Horror as 700ft cargo ship crunches into Suez Canal port
The camera shakes as the ship, towering above the little port near the Al Qantara Ferry Terminal, makes contact. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) confirmed that the Heavy Lift Vessel had veered off course and was dangerously close to colliding with the ferry dock.
'The incident did not result in any human losses or injuries, and the crisis was fully managed in a record time of 60 minutes,' it said in a statement issued Saturday. The quick-thinking crew managed to avert disaster by turning the ship away from the dock, ensuring only the side scraped against the land. No injuries or casualties were reported, and passengers were promptly evacuated, local media reports.
The SCA said that three tugboats were deployed 'immediately' to deal with the emergency and prevent greater harm. The tugboats were able to position the vessel mid the waterway and secure it after its crew conducted repair works, it said. The tugboats proceeded alongside the vessel to El-Balah area and then to the Great Bitter Lakes.
The Suez Canal possesses an integrated crisis management system that lets it respond to these kind of incidents, Admiral Ossama Rabiee, Chairman and Managing Director of the Suez Canal Authority, stressed. He also confirmed that navigation in the Canal was not affected, as the crisis was fully managed in a 'record time' of 60 minutes.
The authority checked the vessel for damage and made repairs to a 'small hole' in the bow above water level, the SCA said. The vessel is 217 metres in length, has a beam of 43m, and a gross tonnage of 41 thousand tons. It was transiting through the canal on a journey from the Netherlands to Sudan.
In 2021, the container ship Ever Given ran aground on the banks of the Suez Canal, becoming stuck for several days and causing disruption to international shipping. The 1,300ft-long container ship became trapped at a diagonal, blocking access to the critical global trade route running between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.
The Panama-flagged vessel, which is as long as the Empire State building, was wedged in the canal for six days, between March 23 and March 29, 2021, causing tailbacks of hundreds of ships. Many stranded vessels were holding animals. The Ever Given ran aground about 3.7 miles north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez, and forced boats astern to grind to a halt.
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Telegraph
19 hours ago
- Telegraph
I learnt to swim aged 47 after I almost drowned
There are many ways to humiliate yourself in the water, but being pulled out of a stretch of placid sea by a 14-year-old was probably my low point. 'Delayed drowning' has long been my standard answer when asked what my default swimming stroke is. Technically, I can swim, but I'm about as adept at it as Alan Shearer would be at playing Lady Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Company. So thank heavens for the boat captain's son, who hauled this 90kg writer out of the water after I overestimated my abilities on a Red Sea yacht tour. According to research from easyJet holidays, I'm not alone in being out of my depth: a study conducted by the brand this year found that one in six British adults cannot swim, and a third say they are not confident in the water. With over 100 public pools having closed and their diving boards removed in the past two decades, many adults have been left without access, support or confidence when it comes to getting in the water. Childhood trauma Personally, I've disliked swimming ever since my schooldays. Readers of a certain age will remember the drill: we lined up in our pyjamas at the pool's edge, then were forced to dive in to retrieve a black brick from the deep end. My tactic of shoving the brick down my trunks as I struggled back to the surface earned me the pleasure of making the plunge three more times as punishment. And we did this, again and again, for a full hour. As far as Sisyphean tasks go, this remains the ultimate for me. I have never, before or since this bout of aqua-sadism, felt the urge to rescue a brick from water. Suffice it to say, I've done my best to avoid swimming ever since. The Jordanian humiliation, coupled with decades of simmering jealousy at how my friends, and, more recently, my fiancée, can effortlessly leap from diving boards and navigate even fairly choppy seas without fear, eventually got to me. While many of my more youthful pleasures, cigarettes, fried bread, clubbing, are fading, something needed to replace them. I didn't want to ' wild swim ', a concept so smug and superior it makes Richard Hammond seem endearing by comparison. I just wanted to look less like a prat and more like a competent middle-aged bloke. I can learn to rewire plug sockets later. Leisure centre lessons I don't care much for leisure centres or gyms. To me, they're verruca contagion zones. But the pool where my lessons took place in south London was a surprise. The changing rooms weren't knee-deep in pubic hair and empty Lynx bottles. There were hairdryers. The locks actually worked. And the one sopping wet towel abandoned on the floor was swiftly removed by a cleaner whose face was so fierce I suspected he used the pool chlorine as mouthwash each night. I decided not to recount my past watery woe to Rodrigo, my instructor for the next six weeks, a gentleman who, I think, could sense my palpable discomfort in this alien environment. 