UK ministers back Theresa May on Brexit deal

The British government has agreed to go ahead with a draft withdrawal agreement on Brexit, Prime Minister Theresa May has announced.

May on Wednesday night announced the decision after the cabinet members discussed the proposed deal to leave the European Union for nearly five hours.

“The collective decision of the government was that the cabinet should agree to the draft agreement and the outlying political delclaration,” May said in front of 10, Downing Street.

“This is a decisive step, which allows us to move on and finalise the deal in the days ahead,” she added. “These decisions were not taken lightly, but I firmly believe they were in the national interest.”

Earlier on Wednesday, May said the draft deal with regards to Brexit will adhere to what people voted for during the 2016 Brexit referendum.

“What we have been negotiating is a deal that does deliver on the vote of the British people,” May told MPs after the UK and EU finalised the details of their plan on Tuesday.

Parliament test

Before her meeting with the cabinet, May defended the deal before a group of MPs from her own Conservative party, whose hardline Brexit supporters have said it included unacceptable compromises.

The embattled leader will again face opponents on Thursday, when she is expected to defend the deal in the British parliament.

“This deal, which delivers on the vote of the referendum, which brings back control of our money, laws and borders, ends free movement, protects jobs, security and our union, or leave with no deal or no Brexit at all,” she said.

“I know that there will be difficult days ahead, and this is a decision that will come under intense scrutiny and that is how it should be and entirely natural,” May added.

“It is my responsibility to defend any decision the government has taken and I stand ready to do that, beginning tomorrow with a statement in parliament.”

Border issue

In her statement, May said the agreement included a solution to avoid a hard border in Ireland.

“The choices before us were difficult, particularly in relation to the Northern Ireland backstop,” she said, within giving details about what solution will be.

Al Jazeera correspondent Paul Brennan said the next 24 hours will be crucial for both Brexit and the May government as a whole.

“We are wondering now if the Brexit piece is falling into place or the British government is falling into pieces,” Brennan said from London.

“The reaction has been almost universally opposed to the deal, both the Brexiteers and those who want to stay in the EU are extremely unhappy,” he said.

The Irish border has been a key issue during negotiations between London and Brussels.

Both have vowed to prevent the re-emergence of a hard border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will leave the EU with Britain, amid fears the issue could reignite decades-old tensions.

But the two sides disagreed for a long time on how to resolve the issue.

Tough road ahead

Earlier on Wednesday, Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the main opposition Labour Party, said the agreement “breaches the prime minister’s own red lines”, adding that negotiations with Brussels had been “shambolic”.

“This government spent two years negotiating a bad deal that will leave the country in an indefinite half-way house,” Corbyn said.

Conservative Peter Bone, a leading pro-Brexit MP, also criticised May.

“You are not delivering the Brexit people voted for and today you will lose the support of many Conservative MPs and millions of voters,” Bone said.

Following the UK’s announcement an agreement was signed, Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said on Wednesday that an emergency EU summit could be held on November 25 to vote on the deal.

UK parliament would then vote on the Brexit accord.

If successful, the whole Brexit process should be concluded on March 29, 2019, almost three years after the referendum was held.

“The real problems will arise in parliament, because there is no majority and if they don’t approve that’s when we’re really in uncharted territory because we might be looking at general elections,” Brennan said.

Possible extension

The Brexit agreement comes after months of intense negotiations between UK and EU leaders and mounting pressure on May.

Last month, May said she was “ready to consider” extending a transition phase after the UK leaves, according to officials.

Such an extension, keeping Britain under EU governance with no say in it, would be highly unpopular with hardline supporters of Brexit.

The idea of a one-year extension to the transition period had been proposed by EU Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier.

This would buy more time to negotiate the future relationship between Britain and the EU, which could potentially help to make progress on the Irish border issue.

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Nelson needs ‘royal flush’ in court cases, but will likely come up short

Sen. Bill Nelson is pictured. | AP Photo — “A royal flush is right on the money. Nelson would have to have a perfect hand,” said Michael Morley, a Florida State University election law professor. | AP Photo

MIAMI — From changing the rules over divining voter intent in recounts to striking down laws over absentee ballot mail-in deadlines and signature mismatches, the post-Election Day lawsuits filed by Sen. Bill Nelson’s campaign indicate he probably can’t win without the help of the courts.

