The mummified remains of 22 ancient Egyptian kings and queens will be paraded through the streets of Cairo Saturday, in an eye-catching royal procession to a new resting place.

Dubbed the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, the 18 kings and four queens will travel in order, oldest first, each aboard a separate float decorated in ancient Egyptian style.

They are being moved from a decades-long residency at the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo for display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation.

The new museum, in the south of the capital, opened its doors to limited exhibits from 2017 and will open fully on Sunday, before the mummies go on display to the general public from April 18.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/egyptian-mummies-with-golden-tongues-discovered-near-alexandria-361326">Egyptian mummies with golden tongues discovered near Alexandria</a>

Upon arrival, they will occupy "slightly upgraded cases," said Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo.

"The temperature and humidity control will be even better than it was in the old museum," added Ikram, a mummification specialist.

Emblazoned with the name of their allocated sovereign, each of the gold-coloured carriages will be fitted with shock absorbers for the 40-minute journey through Cairo, to ensure none of the precious cargos are accidentally disturbed by uneven surfaces.&nbsp;

Seqenenre Tao II, "the Brave", who reigned over southern Egypt some 1,600 years before Christ, will be on the first chariot, while Ramses IX, who reigned in the 12th century BC, will be at the rear.

Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut, the most powerful female pharaoh, will also make the journey.

Beginning at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Saturday, the procession will take place under the watchful eyes of hefty deployments of security forces.

The parade will be spurred on by music and performances from Egyptian artists, all broadcast live on state television.&nbsp;

Discovered near Luxor from 1881 onwards, most of the 22 mummies have lain since the early 1900s in the Egyptian Museum, on the capital's iconic Tahrir Square.

From the 1950s, they were put on display in a small room, one next to the other, unaccompanied by explanatory blurbs.

Ahead of their departure onto Cairo's streets, the mummies will be placed in special containers filled with nitrogen, under conditions similar to their regular exhibition boxes.

In their new home, they will be showcased individually, each next to a sarcophagus,&nbsp;and in some cases, a statue,&nbsp;in an environment redolent of underground royal tombs.

Exhibits will be signposted by a brief biography and, in some cases, copies of computerised tomography (CT) scans.

"The mummies will be shown for the first time in a beautiful way, for education, not for a thrill," another Egyptologist, Zahi Hawass said.

The macabre appearance of the mummies has over the decades put off some visitors.

Among the most prominent was a fellow royal,&nbsp;Princess Margaret, sister to British monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

"I will never forget when I took Margaret to the museum," said Hawass, a former antiquities minister.

"In the gallery was the mummy of Ramses II... (Princess Margaret) closed her eyes and ran away -- she couldn't stand" what she saw before her.

The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation was completed in 2010, and "I was planning to open this museum in 2012," Hawass said.&nbsp;

"But because of what happened in Egypt we could not," he added, referring to the country's 2011 popular revolution and subsequent turmoil.

The mummified remains of 22 ancient Egyptian kings and queens will be paraded through the streets of Cairo Saturday, in an eye-catching royal procession to a new resting place.

The mummified remains of 22 ancient Egyptian kings and queens will be paraded through the streets of Cairo Saturday, in an eye-catching royal procession to a new resting place. Dubbed the Pharaohs' Golden Parade, the 18 kings and four queens will travel in order, oldest first, each aboard a separate float decorated in ancient Egyptian style. They are being moved from a decades-long residency at the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo for display at the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation. The new museum, in the south of the capital, opened its doors to limited exhibits from 2017 and will open fully on Sunday, before the mummies go on display to the general public from April 18. Also read| Egyptian mummies with golden tongues discovered near Alexandria Upon arrival, they will occupy "slightly upgraded cases," said Salima Ikram, professor of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo. "The temperature and humidity control will be even better than it was in the old museum," added Ikram, a mummification specialist. Emblazoned with the name of their allocated sovereign, each of the gold-coloured carriages will be fitted with shock absorbers for the 40-minute journey through Cairo, to ensure none of the precious cargos are accidentally disturbed by uneven surfaces. Seqenenre Tao II, "the Brave", who reigned over southern Egypt some 1,600 years before Christ, will be on the first chariot, while Ramses IX, who reigned in the 12th century BC, will be at the rear. Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut, the most powerful female pharaoh, will also make the journey. Beginning at 6:00 pm (1600 GMT) on Saturday, the procession will take place under the watchful eyes of hefty deployments of security forces. The parade will be spurred on by music and performances from Egyptian artists, all broadcast live on state television. Discovered near Luxor from 1881 onwards, most of the 22 mummies have lain since the early 1900s in the Egyptian Museum, on the capital's iconic Tahrir Square. From the 1950s, they were put on display in a small room, one next to the other, unaccompanied by explanatory blurbs. Ahead of their departure onto Cairo's streets, the mummies will be placed in special containers filled with nitrogen, under conditions similar to their regular exhibition boxes. In their new home, they will be showcased individually, each next to a sarcophagus, and in some cases, a statue, in an environment redolent of underground royal tombs. Exhibits will be signposted by a brief biography and, in some cases, copies of computerised tomography (CT) scans. "The mummies will be shown for the first time in a beautiful way, for education, not for a thrill," another Egyptologist, Zahi Hawass said. The macabre appearance of the mummies has over the decades put off some visitors. Among the most prominent was a fellow royal, Princess Margaret, sister to British monarch Queen Elizabeth II. "I will never forget when I took Margaret to the museum," said Hawass, a former antiquities minister. "In the gallery was the mummy of Ramses II... (Princess Margaret) closed her eyes and ran away -- she couldn't stand" what she saw before her. The National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation was completed in 2010, and "I was planning to open this museum in 2012," Hawass said. "But because of what happened in Egypt we could not," he added, referring to the country's 2011 popular revolution and subsequent turmoil.

Egypt to parade mummified remains of 22 ancient kings and queens

India on Thursday launched the third phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive for people aged above&nbsp;45 in its biggest push yet against a surging coronavirus that has hit the highest daily count since early October.

The world's second-most populous country aims to immunise 400 million people after expanding the programme, which had been restricted to the over-60s and people with serious health conditions.

Seeking to exponentially expand the countrywide anti-coronavirus inoculation drive, the central government&nbsp;has decided to keep all public and private sector COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) operational throughout April, including on gazetted holidays.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/india-news/at-all-public-and-private-sector-centres-covid-vaccination-throughout-april-including-gazetted-holidays-374750" hreflang="en">At all public and private sector centres: Covid vaccination throughout April</a>

The centre wrote to all states and union territories on Thursday and asked them to make necessary arrangements for this, the Union Health Ministry said.

"This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the states and UTs on March 31 to optimally utilise all COVID-19 Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination.

"This decision is in line with the graded and pro-active approach employed by the government of India along with the states and UTs for COVID-19 vaccination," the ministry said.

The vaccination exercise continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level, it highlighted.

A countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated first, and vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2.

The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 to cover people above 60 and those in the age group of 45-59 but with specified co-morbid conditions.

India has&nbsp;also shipped millions of doses of the vaccine to neighbouring countries and then across the world as part of a diplomatic initiative to win friends.

Data released by the health ministry on Thursday showed 72,330 new COVID-19 infections, the highest since October&nbsp;11. Deaths stand at 162,927.

India on Thursday launched the third phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive for people aged above 45 in its biggest push yet against a surging coronavirus that has hit the highest daily count since early October.

