New world news from Time: The Global Gender Gap Will Take an Extra 36 Years to Close After the COVID-19 Pandemic, Report Says, Report Finds

The time it will take for the gender gap to close grew by 36 years in the space of just 12 months, according to the World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap Report. The report estimates that it will take an average of 135.6 years for women and men to reach parity on a range of factors worldwide, instead of the 99.5 years outlined in the 2020 report. 36 years marks the largest gain in one year since the report started in 2006.

Examining data from 156 countries, the report has used the same methodology for the past fifteen years and looks at four indicators: economic opportunity, political power, education and health. Countries are ranked according to the Global Gender Gap Index, which measures scores across these indicators on a 0 to 100 scale, and these scores are interpreted as distance to gender parity, or the percentage of the gender gap that has been closed in a country.

Although the report notes some progress in education and health, there are several sobering statistics relating to higher economic hurdles, declining political participation, and workplace challenges, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. With women holding only 26.1% of parliamentary seats and 22.6% of ministerial positions worldwide, the political gender gap is expected to take more than 145 years to close if it remains on its current trajectory, compared to 95 years in the 2020 edition of the report. The economic gender gap is not expected to close until the year 2288, with only a marginal improvement since last year.

Read more: Women and the Pandemic: A Special Report

The impact of the pandemic on women is still likely to be underestimated and isn’t fully seen in the data available so far, says Saadia Zahidi, managing director of the World Economic Forum. But the visible losses in terms of political empowerment and economic participation are concerning, she says, and highlight the need for governments and businesses to rebuild with gender equality in mind. “There can be perhaps a tendency to think of gender equality as an afterthought, to think about the challenges associated with gender equality and the permanent scarring that may occur in our labor markets as something that we deal with later,” Zahidi tells TIME. “Our point of view here is that we must do the exact opposite. This is actually the moment to embed consciously and proactively gender equality into the recovery.”

Zahidi points to multiple ways in which the pandemic has had a disproportionate economic impact on women. The consumer, retail and hospitality sectors which have sustained many closures are large employers of women. The closure of schools due to lockdowns has contributed to a retrenchment to older behaviors in terms of care responsibilities in many economies, she says “Women, including white collar women who are working from home, are now under a sort of double shift scenario, where they are primarily responsible for care responsibilities in the home, while at the same time obviously working under increased stress in the workplace,” she says.

Increased automation under COVID-19 has also impacted women’s economic participation. WEF’s The Future of Jobs Report 2020 noted that 84% of employers are accelerating their digitalization agenda, and 50% of employers intend to accelerate the automation of jobs. Research suggests low and middle income women are disproportionately represented in the jobs likely to be affected. “The future of work has actually already arrived, and because of that, there has been a greater disruption to roles that have tended to employ a majority of women,” says Zahidi.

Read more: Women Have Lost a Disproportionate Number of Jobs Due to COVID-19. Here’s How We Can Start to Fix a Broken System

The new report included data for three countries for the first time this year: Afghanistan, which ranks 156th; Guyana, which ranks 53rd; and Niger, which ranks 138th. The U.S. rose up the rankings 23 places this year to 30th place, largely due to an increase in women’s political empowerment, marked by an increase in women in Congress and a significant increase of women in ministerial positions as of January 2021, with the latter jumping from 21% to 46%. While Western Europe was the best performing region, the Middle East and North Africa region continues to have the largest gender gap, due in large part to the wide economic gender gap with just 31% of women taking part in the labor force.

Nordic countries led the way again as Iceland, Finland, Norway, New Zealand and Sweden topped the list as the most gender-equal countries in the world. Iceland took the top spot for the 12th time since the report first started 15 years ago, with 10.8% of its gender gap yet to close. Zahidi says the Nordic countries are a model in how to create longer term resilience by ensuring there is care infrastructure to support working families, as well as support for workers who have been laid off and for businesses to help stay afloat. “All of that pays off in terms of gender equality,” she says.

And as for ways to rebuild, Zahidi points to measures including greater investment from governments in the care economy, and businesses embedding gender parity and diversity into hiring and planning practices, especially when it comes to the roles of the future. “As we’ve seen before in previous crises, crisis can be a moment of great change. And they can be a moment where we head towards designing, hopefully, a better economy and society.”

New world news from Time: The U.S. Suspends a Major Trade Deal With Myanmar as It Steps Up Penalties for the Coup

WASHINGTON — The United States on Monday suspended a trade deal with Myanmar until a democratic government is restored in the Southeast Asian country after a Feb. 1 coup followed by a violent crackdown on protests.

The military overthrew the elected government, jailed Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders and has killed and imprisoned protesters in the country also known as Burma.

“The United States supports the people of Burma in their efforts to restore a democratically elected government,” U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. “The United States strongly condemns the Burmese security forces’ brutal violence against civilians. The killing of peaceful protestors, students, workers, labor leaders, medics, and children has shocked the conscience of the international community.”

Tai’s office said the United States was immediately suspending “all U.S. engagement with Burma under the 2013 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement.” Under the agreement, the two countries cooperated on trade and investment issues in an effort to integrate Myanmar into the global economy, a reward for the military’s decision to allow a return to democracy — a transition that ended abruptly with last month’s coup.

Tai’s announcement Monday doesn’t stop trade between the two countries.

But the United States is separately imposing economic sanctions on Myanmar. In response to the military takeover, for instance, the United States and the United Kingdom had earlier imposed sanctions on two conglomerates controlled by Myanmar’s military, Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. and Myanmar Economic Corp.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki noted that the U.S. has also slapped export controls on Burma and added several Burmese businesses to a trade blacklist. “We, of course, continue to work with our allies and partners and like-minded institutions, as we condemn the actions of the military, call for the immediate restoration of democracy, and hold those who seize power accountable,” she said.

Two-way trade between the two countries doesn’t amount to much: Myanmar last year was the United States’ 84th biggest partner in the trade of goods such as automobiles and machinery. U.S. goods exports to Burma came to just $338 million; imports to $1 billion.

But the U.S. and other wealthy nations are major importers of garments and other household items from Myanmar factories, mostly owned by companies from other countries, that have led the modernization of the impoverished country’s economy, helping provide millions of jobs.

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Associated Press writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.

New world news from Time: How the Giant Boat Blocking the Suez Canal Was Freed: Dredgers, Tugboats, and a Full Moon

The congregation of tugboats and dredgers that freed a skyscraper-sized container ship from Egypt’s Suez Canal on Monday had help from an extremely foreign body over the weekend: The moon.

The recovery vessels took advantage of high spring tides around the full moon on Sunday to free the Ever Given, which had blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal for almost a week. Its partial refloating just before dawn on Monday drew cheers and foghorn blasts from the bridges of other vessels caught in the bi-directional snarl that had held up hundreds of ships and billions of dollars worth of cargo each day since March 23.

Images on shipping trackers and reports from on the ground gave credence to the Suez Canal Authority’s (SCA’s) Monday afternoon announcement that the ship had been “fully refloated”, allowing for “restoration of the vessel’s direction so it is positioned in the middle of the navigable waterway”. As of Thursday evening, the Ever Given was headed for Great Bitter Lake, a wider stretch of water where the vessel will be examined according to its Taiwanese operator Evergreen Marine.

Only hours after tug boats had initially wrenched the stern free, some news outlets reported that strong winds had blown it back to its stuck position across the 205-meter southern section of the canal. Although the SCA confirmed it the Ever Given had been fully refloated soon after, the incident underscored the precariousness of the operation and will likely prompt further scrutiny of the vessel’s apparent vulnerability to strong winds.

Here’s what to know about the freeing of the Ever Given:

Who refloated the vessel and how was it freed?

