Most internet challenges are bad, but Dog Cheese is good.

Dog Cheese, since you asked, is a fun game where you throw a piece onto your dog and see what happens. There are very few rules: the cheese must land on the dog, certainly, but we understand that what occurs next is outside your control.

Dog Cheese appears to have begun with the following tweet from Matthew Elias, which reads: “Fuck beer pong, we playin dog cheese.” Agreed!

Now, lots of people — and dogs, and the occasional cat — are playing Dog Cheese. Soon it will be more popular than beer pong. Just kidding, but what if it was? Would be cool.

Please do not blame any weird dog poops on us.

Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday two long-time allies like France and the US should treat each other with respect and that France was Washington’s ally, but not a vassal state.

The French president’s remarks came after US President Donald Trump attacked Macron and France over its near defeat to Germany in two world wars, its wine industry and Macron’s approval ratings.

Trump’s blows came in five tweets posted on Tuesday after his visit to France for the centenary of the end of World War I, during which Macron pushed his proposals for an EU army and said France has to protect itself with “respect to China, Russia and even the United States“.

Trump tweeted on Tuesday that Macron “suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!”

Emmanuel Macron suggests building its own army to protect Europe against the U.S., China and Russia. But it was Germany in World Wars One & Two – How did that work out for France? They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along. Pay for NATO or not!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018

Trump implied Macron made the comments to distract from his low approval rating, which sits at 29 percent, according to an French Institute of Public Opinion poll released in late September.

The problem is that Emmanuel suffers from a very low Approval Rating in France, 26%, and an unemployment rate of almost 10%. He was just trying to get onto another subject. By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France, very proud people-and rightfully so!……..

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 13, 2018

The US president’s approval rating is not far ahead. Trump’s weekly average approval rating from November 5 to 11 sat at 38 percent, with a term average of 39 percent, according to Gallup.

Macron opted not to respond to Trump’s Twitter challenges.

“I don’t think the French expect me to respond to tweets,” he told TF1 in an interview on the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier.

Trump was only playing to a domestic audience, Macron said.

“I think he’s playing politics, and I let him play politics.”

The French leader pointed to historic support between the two countries. France played an important role in the US War of Independence and the US supported France during two world wars.  

“At every moment of our history, we were allies, so between allies, respect is due,” Macron said

Asked about his suggestion to build a European army, Macron said: “The United States [is] our historic ally and will continue to be. It’s the ally with which we take all the risks, with which we carry out the most complicated operations.

“But being an ally doesn’t mean being a vassal state”. 

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies

Mike WiLL Made-It wasn’t playing around when he said “the soundtrack album game would never be the same” after his Creed II compilation. The star-studded soundtrack doesn’t arrive until next week, but Mike previewed one of its buzziest contributions Tuesday night (November 13) by releasing “The Mantra,” which reunites Pharrell and Kendrick Lamar.

Pharrell flies solo for the first half of the mesmerizing cut, which features a haunting hook and muted production from Will. “If what you doin’ don’t help you elevate / Far as I’m concerned, it’s in the way,” Pharrell advises.

The track really comes to life when Kendrick jumps in with a characteristically sprawling, athletic, quirky verse. “I was down, bad, then my life switched … I was lifeless, I was deadweight, I was triflin’ / Then my eye twitched, then my hand shook, and my fisted balled / Then my right wrist took a risk for us,” he raps in the verse’s evocative opening lines, before unleashing a few knock-out bars that prove he’s sprung back to life.

“The Mantra” is just the latest K.Dot/Pharrell team-up — most recently, they collaborated on a pair of tracks that landed on N.E.R.D.’s No One Ever Really Dies album last year. Prior to that, Pharrell lent his producing talents to Kendrick’s 2012 song “good kid,” and the To Pimp a Butterfly anthem “Alright.”

Along with “The Mantra,” the Creed II soundtrack — executive produced by Mike WiLL — will include music from Bon Iver, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Vince Staples, Rae Sremmurd, and more. The album arrives alongside the Michael B. Jordan-starring blockbuster on November 21.

British Olympic show jumper Tim Stockdale has died aged 54, a month after being diagnosed with cancer.

