0:00

The second Hamas attacked Israeli civilians

0:02

and started a war back in

0:05

October, everyone feared it would

0:07

spill out into a broader regional conflict.

0:09

People were thinking about the West Bank,

0:12

Lebanon, Iran, you know, land.

0:15

But one of the most conspicuous spinoffs of this war

0:17

has been on water. Missile

0:21

attacks on cargo ships in the

0:23

Red Sea used to be unthinkable.

0:26

Last November Houthi fighters have carried out

0:28

more than 20 of them. A

0:31

rebel group from Yemen has been attacking

0:33

ships in the Red Sea for months

0:35

now. We will continue to prevent all

0:37

vessels, regardless of their nationalities, headed to

0:39

the Israeli seaports until the necessary food

0:42

and medical supplies are delivered to our

0:44

brothers in the Gaza Strip. And the

0:46

United States has been blowing up

0:48

boats in return. We're going

0:50

to try and figure out what the Houthis want and

0:53

whether they'll get it on Today Explained. Sean

1:06

Ramesphuram joined by Joshua Keating

1:08

making his Today Explained debut.

1:10

Joshua writes about the world for Vox, and he's

1:12

here to tell us about this group from Yemen

1:15

threatening global commerce, the Houthis. The

1:17

Houthis, which are an Iran-backed rebel

1:20

group that controls a large swath

1:22

of Yemen, have been launching attacks

1:24

on container shipping through the Red

1:27

Sea pretty quickly

1:29

after the October

1:31

7th attacks. The Houthis declared

1:33

their solidarity with Palestinians

1:36

fighting Israel, and actually

1:44

launched some long-range missiles at

1:46

Israel, which were intercepted either

1:48

by Israeli air defenses or

1:51

by the US military in the

1:53

region. Yemen's Houthi rebels have claimed

1:55

responsibility for a series of

1:57

drones and missiles launched towards Israel's Two

2:00

holidays city of Philips Israel reported

2:02

destroying an aerial target over the

2:05

Red Sea say since shifted tactics

2:07

to serve Targeting the to shipping

2:09

through this area is the. Leader.

2:12

Mohamad Alice's the sitting down for a

2:14

rare interview telling A B C News

2:16

that the group will escalate strikes on

2:18

any ship linked to Israel a lot

2:20

see a fall on Saturday. Are they

2:22

mad though? Other countries that attack us

2:24

will be a legitimate target for us,

2:26

such as the ships belonging to the

2:28

Surfing It's Teeth or heading to. It's

2:30

lot of ships they've attacked actually

2:33

have no connection. Israel are very

2:35

little connection Israel, but at this

2:37

point there been about twenty five

2:39

attacks by the booties against merchant

2:41

vessels traveling through the Red Sea

2:44

and it's caused a. Great.

2:46

Deal of chaos in the global shipping industry.

2:51

The one the kind of kicked

2:53

this whole thing off was in

2:55

late November when the with the

2:57

rebels on helicopters basically sees the

3:00

Galaxy leader israeli linked cargo ship

3:02

and and took it to Yemen

3:04

where it's. And

3:12

was them. Basically

3:16

they are being held essentially as

3:18

hostages with pretty limited communication. But

3:20

the outside world and you know

3:22

the way the shipping industry works

3:24

these ships are. they could be

3:26

owned by Maersk Danish Company but

3:28

you know, flagged in Malta, Liberia

3:31

in the case of the Galaxy

3:33

Litter. Most of the crew come

3:35

from the Philippines so nerve massive

3:37

numbers of countries sort of involved

3:39

in just one of the since.

3:44

He. Mostly attacks had anything like that.

3:46

It is a dip in a few different

3:49

types that they've tried a few different methods.

