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  • 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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  • StopGenocide.com UN Livestream Challenges “Two State” Rhetoric Normalizing Genocide

    StopGenocide.com will be carrying a livestream of the U.N. meetings that begin at 9 a.m. ET Tuesday, featuring real-time critical analysis. The organizers scrutinize not just the U.S. and Israeli governments, but others as well for using rhetoric to effectively normalize genocide. The U.N. Secretary General refuses to use the term “genocide” in spite of the recent findings of the U.N.…

  • U.N. Meetings: A Critical Look at StopGenocide.com

    StopGenocide.com will be carrying a livestream of the U.N. meetings which begin tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. ET featuring real-time critical analysis, especially noting how various countries have enabled or been complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The U.S. government cast its sixth veto against a ceasefire last week, but the General Assembly can use Uniting for Peace to overcome that and take…

  • Overcoming the US Veto

    “For the sixth time, the US has vetoed a ceasefire in the Gaza genocide, underscoring once again the grave threat to the world posed by the US-Israel axis. The violent, racist, and lawless rampage of the axis is leaving a trail of murder and destruction across Western Asia and the wider world, corrupting governments and…

  • Equating Jews and Israel Assessed as a “Propaganda Technique”

    “Equating Israel with all Jews and Israel’s future with theirs is an effort to sanctify Israel and shield it from criticism by brandishing the charge of antisemitism,” Norman Solomon wrote in The Guardian this week. He added: “By insisting that it is the embodiment of Jews all over the world, the state of Israel seeks…

  • Live, From New York: LifelineForPalestine.com

    Thursday marks the one year deadline given by the UN General Assembly for Israel to end its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Major multinational grassroots organizations will hold a rally and march “demanding the UNGA take immediate action to stop the genocide now.” It will be livestreamed beginning at noon at LifelineForPalestine.com. 

  • U.S. Hospitals in Crisis

    Last month, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined Protect Our Care in relaunching the organization’s Hospital Crisis Watch. Protect Our Care hosts an interactive map and a report that outlines how the new federal budget will shutter rural hospitals, slash healthcare services, and leave communities in crisis. By limiting the ways that states fund Medicaid and…

  • Israel’s Attack on the UN Charter and How to Stop a Genocide

    An Israeli sniper detailed in comments to Haaretz the killing of unarmed Palestinians, including children, who were attempting to get aid in Gaza. AntiWar.com reports: “Israel Kills Over 100 Palestinians in Gaza as It Launches Ground Offensive to Conquer Gaza City.” The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry finds in their in-depth report released Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide, that top…

  • IUD Insertions Do Not Need to Hurt

    Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are among the most effective forms of contraception, but they can create pain upon insertion. Reporting in Slate reveals that healthcare providers with a subspecialty in complex family planning are more likely to offer pain management––including paracervical blocks like lidocaine, or sedation––for IUD insertion. One insidious consequence of the closures of abortion…

  • Flotilla, After Being Attacked, Sailing to Gaza

    The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Türkiye just issued a joint statement expressing “their concern about the security of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civil society initiative in which citizens of their countries are participating.”

  • New President of the UNGA Has Openly Backed Israel’s Genocide

    “Baerbock is not just any diplomat. As Germany’s foreign minister from 2021 to 2025, she tried to justify over and over again Israel’s war crimes as ‘self-defence,’ rejected ceasefires, and her country continued to provide Israel with hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons, making it its second biggest arms supplier. She de facto became one of…

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