On 25th January this year 50,000 people descended on Tahrir Square in Cairo to protest against president Hosni Mubarak. What followed was an extraordinary 18 days when the square became the focal point for the hopes and fears of Egypt's people, in a situation often joyous but also intense, as the military moved in and Mubarak supporters began to infiltrate the area. Nariman Youssef was in Tahrir Square during this extraordinary gathering. This ebook for the Summer of Unrest series is a gripping diary of that time until Mubarak stepped down on 11th February, which saw the crowds in the square swell to 1 million at one point. As well as an extraordinary insight from within the most important uprising in the Arab Spring, Youssef pulls back to document the signposts to, and issues that fueled, the surge for democratic change in Egypt, exploding myths and uncovering hidden truths as she goes. BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Britain in 2011 is in the grip of debt hysteria. If the current coalition government is going to be remembered for one thing it is the cuts: the most severe that this country has seen for decades. Cuts to university funding, libraries and public sector workplaces have seen the most high profile resistance, with the type of protest on the streets not seen since the Poll Tax riots and the Thatcher years. In this ebook, Mehdi Hasan exposes ten myths about the debt, deficits and spending cuts, and asks if this programme of austerity is really necessary or whether it is actually an economic strategy with its roots in an ideology that extends much further back in time than the global economic collapse of 2008. BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

"Those who do not move, do not notice their chains." - Rosa Luxemburg In this considered and polemical piece, Dan Hancox examines a world in which our fates are no longer governed by elected representatives with shirts and ties, but abstract finance. Where the problem is not so much false consciousness as blurred consciousness. He examines the 'spectacle of capitalism' that has stymied political activism for so long and how the closing months of 2010 saw a surge in rage that continues as the youth of Britain is waking up from its malaise in the face of provocation and the cuts programme. Beginning in the stifling kettle on Westminster Bridge, Hancox weaves on-the-ground reportage with political theory to describe and explain the growth of movements like UK Uncut, the University for Strategic Optimism and other actions to create a better society. An anthem for kettled youth, this ebook is a stake in the ground signalling the rebirth of the curiosity of a generation breaking free of its shackles. BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

The student protests during the closing months of 2010 were organised online via Facebook, Twitter, university forums, Google Maps and other networks. They came in the wake of a surge of activity on the web that confonted the traditional media channels when Wikileaks and Anonymous disrupted them, creating a New World Order of breaking news. The fluid organisation of the protests showed that the internet and social media were key tools for organising dissent. Then in the Spring 2011, a wave of uprisings broke over North Africa with Tunisia, Egypt and Libya swept up in revolts also galvanised online. Tom Chatfield explores how the internet is re-shaping society and affecting identity in a period of acute political turbulence. BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

Summer of Unrest (Slight Return). For a few days at the start of August, England was gripped by the riots that erupted in its city centres. Although there were various motivations behind the trouble and a broad spectrum of ages and backgrounds involved, the front pages were emblazoned with images of hooded youths running amok and stories of the revenge of the feral underclass. In this final part of the Brain Shots: Summer of Unrest series, Nikesh Shukla and Kieran Yates interrogate whether young people are deliberately conforming to a stereotype foisted upon them, and point instead to the creativity and entrepreneurialism that are defining a supposedly 'lost' generation. An antidote to the broadsheet commentariat, this street-level view of the defining moment of the Summer of Unrest finds much to inspire hope and confidence for our future.

Peter Beaumont has been on the ground in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya as the 'Arab Spring' has blossomed. He has witnessed the uprisings in all their messy reality. In this ebook he explains what is going on in the region and explodes the myths that the uprisings can be interpreted as an easily explainable revolution. He draws linkages between the countries ruled over by authoritarian regimes that promise 'reform' which is actually impossible to deliver, the frustration and anger this has caused, and then how this fulminated and eventually exploded, triggering a domino effect across the region. BRAIN SHOTS is the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction. The Summer of Unrest series brings together stellar writers to explore the issues surrounding the austerity measures in the UK, uprisings in the Middle East and the nature of the protest movements springing up all over the world.

In 1989, after the Ayatollah Khomeini declared a fatwa against Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses, Fay Weldon published Sacred Cows, a pamphlet critical of the fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran. Weldon’s pamphlet received a lot of attention on publication – mostly criticism of her perceived ‘Islamophobia’ – but Weldon set out to enforce the notion that no religion should have the right to issue threats and intimidation; no religion should hinder free expression. In Sacred Cows, Weldon criticizes all aspects of British society – Murdoch and the Sun’s page 3 girls; white, liberal complacence; problems with education and the NHS – and argues that the affront to Muslim people in Britain was not caused by publication of The Satanic Verses itself but rather by the ‘awfulness of the society we have allowed to grow up around us’. The Satanic Verses is remedy, according to Weldon, to a fractured, ailing society. Publishing literature like this proves that our society ‘may yet be well and our brave new God of individual conscience may yet arise’. Originally published by Chatto & Windus as part of the 'Chatto Counterblasts' strand, this ebook edition is reissued with a new introduction by the author, as part of the Brain Shots series: the pre-eminent source for high quality, short-form digital non-fiction.