But even then, experts say, Nelson faces long odds in his bid to flip the results in his Senate race against Gov. Rick Scott. The Republican challenger led by 12,652 votes heading into the contest’s automatic recount, which ends Thursday and will likely lead to a manual recount next.

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Nelson has two major problems, experts say: Nelson’s lawsuits were filed so late and courts generally frown on last-minute post-election changes, and the margin he trails Scott by is so big that even expanding the pool of available ballots to count makes it highly unlikely that Nelson could make up enough ground.

“A royal flush is right on the money. Nelson would have to have a perfect hand,” said Michael Morley, a Florida State University election law professor, echoing two other experts who spoke to POLITICO.

“He would have to win in every case. And even then, it would not seem to be enough to change the outcome,” Morley said. “One study that I’ve seen shows that in the 21st Century, there have only been three statewide races that have had their results changed as a result of a recount. And in each of those races, the margins were in the hundreds, not more than 12,000.”

As of the most recent update, only 7,871 absentee ballots were rejected statewide due to “voter error,” which could include mismatched signatures on the ballots compared with what’s on file with the state. And of them, 35 percent were cast by Republicans, 36 percent by Democrats and 29 percent by independents. Another 10,186 ballots were rejected because their envelopes were unsigned. Of them, 31 percent were cast by Republicans, 44 percent by Democrats and 24 percent by independents.

So if all the ballots were counted, Nelson would have to win 85 percent of them statewide in an election where he couldn’t get 50 percent of the vote so far.

“It’s a rabbit out of a hat. But there’s not enough rabbit,” one Republican lawyer involved in the recount who spoke to POLITICO on the condition of anonymity said of Nelson’s strategy and predicament.

The lawsuit over mismatched signatures for absentee ballots was heard Wednesday in federal court in Tallahassee. Nelson’s campaign has also sued over deadlines for the receipt of absentee ballots, standards for divining voter intent and the deadline to finish the recount.

It’s unclear how many ballots would be counted if Nelson’s lawsuits prevails. For instance, many county election supervisors have not logged absentee ballots that arrived after 7 p.m. on Election Day but were postmarked on Election Day.

The volume of those lawsuits might also pose a problem for Nelson because it just might be too much, Morley said, noting that “the more you’re challenging, the more you’re asking the court to do, and the greater burden you’re bringing on yourself.”

Morley, Ohio State University election law professor Ned Foley and University of California election law professor Rick Hasen all indicated that the strongest defense for the state — which Nelson’s campaign and various Democrats are suing — rests in the timing issue of lawsuits that are simply filed too late, a principle enshrined in a legal principle against “legal ambush” called “laches” and reflected in a U.S. Supreme Court case, Purcell v. Gonzalez.

But it’s not just the law professors who believe suits brought after Election Day are problematic. Nelson’s lead attorney in his cases, Marc Elias, has specifically cited laches and Purcell to argue against a late-filed lawsuit concerning signature mismatches — however that case was in the Arizona Senate race, where the Democrat was ahead and therefore wanted no more ballots to be counted.

Elias and a co-counsel for the Arizona Democratic Party noted in a legal brief that some Arizona counties allow voters to address signature mismatches on early ballots they’ve submitted up to five business days before Election Day but that the Arizona lawsuit wasn’t filed until after the election and voters had no more chance to fix the anomalies.

Scott’s campaign noted the discrepancy in a written statement.

“To put it simply, Democrats in Arizona are using the opposite and contradictory argument to the one they plan to use in court tomorrow in Tallahassee,” the Scott campaign said Tuesday. “For them, this isn’t about following the law, and it isn’t about having a free and fair election. This is about getting rid of Florida laws they don’t like.”

Nelson’s campaign has said he just wants every vote counted.

“Given the closeness of this election, and the fact that the courts have declared signature-matching laws unconstitutional in several states, we expect this issue to be of considerable importance here in Florida,” Nelson said in a written statement. “So I ask each of you — just consider whether or not you would want your ballot thrown out by an untrained, even though well-intentioned, election worker or a volunteer, all because he or she determined that your signature doesn’t look right.”

