The dynamic of Senegal’s Feb. 26 election is a familiar-sounding one: an aging, increasingly autocratic African President trying to cling to power, sending in the security services to beat up – and occasionally kill – young …
protests
The Fall of the Island President: The Maldives’ Nasheed Steps Down
Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives until he was compelled to step down today, spent six years as a political prisoner in the 1990s. He was kept for spells in solitary confinement, tortured and beaten by an autocratic …
Nigeria’s Rulers Reap Rewards of Corruption with Sudden Descent Into Chaos
The killing of more than 178 people by Islamic militants in a series of attacks on state buildings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, underlines how one of Africa’s most corrupt nations is reaping the rewards of decades of …
Is The Government Of Protest-Loving France Orchestrating Strikebreaking?
To many observers abroad (and even some closer to home), France has the reputation of being a singularly strike-happy place—a country whose workers will walk out at the first sign of professional or even political discord. …
Austerity Nation: Britain Strikes as Government Extends Spending Cuts
In a nation where the weather changes by the hour, it’s useful to consult the morning forecast. For the two million public sector workers who walked out of their jobs across the U.K. this morning, today’s outlook likely seemed heavy with symbolism. Blustery winds across the northwest matched the chill of newly announced austerity …
On Cairo’s Violent Streets, an Untenable Status Quo Meets an Unwritten Future
With reporting by Abigail Hauslohner / Cairo
“Say it, don’t be afraid: the military council has to leave,” chanted some of the tens of thousands of protesters who thronged Cairo’s Tahrir Square Tuesday night. Their slogan was a combative response to the junta’s plan, announced hours earlier in an unprecedented television address …
London Protestors 1 God 0: Anti-Capitalism Camp Scores PR Victory Against St Paul’s
The Church of England has had 468 years to work on its public relations strategy. The Occupy London protestors camped around St Paul’s Cathedral have had rather less time to perfect theirs. And when the two movements first collided on Oct. 15, it looked like experience would triumph over greenhorn enthusiasm. After the protestors’ …
What Occupy Wall Street Can Learn from Occupy Tel Aviv
The tents seem to be everywhere now — Wall Street, London, Hong Kong, Madrid — but very little really comes close to what happened in Israel this summer: thousands camping out, hundreds of thousands marching, a society transformed. “It’s all part of the same thing. It’s people saying, ‘We want to be in charge,'” says Stav Shaffir, …
On Either Side of the Atlantic, Protesters Find Power in Vagueness
Their dilemma isn’t new, isn’t easy, and may eventually require tough choices that will impact the very existence of their movement: How can the growing ranks of the motley anti-Wall Street protest prod an entire system to change when most of the U.S.’s economic establishment, political class, and a significant portion of its …
‘Gypsies Into Glue!’: Anti-Roma Protests Sweep Bulgaria
The charge that a relative of a Roma clan leader killed a Bulgarian teenager sparked anti-Gypsy demonstrations across the country last weekend. Thousands of protesters took to the streets in at least 20 towns and cities, including the capital, Sofia. “A total of 168 have been arrested for violation of public order, the majority — …
Burma: Could a Small, Peaceful Protest Signal Real Reform?
Four years ago, as columns of burgundy-robed monks marched peacefully through Burma’s commercial capital Rangoon, security forces opened fire, slaughtering at least 31 people, arresting thousands more and extinguishing hopes that the ruling junta was receptive to political reform. On September 26, dozens of Burmese again gathered …
Escalation of Syria’s Conlict Reveals Bashar Assad’s Fear of Ramadan
In her latest article for TIME, Rania Abouzeid investigates the fallout from the latest government offensive on the Syrian city of Hama, which commenced Sunday when army tanks entered residential neighborhoods. Some reports put the two-day death toll as high as 127 people including 95 civilians, as shells continue to fall on the …
Syria: Schisms and Rancor Shape the Contours of a Bloody Conflict
In her most recent TIME article, Rania Abouzeid explains why the chance of a nonviolent resolution to political conflict in Syria is increasingly unlikely: even as embattled President Bashar Assad holds nominal talks with minor opposition groups, tanks remain in the street and his troops continue to mow down unarmed protestors. In the …