'You need to think about the basics as BLABT', Rodrigo told me after asking me to swim a length so he could see my technique. 'Technique' was a somewhat grandiose term for my pathetic splashing. I stayed afloat and managed the length, but I must have looked fairly awful to Rodrigo. It certainly felt humiliating as I doggy-paddled down the pool. Desperate for advice, I listened as Rodrigo explained his mysterious acronym. 'BLABT stands for body position, leg and arm movement, breathing, and timing, those are the key elements you need to learn,' he said. 'At the moment, you're kicking far too much. Let the water do the work. Don't windmill your arms. So many swimmers think it's all about brute force, ploughing through the water. It's not. You can actually be much lazier and still be a better swimmer.' Learning to breathe This was Handel's Water Music to my ears. But I also suspected it couldn't possibly be this easy. I didn't know where to start with my insatiable desire to question pretty much everything he had just told me. I began with the most pressing: 'Rodrigo', I said, 'how can I do any of this when I can't even breathe with my face in the water?' To my bewilderment, it turned out to be effortless. Rodrigo taught me, in a matter of seconds, how to softly blow bubbles out of my mouth while my face was submerged. It worked instantly. I have no idea about the biology involved, but if you pretend you're gently blowing on a mug of hot tea while in the water, nothing gets up your nose. 'Breathing is all about manipulating how we take in and let out air while we're in the water,' Rodrigo elaborated. 'Exhale while your face is underwater, inhale when it's out.' I hadn't expected it at all, but by the end of that first lesson, my confidence in the water had improved markedly. Learning to crawl In my day, the only buoyancy aids we had were those bits of foam that looked a bit like gravestones. Modern swim school attendees, by contrast, are offered brightly coloured, bendy foam tubes. Tucking one under my arms, Rodrigo explained that the noodle would force my body into a narrower position, keeping me face down with a straight back and legs. It's called the 'supine position', apparently. It all reinforces Rodrigo's mantra: with swimming, the less frantic energy you expend, the better swimmer you become. 'With the noodle, you're showing your body and mind how to extend the arm while remaining buoyant,' he explained, striding alongside the pool edge. 'You have to learn to work with water. Every action has a reaction, so take it slow and steady at first.' The hardest part for me was combining all the elements to execute a proper front crawl: rotating my shoulders without excessive force, timing every third stroke to come up for air, and pausing for a split second between exhaling underwater and inhaling. Rodrigo explained that pause gives the brain a micro-moment to adjust to what the body needs to do next. Perhaps my most surprising discovery was how helpful the human shoulder is to a swimmer. Leaning the side of my head against my shoulder when taking a breath is strangely relaxing – a tiny nap before plunging back into the water, fully replenished with oxygen. If you're wondering, the exact formula is: drop the arm, turn the chin and come up while the other arm stays overhead. Turning the chin rather than lifting the whole head is revelatory, though for the first few weeks my brain struggled to coordinate every element of a proper stroke all at once. Lane swimming I learnt all the basics in one lesson, but I needed four more for the elements to fully cement in my brain – and for my brain and body to finally cooperate. This wasn't frustrating. Far from it. By the fifth lesson, I was ploughing up and down the pool, swimming around 200 metres each time in something very close to a proper front crawl. I had claimed the far-left slow-hand lane of the Vauxhall Better Health pool as my doggedly won territory. One day, I'll move up the hierarchy into the fast lane. It's good to live in hope. With Rodrigo's patience and occasional high-fives, I am now the proud owner of a 47-year-old body that no longer needs the assistance of 14-year-old Jordanians to get me out of trouble. I owe it all to Rodrigo, a burly, endlessly patient and calm man. He never once entered the water during my six one-to-one lessons – but he didn't need to. With the right instructor, a mere ten minutes of education is enough to start mastering the water. Rob received lessons at the Vauxhall Better Health pool via easyJet holidays Swim School, which is offering 1,000 adults free swimming lessons until 14 September.
