Global News and Analysis

Source: Democracy Now!

Related links:

• Follow Sharif Kouddous on Twitter
• Follow On-the-Ground Reporting From Sharif Kouddous
• Democracy Now! Complete Coverage of the Egypt Protests

AMY GOODMAN: We begin our coverage of Egypt with Democracy Now! senior producer Sharif Abdel Kouddous in Tahrir Square in Cairo. He’s been on the ground in Egypt reporting on events as they unfold. In the last few days he has been interviewed on independent radio stations in the United States, on Al Jazeera, last night on two programs on MSNBC and other news outlets. We go right now to Sharif Abdel Kouddous, who is in Tahrir Square.

Sharif, what is it like on the ground? What are you seeing right now? read more

Source: Democracy Now

Related Links:

• Follow Sharif Abdel Kouddous on Twitter
• “Live From Egypt: The Rebellion Grows Stronger.” Blog By Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! Senior Producer
• Democracy Now! Complete Coverage of the Egyptian Protests

AMY GOODMAN: The massive protests in Egypt have entered their seventh day as tens of thousands pack into Tahrir Square in Cairo. Protesters are vowing to stay in the streets until President Hosni Mubarak resigns. A general strike was called for today, and a “million man march” is being organized for Tuesday.

The Egyptian government continues to crack down on protesters and the media. Earlier today, six Al Jazeera journalists were arrested, their equipment seized. On Sunday, Egyptian authorities closed Al Jazeera’s offices in Egypt and removed the news station from the main TV satellite provider. read more

Source: The Progressive

This year may very well prove to be the most memorable in modern Arab history. Too bad that the United States is on the wrong side.

I have written a soon-to-be-published book on Islam and nonviolence that deals with mass protest in the Middle East, but Tunisian and Egyptian youth have already made the book a bit dated by deciding that this year was the year they had enough.

Tunisia itself was momentous. It was the first time in the recent past that an Arab dictator had been toppled by people power. But as significant as this was, Tunisia is a relatively small country and on the margins of the Arab world, geographically and culturally. read more

Source: Americas Program

When George W. Bush left the White House, the rest of the world breathed a sigh of relief. The National Security Doctrine of unilateral attacks, the invasion of Iraq under the false pretext of weapons of mass destruction, and the abandonment of multilateral forums had opened up a new phase of U.S. aggression. Despite the focus on the Middle East, the increased threat of U.S. military intervention cast a long shadow over many parts of the world.

Two years later, that sense of relief has given way to deep concern. After hopes of a something closer to FDR’s Good Neighbor Policy of (relative) non-intervention, we find ourselves facing a new wave of militarization in Latin America–supported and promoted by the Obama administration. read more

Source: The Independent

The world is watching China’s economic surge with understandable awe – while politely and passively ignoring the country’s ecological disintegration.

When the journalist Jonathan Watts was a child, he was told, like so many of us: “If everyone in China jumps at exactly the same time, it will shake the earth off its axis and kill us all.” Three decades later, he stood in the grey sickly smog of Beijing, wheezing and hacking uncontrollably after a short run, and thought – the Chinese jump has begun. He had travelled 100,000 miles criss-crossing China, from the rooftop of Tibet to the deserts of Inner Mongolia and everywhere, he discovered that the Chinese state was embarked on a massive program of environmental destruction. It has turned whole rivers poisonous to the touch, rendered entire areas cancer-ridden, transformed a fertile area twice the size of Britain into desert – and probably even triggered the worst earthquake in living memory. read more