3:51

The. Latest target of Yemen. Susie's

3:53

Norwegian tankers trend up struck

3:55

by a missile. It's crew

3:58

was unharmed. It's it's own. says

4:00

it traveled from Malaysia heading to

4:02

Italy with a shipment of palm

4:04

oil. There was an attack in

4:06

recent days using a sort of basically

4:08

an uncrewed boat that exploded. And

4:11

one that a lot of defense experts I

4:13

talked to that really caught their eye is

4:15

the Houthis have been firing ballistic missiles at

4:18

ships. So a ballistic missile as

4:20

opposed to a cruise missile is one that

4:22

goes a lot higher and a lot faster

4:24

basically and is a lot more difficult to

4:26

intercept. And this may have

4:29

been the first ever use of an

4:31

anti-ship ballistic missile anywhere in the world.

4:37

So are the Houthis trying to steal

4:39

cargo here like proper pirates or are

4:42

they just in it to be disruptors? They're in

4:44

it for the disruption. I mean, basically

4:47

they want to target both shipping

4:49

that's sort of directly linked to

4:52

Israel or linked to countries

4:54

that are supporting Israel in its

4:56

war in Gaza. So this is

4:58

a way that they

5:00

found that kind of globalized the

5:03

conflict that imposed costs on the

5:05

international community for the actions Israel is

5:07

taking in Gaza. And I

5:09

think you can sort of see this

5:11

in the context of a wider set

5:13

of actions by Iran backed

5:15

groups in the Middle East. And so,

5:18

you know, we've seen that with Hezbollah launching

5:21

rockets into northern Israel. We've seen that

5:24

with these militias attacking US troops in

5:26

Iraq and Syria, which the US has

5:28

begun retaliating against. And so I

5:30

think the Houthi attacks you can see as

5:32

part of that. Who is this group that's

5:35

attacking these ships that's hijacking these ships? Who

5:37

are the Houthis? What's their origin story? So

5:41

the official name is the group is

5:43

Ansar Allah. They're usually called the Houthis.

5:45

They're named after their founder Hussein Al-Huzi

5:47

and his family, which is still kind

5:49

of in a leadership role. There's

5:52

A'idis, which is a minority Shia

5:54

Muslim sect. They are

5:56

based primarily in northern Yemen and they first

5:58

kind of came on the sea. seen as

6:01

a rebel group in the 1990s

6:03

fighting against Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is

6:05

the sort of long time dictator of

6:07

Yemen. I

6:11

ask for forgiveness from all

6:14

my people, men and women,

6:16

for any shortcomings during my

6:18

33-year-long rule. Saleh was overthrown

6:21

amid Arab Spring protests in

6:23

2012, which left a

6:25

kind of power vacuum that the Houthis

6:27

took advantage of. The CGI

6:29

Hootie rebels have bombarded the president of

6:31

Yemen's home and are trying to overthrow

6:33

the government, says the information minister. They

6:36

seized the capital city Sana'a in 2014. You

6:39

know, despite the fact that they hold

6:41

the capital, they're not recognized as the

6:43

Yemeni government by the international community. They're

6:46

still considered a rebel group. Secretary

6:48

of State Mike Pompeo has announced he

6:50

will designate the Houthis as a foreign

6:52

terrorist organization, and Abdul Malak al-Hootie and

6:54

two other leaders as terrorists. They

6:57

received substantial funding and

6:59

weaponry from Iran, and

7:02

they've been fighting this extremely

7:04

brutal war against Yemen's

7:06

internationally recognized government, along with forces

7:08

from an international coalition, which is

7:10

led by Saudi Arabia, and has

7:12

also received quite a bit of

7:14

support from the U.S. as well.

