After less than eight months in power, Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab’s government stepped down (Al Jazeera) following mounting public pressure to resign after explosions devastated Beirut. The blasts killed more than 150 people and injured thousands. Diab’s cabinet will act as a caretaker government (WSJ) until a new one is chosen, a process that has previously taken months due to disagreements among Lebanon’s sectarian political factions.
 
The government’s resignation follows mass demonstrations in which protesters displayed banners (Vox) reading “resign or hang.” But the move increases political uncertainty in the country, which is already grappling with a multilayered social and economic crisis. It could further hamstring (Reuters) Lebanon’s financial recovery discussions with the International Monetary Fund.

Opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya fled Belarus (FT) for Lithuania after the country’s disputed presidential elections. Incumbent President Alexander Lukashenko claimed victory over Tikhanovskaya amid allegations of election rigging. Violent protests have since erupted in several Belarusian cities, with police using rubber bullets, tear gas, and batons against demonstrators.
 
Russia: President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia has become the first country to register a vaccine (Bloomberg) for the new coronavirus disease, COVID-19. A spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO) said the agency is discussing a possible WHO prequalification of the vaccine (Reuters) with Russian health authorities.
 
This CFR Backgrounder explains the global race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

Support has surged for pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily after authorities used the city’s controversial national security law to detain its founder (Guardian), Jimmy Lai, for allegedly colluding with foreign forces. Residents waited for hours to purchase the newspaper, and shares of its publisher quadrupled today (SCMP).
 
Thailand: Thousands of people participated in an anti-government protest (Al Jazeera) at a Bangkok university, with speakers calling for Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha to resign. Hours earlier, pro-government demonstrators gathered outside the country’s parliament building and decried student rallies as a threat to Thailand’s monarchy.

Kyrgyz authorities arrested prominent journalist Bobomurod Abdullaev and could extradite him (RFE/RL) to his native Uzbekistan, where the Kyrgyz State Committee for National Security says he is wanted for unnamed crimes. Abdullaev was previously convicted of anti-government propaganda in Uzbekistan.
 
Afghanistan/Pakistan: Polio vaccination campaigns resumed in the two countries (TOLO) after a monthslong shutdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The temporary halt contributed new polio cases, and the disease has spread to previously unaffected areas of Pakistan.

A tent camp in northeastern Syria housing mostly women and children with allegiance to the self-proclaimed Islamic State has recorded its first coronavirus case (Al-Monitor), according to humanitarian group Save the Children. The organization expects the virus to spread rapidly in the overcrowded camp.

Four al-Shabab militants incarcerated at Mogadishu’s central prison were killed in a shoot-out with Somali security forces after the inmates launched an attack (VOA) using weapons smuggled into the facility. Three prison guards were also killed, officials said. Another inmate is believed to have escaped and murdered two civilians.
 
This CFR Backgrounder looks at the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.
 
Nigeria: A sharia-based court in the conservative state of Kano sentenced a musician to death by hanging (Premium Times) for blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed in a song distributed through a mobile messaging application. Only one other person has been executed (BBC) on a sentence passed by one of Nigeria’s sharia-based courts since their 1999 reinstatement.

Bolivia’s government ordered security forces (Reuters) to safeguard public institutions, medical supply lines, and health workers after demonstrators blocked roads to protest the postponement of the country’s presidential election. Supporters of ousted former President Evo Morales are calling for elections to be held September 6, as previously scheduled, instead of October 18.
 
Costa Rica: President Carlos Alvarado Quesada signed a law (teleSUR) that criminalizes street sexual harassment, including whistling or gesturing at someone without their permission, and outlines stricter punishments for perpetrators. Rights groups and feminist organizations have been urging the legislation’s passage for years.

The Donald J. Trump administration is reportedly mulling a proposal (NYT) to bar U.S. citizens and legal residents from reentering the country if they have been exposed to or infected with the coronavirus. Trump has ramped up border security amid the coronavirus pandemic, but entry restrictions have so far exempted U.S. citizens and legal residents.