Georgia judge nixes tax break for electric truck firm Rivian

JEFF AMY

Fri, September 30, 2022 

ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia judge rejected an agreement that would have provided a huge property tax break to Rivian Automotive, clouding the upstart electric truck maker's plans to build a plant east of Atlanta.

Morgan County Superior Court Judge Brenda Trammell rejected what is normally a routine request by a local government to validate a bond agreement, ruling Thursday that the development authority that brought the case hadn't proved that the $5 billion plant, projected to hire 7,500 people, was “sound, reasonable and feasible” as is required under state law.

Trammell also ruled that under state law, Rivian should be required to pay regular property taxes because of its level of control over property it would be leasing from the development authority, undermining the reason that the legal action was brought in the first place.

Rivian declined to comment.

The Georgia Department of Economic Development and a local four-county joint development authority that recruited Rivian said they were “disappointed and respectfully disagree with Judge Trammell’s decision. They said they aren't giving up on their plans, and are considering an appeal.

“We remain undeterred in our efforts to bring high-paying, American manufacturing jobs to Georgia, and are currently assessing all legal options,” the groups said.

The Irvine, California-based electric vehicle manufacturer announced last year that it would build the facility on a 2,000-acre (800-hectare) site in Morgan and Walton counties about 45 miles (70 kilometers) east of Atlanta along Interstate 20. It plans to produce up to 400,000 vehicles a year there. Rivian, which also has a plant in Normal, Illinois, had hoped to break ground as early as this summer and begin production in 2024.

By maintaining ownership of the property and leasing it to Rivian, local governments would exempt Rivian from a projected $700 million in property taxes over 25 years, although Rivian has agreed to make $300 million in payments in lieu of taxes during the period.

The property tax break is a key part of the $1.2 billion in tax breaks and incentives that Georgia and local officials offered for Rivian to build a plant in the state.

The long-used maneuver circumvents a ban in Georgia’s state constitution on giving “gratuities” to companies or individuals. If Trammell’s order requiring normal property taxes is upheld, it could call other big tax breaks into question and keep officials from using the tool in the future.

The state also plans to spend $200 million to buy the site and prepare it. Rivian could claim a projected $200 million income tax credit, and $280 million in sales tax breaks on machinery and construction materials. The state also plans to spend $90 million to build a job training center and train workers.

The judge found persuasive the arguments of a group of local residents who oppose development of the plant, saying it will spoil their quality of life in a rural area that Atlanta's sprawl is now encroaching upon.

“It is very fulfilling that we local citizens were able to band together to do so much research in order to bring a great legal team on board and deliver us fantastic results like these,” said JoEllen Artz, president of opposition group Morgan Land, Sky & Water Preservation. Artz and other opponents intervened in the lawsuit to question the appropriateness of the tax break deal proposed by a four-county joint development authority that helped recruit Rivian.

The company has encountered difficulties in ramping up production in Illinois and its once soaring stock price has tumbled with some key investors dumping shares.

Trammell wrote that local and state officials appeared not to have considered the higher costs of services that local governments would incur, or whether Rivian had the money to complete the project.

“Rivian's cash reserves are quickly drying up, thus casting serious doubt on whether it will be able to commence, let alone complete, the project," Trammell wrote.

___

Follow Jeff Amy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jeffamy.

Thousands rally for Nigeria's Labour party 2023 election campaign

Sat, October 1, 2022 at 10:27 AM·2 min read


Thousands of supporters for Nigeria's Labour party candidate Peter Obi rallied in Lagos and other cities on Saturday, in the first major campaign march for the 2023 presidential election.

Obi, a former state governor, is challenging the long dominance of ruling APC and main opposition PDP to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in governing Africa's most populous country.

Five months before the February 25 ballot, main candidates appear in a tight race with Nigeria's faltering economy and rife insecurity among the top priorities for the winner.

With Afrobeats tunes blasting from trucks, and crowds chanting his name, Obi's supporters packed into highway service lanes in several districts in Lagos, Nigeria's economic capital.

"We are taking back our country," said Chijioke Chuwunyere, a tech consultant who was marching in Lagos Surulere area. "This is a chance to right all the wrongs."

Obi supporters also rallied near the Lekki tollgate, where peaceful #EndSARS protests demanding better governance and an end to police brutality were violently disrupted by security forces in October 2020.


Obi was not at the rallies, but supporters also marched in other cities across the country.

Obi's supporters who call themselves "Obi-dients" say the 61-year-old former banking executive offers an alternative to the old-guard candidates put forward by the PDP and APC.

High inflation, lack of jobs and insecurity have left many younger Nigerians frustrated with politics and apathetic about change at the ballot box.

But earlier this year, electoral authorities say 70 percent of newly registered voters for 2023 are aged between 18-34.

Obi has gained a huge following on social media, but analysts question how much he can convert that into votes on election day.

The PDP governed Nigeria from the end of military rule in 1999 until 2015, when the APC defeated it to give Buhari his first term.

Nationwide, the Labour Party does not have the structure of the All Progressives Congress (APC) or Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), or any state governorships. But supporters say they have momentum.

"We want a man, a governor, a president who will hear the voice of the masses," said therapist and Labour party organiser Felicity Okorocha at one of the Lagos rallies.

APC's candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a former governor dubbed "Godfather of Lagos" for his political influence touts his experience running the megalopolis as key.

Tinubu, 70, has been in London resting before the start of his campaign, an APC presidential campaign council member Ayo Oyalowo told Arise TV.

"He has five months to engage with Nigerians," he said on Friday.

PDP's Atiku Abubakar, a former vice president on his fifth run at the presidency, this week launched his campaign with a book event.

Abubakar, 75, says his government experience and business acumen can "rescue" Nigeria from APC's mismanagement. But the PDP also faces a major split within its ranks with a powerful governor.

pma/yad

Firefly Aerospace reaches orbit for the first time



Darrell Etherington
Sat, October 1, 2022 at 5:36 AM·1 min read

There’s another space-proven private launch company in the club — Firefly Aerospace. The company’s small payload Alpha rocket reached orbit successfully early on Saturday morning after taking of from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

This is a major achievement for Firefly, which has been a lot to get here: The company originally began operations as Firefly Space Systems, which went bankrupt, and was then reborn as Firefly Aerospace after its assets were acquired by Max Polyakov’s Noosphere ventures in 2017.