India on Thursday launched the third phase of the coronavirus vaccination drive for people aged above 45 in its biggest push yet against a surging coronavirus that has hit the highest daily count since early October. The world's second-most populous country aims to immunise 400 million people after expanding the programme, which had been restricted to the over-60s and people with serious health conditions. Seeking to exponentially expand the countrywide anti-coronavirus inoculation drive, the central government has decided to keep all public and private sector COVID-19 Vaccination Centres (CVCs) operational throughout April, including on gazetted holidays. Also read| At all public and private sector centres: Covid vaccination throughout April The centre wrote to all states and union territories on Thursday and asked them to make necessary arrangements for this, the Union Health Ministry said. "This step has been taken after detailed deliberations with the states and UTs on March 31 to optimally utilise all COVID-19 Vaccination Centres across the public and private sectors to ensure rapid increase in the pace and coverage of COVID vaccination. "This decision is in line with the graded and pro-active approach employed by the government of India along with the states and UTs for COVID-19 vaccination," the ministry said. The vaccination exercise continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level, it highlighted. A countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated first, and vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced on March 1 to cover people above 60 and those in the age group of 45-59 but with specified co-morbid conditions. India has also shipped millions of doses of the vaccine to neighbouring countries and then across the world as part of a diplomatic initiative to win friends. Data released by the health ministry on Thursday showed 72,330 new COVID-19 infections, the highest since October 11. Deaths stand at 162,927.

India launches biggest vaccination drive as coronavirus cases rise

Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi vowed on Wednesday that his country will never&nbsp;become a launchpad for attacks on Saudi Arabia, during a long-awaited visit to the kingdom aimed at forging closer economic and security ties.

In January, explosive-laden drones had crashed into the main royal palace in Riyadh, with American media citing US officials as saying they were launched from neighbouring Iraq.

Saudi officials did not publicly disclose any details on the reported attack on the sprawling Al-Yamama complex, the official residence and office of King Salman as well as the main base of the royal court.

But the news raised alarm in a country that has frequently come under missile and drone attacks from Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, where Riyadh-backed forces are engaged in a six-year conflict.

A relatively unknown militant group in Iraq calling itself the Righteous Promise Brigade claimed responsibility for the strike, but it was considered by security experts to be a front for more entrenched Iran-backed militias.

Kadhemi said the group's claim was "not true" and insisted that the attack was not launched from Iraq.

"We will not allow any attack on the kingdom," he told reporters after what his aides described as an hours-long meeting with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"There haven't been any attacks" from Iraq.

"There have been attempts by some to... disrupt relations" between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, he added, without elaborating.

Known to maintain close personal ties with Prince Mohammed, Kadhemi walks a diplomatic tightrope as Baghdad often finds itself caught in the tug of war between Tehran and its rivals Riyadh and Washington.

Kadhemi's trip comes after the countries reopened their Arar land border crossing in November for the first time since Riyadh cut off diplomatic ties with Baghdad in 1990, following Iraqi ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

Aside from a discussion on border security, the Iraqi premier said he and his delegation of senior ministers sought to further boost trade and economic cooperation with the kingdom during a day-long visit to Riyadh.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia signed five agreements on&nbsp;financial, commercial, economic, cultural and media fields.

Separately, the Saudi state news agency (SPA) said the kingdom’s investments in Iraq were expected to rise to 10 billion riyal ($2.67 billion) from a little over 2 billion riyal ($533.29 million) now.

“There are a number of Saudi companies investing in Iraq and there is a real desire for a number of others to expand their investments there,” SPA said.

“The Saudi side is keen on additional investments that are expected to reach 10 billion riyal in various sectors.”

SPA added that Riyadh “considers positively” Iraqi calls for an increase in Saudi investment, especially in energy, water desalination and food industries.

Iraq is the second-largest producer in the OPEC oil cartel, outranked only by Saudi Arabia.&nbsp;

Kadhemi, whose government has sought to fast-track foreign investment including Saudi support for energy and agriculture, is pushing for deeper cooperation with Riyadh.

Kadhemi was scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as prime minister last July, but the visit was cancelled at the last minute when King Salman was hospitalised for surgery to remove his gall bladder.

His trip to Tehran, Riyadh's arch-rival, went ahead, with the premier meeting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

&nbsp;

Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi vowed on Wednesday that his country will never become a launchpad for attacks on Saudi Arabia, during a long-awaited visit to the kingdom aimed at forging closer economic and security ties.

Iraq Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi vowed on Wednesday that his country will never become a launchpad for attacks on Saudi Arabia, during a long-awaited visit to the kingdom aimed at forging closer economic and security ties. In January, explosive-laden drones had crashed into the main royal palace in Riyadh, with American media citing US officials as saying they were launched from neighbouring Iraq. Saudi officials did not publicly disclose any details on the reported attack on the sprawling Al-Yamama complex, the official residence and office of King Salman as well as the main base of the royal court. But the news raised alarm in a country that has frequently come under missile and drone attacks from Iran-aligned Houthi rebels in Yemen, where Riyadh-backed forces are engaged in a six-year conflict. A relatively unknown militant group in Iraq calling itself the Righteous Promise Brigade claimed responsibility for the strike, but it was considered by security experts to be a front for more entrenched Iran-backed militias. Kadhemi said the group's claim was "not true" and insisted that the attack was not launched from Iraq. "We will not allow any attack on the kingdom," he told reporters after what his aides described as an hours-long meeting with Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "There haven't been any attacks" from Iraq. "There have been attempts by some to... disrupt relations" between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, he added, without elaborating. Known to maintain close personal ties with Prince Mohammed, Kadhemi walks a diplomatic tightrope as Baghdad often finds itself caught in the tug of war between Tehran and its rivals Riyadh and Washington. Kadhemi's trip comes after the countries reopened their Arar land border crossing in November for the first time since Riyadh cut off diplomatic ties with Baghdad in 1990, following Iraqi ex-dictator Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait. Aside from a discussion on border security, the Iraqi premier said he and his delegation of senior ministers sought to further boost trade and economic cooperation with the kingdom during a day-long visit to Riyadh. Iraq and Saudi Arabia signed five agreements on financial, commercial, economic, cultural and media fields. Separately, the Saudi state news agency (SPA) said the kingdom’s investments in Iraq were expected to rise to 10 billion riyal ($2.67 billion) from a little over 2 billion riyal ($533.29 million) now. “There are a number of Saudi companies investing in Iraq and there is a real desire for a number of others to expand their investments there,” SPA said. “The Saudi side is keen on additional investments that are expected to reach 10 billion riyal in various sectors.” SPA added that Riyadh “considers positively” Iraqi calls for an increase in Saudi investment, especially in energy, water desalination and food industries. Iraq is the second-largest producer in the OPEC oil cartel, outranked only by Saudi Arabia. Kadhemi, whose government has sought to fast-track foreign investment including Saudi support for energy and agriculture, is pushing for deeper cooperation with Riyadh. Kadhemi was scheduled to travel to Saudi Arabia on his first foreign trip as prime minister last July, but the visit was cancelled at the last minute when King Salman was hospitalised for surgery to remove his gall bladder. His trip to Tehran, Riyadh's arch-rival, went ahead, with the premier meeting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iraq PM pledges country will never become launchpad for attacks on Saudi Arabia

Myanmar&nbsp;activists burned copies of a military-framed constitution on Thursday, two months after the junta seized power, as a UN&nbsp;special envoy warned of the risk of a bloodbath because of an intensified crackdown on anti-coup protesters.

Myanmar&nbsp;has been rocked by protests since the army overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on February&nbsp;1 citing unsubstantiated claims of fraud in a November election.

Suu Kyi and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) have been detained.

Alos read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/myanmar-protesters-defy-crackdown-as-un-envoy-warns-of-imminent-bloodbath-374653">Myanmar protesters defy crackdown as UN envoy warns of 'imminent bloodbath'</a>

The junta has accused her of several minor crimes, including illegally importing six handheld radios and breaching coronavirus protocols, but a domestic media outlet reported on Wednesday that she could be charged with treason, which can be punishable by death.