It took 14 tugboats conducting pulling maneuvers from three directions to achieve, according to the SCA. Their task was made easier by dredgers that worked over the weekend to dislodge the stranded vessel, shifting some 27,000 metric tons of sand to a depth of 60 feet. The tides helped too: Suez Canal forecasts showed that the Ever Given vessel was partially refloated as spring high tide levels peaked. After Tuesday, high tide heights will begin to decline again.

Both domestic and international recovery teams helped out. On Monday, Egypt’s authoritarian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi thanked “every loyal Egyptian who contributed” to refloating the ship. “Today the Egyptians succeeded in ending the crisis of the grounded ship in the Suez Canal, despite massive technical complications which engulfed this operation,” he wrote in an Arabic-language tweet.

But international teams were also involved. Dutch dredging and heavy-lift firm Boskalis dispatched a team to assist the vessel as early as Wednesday, according to shipping publication Trade Winds. “Don’t cheer too soon,” Boskalis CEO Peter Berdowski cautioned amid celebrations as the Ever Given was partially refloated on Monday morning, warning that the hardest part was still to come. But later that day, he confirmed the operation had been a success. “We pulled it off!” Berdowski said in a later statement. “I am excited to announce that our team of experts, working in close collaboration with the Suez Canal Authority, successfully refloated the Ever Given …thereby making free passage through the Suez Canal possible again.”

How did the ship get stuck in the first place?

It’s still not clear. Initial reports from the SCA stated that Ever Given lost control amid strong winds and sandstorms. Evergreen Marine, its operator, said the same: that it “was suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind.” Meanwhile, vessel management firm Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said Thursday that initial investigations ruled out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding.

But on Saturday, the chairman of the SCA Osama Rabie offered a contradictory version of events. “Weather factors were not the main reasons for the ship’s grounding,” he said, and “technical or human errors” may have played a role in the accident.

How much did the blockage end up costing?

It’s difficult to determine because delays affect the different goods in different ways. Still, the costs would have been considerable: about 12% of global trade passes through the Suez Canal. The most vulnerable were already feeling the pinch. Over the weekend, Syria’s oil ministry announced that it had begun rationing the distribution of fuel in the country amid concerns that oil shipments could be delayed. The war-torn country where some 80% of the population lives in poverty is already suffering from fuel shortages, and the government of dictator Bashar al-Assad has already raised fuel prices three times this year, the AP reports.

For Egypt, the Ever Given’s refloating must have come as a relief. The canal is a vital source of foreign revenue and its blockage was costing some $14-$15 million a day, SCA’s chairman Rabie said.

There would have been reputational concerns too. As early as last Thursday, some large ships had begun to divert away from Suez and towards the African cape, even though that route can take an additional two weeks. But for container ships traveling between Asia and the U.S. East Coast, there is another option. The Suez Canal began to gain market share from the Panama Canal as manufacturing centers gradually moved south from northeast Asia to southern China and Southeast Asia. But a longer-term impediment to transit through the canal could have reversed that trend.

What happens next?

The question of whether Ever Given—and container ships of similar magnitude—have a propensity to lose control during strong winds is likely to attract further scrutiny.

Insurers were already wary of the risks posed by mega-ships carrying expensive cargo, experts say. Data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows that the average size of the largest container ship that ports manage has more than doubled over the past 15 years: from 100 Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit (TEU) at the beginning of 2006 to 225 TEU by the end of 2020. The Ever Given is the same size as the largest bulk container ships that transport commodities like iron ore. But the ship—which was reportedly involved in a separate accident attributed to high winds in 2019—carries a far more valuable cargo.

Some 3000 containers were lost in the North Pacific in the first two months of 2021. Last December, 1,900 “boxes” were lost in a single incident, including some containing dangerous goods, says Diane Gilpin, founder of the U.K.-based Smart Green Shipping Alliance.

But it is not only the possibility of accidents or loss of cargo that is cause for concern with massive container ships, says Jan Hoffman, chief of UNCTAD’s trade logistics branch. Although mega-ships still make savings in terms of CO2 per tonne mile on the sea-leg of their journeys, “in the ports and hinterlands there is lots of additional expenditure necessary to cope with the higher peak demand,” he says. “We have reached dis-economies of scale for the total logistics chain.”

New world news from Time: The Blocked Suez Canal Isn’t the Only Waterway the World Should Be Worried About

I’ve sailed through the Suez Canal many times—as a junior officer, a captain of a destroyer, a commodore in command of a group of destroyers, and as a strike group commander on the nuclear aircraft carrier Enterprise. It is a fascinating trip, and dangerous in a variety of ways. At various times, the terrorist threat was very high and we went through with crew-served weapons manned fore and aft, and helicopters over head. Exhaustion for the senior leaders tends to be a factor as it is a long passage. As a ship’s captain, I almost went aground in the Great Bitter Lake, as the Suez is called, after a couple of bad navigational decisions on my part, but, fortunately, my navigator saved my career with some good advice.

But as we’ve all seen over the past few days, it can be dangerous from the perspective of seemingly simple and routine marine operations. The grounding and wedging athwart the canal of the Ever Given is beyond unusual, and hopefully there will eventually be a full accounting of the factors that led this accident—weather, poor advice from canal pilots, bad ship handling all seem to have played a part. Fortunately, the canal was cleared after heroic efforts by Egypt and a consortium of nations.

There is another fundamental lesson to be relearned here, and it about more than just the Suez Canal. It is the criticality of a handful of so-called “choke points” around the world upon which the global navigational grid depends. These are spots where traffic patterns collide, and the tens of thousands of ships underway on the world’s oceans at any given moment come together in tightly managed traffic schemes. I spent a significant chunk of my life at sea passing through them.

They represent critical nodes that make navigation faster and easier, and allow container and cargo ships and their massive oil tanker sisters to avoid long journeys around inconveniently located continents. Certainly the Suez Canal is one of them, and the current blockage shines a spotlight on the costs even a few days of stoppage can create.

What are the other key points?

In addition to the Suez Canal, there are three international straits and one other canal that represent the major maritime choke points. These are the Strait of Malacca that separates the Pacific and Indian Oceans; the Bosporus Strait that separates the Aegean and Black Sea; the Strait of Bab-El-Mandeb at the tip of the Arabian Peninsula; and the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Arabian Gulf. The other canal, of course, is the Panama Canal.

The Strait of Malacca has problems with piracy, but the real danger is simply the volume of traffic. Massive ships are moving at top speeds on the equivalent of a two lane road, packed in close, with little real “maritime traffic control.” Of all the choke points, it was my least favorite to pass through, and when I did so as a ship captain I was up and awake all night.

For a warship, the Bab-El-Mandeb isn’t especially stressful, because the real danger is pirates; and Somali pirates aren’t going to try and tangle with a U.S. Navy destroyer. The Strait of Hormuz, on the other hand, is a tense passage, often conducted at general quarters (meaning every member of the crew is up and at battle stations). This reflects the dangerous and often unprofessional behavior of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard maritime units, who often attempt to harass U.S. Navy vessels.

Going through the Panama Canal is relatively relaxing. It is highly regulated, the pilots are first rate, and we often did a BBQ for the crew on the fantail, with the spectacular views of the lush and beautiful jungles of Panama passing on either side.

All of these straits and both the Suez and Panama canals are busy with high volumes of merchant traffic, and also full of warships from many different nations conducting transits as well. A breakdown on any of them can create the kind of chaos and discontinuity just saw in the Suez.

In all of these locations we should put significant focus on creating international authorities who manage them with an appreciation for their international character (the Suez and Panama canals both have well run authorities); conduct frequent drills and exercises to practice for disasters like the one that has just occurred in the Suez canal; have internationally funded resources to make sure they can remain open in crisis (as was done on an ad hoc basis in Suez); and have an international regime with regulatory powers inspect all of them frequently. Perhaps the International Maritime Organization, a U.N. body in London, has the most obvious case for international authority over these bodies of water.

