White House Chief of Staff John Kelly formally leaves his post this Wednesday, Jan. 2, and he discussed his time with President Trump in an exit interview with the Los Angeles Times published Sunday.

Kelly described an administration in chaos on his arrival to the White House last summer. For example, Trump wanted to withdraw the United States from the war in Afghanistan, Kelly said, which "was a huge decision to make ... and frankly there was no system at all for a lot of reasons — palace intrigue and the rest of it." Pushing back on perceptions that Trump's decision-making is emotional and divorced from fact, Kelly said he kept Trump "fully informed" of the consequences of his choices.

He also spoke at length about immigration policy, faulting former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for the administration's court-halted policy of separating migrant children from their families at the border. "What happened was Jeff Sessions, he was the one that instituted the zero-tolerance process on the border that resulted in both people being detained and the family separation," Kelly said. "He surprised us."

As for Trump's promise to wall off the southern border, Kelly quibbled about terminology — "To be honest, it's not a wall" — but insisted a physical barrier is the recommendation of "salt-of-the-earth, Joe-Six-Pack" border patrol agents.

Working as Trump's chief of staff has been a "bone-crushing hard job," Kelly mused, "but you do it." Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney will do it next as acting chief of staff.

Read the full interview at the Los Angeles Times here. Bonnie Kristian

Margaret Atwood and Bernardine Evaristo are the joint winners of the 2019 Booker Prize, it was announced Monday.

First awarded in 1969, the Booker Prize is one of the literary world's most distinguished honors. "We were told quite firmly that the rules state that you can only have one winner," Peter Florence, the chair of the judges, said. However, "the consensus was to flout the rules and divide this year's prize to celebrate two winners." After asking the prize's trustees three times if they could give the award to two winners, the trustees finally relented.

Atwood won for The Testaments, the sequel to 1985's The Handmaid's Tale; she also received the award in 2000 for The Blind Assassin. Evaristo won for Girl, Woman, Other, becoming the first black woman to win the Booker Prize. "I hope that honor doesn't last too long," she said. Atwood and Evaristo will split the $63,000 prize money. Catherine Garcia

We officially have our new Catwoman.

Zoe Kravitz is set to take on the role of Selina Kyle in The Batman, in which she'll star opposite Robert Pattinson as the caped crusader, The Hollywood Reporter writes. This decision was reportedly reached at the end of a "rigorous testing process," during which Ana de Armas, Ella Balinska, and Eiza Gonzalez were also considered for the part.

Director Matt Reeves confirmed the news on Twitter by way of an image of Kravitz from HBO's Big Little Lies.

Kravitz will be the latest actress to take on the iconic Batman character on film after Anne Hathaway, Halle Berry, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Lee Meriwether. Meriwether, Julie Newmar and Eartha Kitt also played Catwoman on the original Batman TV series, while recently, Camren Bicondova took on the role on Fox's Gotham.

In addition to Pattinson and Kravitz, The Batman is also reportedly eying Jonah Hill for a key villain role, potentially the Riddler. The film, which comes after Ben Affleck hung up his cape following three Batman appearances, hits theaters in 2021. Brendan Morrow

NBA players don't seem very happy with the league, commissioner Adam Silver, or Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey right now.

Silver held a meeting last week in Shanghai with players from the Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers, who were there for an exhibition game, ESPN reports. The players reportedly vented about being asked by local Chinese reporters to address the controversial situation that arose following a now-deleted tweet sent by Morey that offered support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy, anti-Beijing protests before Silver himself spoke on the matter. China, which is home to a massive NBA fan base, was angered by Morey's tweet, placing the NBA's relationship with the country in jeopardy.

It's become a pretty big deal stateside, as well, with numerous coaches and players getting thrown into hot water over their attempts to answer questions about the fiasco, which have frequently received criticism from across the political spectrum.

