Anti-government protesters march in central Beirut

Ambulances ferried out casualties after security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannon at demonstrators protesting against what they call Lebanon’s “political dysfunction”.

Several cabinet ministers also criticised the proposed costs ahead of the cabinet meeting. The Cabinet tasked a ministerial committee with restarting the bidding process, suggesting there was no imminent solution for the crisis that has sparked the protests. On Saturday, police closed off all access to Nejmeh Square, which houses the legislature, behind wire fences as demonstrators called on them to join the protest.

That further riled the protesters.

Environment Minister Mohamad Al Machnouk earlier on Monday named companies that had won waste management tenders in Lebanon’s regions, but it did little to appease the protesters.

Should it collapse, Salam’s government would stay on in the caretaker capacity. We now have a dress code for our protests?

This comes after FPM chief Michel Aoun was accused of attempting to hijack the You Stink cause.

In recent days, “You Stink” has come more closely to resemble an organized protest movement with official leaders and spokespeople. And its politicians, many of them warlords from the country’s own brutal 15-year civil war, may be sweating through the end of this long, hot Arab summer.

No, not metaphorical political trash, actual trash.

Meanwhile, the political paralysis continues.

Lebanon’s sectarian power-sharing system, which ensures that the country’s main religious groups are all represented, often leads to stalemates that leave the government unable to act.

If Salam resigns, parliament can choose his successor.

In Lebanon, it’s the parliament that chooses the president. “The Special Coordinator underlined the importance of effective and urgent decision-making by the Cabinet”, the statement said.

Anger about the heaps of trash accumulating in Beirut’s streets boiled over this week with thousands protesting the government’s failure to deliver basic services. Calm was restored on Monday, with security forces heavily deployed.

The protesters set a police motorcycle ablaze. A group of policemen attacked a lone protester, beating him until he took cover under a vehicle, before he was let go.

A woman covers her nose as she walks past a burnt police vehicle and charred remains of objects set on fire by protesters near Martyrs’ Square in downtown Beirut, on Monday.

On Monday, security forces erected concrete blast walls at the site of the protests. Within hours it was covered with anti-government graffiti.

They called it the “wall of shame”. “We want to build a state”, he said.

Lebanese Red Cross spokesman George Kattaneh told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television channel that the violence over the weekend wounded 44 people who required hospital care, while some 200 others received medical treatment on the spot.

“Next time we will bring our yoga mats and say no shirtless people with tattoos allowed” commented So Raya on the You Stink Facebook page.

At the razor-wire barricades in front of the prime minister’s headquarters, protesters began hurling water bottles, rocks and other objects at the police.