The Suez Canal is blocked by a 400m container ship that somehow got stuck in the 210m-wide channel sideways. [John Scott-Railton via Agies] Strong winds are the main suspect, but there will clearly be some explaining to do by humans. After a day stuck there, the ship has been partially refloated but traffic is still at a standstill.
A useful explanation of how the sad state of affairs came to be:
The 224,000-ton vessel, sailing under a Panama flag, was en route to the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands when it was knocked off course. The ship — which at 400 meters is as long as the Empire State Building is tall — is wedged across the vital trade passage at the canal's 151-kilometer (94-mile) mark, the vessel's operating company said in a statement.
