Lebanon's prime minister resigns amid protests

Lebanon's Prime Minister Saad Hariri is out, but don't expect that to slow down the country's anti-government protesters.

Protests broke out in Lebanon about two weeks ago, with participants calling for a complete reinvention of the country's political class. Hariri said Tuesday he and his cabinet were stepping down because he was "at a dead end" and "no one's bigger than the nation." Hariri recently came under fire after revelations that years before he became prime minister he gave more than $16 million to a woman with whom he was in a romantic relationship. The news didn't sit well among Lebanon's citizenry which is mired in an economic crisis that has prevented Beirut from providing 24-hour electricity, tap water, and garbage disposal to everyone, The New York Times reports.

But the protesters have consistently made the point that the demonstrations were about much more than the prime minister. "All of them means all of them," is the signature chant of the moment, referring to the ruling class, in general.

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"What people should focus on now is that we need to find an alternative," Ali Dirani, a 33-year-old protester, told The Guardian. "Our problem is not with Hariri personally, or even his government. We have a problem that is rooted in the system of decision-making and the relationship between citizen and state." Read more at The New York Times and The Guardian.