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Suez Canal update: Ship still stuck, but officials hoping to make use of high tide

27 March 2021
Dan Ackermann

Suez Canal authorities said on Saturday that tugboats will make use of the high tide to try and dislodge the stuck cargo ship, BBC reports.

Why it matters: More than 270 boats are blocked and waiting for the Ever Given to be removed, per The Washington Post. The cargo ship — which is almost as long as the Empire State Building is tall — is causing incredible downstream damage to the global economy.

  • High tide is expected at around 10 p.m. local time, according to CNN.
  • "More [tugboats] will arrive on Sunday if the latest attempt fails," BBC writes.

What they're saying: Osama Rabei, the chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, said in a press conference on Saturday that he could not offer an exact timeline for when the ship would be dislodged, AP notes.

  • Hend Fathy Hussein, the spokeswoman for the Suez Canal Economic Zone, wrote in a Facebook post Saturday that the ship’s rudder had started moving again, the Post reports.
  • "The locomotives are now full force and the ship is starting to operate its machines, but it hasn’t been floating yet," Hussein said, per the Post.

What's next: Rabeisaid that if pulling the ship fails to move it, rescue teams might have to remove some containers to lighten the load, per BBC.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.