Wal-Mart de Mexico; or, why we need newspapers
The New York Times digs deep for a piece of great journalism. What might they do in Egypt or India?
My twenty years in Egypt
My first trip to Cairo was in 1992. Here are some thoughts on how it has changed
On Egypt’s constitutional referendum
The Muslim Brotherhood has changed its political strategy, a loss for everyone
Bal Thackeray dying in India, violence expected
Of course it is: violence is the Shiv Sena default reaction to anything they don’t like
What is racist about Romney’s 47 percent claim?
The late Lee Atwater makes it clear: Romney’s 47 percent drives racists closer to rich white people
A stars-aligning moment to pass immigration reform
For the first time, Republicans need immigration reform as much as Democrats have always wanted it
Hand-drawn ryokan map, Kyoto, Japan, 1990
How inexpertly drawn kanji led me out of Asia to the Middle East and Europe
HOW and NOSM mural on the Deitch wall
The Basque street artists brave the New York blackout to paint their wicked new mural
What Obama lost in this campaign
Even with victory, Obama missed the chance to engineer a realignment of the US electorate
East Berlin, New York
The hurricane brought scarcity and darkness to downtown Manhattan while the north wallowed in light
Rendition and torture: how it happened
Everyone knows by now that the US and UK tortured captives. That should still shock us
If you missed the Egyptian royal family…
A film made by the Egyptian royal family about a coup d’état that was lost for nearly sixty years
Car bomb in Beirut, invisible map revealed
Even in peacetime, every Beiruti knows which sect ‘owns’ each district
What an Omar Suleiman girl group would sound like
Mubarak’s Angel of Darkness would have yelped and wailed just like this
On viewing the Tatzu Nishi Columbus Circle project
Tatzu Nishi inverts Surrealism and makes you see a public landmark as if for the first time
New York Times op-ed on Syria is wrong about the Obama doctrine
How not to make the case for US intervention in Syria
The embassy mobs and Obama’s ‘failure’ in the Middle East
Is Obama’s policy in the Middle East in ‘epic collapse’? Hardly. But serious people have doubts now
Latest in the battle over the Mohamed Mahmoud mural
The New York Times blog The Lede picks up the battle over street art in Cairo
The amazing mural on Mohamed Mahmoud that was just painted over
What a loss for Cairo, artistically as much as politically
In a first, a new dictionary of ancient Egyptian colloquial
The language was on the Rosetta Stone but the dictionary is only now being published
How the US is playing into the hands of the Salafiyeen
The US just told the Salafiyeen they have the power to affect aid talks. Big mistake
Tracking how the Egyptian government is doing
Before the revolution, Egypt had no politics. Now it does, and the small things matter
Pay no attention to these anti-American protests in Cairo
I was in Cairo 48 hours ago: there is no great wave of anti-Americanism right now
In Paris, this photo is illegal
Street photography is against the law in the place in which it was born