7:17

It's been an absolutely brutal war. About

7:19

377,000 people have been killed. Most

7:23

of those are actually not due to the

7:25

fighting themselves, but due to things like malnutrition,

7:27

unsafe water, famine. Yemen's eight-year-long

7:29

war has caused millions to flee

7:31

their homes to camps like al-Jasha

7:33

on the West Coast. Within

7:36

seconds of arriving, we were surrounded by

7:39

people begging for food and help. We

7:43

don't even have a morsel, not a bit

7:45

of rice to eat, he says. We have

7:47

nothing. Things have gotten a bit

7:49

better recently, actually. There was a ceasefire

7:52

brokered by the U.N. in 2022. Since

7:55

then, the fighting has died down, and the

7:57

Saudis have actually been holding talks with the

7:59

Houthis. international

10:00

shipping industry, which actually explicitly

10:02

called for a return of gunboat diplomacy

10:04

using the third term from the 19th

10:07

century, that the same way

10:09

the British Navy like protected shipping in

10:11

the 19th century, that the international community

10:13

should be doing this again. Let gunboat

10:15

diplomacy be confined to the past. But

10:18

there are legitimate uses of gunboats in the 21st century.

10:21

The continued flow of world trade is one of them.

10:24

Wow. Shots fired from Lloyd's list. Yeah.

10:28

So we have a

10:30

large flotilla contingent of

10:32

ships in the Red Sea. The US

10:35

Defense Department saying four boats with

10:37

Houthi rebels from Yemen firing on

10:39

US Navy helicopters, those choppers firing

10:41

back, sinking three of the four

10:44

ships and killing all crew members

10:46

on board. The fourth boat got

10:48

away. They're pretty effective, it seems

10:50

like, at shooting down these drones and missiles.

10:53

It was an incident in recent

10:55

days where they actually sunk four

10:58

Houthi attack boats. So

11:01

it's getting a little more tense. The Houthis

11:03

have said they're not going to stop, that they

11:05

view this as a moral mission on behalf

11:07

of the people of Gaza, on behalf of the Palestinian

11:10

cause. They're going to keep fighting

11:12

as long as the war on Gaza continues. The

11:16

question now is, one,

11:18

is the US going to escalate

11:20

by actually attacking targets in

11:22

Yemen, which would be a pretty major escalation,

11:25

and two, can they do

11:27

enough in the Red Sea to make

11:29

these shipping companies feel safe? The

11:31

answer for now is not. How

11:38

the Houthis disruptions in the Red Sea

11:41

Affect you, me, and the rest of

11:43

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As. I explain his

14:18

back. Would just kidding Josh You mention

14:21

that The Who Diesel basically stop hijacking

14:23

ships when they feel like it's how

14:25

shipping companies responding to that. Well.

14:27

The big announcement last week was said

14:29

Maersk the major Dana shipping company basically

14:31

said gonna keep sending it ships other

14:34

way around Africa. Nice says one

14:36

of it's containers shipments was targeted by

14:38

and they sell and legislate coming from

14:40

a pot of them in control by

14:43

the Houthi rebels. And several other

14:45

the major shippers have done the same.

14:47

One in five commercial ships are now

14:49

avoiding the Red Sea because as a

14:51

threat of attack, the Red Sea accounts

14:53

for sixteen percent of the world's shifting

14:55

and plays a crucial part and the

14:57

global supply chain. It should be mentioned

14:59

there is still sipping happening in the

15:02

Red Sea. Divine is down about twenty

15:04

percent was doses are there is still

15:06

lot of shipping happening. The Suez Canal

15:08

authorities very keen for sipping to continue

15:10

making that passes through the Red Sea.

15:12

They've released a statement they say. The

15:14

navigation say the Suez Canal flows

15:16

normally. As usual, Suez Canal will

15:18

remain the fastest and shortest route

15:20

as opposed to of course that

15:22

route around the Cape of Good

15:24

Hope. Do these interesting, We don't

15:26

seem to be targeting energy sermon,

15:28

sick or oil and gas shipments.

15:30

He added they're really focusing on

15:33

these a container ships. Perhaps because

15:35

those are like more associated with

15:37

the Western Powers they accuse affecting

15:39

Israel rather than them. You know,

15:41

middle Eastern countries that are producing

15:43

energy. It's roots. Thing the hear

15:45

the way the by ministers and

15:47

has sort of presented this is.