Tom Markusic, who founded the company and led it as CEO, also departed the post in June. Markusic shifted into a technical advisory and full-time board member role, but his departure was preceded by the very public leaving of Max Polyakov, who in February shared a post pointing the finger at the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Air Force and other U.S. agencies for his forced exit. Polyakov is a UK citizen but was born in Ukraine.

Firefly launched its first Alpha rocket just over a year ago on September 2, 2021, but the launch vehicle exploded mid flight, prior to achieving orbit.

That launch, like today’s, carried a number of payloads for actual paying customers. The difference is that Firefly claimed “100% mission success” for today’s flight, including successful deployment of all three payloads on board to their target orbits.

Firefly now ranks among the small but slowly growing club of private space companies that have attained orbit, including SpaceX, Rocket Lab, Virgin Orbit and Astra.

Firefly launches rocket from Vandenberg, a year after mid-air explosion

Janene Scully
Sat, October 1, 2022 

A fledgling rocket made its second flight early Saturday morning from Vandenberg Space Force Base, achieving several key milestones as it went “to the black” and delivered its cargo.

Liftoff of the Texas-based Firefly Aerospace ’s Alpha booster occurred at 12:01 a.m. from Space Launch Complex-2.

Foggy conditions kept most would-be spectators from seeing the flight of the 95-foot-tall rocket. A faint rumble could be heard in Santa Maria and other areas.

A report of second engine cutoff, or SECO, prompted cheers and applause from the control room.

“Orbit achieved. Alpha’s in the black,” a Firefly team member said.


Ninety minutes after launch, tracking stations on the ground confirmed the payloads had deployed. A short time later, company representatives declared on Twitter “100% Mission Succcess.”

The Alpha rocket’s engines fire at Vandenberg Space Force Base as the Firefly Aerospace achieves a successful second flight early Saturday morning. Screenshot via Everyday Astronaut/Firefly Aerospace

Firefly officials labeled the launch a technology demonstration flight as they aimed to prove Alpha’s ability to carry payloads into space, filling the need for small satellite customers by providing an economical flight to orbit.

More than a year ago, the Alpha rocket’s flight ended in a fiery failure following liftoff from Vandenberg.

The firm’s road to a second rocket’s liftoff wasn’t smooth thanks in part to glitches and unfavorable weather.

The liftoff came after a Sept. 11 countdown ended with helium pressure troubles. A planned Sept. 12 launch was scrubbed due to forecasts calling for windy conditions and the team looked toward a week later, but a strong rainstorm prevented the attempt.

Friday’s attempt also encountered a last-minute abort leading to the decision to try again Saturday and succeed at getting off the ground and into space.

With launch facilities at both Vandenberg and in Florida, Firefly hopes to accommodate monthly flights by late 2022.

The rocket, employing carbon composite materials, carried a much lighter cargo load.

Since it was a demonstration flight, the research and development payloads amounted to about 77 pounds, much less than the 2,200 pounds Alpha is designed to carry.

On board Alpha were some small spacecraft aiming to test technology for future use in space.

For instance, the Teachers in Space Serenity payload will collect data about atmospheric pressure, temperature and radiation via a matched pair of Geiger counters, one wrapped in experimental radiation protection material and one unwrapped.

NASA’s TechEdSat-15 carries various experiments including the primary one to test technology for de-orbiting satellites in the future. The exo-brake device has been designed to survive much higher temperature environments.

Another experiment on TechEdSat-15 includes the Beacon And Memory Board Interface (BAMBI), which optimizes internal and external data transfer from the nanosatellite.

“The TechEdSat-NOW series has multiple research goals including using the exo-brake to de-orbit high-altitude nanosatellites at end of mission to reduce issues related to orbital debris,” according to the team. “Additionally, drag modulation has uses for sample return from low-Earth orbit as well as tailoring orbits during aero-pass maneuvers for future planetary applications.”

The TechEdSat-15 project is managed by NASA Ames Research Center and funded by the NASA Ames Engineering Directorate with San Jose State University being a partner.

Libre Space Foundation’s PicoBus deployer will release several picosatellites with a mission focused on testing various technology for telecommunications.

The next launch from Vandenberg will be a Space Exploration Technologies Falcon 9 rocket carrying the next batch of Starlink satellites with liftoff aiming for 4:56 p.m. Monday.

Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. 

What all that stealing says about America


Organized crime is behind spate of retail thefts: Coalition of Law Enforcement and Retail president

Andy Serwer with Dylan Croll
Sat, October 1, 2022 

I recently went to my neighborhood drug store in New York City to buy some Tylenol and saw it was locked up on a plastic shelf—as was much of the store’s stock.

We’re used to seeing expensive jewelry secured behind glass or a few items behind convenience store counters, but lately the amount of seemingly ordinary items—soap, ice cream, detergent—locked up in stores—CVS, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc—is increasing. If you don't see this where you live yet, you might soon. Or you might visit parts of America where it has become commonplace.

Is stealing from stores really increasing, and if so, by how much? Turns out hard data is tough to come by, but nationally, the problem might not be as bad as it seems. According to the 2022 National Retail Federation’s Retail Security Survey, the average "shrink rate" — otherwise known as inventory loss — last year was 1.4%, or roughly $94.5 billion out of $6.6 trillion in total retail sales. That's roughly the same percentage as the last five years, the report found.

In the greater scheme of things, skeptics say that's no big deal.

Maybe those shocking organized theft videos or the railroad bandits of LA make the problem feel overblown. But I don’t think it’s that simple. First of all, a significant portion of retail crime goes unreported. Another point is that these are broad-brush numbers. While in some localities shoplifting rates are flat, in others, i.e., New York, San Francisco, they may be soaring.

'Organized retail crime has definitely been ticking up'

Who’s doing the stealing? “Three categories,” says Lisa LeBruno, senior executive vice president of the Retail Industry Leaders Association. “There’s the opportunistic shoplifter, the persistent habitual offender and then organized retail crime gangs or ORC,” she says.

What’s getting stolen? “CRAVED,” says Mark Mathews, vice president of research development and industry analysis at the National Retail Federation. “Which stands for items that are concealable, removable, available, valuable, enjoyable, and disposable.”

Companies used to be tight-lipped about thieving as it scares off Wall Street, customers and employees. Not so much anymore.

