memorable part of the experience was working with Cruise.” [It] was to watch Tom perform.

The draft resolution if it were to be put to a vote would almost certainly be vetoed by Russia and China, which have blocked past attempts to sanction President Bashar Assad’s regime. Late Wednesday, Britain’s mission to the U.N. said no decision had been made on moving forward with its resolution, CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk reports from U.N. headquarters in New York. After the council fell short of reaching an agreement, State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf told reporters in Washington that the U.S. sees “no avenue forward” given Russia’s past opposition to action by the council on Syria. “We’ve consistently said that we support U.N. Security Council action,” Harf told reporters. “Instead, what we’ve seen, not just today, not just last week, but over the course of many months, is the Russians at every move doing things to fail to hold the Syrian regime accountable.” Britain put forth the proposal Wednesday as momentum seemed to be building among Western allies for a strike against Syria. U.S. officials, including Vice President Joe Biden, have charged that Assad’s government used deadly chemical weapons near Damascus last week. The U.S. has not presented concrete proof, and U.N. inspectors currently in Syria to investigate alleged chemical attacks have not endorsed the allegations. The American government’s assessment is based on the circumstantial evidence from videos posted on the Internet, and, as CBS News correspondent David Martin reported Tuesday, intelligence – much of it still classified – ranging from intercepted Syrian communications to tests of tissue samples taken from victims. The U.N. envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said Wednesday that evidence suggests some kind of “substance” was used that killed hundreds on Aug. 21. Falk reports that the five permanent members of the Security Council met in a closed-door, informal meeting to discuss the U.K. resolution Wednesday morning, with Russia and China leaving after an hour and the U.S., France and the U.K. remaining for another hour. None of the countries’ representatives, including U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power and British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, commented on a plan to move forward. After the ambassadors met, the draft resolution was being sent back to their governments for consultations, according to a Western diplomat, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private. The diplomat said Russia reiterated its objections to international intervention in the Syrian crisis. A spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron said in London that the British draft resolution would authorize “all necessary measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter to protect civilians from chemical weapons.” Chapter 7 allows the use of international armed force to back up U.N. decisions. Speaking Wednesday from The Hague, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said no action should be taken until the U.N. chemical weapons inspectors finish their work. “Let them conclude … their work for four days and then we will have to analyze scientifically” their findings and send a report to the Security Council, he said. The U.N. said the analysis would be done “as quickly as possible.” Ban also pleaded for more time to give diplomacy another chance to end the more than two-year conflict that has killed more than 100,000 people. But the secretary-general added that the Security Council must not go “missing in action.” Meanwhile, U.N. chemical weapons experts on Wednesday took biological samples from several victims of last week’s purported attack, activists said Wednesday. Fear of a dramatic escalation in the two-and-a-half-year conflict prompted some 6,000 Syrians to flee into Lebanon over a 24-hour period, or more than six times the average daily flow. A jittery Israel ordered a special call-up of reserve troops Wednesday as residents lined up at gas-mask distribution centers, preparing for possible hostilities with Syria. A week after the purported attack, momentum has been building for a possible strike by the U.S. and its allies against the Assad regime. At the same time, Syria’s main allies Russia and Iran warned of dire consequences for the region if a military intervention is launched. Syria, which sits on one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons, has denied the charges. Local opposition activists told CBS News that a convoy of U.N. inspectors had reached the town of Mleiha, in the sprawling Ghouta area, and videos posted online by the activists showed them interviewing patients at clinics in Mleiha and the nearby town of Zamalka. One video showed the inspectors visiting a clinic and interviewing a man through a translator. Two inspectors were present as a nurse leaned over a man lying on an exam table. One of the experts is heard in the video saying he and his team members have collected blood, urine and hair samples. One activist said the team took hair and skin samples of five suspected victims in Zamalka during a 90-minute visit. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of regime reprisals. The U.N. team in Syria did not issue a statement about Wednesday’s trip. Marking the centenary of a venue for peaceful conflict resolution, the U.N.’s Ban said: “Here in the Peace Palace, let us say: Give peace a chance. Give diplomacy a chance. Stop fighting and start talking.” The growing fear of escalation sent wider ripples across the region. Lebanese security officials in the country’s Bekaa Valley near the border with Syria said at least 6,000 Syrians have crossed into Lebanon in the past 24 hours through the main Masnaa border crossing, including an estimated 4,000 on Wednesday. The normal daily rate is 500 to 1,000 Syrian refugees coming to Lebanon, depending on the level of fighting. Witnesses said they saw long lines of cars packed with families and belongings at the crossing. There was also traffic in the other direction a security official said around 2,000 crossed into Syria on Wednesday but many of them said they were going in to evacuate relatives from Syria. Um Ahmad, 45, crossed to Lebanon with her five children Wednesday, fearing U.S. strikes on Damascus. “Isn’t it enough, all the violence and fighting that we already have in the country, now America wants to bomb us, too?” she said, declining to give her full name for security concerns. Her husband said they have no one in Lebanon but came anyway because of their children. “What will we do here, where will we go? I don’t know but hopefully we’ll be safe.” Nearly 2 million Syrians have fled their country since the crisis began in March 2011, and millions more are displaced inside Syria. In Israel, the government ordered a “limited” call-up of reserve units to beef up civil defense preparations and to operate air-defense units near the border. Officials said the call-up is anticipated to bring in “hundreds” of troops. Israel fears that Syria may respond by attacking the Jewish state, a close American ally. While Israeli officials believe the chances of a Syrian strike remain slim, people were clearly preparing for the possibility. Large crowds lined up at gas-mask distribution centers. Maya Avishai of the Israeli postal service, which oversees gas mask distribution, said demand has tripled in recent days. About five million Israelis, roughly 60 percent of the population, now have gas masks, she said. Jordan, meanwhile, said it will not be used as a launching pad for attacks on Syria and the kingdom favors a diplomatic solution to the crisis. A U.S.-led strike would involve cruise missile attacks from the sea, which would not need to cross or make use of Jordanian territory. August 3, 2019