Stockdale represented Team GB at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, narrowly missing out on a medal by finishing fourth in the team event.

He rode for GB more than 50 times in the Nations Cup, and also competed in the World Equestrian Games in 2002 and the European Championships in 2009.

Stockdale also regularly worked as a BBC equestrian pundit.

BBC presenter Clare Balding said: “Tim was a brilliant show jumper, a great coach, a wonderful team-mate on the TV, a warm, funny and hugely supportive human being.

“I feel so lucky to have known him. Love and hugs to all his family who will miss him so much.”

British Showjumping chairman Les Harris said: “Tim was an incredible man and there would be very few who could hold a light to him.

“My thoughts are with his wife Laura and their sons Joseph and Mark, whom we will be doing our utmost to support following their loss.”

Image: Pexels

Trivia time: Which is bigger?

1. The amount of money the U.S. government spent on K-12 education in 2017

or….

2. The amount of money Americans spent on holiday shopping in 2017

Prepare to let out a big, fat “yikes.” In 2017, the U.S. budget for education was $69.4 billion. Meanwhile, Americans spent a whopping $1 trillion on holiday shopping between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. That’s enough money to send 8.3 million people to a 4-year college. Enough to buy every San Fransisco resident an apartment. Enough to literally purchase Apple. 

What we’re saying is: That’s a lot of dough.

Of course, giving and receiving gifts is awesome and makes you warm and fuzzy inside — no one is disagreeing with that. And we are the last ones to weigh any objections to spending money and getting good deals wherever we can find them. But there’s also a dark cloud hovering over that ginormous pile of cash we’e spending. In 2016, 60% of all online sales went to 10 of the biggest retailers, none of which has a proactive social mission. Welp.

Listen: There’s no shame in the shopping game. We need to buy stuff, you need to buy stuff, and, hell, we love helping you make those purchases! But there’s something to be said for the occasional moment of mindfulness.

Enter Shop For Good Sunday. Known as “the day to shop with companies that do good for people and the planet,” this special shopping day lands on Nov. 25 — smack dab in the midst of the “Cyber Five,” which is what people are now calling the span of time between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. The special shopping day aims not only to give people a way to spend their holiday shopping money on brands that make the world better, but also doubles as a massive charity that donates 100% of its revenue to people who need it most. Now that seems like true holiday spirit.

Image: Mpowerd, Shop for Good Sunday partner and Certified B Corp

Now, we’re not about to completely abandon the big guys — we love a good tech deal as much as you do, and many times, those are the only places to get big ticket items or the year’s biggest toys. But with over 125 brands participating in Shop For Good Sunday this year (that’s more than double the number of brands from 2017), you should be able to find a perfect gift for at least one person on your list. On top of that, many brands participating are offering promotions to give buyers “Shop4Good” discounts. The site has even defined categories like best gifts for her, best gifts for him, popular gifts, gifts under $50, and more to help get you organized — because there are a lot of options. Candles, bedding and pillows, jewelry, home decor, and clothing are just a few of the unique things up for grabs.

There’s a lot to like about Shop for Good Sunday, but we particularly love that 100% of the revenue made on Nov. 25 (whether that be from the Shop for Good Sunday gift shop, the DoneGood shop, or through the DoneGood plugin) will be donated to RAINN, America’s largest anti-sexual violence organization. So in addition to purchasing a gift for your nearest and dearest, you’re also giving the gift of helping survivors, educating the public, and improving policies. Really, it’s the gift of a brighter future.

The initiative is powered by DoneGood, a public benefit corporation (B-corp) co-founded by Cullen Schwartz and Scott Jacobsen in 2016. It aims to bring socially and environmentally responsible brands to consumers to divert their money to merchants that do the right thing. DoneGood works in tandem with charities and non-profit organizations like Oxfam America and Be One Percent (both working to end poverty) to spotlight eco-friendly, cruelty-free, fair trade, and other socially responsible products to help people feel good about where their dollars are going. DoneGood also encourages buyers to support local community businesses that they know use eco-friendly practices and pay living wages.