“Organized retail crime has definitely been ticking up over the last few years,” says Mike Combs, director of asset protection, organized retail crime and central Investigations team at The Home Depot. “During the pandemic, many would have thought it may have gotten better, but it actually got worse. It certainly affects the bottom line.”

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry said on an earnings call last November that the pressure from retail theft was showing up in the company's financials, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Then there’s this from Rite Aid’s CFO this week, as reported by Fox Business: "I think the headline here is the environment that we operate in, particularly in New York City, is not conducive to reducing shrink…” Rite Aid reported a tough quarter on Thursday and its stock plummeted 28% that day. The company said that store closures, driven in part by excessive theft, were a factor.

And below is from a Target store in San Francisco per Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi.

Locked up Tide

“We take a multi-layered approach to combating organized retail crime,” Brian Harper-Tibaldo, senior manager of crisis communications for Target, told Yahoo Finance. “This includes in-store technology, training for store leaders and security team members, and partnerships with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies as well as retail trade associations.”

Why are people stealing these days? That’s a tough one. To some degree it’s a reflection of our times. Simply put, America’s social contract is straining. Until recently we’ve been able to lay out goods—often in mammoth, big box stores with only a handful of employees. When our social contract is strong—i.e people are getting a fair shake—it’s a model that works. Now it seems more people are stealing instead. (BTW, our stressed social contract may be capping how far we can push this people-light, technology-heavy model. Last month Wegman’s ended its scan-and-go shopping app. Why? Shrinkage of course.)

I think wealth inequality has everything to do with all this. Think back to the so-called Public Enemies era in the 1930s, when bank robbers ran rampant across the land. That also coincided with the Great Depression. Less money in the hands of poor people and more stealing. Seems like cause and effect to me.

Also exacerbating the situation are some additional factors: The opioid crisis, a dearth of employees and now inflation. More stealing may make matters worse.

“This is a problem for all of us, because it raises prices for all of us,” says Mark Mathews, of the National Retail Federation. “This is an industry with very low margins, often below 2%. So, when you're losing goods, the cost of that gets passed onto the customer.”

And locking up goods has its own downside for retailers as it can reduce impulse buying. If you have to wave down an employee to unlock the door, you might be less inclined to grab that Häagen-Dazs.

Does anyone benefit here? Online marketplaces benefit as consumers switch to e-commerce because shopping in stores with locked merchandise is too much of a hassle.

Who else benefits? Companies such as Indyme, InVue, RTC and Vira Insight, which produce among other things, those systems with clear plastic shelving, locks and buttons to summon employees. Also makers of turnstiles, security cameras, mirrors and security guards. Business is brisk here.

Yes, there are places in America where you can leave $5 at an honor-system farm stand for a dozen eggs, but in other places you need to get a store clerk to unlock a $5 tube of Crest. Like so many things in America these days, our social contract doesn’t seem well distributed.

This article was featured in a Saturday edition of the Morning Brief on Saturday, Oct. 1. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe

Follow Andy Serwer, editor-in-chief of Yahoo Finance, on Twitter: @serwer

NOW THAT HE IS SAFE HE CAN TALK
From inside the US's most secure prison, 'El Chapo' is pointing fingers at what he says are the real powers in the drug trade

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M & IMPERIALI$M

Luis Chaparro
Sun, October 2, 2022 

Mexico's attorney general holds a photo of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán at a news conference in Mexico City in July 2015.REUTERS/Stringer

Three years after his conviction, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán remains in the US's most secure prison.

The former Sinaloa Cartel chief says high-level officials are the real powers in the drug trade.

Guzmán's lawyer said the kingpin believes putting away the cartels' "alleged leaders" doesn't work.

Ciudad Juarez, México — Five years after being extradited to the US, Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is pointing fingers at what he says are the real powers behind the drug trade on both sides of the border.

Through his attorney, Mariel Colón, one of the few people allowed to have regular contact with him, Guzmán said that for the drug war to stop, authorities would have to go after "politicians on both sides of the border."

"For years, authorities have put away these alleged leaders but it is not serving any purpose, but if you go after politicians that are allowing this to happen, it's a different thing," Colón told Insider. "That's what he has expressed before. That's what he thinks."

Guzmán is aware that he may just be a political instrument for the US and Mexican governments, Colón said.

"Every new US president has his trophy. With Trump [it] was Chapo. After him, Biden has his trophy as well," Colón added. "It's always been just politics."

In 2019, Guzmán, who is now believed to be 65, was sentenced to life in prison on multiple drug-related charges. Since then, he has been held in solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a "supermax" facility in Colorado regarded as the US's most secure prison.

The Federal Correctional Complex, including the Administrative Maximum Penitentiary, or "Supermax" prison, in Florence, Colorado.Thomson Reuters

Guzmán receives only one hour outside a day and is only allowed 15 minutes of phone calls a month with three people previously vetted by the US government: his mother, one of his sisters, and his youngest child.

"Guzmán has been in complete isolation. He had no access to any recreational area or access to any other area around the prison other than his cell," Colón said.

In 2020, his legal team submitted an appeal complaining that he faced "inhumane conditions," which was dismissed by a federal judge. Guzmán's treatment, which his attorneys say is "torture" and the result of a "political vendetta," has not changed.

US authorities said the security measures are meant to prevent Guzmán from escaping or engaging in illegal activity, but even with Guzmán behind bars since his capture in January 2016, business has been booming for the Sinaloa Cartel.

During the 2016 fiscal year, which ran from October 1, 2015 to September 30, 2016, more than 5,000 pounds of cocaine was seized by the US Border Patrol. That spiked to more than 9,000 pounds in 2017. After a decline in 2018, US Border Patrol seizures of cocaine rose to over 11,000 pounds in 2019 and to over 15,000 pounds in 2020.

Seizures of other drugs in the US have also risen over that period — a trend that experts say shows the flaw of focusing on the capture of cartel leaders, as US and Mexican authorities have done for decades.

Packets of cocaine seized from a ship at a Philadelphia port in June 2019.AP Photo/Matt Rourke


'The agents are bought'

Testimony during Guzmán's trial named several Mexican presidents, chiefs of police, and high-ranking military officers as involved in the drug trade.

Jesus "El Rey" Zambada, the youngest brother of Sinaloa Cartel drug boss Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, alleged on the witness stand that "the real leaders" of the cartel were Mexican government officials and US law enforcement.