While the players seemed unhappy with Silver and the media, they also reportedly questioned whether Morey will be disciplined. It's unclear if the players think Morey — whom the NBA has sort of, but not really defended — should face consequences, but ESPN reports that they at least felt it was hypocritical of Silver to let him off the hook; several players reportedly said they believe they would have been disciplined if they were in Morey's shoes. Read more at ESPN. Tim O'Donnell

Mark Zuckerberg is firing up the grill for the GOP.

The Facebook founder and CEO has received a lot of flack, including from President Trump and GOP lawmakers, for apparently holding a bias against conservative viewpoints. So in what seems to be an attempt to patch things up, Zuckerberg has been inviting conservative commentators and even one lawmaker to "informal talks and small, off-the-record dinners" over the past few months to discuss "free speech" and "partnerships," Politico reports.

Previous reports have indicated that Zuckerberg has been meeting for years with conservatives to "build trust" — not that it has curbed allegations of bias. But Politico's report details just who those conservatives are and how they feel about the meetings. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Zuckerberg met up earlier this year after Graham suggested Facebook had become a monopoly, a spokesperson confirmed. Zuckerberg also reportedly met with Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who suggested Zuckerberg has led to "the death of free speech in America," and conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, who has called out purported "big tech bias."

Carlson and Hewitt declined to comment to Politico, but other conservatives who've talked to Zuckerberg seemed to be happy with the results. "I'm under no illusions that he's a conservative but I think he does care about some of our concerns," one person familiar with gatherings said. Another person said Zuckerberg is making a "genuine" effort to "make things right by conservatives."

Read more at Politico, and find Zuckerberg's response below. Kathryn Krawczyk

President Trump has gone full bipartisan.

Matching calls from both sides of the aisle, Trump announced Monday that he would soon authorize sanctions "against current and former officials" in Turkey and "any persons contributing to Turkey's destabilizing actions in northeast Syria," as well as other tariffs against the country. The move comes after the U.S. withdrew troops from the Kurdish-held area and Turkey quickly invaded.

Trump's promised executive order includes an increase on steel tariffs back to 50 percent, "the level prior to reduction in May," a Monday statement from Trump read. The U.S. Commerce Department will "also immediately stop negotiations" with Turkey regarding a $100 billion trade deal. All of this will let the U.S. punish "those who may be involved in serious human rights abuses, obstructing a ceasefire," and other "threatening the peace, security, or stability in Syria," per the statement.

Talk of Turkey sanctions began last week when Trump unexpectedly announced he'd remove U.S. troops from the Kurdish-held area of Syria and essentially okay Turkey's imminent invasion of the area. Shortly after, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) agreed they'd introduce sanctions on Turkey if the country attacked the Kurds, which it promptly did. Kathryn Krawczyk

A day after former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, announced he was resigning from a Chinese private equity firm and that he would no longer sit on the board or work for any foreign company, the elder Biden unveiled a sweeping ethics agenda as part of his presidential campaign.

The plan did not mention his son, whose foreign business dealings have raised some eyebrows and, well, conspiracy theories, despite no evidence of any actual wrongdoing. Instead, Biden went after President Trump and his administration, which he dubbed the "most corrupt" in modern history. Like other Democratic candidates who have released ethics plans, Biden addressed issues such as campaign finance, tax returns, and lobbying.

Additionally, one of the points in the agenda seeks to prevent the president from "improperly interfering in federal investigations and prosecutions." If Biden is elected to office, that is, he will work to ensure that he and any succeeding presidents don't have too much say about "who or what to investigate or prosecute." While this addresses federal investigations, rather than foreign ones, it's worth noting that Biden and his son were the subject of unsubstantiated allegations of corruption in Ukraine by members of the Trump administration, which in turn led to Trump asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate them.

Biden also plans to eliminate a loophole in existing financial disclosure law that allows candidates and public officials to transfer personal assets into trusts controlled by family members and close friends, assuring voters that "any member of his administration who is a beneficiary of a discretionary trust" will "disclose all of its holdings." Read the full plan here. Tim O'Donnell