Tahrir Square

Protests roiled Egypt this weekend after a court dropped all criminal charges against its former president, Hosni Mubarak. While his eventual successor, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, enjoys huge support, the reaction to Mubarak’s release showed how many people are unwilling to forgive their ex-leader.

You can see the phrase scrawled on walls around the globe from Tahrir Square to Ferguson, seemingly anywhere people take to the streets: “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.” It was the creation of American jazz poet Gil Scott-Heron, whose biographer says he’d enjoy the term’s enduring use.

The Egyptian general who helped lead the ouster of Egypt’s elected president is in a pretty sweet place for the moment – on chocolate bars. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has won the hearts and minds of at least a segment of the country’s population.

Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim tackles revolutionary Egypt in her new documentary, “The Square.” The film is wide in scope, covering two and a half years of political tumult. But it’s also a deeply personal story about a handful of revolutionaries tied to Cairo’s Tahrir Square.

Social media-inspired protests often turn out spectacular crowds, but months later, most seem to sputter and die. There’s a reason, says a University of North Carolina professor.