President Barack Obama gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a “green light” to go to nearly any lengths to defend his regime against insurgent rebels, Sen. McCain said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The New York Times is reporting Mr. Obama has said that the use of chemical weapons would be a “red line” that would lead to an American response, and on Friday he maintained that any use of such weapons by Syria would be “a game changer.” As the Obama administration weighs responding to a possible chemical attack by President Assad’s forces, lawmakers say their chief concern is the weapons stockpiles falling into the wrong hands, The Hill reports. Finally, The New Yorker considers, with varying degrees of confidence, Syria’s next move, chemical weapons and the games Assad plays.