Hasen, who blogs about election law while teaching at U.C. Irvine, said in a post about Nelson’s suits that he’s “sympathetic to the arguments in general, given my belief that election statutes, when possible should be interpreted to enfranchise voters. But Florida laws were rewritten after the 2000 Bush v. Gore debacle to deal with giving too much discretion to election officials to decide on what counts as a valid vote, and rules that are clear in advance are the best for fair election administration.”

The Senate race had a significant number of undervotes compared to the governor’s race, which is also being recounted, in problematic Broward County.

Ohio State’s Foley said that another case, Roe v. Alabama, by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals — which oversees Florida — espoused a principle that “ballots must be counted according to the rules for counting ballots at the time those ballots were cast. So even though it’s not the most desirable rule for counting ballots, you can’t change counting rules in the middle of the election itself.”

Still, he said, there’s a general legal principle that voters’ rights to have their ballots counted fairly pervades all election law and that the facts of the cases brought by Nelson will dictate their outcome.

Morley, the FSU professor, said that in the unlikely event Nelson can “run the table” in court, he just can’t see how the Democrat could pull ahead.

“Where are the votes going to come from?” he said.

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The Twitter bots that make the internet a little bit nicer

This post is part of Hard Refresh, a soothing weekly column where we try to cleanse your brain of whatever terrible thing you just witnessed on Twitter.

While “bot” may be a dirty word on Twitter in the year 2018, there’s a subset of bot accounts that have nothing to do with subverting democracy and everything to do with bringing a tiny slice of surreal joy to your life.

It’s a strange corner of the internet to be obsessed with given how much bots are derided for everything from simply clogging your feed with spam to promoting propaganda for the Russians in a bid to undermine our electoral process.

But they’re out there: automated Twitter accounts that regularly tweet strange and wonderful content. I’ve even started collecting a few of these into a Twitter list so I can see them all in one place, a one-stop Twitter oasis of weirdness. Here are a few of my favorites.

Simpsons Screens

The one is super simple: a screencap from a random episode of The Simpsons from the show’s early era. Whether it’s a one-liner or just a visual gag from the show’s Golden Era, it’s hard not to smile when they pop up on my feed.

If you’re into this sort of thing, check out a very similar account for another classic animated show, King of the Hill.

Obama Plus Kids

President Donald Trump has had some awkward interactions with children during his time in the White House, but both President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama were known for their ease and comfort with kids. This account tweets out a memorable Obama-kid interaction every two hours and is an instant soul-soother.

Magic Realism Bot

Fans of magical realism writers like Gabriel Garcia Marquez will revel in this bot which turns 280 characters or less into the surreal and fantastical, little bites of prose that are sometimes magical, sometimes nonsensical, but always entertaining.

A beautiful woman with yellow eyes knocks at your door. You answer it, and she hands you a moon.

— Magic Realism Bot (@MagicRealismBot) November 6, 2018

A chameleon says to Lord Byron: “You need to swallow windows.”

— Magic Realism Bot (@MagicRealismBot) November 10, 2018

Ro Bot Dylan

As a big Dylan fan, I thoroughly enjoy the account that tweets his lyrics every day. If you’re one of those folks who could never get into Dylan because of his voice, this is a good way to at least enjoy his words.

In a world of steel-eyed death, and men who are fighting to be warm. “Come in,” she said, “I’ll give you shelter from the storm.”

— Ro Bot Dylan (@ro_bot_dylan) November 12, 2018

These are just a few examples of the genre and there are plenty more out there. But it’s worth stashing these accounts away for when Twitter gets to be a bit too much.

They’re a nice, consistent break from reality with a twist of weird that’s somehow appropriate for life in 2018.

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Uber’s rider loyalty program crushes Lyft’s

In the wake of a similar announcement from its chief rival Lyft, Uber announced a rider rewards program Wednesday to give loyal users perks for spending money in the app.

The program is almost exactly like the new Lyft Rewards program in that both track points you’ve accumulated in the app and give you rewards once you hit a certain milestone — and both are similarly named. But the two diverge from there.

Uber Rewards are here to give you perks.

Uber’s new rewards program gives one point for every dollar spent on Uber Pool rides and Uber Eats orders. It also gives two points for ordering an UberX, UberXL, Select, or WAV ride, and three points for ordering Black and Black SUV rides.