Special Section: Gulf Coast Oil DisasterStephen Baldwin suing Kevin Costner over BP dealKevin Costner pitches $895M oil spill plan Feldman asked the potential jurors whether the entertainers’ on-screen portrayals compromised the ability to deliver an objective verdict. No one in the pool said they would feel influenced. Among Baldwin’s roles was caveman Barney Rubble in “The Flintstones: Viva Rock Vegas.” Costner’s films include “Dancing with Wolves,” “Field of Dreams,” and “JFK,” Oliver Stone’s film with New Orleans connections to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Baldwin and Costner did not interact before the proceedings started. Baldwin told The Associated Press his attorneys had advised him not to comment. Baldwin and his friend, Spyridon Contogouris, said they didn’t know about the deal when they agreed to sell their shares of Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company that marketed the centrifuges to BP, for $1.4 million and $500,000, respectively. (At left, watch Costner testify to Congress about the machine in 2010) Baldwin and Contogouris claim they were deliberately excluded from a June 8 meeting between Costner, his business partner Patrick Smith and BP executive Doug Suttles, who agreed to make an $18 million deposit on a $52 million order for the 32 devices, according to the lawsuit. Later that month, Costner and Suttles visited Port Fourchon, La., to talk about the plan to use the centrifuges. “It was designed to give us a fighting chance, to fight back the oil before it got us by the throat,” Costner said at the time. Baldwin and Contogouris say they were entitled to shares of BP’s deposit. Their lawsuit claims Costner and Smith schemed to use BP’s deposit buy their shares in Ocean Therapy Solutions. “Maybe one of the directions that Mr. Costner might go as a defendant in this case is that he had taken a great deal of risk as it relates to these machines,” legal analyst Chick Foret told WWL-TV. Costner said he didn’t attend a June 6, 2010, meeting at which Contogouris agreed to sell his OTS interests. “Not only did Costner not know that Plaintiffs were negotiating to sell their OTS interests, he was surprised and offended by the idea that Contogouris and Baldwin would walk away from OTS with almost $2 million in cash despite having invested no money in the company, and at a time when a contract with BP was uncertain to materialize,” says a court filing summarizing Costner’s version of events. Baldwin and Contogouris are seeking more than $21 million in damages. Costner and other defendants also are seeking damages in counterclaims. August 6, 2019

But where they’re playing is what’s unexpected: the Smithsonian American Art Museum. “You could say video games are a great grassroots expression of culture and in some cases art in our democracy,” said museum director Betsy Broun. “I guess what surprised me was just the sort of joyful excitement in the games.” Broun said the video game exhibit – the first ever at a major American museum – has caused so much excitement it will travel to 10 other cities, illustrating a growing understanding of the public fascination with games. “One time a single game was offered for sale and sold six million copies in one day; you know. that’s more people than go to the Met in a year,” Broun said. “So when you begin to understand how pervasive it is, I guess the bigger question is, why did we wait so long?” Indeed, when you look at some of the images from games, they can resemble moving paintings, from abstract to figurative to landscapes. There’s one reminiscent of Japanese woodcuts, and another that’s been compared to an M.C. Escher work. But fans say it’s not just how video games look that makes them works of art; it’s also how they engage the imagination and stimulate players to think about what moves to make. “Because they can help us find connections with deeper questions that we may have inside of ourselves,” said long-time game developer Chris Melissinos, who curated the show. “You’re presented with a series of obstacles, and so it’s how you quickly make those choices that discern the best outcome for anybody playing.” The exhibit begins with 1970s and ’80s action adventure games like Pitfall, Combat, Space Invaders. And surely you remember Pac-Man from 1981, in which a yellow dot tries to evade or be eaten by ghosts. It was an international sensation. “I’m a fan of this game,” said museum-goer Rita, “but I’ll tell you something: When I was playing it I never thought that I was engaged in art!” But Melissinos says the artistry was in Pac-Man’s becoming one of the first games to appeal to women, who now represent 40 percent of gamers. Released just a few years later, in 1985, Super Mario Brothers introduced a much more complex world, and a video hero, as players manipulated Mario to find and rescue a princess. “There were many studies that showed that he was more popular as a character in the minds of young Americans than even Santa Claus,” said Melissinos. The Super Mario series evolved over the years, with more complex graphics and scenarios. And because technology is such an important factor in games, the exhibit showcases some of the playing devices used during four decades. But along with better technology comes better ways to do battle, which has sometimes led to controversy. When asked about criticism of violence in video games, museum director Betsy Broun replied, “Art reflects life. I think we live in a world where not including some of that would be unrealistic. But I really think you’ll find in the games that there is oftentimes a deeper message.” In fact, games like 2010’s Heavy Rain,” which explores the boundaries of parental love, do aim to touch our emotions. And if there’s one thing this exhibit illustrates, it’s that for video game creators the journey is just beginning: “We’re able to create worlds and environments that just don’t exist in the real world,” said Melissinos. “So we’re able to open our imagination, and it’s boundless, it’s limitless. And that is definitely part of the attraction.” For more info: August 3, 2019

memorable part of the experience was working with Cruise.” [It] was to watch Tom perform.

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