Also See --- Egypt in Pictures: The Battle of Tahrir Square
Also See --- Egypt in Pictures: The Women of the Protests
A Message to US President Barack Obama
Wednesday: Christians Protect Praying Muslims
Barack Obama, Egypt, Hosni Mubarak Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 5:40 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
0522 GMT: We can now confirm that there will be a countrywide protest in Egypt on Friday. The day has been dubbed the "Friday of Departure" and it aims to force President Hosni Mubarak to once and for all quit and leave the country.
Two political stories will dominate US news coverage this year: the campaign for the Republican nomination to face President Obama in the 2012 election, and the efforts by both parties, bi-partisan commissions, and independent think tanks to find a solution for the state of the American economy. Included in the latter debate will be terms that turn us all bleary-eyed; debt ceilings, discretionary and non-discretionary spending, entitlement reform, tax reform, and a myriad of health,care acronyms like MSAs (Medical Saving Accounts). The grim reality beyond the terms is that the United States is facing a fiscal crisis, and this year will see the beginnings of policies that will have long-standing consequences for the future of America.
Over the next few weeks EA USA will post a series of articles looking in-depth at the various recommendations for changes.
Friday, January 28, 2011 at 5:47 | Scott Lucas in Africa, EA Global, EA Middle East and Turkey, Middle East and Iran 
So there is a 13-hour curfew imposed in Egypt, right? What that means is that people should remain at home, there shouldn't be any gatherings and police should be in-charge of the street. Instead, the police are missing and people are swarming through the capital Cairo. The situation is made worse by opportunistic looters. Several people in Egypt are reporting that shopkeepers are gathering relatives and friends to protect their businesses from looters in isolated areas of the city.
Does that make sense?
0307 GMT: And now the mother of all disclosures?
The Daily Telegraph quotes a Wikileaks diplomatic dispatch with the following story:
The American Embassy in Cairo helped a young dissident attend a US-sponsored summit for activists in New York, while working to keep his identity secret from Egyptian state police.
On his return to Cairo in December 2008, the activist told US diplomats that an alliance of opposition groups had drawn up a plan to overthrow President Hosni Mubarak and install a democratic government in 2011.
Read the full story on the Daily Telegraph here.
I appeared this morning on the BBC World Service's World Today to discuss President Obama's State of the Union address, considering the politics, economics, and (lack of) foreign policy as well as the prospects for Obama in the near-future and in 2012 on the back of this speech.
The item begins at the start of the programme. I join at 4:40 after comments from a California housewife on Obama and the address.
Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, Members of Congress, distinguished guests, and fellow Americans:
Tonight I want to begin by congratulating the men and women of the 112th Congress, as well as your new Speaker, John Boehner. And as we mark this occasion, we are also mindful of the empty chair in this Chamber, and pray for the health of our colleague --- and our friend –-- Gabby Giffords.
It promises to be an interesting Tuesday with potential filibuster reform and an outside chance of Republicans forcing a repeal vote on the health care plan. But in the end it will be the power of the Presidency that draws the world's attention to Washington on Tuesday. With one of his most important weapons, President Obama has the chance to remind Americans, and an international audience, of the optimism that surrounded his election in 2008.
Sunday, January 23, 2011 at 6:35 | Scott Lucas in EA Global, EA USA, UK and Ireland, US Foreign Policy, US Politics 
Relations between Britain and America have improved as the oil has dissipated in the Gulf, but what we see is not a progressive, liberal trend from either Obama or from the Liberal Democrats in the British coalition. Instead, what is emerging is an American-style big-society, small-state conservative and neo-liberal reshaping on British welfare, heath care, and education. The American charter school system is entering Britain through new "academies"; in October 2010, Geoffrey Canada, the founder and CEO of the Harlem Children’s Zone, travelled to Britain to meet with Minister of Education Michael Gove to discuss charter schools and education reform and the alleged threat of unions to such reform, as well as to address the Tory Party conference.
As Britain awaits the next round of Tory-Lib Dem cuts to balance the budget, rein in the deficit, and punish the poor in 2011, those meetings and our looks across the Atlantic are likely to continue. President Obama may be entering his third year, but it is "what they are doing on the Right" that may be more important.
If President Obama can continue his recent "bold leadership and prophetic eloquence" in the State of the Union Address, he has the opportunity to override the bickering in the House of Representatives, imprinting an indelible impression in the minds of the 77% of Americans who believe that compromise is a worthy objective. No one should be naïve enough to think that politics will not return to the heated debate that marked the last Congress, but on 25 January Obama could don the mantle of representing the "silent majority" of moderates of both parties –-- and Independents --– in the US.
2345 GMT: Al Arabiya reports that President Ben Ali's plane has landed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
2155 GMT: President Obama has issued a statement:
I condemn and deplore the use of violence against citizens peacefully voicing their opinion in Tunisia, and I applaud the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people. The United States stands with the entire international community in bearing witness to this brave and determined struggle for the universal rights that we must all uphold, and we will long remember the images of the Tunisian people seeking to make their voices heard. I urge all parties to maintain calm and avoid violence, and call on the Tunisian government to respect human rights, and to hold free and fair elections in the near future that reflect the true will and aspirations of the Tunisian people.As I have said before, each nation gives life to the principle of democracy in its own way, grounded in the traditions of its own people, and those countries that respect the universal rights of their people are stronger and more successful than those that do not. I have no doubt that Tunisia's future will be brighter if it is guided by the voices of the Tunisian people.