Uber has also set up different status levels for its customers: Blue, Gold, Platinum, and Diamond. Every six months, an individual’s Uber points are tallied and at 500, 2,500, 7,500 points respectively, they jump to the next tier for the next six months.

The points mean something beyond having status with the ride service. For your first 500 points, you get $5 to spend at Uber. Gold (or 2,500 points) unlocks free cancellations within a 15-minute window and priority customer support.

Platinum builds on Gold benefits with price locking between two set places (say the office and your home) on UberX rides and priority pick-ups at the airport.

Finally the big doozy: Diamond. In addition to everything else, you get dedicated phone support, free upgrades to Uber Black for a more luxurious ride, and access to highly rated drivers. On the Uber Eats side, Diamond status gets you no delivery fees on three orders every six months.

The rider rewards program feels similar to Uber Pro, the driver reward program Uber launched earlier this month that also has Gold, Platinum, and Diamond levels. But Uber Rewards is a bit more streamlined for the passenger side of the business.

The Uber rewards program is available today for users in Miami, New Jersey, Denver, Tampa, New York, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Diego, and Uber promises it will roll out to all U.S. riders in the next few months.

Since the program looks at your ride history from the past six months, all users are incentivized to use Uber as much as possible to stock up on points. By the time you’re enrolled in the program you might be Gold, Platinum, or Diamond status to start.

A waitlist is available here for anyone outside those nine areas.

Once Lyft’s program arrives next month, it’ll be a lot of mental math to figure out which car service to order. Choose wisely!

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Thou Shalt Not Kill: Israel’s Hilltop Youth

In late July 2015, an arson attack on a family home in the Palestinian village of Duma, in the West Bank, resulted in the killing of three members of the Dawabshe family, the youngest of whom, Ali, was only 18 months old.

The firebombing also caused seven-year-old Ahmed Dawabshe, Ali’s brother, second and third-degree burns across his body, the scars of which he still bears today.

Personally, it doesn’t bother me if an Arab baby dies … I don’t care if Arabs live or die. I prefer them dead.

Rut Goldberg, Settler/Kahane follower

Ahmed, who now lives with his grandfather, remains in Duma, across the West Bank border from his attackers: members of the Hilltop Youth.

Residing on outposts often neighbouring areas populated heavily by Palestinians (not to be confused with Israeli settlements) the Hilltop Youth are known for their extreme religious nationalism. Mostly made up of young people between the ages of 16 and 25, the group are followers of Kahanism; an ideology based on the teachings of the late Rabbi Meir Kahane.

Meir Ettinger, Kahane’s grandson, was one of several settlers charged for the Duma murders, also known as “Price Tag” killings, alongside 21-year-old Amiram Ben-Uliel and an unnamed minor. They were all released after serving minimal prison time.

The label “Price Tag” was born from actions taken by the group to claim a “price” for any actions taken against them or their hilltop settlements by Palestinians.

I’m teaching Ahmed that you don’t have to seek vengeance. That you do not have to kill. Your vengeance must be your success.

Hussein Hassan Dawabshe, Ahmed Dawabshe’s grandfather

“This is how the concept of ‘Price Tag’ was created. It’s because the government did not take revenge against our enemies,” says Kahanist and settler, Moriya Goldberg.

“The people who burned the house in Duma wouldn’t have done it if the state treated Arabs as enemies,” says Goldberg’s sister, Rut.

Although relatively small, with only several hundred members, the Hilltop Youth are known for having incited violent acts of hatred against Palestinians and Palestinian homes, mosques and churches.

They are also known for having a difficult relationship with left-wing Israelis, the Israeli army and even with Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service.

“The more nationalistic you are, the more militia-like you become. All of a sudden, every idiot at the top of the hill takes a flag, sticks it down and that’s the new border of the country,” says former speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg. “They’re [the Hilltop Youth] insignificant in numbers, they are insignificant ideologically … they are even insignificant as a crime gang. They are very significant in [how they are] dictating to the government a de facto policy – which is wrong.”

Source: Al Jazeera

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McCarthy elected House GOP leader for next Congress

The California Republican defeated conservative hard-liner Jim Jordan for the post.

California Republican Kevin McCarthy will be the House GOP leader during the 116^th Congress, after he easily beat back a challenge from conservative hardliner Rep. Jim Jordan during a party meeting on Wednesday.

