#Coronavirus on the Nile : April’s Coronavirus “Live Coverage”

A new month under the coronavirus pandemic. It is April and in its half of it, the Holy Month of Ramadan will commence and observed by more than one billion Muslim around the globe during what is believed to be the third wave of coronavirus.

From the preparation of Ramadan in Cairo in 2020
"Mohamed El-Shahed for AFP"

Last year we had our first Ramadan under partial lockdown that many did not respect or follow its role. The result was catastrophic officially and unofficially in numbers as from the second or third week of Ramadan 2020, we had a surge in the cases.

The highest numbers of coronavirus cases recorded and cases of coronavirus fatalities officially were in those weeks between May and June during Ramadan 2020 and after it.

It was the peak of coronavirus’ first virus in Egypt.

Now officials are worried the third wave of coronavirus will be in the upcoming weeks during Ramadan as well as the Orthodox Easter when Egyptians meet up for social gatherings.

This time the live coverage will extend to four weeks instead of two weeks to make it easier for me honestly because the second half will be during Ramadan as you may have known.

Please stay safe, stay at home and get vaccinated.

Here is the live update

Kodak Agfa Presents : Bahariya Oasis Heritage Private Museum

In February 2019, Kodak Agfa went on a short trip to the amazing and wonderful Bahariya Oasis of Egypt. Despite it follows the Giza governorate officially yet it is considered in the heart of the Western desert or rather we can consider it the gate of the Western Desert and its oases 

Interestingly the Bahariya Oasis is known in Egypt as Bahariya Oases and not only One oasis.

There are sites many sites and places I have been on this short trip including the city of Bawiti where I have been staying but I will kick it off with this small private museum I have been to hours before going back to Cairo.

That small private museum is the Bahariya Oasis Heritage. 

The Bahariya Oasis Heritage Museum from outside

This small privately-owned and operated museum is dedicated to the heritage, culture and history of the Bahariya Oasis, which is actually quite a mysterious place for the majority of the Egyptians from the valley of the Nile.

It is not your usual museum where you can find a collection of old artefacts but rather it is a heritage and art museum.

Ever Green Saga : Latest updates and memes too of Suez Canal Blockage Crisis

This post is to share all the latest news, updates and memes “yes” of the Ever Green on-going Saga.

For those who do not know 10% of world trade is technically in trouble because since Tuesday a gigantic container ship blocked the waterway of Egypt’s Suez Canal diagonally

Evergreen from Space by Maxar Satelite service 
for Getty images

There have been daily attempts by Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority to refloat the Japanese-owned Ever Green Container Ship with the help of Dutch Salvation but so far the attempts have not met any success.

Thus the third and the worst case which is offloading the gigantic ship will be on the table and that will take time.

Anyhow here is our Egyptian Chronicles live blog update on everything Suez Canal.

Ever Given Saga Continues : Tugging against time “Latest Suez canal crisis updates”

Up till now Gigantic Ever Given container ship is blocking not only Egypt’s Suez canal but also at least 10% of the world trade.

So far on Saturday evening the attempts to tug Ever Given continued using the high tide with 14 tugboats joining forces.

There has been no official statement from the Suez Canal Authority “SCA” about the progress of this attempt but some believe Saturday night may not be our lucky night.

The latest photo of Ever Given Saturday evening 

The Chairman of the SCA Vice Admiral Osama Rabea held a press conference Saturday afternoon to share with the media and the world the latest developments concerning the big ship.

Here are the most important points Rabea said.

• 321 vessels are currently stuck at the Suez canal.
• It will take 48 hours after “unblocking the canal” for those vessels to leave the canal.
• Currently, those vessels are receiving all needed logistics and support from SCA.
• The wind and the dust storm are not the main cause the vessel to run aground as it was claimed earlier
• The cause of this disaster is still being investigated.
• Before this disaster, the SCA used to achieve USD 12 million as revenue on a daily basis.
• It is unclear how much time it will take to solve this problem but the SCA is working day and night.
• No casualties or pollution have been caused by Ever Given.
• He thanked the countries that offered help including the United States, China and UAE.

Sohag Train tragedy : A return to the bad train accidents curse in Egypt “Graphic”

It is as if Egypt has not enough trouble this week with the Ever Given blocking the Suez, it ends the week with another tragedy:  A horrible train collision killing over 30 people and injuring over 100 others.

The tragedy started at 12:04 PM Sohag Local time when two trains collided in a rural village in the city of Tahta in Sohag governorate. 

Train “157” collided with “air-conditioned” Alexandria-Luxor train causing three train passenger cars to derail and flipped over.

The trains after the collision "Getty images" 

The result is at least 32 dead people and 108 injured according to the latest toll by the Egyptian Ministry of Health. 

ِAccording to the latest statements of Minister of Health Hala Zayed 19 people were killed and 185 were injured 

The injured's condition is between moderate to critical. 

In some sad coincidence, the accident took place near a cemetery inside that village in Tahta.

The victims were transferred to local hospitals after being saved by the locals before the authorities would arrive at the scene and lift up the trains.

In fact, the citizens tried to lift up the trains and open an exit for the victims to save them on time.

Ever Given Saga : Still blocking Suez Canal

For the third day in a row, Ever Given container ship is still blocking the Suez canal’s narrowest point and the Suez Canal Authority “SCA” brought more tug boats including larger ones with teams coming from Netherland and Japan to help in re-floating the ship.

According to SCA, 9 tugboats, 2 drudgers and 4 bulldozers are participating in the rescue works of the ship. 

 SCA announced on Thursday that it aimed to remove 20 meters of sand to reach 12-16 depth level to refloat the Ever Given through removing the sand around its bow.

The latest and clearest satellite image by Airbus for EverGreen's Ever Given
in the Suez canal 

Dredging the sands around the ship is actually the second scenario the SCA is using after an attempt to tug the gigantic ship on Wednesday according to Marine expert Mahmoud Nakhla who spoke with Egypt's Ahram Online about scenarios to re-float Ever Given. 

If dredging does not work then the SCA will have to unload some containers from the ship before lightning it, which is the worst-case scenario. 

It is an evergreen day at Suez Canal … literally !! "Updated"

It is all about evergreen in the Suez canal and in Egypt

It is not every day we find a huge big container vessel blocking the Suez Canal and its traffic creating a crisis in world trade movement worldwide even for short time !!

The Ever given vessel stuck by Julianne Cona on Instagram. 

The whole strange drama started at 7 AM on Tuesday when a gigantic vessel ran aground in the narrowest part of the Suez canal blocking it and creating a canal jam.

A 220,000-tonne, 400 metre-long Ever Given “Mega Ship” is technically stuck and the Egyptian Suez canal sent help with 8 mega tuck boats to help re-float.  

Currently, it is stuck in the narrow single-lane path between the Red Sea and Bitter lakes. ِ

Now we got news from Reuters that a team from the Netherlands will come and help in its refloating early Thursday, so yes we are speaking about more than 48 hours. 

The latest update we have so far from the Suez canal that the Suez canal authority team managed to free that part of the ship called "bulbous bow" which was stuck in the rocks.