Calm was restored to Egypt yesterday after a mass overnight protest against Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi ended peacefully, but the underlying political crisis dividing the country persisted.
More than 100 protesters remained outside the presidential palace in Cairo, watched over by soldiers who used tanks and barbed wire to block roads leading to the compound.
Overnight, more than 10,000 people had massed in the palace square in a noisy demonstration, tearing aside a barbed-wire barricade and yelling for Morsi to step down.
Photo: Reuters
The crowd gradually dwindled to a hard core of protesters, repeating a pattern of nightly protests this week that peaked each evening.
However, there was no sign of protesters faltering in their opposition to the Islamist president and the sweeping new powers he decreed for himself last month, or to a controversial draft constitution Morsi is putting to a referendum he has called for Saturday.
“I’m ready to die. All these guys are ready to die. I don’t want violence, but if they try to oppress us, there has to be a stand,” said one protester who camped out overnight, Mustafa el-Tabbal, 27.
Although about 2,000 Morsi supporters from the president’s Muslim Brotherhood held a rival rally just a few kilometers away, there was no repeat of the violent clashes between the two sides of Wednesday night, when seven people died and more than 640 were hurt.
Since the clashes, Morsi has struck a defiant tone, defending his decree and the referendum.
However, his camp has also made some conciliatory gestures to the mainly secular opposition, seen as attempts to de-escalate the confrontation.
Morsi offered to hold talks with the opposition yesterday, but that was rebuffed by the National Salvation Front coalition ranged against him.
One of the Front’s leaders, Mohamed ElBaradei, a former UN atomic agency chief and Nobel Peace laureate, said late on Friday that dialogue could only happen if Morsi agreed to “repeal the decree” and postpone the referendum.
Egyptian Vice President Mahmud Mekki said Morsi “could accept to delay the referendum,” but only if the opposition guaranteed it would launch no legal challenge to the decision.
Under Egyptian law, a president is compelled to hold a referendum two weeks after formally being delivered its text.
Mekki said early voting for Egyptians overseas that had been scheduled for yesterday had now been pushed back to Wednesday.
Also yesterday, the Cairo prosecutors’ office said that all 133 people arrested during Wednesday’s clashes had been released.
The state newspaper al-Ahram said in yesterday’s edition that there was “an opening in the constitutional crisis.”
However, the independent newspaper al-Masry al-Youm ran the headline: “The protesters held up a ‘red card’ to the president in front of the presidential palace.”
The opposition fears Morsi’s “power grab” and referendum aim to push the country toward a more Islamic state, based on the slender mandate he won in a June election.
Their slogans and mobilization recalled the uprising that toppled Egypt’s autocratic leader of 30 years, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, early last year.
Morsi’s backers in the Muslim Brotherhood, in turn, fear that judiciary, with its many Mubarak-era appointees, is plotting to block the reforms they are trying to push through.
MISINFORMATION: The generated content tends to adopt China’s official stance, such as ‘Taiwan is currently governed by the Chinese central government,’ the NSB said Five China-developed artificial intelligence (AI) language models exhibit cybersecurity risks and content biases, an inspection conducted by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The five AI tools are: DeepSeek, Doubao (豆包), Yiyan (文心一言), Tongyi (通義千問) and Yuanbao (騰訊元寶), the bureau said, advising people to remain vigilant to protect personal data privacy and corporate business secrets. The NSB said it, in accordance with the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法), has reviewed international cybersecurity reports and intelligence, and coordinated with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau and the National Police Agency’s Criminal Investigation Bureau to conduct an inspection of China-made AI language
BOOST IN CONFIDENCE: The sale sends a clear message of support for Taiwan and dispels rumors that US President Donald Trump ‘sold out’ the nation, an expert said The US government on Thursday announced a possible sale to Taiwan of fighter jet parts, which was estimated to cost about US$330 million, in a move that an expert said “sends a clear message of support for Taiwan” amid fears that Washington might be wavering in its attitude toward Taipei. It was the first announcement of an arms sale to Taiwan since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House earlier this year. The proposed package includes non-standard components, spare and repair parts, consumables and accessories, as well repair and return support for the F-16, C-130 and Indigenous Defense Fighter aircraft,
CHECKING BOUNDARIES: China wants to disrupt solidarity among democracies and test their red lines, but it is instead pushing nations to become more united, an expert said The US Department of State on Friday expressed deep concern over a Chinese public security agency’s investigation into Legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) for “secession.” “China’s actions threaten free speech and erode norms that have underpinned the cross-strait ‘status quo’ for decades,” a US Department of State spokesperson said. The Chongqing Municipal Public Security Bureau late last month listed Shen as “wanted” and launched an investigation into alleged “secession-related” criminal activities, including his founding of the Kuma Academy, a civil defense organization that prepares people for an invasion by China. The spokesperson said that the US was “deeply concerned” about the bureau investigating Shen
LIMITS: While China increases military pressure on Taiwan and expands its use of cognitive warfare, it is unwilling to target tech supply chains, the report said US and Taiwan military officials have warned that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could implement a blockade within “a matter of hours” and need only “minimal conversion time” prior to an attack on Taiwan, a report released on Tuesday by the US Senate’s China Economic and Security Review Commission said. “While there is no indication that China is planning an imminent attack, the United States and its allies and partners can no longer assume that a Taiwan contingency is a distant possibility for which they would have ample time to prepare,” it said. The commission made the comments in its annual
RSS