But one of her lawyers, Min Min Soe, said no new charges were announced at a hearing in her case on Thursday.

Her lawyers have said the charges she faces were trumped up.

<div class="videoWrapper trancodeVideo"><iframe allowfullscreen="" autoplay="1" class="includeVideo" frameborder="0" height="350" src="https://www.wionews.com/videos/straight-talk-myanmars-special-envoy-to-un-speaks-to-wion-374617/embed" style="width:100%;max-width:560px;" width="560"></iframe></div>

The UN&nbsp;envoy's warning of a bloodbath follows a flare-up in fighting between the army and ethnic minority insurgents in frontier regions.

At least 20 soldiers were killed and four military trucks destroyed in clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of&nbsp;Myanmar's most powerful rebel groups, DVB news reported.

Myanmar&nbsp;military aircraft have started bombing positions of another group, the Karen National Union (KNU), for the first time in more than 20 years and thousands of villagers have fled from their homes, many into Thailand.

In cities across&nbsp;Myanmar, there were candle-lit protests overnight and marches at dawn on Thursday, according to media and photographs on social media.

Protests gathered in several places on Thursday and two people were wounded when police opened fire in the central town of Monywa, according to witness&nbsp;posts on social media.

The coup has led to new calls for unity among those opposed to military rule, in particular city-based democracy campaigners and ethnic minority forces battling in frontier regions.

Ousted members of parliament, mostly from Suu Kyi's party, have vowed to set up a federal democracy in a bid to address a long-standing demand from minority groups for autonomy.

They also announced the scrapping of a 2008 constitution drawn up by the military that enshrines its control over politics. The military has long rejected the idea of a federal system, seeing itself as the central power vital to holding the fractious country together.

Social media posts showed copies of the constitution, real and symbolic, being burned at rallies and in homes during what one activist called a "constitution bonfire ceremony".

"The new day begin here!" Dr Sasa, the international envoy for the ousted parliamentarians said on Twitter, referring to what for now is a largely symbolic move.

The UN&nbsp;special envoy on&nbsp;Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgene, told the 15-member UN&nbsp;Security Council that the military was not capable of managing the country, and warned the situation on the ground would worsen.

The council must consider "potentially significant action" to reverse the course of events as "a bloodbath is imminent", she said.

The council has expressed concern and condemned violence against protesters, but dropped language calling the takeover a coup and threatening possible further action due to opposition by China, Russia, India and Vietnam.

At least 536 civilians have been killed in protests, 141 of them on Saturday, the bloodiest day of the unrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The United States on Wednesday urged China, which has significant economic and strategic interests in&nbsp;Myanmar, to use its influence to hold to account those responsible for the coup.

While Western countries have condemned the coup, China has been more cautious and the government's top diplomat Wang Yi called for stability during a meeting with his Singaporean counterpart on Wednesday.

Wang said China welcomed and supported a long-standing principle of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of not interfering in each other's internal affairs, even though there have been signs in recent weeks that adherence to the principle is wearing thin.

Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines have all spoken out about the situation in&nbsp;Myanmar&nbsp;and Thailand issued its strongest comments on Thursday, saying it was "gravely troubled" by the violence and calling for an end to it and the release of detainees.

In a sign of stepped-up shuttle diplomacy, the foreign ministers of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are due to meet Wang in China this week.

The&nbsp;Myanmar&nbsp;military has traditionally been impervious to external pressure.

Myanmar activists burned copies of a military-framed constitution on Thursday, two months after the junta seized power, as a UN special envoy warned of the risk of a bloodbath because of an intensified crackdown on anti-coup protesters.

Myanmar activists burned copies of a military-framed constitution on Thursday, two months after the junta seized power, as a UN special envoy warned of the risk of a bloodbath because of an intensified crackdown on anti-coup protesters. Myanmar has been rocked by protests since the army overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1 citing unsubstantiated claims of fraud in a November election. Suu Kyi and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) have been detained. Alos read| Myanmar protesters defy crackdown as UN envoy warns of 'imminent bloodbath' The junta has accused her of several minor crimes, including illegally importing six handheld radios and breaching coronavirus protocols, but a domestic media outlet reported on Wednesday that she could be charged with treason, which can be punishable by death. But one of her lawyers, Min Min Soe, said no new charges were announced at a hearing in her case on Thursday. Her lawyers have said the charges she faces were trumped up. The UN envoy's warning of a bloodbath follows a flare-up in fighting between the army and ethnic minority insurgents in frontier regions. At least 20 soldiers were killed and four military trucks destroyed in clashes with the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of Myanmar's most powerful rebel groups, DVB news reported. Myanmar military aircraft have started bombing positions of another group, the Karen National Union (KNU), for the first time in more than 20 years and thousands of villagers have fled from their homes, many into Thailand. In cities across Myanmar, there were candle-lit protests overnight and marches at dawn on Thursday, according to media and photographs on social media. Protests gathered in several places on Thursday and two people were wounded when police opened fire in the central town of Monywa, according to witness posts on social media. The coup has led to new calls for unity among those opposed to military rule, in particular city-based democracy campaigners and ethnic minority forces battling in frontier regions. Ousted members of parliament, mostly from Suu Kyi's party, have vowed to set up a federal democracy in a bid to address a long-standing demand from minority groups for autonomy. They also announced the scrapping of a 2008 constitution drawn up by the military that enshrines its control over politics. The military has long rejected the idea of a federal system, seeing itself as the central power vital to holding the fractious country together. Social media posts showed copies of the constitution, real and symbolic, being burned at rallies and in homes during what one activist called a "constitution bonfire ceremony". "The new day begin here!" Dr Sasa, the international envoy for the ousted parliamentarians said on Twitter, referring to what for now is a largely symbolic move. The UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgene, told the 15-member UN Security Council that the military was not capable of managing the country, and warned the situation on the ground would worsen. The council must consider "potentially significant action" to reverse the course of events as "a bloodbath is imminent", she said. The council has expressed concern and condemned violence against protesters, but dropped language calling the takeover a coup and threatening possible further action due to opposition by China, Russia, India and Vietnam. At least 536 civilians have been killed in protests, 141 of them on Saturday, the bloodiest day of the unrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The United States on Wednesday urged China, which has significant economic and strategic interests in Myanmar, to use its influence to hold to account those responsible for the coup. While Western countries have condemned the coup, China has been more cautious and the government's top diplomat Wang Yi called for stability during a meeting with his Singaporean counterpart on Wednesday. Wang said China welcomed and supported a long-standing principle of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) of not interfering in each other's internal affairs, even though there have been signs in recent weeks that adherence to the principle is wearing thin. Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines have all spoken out about the situation in Myanmar and Thailand issued its strongest comments on Thursday, saying it was "gravely troubled" by the violence and calling for an end to it and the release of detainees. In a sign of stepped-up shuttle diplomacy, the foreign ministers of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines are due to meet Wang in China this week. The Myanmar military has traditionally been impervious to external pressure.

Myanmar protesters burn military's constitution two months after coup

Egypt on Wednesday said that it may seek compensation worth $1 billion after a&nbsp;giant container ship ran aground, choking off international trade through the&nbsp;Suez&nbsp;Canal for almost a week.

According to&nbsp;Suez Canal Authority chief executive Osama Rabie, the amount is an estimate of the losses linked to transit fees, damages incurred during dredging and salvage efforts.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/nasa-shares-nighttime-satellite-images-of-traffic-jam-at-suez-canal-374752" hreflang="en">NASA shares nighttime satellite images of traffic jam at Suez Canal</a>

“This is the right of the country. It should get its due,''&nbsp;Rabie said.