Zambada pointed specifically to Genaro García Luna, who was Mexico's secretary of public security from 2006 to 2012. García Luna was arrested in the US in December 2019 and accused of taking bribes from the Sinaloa Cartel.

García Luna has pleaded not guilty. His trial was supposed to start in October this year but was delayed until January 2023 at the request of his lawyers.

García Luna is accused of accepting millions of dollars to allow Guzmán to "operate with impunity in Mexico" for more than a decade, according to the US Justice Department. At the same time, Garciá Luna was allegedly making deals with high-ranking officials inside top US national-security and law-enforcement agencies.

In October 2020, Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico's defense minister from 2012 to 2018, was arrested as he arrived in Los Angeles on a flight from Mexico City.

Cienfuegos also faced drug-related charges, allegedly as part of the investigation of the Sinaloa Cartel and Guzmán's connections. He was accused of using his authority to protect a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel while ordering operations against its rivals.

US Border Patrol agents near the US-Mexico border fence in Imperial Beach, California in November 2021.FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images

Cienfuegos pleaded not guilty at his first hearing, and in a surprise move, US prosecutors dropped the charges against him after negotiations with the Mexican government. The ex-general was sent back to Mexico and released.

García Luna and Cienfuegos have not been convicted, but a cartel enforcer in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez has said Guzmán's accusations are not far from reality.

In an October 2016 interview with Mexican newspaper El Universal, the mid-level boss in La Línea, the armed wing of the Juárez Cartel, said several US border agents were on their payroll.

"The agents are bought," the enforcer said at the time.

As of 2016, the Center for Investigative Reporting documented 153 cases of corruption investigations targeting US border officers, the majority of them members of US Customs and Border Protection.

Drug trafficking was the most common offense, followed by bribery and human smuggling, and the vast majority of the cases cited by the CIR involved agents with 10 or fewer years of service. Most of the incidents were in Texas, followed by California and Arizona.

Pardis Sabeti Dedicates Her TIME100 Impact Award to Mahsa Amini and the Protesters in Iran

Sun, October 2, 2022 at 8:54 AM·3 min



TIME100 Impact Awards: Singapore

Pardis Sabeti
Iranian-American biologist, Harvard University

Pardis Sabeti receives her award at the TIME100 Impact Awards on Oct. 2, 2022 in Singapore. Credit - Ore Huiying–Getty Images for TIME

When computational geneticist Dr. Pardis Sabeti took to the stage at Sunday night’s TIME100 Impact Awards in Singapore, she dedicated her achievement to Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Iranian woman whose death in police custody last month sparked a wave of protests in the country against the Iranian regime.

“I want to dedicate this award to Mahsa Jina Amini and the young Iranians right now who are fighting for their freedom, whose impact should be seen, should be supported and should be fought for,” she said to the crowd at the National Gallery Singapore.

Amini was detained by Iranian morality police for not wearing a hijab properly and died on Sept. 16 after reportedly suffering blows to the head. Since her death, dozens of demonstrators have been killed and many more arrested in Iran’s largest protests in almost three years.

Sabeti, herself a refugee from Iran whose family fled the country shortly before the 1979 Iranian Revolution, said that her achievements in infectious disease research were only made possible by the “freedom” and “opportunities” she experienced growing up in the U.S. Amini, she said, was planning on studying microbiology and one day medicine. “Those are the fields of my own research and my own life,” Sabeti said. “But her dream was unjustly cut short.”

Sabeti said that support for vulnerable people and those struggling against oppressive regimes is crucial to growing the kind of global solidarity needed to mitigate the harms of any future pandemic. “You see, viruses, they expose and they exploit the cracks in our society: the lack of justice, transparency, and equity,” she said. “The way we weather those storms is most dependent on the ways we choose to see each other and to fight together…to uplift every individual and empower every human on this earth.”

She called on the officials, executives and activists in the crowd to help restore internet access in Iran—which has been cut off in some areas by the authorities in an attempt to crack down on protests. “Every moment in darkness is a mortal threat to another young woman,” Sabeti said. “And for each of us, please see and share their stories”

Sabeti ended her speech with a dedication to Amini and other Iranian women who have lost their lives under the regime. “To Mahsa Jina, Neda [Agha-Soltan, an Iranian woman shot dead by a government sniper amid demonstrations in 2009], and all of those that are gone too soon, beh omid-e didar, we hope to see you again, and beh omid eh rooz eh azadi, with the hope for one day a day in freedom.”

The TIME100 Leadership Forum, held at the National Gallery Singapore, brought together CEOs and other business leaders from across the globe to discuss how they are using their platforms to build a better world. Speaking at the event were: former Google CEO and co-founder of Schmidt Futures, Eric Schmidt; Sandhya Sriram, the co-founder and group CEO of Singapore-based cultivated seafood company Shiok Meats; Neo Gim Huay, managing director of the Center for Nature and Climate at the World Economic Forum; Ari Sarker, Mastercard’s president for Asia Pacific; and Neeraj Aggawal, BCG’s Chairman for Asia Pacific.

Immediately following the Leadership Forum was the TIME100 Impact Awards, which featured actor and producer Alia Bhatt; Sabeti; Gregory L. Robinson, the former Director of the James Webb Space Telescope Program; and singer and actor Lea Salonga.

The TIME100 Leadership Forum and TIME100 Impact Awards in Singapore were produced by TIME in partnership with the Singapore Economic Development Board, the Singapore Tourism Board, Mastercard, BCG, and Concha Y Toro.

'Woman, life, freedom': L.A. protest over Iran draws thousands


Laura J. Nelson
Sat, October 1, 2022

Thousands of Iranian Americans turn out in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday to protest the death of Mahsa Amini. (Laura J. Nelson / Los Angeles Times)

Thousands of Iranian Americans marched through the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday in solidarity with the protests that have rocked Iran since the death of a young woman in police custody three weeks ago.

At Pershing Square on Saturday morning, protest leaders with megaphones led chants of "zan, zendegi, azadi," or "woman, life, freedom," the rallying cry of the demonstrations that began in Iran and have spread to cities across the world.

The protests that followed the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in detention after being arrested by the country's morality police for not wearing her hijab correctly, have become Iran's biggest anti-government demonstrations in years.


