War and Drought Are Choking the World’s Most Vital Trade Routes

Since early March, a previously obscure waterway between Iran and Oman that very few people could name has become the subject of daily reporting around the world after Iran closed it in response to the attack on Iran by the United States and Israel. The Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed to most ships, is now known around the world as the transit point for 20 percent of the world's oil and high percentages of key materials including fertilizers such as ammonia (23 percent), urea (34 percent) and phosphate (20 percent), helium (30 percent),…