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Sections Home Search Skip to content The New York Times The Lede Search Subscribe Now Log In 0 Settings Close search Site Search Navigation Search NYTimes.com Clear this text input Go Site Navigation Site Mobile Navigation Supported by Search Jul 14, 2014 Jul 14, 2014 The Lede Is Going Dark By The New York Times The Lede will no longer be updated, but the blog’s regular features, including live coverage of breaking news and discussion of events on social media, will remain a part of The New York Times news report. You can continue to find timely discussion of national and international events on our website, on our mobile site and on New York Times apps . Though posts like those published on The Lede will no longer be presented as a blog, our reporters and editors will continue to combine original reporting with social media content and curated video in the stories that they cover across our site. Robert Mackey will write a column, Open Source , (also on Twitter @NYTOpenSource ) for the World news section of The Times. You can follow him on Twitter at @RobertMackey . You can also follow other Times journalists from The Lede, including Christine Hauser ( @christineNYT ) and Jennifer Preston ( @JenniferPreston ). May 22, 2014 May 22, 2014 Family of Detained Egyptian Journalist Says Leaked Images of Him Were Staged By Robert Mackey The family of an Egyptian journalist who has been detained for nine months without charge expressed outrage on Thursday that images of him were leaked to a Facebook page run by sympathizers of the Interior Ministry. The reporter, Abdullah Elshamy , is an Al Jazeera correspondent who was swept up by the military-backed government during its bloody raid on an Islamist sit-in in Cairo last Aug. 14. He began a hunger strike four months ago to draw attention to his prolonged detention without trial. He was transferred last week to solitary confinement in the notorious wing of Cairo’s Tora prison known as Scorpion after he managed to record a surreptitious video message from his cell. In a letter from prison , Mr. Elshamy wrote that the authorities had tried to force-feed him. The images posted on Facebook on Wednesday showed him holding pieces of food, but his brother Mosa’ab, a photographer, suggested that they had been staged. Post by ‎ الشرطة المصرية ‎. Read more… May 21, 2014 May 21, 2014 Iranians Detained for ‘Happy’ Video Are Released on Bail By Robert Mackey One of the stars of “ Happy in Tehran ,” an exuberant music video that offended the sensibilities of Iran’s conservative judiciary, reported on Instagram Wednesday that she was free, three days after the police had stormed into her apartment and carted her and five friends off to jail. The young woman, Reihane Taravati, posted a photograph of herself, captioned “Hi, I’m back,” and thanked everyone who had called for the group’s release. That included the singer Pharrell Williams , whose video for the song “Happy” had inspired the young Iranians to produce their cover version, joining thousands of their contemporaries in nations around the world. (Ms. Taravati also warned friends that she had lost control of her Facebook page.) After days of interrogation and harsh treatment , all six of the detained dancers were released on bail Wednesday, the expatriate news site Iran Wire reported . Before they were set free, the group was paraded on state television as a warning to the youth of the nation that those who ignore strict Islamic standards of modesty in public will be punished. Read more… May 20, 2014 May 20, 2014 Young Iranians Arrested for Being Too ‘Happy in Tehran’ By Robert Mackey A copy of the video “Happy in Tehran,” originally posted on YouTube in April. Last Updated, 11:00 p.m. | Just days after Iran’s president denounced Internet censorship as “cowardly,” six young Iranians were arrested and forced to repent on state television Tuesday for the grievous offense of proclaiming themselves to be “Happy in Tehran,” in a homemade music video they posted on YouTube last month. Photo An image of the "Happy in Tehran" dancers posted on Instagram. Credit By uploading their video, recorded on an iPhone and promoted on Facebook and Instagram, the group was taking part in a global online phenomenon, which has resulted, so far, in hundreds of cover versions of the Pharrell Williams song “ Happy ” recorded in more than 140 countries. “Happy in Tehran” was viewed more than 165,000 times on YouTube before it attracted the attention of the police and was made private. Read more… May 19, 2014 May 19, 2014 Video Shows Killing of Palestinians on ‘Nakba Day’ By Robert Mackey A video report posted online Monday by the Palestinian branch of Defense for Children International. Last Updated, Tuesday, 3:47 p.m. | Security-camera footage obtained by the rights group Defense for Children International appears to show the fatal shooting of two young Palestinians on Thursday during a demonstration in Beitunia, a West Bank town outside Ramallah. The rights group published the footage on Monday in a video report that also includes the testimony of a witness, Fakher Zayed. Mr. Zayed owns a building near the Israeli occupation authority’s Ofer Prison, where more than 100 Palestinians have been on a hunger strike for weeks, and it was his security camera that recorded the incident. The demonstration was in commemoration of what Palestinians call the “catastrophe,” or “nakba,” of Israel’s creation in 1948, during which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from their homes into exile. At least one of the young men killed in the incident, Nadeem Siam Nawara, was a 17-year-old student. Palestinian health officials initially told The Times that the other victim, Muhammad Odeh Abu al Daher, was 20, and later revised that to 16, while the Palestinian Center for Human Rights subsequently reported that he too was 17. Read more… May 16, 2014 May 16, 2014 British Candidate Clarifies Just Which Immigrants Disturb Him By Robert Mackey Video of an interview with Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party. In a contentious radio interview that sounded at moments like Absurdist theater, the leader of the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party, Nigel Farage , denied on Friday that his attacks on foreign-born migrants were racist. Mr. Farage, a member of the European Parliament who blames membership in the European Union for a host of economic and social problems, was asked about comments he made in February , when he said he was uncomfortable during a recent train journey in London when he could hear only foreign languages being spoken by fellow passengers. After Mr. Farage said that he was only expressing discomfort “at the rate and pace of change and numbers of people coming to London,” the interviewer with the talk radio station LBC, James O’Brien, pointed out that Mr. Farage’s wife is a German and presumably speaks the language in his presence. “Yeah, I don’t suppose she speaks it on the train,” Mr. Farage replied, “that’s the point I’m making.” “Why not? Is she not allowed to?” Mr. O’Brien asked. “Can’t she speak German wherever she wants?” “Of course people are allowed to,” Mr. Farage said. Read more… May 15, 2014 May 15, 2014 Images of Turkish Official Kicking Protester Fuel Anger Online By Robert Mackey Photo Yusuf Yerkel, an aide to Turkey&aposs prime minister, was photographed kicking a man during protests on Wednesday in the city of Soma. Credit Depo Photos/European Pressphoto Agency Last Updated, Saturday, 9:25 a.m. | One day after Turkey’s prime minister was jeered during a visit to the mining town of Soma, where at least 282 workers were killed this week in an accident, one of his senior advisers was forced to admit that he had kicked a protester being restrained by the police. Photo Turkish bloggers were enraged by images of Mr. Yerkel, the deputy chief of Turkey&aposs cabinet, kicking a protester during the prime minister&aposs visit to the scene of a...