"If they can be in the streets in Iran, we can be in the streets here — it's the least we can do," said Leila Amadi, 22, of West Los Angeles, who carried a sign that read, "Be her voice." In a nod to the tricolor Iranian flag, Amadi wore a white top, green shorts and bright red lipstick.

Maz Jobrani, the Iranian American comedian and actor, livestreamed part of the demonstration on Instagram, chanting along with the crowd, "Say her name: Mahsa Amini."

"Everyone in America should know about this," Jobrani said. "This is a fight for freedom across the world. It's for democracy. It's to get away from authoritarianism. The people in Iran are fighting for democracy."

Southern California has the largest number of Iranian residents outside Iran. Protests were also planned in Orange County and San Diego, and more than a dozen other U.S. cities, including Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Miami, Denver and Washington D.C.

Thousands of Iranian Americans march in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday in solidarity with protests in Iran. (Laura J. Nelson / Los Angeles Times)

As the crowd inched up Hill Street and across 1st Street toward City Hall, flanked by drummers and motorcyclists, people chanted, "Democracy for Iran, regime change for Iran!"

Many demonstrators wore masks, sunglasses and hats to avoid being identified in photos and drone footage. Others declined to give their full names, saying they were afraid to endanger loved ones who lived in Iran.

"This is not the first time we've had to protest like this, and unfortunately, it won't be the last," said Fereshteh, a Los Angeles resident in her 40s who asked to only use her first name for fear that the government would arrest her when she returned to Iran to visit her parents.

She held a sign that read, "How many protesters has the Iranian government killed today?" with red handprints in the background. The reverse side of the sign showed photos of 20 people who have been killed during the demonstrations.

Amnesty International has said that a crackdown on demonstrations by Iran's clerical government has led to the deaths of at least 52 people since Sept. 17.

"We want world leaders to do something," she said. "We need help. Iran needs help. We can't do this without the help of other governments, especially the United States."

Visible in the crowd were dozens of pre-revolutionary Iranian flags, which feature a lion and sun at the center instead of the stylized red symbol of the Islamic Republic. Flown during the government of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi and banned after the 1979 revolution, the flag is frequently seen at anti-government protests.

A woman named Shohleh, who left Iran 44 years ago, wrapped the flag around her shoulders as she marched toward City Hall. She said she felt compelled to attend the protests to support the struggle of Iranian women, but worried that social media posts and protests would not be enough.

"I hope things will change," she said. "But in my head and in my heart, I'm afraid they won't."

The march ended at Los Angeles City Hall, where the Iranian singer Googoosh addressed the crowd.

Other protesters gathered around a black pickup loaded with portable speakers that blasted "Baraye," the ballad by Iranian singer Shervin Hajipour that has become the anthem of the protests.

The crowd sang along with the song's final lyrics: "For women, life, freedom; for freedom, for freedom."

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Iranian woman pictured dining without a headscarf thrown in Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's old jail

James Rothwell
Fri, September 30, 2022 

Donya Rad

Iran has arrested a young woman who defied morality police by eating in a restaurant without wearing a hijab, in an image that went viral on social media and inspired thousands of anti-regime protesters.

The photograph showed Donya Rad eating breakfast in a restaurant in Tehran, alongside a female friend who was also not wearing a headscarf.

The pair were silently protesting the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman killed in the custody of the Iranian morality police for improperly wearing a hijab. Her death has sparked mass protests across Iran which have led to more than 50 people being killed by riot police.



It came as another image emerged from Iran of a young woman, Minoo Majidi, standing next to the grave of her mother, who was also killed in the protests. Staring into the camera, Minoo is shown clutching her shorn long hair, which Iranian women are cutting off as a symbol of resistance against the regime.

In a post on Twitter, Donya Rad's sister, Dina, revealed that Iranian police had confronted them about the photograph before arresting Donya.

“Yesterday, after this photo was published, the security agencies contacted my sister Donya Rad and asked her to give some explanations,” the sister said.

“Today, after going where she was told, she was arrested. After a few hours of silence, Donya told me in a short call that she was transferred to ward 209 of Evin prison." That referred to an infamous jail in Tehran where British mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was also imprisoned before her release.

“Our family is very concerned about her wellbeing,” added Dina.

Minoo Majidi

The decision to arrest a woman for simply appearing in a photograph without a hijab reflects how the Iranian leadership has been spooked by the massive scale of the protests. Initially focused on the death of Ms Amini in police custody, they have quickly transformed into a campaign for the downfall of the Iranian regime.

Several other Iranian social media users have posted similar photographs of them venturing outside without headscarves, risking the wrath of riot police and Iranian security officers who seem to be sifting through high-profile internet posts to make arrests.

Campaigners and Iran affairs analysts have described the decision to arrest Donya as “brutal and sick”. Comparisons were also drawn with Rosa Parks, the black civil rights activist in the United States who, in 1955, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger.

Over the past week, extraordinary footage has shown Iranians engaged in running street battles with riot police, in some cases overpowering them. Many women are burning their hijabs on bonfires in the streets in protest as well as cutting off their hair.

In a letter on Friday, Iranian football fans asked Fifa to ban their national team from this year’s World Cup in Qatar over the crackdown.

“Why would Fifa give the Iranian state and its representatives a global stage, while it not only refuses to respect basic human rights and dignities but is currently torturing and killing its own people?” they wrote on behalf of the Open Stadiums campaign.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 29 journalists have been arrested, including Nilufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, female reporters who helped expose Amini's case.

Watch: Protests in Iran continue against regime for 15th straight day

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Factories Making Towels and Bedsheets Are Shutting in Pakistan

Their hardships have become acute due to recent floods, which submerged a third of Pakistan, killed more than 1,600 people, and damaged about 35% of the cotton crop.

Ismail Dilawar
Sun, October 2, 2022 

(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan’s small textile mills, which make products ranging from bedsheets to towels mainly for consumers in the US and Europe, are starting to shut after devastating floods wiped out its cotton crop.

As many as 100 smaller mills have suspended operations due to a shortage of good quality cotton, high fuel costs, and poor recovery of payments from buyers in flood-hit areas, said Khurram Mukhtar, patron-in-chief of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association. Larger firms, which supply to global companies like Nike Inc., Adidas AG, Puma SE, Target Corp., are less affected as they are well stocked, he said.

The mill closures underscore challenges for the sector that employs about 10 million people, accounts for 8% of the economy and adds more than half to the nation’s export earnings. 

