US Politics

Donald Trump is “the single most dangerous threat” the US faces as he seeks a return to the Oval Office, according to Liz Cheney, the moderate Republican whose opposition to her party leader’s presidency had cost her a congressional seat she held for six years.“He cannot be the next president because if he is, all of the things that he attempted to do but was stopped from doing by responsible people … he will do,” Cheney – the daughter of former congressman, defense secretary and vice-president Dick Cheney – said on CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday. “There will be no guardrails. And everyone has been left warned.”Cheney’s fiery remarks come as the former president fights more than 90 criminal charges for subversion of the 2020 election that he lost to Joe Biden, retention of government secrets after his presidency, and hush-money payments to the porn actor Stormy Daniels. He is also grappling with civil lawsuits over his business affairs and a rape allegation deemed “substantially true” by a judge.Though his popularity with the general public is low, he maintains substantial polling leads in the race to clinch the Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential election.If Cheney’s remarks on Sunday are any indication, it is an advantage she can hardly fathom after serving as the vice-chair of the US House committee which investigated the deadly Capitol attack staged by his supporters on 6 January 2021. Cheney and her colleagues recommended that the justice department file criminal charges against Trump in connection with the Capitol uprising before the four indictments obtained against him since March.“After January 6 … there can be no question that he will unravel the institutions of our democracy,” Cheney said, alluding to Trump supporters’ desperate but unsuccessful attack to prevent the certification of Biden’s victory over Trump in the 2020 race. “So we are facing a moment in American politics where we have to set aside partisanship, and we have to make sure that people who believe in the constitution are willing to come together to prevent him from ever again setting foot anywhere near the Oval Office.”The House Capitol attack committee’s recommendation was one of Cheney’s last congressional acts before she left office in January. She lost her bid to be re-elected to a Wyoming’s sole House seat she had held since 2017 after Trump successfully supported Harriet Hageman’s run against her in a Republican primary.Hageman subsequently won a runoff election and succeeded Cheney as their district’s House representative.Additionally, Cheney on Sunday suggested to both State of the Union and CBS’s Face the Nation that she was mulling joining the crowded field of presidential hopefuls signing up to challenge Biden in 2024.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionShe also remarked to Face the Nation that it should not be shocking for anyone to see Republicans struggle to appoint a replacement for Kevin McCarthy after far-right members of his party engineered his unprecedented removal as House speaker on 3 October.After all, McCarthy and the first two House Republicans who unsuccessfully launched bids to succeed him – Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan – all objected to certifying Trump’s 2020 defeat.“So it’s not a surprise that we are where we are,” Cheney said. “But it’s a disgrace, and it’s an embarrassment.” More

After more than two weeks of failing to choose a speaker, Republicans in the US House plan to reconvene on Monday to begin the process of nominating a third candidate to try to get the 217 votes needed to secure the speakership.So far, Steve Scalise, the No 2 Republican in the House, and Jim Jordan, the far-right congressman, have both failed in their bids.Here’s a look at the nine candidates who signed up to run ahead of a noon deadline Sunday.Tom EmmerEmmer was first elected to the House in 2014 and forms part of the chamber’s leadership. He is the majority whip and responsible for counting and marshaling votes on key issues. He narrowly won that job in 2022 in a closely contested race. Kevin McCarthy, who was removed as speaker on 3 October, has endorsed Emmer’s bid for the post.He previously served as the chairman of the House Republicans’ campaign arm – the National Republican Congressional Committee – in 2020 and 2022. He helped Republicans win back control of the House in 2022 but won fewer seats than was expected.Emmer also reportedly advised candidates on the campaign trail that year to avoid talking about Trump, according to CNN. Emmer has denied he offered such advice.Donald Trump and his allies are already reportedly marshaling support against Emmer, whom the ex-president has said has not defended him strongly enough. Unlike Scalise and Jordan, Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election, though he signed an amicus brief urging the supreme court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states. He was also one of 39 Republicans who voted to codify federal protections for same-sex marriage.Emmer previously served in the Minnesota legislature for six years and lost the 2010 governor’s race by a razor-thin 9,000 votes.Mike JohnsonThe Louisiana congressman was elected in 2016 and has twice been chosen by his colleagues to serve as vice-chairman of the Republican conference, a leadership position.Johnson helped organize efforts to object to the 2020 election results, getting his House colleagues to sign on to an amicus brief at the supreme court urging the justices to throw out electoral votes from key swing states. The New York Times described him as “the most important architect” of the