British political scientist Timothy Mitchell, head of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University in New York, recently visited Cairo and delivered a few lectures at the American University based on his new book ‘Carbon Democracy: Political Power in the Age of Oil.’ British political scientist Timothy Mitchell, head of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University […]

Was it a cinematic happy ending for the recent crisis (the reasons of which are still unknown) between the military and Mohamed Morsi? Or has the final chapter in that crisis yet to be written, pending a new round between the two sides, given that the faces in the photograph published by media suggest that […]

A shortage of gas cylinders—75% of the population relies on them for their daily household needs—has been part and parcel of Egyptian life and worsened since the outbreak of the revolution in 2011. The cylinders are difficult to find, driving people to buy them on the black market at an exorbitant price of 60 Egyptian […]

Only 48 hours after the trial of Bassam Yousseff, the host of ‘El Bernameg’ (The Program), on charges of insulting President Morsi, Al Jazeera Live announced a complaint filed against media man Gaber El-Armouty and his ON TV show, ‘Manchette.’ El-Armouty was charged with “disturbing public peace” and “insulting the judiciary.”  Here El-Armouty gives his […]

Political forces are establishing civil society organizations (CSOs) amid rising controversy about whether civil organizations should be mixed with with political action, especially with increased foreign funding of civil society. Controversy escalated when the Muslim Brotherhood established a CSO to disable the rule of the State Commissioner’s Authority to dissolve it, and eight months earlier, […]

Egyptian students are currently busy electing a president and a deputy for their general union, following their election of regional students’ unions. These elections enjoy remarkable media coverage, given the election results of the various regional universities, which showed a significant domination of independent students, coupled with a decline of the Islamic current students. Egyptian […]

Calling the groups that paraded the city of Asyut with arms last month ‘people’s committees’ is reminiscent of the revolutionary days in which civic initiatives created regional committees to maintain security after the collapse of the police on January 28, 2011. Calling the groups that paraded the city of Asyut with arms last month ‘people’s […]

Located in the heart of the Western Desert, Abu Tartour mine is the world’s second largest phosphate mine with a verified reserve of 700 million tons and a potential reserve of 10 billion tons. However, Egypt Phosphate Company— which runs the project— has been exposed to many pitfalls from the outset, starting with poor planning, […]

As soon as I arrived at Cairo airport from London, to spend my annual vacation, I received news about sectarian violence in the Khosous district. According to the most circulated news, the incidents broke out when a Copt allegedly painted a swastika on the walls of an Al-Azhar-affiliated institute. On the first day, the clashes […]

The news is not about the fire that flared up in a Cairo court on Thursday morning, April 4, rather it is the real fires, which burned the files of South Cairo Court, Central Cairo Prosecution, Public Funds Prosecution and Bulaq and Sharabia prosecutions, that passed unnoticed without political repercussions or considerable media attention about […]