>> jerry blackwell described how derek chauvin knelt on floyd's neck while they ignored him saying "i can't breathe" over 27 times. they said floyd's drug use contributed to his death. we have the latest from minneapolis. >> we are right outside the courthouse.

cortez been adjourned for the day. there are a couple hundred protesters out here all calling for justice for george floyd. -- court has been adjourned for the day. everyone is here that we spoke to in the last few minutes, all gathered right after the judge ended the session for the day and adjourned the courtroom. they all just wanted to be here to voice their support for george floyd and his family. >> brazil's precedent is to replace six of his ministers in a major cabinet shakeup. he is facing growing pressure over his handling of the country's covid-19 crisis. we have more from rio de janeiro. >> increasing pressure on the president because of the mishandling of the pandemic. brazil has over 310,000 dead from the pandemic. the health minister, which was a

very loyal general, was already replaced because of this pressure. all eyes were on the foreign minister. the foreign minister is devoted to donald trump, as is jair bolsonaro, so they had that same speech, that they were against china. >> the container ship that has blocked the suez canal has re-floated. it could still take days to clear the backlog of ships queuing up on eier side of the canal. those are the headlines. next up, "inside story." ♪ mohammed: the cargo vessel blocking the suez canal is set free.

the disruptions cost billions of dollars in trade. so how long will it take for business to resume on one of the world's busiest shipping lanes? and can another mishap like this be avoided? this is "inside story." hello, and welcome to the program. i am mohammed jamjoom. a major disruption to global trade is closer to being resolved. salvage crews have refloated the ever given, a container ship that's been wedged across egypt's suez canal for nearly a week. it created a major traffic jam on the main shipping route between asia and europe. billions of dollars worth of trade has been lost. experts are now trying to move the vessel so other ships and tankers can finally pass. alexi o'brien reports.

reporter: finally on the move, the ever given, being towed down the sewers canal after being stuck for almost a week. celebrations began before dawn, as the massive container ship was first partially refloated. despite an international rescue effort, the vessel had been wedged across the waterway, which is one of the busiest in the world. since tuesday, dredgers and diggers have removed thousands of cubic metres of sand from underneath the ship, and a flotilla of tugboats has worked on dislodging it. it's forced tankers and cargo ships to queue at either end of the canal, delaying global trade. >> each day that passes, there's out $7 to $8 billion worth of goods which would usually pass through the canal, so a week later, you're talking $45, $50 billion of delays. we will catch up on some of that, but there will be ongoing days. it's hard to put a figure on it. and of course, some cargos may have perished, because they were

time critical. no doubt some big insurance claims going in. reporter: the crisis is having an impact on syria. the authorities are rationing fuel, as suppliers from iran are stuck. some vessels are carrying livestock, cotton from india for clothes, and auto parts from china. >> well, we've got 20 containers onboard, and the cargo ranging from vinyl flooring, through the foodstuffs, pump parts, and of course, our clients are very concerned that we're not going to get their goods in time. she was due to arrive in felixed this good friday, and i can't really see her arriving for at least another seven, maybe to 14 days. reporter: experts say the blockage raises long-term questions about the canal's sustainability. >> i think what's happened is that container carriers have got larger quite rapidly, and so, i think this particular accident was really waiting to happen.

there's got to be a lot of head scratching and thinking not only about making supply chains more resilient, but i'm sure the suez canal authority is having a good, hard think, as well, about how to make the canal itself more robust. reporter: despite the progress, the salvage company warns there are still challenges. and even with the ever given underway, canal authorities say it will take days for the backlog to clear. alexi o'brien, for "inside story." ♪ mohammed: all right, let's bring in our guests in london. stuart neal, communications director at the international chamber of shipping in copenhagen. --of shipping. in copenhagen, christian buga, professor of international relations at the university of

copenhagen. in zurich, maggie mandur, a political analyst. welcome to the program. christian, one of the things that keeps coming up in the discussion about all this is the size of the ever given. this is a mega ship. it is massive. it is almost as long as the empire state building. are ships these days simply getting too big, and will accidents like this continue to happen the more the size of these ships increases? >> ships are indeed getting bigger and bigger. in this case, the ever given is larger than an aircraft carrier. it's 400 meters in length. it carries 20, 000 shipping containers. -- it carries 20,000 shipping containers. and it is not surprising in the end that we are seeing increasingly accidents, and perhaps we should also not forget that this was not the first incident with this particular ship. there was a collision in 2019, which was equally linked to wind. so yes, the risk is clearly increasing. mohammed: what is the fallout of all of this going to be for egypt, especially in the short term >> well, i would say it's basically highlighting the

importance of e country and the position that the stability of this part of the world plays. in the short term, i don't see really any -- let's say, a major implication. domestically, the regime is going to try to play this out as a success, which relatively, it was, but internationally, of course, there will be more concern, not just towards the logistics of the canal, but the long-term prospects of the regime and the possibility of course of the disturbances considering the situation in the country, and the implications that this might have on trade and shipping globally.