If thousands of us choose to spend a few of our dollars at retailers that have the public’s interest in mind, Schwartz believes we can make the most wonderful time of the year also the most impactful. In a post on B the Change, Schwartz writes: 

“We started DoneGood because we genuinely believe the dollars we spend are the world’s most powerful force for change. Consumer spending is 70 percent of the economy. And it’s a supply-and-demand economy, so we all have total power—whatever we demand, the market supplies. The more we demand worker empowerment, living wages, eco-friendly practices, and other good stuff, the more the market supplies those things.”

As sustainable food advocate Anna Lappé says, “Every time you spend money, you’re casting a vote for the type of world that you want.” Shop For Good Sunday makes it easier than ever to support the companies that do good for people, animals, and the planet. Enter your email address, avoid the in-store stampedes, and start changing the world (while simultaneously becoming the best gift giver in the family) here.

Disclosure: Mashable is a Shop for Good media partner, but we earn no affiliate revenue through the initiative. We just think it’s a really awesome cause.

After a month-long journey, Central American migrants and refugees fleeing violence and poverty in large groups are beginning to arrive at the southern border of the United States to seek asylum.

Hundreds of asylum seekers have reached the border this week and thousands more are on their way to Tijuana, in the northwestern corner of Mexico. They face long wait times at the San Ysidro port of entry, asylum restrictions, potential indefinite detention and a heavily fortified border.

Thousands of active-duty US troops have been deployed along the southern border with Mexico, including to several ports of entry that likely won’t see asylum seekers from the largely Honduran exodus, previously dubbed the migrant caravan.

US officials shut down three lanes at the San Ysidro crossing on Tuesday, and it and other border gates and fences have been fortified with concertina wire. Hundreds of asylum seekers who arrived at San Ysidro prior to the collective exodus faced an estimated one-month wait time.

In response to the Central American exodus, which Donald Trump falsely deemed “an invasion”, the US president and his administration implemented restrictions on asylum claims, limiting processing to asylum-seekers arriving at official ports of entry.

Tent camps are also being set up in US border areas for the indefinite detention of asylum-seekers while their claims are being processed, US officials announced earlier this month.

The measures to restrict asylum claims and potentially indefinitely detain asylum seekers, including children, are unlawful, rights groups have pointed out.

Both US and international law establish that anyone has the right to seek asylum regardless of how they enter the US, and US courts have set restrictions on the immigration detention of children, including a 20-day limit, adequate temperature controls and properly licensed management. The announced plans for indefinite detention in tent camps are undergoing a court challenge.

Fears of transphobic violence

The first Central Americans to arrive in Tijuana ahead of the main wave were part of an LGBTI group comprised of several dozen people, a majority of whom are transgender women. The group had been travelling together for safety in the face of frequent harassment from men in the main group. 

RAICES, a Texas-based migrant support group, raised funds to provide buses from Mexico City to Tijuana for the LGBTI group. The long wait times for asylum claim processing at the border place the group at further risk of violence, according to migrant rights groups.

“The last time a trans group came through, [people] tried to burn their shelter down with them inside. They are not safe in Tijuana and have few options for shelter,” Al Otro Lado, a cross-border legal services organisation for refugees and separated families, tweeted on Monday.

Transgender women also often experience violence, discrimination, and medical neglect in detention. Roxana Hernandez, a Honduran transgender woman who travelled to the US with a migrant and refugee caravan earlier this year, died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody from health complications suspected to have been aggravated by her detention in freezing cold conditions in New Mexico detention facilities. 

Central American LGBTI asylum-seekers risk the dangers of travel and detention because the situation at home in many countries is drastically more dangerous, especially for gay men and transgender women.

“Trans people in my neighbourhood are killed and chopped into pieces, then dumped inside [100-pound sacks],” Hernandez said in an interview with Buzzfeed News before crossing into the US and dying in ICE custody.

Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala have had some of the world’s highest per capita homicide rates for years, but LGBTI residents are disproportionately targeted. Local LGBTI groups estimate that more than 250 LGBTI people have been murdered in Honduras alone over the past decade.

La Comunidad of LGBTQ+ migrants is in Tijuana. They’re the first of the migrant exodus to arrive.

