The Breakfast Table

When a lorry brings food to your local shop, it runs on fuel, and fuel starts with oil. Much of that oil sails through one narrow sea lane, the Strait of Hormuz, between Iran and the countries of Oman and the United Arab Emirates.

Here is the surprise. Data firm Kpler says Gulf countries sent out 24.6 million barrels a day in the week to 18 October, more than before the war. Yet on Friday 30 October Brent, a price many countries follow, briefly went above $117 a barrel, its highest since April.

Why? Oil is taking costlier routes. Shuttle boats pass it to tankers waiting off Oman and the UAE, and moving a barrel has cost about $40 lately, around ten times normal, says LSEG, another data firm. October was also the deadliest month for attacks on merchant ships since the war began, with 32 incidents logged by UKMTO.

Picture a family on the Andhra Pradesh coast on Wednesday 28 October. Cyclone Arnab reached land near Yanam that day, rated a 'very severe cyclonic storm' by India's weather office, with winds of 125 to 135 km/h at its core and gusts up to 150 km/h. It faded to a 'deep depression' by afternoon.

Many families were not at home when it arrived. Officials asked about 50,000 people in Andhra Pradesh and about 48,000 in Odisha to move somewhere safer, and at least 609 Andhra schools became places to stay. Sadiq, of Kakinada, said the warnings gave people time to prepare. In southern Odisha, floods followed and over 100,000 people were evacuated.

The clean-up has now started. Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu says the first estimate of losses is Rs 4,600 crore (a crore is ten million), and may grow. He says at least seven people died, up from three in an earlier count. Farm fields covering about 70,900 hectares, mostly rice paddy, were damaged, and nearly 400 villages lost power. Families leaving relief camps get 25 kg of rice and cash.