The six-day blockage threw global supply chains into disarray after the 400-metre-long (430-yard) ship became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia.

The&nbsp;Suez&nbsp;Canal Authority (SCA) said on Wednesday that shipping had returned to normal levels, with a total of 81 ships transiting the canal.

Egypt's Leth Agencies said on Wednesday that a total of 163 ships had transited the&nbsp;Suez&nbsp;Canal since its reopening and that 292 ships were currently waiting.

Five LNG vessels transited on Tuesday, commodities analysts Kpler said in a note, adding that it appeared congestion at the canal was "now quickly tapering off".

The SCA has scheduled accelerated shipping convoys and has said it hopes the backlog of ships can be cleared by the end of the week.

The blocking of the canal is expected to give rise to flurry of insurance claims, with Lloyd's of London expecting a "large loss", possibly amounting to $100 million or more, according to its chairman.

The Japanese owner of the Ever Given said it had not received any claims or lawsuits over the blockage.

Egypt on Wednesday said that it may seek compensation worth $1 billion after a giant container ship ran aground, choking off international trade through the Suez Canal for almost a week.

Egypt on Wednesday said that it may seek compensation worth $1 billion after a giant container ship ran aground, choking off international trade through the Suez Canal for almost a week. According to Suez Canal Authority chief executive Osama Rabie, the amount is an estimate of the losses linked to transit fees, damages incurred during dredging and salvage efforts. Also read| NASA shares nighttime satellite images of traffic jam at Suez Canal “This is the right of the country. It should get its due,'' Rabie said. The six-day blockage threw global supply chains into disarray after the 400-metre-long (430-yard) ship became jammed diagonally across a southern section of the canal, the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said on Wednesday that shipping had returned to normal levels, with a total of 81 ships transiting the canal. Egypt's Leth Agencies said on Wednesday that a total of 163 ships had transited the Suez Canal since its reopening and that 292 ships were currently waiting. Five LNG vessels transited on Tuesday, commodities analysts Kpler said in a note, adding that it appeared congestion at the canal was "now quickly tapering off". The SCA has scheduled accelerated shipping convoys and has said it hopes the backlog of ships can be cleared by the end of the week. The blocking of the canal is expected to give rise to flurry of insurance claims, with Lloyd's of London expecting a "large loss", possibly amounting to $100 million or more, according to its chairman. The Japanese owner of the Ever Given said it had not received any claims or lawsuits over the blockage.

Suez Canal crisis: Egypt may seek $1 billion compensation

The United States highlighted a deteriorating picture for&nbsp;human&nbsp;rights across the world on Tuesday.

The State Department released reports on the&nbsp;rights situation last year in nearly 200 countries, which are required annually by law.

The report states that India has several significant human right issues including unlawful and arbitrary killings, restrictions on freedom of expression, corruption and tolerance of violations of religious freedom.

However, it appreciated the restoration of normalcy in Kashmir, saying ''The government continued taking steps to restore normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir by gradually lifting some security and communications restrictions.''

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/world/us-human-rights-report-lambasts-china-over-uighur-atrocities-374537">US human rights report lambasts China over Uighur atrocities</a>

The trendlines on human rights continue to move in the wrong direction, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said.

Governments that respect human rights are more likely to support the rules-based international order that the US and its allies have built and invested in for decades and decades, Blinken said.

Some have argued that it is not worth it for the US to speak up forcefully for human rights or highlight abuse only in select countries and only in a way that "directly advances our national interests", he noted.

"We will hear from some countries as we do every year that we have no right to criticise them because we have our own challenges to deal with," he said.&nbsp;

America's judgement is unsolicited as neither India nor any other country asked for the report.

The information for the report is collected from random sources NGOs, academics and activists. Their&nbsp;opinions are influenced by their politics.

The report praises allies of the United States. Blinken himself admitted that the US has to work on itself and is open towards the idea.&nbsp;

George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd lay on the pavement in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Floyd’s death has sparked global protests about racial inequality and police brutality, and renewed pledges from some to fight racism.

The number of immigrant families apprehended by US&nbsp;agents along the southern border nearly tripled in February from a month earlier to about 19,000 people. Hunger and poverty are spurring their flight. So is disinformation that has rocketed across social media and by word of mouth that the US&nbsp;border is now wide open.

According to government statistics, on Monday the&nbsp;Department of Health and Human Services,&nbsp;had 12,035 migrant children in its care, while the US Customs and Border Protection, the agency which first processes migrants, was holding another 4,068.&nbsp;

American troops deployed all across the world&nbsp;commit horrendous crimes&nbsp;in the name of security and get get a free pass for them in there country.

American presidents have carpet-bombed civilians and&nbsp;starved rival nations with sanctions.

The United States highlighted a deteriorating picture for human rights across the world on Tuesday. The State Department released reports on the rights situation last year in nearly 200 countries, which are required annually by law.

The United States highlighted a deteriorating picture for human rights across the world on Tuesday. The State Department released reports on the rights situation last year in nearly 200 countries, which are required annually by law. The report states that India has several significant human right issues including unlawful and arbitrary killings, restrictions on freedom of expression, corruption and tolerance of violations of religious freedom. However, it appreciated the restoration of normalcy in Kashmir, saying ''The government continued taking steps to restore normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir by gradually lifting some security and communications restrictions.'' Also read| US human rights report lambasts China over Uighur atrocities The trendlines on human rights continue to move in the wrong direction, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said. Governments that respect human rights are more likely to support the rules-based international order that the US and its allies have built and invested in for decades and decades, Blinken said. Some have argued that it is not worth it for the US to speak up forcefully for human rights or highlight abuse only in select countries and only in a way that "directly advances our national interests", he noted. "We will hear from some countries as we do every year that we have no right to criticise them because we have our own challenges to deal with," he said. America's judgement is unsolicited as neither India nor any other country asked for the report. The information for the report is collected from random sources NGOs, academics and activists. Their opinions are influenced by their politics. The report praises allies of the United States. Blinken himself admitted that the US has to work on itself and is open towards the idea. George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after a white police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes as Floyd lay on the pavement in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Floyd’s death has sparked global protests about racial inequality and police brutality, and renewed pledges from some to fight racism. The number of immigrant families apprehended by US agents along the southern border nearly tripled in February from a month earlier to about 19,000 people. Hunger and poverty are spurring their flight. So is disinformation that has rocketed across social media and by word of mouth that the US border is now wide open. According to government statistics, on Monday the Department of Health and Human Services, had 12,035 migrant children in its care, while the US Customs and Border Protection, the agency which first processes migrants, was holding another 4,068. American troops deployed all across the world commit horrendous crimes in the name of security and get get a free pass for them in there country. American presidents have carpet-bombed civilians and starved rival nations with sanctions.

Are human rights a US monopoly?

China&nbsp;deflected questions over an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 on Wednesday, after the WHO chief revived a theory it may have leaked from a Chinese lab and the United States led concerns over data access.

The pandemic has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide since it first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.

Throughout the pandemic,&nbsp;China&nbsp;has amplified theories that the virus may have surfaced outside of its borders or been imported on frozen food. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Now, China is pushing the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus originated in the United States.&nbsp;It's a disinformation campaign&nbsp;aimed at shifting the blame.

The campaign &nbsp;was crafted by&nbsp;Chinese foreign ministry spokesman&nbsp;Zhao&nbsp;Lijian.

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2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! <a href="https://t.co/vYNZRFPWo3">pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3</a>
— Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) <a href="https://twitter.com/zlj517/status/1238111898828066823?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 12, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Chinese state-backed Global Times&nbsp;was roped in&nbsp;to spread the virus of fake news.

