It's hard to imagine Steven Spielberg's Lincoln without Daniel Day-Lewis' Oscar-winning central performance — but Day-Lewis wouldn't have been there if Liam Neeson hadn't voluntarily dropped out of the project. Why would any actor voluntarily vacate such a slam-dunk role? In a new cover story at GQ, Liam Neeson describes the moment he realized he was the wrong actor to play Abraham Lincoln.

According to Neeson, Steven Spielberg first approached him to star in an early version of Lincoln 10 years ago. He spent four years researching to play Lincoln in what he describes as "a wonderful kind of old-fashioned biography of Lincoln," which began with his inauguration and ended with his death. But Tony Kushner's script rewrite narrowed Lincoln's focus to the final four months of the president's life, as he worked to push the 13th amendment through the House of Representatives.

The trouble began when Neeson sat down with Lincoln's cast and creative team for a table read. "We started reading this, and there was an intro, and then I see 'Lincoln' where I have to start speaking, and I just — a thunderbolt moment. I thought, 'I'm not supposed to be here. This is gone. I've passed my sell-by date. I don't want to play this Lincoln. I can't be him," says Neeson.

"I read very, very poorly by any standards, but then some people come up afterward and say, 'Oh, you're made to play Lincoln.' I just was cringing with embarrassment. Afterward, Steven came over, and I said, 'Steven, you have to recast this now.' And he said, 'What are you talking about?' And I said, 'I'm serious. You have to recast it.' So I went back home, and that night I called [Doris Kearns Goodwin], and I had a wee chat with her. And then I called Steven, and I said, 'Steven, this is not for me. I can't explain it. It's gone. It's not...' And he got it. He said, 'Okay.' And that was it."

Still dreaming of an Abraham Lincoln biopic starring Liam Neeson? You may get your wish someday. "I'd still like to do Lincoln's story," Neeson conceded. "I think [Lincoln] shows him, yes, but I think I'd still like to do an old-fashioned biography of Lincoln." Scott Meslow

President Trump's former bodyguard and director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller is on the witness list for the House Intelligence Committee's ongoing investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election, ABC News reports. Before joining Trump at the White House, Schiller served as Trump's personal bodyguard for nearly 20 years.

The inclusion of Schiller on the witness list is "the latest indication that the investigations are touching Trump's inner circle," ABC News writes. Ex-National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, senior adviser Jared Kushner, and Trump's longtime friend Roger Stone are all expected to voluntarily face congressional investigators in the coming months.

While it wasn't immediately clear what specifically brought Schiller to the attention of investigators, the former New York police officer was entrusted by Trump to hand-deliver the letter firing former FBI Director James Comey to the FBI headquarters. Schiller also traveled with Kushner to Iraq in April alongside National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster.

"Keith Schiller is not just some bodyguard," said Trump's former political adviser, Michael Caputo. "Nobody knows the score among the advisers better than Keith Schiller." Jeva Lange

Shortly after President Trump viciously attacked Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski on Twitter on Thursday morning, Brzezinski tweeted out this picture of a Cheerios box:

No caption was necessary, as the "little hands" line on the Cheerios box was clearly directed at Trump, who has long defended the size of his hands. (Yes, really.) So sensitive is Trump about his hands that after a jab from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) about his "small hands," Trump took a moment at a Republican presidential debate to address the size of his hands and reassure everyone that "there's no problem" with the scale of those appendages, or any others.

Brzezinski's subtle quip about Trump's hands came after the deeply personal insults the president publicly leveled against the co-host earlier that morning on Twitter. Trump called Brzezinski "low I.Q. Crazy Mika" and her fiancé and co-host, Joe Scarborough, "Psycho Joe."

Trump claimed that Brezezinski and Scarborough had "insisted" on joining him at his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago for "three nights in a row around New Year's Eve." "She was bleeding badly from a face-lift," Trump tweeted about Brzezinski. "I said no!" Becca Stanek

President Trump on Thursday morning went on a bizarre Twitter rant about the co-hosts of MSNBC's Morning Joe. After noting he's "heard poorly rated" Morning Joe has been speaking "badly of me," Trump claimed that co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough not long ago tried to spend time with him at his Florida resort. He then leveled some viciously personal insults:

About half an hour earlier, White House Social Media Director Dan Scavino Jr. had also tweeted about the pair, calling Brzezinski "#DumbAsARockMika." Becca Stanek

U.S. military chiefs have prepared new options for how President Trump might respond to the North Korean threat, including "a military response," CNN reports. "What we have to do is prepare all options because the president has made clear to us that he will not accept a nuclear power in North Korea and a threat that can target the United States and target the American population," said National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster on Wednesday.