The Sun
2 days ago
- The Sun
Moment blast rocks Baltimore harbor after cargo ship explodes sending flames into the air – near site of bridge collapse
DRAMATIC footage has captured the moment a cargo ship exploded in Baltimore. A fireball was seen coming from the vessel before plumes of thick smoke filled the air on Monday evening. The blast happened on board the W-Sapphire vessel - a Liberian registered ship that is heading to Port Louis, Mauritius. And, it happened in the Patapsco River near to where the city's Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in March 2024. No injuries were reported and all 23 people on board the cargo ship were accounted for. The ship stayed afloat and was assisted by tug boats, according to the Baltimore Fire Department. But, officials said the boat showed signs consistent with a fire and an explosion. The vessel, which is 751 foot long, is being moved to an anchorage area and is being investigated by the Coast Guard. Video showing smoke coming from the vessel was shared online. And, witnesses recalled what they saw. "We heard a huge explosion," Jay Steinmetz, who was on board a sailboat at the time, told the Fox affiliate WTTG-TV. " I thought that they were blowing up part of the bridge, but obviously I could see after I turned my head that there was a 200-foot plume of smoke over the boat that we'd just seen." The cause of the blast remains unknown at this time. Coast Guard officials have created a 2,000-yard safety zone around the blast site. The explosion comes more than a year after six construction workers were killed when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed. The bridge came crashing down after the container ship Dali hit a supporting pier. 4 4
BBC News
13-08-2025
- BBC News
Sudan war: Children dying of hunger in Darfur's el-Fasher city
The women at the community kitchen in the besieged Sudanese city of el-Fasher are sitting in huddles of desperation."Our children are dying before our eyes," one of them tells the BBC. "We don't know what to do. They are innocent. They have nothing to do with the army or [its paramilitary rival] the Rapid Support Forces. Our suffering is worse than what you can imagine."Food is so scarce in el-Fasher that prices have soared to the point where money that used to cover a week's worth of meals can now buy only one. International aid organisations have condemned the "calculated use of starvation as a weapon of war".The BBC has obtained rare footage of people still trapped in the city, sent to us by a local activist and filmed by a freelance Sudanese army has been battling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for more than two years after their commanders jointly staged a coup, and then fell in the western Darfur region, is one of the most brutal frontlines in the conflict. The hunger crisis is compounded by a surge of cholera sweeping through the squalid camps of those displaced by the fighting, which escalated this week into one of the most intense RSF attacks on the city paramilitaries tightened their 14-month blockade after losing control of the capital Khartoum earlier this year, and stepped up their battle for el-Fasher, the last foothold of the armed forces in the north and centre of the country where the army has wrestled back territory from the RSF, food and medical aid have begun to make a dent in civilian suffering. But the situation is desperate in the conflict zones of western and southern war: A simple guide to what is happeningAt the Matbakh-al-Khair communal kitchen in el-Fasher late last month, volunteers turned ambaz into a porridge. This is the residue of peanuts after the oil has been extracted, normally fed to it is possible to find sorghum or millet but on the day of filming, the kitchen manager says: "There is no flour or bread." "Now we've reached the point of eating ambaz. May God relieve us of this calamity, there's nothing left in the market to buy," he UN has amplified its appeal for a humanitarian pause to allow food convoys into the city, with its Sudan envoy Sheldon Yett once more demanding this week that the warring sides observe their obligations under international army has given clearance for the trucks to proceed but the UN is still waiting for official word from the paramilitary advisers have said they believed the truce would be used to facilitate the delivery of food and ammunition to the army's "besieged militias" inside have also claimed the paramilitary group and its allies were setting up "safe