legal strategy to get members of Congress to object to the electoral college vote. Specifically, Johnson pushed the idea that changes to election rules during the pandemic gave Congress the right to second-guess the election results, the Times reported.A former lawyer for the powerful and anti-LGBTQ+ group Alliance Defending Freedom, Johnson is a close ally of Jordan.Kevin HernHern, an Oklahoma congressman, is the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a powerful caucus including most GOP members in the House which helps devise conservative policies. Well-known Republicans, including former vice-president Mike Pence, Scalise and Jordan have led the group.He had no political experience before getting elected to Congress in 2018. Previously, he was an aerospace engineer and owned several McDonald’s franchises in Oklahoma. He voted against certifying the 2020 election and signed on to a supreme court brief urging the justices to throw out votes from key swing states.Byron DonaldsA second-term congressman from Florida, Donalds earned 20 votes for speaker across a few of the 15 rounds of voting earlier this year that ultimately resulted in McCarthy winning the speakership.In September, Donalds drew scrutiny when he displayed a purported screenshot at a hearing as part of Republican efforts to impeach Joe Biden that was lacking important context. The image Donalds displayed appeared to be a screenshot of a text message exchange between Hunter and the president’s brother, James Biden. But the content had been edited to omit key passages.He previously served in Florida’s legislature and has picked up support in his speakership bid from other members of the state’s delegation. If chosen by his colleagues, he would be the House’s first ever Black speaker.Austin ScottScott represents Georgia’s eighth congressional district, which stretches from the Florida border to the center of the state. He was first elected in 2010.Scott launched a last-minute bid to challenge Jordan for the House speakership earlier this month but lost. “I care more about the conference and that it’s doing our job than I care about who the speaker is. I truly do,” he said when he launched his previous effort. “If we as Republicans are gonna be the majority, we have to do the right things the right way. And we’re not doing that right now,” he said.Scott signed an amicus brief urging the US supreme court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states but ultimately voted to certify the 2020 election.Jack BergmanBergman, who represents Michigan’s first congressional district, has said he would only serve as speaker until the end of the current congress. “I have no special interests to serve; I’m only in this to do what’s best for our nation and to steady the ship for the 118th Congress,” he said in a statement announcing his candidacy. He voted against certifying the last election and signed on to an amicus brief urging the US supreme court to throw out valid electoral votes.Pete SessionsSessions, a Texas congressman, is the longest-tenured member in the speaker’s race. He served in Congress from 1997 until 2019 and then returned in 2021. He has been the chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee and the powerful House rules committee.Gary PalmerPalmer has represented Alabama’s 6th congressional district since 2015 and joined the race for speaker shortly before Sunday’s deadline. He is the chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, a House leadership position. He was the founding member of the board of directors of the State Policy Network, a group of rightwing thinktanks backed by the Koch brothers and other influential conservatives.He voted to overturn the 2020 election and signed on to an amicus brief asking the supreme court to throw out electoral votes from key swing states.Dan MeuserMeuser is a third-term congressman from Pennsylvania who previously backed Jordan but said he would enter the race if Jordan couldn’t muster enough votes. “I’m considering it because I’m not gonna let this kindergarten continue. I’ll do it,” he told the National Review Online last week after Jordan’s first failed vote.He voted against certifying the 2020 election and signed on to an amicus brief urging the supreme court to throw out valid electoral votes. More

Mitch McConnell offered a strong endorsement on Sunday of the Joe Biden White House’s $106bn aid proposal to Israel and Ukraine, saying he and the president were essentially “in the same place” on the issue.McConnell, the powerful Republican leader in the Senate, also rebuffed some of his GOP colleagues in the Senate who have called for a package separating assistance for the two countries, saying it would be “a mistake” during an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation.The Republican leader offered significant backing to the White House’s $106bn request, including $14bn in assistance to Israel, $60bn in aid to Ukraine and another $14bn to improve security on the US Mexico border. An additional $10bn would be allocated to humanitarian relief as well as an additional $7bn to the Indio-Pacific region.Nine Republican senators wrote a letter to McConnell on Thursday saying that Ukraine and Israel aid should not be paired together. “These are two separate conflicts and it would be wrong to leverage support of aid to Israel in an attempt to get additional aid for Ukraine across the finish line,” the group wrote.McConnell rejected that view on Sunday.