The WHO's chief, long accused of complacency towards Beijing, hardened his tone Tuesday, urging further investigation into a theory Covid-19 sprang from a laboratory leak.

The director-general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also rebuked&nbsp;China&nbsp;for sitting on key data.

The theory that the new coronavirus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city where it was first detected in humans in December 2019, was a US favourite under former president Donald Trump.

China&nbsp;has always flatly rejected the hypothesis.

And the team of international experts sent to Wuhan by the World Health Organization earlier this year to probe the pandemic's origins have also all but ruled it out.

Their long-delayed report, written alongside the team's Chinese counterparts and published Tuesday, ranked four hypotheses in order of probability.

They said the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 disease most probably jumped from bats to humans via an intermediary animal, judging a lab leak to be an "extremely unlikely" source.

But Tedros said Tuesday the probe into Wuhan's virology labs had not gone far enough, adding that he was prepared to launch a fresh investigation.

China used social media as a tool to spread its propaganda. The country's Twitter-like microblog&nbsp;Weibo, targeted a NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in&nbsp;Fort&nbsp;Detrick and demanded an investigation on the origin-tracing laboratory.

Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman&nbsp;Hua&nbsp;Chunying&nbsp;told a briefing in China&nbsp;''I’d like to stress that if the united states truly respects facts, it should open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite who experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States, and respond to the concerns from the international community with real actions.''

Beijing insists it was transparent with the scientists. It said it provided open access to wet markets, labs, patients and data from the first torrid weeks of the virus, admonishing critics for "politicising" a global health crisis.&nbsp;

Last week, Swedish clothing retailer H&amp;M faced a public backlash in China when social media users circulated a statement the company made last year announcing it would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang. Other brands, including Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Hugo Boss, Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger, New Balance, Converse and Puma have since also come under fire for statements that they would not use cotton produced in the far-western Chinese region due to suspected forced labour and Chinese celebrity endorsers have dropped several foreign retail labels including Nike.

Activists and U.N. rights experts have accused China of using mass detainment, torture, forced labour and sterilisations on Uighurs in Xinjiang. China denies these claims and says its actions in the region are necessary to counter extremism.

Hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the&nbsp;South&nbsp;China&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;have spread to a wider area, the Philippines said on Wednesday, defying its demand for the flotilla to be withdrawn immediately.

Footage shot by the Philippine Coast Guard showed at least a dozen of the Chinese vessels anchored around the Whitsun Reef on Saturday.

The Philippines has described the presence of the boats inside its 200-mile (322 kilometres) exclusive economic zone at Whitsun Reef as "swarming and threatening", while Canada, Australia, the United States, Japan and others have voiced concern about&nbsp;China's intentions, prompting rebukes by Beijing.

Chinese diplomats have said the boats were sheltering from rough&nbsp;seas and no militia were aboard.

In a statement, the Philippines' task force on the&nbsp;South&nbsp;China&nbsp;Sea&nbsp;expressed "deep concern over the continuing unlawful presence (swarming) of the Chinese maritime militia, which did not pull out."

Citing intelligence gathered by its own patrols, the task force said 44 vessels were still at Whitsun Reef and about 200 others were spread out around other parts of the Spratly islands, including near&nbsp;China's militarised manmade islands, where four of its navy boats were seen.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

China deflected questions over an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 on Wednesday, after the WHO chief revived a theory it may have leaked from a Chinese lab and the United States led concerns over data access.

China deflected questions over an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 on Wednesday, after the WHO chief revived a theory it may have leaked from a Chinese lab and the United States led concerns over data access. The pandemic has killed nearly 2.8 million people worldwide since it first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019. Throughout the pandemic, China has amplified theories that the virus may have surfaced outside of its borders or been imported on frozen food. Now, China is pushing the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus originated in the United States. It's a disinformation campaign aimed at shifting the blame. The campaign was crafted by Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. 2/2 CDC was caught on the spot. When did patient zero begin in US? How many people are infected? What are the names of the hospitals? It might be US army who brought the epidemic to Wuhan. Be transparent! Make public your data! US owe us an explanation! pic.twitter.com/vYNZRFPWo3 — Lijian Zhao 赵立坚 (@zlj517) March 12, 2020 × Chinese state-backed Global Times was roped in to spread the virus of fake news. The WHO's chief, long accused of complacency towards Beijing, hardened his tone Tuesday, urging further investigation into a theory Covid-19 sprang from a laboratory leak. The director-general of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus also rebuked China for sitting on key data. The theory that the new coronavirus may have escaped from a lab in Wuhan, the Chinese city where it was first detected in humans in December 2019, was a US favourite under former president Donald Trump. China has always flatly rejected the hypothesis. And the team of international experts sent to Wuhan by the World Health Organization earlier this year to probe the pandemic's origins have also all but ruled it out. Their long-delayed report, written alongside the team's Chinese counterparts and published Tuesday, ranked four hypotheses in order of probability. They said the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19 disease most probably jumped from bats to humans via an intermediary animal, judging a lab leak to be an "extremely unlikely" source. But Tedros said Tuesday the probe into Wuhan's virology labs had not gone far enough, adding that he was prepared to launch a fresh investigation. China used social media as a tool to spread its propaganda. The country's Twitter-like microblog Weibo, targeted a NIAID Integrated Research Facility (IRF) in Fort Detrick and demanded an investigation on the origin-tracing laboratory. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a briefing in China ''I’d like to stress that if the united states truly respects facts, it should open the biological lab at Fort Detrick, give more transparency to issues like its 200-plus overseas bio-labs, invite who experts to conduct origin-tracing in the United States, and respond to the concerns from the international community with real actions.'' Beijing insists it was transparent with the scientists. It said it provided open access to wet markets, labs, patients and data from the first torrid weeks of the virus, admonishing critics for "politicising" a global health crisis. Last week, Swedish clothing retailer H&M faced a public backlash in China when social media users circulated a statement the company made last year announcing it would no longer source cotton from Xinjiang. Other brands, including Nike, Adidas, Under Armour, Hugo Boss, Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger, New Balance, Converse and Puma have since also come under fire for statements that they would not use cotton produced in the far-western Chinese region due to suspected forced labour and Chinese celebrity endorsers have dropped several foreign retail labels including Nike. Activists and U.N. rights experts have accused China of using mass detainment, torture, forced labour and sterilisations on Uighurs in Xinjiang. China denies these claims and says its actions in the region are necessary to counter extremism. Hundreds of Chinese vessels believed to be manned by militias in the South China Sea have spread to a wider area, the Philippines said on Wednesday, defying its demand for the flotilla to be withdrawn immediately. Footage shot by the Philippine Coast Guard showed at least a dozen of the Chinese vessels anchored around the Whitsun Reef on Saturday. The Philippines has described the presence of the boats inside its 200-mile (322 kilometres) exclusive economic zone at Whitsun Reef as "swarming and threatening", while Canada, Australia, the United States, Japan and others have voiced concern about China's intentions, prompting rebukes by Beijing. Chinese diplomats have said the boats were sheltering from rough seas and no militia were aboard. In a statement, the Philippines' task force on the South China Sea expressed "deep concern over the continuing unlawful presence (swarming) of the Chinese maritime militia, which did not pull out." Citing intelligence gathered by its own patrols, the task force said 44 vessels were still at Whitsun Reef and about 200 others were spread out around other parts of the Spratly islands, including near China's militarised manmade islands, where four of its navy boats were seen.

China asks WHO to investigate US origin-tracing laboratory

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday ruled out a general lockdown while acknowledging the country was going through a third wave of the pandemic.

