Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, merchant traffic through Suez Canal down >50% | Hacker News Reader

Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, merchant traffic through Suez Canal down >50%

news.usni.org

46 pointsNavinF41 comments

>In the last week, Houthi forces killed a merchant mariner, sunk a commercial ship and forced a crew to abandon another in flames. The attacks come as the Houthis continue to escalate its eight-month campaign against commercial traffic in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.

>Comparative data from Marine Traffic suggests that the Houthi attacks have led to a 79.6 percent drop in drybulk carriers going through the Suez Canal in June 2024 versus June 2023. The recent attacks and sinking of Tutor is expected to lead to an additional rise in insurance costs for companies planning to send ships through the Red Sea.

Off-topic: in the photo lede at the top of the article, are the rescued merchant mariners wearing standard eye/ear protection or is something else going on? Based on how they are holding the shoulder of the person in front of them, it almost looks like they are blindfolded.

I think that's standard eye/ear protection.

It would look really bad to lose someone after landing on the carrier.

The flight deck of an aircraft carrier is a loud, confusing, and dangerous place. I imagine they were told something like "this is not a time or place for sightseeing. hang on to the person in front of you and they'll lead you to a safe place below decks".

I can see what you mean, but if you zoom all the way in on the man looking into the camera, you can just see their left eye (right from our perspective). I think this is a buddy-system safety measure for crossing an unfamiliar, loud, hectic, and hazardous environment.

I am guessing it’s helicopter's gear.

The Houthis didn't find out why Americans don't have healthcare.

They’re squarely in the fuck around stage

The US have been fucking around in Yemen for the past 14 years. Yes, 14 years. Houthis have survived all that we could throw on them.

https://www.justsecurity.org/80806/still-at-war-the-united-s...

Not really. They have survived very large scale US-Saudi bombing campaigns in the past and managed to maintain deterrence against Saudi infrastructure throughout, so unless the US invades in foot there will be no more finding out. And of course, if the US does, it will likely also do a significant amount of "finding out".

You place too much trust in U.S. troops. They invaded Afghanistan, spent twenty years and trillions of dollars, and left it like they were never there. It's like an expensive vacation where they forgot the souvenirs!

I read their comment as the US finding out.

This has caused the UAE and Israel to implement a trans-shipment land-bridge as a trial run for IMEC [0] and the IN-UAE segment should be operationalized in the next 3 months.

Not much incentive for Gulf States to deal with the Houthis when this basically forces shippers to use an alpha version of the IMEC.

[0] - https://www.ajot.com/insights/full/ai-trucknet-sets-up-a-gul...

[1] - https://theprint.in/india/india-uae-shipping-leg-of-imec-to-...

If only they could get the trucknet folk to extend IMEC a little to the east, across the Kra Isthmus, IMEC could be rebranded as "Two Belts, Two Roads"?

Making an already rough economic situation in Egypt even worse.

11 hours ago | 81 comments: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40777830

[dupe]

Some more discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40777830

Yemenis just released a very funny song about the red sea attacks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZnIUdYM8Uw

That 5-lead ECG placement needs work, but I'm really digging the jambiyas. Who needs (floppy!) ties?

Rock El Casbah

Pretty incredible that trillions of dollars can't buy a capability that can defeat these guys. What is the purpose of spending all of this money?

"these guys" are pawns of Iran. There is no political will to rock the fuel prices boat before election (US even threatened Ukraine with stopping support for attacking russian refineries). US doesnt run sorties on Iranian rocket factories, only Israel did few limited raids. Destroy Iranian factories and supply of rockets will stop.

You're being ridiculous. American military spending has produced enough power to defeat this many times over. You have the power to invade and occupy the country, you have the power to indiscriminately destroy trucks and civilian infrastructure that might be transporting missiles, you have the power to enforce a total blockade, there are many helpful things you could do.

The problem is, of course, that you don't want to for the very sensible reason that it would be a political and humanitarian nightmare.

Peace does not increase profits from arms sales.

Protectionism without tariffs.

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