McCarthy got 159 votes to Jordan’s 43 in the members-only session, according to Republican sources in the room.

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The victory seals McCarthy years-long drive to rise to the top of the House Republican Conference, an effort that had been derailed by Jordan and the House Freedom Caucus in 2015.

At that point, McCarthy was running for speaker, but ran into opposition from the hard-line Freedom Caucus and withdrew his name for consideration. That cleared the way for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) to become speaker.

Ryan announced he would retire from the House in April; amid intense jockeying behind the scenes to replace him, McCarthy consistently remained the frontrunner.

House Republicans also filled out the rest of their leadership team for the new Congress with few surprises.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) will be minority whip, and Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo .) — a rising star in the party — will be Republican Conference chairwoman.

McCarthy’s victory now is a bittersweet one, since House Republicans will be out power.

Dragged down by history and President Donald Trump’s dismal poll numbers, Democrats enjoyed their biggest House victory since the Watergate scandal of the 1970s. Democrats are on track to gain 35 to 40 seats, including a number in McCarthy’s home state of California, where the GOP has been reduced to a minor player.

McCarthy vowed to help lead Republicans back to the majority in 2020, although that may be more bravado than reality as Trump will be at the top of the ticket next cycle.

McCarthy was nominated for the post by House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry, (R-Texas); Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.) also spoke in favor.

The California Republican will also have to deal with Jordan, Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and the rest of the Freedom Caucus now that he’s minority leader.

POLITICO reported Tuesday night that Trump urged McCarthy to “make everybody happy” in regard to Jordan, who wants to be ranking member on the Judiciary Committee. However, Jordan is not popular with other House Republicans and may not be able to jump over more senior lawmakers for the Judiciary post.

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What critics thought of ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2’

Image: walt disney pictures

By Alison Foreman2018-11-14 18:09:08 UTC

“Ralph Breaks the Internet is a two-hour journey down a series of rabbit holes filled with laughs, tears, a ton of self-referential meta gags, and a Tumblr-worthy reinvention of familiar characters that eventually delivers something you didn’t know you always needed.”

Critics, like Mashable’s Angie Han, have reached a consensus: the Wreck-It Ralph sequel does in fact “break the internet.” Fortunately, they mostly mean that as a compliment.

A follow-up to the 2012 smash hit, Ralph Breaks the Internet takes beloved gaming characters Wreck-It Ralph, played by John C. Reilly, and Vanellope von Schweetz, played by Sarah Silverman, away from their safe offline consoles and onto the world wide web.

There they make some old-to-us, but new-to-them friends in Disney’s classic princesses, bring back that one Daft Punk song, and make a whole lot of social media jokes.

In theaters November 21, Ralph Breaks the Internet isn’t perfect, but those who have seen it agree this cyber adventure is more than worth the price of logging on.

Check out critics’ takes on Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 below.

Ralph Breaks the Internet is a totally worthy sequel

Peter Debruge, Variety:

After going from 8-bit zero to arcade hero during his original outing, Wreck-It Ralph levels up in a big way with “Ralph Breaks the Internet,” an ambitious, all-around satisfying sequel to Walt Disney Animation’s wonderfully outside-the-box smash that ranks among the studio’s very best toons: It’s a poignant buddy movie that’s sincere in all the right places, but knows better than to take itself too seriously. While the 2012 project was an inspired example of easily expandable world-building, this cleverer than expected follow-up skips the obvious next step — simply exploring the other games that share the same power strip — and sets out to conquer the relative vastness of cyberspace instead.

Karen Han, Polygon:

As such, it feels like a miracle that Ralph Breaks the Internet — while not quite as pure as its predecessor — is also tremendously charming. Lightning has struck twice. The film is unquestionably a corporate product; there’s a lot of very blatant Disney peacocking going on. But it seems that Wreck-It Ralph’s singular core is strong enough to keep its sequel from taking on the patina of a cynical, algorithm-generated product — in fact, it’s the polar opposite. Confession: I began involuntarily tearing up about halfway through the film, and kept crying on and off until the movie came to an end.

