Egypt Updates: the March of Millions.

President Mubarak.
Neither the end of the work week nor a government-sanctioned curfew extinguished the Egyptian protests, which are now approaching their eighth day. And demonstrations will certainly continue into tomorrow, when there will be a “march of millions.”

Over the weekend, Nobel Peace Prize winner and pro-democracy advocate Mohamed ElBaradei emerged as a possible sucessor to President Honsi Mubarak, whose unpopular 30-year tenure is at the root of the rioting. According to The Wall Street Journal, “ElBaradei’s endorsement by the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt’s largest and best-organized opposition force, amounted to a historic display of unity between the country’s secular and Islamist opposition forces.” At a demonstration over the weekend, ElBaradei told protestors, “We have restored our rights, restored our freedom, and what we have begun cannot be reversed.”

To be sure, President Mubarak, who notably appeared on television with several high-ranking military officers, is still in power. As The Washington Post explains, that Mubarak has remained on good terms with the army is crucial to his continued reign. “The army is believed to have the power to topple Mubarak if it chooses, but so far it has not done so, which may mean its gestures of solidarity with the protesters are meant only to placate the movement as the president engineers a succession plan,” the Post reports.

Meanwhile, the State Department is encouraging Americans to leave Egypt, and chartered flights have been set aside for the purpose of expediting the exit. U.S. citizens should “consider leaving as soon as they can safely do so,” according to a communiqué from the American Embassy in Cairo.(Vanity Fair)