Their hardships have become acute due to recent floods, which submerged a third of Pakistan, killed more than 1,600 people, and damaged about 35% of the cotton crop.

The latest blow comes at a difficult time for the South Asian nation that is already struggling with high inflation and falling currency reserves. The closure of firms, such as AN Textile Mills Ltd., Shams Textile Mills Ltd., J.A. Textile Mills Ltd. and Asim Textile Mills Ltd., could worsen the country’s employment situation and hit its export earnings. Larger companies are also facing rough weather, with demand for their products seen falling about 10% by December from now due to a slowdown in Europe and the US, Mukhtar said.

Due to an “unforeseen downturn in the market and unavailability of good quality cotton” following heavy rains and floods, the company’s mills have been temporarily closed, Faisalabad-based AN Textile said in an exchange filing earlier this month.

Cotton production in Pakistan could slump to 6.5 million bales (of 170 kilograms each) in the year that started in July, compared with a target of 11 million, Mukhtar said. That could force the nation to spend about $3 billion to import cotton from countries such as Brazil, Turkey, the US, East and West Africa and Afghanistan, said Gohar Ejaz, patron-in-chief of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association. About 30% of Pakistan’s textile production capacity for exports has been hampered because of cotton and energy shortages, Ejaz said.

Pakistan’s textile sector, which exports about 60% of its production, is also facing poor demand in the domestic market due to fragile economic conditions. Gross domestic product is estimated to halve from 5% in the fiscal year ending June following the floods that led to damages of around $30 billion. Pakistan secured a $1.1 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund in August to avert an imminent default.

Once Known for Vaccine Skeptics, Marin Now Tells Them 'You're Not Welcome'

Soumya Karlamangla
Sun, October 2, 2022 

Mount Tamalpais dominates the skyline in Marin County, in Belvedere, Calif., Aug. 28, 2022. (Jim Wilson/The New York Times)

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — For more than a decade, few places in the nation were associated with anti-vaccine movements as much as Marin County, the bluff-lined peninsula of coastal redwoods and stunning views just north of San Francisco.

This corner of the Bay Area had become a prime example of a highly educated, affluent community with low childhood vaccination rates, driven by a contingent of liberal parents skeptical of traditional medicine. Marin was something of a paradox to mainstream Democrats, and often a punching bag. In 2015, during a measles outbreak in California, comedian Jon Stewart blamed Marin parents for being guilty of a “mindful stupidity.”

But Marin is the anti-vaccine capital no more.

In the pandemic age, getting a COVID-19 shot has become the defining “vax” or “anti-vax” litmus test, and on that account, Marin County has embraced vaccines at rates that surpass the vast majority of communities in the nation. It comes after public health efforts to change parents’ opinions, as well as a strict state mandate that students get vaccinated for childhood diseases.

And as the nation has grown more polarized, Marin residents are less comfortable wearing the “anti-vax” label increasingly associated with conservatives. Americans who identify as Democrats are more than twice as likely to be vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 — and Marin County is one of the bluest enclaves in the United States.

“It kind of became the cool thing to do to get vaccinated,” said Naveen Kumar, physician-in-chief for Kaiser Permanente San Rafael Medical Center.

Kumar said some Marin parents who were hesitant about the vaccines have been persuaded by their children’s enthusiasm, which he has witnessed among his teenage son and his friends. “I could hear him talking about, ‘Can you believe there’s this kid in my class and he’s not vaccinated?’” he said. “You almost become a little bit of an outcast if you’re not vaccinated.”

Among children 5 to 11, 80% in Marin County have both of their COVID-19 shots, more than double the statewide or national rates. The rate among those younger than 5 is more than five times the nation’s.

Given that one-fifth of elementary-school-age children here still have not gotten the vaccines, it is not clear that Marin holdouts have changed their minds. But anti-vaccine parents no longer feel as empowered to voice their opinions. The mood shift was pointedly captured by a local columnist, who declared in January, “Unvaccinated? You’re not welcome in Marin.”

Julie Schiffman, 50, doesn’t have her COVID-19 shots; she said she believes vaccines would aggravate her many autoimmune conditions. Because she is unvaccinated, she has been excluded from Marin home-schooling gatherings that she had attended for years, even though parents were previously unconcerned with whether anyone had their shots. For the first time, she said, she feels as if people here despise her on principle.

Schiffman said that when her sons were young, she decided not to have them vaccinated because of similar concerns about vaccine side effects. Their vaccination status was never an issue for student enrollment because she home-schools them.

But because of the social pressure to be vaccinated against COVID-19, the boys got their COVID-19 shots last year. Her 13-year-old “wanted to be first in line,” Schiffman said. “I’m the only one in my family who did not.”

Across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, Marin County has strikingly beautiful landscapes and lush, wooded neighborhoods. The region was once largely made up of farms and small communities, with locals dedicated to living off the land.

The county became more bohemian in the 1960s and 1970s as the counterculture diaspora arrived seeking to get away from the chaos of San Francisco. The Grateful Dead lived in a commune here in 1966, and Otis Redding wrote “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” while staying on a houseboat off Sausalito.

Marin is also a bastion of wealth, with California’s highest median joint income in 2019 at $178,755. On weekends, luxury cars sneak past cyclists atop high-end bikes on roads heading toward the great Pacific. Before he became the Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom lived with his family on a hillside in Marin — with three Tesla vehicles in his driveway, The New Yorker once wrote.

In 2011, the percentage of kindergartners in Marin County who had all of their required shots — 78% — had fallen to fifth lowest among California’s 58 counties. Whooping cough outbreaks fueled by low vaccination rates were sending young children to the hospital.

Around that time, Matt Willis was working as a public health researcher for a branch of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that responds to global disease outbreaks. In 2010, he had been sent to Haiti after a massive earthquake there severely limited access to vaccines.

The following year, he was dispatched to his hometown in Marin County, where he was perplexed by what he found. “In other places I’d been working on vaccines, it was purely just logistical and operational, and here it was a matter of belief, which was a much harder nut to crack.”

Willis left the CDC and in 2013 took over as Marin County’s health officer, and he was intent on figuring out why relatively few parents were vaccinating their children.