Ralph doesn’t totally nail the viral setting

Matt Goldberg, Collider:

The biggest problem with the film is the pacing and perhaps relying a little too heavily on the Internet gags. Ralph Breaks the Internet is a balancing act where it wants to give people a good time by poking fun at the Internet and Internet culture, but also tell a story about what it means to be a good friend. Both sides of the film are strong, but it’s telling that the best part of the movie is the third act when they go all in on the friendship story and leave the Internet jokes behind. Unlike Wreck-It Ralph where I could have done with more video game gags, the sequel had me eager for more of the friendship storyline.

Germain Lussier, io9:

There’s the main focus, several things happening right to the side, and then dozens of things in the background. This can run the gamut from cameos and references to themed music, various types of memes, trips to the good parts of the internet like fan sites, the bad parts like comments sections, and so much more. Much like the internet itself, you can easily get lost in every manic, magnificent place.

And yet, as those scenes keep on coming something feels a little off. Ralph Breaks the Internet is so full of big ideas that at times you get the sense it’s more of a wild collage instead of a perfect puzzle. From scene to scene, things are regularly linked in ways that feel forced or without proper motivation, and the result is a narrative that, at times, feels very disjointed and uneven.

The Disney princesses are as awesome as they look in the trailer

Molly Freeman, Screen Rant:

However, as Ralph Breaks the Internet sees Ralph and Vanellope explore these realms, the movie also gambles with viewers becoming more invested in those parts of the Internet than in the film’s main characters. The Disney princesses sequence, for example, is excellently executed and quite honestly overshadows everything else going on in the movie (especially for those who grew up watching the Disney princess movies).

Kate Erbland, IndieWire:

It’s also got one heck of a sense of humor. In a nifty bit of cross-promotion, Vanellope is sent to a super-charged Disney fansite where she runs into other Disney princesses who are just as bored as she is. As they teach her the ways of being a princess (the weird clothes, the animal companions, the singing), the young racer zooms towards her own inevitable maturation. It’s a big, funny step for Vanellope, but more than that, it’s one for the brand.

Ralph Breaks the Internet surprisingly takes on toxic masculinity

Justin Chang, LA Times:

There are some resonant ideas at play here, among them the realization that toxic male insecurity, even under the guise of love and friendship, can make the internet a uniquely volatile and dangerous place. For the most part, those ideas are realized with sly visual wit and conceptual ingenuity — the most delightful new character is a squat, bespectacled search engine named KnowsMore (perfectly voiced by Alan Tudyk) — and interlaced with the cheeky, sophisticated humor that has become synonymous with the Disney/Pixar brand.

Emily Yoshida, Vulture:

Wreck-It Ralph — the character, not the movie — is a kind of loose metaphor for a cocktail of personality disorders; he works as a character because it’s so easy to see shades of ourselves and our friends in him. He’s a fundamentally gentle soul, but his sense of self is critically unstable without external validation. Those giant hands tip us off to a kind of inborn destructive grabbiness, the self-annihilating need for the love of others.

This is a great all-ages option for Thanksgiving viewing

Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter:

A turbo-charged satire that swaps out Gen X video arcade nostalgia for our current, all-consuming social-media-fueled obsession, the endlessly inventive Walt Disney Studios Animation follow-up impressively levels up with laugh-out-loud consistency.

The sharply observed results — combined with a gamely attuned voice ensemble that finds the returning John C. Reilly and Sarah Silverman (in an upgraded role) joined by newcomers Gal Gadot and Taraji P. Henson — should handily generate an all-ages load of likes when it connects with theaters a day before Thanksgiving.

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Steve Carell ‘SNL’ promo teases his return as a serious actor

Steve Carell fans may be nervous about the actor’s recent turn in serious dramas, but a promo for his Saturday Night Live hosting gig shows that he still has comedy in his blood.

In a teaser for Saturday’s show, Aidy Bryant and Chris Redd ask Carell if he’s still capable of comedy. He assures them that, as a Serious Actor, he can prepare for any role.

What follows is a classic actorly montage of Carell reading books, talking to a mirror, practicing, pacing, and pulling out pages of notebook paper in frustration as he prepares. When the time comes to hear about his sketch character, Dr. Farts, he’s finally ready.

Carell hosts SNL with musical guest Ella Mai on Nov. 17.

