BRICS countries represent 40% of the world’s population and a quarter of the world’s economy, and the group is now considering a possible expansion to more than 20 other countries.

A wave of exclusion is sweeping the nation, in state legislatures and federal courts, including the Supreme Court.

Amy Goodman: The Bahraini government is intensifying its crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.  In a pre-dawn raid Saturday, masked police officers broke into the home of Abdulhadi Alkhawaja, a prominent Bahraini human rights activist.  Alkhawaja and other family members were beaten and detained.  They remain in police custody at an unknown location.  Human Rights Watch has […]

Bassam Haddad: The differences between Syria and Egypt and Tunisia are several.  This does not mean that things cannot spin out of control to produce the same effect.  But, structurally speaking, the Syrian society is far more heterogeneous and divided than either the Egyptian or the Tunisian society.  So the opposition is not cohesive.  There […]

  Amy Goodman: Your feelings today in the midst of this popular rebellion against the Mubarak regime, calling on Mubarak to leave?  Do you agree? Nawal El Saadawi: We are in the streets every day, people, children, old people, including myself.  I am now 80 years of age, suffering of this regime for half a […]

Ahmad Shokr: Well, the scenes right now are quite remarkable. Literally, tens of thousands are taking to the streets amidst a huge security presence. I’m standing in front of a demonstration of at least a few thousand people who have taken over one of the main bridges in Cairo, calling for the ouster of Hosni Mubarak’s regime. They have raised their hands, stating that they’re peaceful protesters, but have been met by a shower of rubber bullets and tear gas.

Listen to the interview with Hossam el-Hamalawy: Hossam el-Hamalawy: Egypt yesterday witnessed its strongest protests in probably four decades, since 1977: tens of thousands have taken to the streets in virtually all the cities of our country, chanting against Mubarak, chanting against the U.S., which is backing Mubarak, calling for internal reforms and for democracy. […]

  Listen to Amy Goodman’s interview with Oliver Stone and Tariq Ali: Oliver Stone: So, Chávez was sort of a natural [as a subject for his work] because he is such a demonized, polarizing figure, but when I met him, it was not at all what I thought, you know, what we made him out […]

  Amy Goodman: As nuclear nonproliferation talks at the United Nations focus on the Middle East this week, we turn to new revelations about Israel’s nuclear weapons program and its close alliance with apartheid South Africa. Israeli President Shimon Peres has denied reports that he offered to sell nuclear weapons to apartheid South Africa when […]

Introduction by Lincoln Shlensky Israeli historian Avi Shlaim, in an audio/video interview (also transcribed) with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, breaks down the responsibility for the current war in Gaza and clarifies the definition of “terror” as a term that should be applied both to Hamas and Israel.  Based on Israeli Ministry of Defense statistics […]

  “Our community is expanding: MRZine viewers have increased in number, as have the readers of our editions published outside the United States and in languages other than English.  We sense a sharp increase in interest in our perspective and its history.   Many in our community have made use of the MR archive we […]