The port of entry has a month-long line.

Already, they’ve been harassed by neighbors, & sex trafficking in Tijuana means trans women are at particular risk. They need asylum now. pic.twitter.com/c18gM9KzFl

— 𝐑𝐀𝐈𝐂𝐄𝐒 (@RAICESTEXAS) November 13, 2018

Homophobic and transphobic government discourse helps fuel and encourage violent attacks, according to Adriana Munoz, a spokeswoman for the Reinas de la Noche (Queens of the Night) trans association in Guatemala.

“There’s a cascade of violence against LGBTI people,” she told Al Jazeera.

Reinas de la Noche and many groups affiliated with REDLACTRANS, a Latin American and Caribbean network of transgender people and organisations, have been involved in gender identity bill proposals in their respective countries, to ensure transgender people can exercise basic rights to gender identity, including the right to accurate updated gender identification on government documents.

In Guatemala, the bill, which faced strong opposition from the governmen, right-wing parties in Congress and religious groups, did not pass, further entrenching the discrimination trans individuals face in the country.

The continued discrimination and violence Central American LGBTI refugees face when they flee home for the US to seek asylum was highlighted by Amnesty International in a November 2017 report dedicated to the issue.

“Terrorised at home, and abused while trying to seek sanctuary abroad, they are now some of the most vulnerable refugees in the Americas. The fact that Mexico and the USA are willing to watch on as they suffer extreme violence is, simply, criminal,” Amnesty International Americas Director Erika Guevara-Rosas said in a statement when the report, No Safe Place, was published.

‘The exodus will continue’

LGBTI migrants and refugees are particularly targeted with violence, but safety is numbers is a driving factor behind the new form of collective migration in general. 

Over the past two decades, thousands of migrants and refugees have been killed or disappeared along the route north.

Rates of homicide and forced disappearance are particularly high in northeastern Mexico, which prompted the current group’s decision to travel more than 1,000km further to the Pacific coastal crossing in Tijuana.

Many Central Americans have also died from exposure to the elements while crossing into the US through desert areas between official ports of entry. The current exodus has always planned to arrive at an official port of entry to seek asylum.

The exodus is highly visible due to international media attention and is a significant shift in the way people migrate north, but the mass migration itself from northern Central America is not extraordinary. Hundreds of people flee Honduras alone every day, according to rights groups.

Media attention has largely focused on the first wave of the exodus now gradually beginning to arrive in Tijuana, but the group of more than 6,000 asylum-seekers is just the first wave of a larger trend.

Thousands more migrants and refugees, mainly from Honduras and El Salvador, are heading north through Mexico in subsequent groups. A second wave of people has reached Mexico City, a large Salvadoran group is close behind, and others are making their way up through southern Mexico. 

There are also preparations for further collective departures. A new group plans to depart San Salvador on Sunday, and planning is under way in Honduras and El Salvador for others through January of next year.

The phenomenon is not going to stop anytime soon, according to Ruben Figueroa, the Mesoamerican Migrant Movement coordinator for Central America and southeastern Mexico.

“The exodus is going to continue,” he told Al Jazeera.

Sri Lanka v Bangladesh live in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20 – in-play clips & radio – Live – BBC Sport

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Nintendo of America president and COO Reggie Fils-Aimé sat at the end of a white table in a hotel room in Midtown Manhattan. At the other end of the table sat a small array of packaged Nintendo consoles and games, arranged as if they were sitting in a storefront window display ahead of the holidays.

The window behind the makeshift display looked out on a cold and rainy November morning, and Fils-Aimé was talking about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, coming out for the Nintendo Switch on Dec. 7.

I asked him who he’s been playing as.

“I’m focused right now on playing Ridley,” Fils-Aimé said, referencing one of the brand new characters coming to Smash. “My strategy is simple. It is a well-known fact that I am not a very good Super Smash Bros. player, and so my focus is I’m going to keep practicing as Ridley so that at 12:01, the morning of the 7th, I can be the very best Ridley player for a very short period of time. That’s my strategy.”

