Category Archives: Egypt

Hilarious, literal, preciously simple: Big Boat Stuck in the Suez Canal was the narrative we needed | Ben Jenkins

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Finally, a global news event that we weren’t screaming at each other on Twitter about – and which was simple enough to explain to a child

As the Ever Given was freed from the Suez Canal on Monday — just under a week after it jammed itself in there like a husky gentleman in a waterslide — the prevailing attitude online was not one of relief or celebration.

The hashtag #putitback started trending as people, with varying degrees of sincerity, immediately became nostalgic for the time when the whole world’s attention was fixed on huge oaf of a boat gunking up 200km of canal.

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Stranding of Ever Given in Suez canal was foreseen by many – analysis

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Analysis: As ships ballooned in size, worst-case scenario was flagged up by organisations such as OECD

Authorities have blamed strong winds, possible technical faults or human error for the stranding of the Ever Given in the Suez canal.

But the running aground of the “megaship” – which salvage teams continued to try to free on Sunday as preparations were made for the possible removal of some of its containers – and the disruption of more than 10% of global trade, has been in the making for years longer according to analysts, who say an accident of this magnitude was foreseeable and warnings were ignored.

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‘Reclaim These Streets’ and rubber duck rallies: human rights roundup – in pictures

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Coverage on recent struggles for human rights and freedoms, from Cardiff Bay to Thailand

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Suez Canal: Biden offers help as some vessels head for Cape of Good Hope

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US president offers US equipment to help free the Ever Given, as shipping company Maersk begins rerouting cargo

Joe Biden has said the US is looking at what it can do to help free the 400-metre container ship Ever Given from its position blocking the Suez canal as the trade route crisis stretched into a fifth day.

“We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have. And we are seeing what help we can be,” the US president said on Friday in Delaware. His comments came after a US official said the navy was prepared to send a team of dredging experts to the canal, but was awaiting approval from local authorities.

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At least 20 livestock ships caught in Suez canal logjam

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Concerns for animals’ welfare if Ever Given blockage crisis is protracted


At least 20 of the boats delayed due to a stricken container ship in the Suez canal are carrying livestock, according to marine tracking data, raising concerns about the welfare of the animals if the logjam becomes protracted.

The 220,000-ton Ever Given is causing the longest closure of the Suez canal in decades with more than 200 ships estimated to be unable to pass, and incoming vessels diverting around southern Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

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‘Look at the children’: Egyptian man despairs at site of train crash – video

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‘We need an official to come see what has happened. They can’t remove the people from underneath the trains, it’s a shame, look at the children,’ an unidentified man yelled from a site where two trains collided in central Egypt on Friday. At least 32 people were killed and 91 injured, health ministry officials said. Unknown individuals triggered the emergency brakes on one of the trains causing it to stop, the rail authority said. The second train, which was travelling in the same direction, crashed into the first from behind, it added

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Dozens killed in train crash in southern Egypt, say authorities

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At least 32 people and 100 injured after collision between two trains in Sohag province

At least 32 people were killed and more than a hundred injured when two trains collided in southern Egypt. Authorities blamed a passenger activating the emergency brakes.

Two passenger cars flipped on their side from the force of the collision, the latest in a series of deadly accidents along Egypt’s troubled rail system, plagued by poor maintenance and management.

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Efforts to dislodge Ever Given in Suez canal continue – video

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Efforts to dislodge the stricken container ship blocking the Suez canal continue as fears mount that the operation could take weeks. The 400-metre-long Ever Given ran aground on Tuesday and has blocked traffic through one of the world's busiest shipping routes 

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Suez canal: Dutch and Japanese teams brought in to help free ship

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Salvage teams from Netherlands and Japan called in to help refloat Ever Given, which is blocking canal

Salvage teams from the Netherlands and Japan have been enlisted to redraw plans to free a giant container ship blocking the Suez canal, as fears grew that the operation could take weeks.

Taiwan’s Evergreen Marine Corp, which leased the vessel, said the Dutch firm Smit Salvage and Japan’s Nippon Salvage had been appointed by the ship’s owner and would work alongside its captain and the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on a plan to refloat the ship and let traffic resume on one of the world’s key trade routes.

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Suez canal drama – and a tiny bulldozer – inspire wave of memes

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Big ship getting stuck in a too-narrow waterway has spawned invocations of poetry, the pandemic and Austin Powers

It is the David and Goliath story of our times: one of biggest container ships in the world got stuck in the Suez canal, blocking a route through which 12% of the world’s trade passes – and sent to rescue it was a very small bulldozer.

2 guys and a bulldozer on site to dislodge a ship stuck in the Suez Canal. pic.twitter.com/APAIU7sCv6

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Suez canal blocked: attempts continue to free stuck megaship Ever Given – video

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Efforts to free the giant container ship are continuing after the 400m-long vessel became stuck in the Suez canal. Local authorities attempted to dislodge the 220,000 ton vessel from the banks of the canal using tug boats, but the megaship remains stuck more than one day after it ran aground. The blockage has caused an extensive traffic jam, with more than 100 ships laden with cargo including oil, automotive parts and consumer goods waiting to get through one of the world’s key trade arteries

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How a container ship blocked the Suez canal – visual guide

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The Ever Given, a 220,000-ton, ‘megaship’, became lodged in sand on eastern bank of canal on Tuesday

A container ship nearly 100 metres longer than the height of London’s Shard ran aground on Tuesday morning in the Suez canal, blocking one of the most vital arteries of the global economy.