“I view it as all interconnected,” he said during the interview. “If you look at the Ukraine assistance, let’s – let’s talk about where the money is really going. A significant portion of it’s being spent in the United States in 38 different states, replacing the weapons that we sent to Ukraine with more modern weapons. So we’re rebuilding our industrial base,” he said.He added: “No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We’re rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that they’re defending themselves.”During a speech to the nation on Thursday, Biden also made his case for why the two issues were connected. The president said Hamas and the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, “represent different threats, but they share this in common: they both want to completely annihilate a neighboring democracy – completely annihilate it.“If we walk away and let Putin erase Ukraine’s independence, would-be aggressors around the world would be emboldened to try the same. The risk of conflict and chaos could spread in other parts of the world – in the Indo-Pacific, in the Middle East, especially in the Middle East.”The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, also said on Sunday that Israel had restored some water and power access to Gaza.“Israel turned on one of the pipelines six or seven days ago – there are a couple of other pipelines that we’d like to see restored,” the US’s top diplomat said during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.Blinken also noted that 20 trucks that were recently allowed in to Gaza provided clean water, saying: “We’re getting more that we hope will be moving as early as today.“We do have concerns about the spread of disease as a result of people drinking dirty water,” he said. “This is a work in progress. It’s something we’re at all the time.”Blinken also said Israel had no intention of governing Gaza long term after the war.“Israel cannot go back to the status quo,” he told NBC. “At the same time, what I’ve heard from the Israelis is absolutely no intent – no desire to be running Gaza themselves. They moved out of Gaza unilaterally, unconditionally a couple of decades ago. But they can’t be in a position where they’re constantly under threat of the most horrific terrorist attacks coming from Gaza. So, something needs to be found that ensures that Hamas cannot do this again, but that also does not revert to Israeli governance of Gaza, which they do not want and do not intend to do.”While McConnell backed Biden’s aid plan, he did not offer support for Jack Lew, whose nomination to be ambassador to Israel has been held up by Republicans. McConnell said: “He is a very controversial nominee because of his relationship with the Iran nuclear deal, which was opposed by everybody in my party.”The 81-year-old senator also dismissed a question from CBS’s Margaret Brennan about whether there was more that should be disclosed about his health after multiple cases in which he froze up while speaking in public. “I’m in good shape, completely recovered and back on the job,” he said. He also said he was “concerned” about increasing threats of violence members of Congress have received.Additionally, McConnell said the US House needed to fill its vacant speakership before 17 November, when funding for the government is set to expire. “We need one because the House can’t do anything without a speaker,” he said. “And it’s a – it’s a problem, but I hope it’s gonna get solved pretty quickly.”Both Blinken and the defense secretary, Lloyd Austin, on Sunday said the US expected the Israel-Hamas war to escalate through involvement by proxies of Iran. They asserted that the Biden administration was prepared to respond if American personnel or armed forces become the target of any such hostilities.“This is not what we want, not what we’re looking for. We don’t want escalation,” Blinken said. “We don’t want to see our forces or our personnel come under fire. But if that happens, we’re ready for it.”The Associated Press contributed reporting More

As Donald Trump faces criminal charges in multiple cases across the country, several states are still investigating a scheme created by Trump allies and boosted by Trump himself to cast fake electoral votes for the Republican candidate for the 2020 election.As part of the US electoral college system, states cast a set number of votes for the candidate who wins the popular vote in their state, the winner of which then takes the presidency. Seven states that the former president lost saw slates of fake GOP electors falsely claim Trump had won their electoral votes. These fake electors included high-profile Republicans, such as sitting officeholders and state party leaders.Two prosecutors, in Michigan and Georgia, have already filed charges against fake electors. Others have confirmed investigations but provided few details. One state prosecutor said local laws did not address this kind of crime, which is unprecedented.Kenneth Chesebro, a Trump campaign legal adviser and the supposed mastermind of the fake electors scheme, pleaded guilty in Georgia over his role in subverting the election. Chesebro allegedly created the plan in a secret memo based on Wisconsin’s electoral vote.At the federal level, the special counsel Jack Smith and his team brought charges against Trump and his allies over their attempts to overturn the 2020 election results, which include the fake elector scheme. Several states have confirmed they are cooperating with Smith’s investigation, and news reports have indicated Smith offered limited immunity to some fake electors for their testimony.Since the scheme had no precedent, some states and experts have struggled to figure out which laws may have been broken, and whether the charges should be state or federal. In some states, the fake electors also face civil lawsuits. Here’s where they stand.ArizonaThe