routes" for civilians to leave the responders in el-Fasher can receive some emergency cash via a digital banking system, but it does not go very far."The prices in the markets have exploded," says Mathilde Vu, advocacy manager for the Norwegian Refugee Council. "Today, $5,000 [£3,680] covers one meal for 1,500 people in a single day. Three months ago, the same amount could feed them for an entire week."Doctors say people are dying of malnutrition. It is impossible to know how many - one report quoting a regional health official put the number at more than 60 last week. Hospitals cannot cope. Few are still operating. They have been damaged by shelling and are short of medical supplies to help both the starving, and those injured in the continual bombardment."We have many malnourished children admitted in hospital but unfortunately there is no single sachet of [therapeutic food]," says Dr Ibrahim Abdullah Khater, a paediatrician at the Al Saudi Hospital, noting that the five severely malnourished children currently in the ward also have medical complications. "They are just waiting for their death," he hunger crises hit, those who usually die first are the most vulnerable, the least healthy or those suffering from pre-existing conditions."The situation, it is so miserable, it is so catastrophic," the doctor tells us in a voice message. "The children of el-Fasher are dying on a daily basis due to lack of food, lack of medicine. Unfortunately, the international community is just watching."International non-governmental organisations working in Sudan issued an urgent statement this week declaring that "sustained attacks, obstruction of aid and targeting of critical infrastructure demonstrate a deliberate strategy to break the civilian population through hunger, fear, and exhaustion".They said that "anecdotal reports of recent food hoarding for military use add to the suffering of civilians"."There is no safe passage out of the city, with roads blocked and those attempting to flee facing attacks, taxation at checkpoints, community-based discrimination and death," the organisations of thousands of people did flee in recent months, many from the Zamzam displaced persons camp at the edge of el-Fasher, seized by the RSF in April. They arrive in Tawila, a town 60km (37 miles) west of the city, weak and dehydrated, with accounts of violence and extortion along the road from RSF-allied is safer in the crowded camps, but they are stalked by disease - most deadly of all: cholera. It is caused by polluted water and has killed hundreds in Sudan, triggered by the destruction of water infrastructure and lack of food and medical care, and made worse by flooding due to the rainy season. Unlike el-Fasher, in Tawila aid workers at least have access, but their supplies are limited, says John Joseph Ocheibi, the on-site project coordinator for a group called The Alliance for International Medical Action."We have shortages in terms of [washing facilities], in terms of medical supplies, to be able to deal with this situation," he tells the BBC. "We are mobilizing resources to see how best we can be able to respond."Sylvain Penicaud of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) estimates there are only three litres of water per person per day in the camps, which, he says, is "way below the basic need, and forces people to get water from contaminated sources".Zubaida Ismail Ishaq is lying in the tent clinic. She is seven months pregnant, gaunt and exhausted. Her story is a tale of trauma told by tells us she used to trade when she had a little money, before fleeing el-Fasher. Her husband was captured by armed men on the road to Tawila. Her daughter has a head injury. Zubaida and her mother came down with cholera shortly after arriving in the camp."We drink water without boiling it," she says. "We have no-one to get us water. Since coming here, I have nothing left."Back in el-Fasher we hear appeals for help from the women clustered at the soup kitchen - any kind of help."We're exhausted. We want this siege lifted," says Faiza Abkar Mohammed. "Even if they airdrop food, airdrop anything - we're completely exhausted." You may also be interested in: 'I lost a baby and then rescued a child dodging air strikes in Sudan's civil war'Oil-rich Sudanese region becomes new focus of war between army and rival forcesSudan in danger of self-destructing as conflict and famine reign Go to for more news from the African us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
