Live updates: Follow the latest news on the Iran war
German has given English many useful words. Some are valuable in the current crisis: schadenfreude, joy in the misfortunes of others, or Energiewende, the transition to low-carbon energy. We could add another, schwerpunkt, the decisive point of a military campaign. In the war the US is waging against Iran now, this centre of gravity is the Strait of Hormuz – but does Washington know it?
Every day that ships cannot pass the Strait freely digs another inch in the grave of the world economy. Even allowing for bypass pipelines and withdrawals from strategic stocks, the market is short of more than 10 million barrels of oil per day, out of the prewar 100 million barrels of consumption. The last tankers to escape the Gulf before the fighting are even now arriving at their destinations in East Asia and Europe; then the traffic will stop.
