Editor’s Choice: New Suez Canal officially welcomes ships

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi publicly signed an order Thursday to allow ships passage through the New Suez Canal.

Sisi broke ground on the canal project last August, promising to revive a dilapidated economy. The new route could have taken up to three years to build, but Sisi set an ambitious target of 12 months to finish the project.

It has been touted as a landmark achievement, rivalling the digging of the original 192-kilometre (119-mile) canal which opened in 1869 after almost a decade of work.