Blog

  • Mubarak, Army, U.S., Israel vs Egyptian People

    [As government forces have attacked peaceful protesters in Tahrir Square, Emad Mekay from Cairo reports] Mubarak is clearly backed by the Americans. He took some moves after speaking with Obama and a visit by a former U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Frank Wisner. Mubarak, the army, the Americans and the Israelis are clearly on one side.…

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  • Unrest Spreads to Sinai

    A Bedouin youth casually spreads out a piece of cloth before a police headquarters in Sheikh Zwayyed town in Sinai, the vast desert area to the east of Cairo across the Suez. “I will leave when Mubarak leaves,” he says. [Full piece from Inter Press Service]

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  • Chomsky: Strategic and Economic Objectives, Not Anti-Islamization, Drives U.S. Policy

    [While many are claiming that a central goal of U.S. policy is to minimize influence of groups like the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Noam Chomsky contributed this to our blog] It is well-established, including the major scholarly literature, that the U.S. supports democracy if and only if that accords with strategic and economic objectives.  Following…

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  • An Open Letter to President Barack Obama

    ————————————————————————————————————————— [To sign; for recent news releases on Egypt from the Institute for Public Accuracy] Dear President Obama: As political scientists, historians, and researchers in related fields who have studied the Middle East and U.S. foreign policy, we the undersigned believe you have a chance to move beyond rhetoric to support the democratic movement sweeping…

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  • Report from Cairo

    From Alex Ortiz in Cairo: “The army is beginning to come into Cairo … tens of thousands converged in midan al-gala’ coming from three different protest marches. Total communication blackout. Reports of senior police officers ordering their men to stand down and not beat or fire tear gas at protesters in Midan al-gala an hour…

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  • Report on Latest from Cairo

    CAIRO, Egypt [11 p.m. local time] — 1-Some government media figures appear to be joining ranks with the protesters. Mahmoud Saad, a talk show host in the Egyptian state-run TV, has announced that he will no longer appear on TV starting tonight after he came under pressure from top government officials to report “untruths” about…

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  • Police in Cairo Beating up Jounalists

    [From 9:28 a.m. ET]: Police started beating up journalists protesting outside the Press Syndicate in downtown Cairo. They beat up women journalists too who were screaming and crying for help. “Do not club women. Do not club women,” some of the men rushed to the police asking them not to target women. “You’ll make things…

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  • From Alex Ortiz in Cairo

    [The Egyptian government has apparently block Twitter, Facebook (as of Wed. morn U.S. ET) and other internet tools, though apparently some people are able to get around such restrictions. Email from 8:45 a.m. ET:] Downtown Cairo today remains in a state of high alert. There are many security forces and plainsclothed policemen visible on every…

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  • Video from Cairo

    Phone lines are intermittent and Twitter has reportedly been blocked in Egypt. Here is a live video feed: ustream.tv/channel/cairodowntown [update: ustream has been blocked, streaming now intermittently at livestream.com/cairowitness — further update, now at: www.justin.tv/cairowitness] Here is a YouTube video from earlier today:

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  • Ukraine’s Assault on a Free Press

    In Ukraine, where media diversity is often defined by which powerful oligarch controls which TV station, one network, TVi — known for its independent investigative style — is under intense legal pressure, with its owner not part of Ukraine’s power circles. TVi faces a court hearing on Tuesday over a legal claim that the station’s…

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  • Facebook Lifting Ban on Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion “Stunning”

    “‘The ‘grand wizards’ of battling fake news have even dabbled with Holocaust distortion, downplaying WWII-era paramilitaries who slaughtered Jews as mere ‘historic figures’ and Ukrainian nationalist leaders, while attacking members of the U.S. Congress who had denounced Ukraine’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.'”

  • Ukraine: “Horrible Dangers” of a Proxy War; Nuclear War

    Anatol Lieven writes: writes: “To judge by its latest statements, the Biden administration is increasingly committed to using the conflict in Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia, with as its goal the weakening or even destruction of the Russian state. This would mean America adopting a strategy that every U.S. president during the…

  • Amazon Terminated Paid Sick Leave for Covid-19 After Union Vote

    Just one day after union voting ended at Amazon’s LDJ5 warehouse in Staten Island, the company announced it will end its nationwide Covid-19 paid sick leave policy. Labor reporters and activists believe Amazon waited to make the announcement until after the vote. Eileen Appelbaum, of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said that the…

  • Israeli Killing of Palestinian Journalist a “Calculated Act of Savagery”

    Mouin Rabbani, co-editor of Jadiliyya and expert on Palestinian affairs and the contemporary Middle East, said today, in the wake of the killing of the Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh: “The Israeli occupier has repeatedly demonstrated that its priority is impunity, and it cannot be entrusted with either investigation, accountability, or justice for either…

  • Marcos Win in Philippines: Dynasties and Social Media Manipulation

    Ferdinand Marcos Jr., known as “Bongbong” Marcos, has won the Philippine presidency. WALDEN BELLO, [email protected], @WaldenBello Bello ran for vice president. He is chairperson of Laban ng Masa (LnM), “a Philippine national mass movement-based political center with a socialist direction.” He gained notoriety for his rallying cry: “FUCK YOU, MARCOS. THE BATTLE HAS JUST BEGUN”…

  • Scientific Analysis Links Environmental Change and New Diseases

    Climate change scholars weigh in on new analysis from scientists that climate change will cause new diseases to emerge more frequently.

  • Marking One Million Deaths 

    New analysis from the Institute for Policy Studies contrasts the nation’s death toll with billionaire wealth gains during the pandemic.

  • Former Negotiator on How the Ukraine War Should End

    Quigley notes however that the Biden administration “has framed the conflict in apocalyptic terms as a battle between democracy and authoritarianism. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s claim that the West is viewing the conflict as a proxy war against Russia cannot be lightly dismissed. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has set a long-term aim of weakening…

  • Media Shocked by the Leak, Not the Opinion

    “…in the flood of coverage, too many elite media outlets focused on the leak itself and treated the issue as a political football, rather than centering the real-world implications the opinion would have for everyday people.”

  • “Handbook for a Post-Roe America”

    “…the alternative is continuing a pregnancy and giving birth when you don’t want to. There’s no end to the desperation of people who want to terminate a pregnancy.”

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