the german shipping line hapag lloyd has said in the last couple of hours that it will continue to avoid the area for at least another week. it made the decision after another ship belonging to its rival maersk was attacked over the weekend. in that attack, houthi rebels based in yemen hit the ship with a missile and tried to climb aboard before the us navy intervened and sank the rebels four boats killing the crew in the process. the us military says there have been at least 23 attacks since mid november on a route that acconts for about 12% of global trade and which is now being avoided by several of the world s biggest shipping companies. let s unpack the latest on this with peter sand, chief analyst at the shipping analytics platform xeneta. thanks forjoining us. does this latest development suggests tha things are getting worse rather than better? you are hitting the nail on the head. we can see that from the direct developments on the platform where an essential