it happened late on tuesday and is the latest in a series of attacks which are prompting major shipping lines to take alternative, longer routes. the international chamber of shipping says that one in five commercial vessels and ships are now avoiding the red sea, which accounts for 12% of global trade. it s led to a near doubling in the cost of container shipping. the attackers say they ll continue to target vessels until palestinians in gaza are allowed sufficient food and medicine. michelle bockmann is principal analyst at the maritime analysts lloyd s list intelligence. thank you for being with us today, michelle. there have been multiple efforts to try and neutralise the threat from these houthi rebels to ships in the area. these latest attacks suggest they are failing. good afternoon. it certainly seems that way at the moment. the us coalition of military support that is meant to be helping that transit through the red sea to the suez canal seems to have failed to deter
biggest shipping firms, maersk and hapag lloyd. later today, the un security council is expected to meet and produce a diplomatic response. the red sea accounts for 15 percent of the world s shipping and plays a crucial part in the global supply chain. uk companies have been telling the bbc that shipping delays could push up prices. let s speak now to zvi schreiber, the ceo of freightos, an online marketplace for the international shipping industry based in israel. one in five might not sound that dramatic. is it? well, yes, it s usually dramatic. to put in context, there s about 4.5 million 20 foot containers equivalent going back and forth through the suez canal, and daily this is changing. there s a couple of days of quiet, when they start getting rooted through the suez canal again, getting rooted through the suez canalagain, and getting rooted through the suez canal again, and then there s a rocket attack and ships are either being told to stop and wait till their being
a chinese surveillance balloon was detected above montana. the government has abandoned plans to house asylum seekers in a pontins holiday park on merseyside. and a warm welcome in south sudan for pope francis, as he continues what s described as a pilgrimage for peace in africa. hello. good evening, welcome to bbc news. lancashire police say they believe that nicola bulley, who went missing while walking her dog, most likely fell into the river wyre. the mother of two, who s a5, was last seen a week ago in st michael s on wyre. air and underwater drones, helicopters, police divers and dogs are being used in the search. we can speak now to our reporter rowan bridge, who joins us from that area. more than a week since her family have seen her, a desperate story. explain more about what the police are saying. explain more about what the police are sa inc. , explain more about what the police are sa in. , explain more about what the police aresa inc. , , are saying. yes, it has
hello there. we start here in the uk, where we are about to find out if the economy has fallen into recession that s defined as two quarters in a row of negative economic growth. we already know the uk s entire economic output, or gross domestic product, shrank in the three months to september by 0.3%. injust over an hour, we get gdp figures for october to december. anotherfall would mean the uk is officially in recession. let s talk to melanie baker, senior uk economist at royal london asset management. her group managing funds worth over £150 billion. melanie, what is your prediction? for what we will hear today? fellow consensus is for a flat figure today so the economy having stagnated and i ve pencilled in the small increase but lost the forecasters expect a small fall in output and i think either way, it s not the healthiest place for the uk economy to be. ideally, you want an economy to be growing brusquely quarter on quarter and that isjust brusquely quarter on qua