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is one of Nintendo’s key anchors for the 2018 holiday season, along with Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu! and Evee!, launching on Nov. 16. Fils-Aimé was eager to discuss how much Nintendo has to offer for the holidays, including a recently announced Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Nintendo Switch bundle for Black Friday, Diablo III and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate bundles, and a Super Mario Maker Nintendo 2DS bundle.

Earlier this year, Nintendo set some pretty high sales goals for this fiscal year: 20 million units sold by March 31, 2019. As of October, the company had only pushed about 5 million units, so there needs to be a huge upswing in the next few months.

Even so, Fils-Aimé said that Nintendo isn’t backing down from that estimate.

“Our confidence is high,” he said. “October, November, December is a huge selling season globally for Nintendo. Here in the Americas, it’s upwards of 60% of our revenue, so it’s a big, big selling time.”

Fils-Aimé mentioned that Super Mario Party kicked off the season with a fantastic start, exceeding expectations “quite significantly.” The company has also seen strong reactions to its limited bundles, mentioned above, including the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate bundle put out Nov. 9 that is effectively sold out.

“We’re seeing really good consumer response to our games and our special offers, and with Pokémon and Smash Bros. to come we believe we’re very well positioned for the holidays,” Fils-Aimé said.

It’s important for companies to plan releases for these big selling seasons, and it’s something that Nintendo is very deliberate about.

“We have expectations about when [Metroid Prime 4] is going to be released”

“This is something that Mr. [Shinya] Takahashi really thinks deeply about as head of all of our internal development,” Fils-Aimé said. “We certainly think about launching key games during key selling seasons. So it was well thought-through to have, for example, Zelda as a key launch title when the Switch first came out. It was well thought-of to have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Splatoon 2 to maintain momentum in that early launch window… It was thought-out to have a game like Super Mario Party to kick off our October selling season. It was well thought-of to have Pokémon and Smash Bros. as key anchors.”

So for a hotly anticipated game like Metroid Prime 4, which was teased at E3 in 2017, does Nintendo have an idea of when that will be coming out? Of course they do.

“Internally, we have expectations about when [Metroid Prime 4] is going to be released,” Fils-Aimé said. “We haven’t announced it, but yeah, the game is well in development.”

Nintendo thinks very deeply about its messaging when announcing games, and normally Nintendo likes to announce its games within a short window of when they will be available to players, Fils-Aimé explained.

“Typically six months to maybe a year out is what we like to do, but there are times for strategic reasons that we believe it’s important to message that a game is coming,” he said. “We did that years and years ago with Zelda. We were messaging a new Zelda experience back during the days of the Wii U… It really depends on the game, it depends on the type of development that it’s going through, and it depends on how we feel the consumer is going to respond to the particular message.”

Even with all that planning and thoughtfulness in game releases, sometimes things don’t always line up perfectly — release dates aren’t necessarily set in stone years in advance.

“We do think deeply about the sequencing of our games, but having said that, Nintendo is well-known that if a game isn’t ready, we will push out the development in order to make sure that it is as strong as possible when the game launches,” Fils-Aimé said. “During my tenure with Nintendo, we’ve pushed back development a number of times on key games — in the end it’s always worth it. Because our focus on quality is so strong.”

“Our company really has a strong commitment to that work/life balance”

This mentality of being OK with pushing back release dates plays into the recent conversations in the games industry about “crunch” and exploitation of labor, which is something that Nintendo is committed to avoiding, according to Fils-Aimé.

“Our company really has a strong commitment to that work/life balance,” he said. Certainly I can speak to it form a Nintendo of America perspective, we’re not involved in the development of our content — ours is a sales, marketing, distribution company — but certainly our mentality is that we will balance the workload, we will make sure that we deliver our results, but we do it in a way that really respects the employee.”

The conversation topic turned back over to specific video games. Less than two years into the Switch’s lifespan, many of Nintendo’s most iconic franchises have already had an entry on the console or have one on the way, including Smash, Metroid, Animal Crossing, and even Luigi’s Mansion.

I asked Fils-Aimé if it’s Nintendo’s goal to have all these different franchises have a moment in the sun on every console.

He said it is, but it’s more than just putting out a game on a console just to check each franchise name off a list.