Last week it was the Suez canal, but in the years ahead, all of these choke points are vulnerable. Preparing now to deal with the potential challenges makes sense, instead of trying to figure it out as we stumble along as happened in the recent Suez crisis.

New world news from Time: Thousands of People Are Fleeing Into Thailand Following Air Strikes in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar — Thai authorities along the country’s border with Myanmar are bracing Monday for a possible influx of more ethnic Karen villagers fleeing new airstrikes by the Myanmar military.

Myanmar aircraft carried out three strikes overnight Sunday, according to Free Burma Rangers, a humanitarian relief agency that delivers medical and other assistance to villagers. The strikes severely injured one child but caused no apparent fatalities, a member of the agency said.

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha on Monday acknowledged the problems across his country’s western border and said his government is preparing for a possible influx of people.

“We don’t want to have mass migration into our territory, but we will consider human rights, too,” Prayut said.

Asked about people who have already fled into Thailand, Prayut said, “We have prepared some places, but we don’t want to talk about the preparation of refugee centers at the moment. We won’t go that far.”

About 2,500 people, including 200 students, have crossed the Salween River into northern Thailand’s Mae Hong Son province, according to Burma Free Rangers. An estimated 10,000 people are believed to be displaced in Myanmar’s northern Karen state, the agency said.

Video shot Sunday shows a group of villagers, including many young children, resting in a forest clearing inside Myanmar after fleeing their homes. They carried their possessions in bundles and baskets.

The bombings may have been retaliation against the Karen National Liberation Army for having attacked and captured a Myanmar government military outpost on Saturday morning. The group is fighting for greater autonomy for the Karen people.

Leaders of the resistance to last month’s military coup that toppled Myanmar’s elected government are seeking to have the Karen and other ethnic groups band together and join them as allies, which would add an armed element to their struggle.

According to Thoolei News, an online site that carries official information from the Karen National Union, eight government soldiers were captured in Saturday’s attack and 10 were killed. The report said one Karen guerrilla died.

The airstrikes mark an escalation in the increasingly violent crackdown by the Myanmar government against opponents of the Feb. 1 military takeover.

At least 114 people across the country were killed by security forces on Saturday alone, including several children — a toll that prompted a U.N. human rights expert to accuse the junta of committing “mass murder” and criticize the international community for not doing enough to stop it.

The U.N. Security Council is likely to hold closed consultations on the escalating situation in Myanmar, diplomats said Sunday, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of an official announcement. The council has condemned the violence and called for a restoration of democracy, but has not yet considered possible sanctions against the military, which would require support or an abstention by Myanmar’s neighbor and friend China.

In Sunday’s bombings, Myanmar military aircraft attacked a Karen guerrilla position in an area on the Salween River in Karen state’s Mutraw district, according to workers for two humanitarian relief agencies.

Two guerrillas were killed and many more were wounded in those attacks, a member of the Free Burma Rangers said.

On Saturday night, two Myanmar military planes twice bombed Deh Bu Noh village in Mutraw district, killing at least two villagers.

The coup, which ousted the government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule. It has again made Myanmar the focus of international scrutiny as security forces have repeatedly fired into crowds of protesters.

As of Sunday, at least 459 people have been killed since the takeover, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which has tallied deaths it was able to verify. The true toll is thought to be higher.

Funerals were held in Myanmar on Monday for those who died protesting against the coup over the weekend. In Yangon, friends and family gathered to say farewell to 49-year-old Mya Khaing, who was fatally shot on Saturday.

Friends told media that he was always at the front of protests.

As his coffin was moved toward the crematorium, mourners sang a defiant song from an earlier 1988 uprising against military rule. “There is no pardon for you till the end of the world,” the words said of the military, calling it “monsters.” “We will never forgive what you have done.”

New world news from Time: The Huge Cargo Ship Blocking the Suez Canal Is Now Afloat, Maritime Company Says

Salvage teams freed the Ever Given in the Suez Canal, according to maritime services provider Inchcape, almost a week after the giant vessel ran aground in one of the world’s most important trade paths.

While the ship is floating again, it wasn’t immediately clear how soon the waterway would be open to traffic, or how long it will take to clear the logjam of more than 450 ships stuck, waiting and en route to the Suez that have identified it as their next destination.

The backlog is one more strain for global supply chains already stretched by the pandemic as the canal is a conduit for about 12% of global trade. Some ships have already opted for the long and expensive trip around the southern tip of Africa instead of Suez.

The breakthrough in the rescue attempt came after diggers removed 27,000 cubic meters of sand, going deep into the banks of the canal.

New world news from Time: Suicide Bombing Wounds 20 People During Palm Sunday Mass in Indonesia

MAKASSAR, Indonesia — Two attackers blew themselves up outside a packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday mass on Indonesia’s Sulawesi island, wounding at least 20 people, police said.

A video obtained by The Associated Press showed body parts scattered near a burning motorbike at the gates of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province.

Rev. Wilhelmus Tulak, a priest at the church, said he had just finished celebrating Palm Sunday Mass when a loud bang shocked his congregation. He said the blast went off at about 10:30 a.m. as a first batch of churchgoers was walking out of the church and another group was coming in.

He said security guards at the church were suspicious of two men on a motorcycle who wanted to enter the building and when they went to confront them, one of the men detonated his explosives.

Police later said both attackers were killed instantly and evidence collected at the scene indicated one of the two was a woman. The wounded included four guards and several churchgoers, police said.

The attack a week before Easter in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation came as the country was on high alert following December’s arrest of the leader of the Southeast Asian militant group, Jemaah Islamiyah, which has been designated a terror group by many nations.

Indonesia has been battling militants since bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists. Attacks aimed at foreigners have been largely replaced in recent years by smaller, less deadly strikes targeting the government, police and anti-terrorism forces and people militants consider as infidels.

President Joko Widodo condemned Sunday’s attack and said it has nothing to do with any religion as all religions would not tolerate any kind of terrorism.

“I call on people to remain calm while worshipping because the state guarantees you can worship without fear,” Widodo said in a televised address.

He offered his prayers to those injured and said the government would cover all costs of medical treatment. He said he had ordered the national police chief to investigate the attack and crack down on any militant network that may be involved.

At the end of Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, which opened Holy Week ceremonies at the Vatican, Pope Francis invited prayers for the victims of violence. He cited in particular “those of the attack that took place this morning in Indonesia, in front of the Cathedral of Makassar.’’

At least 20 people were wounded in the attack and had been admitted to hospitals for treatment, said Mohammad Mahfud, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.

“The perpetrators or terrorist groups behind this attack will continue to be pursued,” Mahfud said.

Indonesia’s National Police spokesperson Argo Yuwono said police were still trying to identify the two attackers on the motorbike and whether they were linked to a local affiliate of the banned Jemaah Islamiyah network or were acting independently.

Indonesian forces in December arrested the group’s leader Aris Sumarsono, also known as Zulkarnaen. Over the past month the country’s counterterrorism squad has arrested about 64 suspects, including 19 in Makassar, following a tipoff about possible attacks against police and places of worship.

While Jemaah Islamiyah has been weakened over the past decade by a sustained crackdown, in recent years a new threat has emerged in militants who fought with the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria and returned to Indonesia or those inspired by the group’s attacks abroad.

Indonesia’s last major attack was in May 2018, when two families carried out a series of suicide bombings on churches in the second-largest city of Surabaya, killing a dozen people including two young girls whose parents had involved them in one of the attacks. Police said the father was the leader of a local affiliate of the Islamic State group known as Jemaah Anshorut Daulah.

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Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia.

