Poverty is up, up, up
New York Times, 2/21–Nearly two million New York City residents, including one in four children, lived in poverty in 2022, an increase of 500,000 people that amounted to the biggest single-year jump in a decade…The biggest reason for the surge in poverty, both nationally and in New York, was the end of several pandemic-era government policies, like the expanded child tax credit, enhanced unemployment insurance and cash payments that helped low-income families keep up with rising costs…Black, Latino and Asian New Yorkers were roughly twice as likely as white residents to live in poverty, and women were more likely than men to be unable to afford their basic needs, according to the report…While the city said in October that it had recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic, the positions that have returned have mostly been in low-paying industries, like home health care…At the same time, the retail sector, a higher-paying industry that disproportionately employs Black, Latino and Asian workers, shed more jobs than any other industry…The need for public aid is clear at Grand Street Settlement…has seen its food pantry lines swell to 2,800 people a month, up from 500 before the pandemic.
Iranian oil pipelines attacked
Al Jazeera, 2/21–Iran has accused Israel of being behind two attacks last week on gas pipelines that disrupted supplies in several provinces, further raising tensions between the regional archenemies amid the war on Gaza…“The explosion of the country’s gas lines was the work of Israel,” Oil Minister Javad Owji said on Wednesday after a cabinet meeting. Two explosions hit Iran’s leading south-north gas pipeline network on February 14. The blasts hit a natural gas pipeline from Iran’s western Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province up north to cities on the Caspian Sea. The roughly 1,270km (790-mile) pipeline begins in Asaluyeh, a hub for Iran’s offshore South Pars gas field. In December, a hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out a cyberattack which disrupted as much as 70 percent of Iran’s petrol stations.
Israeli soldiers share the loot
Haaretz, 2/19–...soldiers have been looting the property of Gaza Strip residents after taking over their homes…columnist Nahum Barnea quoted the testimony of one reservist doctor: "Smaller, less disciplined forces have looted telephones, Dysons, motorcycles and bicycles… At some point, I stopped commenting on it, because I was viewed as a nudnik."A combat soldier in the Givati Brigade proudly showed Uri Levy, a reporter for Kan 11 public television, a large mirror taken from a home in Khan Yunis. On social media, soldiers post videos like the one of a soldier proudly displaying soccer jerseys taken from a Gaza home, while reservists boast of gourmet meals prepared from food they took from Gazans' kitchens…The looting is dwarfed by the unprecedented death and destruction and the pride soldiers take in them, as documented in videos… Looting reflects a negation of the enemy population's humanity, making it acceptable to rifle through their personal belongings, even the most intimate ones, and choose what to take.
Australia prepares for Pacific war
Financial Times, 2/21–Australia is to more than double the size of its naval fleet with an extra A$11.1bn ($7.2bn) of investment to adapt to China’s military build-up in the Pacific region. The navy will expand to 26 warships, including 11 new frigates and six new large vessels with long-range missile capability, as Canberra toughens its military stance in response to rising regional tension. The investment will give Australia its largest navy since the second world war…The naval overhaul comes a year after Australia’s Defence Spending Review unveiled the biggest strategic shift in its military posture in almost 80 years, arguing that intense Chinese-US competition had become the defining feature of the Pacific region. It cited China’s military build-up as the “largest and most ambitious of any country since the end of the second world war”.
