By MICHAEL SPECTER

THE DAY I ARRIVED in Beirut I was collected at my hotel by Huda Baroudi, a cheerful woman who had offered to show me around. It was a lazy Sunday, grim and gray, and I was jet-lagged. But her eyes were shining and she was eager to take me to the Bechara el-Khoury Mansion, a 19th-­century villa that long ago — before it had been abandoned, pillaged and finally shelled during the civil war — was one of Beirut’s grand residences.

As I settled into the passenger seat of her S.U.V., Ms. Baroudi, an influential designer of textiles and furniture, propelled us at high speed toward what looked like a four-way stop. Beirut’s streets are narrow, potholed and anything but straight; a car was approaching rapidly from the opposite direction, but Ms. Baroudi seemed unconcerned.

At the last moment, the other driver swerved to let us pass. I was unable to speak, but Ms. Baroudi laughed sweetly. “I looked into his eyes,” she explained with a smile and a shrug. “And I could see that he would yield the right of way.”

Natasha Bertrand

Protesters stormed Iraq's heavily fortified Green Zone over the weekend, for the first time since its concrete barriers were erected more than 13 years ago to separate US security forces and Iraqi elites from the rest of Baghdad. The unprecedented breach has created an "accelerated meltdown" that "could be both a local catastrophe and a signature blot on Obama's foreign policy record," David Rothkopf, the CEO of the Foreign Policy publishing group, said on Monday.

Ever since ISIS overran the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in June 2014, much of President Barack Obama's dealings with Baghdad have revolved around formulating a cohesive strategy to halt the jihadists' momentum in Iraq and Syria.

It has been a battle that, as The Washington Post's Greg Jaffe pointed out, "is predicated on having a credible and effective Iraqi ally on the ground in Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi."

Daily Star

The Lebanese Army early Sunday released a short clip it said showed militant positions being blown up on the country's northeastern border.

The aerial footage was apparently shot Saturday afternoon, showing two large, successive explosions caused by missiles at a militant base in a rugged area on the outskirts of Arsal. The army identified the area targeted as Wadi al-Aoueini, saying a number of militants were killed and wounded in the attack.

The clip then cuts to a scene from the same site after the smoke began to clear showing an individual running. The footage also shows another site where about two dozen artillery shells struck a nearby valley.

Daily Star

The Lebanese Army early Sunday released a short clip it said showed militant positions being blown up on the country's northeastern border.

The aerial footage was apparently shot Saturday afternoon, showing two large, successive explosions caused by missiles at a militant base in a rugged area on the outskirts of Arsal. The army identified the area targeted as Wadi al-Aoueini, saying a number of militants were killed and wounded in the attack.

The clip then cuts to a scene from the same site after the smoke began to clear showing an individual running. The footage also shows another site where about two dozen artillery shells struck a nearby valley.