Since its humble beginnings in the Bronx during the 1970s, hip hop has become a global musical phenomenon with attendant forms of style and protest. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of hip hop's recent impact is in the Arab world where formed the soundtrack to the revolution with rappers like Hamada Ben Amor from Tunisia, Cheikh Oumar Cyrille from Senegal, and Mohamed el Deeb from Egypt.

This past Saturday, Tunisians returned to the streets to celebrate the first anniversary of the ouster of President Ben Ali. Tunisia's current, democratically-elected leader, President Marzouki, declared January 14 a national holiday and granted pardons to 9,000 prisoners and commuted 122 death sentences. The series of protests that ended Ben Ali's 23-year reign, largely motivated by widespread unemployment and large gaps between the rich and poor, also inaugurated the Arab Revolution.

Tunisia's moderate Islamist Ennahda party appears to be the clear victor of Sunday's election, winning about a 40 percent plurality of the vote. In the first democratic election in the nation that ignited the Arab Spring, 90 percent of Tunisians took to the polls to vote on a r a 217 member assembly that will draft a new constitution and appoint a new caretaker government. An Islamist victory in secular Tunisia could point to a trend in the region. Islamists are poised to make electoral gains in Egypt, and have been dominate in post-Gadhafi Libya.

Many months after a man in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest his country's lack of a viable democratic government, some 90 percent of eligible voters in the country cast their votes on Sunday. Over 4.1 million people cast their ballots in the first democratic election from the nation that ignited the Arab Spring. Early signs show that the once banned Islamist Ennahda party is leading, possibly indicating a shift for the secular nation.

It’s been ten months since the series of revolutions and protests known as the Arab Spring sprung out across the region. It began in Tunis, the capital of Tunisia. Tunisians go to the polls this Sunday in the first democratic elections of the Arab Spring. How will the developments in Libya may affect the entire region, particularly the elections in Tunis and then Egypt?

Since the first rumblings of revolution in Tunisia last year, we’ve been covering the Arab awakenings often. We’ve asked for analysis from political reporters and foreign correspondents, and reported the latest news as it came in. Today, we're examining a different angle to the uprisings: commerce, particularly the growing number of Middle Eastern wine businesses. 

In watching the developments across the Middle East region, there seem to be one of two paths that nations experiencing the Arab Spring can take. Although 800 Egyptians died in revolts leading up to the removal of Hosni Mubarak’s long-standing regime, the country is now on a path toward more democratic rule. The same can’t be said for Libya, Syria or Yemen where entrenched regimes—or a solitary figure, in the case of Muammar Gadaffi—refuse to cede power.

While some call Egypt and Tunisia the shining model for the Arab Spring’s revolutions — isn’t it more accurate to see it as an exception to the rule of civil war? 

In his speech on the Arab world on Thursday, President Obama evoked images of the American Revolution, the Civil Rights Movement and the Fall of the Iron Curtain to parallel American values and the Arab uprisings. The speech comes nearly six months after the uprisings began in Tunis, and the state of democracy in Tunisia and Egypt is precarious at best. But what concrete steps is Obama promising — and can he come through?

Each year in New York City, the Vendy Awards go to food vendors, usually for the quality of their cuisine. Now the Venydy's have a new category: The hero award. It was announced this week to honor the food vendor in Tunisia who sparked the revolution there when he set himself on fire. And it was street vendors who first told the authorities about the attempted Times Square bombing last year.

We'll talk about this on the air soon, but we're asking you now, what other professions should get a hero category?

The United States is considering a range of options to deal with Libya, including military action and sanctions. However, there's another possibility for Libya: an information campaign and the Pentagon has reportedly explored at the option of jamming Libya's communications so that Gadhafi has a harder time talking to his forces. Matt Armstrong, lecturer on public diplomacy at the USC Annenberg School of Communication and Journalism and publisher of  the blog MountainRunner.us, takes a closer look at how an information campaign might work in Libya.

Nationalist sentiment has played a pivotal role in uprisings throughout history, from eastern Europe to the United States to Africa. In the Arab world, nationalism has played less of a role. Attempts at a pan-Arab movement fell apart while nationalism evolved over the years into Islamism. But recent uprisings in the Middle East aren't springing entirely from any of the three. So, which "ism" is inspiring revolution in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and the Gulf? Aviel Roshwald is a professor of history at Georgetown University.

It has been called a modern day exodus: Over 100,000 people have fled Libya so far in the wake of the protests and violent retaliation from Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s regime. The majority of the Libyan population lives in Tripoli, which is in the western part of the country. Tens of thousands have now fled to the country's nearest border, to Tunisia, in just the past few days. How will Tunisia — in upheval itself over recent revolution — deal with the influx?

As political unrest spreads across the Middle East, analysts here in the United States wonder whether and how U.S. policy has influenced the protestors. How does the U.S.’s increasing role in the Middle East since 9/11 — in Afghanistan, Iraq and in the Israel-Palestine conflict — relate to the current political instability in the reigon?

This is the fourth edition of Wave of Change, a special podcast from The Takeaway, covering the mass protests in Egypt and the consequences for the wider Arab world, hosted by John Hockenberry with Celeste Headlee.

Over the last few weeks, the world has witnessed an unexpected display of public dissatisfaction across the Middle East. Pro-democracy protesters toppled the government in Tunisia this month, and similar demonstrations are underway in Yemen and Egypt's capital city of Cairo. Most of the demonstrations seemed aimed at restrictive or totalitarian governments, but can all of them be described as "pro-democracy"? And are they sparking a wider revolution in the Middle East or is that an over-simplification? For more, The Takeaway speaks to Charles Dunbar, Professor of International Relations at Boston University.

Credit rating agencies took some bold steps on Thursday, downgrading growth forecasts and cutting debt ratings both in the U.S. and abroad. Moody's Investors Service announced Thursday they will begin to take unfunded pension debt into account when formulating states' credit ratings — a move that could have a debilitating affect on struggling states. On the same day, Fitch Ratings cut their growth forecast for Tunisia by two percent in light of domestic political upheaval that has swept across the Middle East, and Standard and Poor's downgraded Japan's long-term government debt for the first time since 2002. What does this mean for countries, states, and the international economy?

It's been almost two weeks since Tunisia's ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali and his family fled the country in the face of massive street rallies. The anti-government protest have continued in Tunisia and the country has issued an international arrest warrant for the former president. U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, Gordon Gray explains the roots of the current situation and how it could change in the near future.

Unrest continues in Tunisia, where an international arrest warrant has been issued for former President Ben Ali as well as his wife and members of his family. Charges include taking money out of the country illegally. This move on the part of the interim government was intended to assure the public that it is serious about change. Meanwhile police fired tear gas on protesters who continue to take to the streets. The BBC's Magdi Abdelhadi says that demonstrators are "determined to stay in the streets until the government comes down."

Change is coming to Tunisia, where banned books are returning to the shelves, the Internet is unblocked, and the ousted president's homes are being ransacked. However, the country is still in the middle of turmoil as protesters are fighting against the interim government for being too closely aligned with Ben Ali.

After an uprising drove out Tunisia's unpopular and oppressive president out more than a week ago, political unrest continues. Protesters refuse to accept the interim government, a ruling coalition formed after President Ben Ali fled the country. Demonstrators claim that the interim government maintains close ties to President Ben Ali’s R.C.D. political party. On unfamiliar ground, what is the way forward for citizens and politicians?