15:49

I was on a call with

15:51

one senior administration official last week

15:54

who was basically trying to sort

15:56

of distance this operations from the

15:58

Us support for Israel. in

20:00

Ukraine, it's been my main focus. And that's

20:03

been another case where these issues have

20:05

come into play because there was sort

20:07

of heavily mining and military

20:10

activity in the Black Sea. Russia

20:12

basically effectively blockaded the southern

20:15

coast of Ukraine. And

20:17

in that case, the key commodity

20:19

wasn't energy or finished goods, it

20:21

was grain. Ukraine's a major exporter

20:23

of grain, especially to actually

20:26

countries like Egypt and in

20:28

the Middle East and Africa. And so,

20:30

the UN got involved, there was a sort

20:32

of deal that was brokered to allow grain

20:35

shipments through, that fell apart. But that was

20:37

another, a lot of the same

20:39

issues actually were involved there. It was shippers needing

20:42

assurances that they'd be safe, like worrying

20:44

about freight rates and

20:46

insurance. And it's just kind

20:48

of a reminder of how

20:50

much disruption that geopolitical tensions

20:53

can cause this industry

20:56

that the global economy could not

20:58

function without. Which I think people

21:00

forget, right? Because you don't ever

21:02

see a cargo ship unless you live in a port

21:04

city. And even then, maybe you

21:07

don't, you just order something online. And

21:09

in two days or whatever, it's at

21:11

your doorstep. Right. And people involved

21:13

in this industry say that people only pay

21:15

attention to them when something goes wrong. And

21:17

it's not just war that does this. I

21:19

mean, an interesting dynamic

21:22

right now is that at the same time

21:24

the Suez route is blocked, the

21:26

Panama Canal is actually

21:28

operating at substantially reduced capacity because

21:31

of drought. Severe drought is drying

21:33

up the lakes that feed the

21:35

canal, plunging water levels so low

21:37

they've had to cut the number

21:39

of vessels passing through from 36

21:43

to 32 per day, delaying goods

21:45

and creating a growing waiting room

21:47

of ships out at sea. Some

21:50

vessels are also being forced to carry up to 40%

21:53

Less cargo and slow down so they

21:55

don't hit bottom. And So right now

21:57

we're in this... Situation

22:00

where you have both a war

22:03

in the Middle East and effects

22:05

of climate change and Central America

22:07

to sort of combining to create

22:09

massive disruption in there goes shipping

22:12

industry. This.

22:23

Is a pretty adaptable industry.

22:25

They're the kind of used

22:27

to dealing with contingencies with

22:29

bad weather with with you

22:31

know, close canals. It's

22:34

going to cause a disruption you know

22:36

where it was her through the Christmas

22:38

season now which they say is a

22:40

major time for the shipping industry that

22:42

the next on the watches and February

22:44

it's gonna be Lunar New Year in

22:46

China which is like a huge huge

22:48

time for commerce in that country in

22:50

and is always a time when is

22:52

a major uptick. In shipping that's a

22:55

lot of industry experts have been in

22:57

a reading and talking to say that

22:59

we may be inferred disruption that sort

23:01

of on par with what we saw

23:03

in Cove when you know you saw.

23:06

Factories sitting down and shipping and you

23:08

know there were shortages in a

23:10

certain goods as parts couldn't get there

23:13

in time like it's is where it

23:15

was sort of uses just in time

23:17

manufacturing models which depends on you know,

23:20

parts getting there on time, finished

23:22

goods moving around and. For

23:24

all the like one click ecommerce I

23:26

met a lot of it's still like

23:28

metal boxes on boats and ah when

23:31

something box as metal boxes are moving

23:33

it causes deceptions like all up and

23:35

down the supply chain. Eating

24:00

You can call Josh he writes about

24:02

the world for Vox you can read

24:04

em and box.com We also had a

24:07

help with today's show from Julian Border

24:09

at The Guardian. Thanks Julian, Halima Shaw

24:11

and Hatim Awad Be made our show.

24:13

It a Matthew Collette edited more A

24:16

Bullard and Amanda Llewellyn Fact checked Patrick

24:18

Boyd mixed and mastered This is Today

24:20

Explained.