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With his plans to attend the Cairo Book Fair today regrettablydisrupted, President Mubarak will instead spend the day choosing a new cabinet to replace the one he dismissed on television last night.
But his sudden offer of "dialogue" after 30 years in power is not going to cut any… Read more
This is a guest post by Parvez Sharma
Cairo is burning. So is Egypt. Twitter is exploding. Everyone seems to have an opinion – many who have never even been to Egypt but feel a strong sense of solidarity with the most remarkable revolution in a generation, perhaps. A revolution which… Read more
This is a guest post by Parvez Sharma
Hosni Mubarak is 82 years old. He has been Egypt’s absolute ruler for three decades. He is America’s biggest ally in the Middle East. He has probably never really learnt how to use a computer. I cannot imagine that he tweets or even fully comprehends how… Read more
Al-Ahram's front page. Acknowledgement: The Angry Arab
In the absence of any noteworthy events in Egypt, the semi-official al-Ahram newspaper had to look further afield for its main front-page headline yesterday: "Widespread protests and disturbances in Lebanon". This is a… Read more
In an article for The Atlantic, Alexis Madrigal, formerly of Wired magazine, takes a detailed look at the recent battle between the Tunisian authorities and Facebook – and how Facebook responded to it. He writes:
After more than ten days of intensive investigation and study, Facebook's… Read more
Kifaya – "Enough!" One man and the riot police in Cairo today
Well, who would have believed it? Today's protests in Egypt far exceeded my own expectations and, no doubt, the expectations of the organisers and the Egyptian authorities. The Mubarak regime, even if it's not headed for… Read more
Today is national Police Day in Egypt. It marks the occasion, 59 years ago, when police in Ismailia refused to surrender to British forces and 41 of them died in a three-hour battle. Their act of heroism is officially commemorated every year on January 25.
But since 1952 perceptions of the… Read more
Not much to say about this – except that I rather like it. It's a new font from the Monotype company, looking sleek and modern, and known as Neo Sans Arabic.
There were more anti-government protests in Algeria and Yemen yesterday.
In Yemen, about 2,500 students and opposition activists demonstrated at Sana'a University, calling for President Salih to go. Although recent demonstrations have increasingly focused on Salih's presidency,… Read more
Having ignored the Tunisian uprising initially, the American right is now struggling to come to terms with it. Very inconveniently, it's hard to fit into standard neocon/clash-of-civilisations narratives – though that doesn't stop Robert Kaplan, writing in the New York Times, from having a try. He… Read more
ARAB ART ONLINE: Susan Hefuna: Al Sabr Gamil (Patience is Beautiful) 2007. Ink stained on wood 140 x 170 cm. More information | Click to enlarge