“We’re always looking to create experiences that the consumer hasn’t even considered”

“Our goal with every system is that we launch an iconic execution within a particular franchise, whether it’s a Super Mario platforming experience, or a Smash Bros. experience, we want that execution to truly be iconic,” Fils-Aimé said. “That takes time, and that’s something that for us is very important. Ours is a company that doesn’t do annualized software, and so when we create a Zelda game, when we create a Smash Bros. game, or a Pokémon experience comes on the platform, it needs to be exceptionally compelling because we plan on selling it for a very long time.”

Of course Nintendo doesn’t just stick to their most popular franchises. They’re always creating new experiences.

“We always strive to create new content,” Fils-Aimé said. “We want to create the next Splatoon, we want to create the next Arms, we want to create the next Labo. We’re always looking to create experiences that the consumer hasn’t even considered.”

That’s just one of Nintendo’s three core business pillars, its dedicated games business. One of its other, newer pillars, mobile, is something that gets equally nuanced attention.

“What we won’t do is simply take an existing console experience and put it on mobile,” Fils-Aimé said. “We want to do something new. Super Mario Run is something new and different within the Super Mario experience. Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp is something different — still Animal Crossing — but a different type of experience. That’s the way that we think about it.”

Earlier this year, Nintendo announced a new Mario Kart game coming to mobile, which Fils-Aimé assured would have that key Mario Kart DNA but be different and optimized for a mobile experience.

Nintendo also sees mobile as a place to introduce new intellectual property, as we’ve seen with September’s Dragalia Lost made in partnership with Cygames.

Some other partnerships between Nintendo and other developers have popped up recently, as seen with Ubisoft and Nintendo’s team-up on Mario + Rabbids: Battle Kingdom and the inclusion of Star Fox and friends in Starlink: Battle for Atlas.

“For us, what we think about is: The company we’re working with, do they share the same values that we have? Do they have the same type of mentality when it comes to that content? Will our intellectual property be showcased in a way that’s consistent with that intellectual property? And in the end is it going to be a great experience for the consumer?” Fils-Aimé said. “Those are the things that we think about as we enter in those types of conversations.”

“That is going to be a key business pillar for us”

Beyond Nintendo’s two gaming pillars, there’s the third pillar: the growth and expansion of Nintendo’s intellectual property.

“That shows up in our relationship with Universal Studios in the park experiences that are being created,” Fils-Aimé said. “It shows up in our relationship with Illumination who’s creating a Super Mario movie in partnership with Nintendo, and so that is going to be a key business pillar for us, how we effectively utilize our intellectual property. So as we look to the future, these are things that are important to us.”

I asked about Nintendo’s movie and series plans around streaming sites like Netflix and Hulu, but it’s hard to get Fils-Aimé to give up any information that Nintendo hasn’t already expressly announced.

“We are going to be exploring a range of different opportunities, and when those are ready we’ll announce them,” he said.

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.

Claudio Ranieri is always a welcome presence in the Premier League – with even neutrals warming to the dignity, class and gentle humour of the man who was sacked after taking Chelsea to the Champions League semi-final before producing one of the greatest feats of management in sporting history at Leicester City.

The 67-year-old Italian replaces Slavisa Jokanovic as manager of bottom club Fulham, a little over two years after masterminding arguably the biggest surprise in British sport at the King Power Stadium in 2015-16.

His popularity sometimes overshadows the years of experience Ranieri has gathered in the game at elite locations such as Atletico Madrid, Valencia, Juventus, Inter Milan and Monaco.

It is this experience Fulham owner Shahid Khan is calling on when he describes Ranieri as “risk-free and ready-made” for Fulham and the Premier League. He will enjoy his new manager’s popularity but he will also want his pragmatism and expertise to get results.

Ranieri’s warm personality will lift some of the clouds over Fulham in an instant and they will also garner support among neutrals purely because of the Italian’s presence.

Yes, it did go wrong in the final months at Leicester City but his methods were still enough to take an unheralded squad to unimaginable heights in the previous season.

And they were not always conventional.

Who can forget Ranieri’s imaginary “dilly-ding dilly-dong” bell he claimed to use when players were not paying attention – even giving his players a small bell as a light-hearted Christmas present?

