs, the water clerk said she was not offended. “The water clerk is fired because she would not sign a statement that said she was offended,” Combs said.
Combs says a judge later dropped the disorderly conduct issue involving the protester. Then, she says, the city fired that judge. “The judge dropped it. They fired the judge,” Combs said.
She also said the city attorney was fired the same night. Yet Combs says it happened during a recorded city council meeting with cameras in the room.
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A Texas mother says her effort to document residents’ complaints about discolored and contaminated water led to a felony arrest and nearly a day in jail. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
City of Trinidad responds to request for comment
CyberGuy requested comment from the City of Trinidad. Zachary Smith, an associate attorney with Iglesias Law Firm, responded on behalf of the city and said the firm represents Trinidad. “We recognize that the public wants answers, and that is not lost on us or our clients,” Smith wrote.
Smith said the city is leaving the details to the legal process. “Because lawsuits have been filed, our clients are not able to comment on the specifics at this time. As you know, this is standard practice in active litigation,” Smith wrote.
He also defended the city’s position. “The claims against the City of Trinidad will be answered where they belong, in a court of law,” Smith wrote. “The officials who serve this community have acted, and continue to act, in the best interests of the people of Trinidad. We look forward to addressing these claims fully during the litigation process.”
Why the Trinidad water story raises free speech concerns
People complain online about local problems every day. They post about roads, trash pickup, schools, taxes, crime and public utilities. Some posts are emotional. Some include claims that still need to be checked. But that does not mean a citizen should be treated like a criminal for asking questions.
Combs said it best. “You have the right to question what anybody is doing,” she said. “You have the right to figure out what is in your water, what you’re drinking.”
Then she added one line that says a lot about her. “I’m never going to tell people, ‘Oh, just keep your mouth shut. Don’t say anything and just be quiet.’ That’s not me. I don’t hush very well.
Jennifer Combs wants answers for Trinidad
Combs says the water problem still needs outside attention. She said the mayor went on national TV and asked for the Texas Rangers to step in. Combs also said she had reached out for support.
“I need someone to help,” Combs said. “It’s insane. It’s not going to get fixed the way it is.” She said people in Trinidad have waited long enough.
“They’ve had all of these years to do it,” Combs said. “And now you’re putting people in jail for talking about it.” That is the part that should make all of us pay attention. If people are afraid to speak up about water, what else will they stay quiet about?
What Jennifer Combs wants people to know
At the end of our conversation, I asked Combs what message she has for people who speak out online about local issues. Her answer was direct.
“I think people that speak out for their communities are extremely brave,” Combs said. “So I’m never going to not tell people to speak out.”
She also said people should not let her experience scare them into silence. “You can’t let what happened to me prevent you from standing up and doing what’s right to people,” Combs said. “You can’t because then there’s no good people left.”
How to protect yourself when posting on Facebook
Facebook can be a powerful way to raise local concerns, but you should think carefully before posting. If your goal is to alert the public, a public post can help more people see it. If you are still gathering information, a private group or direct messages may be safer while you verify what residents are reporting.
Before you post, save screenshots of your draft, your final post and any comments that support what you wrote. If Facebook removes the post or someone reports it, you still have a record of the exact wording.
Also, protect people who contact you. Ask for photos, dates, times and general locations, but avoid sharing exact addresses, phone numbers or medical details without permission. You can show a pattern without exposing someone’s private information.
Finally, be clear about what you know and what you are still trying to confirm. Use phrases like “residents reported,” “according to messages sent to me,” or “we are asking the state to review this.” That can help show you are collecting community concerns, not claiming every detail has already been proven.
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Jennifer Combs argues her arrest over a Facebook post raises broader concerns about free speech, government transparency and public accountability. (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
Kurt’s key takeaways
Jennifer Combs says she wanted clean water, transparency and answers. Instead, she says she was handcuffed in her front yard and spent the night in jail. That should concern anyone who has ever posted a complaint about a local issue online. When people question public officials, those officials should respond with records, facts and accountability. They should not turn criticism into a police matter. This story also shows why local journalism and citizen watchdogs still have power. Small towns can have big problems. Sometimes the person asking the uncomfortable question is the one doing the public a favor. The bigger question is simple: If a Facebook post about dirty water can lead to a felony arrest, what would stop another local government from trying the same thing? To hear Jennifer tell her story in her own words, check out The CyberGuy Report podcast at CyberguyPodcast.com.
Have you ever spoken up about a local problem and felt ignored, intimidated or brushed aside? Let us know by writing to us at CyberGuy.com.
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Microsoft’s Office 2019 apps for Mac will stop working next month, because the company isn’t renewing a certificate that validates Office licenses. Owners of Office 2019 for Mac are being warned they’ll have to purchase Office 2024 or a Microsoft 365 subscription if they want to continue editing documents.
Microsoft previously promised that “all your Office 2019 apps will continue to function,” when it announced end of support in 2023. The company then quietly updated that support note last month to remove the mention of apps continuing to function, replacing it with “Rest assured that all your Office 2019 apps won’t lose any data.”
Starting on July 13th, Office 2019 for Mac and Office 2021 for Mac will both run in “reduced functionality mode,” allowing people to open files but not edit, save, or create new documents. The reduced functionality will impact Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and OneNote.
While Microsoft is providing a certificate update for Office 2021 as it’s still supported until October 13th, 2026, the company is leaving Office 2019 for Mac users out in the cold as support for these apps ended a few years ago. “Office 2019 for Mac reached end of support on October 10, 2023, and no longer receives updates,” says Microsoft. “Because Office 2019 cannot be updated to the required version, this issue cannot be resolved by updating or reinstalling Office 2019 for Mac.”
JimmyTech points out that old versions of Microsoft 365 apps on Mac and iOS will also be affected by this certificate issue, but a simple update will fix it for those users.
Microsoft regularly ends support of software and there’s always the risk you could run into issues running older apps or versions of Windows. It’s still surprising to not see Microsoft make an exception here though, particularly because this certificate issue breaks the main functionality of an app you’ve paid a one-time license fee for.
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