He surveyed the parents of thousands of kindergartners to understand what their vaccine concerns were. On the list were autism, ingredients in vaccines and the speed at which babies are administered dozens of shots. A 1998 study that purported to connect the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine with autism was debunked and retracted — but only after propelling the anti-vaccine movement, particularly among parents skeptical of traditional medicine and pharmaceutical companies.

Willis began public health campaigns to specifically address those fears and primed local pediatricians to have those conversations too. His efforts got a boost when, in late 2014, a measles outbreak erupted at Disneyland, drawing greater attention to unvaccinated children. When cases spread to Marin County, its low vaccination rates became a glaring example in California.

At the same time, Rhett Krawitt, then a 6-year-old living in Corte Madera, was battling leukemia and was too medically fragile to be immunized against measles. An infection could kill him. Sitting in their backyard this summer, home to a thriving vegetable garden and pickleball court, his father, Carl Krawitt, recalled how Rhett’s oncologist urged them to ask the parents of classmates to get their children vaccinated.

When they did, it seemed as if parents who had avoided vaccines hadn’t fully grasped that there could be real consequences for other people, Krawitt said. “Once they understood it, they went out and got vaccinated,” Krawitt said.

Rhett, then a towheaded boy with a round face, spoke at the State Capitol to urge lawmakers to pass a stricter vaccination requirement that was sparked by the measles outbreak. The law, which requires that all California children receive vaccines to attend school, passed in the summer of 2015. Vaccination rates subsequently increased in Marin County and statewide.

“A lot of different building blocks led up to a big change,” said Rhett, now a lanky 14-year-old who has since gotten all of his vaccines for childhood diseases and COVID-19. He spends far more time thinking about sailing, his favorite hobby, these days.

By the 2019-20 school year, Marin County’s childhood vaccination rate was up to nearly 95%, in the middle of the pack statewide instead of near the bottom.

And then the pandemic hit.

The county was one of the first areas in the nation to implement a stay-at-home order in March 2020. Adherence to masking and social distancing here was high in the early days of the pandemic. And, locals say, the benefits of a vaccine quickly became obvious.

Willis also capitalized on his years of combating vaccine hesitancy. Anticipating that Marin parents might resist vaccinating their children, he decided to administer COVID-19 vaccines for ages 5 to 11 largely at schools.

He hoped that campus-based events — where staff played music, decorated with balloons and even brought comfort dogs — were less intimidating than going to a doctor’s office. Within the first two weeks of the vaccine rollout for children ages 5 to 11, 40% of Marin County kids in that age group had gotten their first COVID-19 vaccine dose, half at the school events.

Now, Marin County’s COVID-19 vaccination rate among all residents is 91%, compared with 68% nationwide.

The county has also shed its reputation as an anti-vaccine haven in part because of how much vocal resistance has taken root elsewhere. Marin County was once faulted for having a childhood vaccination rate of 78%. Now, almost every county in America has a lower COVID-19 vaccination rate among children.

The anti-vaccine movement used to be a place where the left met the right, but increased polarization during the pandemic has made such a combination difficult to sustain, said Jennifer Reich, sociology professor at the University of Colorado Denver and the author of “Calling the Shots: Why Parents Reject Vaccines.”

“When we start to see such vastly different sources of information about what the risks of infection of COVID are, you start to see people making wildly different decisions in their life,” Reich said. “The vaccine and scientific expertise has become politicized.”

Schiffman said her children got the COVID-19 vaccine because they wanted to be able to go to camp, concerts and the climbing gym with their friends. Without her shots, she frequently can’t get into restaurants and other places because they require that patrons show vaccine cards. She said she might think about moving if life became even tougher to navigate without proof of vaccination.

“I will never ever put a vaccination in my body ever again,” Schiffman said. “Would that mean splitting up my family? It could.”

The culture change in Marin has been so dramatic that many new parents struggle to understand how the county earned its infamous reputation.

Dana McRay, a Corte Madera resident who recently took her 3- and 5-year-old daughters to get their COVID-19 vaccines, said she has “never met anyone who was anti-vax, or at least who talks about it.”

In a local parenting Facebook group McRay is in, a mother recently asked if anyone would have a play date with her unvaccinated kids. “All of the other parents told her there was a separate Facebook group for anti-vax parents, and she should take her request there.”

© 2022 The New York Times Company

GEMOLOGY

The World Got Gems. A Mining Town Paid the Price.

John Eligon and Lynsey Chutel
September 24, 2022·

Muck from a diamond mine As wastewater coats a property in

 Jagersfontein, South Africa, Sept. 14, 2022.

 (Ilan Godfrey/The New York Times)

JAGERSFONTEIN, South Africa — The dirt wall holding in mucky waste from diamond mining grew over the years to resemble a wide, towering plateau. Suspended like a frozen tsunami over neat tracts of Monopoly-like homes in the rural South African mining town of Jagersfontein, the dam alarmed residents who feared it might collapse.

“We saw it long time, that one day this thing will burst,” said Memane Paulus, a machine operator at the dam for the past decade.

The worst fears of residents came true this month when a section of the dam crumbled, sending a thunderous rush of gray sludge through the community that killed at least one person, destroyed 164 houses, and turned a six-mile stretch of neighborhoods and grassy fields into an ashen wasteland.


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The Jagersfontein disaster has caused alarm in a nation where heaping dams of mining waste, known as tailings, are part of the landscape. Experts estimate that South Africa has hundreds of tailings dams, which mining watchdogs say is the legacy of an exploitative industry that extracts lucrative gems for jewelry stores abroad, while poor communities are saddled with toxic waste at home.

The townspeople in Jagersfontein, home to one of the world’s oldest diamond mines, had watched the wall of waste mount, looming over their homes and streets. But there was little they could do to stop it because it was big business.

A consortium that bought the mining waste from the mine’s former owner, De Beers, was sifting through the tailings to extract any diamonds left behind — an increasingly popular offshoot of mining. In doing so, the operation was piling up even more waste, and government oversight was lax. Some mine workers were scared when their colleagues reported finding leaks in the dam.

“It was definitely avoidable,” said Mariette Liefferink, chief executive of the Federation for a Sustainable Environment, an environmental organization focused on mining. “The damage to the ecosystem, to human lives, to future generations — the risks are significant.”

The international mining industry had promised to do better after a similar dam collapse in Brazil three years ago killed more than 250 people. Some of the leading mine operators collaborated to develop standards for tailings dams. But many smaller operators, like the one in Jagersfontein, don’t follow the standards and lack the resources and expertise to manage tailings dams, Liefferink said.