Pakistan reported 4,757 new infections and 78 deaths on March 30, with two thirds of ventilators and around 80% of beds with oxygen facilities in major cities occupied.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/pakistans-president-defence-minister-test-positive-for-covid-19-374231" hreflang="en">Pakistan's president, defence minister test positive for COVID-19</a>

"We have to adopt a balanced policy where the spread of the virus can be prevented and where the poor man and the country's economy are least affected," Khan told a national coordinating committee meeting.

Pakistan has opted for what officials call "smart lockdowns", short-term restrictions imposed often at neighbourhood level,&nbsp;to try to tame the disease while keeping the economy afloat.

While federal and provincial governments have announced restrictions on gatherings, public transportation, and mask mandates, the measures have largely not been enforced.

Khan said he would direct the government to reinforce the mask mandates.

Also read|&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/jumping-queue-pak-minister-creates-stir-for-getting-family-vaccinated-against-covid-19-374293" hreflang="en">Pak minister creates stir for getting family vaccinated against Covid-19&nbsp;</a>

Some 800,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in Pakistan so far, all of them Sinopharm donated by Beijing, Health Minister Faisal Sultan said.

Sultan said half of another million doses bought from Sinopharm had arrived on Wednesday and the other half would arrive on Thursday.

Pakistan is scrambling to get more vaccine as it awaits WHO/COVAX/GAVI allocations of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which have been delayed.

The country is planning to acquire enough of a concentrated form of the Chinese CanSino Biologics vaccine next month to locally produce 3 million doses.

"We are speeding up this process and want to take it to the next stage," Sultan said.

Pakistan has allowed the private sector to import and sell vaccine, but a legal dispute between an importer and the government over the price has delayed that mechanism.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday ruled out a general lockdown while acknowledging the country was going through a third wave of the pandemic. Pakistan reported 4,757 new infections and 78 deaths on March 30, with two thirds of ventilators and around 80% of beds with oxygen facilities in major cities occupied.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday ruled out a general lockdown while acknowledging the country was going through a third wave of the pandemic. Pakistan reported 4,757 new infections and 78 deaths on March 30, with two thirds of ventilators and around 80% of beds with oxygen facilities in major cities occupied. Also read| Pakistan's president, defence minister test positive for COVID-19 "We have to adopt a balanced policy where the spread of the virus can be prevented and where the poor man and the country's economy are least affected," Khan told a national coordinating committee meeting. Pakistan has opted for what officials call "smart lockdowns", short-term restrictions imposed often at neighbourhood level, to try to tame the disease while keeping the economy afloat. While federal and provincial governments have announced restrictions on gatherings, public transportation, and mask mandates, the measures have largely not been enforced. Khan said he would direct the government to reinforce the mask mandates. Also read| Pak minister creates stir for getting family vaccinated against Covid-19 Some 800,000 doses of vaccine have been administered in Pakistan so far, all of them Sinopharm donated by Beijing, Health Minister Faisal Sultan said. Sultan said half of another million doses bought from Sinopharm had arrived on Wednesday and the other half would arrive on Thursday. Pakistan is scrambling to get more vaccine as it awaits WHO/COVAX/GAVI allocations of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which have been delayed. The country is planning to acquire enough of a concentrated form of the Chinese CanSino Biologics vaccine next month to locally produce 3 million doses. "We are speeding up this process and want to take it to the next stage," Sultan said. Pakistan has allowed the private sector to import and sell vaccine, but a legal dispute between an importer and the government over the price has delayed that mechanism.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan rules out general lockdown

&nbsp;President Joe Biden intends to pay for the $2 trillion package of infrastructure spending he will propose on Wednesday with a substantial increase in corporate taxes, people briefed on the plan said Tuesday.

The scale of the infrastructure program — one of the most ambitious attempts in generations to shore up the nation’s aging roads, bridges, rail lines and utilities — is so big that it will require 15 years of higher taxes on corporations to pay for eight years of spending, they said.

Despite his ambitious programs, Biden had pledged that his long-term economic agenda would not add further to the growing national debt. But the fact that his proposed tax increases would not cover his spending over the same period shows the challenge he has in balancing his big goals and the deficit.

Biden’s proposals include raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and efforts to force multinational corporations to pay significantly more in tax to the United States on profits they earn and book overseas. The corporate tax rate had been cut under President Donald Trump from 35% to 21%.

Biden’s infrastructure plan is the first step in a two-part agenda to overhaul American capitalism, fight climate change and attempt to improve economic productivity. Together, those two proposals could cost as much as $4 trillion between spending increases and tax incentives.

The spending in the first phase of Biden’s plan includes a wide range of investments in physical infrastructure, including highways, mass transit and electric vehicle charging systems and upgrades to water pipes, the electric grid and veterans’ hospitals. It also includes a big increase in federal research and development spending and efforts to provide home-based care to older and disabled Americans.

The second step, which officials have suggested will come next month, will feature spending and tax credits meant to invest in what liberal economists call human infrastructure. It will include aid to the poor, paid leave for workers, and measures meant to reduce the cost of child care and help women work and earn more.

Proposals to pay for that second step include tax increases on high-earning individuals and the wealthy, like an increase in the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%.

President Joe Biden intends to pay for the $2 trillion package of infrastructure spending he will propose on Wednesday with a substantial increase in corporate taxes, people briefed on the plan said Tuesday.

President Joe Biden intends to pay for the $2 trillion package of infrastructure spending he will propose on Wednesday with a substantial increase in corporate taxes, people briefed on the plan said Tuesday. The scale of the infrastructure program — one of the most ambitious attempts in generations to shore up the nation’s aging roads, bridges, rail lines and utilities — is so big that it will require 15 years of higher taxes on corporations to pay for eight years of spending, they said. Despite his ambitious programs, Biden had pledged that his long-term economic agenda would not add further to the growing national debt. But the fact that his proposed tax increases would not cover his spending over the same period shows the challenge he has in balancing his big goals and the deficit. Biden’s proposals include raising the corporate tax rate to 28% from 21% and efforts to force multinational corporations to pay significantly more in tax to the United States on profits they earn and book overseas. The corporate tax rate had been cut under President Donald Trump from 35% to 21%. Biden’s infrastructure plan is the first step in a two-part agenda to overhaul American capitalism, fight climate change and attempt to improve economic productivity. Together, those two proposals could cost as much as $4 trillion between spending increases and tax incentives. The spending in the first phase of Biden’s plan includes a wide range of investments in physical infrastructure, including highways, mass transit and electric vehicle charging systems and upgrades to water pipes, the electric grid and veterans’ hospitals. It also includes a big increase in federal research and development spending and efforts to provide home-based care to older and disabled Americans. The second step, which officials have suggested will come next month, will feature spending and tax credits meant to invest in what liberal economists call human infrastructure. It will include aid to the poor, paid leave for workers, and measures meant to reduce the cost of child care and help women work and earn more. Proposals to pay for that second step include tax increases on high-earning individuals and the wealthy, like an increase in the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6% from 37%.

Biden to pay for infrastructure plan with 15 years of corporate taxes

The traffic jam at the Suez Canal will soon begin easing, but behemoth container ships such as the one that blocked that crucial passageway for almost a week and caused headaches for shippers around the world aren’t going anywhere.

Global supply chains were already under pressure when the Ever Given, a ship longer than the height of the Empire State Building and capable of carrying furnishings for 20,000 apartments, wedged itself between the banks of the Suez Canal last week. It was freed Monday, but it left behind “disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel,” according to A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company.

The crisis was short, but it was also years in the making.

For decades, shipping lines have been making bigger and bigger vessels, driven by an expanding global appetite for electronics, clothes, toys and other goods. The growth in ship size, which sped up in recent years, often made economic sense: Bigger vessels are generally cheaper to build and operate on a per-container basis. But the largest ships can come with their own set of problems, not only for the canals and ports that have to handle them, but for the companies that build them.

