a thread about the civil unrest in egypt (& elsewhere in 'the region' if necessary)

When a man sporting a long beard and a white robe began chanting an Islamist slogan, he was grabbed and shaken by another protester telling him to keep the slogans patriotic and not religious.

Mubarak speaking

like, later, right?

mubarak is on now xp

. Riot police appear to have withdrawn from the streets of Cairo and Alexandria after several hours of confrontation with protesters, and in their place the Egyptian Army has taken up presence, guarding government buildings.

this doesn't bode well for the usa/egypt friendly on the 9th

Egypt should be able to beat us anyway.

looks like he's going to cling to power by ceding some nebulous "reforms"

mubarak has no intention of going anywhere any time soon

yup

oh shit he just said he is stepping down

wait what did he just say?

as of TOMORROW, will designate interim gov't

whoah

!!!

whoa wtf this speech took a drastic turn

oh my god

ooh

"I have ordered the government to step down, and I will name a new government tomorrow"

is he just like dissolving parliament?

he's staying put it looks like

He's not stepping down, he's just changing the government

twitter responses saying otherwise -- mubarak asked the gov't to step down, whatever that means.

xps lol

oh shit he just said he is stepping down

he said he'd ordered the government to step down, and he'd name a new one tomorrow, but he himself isn't going anywhere!

yeah i was listening to a translation obv but i didn't hear him explicitly say he was leaving office?

xps yeah

not a tenable position surely

kinda hard to believe he's almost 83 yrs old

What channel are you watching (if seeing this in the UK)?

i know yall hate me that's why i'm firing my staff

al-jazeera

reporter saying (obviously) that this won't be enough for the protesters, power is concentrated in the hands of the president anyway

so he's sacking his entire cabinet

wonder if he's playing for time to figure out some way to step aside without being killed/tried for crimes/imprisoned/whatever

thanks xp - don't have it, will keep getting my news from ilx

ismael - http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

sorry for bungling the translation guys

yes use lex's link

aljazeera is crashing my shit, so there's also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698

thanks lex etc

has anyone made the "mubarak in de nile" joke yet?

Al Jazeera English: Live Stream http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

sorry for bungling the translation guys

― ex-heroin addict tricycle (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, January 28, 2011 5:33 PM (21 seconds ago)

haha it's okay, i was sort of tuning him out because it seemed like he wasn't saying much, then all of the sudden i heard "new government tomorrow" and read what you said

I'm sure he could find refuge somewhere, Saudi at least. If he does attempt this legalistic gambit, (and assuming he digs in and keeps hold of power - something I'm very sceptical about) will he run for re-election in September?

Ismael:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-12307698
live coverage there

more coverage here > http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/

has anyone made the "mubarak in de nile" joke yet?

More like 'who hasn't'

Yes, upthread. (re De Nile joke)

I wasn't really clear to me what "the government" meant in the context of the speech

xp

Got it now thanks xp - every time he looks up I expect to see that it's Berlusconi

Got it now thanks

The de Nile joke?

yeah is he dissolving parliament or just replacing his cabinet?

White House's maneuvering here is interesting - all the noise from the State Dept makes it seem like they'd all be more than happy to see Mubarak go, they're just worried about giving him an exit strategy that will preserve US interests