Marius de Villiers, the legal compliance officer for the mine’s operating company, Jagersfontein Development, said it complied with all requirements set by South African regulators. The dam was regularly inspected, he said, and an engineering report from July declared it was structurally sound.

“We were not even contemplating that something like this would happen,” de Villiers said. He said that while the company was still investigating the dam break, it “must accept liability that comes with the operations and with the break.”

‘That Thing Is Going to Blast’

About 2 a.m. on Sunday, Sept. 11, a truck driver at the dam spotted a crack in the facade, several workers there that day said in interviews. The driver reported it to a foreman, who checked it out but did not do anything, the workers said.

Joe Makalajane, a pan operator at the mine, did not see the crack himself but spoke to the driver as they were ending their shift, he said.

“He said, ‘I’ll tell you, that thing is going to blast,’” said Makalajane, 45, recalling his conversation. Of management, he added, “They didn’t take it seriously.”

De Villiers and Johan Combrink, the plant manager, denied that there was any report of a crack early that morning.

The dam wall collapsed between 6 and 7 a.m. Some residents are furious at the prospect that they could have been alerted earlier.

Rio-Rita Breytenbach, whose home is near the dam, stood on a chair in the kitchen as the barrage of slime barreled toward her. She was swept off the chair and out of the house. Caught in the raging current, Breytenbach, 39, said she floated on her back and paddled in the muck to keep her head above water.

“I was praying that I would survive,” she said.

She finally came to rest on a farm, where the police found her — more than 6 miles from her house.

The sludge wiped out much of two residential neighborhoods to the south and the east. Fields, stretching for miles, looked like frozen cement lakes, some dotted with mangled cars and sunken utility poles.

Jack Sephaka was visiting his mother across town when the dam broke. He stared from a distance in horror — his three-bedroom house was being washed away with, as far as he knew, his wife and one of his sons inside.

“I thought they were dead,” he said.

To his relief, his wife eventually called his mother to say they had made it to a shelter.

He has to rebuild a home that he bought 20 years ago for 40,000 rand ($2,300), now missing its entire front facade.

Sephaka had worked at the mine shortly after it reopened in 2010, but quit after four years because conditions were bad, he said.

“I was not happy,” he said, with “the stress of the mine.”

But the mine’s problems still caught up to him.

A Colonial Past

With its first diamonds extracted in 1870 by colonial settlers, the Jagersfontein mine is a relic of a diamond rush that often exploited Black South Africans while enriching white owners. It yielded a 650-carat diamond, among the world’s largest, that was acquired by British merchants and from which was cut the jubilee diamond, named in honor of Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee.

De Beers, the global mining titan, operated the mine from 1932 to 1971. It then sat idle, but in the early 2000s, De Beers sought to capitalize on improving technology to extract minerals from tailings. It sued for the right to mine tailings without a mining license and won a judgment in 2007.

De Beers then sold the tailings at Jagersfontein in 2010 to a consortium that eventually came under the control of Johann Rupert, a South African billionaire whose companies own luxury brands like Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. In April, just six months before the collapse, Rupert’s holding company, Reinet Investments SCA, sold all of its shares in Jagersfontein Development to Stargems, a Dubai-based diamond manufacturer and retailer, according to a Stargems announcement.

Reinet did not respond to requests for comment.

The companies could be prosecuted for violating South Africa’s environmental and water laws, or could be forced to pay compensation, said Tracy-Lynn Field, a law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg who specializes in environmental and mining law. Government officials may also have to answer, she said.

The ruling in 2007 in De Beers’ lawsuit removed responsibility for tailings dams from the government’s minerals department. Instead, because tailings are processed in dams, the Department of Water and Sanitation was left to oversee them, despite limited expertise in mining, Field said.

Warning Signs

Residents said they were excited when the mine roared back to life in 2010, believing it would create jobs.

But soon they were coughing from all the dust in the air, and watching with angst as the dam’s dirt facade nearly doubled in height.

“We kept saying, ‘What if something happens here? What if it breaks?’” said Itumeleng Monageng, 28, who unfortunately found out the answer: This month he was knee-high in muck, salvaging whatever he could from his home.

Fears heightened in recent years when residents said they periodically saw water seeping through the dam wall. The mayor of Jagersfontein, Xolani Tseletsele, said community members aired their concerns with officials from the water department.

But Combrink, the plant manager, denied that the dam ever had a leakage problem, or that employees had reported holes in the facade. He attributed any moisture to stormwater runoff.

According to a copy of a water department directive, inspectors visited the dam, and in January 2021, ordered the operation to stop, citing several violations. Chief among them was that the facility disposed more than 2 1/2 as much waste in the dam as it was allowed to in 2020 — and had continued disposing waste even after department officials told it to stop.

Five months later, the department cleared the facility to reopen, noting in a memorandum that Jagersfontein Development had agreed to be inspected more closely and installed new equipment to reduce the wastewater disposed in the dam. Although the water department said in its memo that Jagersfontein Development still needed to address issues of dam safety raised in an independent engineering report, it gave no directive or deadline for the company to do so.

Richard Spoor, an attorney with decades of experience litigating mining cases, said it was extraordinary that water department officials, “having found that that high-level report showed a serious risk,” allowed it to reopen.

Sputnik Ratau, a spokesman for the water department, said that the dam had been allowed to reopen while safety issues were being addressed because dam officials had already satisfied other conditions.

In 2018, Jagersfontein Development built a new section of the dam that would increase its capacity by 30% and increase profitability, according to a 2019 annual report filed by Reinet Investments.

Even with that expansion, the dam was still having capacity issues — it has applied for a permit to dump waste in the original mining pit, which is a national heritage site.

An analysis of satellite images conducted after the collapse by a data and analytics company shows that from Aug. 1 to 13, the corner of the dam that broke had become slightly deformed, indicating weakness, said Dave Petley, a geologist at the University of Hull in England. The new section is the one that collapsed, he said.

Mining companies and regulators with proper expertise should have caught those warning signs, he said.

For Sephaka, the former mine worker whose house was ruined, this was the latest sour chapter in the long life of a mine that he felt had brought little benefit to the community.

“It’s painful,” he said, surveying the wreckage.

© 2022 The New York Times Company

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