“They did what they thought was most efficient for themselves — make the ships big — and they didn’t pay much attention at all to the rest of the world,” said Marc Levinson, an economist and author of “Outside the Box,” a history of globalization. “But it turns out that these really big ships are not as efficient as the shipping lines had imagined.”

Despite the risks they pose, however, massive vessels still dominate global shipping. According to Alphaliner, a shipping-data firm, the global fleet of container ships includes 133 of the largest ship type — those that can carry 18,000 to 24,000 containers. Another 53 ships are on order.

The world’s first commercially successful container trip took place in 1956 aboard a converted steamship, which transported a few dozen containers from New Jersey to Texas. The industry has grown steadily in the decades since, but as global trade accelerated in the 1980s, so did the growth of the shipping industry — and ship size.

In that decade, the average capacity of a container ship grew by 28%, according to the International Transport Forum, a unit of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Container-ship capacity grew again by 36% in the 1990s. Then, in 2006, Maersk introduced a massive new vessel, the Emma Maersk, which could hold about 15,000 containers, almost 70% more than any other vessel.

“Instead of this pattern of small increases in capacity over time, all of a sudden we had a quantum leap and that really set off an arms race,” Levinson said.

Today, the largest ships can hold as many as 24,000 containers — a standard 20-foot box can hold a pair of midsize SUVs or enough produce to fill one to two aisles in a grocery store.

The growth of the shipping industry and ship size has played a central role in creating the modern economy, helping to make China a manufacturing powerhouse and facilitating the rise of everything from e-commerce to retailers such as Ikea and Amazon. To the container lines, building bigger made sense: Larger ships allowed them to squeeze out savings on construction, fuel and staffing.

“Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCV) are extremely efficient when it is about transporting large quantities of goods around the globe,” Tim Seifert, a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd, a large shipping company, said in a statement. “We also doubt that it would make shipping safer or more environmentally friendly if there would be more- or less-efficient vessels on the oceans or in the canals.”

A.P. Moller-Maersk said it was premature to blame Ever Given’s size for what happened in the Suez. Ultralarge ships “have existed for many years and have sailed through the Suez Canal without issues,” company chief technical officer Palle Brodsgaard Laursen said in a statement Tuesday.

But the growth in ship size has come at a cost. It has effectively pitted port against port, canal against canal. To make way for bigger ships, for example, the Panama Canal expanded in 2016 at a cost of more than $5 billion.

That set off a race among ports along the East Coast of the United States to attract the larger ships coming through the canal. Several ports, including those in Baltimore, Miami and Norfolk, Virginia, began dredging projects to deepen their harbors. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spearheaded a $1.7 billion project to raise the Bayonne Bridge to accommodate mammoth ships laden with cargo from Asia and elsewhere.

The race to accommodate ever-larger ships also pushed ports and terminal operators to buy new equipment. This month, for example, the Port of Oakland, California, erected three 1,600-ton cranes that would, in the words of one port executive, allow it to “receive the biggest ships.”

But while ports incurred costs for accommodating larger ships, they didn’t reap all of the benefits, according to Jan Tiedemann, a senior analyst at Alphaliner.

“The savings are almost exclusively on the side of the carrier, so there was an argument that the carriers have been in the driving seat and have just pushed through with this big tonnage, while terminal operators, ports and, in some cases, the taxpayer, has footed the bill,” he said.

The shift to bigger ships also coincided with and contributed to industry consolidation that has both limited competition among shipping giants and made the world more vulnerable to supply disruptions. Buying and maintaining large vessels is expensive, and shippers who couldn’t afford those costs had to find ways to become bigger themselves. Some firms merged, and others joined alliances that allowed them to pool their ships to offer more-frequent service.

Those trends aren’t necessarily all bad. The alliances allow shippers to offer expanded service and help keep costs low for customers. And the fact that bigger ships cut fuel costs has helped the industry make the case that it is doing its part to reduce planet-warming emissions.

But the argument for even bigger ships may finally be fading, even for container lines themselves — a concept known in economics as the law of diminishing returns.

For one, the benefits of building bigger tend to shrink with each successive round of growth, according to Olaf Merk, lead author of a 2015 International Transport Forum report on very big ships. According to the report, the savings from moving to ships that can carry 19,000 containers were four to six times smaller than those realized by the previous expansion of ship size. And most of the savings came from more efficient ship engines than the size of the ship.

“There’s still economies of scale, but less and less as the ships become bigger,” Merk said.

The bigger vessels can also call on fewer ports and navigate through fewer tight waterways. They are also harder to fill, cost more to insure and pose a greater threat to supply chains when things go wrong, such as Ever Given’s beaching in the Suez Canal. Giant ships are also designed for a world in which trade is growing rapidly, which is far from guaranteed these days given high geopolitical and economic tensions between the United States and China, between Britain and the European Union and between other large trading partners.

The traffic jam at the Suez Canal will soon begin easing, but behemoth container ships such as the one that blocked that crucial passageway for almost a week and caused headaches for shippers around the world aren’t going anywhere.