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Giant ship blocking Suez canal partially refloated

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Tugboats work to free 400-metre ‘megaship’ Ever Given as vessels gather at either end of key waterway

One of the largest container ships in the world has been partially refloated after it ran aground in the Suez canal, causing a huge jam of vessels at either end of the vital international trade artery.

The 220,000-ton, 400-metre-long Ever Given – a so-called megaship operated by the Taiwan-based firm Evergreen – became stuck near the southern end of the canal on Tuesday. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said it had lost the ability to steer amid high winds and a dust storm.

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Suez Canal gridlock highlights its impact on oil and shipping prices

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Analysis: blockage of route through Egypt provides a reminder of its importance to global trade

The impressive span of Al Salam Bridge at El Qantara in Egypt gives a unique view over the Suez canal.

On a normal day a procession of bulk carriers in convoys can be seen for miles creeping into the hazy distance on both sides.

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Container ship runs aground in Suez canal causing traffic jam – video

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A container ship heading to Rotterdam has run aground in the Suez canal, blocking other vessels from passing through one of the world’s most important waterways. Video posted to social media showed a traffic jam of ships. The 200,000-tonne ship, the Ever Given, is 400 metres long (1,312ft) and 59 metres wide (193ft)

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Nawal El Saadawi, trailblazing Egyptian writer, dies aged 89

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Award-winning feminist author of more than 55 books was a resolute challenger to Egyptian governments

Egypt’s trailblazing writer Nawal El Saadawi died on Sunday at the age of 89, after a lifetime spent fighting for women’s rights and equality.

The feminist author of more than 55 books first spotlighted the issue of female genital mutilation (FGM) with The Hidden Face of Eve in 1980. A trained doctor, El Saadawi also campaigned against women wearing the veil, polygamy and inequality in Islamic inheritance rights between men and women.

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‘Our biggest challenge? Lack of imagination’: the scientists turning the desert green

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In China, scientists have turned vast swathes of arid land into a lush oasis. Now a team of maverick engineers want to do the same to the Sinai

Flying into Egypt in early February to make the most important presentation of his life, Ties van der Hoeven prepared by listening to the podcast 13 Minutes To The Moon – the story of how Nasa accomplished the lunar landings. The mission he was discussing with the Egyptian government was more earthbound in nature, but every bit as ambitious. It could even represent a giant leap for mankind.

Van der Hoeven is a co-founder of the Weather Makers, a Dutch firm of “holistic engineers” with a plan to regreen the Sinai peninsula – the small triangle of land that connects Egypt to Asia. Within a couple of decades, the Weather Makers believe, the Sinai could be transformed from a hot, dry, barren desert into a green haven teeming with life: forests, wetlands, farming land, wild flora and fauna. A regreened Sinai would alter local weather patterns and even change the direction of the winds, bringing more rain, the Weather Makers believe – hence their name.

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What can we learn from Africa’s experience of Covid?

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Though a hundred thousand people have died, initial predictions were far worse, giving rise to many theories on ‘the African paradox’

As Africa emerges from its second wave of Covid-19, one thing is clear: having officially clocked up more than 3.8m cases and more than 100,000 deaths, it hasn’t been spared. But the death toll is still lower than experts predicted when the first cases were reported in Egypt just over a year ago. The relative youth of African populations compared with those in the global north – while a major contributing factor – may not entirely explain the discrepancy. So what is really going on in Africa, and what does that continent’s experience of Covid-19 teach us about the disease and ourselves?

“If anyone had told me one year ago that we would have 100,000 deaths from a new infection by now, I would not have believed them,” says John Nkengasong, the Cameroonian virologist who directs the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Incidentally, he deplores the shocking normalisation of death that this pandemic has driven: “One hundred thousand deaths is a lot of deaths,” he says.

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Women need male guardian to travel, says Hamas court in Gaza Strip

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Rollback in women’s rights could spark backlash as Palestinians plan elections later in the year

A Hamas-run Islamic court in the Gaza Strip has ruled that women require the permission of a male guardian to travel, further restricting movement in and out of the territory that has been blockaded by Israel and Egypt since the militant group seized power.

The rollback in women’s rights could spark a backlash in Gaza at a time when the Palestinians plan to hold elections later this year. It could also solidify Hamas’s support among its conservative base at a time when it faces criticism over living conditions in the territory it has ruled since 2007.

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World’s oldest known beer factory may have been unearthed in Egypt

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Ancient Egyptian site in Abydos apparently dates back to beginning of the first dynastic period

American and Egyptian archaeologists have unearthed what could be the oldest known beer factory at one of the most prominent archaeological sites of ancient Egypt, a top antiquities official said on Wednesday.

Mostafa Waziri, secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, said the factory was found in Abydos, an ancient burial ground located in the desert west of the Nile River, more than 450km (280 miles) south of Cairo.

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