New world news from Time: Dozens Killed in Deadliest Day of Myanmar Coup

YANGON, Myanmar — As Myanmar’s military celebrated the annual Armed Forces Day holiday with a parade Saturday in the country’s capital, soldiers and police elsewhere reportedly killed dozens of people as they suppressed protests in the deadliest bloodletting since last month’s coup.

A count issued by an independent researcher in Yangon who has been compiling near-real time death tolls put the total as darkness fell at 93, spread over more than two dozen cities and towns. The online news site Myanmar Now reported the death toll had reached 91.

Both numbers are higher than all estimates for the previous high on March 14, which ranged in counts from 74 to 90.

Figures collected by the researcher, who asked not to be named for his security, have generally tallied with the counts issued at the end of each day by the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, which documents deaths and arrests and is widely seen as a definitive source. The Associated Press is unable to independently confirm the death tolls.

The killings quickly drew international condemnation, with multiple diplomatic missions to Myanmar releasing statements that mentioned the killing of civilians Saturday, including children.

“This 76th Myanmar armed forces day will stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour,” the European Union’s delegation to Myanmar said on Twitter. “The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, are indefensible acts.”

The death toll in Myanmar has been steadily rising as authorities grow more forceful with their suppression of opposition to the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The coup reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of military rule.

Up through Friday, the Association of Political Prisoners had verified 328 people killed in the post-coup crackdown.

Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing did not directly refer to the protest movement when he gave his nationally televised Armed Forces Day speech before thousands of soldiers in Naypyitaw. He referred only to “terrorism which can be harmful to state tranquility and social security,” and called it unacceptable.

This year’s event was seen as a flashpoint for violence, with demonstrators threatening to double down on their public opposition to the coup with more and bigger demonstrations. The protesters refer to the holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, which marks the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in World War 2.

State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people — who have been at the forefront of the protests and prominent among the casualties — to learn a lesson from those killed during demonstrations about the danger of being shot in the head or back.

The warning was widely taken as a threat because a great number of the fatalities among protesters have come from being shot in the head, suggesting they have been targeted for death. The announcement suggested that some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to talk them out of participating.

In recent days the junta has portrayed the demonstrators as the ones perpetrating violence for their sporadic use of Molotov cocktails. On Saturday, some protesters in Yangon were seen carrying bows and arrows. In contrast, security forces have used live ammunition for weeks against what have still been overwhelmingly unarmed and peaceful crowds.

The military government does not issue regular casualty counts, and when it has released figures, the totals have been a fraction of what independent parties such as the U.N. have reported. It has said its use of force has been justified to stop what it has called rioting.

In his speech Saturday, Min Aung Hlaing used the occasion to try to justify the overthrow of Suu Kyi’s government, accusing it of failing to investigate irregularities in last November’s general election, and repeating that his government would hold “a free and fair election” and hand over power afterward.

The military has claimed there were irregularities in the voting rolls for the last election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won in a landslide.

The junta detained Suu Kyi on the day it took power, and continues to hold her on minor criminal charges while investigating allegations of corruption against her that her supporters dismiss as politically motivated.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Saturday’s events showed that the military, known in Myanmar as the Tatmadaw, should be prosecuted in international courts of law.

“This is a day of suffering and mourning for the Burmese people, who have paid for the Tatmadaw’s arrogance and greed with their lives, time and time again,” he said.

New world news from Time: New Attempts Planned to Free Huge Ship Stuck in Suez Canal

SUEZ, Egypt — A giant container ship remained stuck sideways in Egypt’s Suez Canal for a fifth day Saturday, as authorities prepared to make new attempts to free the vessel and reopen a crucial east-west waterway for global shipping.

The Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow canal that runs between Africa and the Sinai Peninsula.

The massive vessel got stuck in a single-lane stretch of the canal, about six kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southern entrance, near the city of Suez.

Peter Berdowski, CEO of Boskalis, the salvage firm hired to extract the Ever Given, said the company hoped to pull the container ship free within days using a combination of heavy tugboats, dredging and high tides.

He told the Dutch current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Friday night that the front of the ship is stuck in sandy clay, but the rear “has not been completely pushed into the clay and that is positive because you can use the rear end to pull it free.”

Berdowski said two large tugboats were on their way to the canal and are expected to arrive over the weekend. He said the company aims to harness the power of the tugs, dredging and tides, which he said are expected to be up to 50 centimeters (20 inches) higher Saturday.

“The combination of the (tug) boats we will have there, more ground dredged away and the high tide, we hope that will be enough to get the ship free somewhere early next week,” he said.

If that doesn’t work, the company will remove hundreds of containers from the front of the ship to lighten it, effectively lifting the ship to make it easier to pull free, Berdowski said.

A crane was already on its way that can lift the containers off the ship, he said.

An official at the Suez Canal Authority said the authority planned to make at least two attempts Saturday to free the vessel when the high tide goes down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief journalists. Egyptian authorities have prohibited media access to the site.

The salvage mission was turning its focus to the ship’s lodged bow, after some progress was made towards freeing the ship’s stern, the canal service provider Leth Agencies said Saturday.

Egypt Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly called the ship’s predicament “a very extraordinary incident,” in his first public comments on the blockage in a press conference in Cairo. He said the head of the canal authority, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabei, would hold a news conference Saturday in the city of Suez to share more details of the operation.

Yukito Higaki, president of Shoei Kisen, the company that owns the giant container ship, told a news conference in Imabari, Japan on Friday night that 10 tugboats were deployed and workers were dredging the banks and sea floor near the vessel’s bow to try to get it afloat again.

Shoei Kisen said Saturday the company was considering removing containers to lighten the vessel if refloating efforts fail, but that would be a difficult operation.

The White House said it has offered to help Egypt reopen the canal. “We have equipment and capacity that most countries don’t have and we’re seeing what we can do and what help we can be,” President Joe Biden told reporters Friday.

An initial investigation showed the vessel ran aground due to strong winds and ruled out mechanical or engine failure, the company and the canal authority said. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, had previously said the ship had experienced a power blackout, but it did not elaborate.

A maritime traffic jam grew to around 280 vessels near Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea, Port Suez on the Red Sea and in the canal system on Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake, according to canal service provider Leth Agencies.

Some vessels began changing course and dozens of ships were still en route to the waterway, according to the data firm Refinitiv.

A prolonged closure of the crucial waterway would cause delays in the global shipment chain. Some 19,000 vessels passed through the canal last year, according to official figures. About 10% of world trade flows through the canal, which is particularly crucial for transporting oil. The closure could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Middle East.

It remained unclear how long the blockage would last. Even after reopening the canal that links factories in Asia to consumers in Europe, the waiting containers are likely to arrive at busy ports, forcing them to face additional delays before offloading.

Apparently anticipating long delays, the owners of the stuck vessel diverted a sister ship, the Ever Greet, on a course around Africa instead, according to satellite data.

Others also are being diverted. The liquid natural gas carrier Pan Americas changed course in the mid-Atlantic, now aiming south to go around the southern tip of Africa, according to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com.

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Associated Press writer Mike Corder at The Hague, Netherlands, contributed.

New world news from Time: North Korea Confirms Missile Tests as Biden Warns of a Response

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea on Friday confirmed it had tested a new guided missile, as President Joe Biden warned of consequences if Pyongyang escalates tensions amid stalled nuclear negotiations.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said the two “new-type tactical guided projectiles” accurately hit the target off the eastern coast on Thursday. Photos on the website of the North’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper showed a missile lifting off from a transport erector launcher amid bright flames.

KCNA quoted top official Ri Pyong Chol, who supervised the test, as saying that the new weapon’s development “is of great significance in bolstering up the military power of the country and deterring all sorts of military threats existing on the Korean Peninsula.”

Japanese officials said both weapons tested Thursday were ballistic missiles, which are prohibited by U.N. Security Council resolutions. According to South Korean officials, North Korea fired two other missiles on Sunday but they were likely cruise missiles, which are not banned.

