How conflict in the Middle East is squeezing global supply chains and affecting consumers

Global supply chain problems are starting to look like that bus you might wait ages for, only to see two come along at once. The first - and most enduring - threat to the carefully calibrated chain that links products from the "world's factories" in the Far East to Europe and the US was the Covid-19 pandemic that froze international shipping for an extended period in the spring of 2020. Then there was Russia's invasion of Ukraine which hit the trade routes from the east hard and brought wheat and sunflower supplies from eastern Europe to a shuddering halt in…