The traffic jam at the Suez Canal will soon begin easing, but behemoth container ships such as the one that blocked that crucial passageway for almost a week and caused headaches for shippers around the world aren’t going anywhere. Global supply chains were already under pressure when the Ever Given, a ship longer than the height of the Empire State Building and capable of carrying furnishings for 20,000 apartments, wedged itself between the banks of the Suez Canal last week. It was freed Monday, but it left behind “disruptions and backlogs in global shipping that could take weeks, possibly months, to unravel,” according to A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company. The crisis was short, but it was also years in the making. For decades, shipping lines have been making bigger and bigger vessels, driven by an expanding global appetite for electronics, clothes, toys and other goods. The growth in ship size, which sped up in recent years, often made economic sense: Bigger vessels are generally cheaper to build and operate on a per-container basis. But the largest ships can come with their own set of problems, not only for the canals and ports that have to handle them, but for the companies that build them. “They did what they thought was most efficient for themselves — make the ships big — and they didn’t pay much attention at all to the rest of the world,” said Marc Levinson, an economist and author of “Outside the Box,” a history of globalization. “But it turns out that these really big ships are not as efficient as the shipping lines had imagined.” Despite the risks they pose, however, massive vessels still dominate global shipping. According to Alphaliner, a shipping-data firm, the global fleet of container ships includes 133 of the largest ship type — those that can carry 18,000 to 24,000 containers. Another 53 ships are on order. The world’s first commercially successful container trip took place in 1956 aboard a converted steamship, which transported a few dozen containers from New Jersey to Texas. The industry has grown steadily in the decades since, but as global trade accelerated in the 1980s, so did the growth of the shipping industry — and ship size. In that decade, the average capacity of a container ship grew by 28%, according to the International Transport Forum, a unit of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Container-ship capacity grew again by 36% in the 1990s. Then, in 2006, Maersk introduced a massive new vessel, the Emma Maersk, which could hold about 15,000 containers, almost 70% more than any other vessel. “Instead of this pattern of small increases in capacity over time, all of a sudden we had a quantum leap and that really set off an arms race,” Levinson said. Today, the largest ships can hold as many as 24,000 containers — a standard 20-foot box can hold a pair of midsize SUVs or enough produce to fill one to two aisles in a grocery store. The growth of the shipping industry and ship size has played a central role in creating the modern economy, helping to make China a manufacturing powerhouse and facilitating the rise of everything from e-commerce to retailers such as Ikea and Amazon. To the container lines, building bigger made sense: Larger ships allowed them to squeeze out savings on construction, fuel and staffing. “Ultra Large Container Vessels (ULCV) are extremely efficient when it is about transporting large quantities of goods around the globe,” Tim Seifert, a spokesman for Hapag-Lloyd, a large shipping company, said in a statement. “We also doubt that it would make shipping safer or more environmentally friendly if there would be more- or less-efficient vessels on the oceans or in the canals.” A.P. Moller-Maersk said it was premature to blame Ever Given’s size for what happened in the Suez. Ultralarge ships “have existed for many years and have sailed through the Suez Canal without issues,” company chief technical officer Palle Brodsgaard Laursen said in a statement Tuesday. But the growth in ship size has come at a cost. It has effectively pitted port against port, canal against canal. To make way for bigger ships, for example, the Panama Canal expanded in 2016 at a cost of more than $5 billion. That set off a race among ports along the East Coast of the United States to attract the larger ships coming through the canal. Several ports, including those in Baltimore, Miami and Norfolk, Virginia, began dredging projects to deepen their harbors. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey spearheaded a $1.7 billion project to raise the Bayonne Bridge to accommodate mammoth ships laden with cargo from Asia and elsewhere. The race to accommodate ever-larger ships also pushed ports and terminal operators to buy new equipment. This month, for example, the Port of Oakland, California, erected three 1,600-ton cranes that would, in the words of one port executive, allow it to “receive the biggest ships.” But while ports incurred costs for accommodating larger ships, they didn’t reap all of the benefits, according to Jan Tiedemann, a senior analyst at Alphaliner. “The savings are almost exclusively on the side of the carrier, so there was an argument that the carriers have been in the driving seat and have just pushed through with this big tonnage, while terminal operators, ports and, in some cases, the taxpayer, has footed the bill,” he said. The shift to bigger ships also coincided with and contributed to industry consolidation that has both limited competition among shipping giants and made the world more vulnerable to supply disruptions. Buying and maintaining large vessels is expensive, and shippers who couldn’t afford those costs had to find ways to become bigger themselves. Some firms merged, and others joined alliances that allowed them to pool their ships to offer more-frequent service. Those trends aren’t necessarily all bad. The alliances allow shippers to offer expanded service and help keep costs low for customers. And the fact that bigger ships cut fuel costs has helped the industry make the case that it is doing its part to reduce planet-warming emissions. But the argument for even bigger ships may finally be fading, even for container lines themselves — a concept known in economics as the law of diminishing returns. For one, the benefits of building bigger tend to shrink with each successive round of growth, according to Olaf Merk, lead author of a 2015 International Transport Forum report on very big ships. According to the report, the savings from moving to ships that can carry 19,000 containers were four to six times smaller than those realized by the previous expansion of ship size. And most of the savings came from more efficient ship engines than the size of the ship. “There’s still economies of scale, but less and less as the ships become bigger,” Merk said. The bigger vessels can also call on fewer ports and navigate through fewer tight waterways. They are also harder to fill, cost more to insure and pose a greater threat to supply chains when things go wrong, such as Ever Given’s beaching in the Suez Canal. Giant ships are also designed for a world in which trade is growing rapidly, which is far from guaranteed these days given high geopolitical and economic tensions between the United States and China, between Britain and the European Union and between other large trading partners.

Why the world’s container ships grew so big

Chinese&nbsp;state media outlet said on Wednesday some&nbsp;local authorities in&nbsp;China&nbsp;have resorted to "simple and crude" measures to push people into getting COVID-19 vaccines.

Shanghai and the provinces of Hubei and Heilongjiang have stressed they will treat vaccination as an important "political task", government websites and official media reports showed, while some Beijing districts have handed out shopping coupons or groceries as incentives, and given certificates to businesses where vaccination rates among staffers top 80 per cent.

Warning against such behaviour as&nbsp;China&nbsp;ramps up its inoculation efforts,&nbsp;Xinhua Daily Telegraph said&nbsp;"Some schools and authorities pegged vaccination to students' graduation and performance assessment of teachers; some institutes ignored employees' physical condition and required oversimplified full vaccination; some authorities interfered with firms' normal operation in order to speed up vaccination."

In an accompanying photo, a notice was pasted on the door of an unspecified business at an unspecified location that had been told by authorities to suspend operations, saying: "vaccination rate in this place is below 40 per cent. Please use caution when entering".

After falling behind the pace of some countries,&nbsp;China&nbsp;has drastically scaled up its vaccination efforts, administering between 3.7 and 6 million doses daily since March 25, bringing the number of shots injected to 114.69 million as of Tuesday, second only to the United States.

China&nbsp;is racing to hit a target of vaccinating 40 per cent&nbsp;of its 1.4 billion people by the end of June, although the country's success in quashing the domestic spread of the virus, as well as vaccine wariness among many in&nbsp;China, complicates those efforts.

A private survey conducted in February showed less than 50% of respondents were willing to be vaccinated.

National guidelines require that vaccinations be voluntary.

Resorting to "oversimplified" measures could make some people more resistant to getting vaccinated, the Xinhua Daily Telegraph said.

A high school in the southern city of Shenzhen required faculty members who didn't get vaccinated by the end of March to provide a written report to the principal explaining why, a person who received the notice told Reuters.

Authorities are also using less zealous measures to encourage vaccination, such as knocking on doors or using loudspeakers or banners to send messages.

A community in Beijing's Chaoyang district is offering stickers for vaccinated people, which could exempt them from showing health code phone apps before entering office buildings, according to the ruling Communist Party-backed Beijing Daily.

Chinese state media outlet said on Wednesday some local authorities in China have resorted to "simple and crude" measures to push people into getting COVID-19 vaccines.

Chinese state media outlet said on Wednesday some local authorities in China have resorted to "simple and crude" measures to push people into getting COVID-19 vaccines. Shanghai and the provinces of Hubei and Heilongjiang have stressed they will treat vaccination as an important "political task", government websites and official media reports showed, while some Beijing districts have handed out shopping coupons or groceries as incentives, and given certificates to businesses where vaccination rates among staffers top 80 per cent. Warning against such behaviour as China ramps up its inoculation efforts, Xinhua Daily Telegraph said "Some schools and authorities pegged vaccination to students' graduation and performance assessment of teachers; some institutes ignored employees' physical condition and required oversimplified full vaccination; some authorities interfered with firms' normal operation in order to speed up vaccination." In an accompanying photo, a notice was pasted on the door of an unspecified business at an unspecified location that had been told by authorities to suspend operations, saying: "vaccination rate in this place is below 40 per cent. Please use caution when entering". After falling behind the pace of some countries, China has drastically scaled up its vaccination efforts, administering between 3.7 and 6 million doses daily since March 25, bringing the number of shots injected to 114.69 million as of Tuesday, second only to the United States. China is racing to hit a target of vaccinating 40 per cent of its 1.4 billion people by the end of June, although the country's success in quashing the domestic spread of the virus, as well as vaccine wariness among many in China, complicates those efforts. A private survey conducted in February showed less than 50% of respondents were willing to be vaccinated. National guidelines require that vaccinations be voluntary. Resorting to "oversimplified" measures could make some people more resistant to getting vaccinated, the Xinhua Daily Telegraph said. A high school in the southern city of Shenzhen required faculty members who didn't get vaccinated by the end of March to provide a written report to the principal explaining why, a person who received the notice told Reuters. Authorities are also using less zealous measures to encourage vaccination, such as knocking on doors or using loudspeakers or banners to send messages. A community in Beijing's Chaoyang district is offering stickers for vaccinated people, which could exempt them from showing health code phone apps before entering office buildings, according to the ruling Communist Party-backed Beijing Daily.

China using 'crude' efforts to get people vaccinated, says state media

Graffiti or homage? Hi-tech imaging sheds light on Holy Sepulchre wall crosses

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