The test-firings were the North’s first major provocation since Biden took office in January. Some experts say North Korea aimed to apply pressure on the Biden administration to boost its leverage in future talks.

“We’re consulting with our allies and partners,” Biden told a news conference Thursday. “And there will be responses if they choose to escalate. We will respond accordingly. But I’m also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization.”

The United States has asked for a meeting of the U.N. Security Council committee that monitors sanctions against North Korea, and it’s set to take place Friday morning behind closed doors. The committee includes representatives from all 15 nations on the council.

U.S.-North Korea talks on curbing the North’s nuclear ambitions have been in a limbo for about two years due to disputes over U.S.-led sanctions on the North. In January, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would expand his weapons arsenal and build up his country’s military capability to cope with what he called American hostility.

KCNA said the new weapon’s warhead weight has been improved to 2.5 tons. It said Thursday’s test also confirmed the reliability of the improved version of the weapon’s solid fuel engine, which would boost missile mobility, and of its low-altitude, maneuverable flight.

South Korean observers said the weapon is likely an upgraded North Korean version of the Russian-made Iskander, a short-range nuclear-capable missile designed to fly at a low altitude and make in-flight guidance adjustments. They said it has a better chance of evading missile defense systems in South Korea.

Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said Friday the North Korean weapon is a new type of ballistic missile that was shown during a military parade in Pyongyang in January. Kishi said Japan would strengthen its missile defense system to “ensure peace and safety.”

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Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

New world news from Time: The U.N. Is Warning of an ‘Alarming’ Crisis in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region

UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. humanitarian official warned Thursday of an ongoing crisis in Ethiopia’s conflict-torn Tigray region, pointing to targeted civilian killings, over 500 recent rape cases, an increasing number of people fleeing violence, 4.5 million people needing food, and children on the brink of starvation.

Wafaa Said, the deputy humanitarian coordinator for Ethiopia who spent 2 1/2 months in Tigray, said in a virtual briefing to U.N. members that the impact of the crisis isn’t fully known because of communications blackouts in large parts of the region and lack of access to vast areas, especially rural areas. “Yet what is already known is quite alarming,” he said.

The U.N.’s humanitarian partners continue to receive corroborated reports of targeted civilian killings, sexual and gender-based violence, forced displacement, restricted movements of civilians and extensive looting of civilian property, Said noted.

No one knows how many thousands of civilians or combatants have been killed since months of political tensions between Ethiopian President Abiy Ahmed’s government and the Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s government exploded in November into war. Eritrea, a longtime Tigray enemy, teamed up with neighboring Ethiopia in the conflict.

As fierce fighting reportedly continues between Ethiopian and allied forces and those supporting the now-fugitive Tigray leaders who once dominated Ethiopia’s government, alarm is growing over the fate of Tigray’s 6 million people.

In terms of access for humanitarian staff, Said said, it is hindered by insecurity and clashes that continue in many parts of the region involving Ethiopian forces, Eritrean forces, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and forces from the neighboring Amhara region.

While it’s impossible to identify the full scale of displacement, Said told the diplomats local officials currently estimate that around 950,000 people fled their homes, most with just the clothes they were wearing.

“They are generally traumatized and tell stories of the difficult journey they took in search of safety,” Said reported. “Some reported walking for two weeks and some as far as 500 kilometers. Of the people who traveled with them, some were reportedly killed, particularly youngsters. People were reportedly beaten. Women were subject to rape. Some were pregnant and delivered on the way losing their babies.”

He said five medical facilities recorded 516 rape cases in mid-March, and given that most health facilities aren’t functioning and the stigma associated with rape, “it is projected that the actual numbers are much higher.”

“Women say they have been raped by armed actors, they also told stories of gang rape, rape in front of family members and men being forced to rape their own family members under the threat of violence,” Said told the diplomats.

Even before the conflict, he said Tigray was facing a deteriorating socio-economic situation because of the COVID-19 pandemic and an infestation of desert locusts. When fighting began, the “harvest was lost or burned, existing food stocks were looted or destroyed.” Food security was also impacted by the disruption of commercial supplies and failure to pay civil servants salaries for past months, he said.

The famine early warning system projected in early February that an emergency was expected across extensive areas of central and eastern Tigray, Said reported. And a rapid nutrition assessment in the first week of March indicated that among screened children under the age of 5, the proportion affected by acute malnutrition “greatly exceeded the emergency threshold of 15%” in all six areas assessed.

Said cited estimates that 82% of the 229 health centers in Tigray are not functioning, or no communication has been established with them.

New world news from Time: How That Massive Container Ship Stuck in the Suez Canal Is Already Costing the World Billions of Dollars

Rescuers are racing to dislodge a vast container ship stuck in the Suez Canal before tides shift next week, potentially stranding it there for weeks and costing the global economy tens of billions of dollars.

As backhoes and tug boats worked around the Panama-flagged Ever Giving’s 400-meter-long hull on Thursday evening, experts began to tot up the economic and environmental ramifications of a protracted obstruction. Meanwhile, vessel tracking data showed that some container ships had already started redirecting around the African Cape, a route that can add two weeks of journey length.

Like much of the Asia to Europe traffic that transits one of the world’s most important shipping lanes, the Taiwan-operated mega tanker had been bound for Rotterdam. But as it traversed through the 205-meter wide channel it lost the ability to steer amid high winds and dust storms, according to a statement by The Suez Canal Authority. Evergreen Marine, the Taiwanese firm that operates the ship, said it “was suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate from the waterway”.

A full investigation is yet to be undertaken, but vessel management firm Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement said initial investigations had ruled out any mechanical or engine failure as a cause of the grounding, the BBC reports. This is not the first time the 200,000-tonne Ever Giving has been involved in an accident. In Oct. 2019, it crushed a 25-meter long ferry against a pontoon in Hamburg. The German-language Hamburg Morgenpost at the time listed strong winds as a probable cause and quoted an expert that said attempting to maneuver the vessel in such conditions would be akin to “driving on black ice.”

On Wednesday, Dubai-based shipping logistics firm GAC said on its website that the ship had been partially refloated and was resting “alongside the canal bank”, citing information from the Suez Port Authority. Traffic was “expected to resume as soon as the vessel is towed to another position,” the statement said. But the following morning the Ever Giving could be viewed on shipping monitors having barely moved and still skewed starboard across the channel. As of Thursday evening, there were hundreds of ships carrying commodities and consumer goods lined up behind the snarl.

Here’s what to know about the stoppage of the Suez Canal, and what it might portend for global trade:

How long is the ship likely to be stuck?

Most likely days and possibly weeks. Currently, tides in the Suez Canal are getting higher, which means that each day until they peak Monday and Tuesday it should get easier to refloat the Ever Given. But after next Thursday, tides will decrease for several weeks making it harder to refloat the vessel.

Two days of trying to achieve that by tugboat have been unsuccessful. Other options include dredging around the ship and offloading ballast water, fuel, or cargo. The latter entails a complex operation that could take days, if not weeks.

On Thursday morning, container ships were still steering towards the Suez, indicating that the carriers hoped for a timely resolution to the blockage, according to an email seen by TIME from a director of a consultancy to colleagues working with shippers importing and exporting goods via the Suez Canal. But by Thursday evening, some large freight ships had begun to divert their routes towards the Cape of Good Hope, suggesting they were betting against the blockage being cleared any time soon.

How much does each day of delay cost?

The International Chamber of Shipping estimates that $3bn worth of cargo passes through the waterway every day. A Thursday morning headline in industry publication Splash, two days after the ship became lodged, read “$6 Billion and Counting.”

But it’s difficult to put a more precise figure on it because of the vast range of goods transported by sea. On a shipment of waste paper, for example, delays are inconsequential; for high-end electronics timed to arrive for a launch, they’re crippling.