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Markelle Fultz Removed from 76ers’ Starting Lineup After Jimmy Butler Trade

BROOKLYN, NY - NOVEMBER 4: Markelle Fultz #20 of the Philadelphia 76ers warms up prior to a game against the Brooklyn Nets on November 4, 2018 at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2018 NBAE (Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

Nathaniel S. Butler/Getty Images

Philadelphia 76ers guard Markelle Fultz, one of two players to start all 15 of the team’s games during the 2018-19 NBA season, will be removed from the starting lineup following the trade for Jimmy Butler.

Head coach Brett Brown confirmed Wednesday the new starting five will feature Butler, Ben Simmons, JJ Redick, Wilson Chandler and Joel Embiid, per ESPN.com’s Tim Bontemps.

Rich Hofmann of The Athletic noted Brown said Fultz “has done nothing wrong,” but added a change was necessary after the blockbuster trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The 20-year-old University of Washington product has continued to struggle with his shooting after missing most of his rookie season because of a shoulder injury. He’s connected on 41.2 percent of his field goals, including 30.8 percent of his three-point attempts, and is making just 57.6 percent of his free throws.

His inability to create offense likely played a role in the Sixers’ decision to pursue Butler, who’s averaged 16.5 points in his career, including four seasons of at least 20.

Philly general manager Elton Brand said Tuesday the team’s acquisition of the four-time All-Star guard/forward from the Wolves doesn’t mean it lost faith in Fultz, though.

“Not at all. It wasn’t a changed view of Markelle’s future. It was more of a changed view of being able to get a superstar right now and seeing where other teams were,” he told reporters. “There are some really talented teams [in the Eastern Conference]. … It was just a chance to have our team take another leap.”

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Fultz should still end up seeing ample playing time as the top reserve at both guard spots behind Simmons and Redick. And there’s still a chance for him to regain his starting role during the course of the campaign should he show consistent improvement as a shooter.

The 2017 No. 1 overall draft choice shot 47.6 percent from the field and 41.3 percent on threes during his one season of college ball, so it’s possible he returns to form.

For now, however, the Sixers are moving in a new direction with Butler as they attempt to establish themselves as a top contender in the NBA title chase.

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Trump weighs Mississippi visit on heels of Hyde-Smith ‘hanging’ remark

Donald Trump and Cindy Hyde-Smith — Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s “hanging” remark triggered an outcry, with many pointing to Mississippi’s history of lynchings. But she denied any racial connotation. | AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis

National Republicans are mobilizing to shore up a Mississippi Senate seat that a few days ago was barely on anyone’s radar, with the party poised to spend at least $1 million on a TV advertising campaign and the White House weighing a pre-runoff trip by President Donald Trump.

The burst of activity follows the release of a video last weekend showing Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith joking that if she were invited by one of her supporters to a “public hanging,” she would be in “the front row.”

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Hyde-Smith, who earlier this year was appointed to fill the seat of former Sen. Thad Cochran, is facing Democrat Mike Espy in a Nov. 27 runoff. Espy, a former agriculture secretary, is African American.

Party officials stressed that plans for a Trump rally weren’t yet finalized, but several people involved in the talks said they expect the event to take place on the eve of the runoff. It would be Trump’s first rally since his nationwide pre-midterm sprint. Trump won Mississippi by nearly 18 percentage points in the 2016 presidential election.

A White House spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The National Republican Senatorial Committee, meanwhile, has drawn up plans to spend over $1 million on a TV ad campaign buttressing Hyde-Smith. Much of the funding came from an approximately $1 million transfer supplied from the Republican National Committee last week, before Hyde-Smith’s remarks became public.

The RNC, which deployed field staffers nationwide ahead of the midterm elections, has had two dozen aides in Mississippi for months, and plans on deploying additional staffers from other states.

Party officials say they remain confident that Hyde-Smith will prevail in the deep red state but want to take no chances, particularly after last year’s embarrassing special election loss for an Alabama Senate seat.

Hyde-Smith’s “hanging” remark triggered an outcry, with many pointing to Mississippi’s history of lynchings. But she denied any racial connotation.

“In a comment on Nov. 2, I referred to accepting an invitation to a speaking engagement. In referencing the one who invited me, I used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous,” Hyde-Smith said in a statement last weekend. She has refused to elaborate.

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