mohammed: what are the steps that are going to need to be taken now to clear the backlog in the suez canal, and how long do you think that's going to take? >> well, it's going to take some time, i think. from our understanding, there is concern about some of the ships that are taking livestock, and those i understandl be prioritized, but it is going to take quite a few days, because of course, the ship, the canal at that point is a one-way journey. you can't, you know, do dual carriageway there, so we're going to have to move ships that are coming from europe to asia, and from asia and the middle east to europe, so that's going to take quite a few days to get through. my understanding is there's something in the region of 360, 350 ships backing up at the moment, and some are, as you may have reported, making the longer journey around the cape of good hope and the other side of africa. mohammed: christian, from your

perspective, has enough attention actually been paid to just how crucial maritime routes are for global trade and what the security implications are about all of this? >> the current quez canal crisis is clearly a wake-up call and makes us aware of how dependent we are on the sea. and there's this phenomenon that we always often describe as sea blindness. we lack awareness of how dependent we are on the sea. and this is, of course, radically different now with global supply chain management, and so on, and that of course also has an implication for how we regulate the shipping industry and in how far we are having a discussion on what is safe and what is not. mohammed: could you tell our viewers a little bit about just how important the suez canal is for egypt? i mean, both strategically and symbolically, you know for national pride purposes, as well.

>> yeah, so historically, the canal has occupied a very special place in the popular imagination. it was basically the rallying cry of the nationalist movements. its nationalization by nasser was the foundation of his regime. and so, it's a very important symbol of national pride. of course, economically, the revenues are about 1.5% of the gdp, so it doesn't seem that much. however, it is indeed critical

in terms of the provision of hard currency. the most important part of this is that it shows the importance of the country strategically to the world. so, if there are any blockages in the canal, the whole world will take notice. so, in short, it is a very important canal historically and currently. mohammed: stuart, considering what happened, how are shipping companies looking toward how egypt has handled what has occurred in the suez canal? is there a lot of concern growing about continuing to use the suez canal? are the discussions taking place among shipping company executives about trying to perhaps take other routes? >> the suez canal is a key

transit route for the shipping industry. we're talking about 12% of global shipping trade. and if you think globally, you know, about $14 trillion worth of product is shipped by the shipping industry per year. it is a key route, because, you know, anything up to an additional 12 days of transit, if you have to go around africa -- so i don't think that's an issue, because the reality is, the suez canal normally runs perfectly well, probably about 50 to 52 ships a day on average, well over 18,000 ships last year. so, you know, it's not really -- it's a short-term issue we'll overcome. the shipping industry is very and christian's point about sea blindness is probably because the shipping industry just gets on and does its job. mohammed: christian, from your

perspective, what are the lessons that need to be learned from all of this for the shipping industry and for global trade going forward? >> well, first of all, we have to see this in context, that this is about much more than short-term economic costs. it raises the question, what are actually the vulnerabilities of our current transport system? are other routes equally vulnerable? what does the trend towards the mega container vessels actually imply for the safety of navigation in different parts of the world? and then, what kind of public response do we actually need, both in terms of safety operations, but also in security operations? and let's not forget, there are also other vulnerabilities out there, and that ranges from piracy incidents in the gulf of guinea, for instance, then the spillover of the conflict in yemen, up until geopolitical

tensions. as we can see in particular in the strait of hormuz. so we literally need to see the global transport maritime transport system as a whole and carefully assess what are the vulnerabilities and where is it up to the shipping industry to take care of it themselves, and when is it that actually the public, the state government needs to kick in. mohammed: the egyptian government expanded the suez canal in 2015. it's my understanding that it was a different part of the canal, where the expansion happened, not where the ever given was stuck. from your point of view, is there now going to be a push to try to expand the suez canal further, and is that something that can even be done? >> i would be very surprised if there is, because the first expansion was basically built u@

as the basis for an economic revival. this again plays into the popular imagination of the canal, so the cost of the project was about $8 billion, with expectations, or the government stated that they're expecting the revenues of the canal to double. in the domestic media, some very, let's say, outlandish figures were stated that were never achieved. so the increase in the revenues was really minimal. so from an economic return perspective, i don't really believe that it made sense to

the point where cece himself said that the project was to raise national morale, after it became clear that the projected revenue figures were not realistic. so the idea of doing another expansion doesn't really serve the regime well, at least domestically. and now, the focus is on this new administrative capital, which is another multi-billion dollar project. i think the budget is around $58 billion, and the plan is to open up the first phase by the end of this year, so i don't really perceive that it would play well for the regime to do another project similar to that one. mohammed: stuart, a moment ago,

christian was talking about the lessons that ought to be learned by the shipping industry. in the wake of what has occurred in the suez canal, let me ask you, do you believe those lessons will be learned, or will it just go back to business as usual? >> no, i think the the industry's got a fairly robust security regime, whether that's through the international maritime organization, which is the global regulator part of the united nations, right through to port state control, and the requirements of an assessment of what happened in this instance, so we as an industry, very well regulated, very well focused on safety, because, you know, it's our prime requirement. so we will learn lessons. we need to learn lessons. and if there's anything that needs to be adapted and changed, that certainly would be incorporated into any of the arrangements going forward, be that regulation or operational requirements. mohammed: christian, when it comes to liability claims, who do you think ultimately is going to be held responsible for all of this?