The variability hasn’t stopped academics from trying to come up with a metric. In a 2012 working paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research, economists David Hummels and Georg Schaur estimated that each day of shipping delay incurred a cost of between 0.6% to 2.3% of the value of the goods on board a given ship. As hundreds of ships line up waiting for the Ever Giving‘s removal, the costs will spiral quickly.

How will this impact global trade?

It will be felt around the world. The 120-mile-long artificial waterway, which connects the Indian Ocean with the Red Sea by way of the Mediterranean, accounts for 12% of global trade and transits between 5% and 10% of the world’s seaborne oil.

That represents a relatively small proportion of the world’s hydrocarbon traffic; analysts told MarketWatch that about 3 million barrels of oil per day passed through the Suez Canal, but a few days of slowdown would not have a critical impact on the market. Oil prices ticked downwards on Thursday, according to Reuters, after jumping about 6% from a six-week low the day before.

The impact on freight costs is likely to be more pronounced. Almost a third of the world’s seaborne freight passes through the Suez Canal—from food to farming equipment; car parts to carpets. And the cost of delays will eventually be passed on to the consumer.

Even before this week’s incident, freight shipping rates had been at an unprecedented high. The COVID-19 pandemic stranded thousands of mariners at sea, held up port operations, and even led to a slowdown in the production of freight containers. Meanwhile, the balance of trade shifted increasingly to Asia, and global lockdowns prompted people with disposable income to spend more money on imported goods.

The boost in demand, combined with a shortage of freight containers has led freight rates to “through the roof,” says Jan Hoffmann, Chief of Trade and Logistics at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Last month, he says, spot prices hit three times the average, and twice as much as any other peak. “The short-term impact of this grounding will be further pressure on higher freight rates, as the waiting ships and containers compound the shortage of equipment,” says Hoffmann.

What about the environmental costs?

Maritime transport already contributes to between 2% to 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions, similar to that of Germany, yet it is exempt from the Paris Agreement. Ships circumnavigating the African Cape instead of transiting the Suez Canal—and traveling faster to make up for lost time— entails additional fuel consumption and emissions in the short term.

But an incident like this should also prompt a reappraisal of how the global shipping industry works, says Diane Gilpin, founder of the U.K.-based Smart Green Shipping Alliance. It was in part pressure to cut costs and reduce emissions that led to container ships being built on the unmanageable scale of the Ever Given, she says. But better global logistics co-ordination and practices such as Slow Steaming, which involves operating container ships below their maximum speed, and nearshoring, which involves moving production closer to end consumers, offer more sustainable solutions. Research the alliance conducted with the Tyndall Center for Climate Change at Britain’s Manchester University found that if you slow a fleet down by 17% you can save 25% of emissions from that fleet.

“Having this visual underlining what shipping does gives us an opportunity to ask is that really what we want,” says Gilpin, “do we really want to be shipping this much stuff around the world, and be at the mercy of these really brittle supply chains?”

New world news from Time: China Attacks H&M, Adidas, Nike and Other Fashion Brands Over Their Stance on Xinjiang

BEIJING — China’s ruling Communist Party is lashing out at H&M and other clothing and footwear brands as it retaliates for Western sanctions imposed on Chinese officials accused of human rights abuses in the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

The attacks began when the party’s Youth League on Wednesday called attention on its social media account to an H&M statement in March 2020 that it would stop buying cotton grown in Xinjiang. The Swedish retailer said it was “deeply concerned” about reports of forced labor there.

On Thursday, a party newspaper, the Global Times, cited Burberry, Adidas, Nike and New Balance as having made “cutting remarks” about Xinjiang cotton as early as two years ago. Celebrities including Wang Yibo, a popular singer and actor, announced they were breaking endorsement contracts with H&M and Nike.

Beijing often attacks foreign clothing, auto, travel and other brands for actions by their governments or to pressure companies to conform to its official positions on Taiwan, Tibet and other sensitive issues.

Companies usually apologize and change websites or advertising to maintain access to China’s populous market. But Xinjiang is an unusually thorny issue. Western brands face pressure at home to distance themselves from possible abuses.

More than 1 million people in Xinjiang, most of them from predominantly Muslim ethnic groups, have been confined to work camps, according to foreign researchers and governments. Beijing denies mistreating them and says it is trying to promote economic development and stamp out radicalism.

On Monday, the 27-nation European Union, the United States, Britain and Canada jointly announced travel and financial sanctions on four senior Chinese officials blamed for abuses in Xinjiang.

Beijing retaliated by saying it would impose unspecified penalties against European legislators and a German researchers who has publicized information about the detention camps.

H&M’s statement last March cited a decision by the Better Cotton Initiative, an industry group that promotes environmental and labor standards, to stop licensing Xinjiang cotton because it was “increasingly difficult” to trace how it was produced. In September, H&M announced it would stop working with a Chinese manufacturer that was accused of using forced labor in a unit unrelated to the Swedish brand.

In January, Washington imposed a ban in January on cotton from Xinjiang, a major supplier to clothing producers for Western markets.

China’s official outrage has so far focused on Europe, possibly because relations with the EU were relatively amicable amid rancor with Washington over trade disputes and accusations of spying and technology theft.

Official criticism of H&M reflected that tone of grievance at being hurt by a friend.

“How can H&M eat Chinese rice and then smash China’s pot?” state television said in a commentary on Wednesday.

On Thursday, internet users pointed to clothing brands Uniqlo of Japan and The Gap of the United States as other possible offenders. It was unclear how many of those accounts were members of the public and how many were operated by the ruling party’s vast propaganda apparatus.

Pop star Wang Yibo’s announcement that he was quitting as a Nike “brand ambassador” didn’t mention Xinjiang but said he “firmly resists any words and actions that pollute China.”

Others including actor Huang Xuan and Song Qian, a singer and actress also known as Victoria Song who is a former member of Korean pop group f(x), announced they would end endorsement contracts with H&M. Actress Tang Songyun said she was breaking ties with Nike.

Chinese athletic shoe brand ANTA announced it was pulling out of BCI, the industry cotton group.

New world news from Time: Brazil Becomes the Second Nation After the U.S. to Top 300,000 COVID-19 Deaths

SAO PAULO — Brazil topped 300,000 confirmed COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, becoming the second country to do so amid a spike in infections that has seen the South American country report record death tolls in recent days.

The United States reached the grim milestone on Dec. 14, but has a larger population than Brazil.

On Wednesday, Brazil’s health ministry reported 2,009 daily COVID-19 deaths, bringing its pandemic total to 300,685. On Tuesday, the country saw a single-day record of 3,251 deaths.

According to local media reports, the latest coronavirus figures might be affected by changes in the government’s counting system. Newly appointed Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said in a press conference that he was going to check whether the numbers had been artificially reduced.

With daily death tolls at pandemic highs, state governors and mayors in Brazil have expressed fears that April could be as bad as March for the country’s overwhelmed hospitals.

Just in the past 75 days, Brazil has registered 100,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths, a spike health experts blame on a lack of political coordination in fighting the virus, new variants that spread more easily and a disregard for health protocols.

President Jair Bolsonaro on Wednesday held a meeting with the heads of other government branches to coordinate anti-virus efforts. But he didn’t propose any policies to deal with the pandemic.

Bolsonaro has consistently downplayed the severity of the pandemic, insisting the economy must be kept humming to prevent worse hardship, and he has criticized health measures imposed by local leaders.

New world news from Time: South Korea Says North Korea Has Fired Two Missiles into the Sea

SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea said North Korea fired two unidentified projectiles into its eastern waters on Thursday as it revives its testing activity to expand its military capabilities and pressure the Biden administration while nuclear negotiations remain stalled.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the U.S. and South Korean militaries were analyzing the launches that were conducted from an area on the North’s eastern coast. It didn’t immediately say whether the weapons were ballistic or how far they flew.

But Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the North Korean weapons were ballistic missiles and that they did not reach Japanese waters. Suga said the launches threaten “peace and safety in Japan and the region,” and that Tokyo will closely coordinate with Washington and Seoul on the North’s testing activities.

The launches came a day after U.S. and South Korean officials said the North fired short-range weapons presumed to be cruise missiles into its western sea over the weekend.

The negotiations over the North’s nuclear program faltered after the collapse of Kim Jong Un’s second summit with former President Donald Trump in February 2019, when the Americans rejected North Korean demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for a partial surrender of their nuclear capabilities.

Since Trump’s first meeting with Kim in 2018, the North has not conducted nuclear or long-range missile tests, although analysts believe they have pressed ahead with their programs on both.

The North has continued short- and medium range missile testing during its suspension of nuclear and long-range tests, expanding its ability to strike targets in South Korea and Japan, including U.S. bases there.

North Korea has so far ignored the Biden administration’s efforts to reach out, saying it won’t engage in meaningful talks unless Washington abandons its “hostile” policies.

Kim’s powerful sister last week berated the United States over its latest round of combined military exercises with South Korea that ended earlier this month, describing the drills as an invasion rehearsal and warned Washington to “refrain from causing a stink” if it wants to “sleep in peace” for the next four years.

Just hours after Thursday’s launches, South Korea Foreign Minister Chung Eui-yong was to meet with visiting Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Seoul for discussions on North Korea and other regional issues. South Korea’s presidential office said it will hold an emergency National Security Council meeting to discuss the launches.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the North’s short-range tests on Sunday were its first missile firings since April 2020. President Joe Biden played down those launches, telling reporters, “There’s no new wrinkle in what they did.”

North Korea has a history of testing new U.S. administrations with missile launches and other provocations aimed at forcing the Americans back to the negotiating table.

While Kim has vowed to strengthen his nuclear weapons program in recent speeches, he also tried to give the new U.S. administration an opening by saying that the fate of their relations depends on Washington.

During his visit to Seoul last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sternly criticized North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and human rights record and pressed China to use its “tremendous influence” to convince the North to denuclearize.

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Associated Press writers Yuri Kageyama and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

New world news from Time: A Giant, Stranded Cargo Ship Is Blocking All Traffic Through the Suez Canal

(DUBAI, United Arab Emirates) — A skyscraper-sized container ship has become wedged across Egypt’s Suez Canal and blocked all traffic in the vital waterway, officials said Wednesday, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.

The MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged ship that carries cargo between Asia and Europe, ran aground Tuesday in the narrow, man-made canal dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula. Images showed the ship’s bow was touching the eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against the western wall — an extraordinary event that experts said they had never heard of happening before in the canal’s 150-year history.

Tugboats strained Wednesday to try to nudge the obstruction out of the way as ships hoping to enter the waterway began lining up in the Mediterranean and Red Seas. But it remained unclear when the route, through which around 10% of world trade flows and which is particularly crucial for the transport of oil, would reopen. One official warned it could take at least two days. In the meantime, there were concerns that idling ships could become targets for attacks.

“The Suez Canal will not spare any efforts to ensure the restoration of navigation and to serve the movement of global trade,” vowed Lt. Gen. Ossama Rabei, head of the Suez Canal Authority.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the Ever Given, said all 20 members of the crew were safe and that there had been “no reports of injuries or pollution.”

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to become wedged on Tuesday morning. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, said the ship had experience a blackout without elaborating.

Bernhard Schulte, however, denied the ship ever lost power.

Planet Labs Inc. —APThis satellite image from Planet Labs Inc. shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Tuesday, March 23, 2021.

Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said in a statement that the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the canal from the Red Sea but none of its containers had sunk.

An Egyptian official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists, similarly blamed a strong wind. Egyptian forecasters said high winds and a sandstorm plagued the area Tuesday, with winds gusting as much as 50 kph (30 mph).

However, it remained unclear how winds of that speed alone would have been able to push a fully laden vessel weighing some 220,000 tons.

A pilot from Egypt’s canal authority typically boards a ship to guide it through the waterway, though the ship’s captain retains ultimate authority over the vessel, said Ranjith Raja, a lead analyst at the data firm Refinitiv. The vessel entered the canal some 45 minutes before it became stuck, moving at 12.8 knots (about 24 kph, 15 mph) just before the crash, he said.

An image posted to Instagram by a user on another waiting cargo ship appeared to show the Ever Given wedged across the canal as shown in satellite images and data. A backhoe appeared to be digging into the sand bank under its bow in an effort to free it.

The Egyptian official said tugboats hoped to refloat the ship and that the operation would take at least two days. The ship ran aground some 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) north of the southernly mouth of the canal near the city of Suez, an area of the canal that’s a single lane.

That could have a major knock-on effect for global shipping moving between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, warned Salvatore R. Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner and associate professor of history at North Carolina’s Campbell University.

“Every day, 50 vessels on average go through that canal, so the closing of the canal means no vessels are transiting north and south,” Mercogliano told the AP. “Every day the canal is closed … container ships and tankers are not delivering food, fuel and manufactured goods to Europe and goods are not being exported from Europe to the Far East.”

Already, some 30 vessels waited at Egypt’s Great Bitter Lake midway on the canal, while some 40 idled in the Mediterranean near Port Said and another 30 at Suez in the Red Sea, according to canal service provider Leth Agencies. That included seven vessels carrying some 5 million barrels of crude oil, Refinitiv said.

In addition to the economic implications, security experts warned that idling ships in the Red Sea could be targets after a series of attacks against shipping in the Mideast amid tensions between Iran and the U.S.

“All vessels should consider adopting a heightened posture of alertness if forced to remain static within the Red Sea or Gulf of Aden,” warned private marine intelligence firm Dryad Global.

The closure also could affect oil and gas shipments to Europe from the Mideast. The price of international benchmark Brent crude jumped nearly 2.9% to $62.52 a barrel Wednesday.

The Ever Given, built in 2018 with a length of nearly 400 meters (a quarter mile) and a width of 59 meters (193 feet), is among the largest cargo ships in the world. It can carry some 20,000 containers at a time. It previously had been at ports in China before heading toward Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. It also remains one of Egypt’s top foreign currency earners. In 2015, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the world’s largest vessels. However, the Ever Given ran aground south of that new portion of the canal.

The stranding Tuesday marks just the latest to affect mariners amid the pandemic. Hundreds of thousands have been stuck aboard vessels due to the pandemic. Meanwhile, demands on shipping have increased, adding to the pressure on tired sailors, Mercogliano said.

“It’s because of the breakneck pace of global shipping right now and shipping is on a very tight schedule,” he said. “Add to it that mariners have not been able to get on and off vessels because of COVID restrictions.”

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Associated Press writers Taijing Wu in Taipei, Taiwan, Samy Magdy in Cairo, Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Isabel DeBre in Dubai contributed to this report.

New world news from Time: The Myanmar Junta Frees Hundreds of People Held Over Anti-Coup Protests

YANGON, Myanmar — Hundreds of people imprisoned for protesting last month’s coup were released Wednesday in the first apparent gesture by the military to try to placate the protest movement.

Witnesses outside Insein Prison in Yangon saw busloads of mostly young people, looking happy with some flashing the three-finger gesture of defiance adopted by the protest movement. State-run TV said a total of 628 were freed.

The prisoners appear to be the hundreds of students detained in early March while demonstrating against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

One lawyer, speaking on condition of anonymity because she doesn’t want attention from the authorities, said all those released were arrested on March 3. She said only 55 people detained in connection with the protests remained in the prison, and it is likely they will all face charges under Section 505(A) of the Penal Code, which carries a penalty of up to three years in prison.

Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says it has confirmed the killings of 275 people in connection with the post-coup crackdown, with additional deaths still unverified. It also says that as of Tuesday, it had verified arrest or charges against 2,812 people, of whom 2,418 remain in custody or with outstanding charges.

Demonstrators on Wednesday tried a new tactic that they dubbed a silence strike, calling on people to stay home and businesses to close for the day.

The extent of the strike was difficult to gauge, but social media users posted photos from cities and towns showing streets empty of activity save for the occasional stray dog.

The online meme posted to publicize the action called silence “the loudest scream” and explained its purpose was to honor the movement’s fallen heroes, to recharge protesters’ energy and to contradict the junta’s claims that “everything is back to normal.”

The new tactic was employed after an extended onslaught of violence from security forces.

Local media reported that a 7-year-old girl in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, was among the latest victims on Tuesday. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners included her in its list of fatalities.

“Khin Myo Chit was shot in the abdomen by a soldier while she sat in her father’s lap inside her home in Aung Pin Le ward,” the online news service Myanmar Now reported, quoting her sister, Aye Chan San.

The report said the shooting took place when soldiers were raiding homes in her family’s neighborhood. The sister said a soldier shot at their father when he denied that any people were hiding in their home, and hit the girl.

Aye Chan San said the soldiers then beat her 19-year-old brother with their rifle butts and took him away.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners recorded three killings in Mandalay on Tuesday, though some other reports said there were five.

New world news from Time: There Is No Clear Winner in the Israeli Election, Signaling More Deadlock Ahead

JERUSALEM — Israeli parliamentary elections on Tuesday resulted in a virtual deadlock for a fourth time in the past two years, exit polls indicated, leaving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with an uncertain future and the country facing the prospect of continued political gridlock.

The exit polls on Israel’s three main TV stations indicated that both Netanyahu and his religious and nationalist allies, along with a group of anti-Netanyahu parties, both fell short of the parliamentary majority required to form a new government. That raised the possibility of an unprecedented fifth consecutive election later this year.

The election was seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s polarizing leadership style, and the initial results showed that the country remains as deeply divided as ever, with an array of small sectarian parties dominating the parliament.

The results also signaled a continuing shift of the Israeli electorate toward the right wing, which supports West Bank settlements and opposes concessions in peace talks with the Palestinians. That trend was highlighted by the strong showing of an ultranationalist anti-Arab religious party.

After three previous inconclusive elections, Netanyahu had been hoping for a decisive victory that would allow him to form a government with his traditional ultra-Orthodox and hard-line nationalist allies and seek immunity from corruption charges.

In an address to supporters early Wednesday, a subdued Netanyahu boasted of a “great achievement” but stopped short of declaring victory. Instead, he appeared to reach out to his opponents and called for formation of a “stable government” that would avoid another election.

“We must not under any circumstances drag the state of Israel to new elections, to a fifth election,” he said. “We must form a stable government now.”

By early Wednesday, updated exit polls on two channels were forecasting an evenly divided parliament. The third station gave Netanyahu’s opponents a one-seat advantage.

Exit polls have often been imprecise in the past, meaning the final results, expected in the coming days, could still shift the balance of power. If the final results are in line with the exit polls, there is no guarantee that Netanyahu or his opponents will succeed in putting together a coalition.

“All three options are on the table: a Netanyahu-led government, a change coalition that will leave Netanyahu in the opposition, and an interim government leading to a fifth election,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute.

Several right-wing parties have vowed never to sit in a government with Netanyahu. And Naftali Bennett, a former Netanyahu ally turned harsh critic, refused to endorse either side during the campaign.

Bennett shares Netanyahu’s hard-line nationalist ideology and would seem to be more likely to ultimately join the prime minister. But Bennett has not ruled out joining forces with Netanyahu’s opponents.

In a speech to his supporters, Bennett declined to take sides. He vowed to promote right-wing values but also took several veiled swipes at the prime minister’s leadership style.

“Now is the time for healing,” he said. “The norms of the past will no longer be acceptable.” He said he would move the country “from leadership that is interested in itself to a professional leadership that cares.”

Bennett has indicated he will drive a hard bargain with Netanyahu, demanding senior Cabinet ministries and perhaps even a power-sharing arrangement that includes a stint as prime minister.

In addition, their partners would also include a pair of ultra-Orthodox religious parties and the “Religious Zionists,” a party whose leaders are openly racist and homophobic. One of its leaders, Itamir Ben-Gvir, is a disciple of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was branded a terrorist group by the U.S. for its anti-Arab racism before Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990.

Relying on the party could be deeply embarrassing for Netanyahu on the international stage, particularly as he tries to court the new Biden administration.

The election campaign was largely devoid of substance and was seen instead as a referendum on Netanyahu’s divisive rule.

During the campaign, Netanyahu emphasized Israel’s highly successful coronavirus vaccination campaign. He moved aggressively to secure enough vaccines for Israel’s 9.3 million people, and in three months the country has inoculated some 80% of its adult population. That has enabled the government to open restaurants, stores and the airport just in time for election day.

He also tried to portray himself as a global statesman, pointing to the four diplomatic accords he reached with Arab countries last year. Those agreements were brokered by his close ally, then-President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu’s opponents say the prime minister bungled many other aspects of the pandemic, particularly by allowing his ultra-Orthodox allies to ignore lockdown rules and fuel a high infection rate for much of the year.

Over 6,000 Israelis have died from COVID-19, and the economy continues to struggle with double-digit unemployment.

They also point to Netanyahu’s corruption trial, saying someone who is under indictment for serious crimes is not fit to lead the country. Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals that he dismisses as a witch hunt by a hostile media and legal system.

Even Netanyahu’s reputation as a statesman has suffered in recent days. The United Arab Emirates, the most important of the four Arab nations to establish official diplomatic ties with Israel, last week made clear that it did not want to be used as part of Netanyahu’s re-election bid after he was forced to call off a visit to the country. The Biden administration also has kept its distance, a contrast to the support he received in past elections from Trump.

Netanyahu’s Likud party was projected to emerge as the largest individual party, with just over 30 seats in the 120-seat parliament, followed by the centrist opposition party Yesh Atid, with some 17 seats.

The remainder of the parliament would be divided between some 10 other small parties. These range from an Arab party to left-wing secular parties to a pair of secular, right-wing parties that oppose Netanyahu.

Altogether, Netanyahu and his allies were projected to control 53 to 54 seats, while his opponents are expected to control some 60 or 61, with Bennett controlling the remainder.

Netanyahu’s opponents included a diverse array of parties that had little in common beyond their shared animosity toward him. Even if his opponents end up controlling a majority of seats, it will be difficult for them to bridge their ideological differences on such lightning rod issues as Palestinian statehood and the role of religion in the country.

They also were hurt by the disintegration of the main Arab party in parliament. A renegade member ran separately but appeared not to win enough seats to enter parliament, robbing the alliance of key votes.

Tuesday’s election was sparked by the disintegration of an emergency government formed last May between Netanyahu and his chief rival at the time. The alliance was plagued by infighting, and elections were forced after they failed to agree on a budget in December.

Netanyahu’s opponents have accused him of fomenting deadlock in hopes of bringing about a friendlier parliament that will grant him immunity from prosecution.

After the results come in, attention will turn to the country’s figurehead president, Reuven Rivlin.

He will hold a series of meetings with party leaders and then choose the one he believes has the best chance of forming a government as his prime minister-designate. That could set off weeks of horse-trading.

Voting in Jerusalem on Tuesday, Rivlin said the deadlock has had a price.

“Four elections in two years erode public trust in the democratic process,” he said, even as he urged Israelis to vote again. “There is no other way.”

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AP correspondent Ilan Ben Zion contributed reporting.