North Korea is "very much at the top of" Trump's mind, CIA Director Mike Pompeo said. Last week, Trump added that the North Korean regime "is causing tremendous problems and is something that has to be dealt with, and probably dealt with rapidly."

A primary concern is North Korea's increasing ability to hide missile and nuclear test preparations from the United States' satellites. Some experts, including U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, warn that North Korea's advances might be more rapid and sophisticated than previously predicted, and that the nation could even achieve the ability to deliver a nuclear weapon to the territorial U.S. before the estimated three-to-five-year timeframe.

"All options" are on the table in the case of another test, CNN reports. "Administration officials say war with North Korea in our lifetimes is not impossible," Axios writes. Jeva Lange

Last week, through a series of decrees, Saudi King Salman promoted his favorite son, Mohammed bin Salman, to crown prince, demoting his nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, 57, who had been interior minister and counterterrorism czar as well as crown prince, and removing him from the royal line of succession. Now, Nayef has been confined to his palace in Jidda, as a precautionary measure to protect Mohammed bin Salman, 31, from internal challenge, The New York Times reports, citing four current and former U.S. officials and Saudis close to the royal family.

A senior official at the Foreign Ministry told the Times that the accounts of Nayef being confined to his palace are "baseless and false," but the Times' sources say the restrictions are not only real, but also extend to other family members:

The restrictions have also been imposed on Mohammed bin Nayef's daughters, according to a former American official who maintains ties to Saudi royals. A married daughter was told that her husband and their child could leave their home while she had to stay, the former official said. One Saudi close to the royal family said the new restrictions had been imposed almost immediately after Mohammed bin Salman's promotion. After the announcement, Mohammed bin Nayef returned to his palace in Jidda to find that his trusted guards had been replaced by guards loyal to Mohammed bin Salman, according to the Saudi and a former American official. Since then, he has been prevented from leaving the palace. [The New York Times]

To demonstrate that the changing of the line of succession is going smoothly, Saudi state media has been replaying this video of Mohammed bin Salman kissing the ring of Nayef, who wishes him well:

The palace arrest suggests that not everyone in the royal family agrees with King Salman's changes, and that the new crown prince believes public appearances might foment unrest. "It's an indication that [Mohammed bin Salman] does not want any opposition," a senior U.S. official tells the Times. "He doesn't want any rear-guard action within the family. He wants a straight elevation without any dissent — not that [Mohammed bin Nayaf] was plotting anything anyway." Peter Weber

Iraq announced the collapse of the Islamic State within its borders on Thursday after Iraqi troops recaptured the grand mosque of Mosul, Reuters reports.

The 850-year-old Grand al-Nuri Mosque is the symbolic heart of ISIS's de facto capital, where leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi declared the caliphate three years ago to the day, on June 29, 2014. ISIS blew up the mosque last week as forces closed in following an eight-month U.S.-backed siege on Mosul.

Iraqi military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Rasool told state TV "[ISIS's] fictitious state has fallen" and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi "issued instructions to bring the battle to its conclusion." Baghdadi is thought to have fled Mosul and gone into hiding on the Syrian border, The Guardian reports. Jeva Lange

After months being blocked by the courts, and 72 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court partially lifted those judicial stays, what remains of President Trump's travel ban on refugees and visitors from six majority-Muslim countries will go into effect at 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, according to a State Department cable sent out Wednesday and subsequently obtained by The Associated Press. On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to review Trump's travel ban and the injunctions against it, ruling that in the meantime the ban could go into effect, but only for would-be visitors who don't have "bona fide relationships" within the U.S. The ruling affects new visas for people from Iran, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.

Wednesday's cable lays out what the Trump administration considers "bone fide" family and business relationships. For family, that means only "close" family — parents, spouses, children, siblings, or sons- or daughters-in-law already living in the U.S., but not grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, siblings-in-law, or cousins, AP says. Legitimate business relationships must be "formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course rather than for the purpose of evading" the ban, though journalists, students, workers, or lecturers with valid employment contracts or invitations are exempt.

People who already have valid visas won't be affected, and consular officials will have some discretion with certain other categories of applicants, such as adopted children, infants, and certain people with business in the United States. The rules will presumably stay in effect until the Supreme Court issues its decision, no earlier that this fall. Peter Weber