former Arizona attorney general Mark Brnovich, a Republican, never publicly confirmed any investigation into the state’s fake electors, which included high-profile far-right figures such as the state senator Jake Hoffman and the former Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward. The state actually saw two separate sets of fake electors.His successor, the Democrat Kris Mayes, told the Guardian earlier this year that her office is investigating the fake electors, but has not provided any details of the investigation so far. On a recent Arizona Republic podcast episode, Mayes said she could not say much about the contours of the investigation, but that her office was taking it “very seriously” and that it was a “very important investigation”.While the cases in Michigan and Georgia are much further along, she noted that their prosecutors have been in place much longer than she has. Mayes took office in January 2023.GeorgiaThree fake electors in Georgia were charged as part of a broader case against Trump and his allies over election subversion attempts.The Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, brought charges against the former Georgia Republican party chairman David Shafer, the state senator Shawn Still and the activist Cathy Latham, three of the 16 fake electors from that state. They face various charges, including forgery, impersonating a public officer and attempting to file false documents.Several of the others who signed on as false electors for Trump struck immunity deals or plea agreements with prosecutors.The three fake electors charged have pleaded not guilty. Their attorneys argued in September that they were not fake electors, but instead “contingent” electors who could be used should the courts overturn Biden’s win, the Associated Press reported. The three are trying to get their case moved from state court in Georgia to a federal court, arguing they were acting as federal officers who were keeping an avenue open for Trump depending on what happened in the courts.Sidney Powell, who was charged in the broader case, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution. The unexpected move netted Powell six years of probation and some fines and marks a major shift in the Georgia case for Trump and his allies. Chesebro, on the day jury selection for his trial was set to begin, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents and probably will serve five years’ probation.MichiganThe Democratic attorney general Dana Nessel charged 16 Michiganders who participated as fake electors with eight felonies each, including multiple forgery charges, for their roles in the scheme. Those charged include party activists, candidates for office and state and local party officials.Attempts by two defendants to get the charges dismissed because of Nessel’s comments about how the electors were “brainwashed” were unsuccessful. The 16 people charged pleaded not guilty, and probable cause hearings are set for this month.This week, one of Michigan’s fake electors saw his charges dropped as part of a deal with the state’s attorney general. James Renner, a Republican who falsely signed that Trump had won, agreed to “full cooperation, truthful testimony and production of any and all relevant documents” in exchange for the dropped charges, filings from the attorney general’s office, obtained by NBC News, show. This includes information about how he was asked to become part of the fake slate and the circumstances of meetings among those involved in the scheme.NevadaNevada’s top prosecutor has said his office would not bring charges against the six people who signed on as fake electors there in 2020. The state’s Democratic attorney general, Aaron Ford, said current state laws did not address this kind of situation, “to the dismay of some, and I’m sure, to the delight of others”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe Democratic state senator Skip Daly attempted to solve that problem, and the state legislature passed a bill that would have made it a felony for people to serve as false electors, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Ford had endorsed the bill.But the Republican governor, Joe Lombardo, vetoed the bill, saying the penalties were too harsh, though he said he believed those who undermine elections should face “strict punishments”.New MexicoThe former New Mexico attorney general Hector Balderas started an investigation into the five Republicans who signed as false electors there, then referred the matter to federal prosecutors, according to Source New Mexico.The office of the current attorney general, Raúl Torrez, confirmed there was an active state investigation into the fake electors to see if they violated state law, but details about the case have been scant. Torrez’s office said it would work with Jack Smith to get any evidence related to a state inquiry, according to KOAT Action News.Like Pennsylvania, the fake electors in New Mexico included a caveat in their documents that could help them, should charges be filed. They wrote that they signed the documents “on the understanding that it might be later determined that we are the duly elected and qualified electors”.PennsylvaniaThe 20 fake electors in Pennsylvania are unlikely to face any criminal charges because of how they worded the documents they signed. The documents say the false electoral votes would only be considered valid if the courts deemed the slate to be the “duly elected and qualified electors” for Pennsylvania.Governor Josh Shapiro, then the state’s Democratic attorney general, said the hedged language would spare the false electors from a criminal investigation by his office. His successor as attorney general, Michelle Henry, told Votebeat that the office’s position remained that charges were not warranted.