Lebanese PM Hassan Diab announces resignation of entire government amid protests triggered by Beirut explosion

Lebanese PM Hassan Diab has officially announced the resignation of his entire government following days of protests sparked by the catastrophic explosion which levelled parts of Beirut last week.

Earlier, Health Minister Hamad Hassan confirmed to reporters that the resignation would be imminent.

Addressing the nation on Monday evening, Diab said he was with the people calling for responsibility for the "crime." Diab said the explosion was the result of endemic corruption.

I thought I could remedy this [corruption], but it is larger than the state and systemic…Therefore I announce the resignation of this government

He said government ministers gave the job "their all" because they care about the country. He also accused his political opponents of using the disaster "to score political points" and to "destroy what's left of the state."

Diab formally submitted his resignation to President Michel Aoun about an hour after his speech. Aoun accepted the resignation and asked the government to remain in caretaker capacity until a new one can be formed.

The resignation comes as demonstrators take to the streets of Beirut for the third night in a row demanding swift change and accountability for the blast which devastated vast swathes of the port city last Tuesday.

https://www.rt.com/news/497619-hassan-diab-government-resigns/

Nashville Lawmaker Wants People Not Wearing a Mask to Be ‘Tried For Murder Or Attempted Murder’

A Nashville councilwoman wants anyone who doesn’t wear a mask to be “tried for murder or attempted murder.”

“My question goes back to legislation,” Sharon Hurt, an at-large councilwoman of the Nashville Metro Council, said during a meeting last week between Public Safety, Beer & Regulated Beverages and Health, Hospitals, & Social Services committees.

“But my concern is — you know I work for an organization, that if they pass a virus, then they are tried for murder or attempted murder, if they are not told … and this person who may very well pass this virus that’s out in the air because they’re not wearing a mask is basically doing the same thing to someone who contracts it and dies from it.”

“It seems to me that we have been more reactive, as opposed to proactive, and a little too late, too little,” she said. “Maybe there needs to be stronger legislation to say that if you do not wear a mask and you subject exposure of this virus to someone else then there will be some stronger penalty as it is in other viruses that are exposed.”

Hurt had to be told by Metro Nashville’s Director of Legislative Affairs Mike Jameson that the city committees just can’t do that. “The Council does not have the opportunity on its own to create criminal legislation,” he said. “In terms of creating a new code or class of criminal offenses, that is a creature of state law.”

Hurt expressed her disappointment, “I was afraid that was going to be the answer.”

“I guess that’s the whole point of asking for something to be done as early as the Council was pushing,” Hurt said. “It seems it was not taken as seriously as it should have been and thus we are in the situation we are in right now.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/08/nashville-lawmaker-wants-people-not-wearing-mask-tried-murder-attempted-murder/

Chaos In Chicago: Bridges Raised To Prevent Gun-Toting Looters Getting Downtown

Hundreds of 'mostly peaceful protesters' swept through the Magnificent Mile and other parts of downtown Chicago early Monday, smashing windows, looting stores, confronting police and at one point exchanging gunfire with officers, authorities said.

As The Chicago Tribune reports, officers had stopped several people on Lake Street near Michigan Avenue when shots were fired from a passing car around 4:30 a.m., nearly five hours into the widespread vandalism, according to police spokesman Tom Ahern.

Police sent to respond to the looting were physically attacked, prompting authorities to raise major bridges in order to keep more people out of the area.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/chicago-raises-bridges-prevent-gun-toting-looters-getting-downtown

California Public Health Director Suddenly Quits After Massive Virus Data Error Discovered

The director of the California Department of Public Health has abruptly resigned just days after the discovery of a computer system failure that resulted in the massive undercounting of COVID-19 cases.

Dr. Sonia Angell who had been in the position for less than a year (and had previously served as deputy commissioner for prevention and primary care at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2014 to 2019) reportedly resigned via an email sent to the California Health and Human Services Agency.

"Our department has been front and center in what has become an all-of-government response of unprecedented proportions to COVID-19. In the final calculation, all of our work, in aggregate, makes the difference," Angell reportedly wrote in her resignation letter.

Gov. Gavin Newsom in a statement offered thanks to Angell “for her service to the state and her work to help steer our public health system during this global pandemic, while never losing sight of the importance of health equity.”

However, her departure is shrouded in political questions as the state government reckons with a data glitch that failed to log nearly 300,000 infectious disease testing records (though not all were coronavirus cases and some could be duplicates), clearly impacting decision-making at the highest levels of the California government.

As JustTheNews.com's Sophie Mann notes, the secretary of California Health and Human Services, Mark Ghaly, recently apologized to state residents for the error.

"Bottom line, our data system failed," said Ghaly who told The LA Times that he “became aware of the magnitude of the data backlog in the late afternoon on Monday and alerted the governor and his senior staff shortly thereafter.”

With more than half a million reported cases of the virus, California tops the nation for positive diagnoses.

The data blunder, however, has restrained state authority figures' ability to determine policies moving forward, specifically the decision of whether to reopen schools for in-person learning, as the new school year is set to begin.

Simply put, if California's COVID case count is massively undercounted then it suggests California's mortality/positivity rate may also be drastically overstated.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/california-public-health-director-suddenly-quits-after-massive-virus-data-error