In this week's issue, we put the spotlight on Egypt, where things feel disturbingly similar to the way they were before the Arab Spring.
As we launch The WorldPost, our new global initiative in partnership with the Berggruen Institute on Governance, our Cairo-based correspondent Sophia Jones checks the pulse of the nation, three years after the revolution that ended the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak. While the Arab Spring raised hopes for a new era of democracy, those expectations have long since dulled in Egypt, with the same generals who held power before the revolution back in charge. "Much of the Egyptian public seems to have accepted this state of affairs, regardless of the democratic ideals that drove the revolution," Sophia writes. "The once-popular battle cry of 'bread, freedom, and social justice' has seemingly been forgotten, trumped by the military-backed regime's promise to restore security." Meanwhile, members of the Muslim Brotherhood -- the group that gained popular support during the Arab Spring and elevated the now-ousted Mohammed Morsi to the presidency -- find themselves targets, branded as a terrorist organization by Egypt's new leaders.
"[The military has] capitalized on fear, exhaustion and frustration with the Muslim Brotherhood-led government," Hafsa Halawa, a former employee of the National Democratic Institute, tells Sophia. "In short," Sophia adds, "public revulsion at the prospect of Islamist rule has been manipulated into tacit acceptance for a crackdown antithetical to democratic rule." Elsewhere in the issue, Jason Linkins points out that we now can count more people not running for president in 2016 than people running, despite rampant speculation about potential candidates. California Gov. Jerry Brown recently joined the growing list of those who have officially stated their disinterest, including Democrats Cory Booker, Julian Castro, Deval Patrick, Elizabeth Warren, and Republican Susana Martinez. "Let us now praise the real heroes of this period of premature frenzy," Jason writes. "Those men and women who have seen the light of presidential speculation beaming in their direction and have forthrightly declared, 'You can include me out.'"
In our Voices section, Kia Makarechi explains the problem with "outrage fatigue" -- AKA, why won't everyone stop complaining about the lack of roles for black actors and Katy Perry performing in yellowface?
It's not that we're "suddenly" seeing people express their dissatisfaction with racial and cultural inequities, Kia argues. It's just that we're hearing more diverse perspectives than we're used to hearing. And what we're used to has largely consisted of "every idiosyncratic white male beef with everything that has happened and/or will happen," Kia writes.
Finally, as part of our ongoing focus on The Third Metric, we look at some of the daily habits that can help you reduce stress and be more present in your life.
This story appears in Issue 85 of our weekly iPad magazine, Huffington, available Friday, Jan. 24 in the iTunes App store.