Hsi-Chang Lin

A massive crowd has filled the streets of Cairo on day 18 of Egypt's uprising. Thursday night, President Hosni Mubarak announced that he has no intentions of leaving office sparking rage among the crowds of demonstrators. For an analysis of what happens now is Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, author of “Sowing Crisis: The Cold War and American Dominance in the Middle East” and “Palestinian Identity.”

Today will be yet another historic day for the country of Egypt following yesterday’s televised statements by President Hosni Mubarak who explained that he has no intention of stepping down as president. Columnist for The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof describes just how out of touch a dictator can be, saying he essentially threw "gasoline on a fire."

Egypt's autocratic leader, Hosni Mubarak announced his plans to remain president of Egypt, yet, more and more voices begin to consolidate power both inside the government, and outside its walls. Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei tweeted out, "Egypt will explode. Army must save country now," in response to Mubarak. Furthermore, some reports suggest Egypt's Army is deeply divided over how to deal with Mubarak. The question now is, how much longer can Mubarak count on the military’s support? 

On Wednesday, we discussed a new iPhone app which helps Catholic users prepare for the act of confession. To Patrick Leinen, creator of The Confession App, the use of interactive media is a natural and necessary evolution for religions that hope to keep up the pace with a world that rapidly embraces new technology. 

But how about Twitter, Facebook and MySpace; how do these social networks fare in the religious experience of the 21^st Century?

American conservatives are gathering in Washington for the annual CPAC Forum. This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference will see a wide field of Republican presidential hopefuls who are sure to make an appearance, and deliver their best case for the GOP nomination. This year there is no front runner (and Sarah Palin will not be attending.) For a preview and analysis, we speak with The Takeaway's Washington correspondent, Todd Zwillich.  

Yesterday, 30 year old Google executive Wael Ghonim was released from an Egyptian prison yesterday after twelve days of imprisonment, during which time, he claims, he was kidnapped and held blindfolded by authorities. 

Hours later, in a live interview conducted on Egypt's DreamTV, Ghonim broke down in tears while seeing images of men killed in the riots. (Watch the interview after the jump.) His interview seems to have re-galvanized protesters who have taken to the streets in record numbers after two weeks of demonstrations.

Omar Khalifa, the managing director at Egypt’s O Media told The Takeaway that, although he believes in freedom, he feels that his country is not yet ready for a Democratic government. But is a country ever ready for the messiness of democracy?

While rejecting calls for his immediate ouster, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak agreed not to seek reelection in the planned September elections. A new government is all but guaranteed in the region, but will the country's transition to Democracy be peaceful? Columnist for the The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, reports from Tahrir Square, where he saw aggressive pro-Mubarak demonstrators and says he is concerned that there may be clashes between them and pro-Democracy demonstrators.

Over the last few weeks, the world has witnessed an unexpected display of public dissatisfaction across the Middle East. Pro-democracy protesters toppled the government in Tunisia this month, and similar demonstrations are underway in Yemen and Egypt's capital city of Cairo. Most of the demonstrations seemed aimed at restrictive or totalitarian governments, but can all of them be described as "pro-democracy"? And are they sparking a wider revolution in the Middle East or is that an over-simplification? For more, The Takeaway speaks to Charles Dunbar, Professor of International Relations at Boston University.

Alan Lomax was a man whose boundless musical curiosity elevated folksongs to the level of “serious music.”  The lasting effect of his explorations, discoveries and archives alongside the developing technology of audio recording cannot be easily overstated. Lomax started his career in the 1930s, working for his father (John Lomax) at the Library of Congress Archive of American Folksongs where he collected some 25,000 songs. In the 1950’s he traveled and recorded the volume Columbia Library of World Music. His work had a large impact on Americans' understanding of the extraordinary nature of our "ordinary" culture. Take a listen to some of his legacy. 

In his State of the Union Address, President Obama described the key role math and science education is going to play in the nation’s future, as part of a competitive global economy. He says he’s prepared to take steps so the nation won’t fall behind. For more, we’re joined now by one of the nation’s top science educators. Shirley Ann Jackson, President of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York and she joins us from Davos, Switzerland — site of the World Economic Forum.

Secret documents leaked to WikiLeaks describe "persistent rumors of corruption" as fueling frustration with Tunisia's government. Tunisians have already been frustrated with their repressive leadership, but these documents may have helped to incite the current protests. Reporter for The Guardian, Ian Black, says that it is significant that these protests have forced the current president to announce that he will not seek another term in 2014.

What does it mean to be poor in America? For years, the country has had a fairly firm answer; in 2010, the federal government maintains the poverty line at an income of about $21,750 for a family of four. But, if you do the math, you'll likely come up with an inescapable question: how can a family really subsist in America on even twice that amount?

In what is potentially a sign of good economic news, the number of American workers willing to describe themselves as dissatisfied with their jobs seems to be climbing. This comes from an admittedly unscientific online survey of over 1,400 people, each currently employed, by the management consulting firm “Right Management." 84 percent of respondents said that they plan to actively seek a new job this year. That's up from 60 percent in a similar poll conducted a year earlier. In the poll, only five percent said that they plan to remain in their current positions all year long.

What if you found yourself accused of a crime you didn’t commit? What if the only thing standing between you and freedom was your word against the word of the victim? What if the court ruled against you? Craig Watkins feels that scenario happens far too often in our country, and since he was elected district attorney of Dallas, Texas, he’s done everything he can to correct those mistakes.

America saw 1.53 million personal bankruptcy filings in 2010: a five-year high. The last time bankruptcies happened so frequently was in 2004, when consumers were trying to preempt strict laws that would steer them away from the financial option last resort. Why is the 2005 law failing to slow the rate of bankruptcies?

With national unemployment at record levels, an economy seemingly reluctant to get out of first gear, and experts struggling to solve a foreclosure crisis, it may come as no surprise that Americans are watching more television. According to the Nielsen Company, we’re watching a lot more TV than we used to. Nielsen collects viewer data and television ratings, and says that the average American now watches about 34 hours of television on any given week.

Tensions continue to mount in Ivory Coast as the stand-off between incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo and West African leaders becomes entrenched. After losing a democratically-held election, Gbagbo has tacitly indicated it would take military intervention to remove him from the presidency — a situation nobody wants to see realized. Yesterday Youssofou Bamba, Ivory Coast’s new ambassador to the United Nations, said that the nation is on “the brink of genocide.”

Not far away from New York City's famous ball dropping ceremony in Times Square, another bombastic New Year's celebration will occur: Sharon Jones will perform with her band the Dap-Kings at Best Buy Theater. The second of two nights, the performance is likely to be one of the night's best bets in the city — the group is recognized as one of the best soul-revival bands working and critically acclaimed for their magical ability to recreate the sound and soul of the 1960’s.

As one of his final acts in office, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson says he will pardon the man known as "Billy the Kid," delivering one of America’s best known criminals the pardon he had anticipated for much of his life. The move comes a mere 130 years after the gunslinger’s death. We speak with author/historian Mark Lee Gardener, and discuss why Richardson might want to make such a public pardon to a historical criminal, and ask why the prospect of a pardon is causing such a stir.