Another wave of protests swept Yemen on Friday, as President Ali Abullah Saleh defiantly declared that he would resist opposition demands to resign. The Gulf Cooperation Council plan for Saleh to step down within 30 days--once viewed as a near-done deal--is now in tatters; Saleh says he won't sign the deal until representatives from both the ruling party and the official opposition sign it, and the opposition says it won't sign the deal until Saleh puts his name to it personally. In the face of the standoff, the demonstrators, who reject the GCC deal because they want Saleh to resign immediately and face prosecution, tried a new tactic on Friday, releasing balloons over the presidential palace with the message "Leave, Ali."

The pro-democracy protesters are getting creative in other ways, too. In a gripping video highlighted by NPR's Andy Carvin today, a Yemeni filmmaker takes viewers inside the demonstrations, with English subtitles to boot. The video, uploaded by the YouTube user ThawratShabab and titled "Yemen: One day in the heart of the revolution," provides us with a rare chance to get to know some of the Yemeni youth who have been agitating for change over the last three months from their base of Change Square in the capital, Sanaa (warning: some images may be disturbing):

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Uri Friedman