Earlier in that glorious campaign Ranieri complained about a lack of clean sheets, promising his players a pizza as a reward. He duly delivered with a trip for his squad to a local pizzeria after his demand was fulfilled.

Ranieri’s man-management also fostered the sort of spirit Khan hopes he can reinvent at Fulham.

Leicester City’s players asked for a break if they got nine points from three tough games in February 2016. A last-minute loss at Arsenal meant they only got six – but Ranieri gave them their holiday anyway.

And to show his human side, he spent the day Leicester City clinched the title – when Spurs only drew with Chelsea – in Rome celebrating his mother’s 96th birthday.

When his arrival at Leicester was questioned he said: “I like to travel. I like to discover new places. I am like Christopher Columbus.”

But will charm and affability be enough for what he will he discover at Craven Cottage?

Can popular Ranieri get tough?

There is no doubt that Ranieri’s charisma will be crucial in lifting spirits at a club that started the season high on optimism before plummeting to the foot of the table, despite spending £100m in the summer following promotion from the Championship.

And Khan will be hoping he gets the Ranieri who inspired Leicester City to the Premier League on a tidal wave of momentum that saw his ‘Tinkerman’ reputation ditched in favour of continuity – although this Fulham side will certainly need some tweaking to achieve its potential.

Khan will not want the second-season scenario at Leicester, where Ranieri’s glory boys quickly went off the rails and the manager lost his sure touch to such an extent that he was sacked only nine months after his greatest moment, with the Foxes one point off the relegation zone.

Ranieri also left amid suggestions of discontent among the players and his own backroom staff. It was certainly not a happy ending to that mercurial management tenure.

Khan, then, will want a manager with fire in his belly and a determination to end his Premier League story on a high after the disappointing end to his short time at Leicester, although the love he still inspires at the King Power was illustrated when he was back recently to pay tribute to owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha following his death in a helicopter crash.

What are Ranieri’s biggest priorities?

Ranieri will walk into Fulham’s secluded Surrey training ground and Craven Cottage to find plenty of sympathy for Jokanovic, who was actually his first signing as Chelsea manager.

Jokanovic took Fulham into the Premier League playing attractive attacking football and Tom Greatrex, chairman of the club’s Supporters’ Trust, said in a glowing testimonial: “He will always go down as one of the great Fulham managers.”

Indeed, it was only two weeks ago that owner Khan delivered combative support for Jokanovic in his programme notes for the home game with Bournemouth in response to stories he was facing the sack, writing: “I’m in equal parts amused, astonished and disappointed. I ask you not to believe everything you read. Or, in this case, don’t believe anything you read.”

The subsequent 3-0 loss to the Cherries, a damaging 1-0 reverse at fellow strugglers Huddersfield Town and Sunday’s defeat at Liverpool meant things changed quickly – as Ranieri knows they can after his own sacking at Leicester.

Now he must use his well-honed brand of charm and personal magnetism to not only lift a team short on confidence and low on morale, but also apply a fix to serious flaws in a Fulham side that was expected to live comfortably in the Premier League.

Fulham spent big in the summer to confirm the loan signing of Aleksdandar Mitrovic from Newcastle United for £20m and bring in the likes of Jean Michael Seri from Nice for £25m, Marseille midfielder Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa for £22.3m and Germany World Cup winner Andre Schurrle on loan from Borussia Dortmund, as well as Swansea City defender Alfie Mawson for a deal that could eventually be worth £20m.

There have been questions about how many of these deals were at Jokanovic’s request but only Mitrovic has been a real success and the result has been an imbalanced, uninspired side that has lost its best attacking qualities and has also conceded more goals than anyone else in the Premier League – 31 – and has the worst goal difference at minus 20.

Curing that defensive flaw will be his biggest challenge but he has proved he can do it before – while also getting those big-money buys to justify those lavish price tags.

Ranieri will arrive at Fulham on a tide of goodwill, despite replacing the much-admired Jokanovic, but Fulham’s situation is so serious he may not be able to use the light touch immediately as one of management’s most enduring and popular characters gets back to business.