“Though their rhetoric and policy were intentionally misleading and purposefully damaging to our democracy, based on our initial review, our office does not believe this meets the legal standards for forgery,” Shapiro said in 2022.WisconsinThe Democratic attorney general, Josh Kaul, has not said whether his office is investigating the state’s 10 fake electors for potential state law violations, though a civil lawsuit against the alternate slate is moving forward. Kaul has said he supports the federal investigation and that he expects to see “further developments” in that case.Governor Tony Evers, a Democrat, said in August he wanted to see the Wisconsin fake electors “held accountable” via prosecution.“What those ten fake electors did was wrong,” Evers wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “People have to be held accountable for that, and I hope to hell somebody does.”Federal prosecutors, in the Trump indictment, said the fake electors scheme started in Wisconsin with the attorney Kenneth Chesebro, who suggested electors meet there to sign on to a slate in case Trump’s team won in the courts. More

When Louisiana’s attorney general, Jeff Landry, won the open gubernatorial primary on 14 October, it not only ended eight years of relatively productive bipartisan control of the state’s government: it marked a hard-right shift in Louisiana’s politics that could set back environmental policy and human and civil rights for decades to come.Landry’s outright victory in the jungle primary – a system unique to Louisiana, in which all voters, regardless of party, vote on all candidates at the local, state and federal levels – shocked voters and pundits in the state alike. Landry was long favored to triumph, but it was expected he would be forced into a runoff. Ultimately, the state’s Democratic party offered no meaningful resistance to Landry’s campaign, and he cruised to a win, capturing more than 50% of the votes cast in a low-turnout race.The morning after the election, Robert Mann, a political science professor at Louisiana State University and a frequent critic of Landry, announced he would be leaving his position. He said he had no confidence the school’s administration would protect him from the changing political headwinds.To outsiders, Mann’s reaction may seem dramatic. Louisianans understood fully: in 2021, Landry used his office to try to pressure LSU into dismissing the professor over his argument that the university needed to require students to test regularly for Covid-19.The incident wasn’t isolated. In February 2021, Landry filed a lawsuit against the Times-Picayune reporter Andrea Gallo over her investigation into sexual misconduct charges against one of his closest aides. Landry ultimately lost his meritless case.As Gallo noted, winning wasn’t necessarily the point.“I think that it sends a very clear message to reporters, and to the public of Louisiana, that if you request documents from the attorney general’s office you better watch out, because you might be subjected to a lawsuit,” Gallo told the US Press Freedom Tracker, a website that documents attacks on media in the United States.In 2022, Landry had a simple message for women in Louisiana who opposed the abortion ban that took effect when the US supreme court eliminated the rights Roe v Wade had once established.“If you don’t like the laws in the state, you can move,” Landry said.Of course, most people in Louisiana – where the median income is just over $27,000 a year – can’t just pick up and leave. Which means they’re all but stuck with Landry as governor for at least four years come January.In his election’s immediate aftermath, Landry moved to shore up his control of an already conservative legislature. Within three days, the state senator Cameron Henry, a hardline conservative and Landry ally, had cleared the field to become his chamber’s next president.While Republicans have controlled both chambers throughout the eight years the outgoing Democratic governor, John Bel Edwards, has spent in office, the senate’s leadership in particular has been generally less hardline than either rank-and-file members or Landry.Critically, they have worked with both Edwards and Democratic lawmakers on a host of issues.Landry, of course, is having none of that. As the Times-Picayune also noted when writing about Henry’s ascension, Landry has made it clear in private conversations he wants people loyal to him in key leadership roles.That means he is unlikely to face resistance to many of his policies. For women, Black people, the LGBTQ+ community and others in the hard right’s crosshairs, that’s an ominous possibility.Landry opposes any form of minimum wage and is generally hostile to so-called “welfare net” programs designed to help lower-income and working-class people. He backed a plan to make public juvenile court records public – but only in the state’s predominantly Black parishes.Although that bill died in the senate, it faces a significantly brighter future next year with Landry in the governor’s office.