July 4, 2013.

Adly Mansour Is Sworn In as Egypt's Interim President

Winston turned round abruptly. He had set his features into the expression of quiet optimism which it was advisable to wear when facing the telescreen. He crossed the room into the tiny kitchen. By leaving the Ministry at this time of day he had sacrificed his lunch in the canteen, and he was aware that there was no food in the kitchen except a hunk of dark-colored bread which had got to be saved for tomorrow's breakfast. He took down from the shelf a bottle of colorless liquid with a plain white label marked VICTORY GIN. It gave off a sickly, oily smell, as of Chinese rice-spirite. Winston poured out nearly a teacupful, nerved himself for a shock, and gulped it down like a dose of medicine.

CAIRO----Adly Mansour, Egypt's new interim president, swore the oath of office in front of Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court on Thursday morning, formalizing a whirlwind insurrection that brought millions of Egyptians onto the streets and overturned an Islamist president that only days ago had seemed immutable.

Instantly his face turned scarlet and the water ran out of his eyes. The stuff was like nitric acid, and moreover, in swallowing it one had the sensation of being hit on the back of the head with a rubber club. The next moment, however, the burning in his belly died down and the world began to look more cheerful. He took a cigarette from a crumpled packet marked VICTORY CIGARETTESS and incautiously held it upright, whereupon the tobacco fell out onto the floor. With the next he was more successful. He went back to the living room and sat down at a small table that stood to the left of the telescreen. From the table drawer he took out a penholder, a bottle of ink, and a thick, quatro-sized blank book with a red back and a marbled cover.

Mr. Mansour swore his oath hours after Egyptian security forces moved briskly to arrest and detain hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood leaders----the powerful Islamist organization that has dominated Egyptian elections over the past two years.

For some reason the telescreen in the living room was in an unusual position. Instead of being placed, as was normal, in the end wall, where it could command the whole room, it was in the longer wall, opposite the window. To one side of it there was a shallow alcove in which Winston was now sitting and which, when the flats were built, had probably been intended to hold bookshelves. By sitting in the alcove, and keeping well back, Winston was able to remain outside the range of the telescreen, so far as sight went. He could be heard, of course, but so long as he stayed in his present position he could not be seen. It was partly the unusual geography of the room that had suggested to him the thing that he was now about to do.

Mohammed Morsi, Egypt's ousted president, was reportedly in police custody on Thursday morning after he refused to step down from his post on the orders of Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi on Wednesday night.