UK foreign secretary warns world is ‘sleepwalking’ into food crisis over Strait of Hormuz

The world risks “sleepwalking into a global food crisis” and the global economy is being “held hostage” because Iran has “hijacked an international shipping lane,” UK Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said on Monday, Anadolu reports. Speaking at the Global Partnerships Conference in London, Cooper said daily shipping traffic through the crucial waterway has plummeted from 90 ships a day to just five over the last three months, leaving 20,000 seafarers and 800 ships “just stuck.” She warned that the blockage of heating oil, gas, and fertilizer is devastating the Global South and threatening the agricultural calendar. Citing World Food Program data, she stated that 45 million people are at risk of acute hunger this year. “The world risks sleepwalking into […]