>> this one obviously will be one of the largest legal cases ever, and i very much look forward to follow this over the next years, and if not decades. but let's not forget, we always also have to ask which of these responsibilities will lie with the shipping industry. was there a problem with navigation? was it largely linked to the winds? and what kind of accidents like this are predictable in the in the future? -- what kind of accidents like this are predictable in the future? let's not forget it was not a particularly good year for shipping so far. we had two incidents of major container loss in january, in february, and if we zoom even further out, last year, we saw a major oil spill in mauritius, but then also the bywood disaster, and i think all of these are incidents that really call for more attention to how the shipping industry is is

-- to how the shipping industry is regulated, but then also, what are the the good guys and the black sheep in that business? so these are the kind of questions that we need to ask, and not only now in the current crisis, but also more long term in the future. mohammed: a lot of analysts have said that what's really needed right now is a thorough and transparent investigation. what i want to ask you is, is that something that's going to be possible in egypt right now? >> well, let's say the regime doesn't have the best track record of that. so the possibility of that is limited, unless there is, let's say, enormous international pressure to have a thorough and transparent investigation.

the tendency of of the regime historically, when something like this happens, is to try to find the -- to try to shift the blame to somebody else, and not really take responsibility if the blame actually falls with the government, which is not clear at the moment, so the quick answer is no, but with a but, because the situation is really global in scale. so the room for maneuver, i would say, is rather limited, and i think that they might be forced to do that. mohammed: stuart, how much is all this going to impact freight costs, and when do you think we can expect the cost of these delays is going to be passed on to consumers? >> well, i think the the reality is that a lot of this is insured. most of the cargos will be insured, so whilst there will be delays, and there may be some increases, the reality is that, as christian talked of, you

know, we're going to see a very long and protracted legal action, rather than stopping the operations. what we do see, though, is that ships that would have been through the canal picking up something else, they will be delayed, and if those are products that are sort of food, they may have gone off, so there will be some cost in that. and obviously, the industry is working hard by either re-routing or doing what it can to ensure that that doesn't escalate. and of course, this comes on the back of the crew change crisis, and, you know, we're still seeing seafarers being denied access to get on and get off ships, which is causing a real constraint for the industry, and that's something that we've been very concerned about throughout the whole last year with the coronavirus outbreaks. mohammed: christian, i want to ask you to follow up a bit on what stewart was just saying there, because this situation is really only further complicating these supply chain problems that have been caused by the pandemic.

how has the pandemic impacted shipping in the past year? >> i think the most crucial dimension here is clearly the crew change problem, and many of the crews have been on vessels now for an enduring period of time, and that quite obviously also leads to fatigue. and we are going to see in the investigations in what way this has played a role in the swiss accident. we know already that it has played a role in other recent marine accidents, such as the mauritius oil spill, for instance, so quite obviously, there has been the significant impact from covid, and this risk canal crisis quite obviously comes at the worst imaginable time possible, because levels of shipping were just back to to

-- were just back to normal from the pre-pandemic times, so that's really, really a tricky bit we are in. but my prediction is that both because of the trends towards the mega vessels, but also considering climate change and more severe weather events, we are goingo see many more marine accidents in the future, and that quite obviously is not necessarily good news. mohammed: you said earlier that the egyptian government is really sort of claiming success right now. i want to ask you if you think, from your vantage point, that shipping companies really believe that the canal is going to be fully operational soon. or are they moving ahead with contingency plans? >> well, i think that's very hard for me to tell. i think in the next maybe day or two, things will be clear. but my understanding is that some shipping companies have now moved on to the contingency

plans, considering that the queue was around 350 ships, but i think considering the capabilities available, the government did do a relatively good job in being able to free the ship. mohammed: stuart, what can be done to prevent this from happening again? >> i think we need to learn the lessons, we do need to look at if there are any issues that were specific to this occasion, but the reality is that, you know, 90%, nearly 90% of everything that you and i and everyone have, use, eat, food, cars, even the ppe that we're all needing at the moment, that gets transported by ship. so, you know, the shipping industry globally has to carry on, and that's what iwill do. mohammed: all right, we've run

out of time, so we're going to have to leave the conversation there. thank you so much to all of our guests, stuart neil, christian buga, and maggie m. and thank you, too, for watching. you can see this and all of our previous programs again anytime by visiting our website, aljazeera.com. and for further discussion, go to our facebook page. that's facebook.com/ajinsidestory. you can also join the coersation on twitter. our handle is @ajinsidestory. from me, mohammed jamjoom, and the whole team here, bye for now. ♪

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