In a raw contest between Egypt’s competing centers of power, legislators on Tuesday, July 10, defied the country’s highest court and its most senior generals by holding a brief session of the dissolved Parliament, heeding an order by President Mohamed Morsi in the face of opposition from judges and the military, The New York Times reported. At its core, the fate of this Parliament is another chapter in the long-running battle between the Muslim Brotherhood and the military that intensified when the generals dissolved the legislature last month based on a court order and seized all lawmaking and executive authority. Expressing the worries of the United States, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed to the parties to talk out their differences, urging them “to avoid any kind of difficulties that could derail the transition that is going on.”