Laura Dean's Cairo Diary

On the anniversary of the January 25 uprisings, television screens across Egypt broadcast dance performances on the stage in Tahrir square, smiling children with Egyptian flags painted on their faces, and women wearing pictures of General Abdel Fattah el Sissi around their necks. Meanwhile clashes raged in the next street over, largely ignored by the local media though covered widely by the international press.

It’s no accident that ousted President Mohamed Morsi’s trial happened in a place called the Fifth Settlement, which was, until ten years ago, in the middle of the desert. Parts of it fit that description still. The courthouse in New Cairo is far outside the teeming avenues and alleyways of the old city, far beyond most public transportation routes that would make it easy for protesters to reach. And in any case, the roads are blocked off for kilometers around all but one entrance to the police academy.

It is one of Cairo's rare windy fall days, and I am sitting with a group of friends, who are drinking juice and smoking shisha on multi-colored plastic chairs in an alley downtown. A poster of Nasser flutters above a neighboring cafe, and graffiti from all of the stages of Egypt's recent political past adorns the walls. When I get up to leave, a taxi almost careens straight into my friends and me, as we stand at the edge of the street. When we protest gently, the driver says, "No, no, there's shooting in Tahrir.

I am back in Cairo after some time out of the country, and there is a lot going on. Here are some notes from the last fews weeks in reverse chronological order.