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionIndeed, Edwards and his veto pen were able to either stall or beat back entirely a host of measures that could re-materialize.Those include a “don’t say gay” bill banning classroom discussions of sexual orientation or gender identity, anti-drag measures, additional restrictions on access to healthcare for trans people, further criminalization of abortion and contraceptives, and deeper erosion of the state’s barely existent gun control measures.Even the state house member Ray Garofalo’s widely ridiculed bill requiring schools to teach the nonexistent “good” side of slavery could be resurrected.Environmental protections will also be on the chopping block. Landry memorably heckled Barack Obama during the former president’s 2011 State of the Union address, holding up a sign that said “drilling = jobs”. With the petroleum industry still one of Louisiana’s single most powerful forces, areas like Cancer Alley – a stretch along the Mississippi River overrun by refineries and pollution – will probably be especially hard-hit as Republicans roll back the state’s modest pollution controls.“On social welfare issues, we’ll be Florida on steroids,” said JP Morrell, the New Orleans city council president and a former state legislator. Though a Democrat, Morrell’s stint as a state lawmaker saw him successfully move some legislation – and blunt some of his conservative counterparts’ worst bills – in part because he was able to establish working relationships with key Republicans.Morrell contends that will be an even more important skill for Democrats now that Landry is governor and Republicans have a stranglehold on both chambers.But with a supermajority in hand, Republicans won’t necessarily need Democrats. For instance, one area Democrats and Republicans have worked together on during Edwards’s governorship has been the annual spending bills. Edwards’ Republican predecessor, Bobby Jindal, left the state government’s books in shambles thanks to his relentless effort to slash spending on education and social services.Edwards, by contrast, will leave office with a $330m surplus.While memories of Jindal’s disastrous tenure are still fresh in Louisiana’s collective conscience, Landry and most Republican state legislators are budget hawks. In fact, Republicans are already discussing significant changes to the tax code that would reduce what wealthy people and corporations pay – even as they are contemplating a new round of cuts to education and other safety net programs.“It will be like the Jindal years, but worse” if Republicans decide to go that route, Morrell said.That means Democrats, who represent large urban areas like New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport, will be spending whatever political capital they have accumulated simply protecting their communities.Invoking his city’s status as the most culturally relevant on the global stage, Morrell said: “For better or for worse, you have to protect New Orleans from the worst of it. You’re not going to save the rest of the state.” More

Arnold Schwarzenegger wants you to know that you’re a lazy piece of shit. But he’s going to tell you politely; with care and a few encouraging suggestions. He’s going to be good-natured and nonjudgmental about it. Or a bit judgmental about it. But only because he doesn’t want you to be a lazy piece of shit any more. Instead, he wants you to be useful.If that titular phrase sounds like something a parent tells their kid when said kid is hovering about after school, that’s because it’s exactly what Schwarzenegger’s disciplinarian policeman father used to tell him (and, indeed, Arnie went on to sponsor a nationwide after-school programme). Schwarzenegger, 76, is now in the “fourth act” of his life. He’s been the world’s most famous bodybuilder, a Hollywood movie star, a surprise (mostly hit) governor of California and now an author and quasi-motivational speaker – the catalyst for which was the viral videos he posted during the US pandemic lockdown.I remember, in April 2020, watching Schwarzenegger on Twitter with his pet donkey Lulu and miniature horse Whiskey. The animals were “demonstrating” social distancing guidance, while their owner radiated warmth in a terrifying time. Then came a different register: his stirring, home-filmed speech after January 6 in which he compared the storming of the Capitol to Kristallnacht and pleaded for the protection of US democracy. Maybe we had underestimated him. Zeitgeist-capturing animal lover; rhetorician for the ages. Who knew?Arnie knew. Because people – “naysayers” – have underestimated him his whole life and he doesn’t want you to doubt yourself for a second. Be Useful is a hybrid work. Part Jordan Peterson’s bro life-hack manual slash pop philosophy (the book’s subtitle, Seven Tools for Life, is very similar to Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life); part Instagram motivational quotes slash Arianna Huffington’s obsession with “thriving”, it is threaded through with relevant memoir.Self-help can be a dubious scene to be a part of. Not financially – the industry is booming to the point where life coaches will charge money for others to take their life-coaching courses in what is, as far as I can tell, a Ponzi scheme for dream-journaling. But there’s the toxic masculinity of an Andrew Tate (and, to a lesser extent, Peterson) or the woo-woo of the wellness crew. Much of it is uncomfortably gendered, with polar extremities of dangerous and twee.But Schwarzenegger, far from the cyborg killing machine of his catchphrase film role, is an amiable instructor. A lot of the basic stuff here works. His idea to beget ideas is walking, which, as he points out, is not an original one (he must have thought of it while standing still); he’s just seconding Nietzsche and Aristotle. He recommends incremental changes at first, which is what most primary care doctors might suggest. Lots of advice is similar to that found in 1980s and 90s classics of the genre that either attempted to compensate for the booming rat-race class or else leaned into it. He talks about surrounding yourself with supportive people. All this is good, sound practice. There are the usual Nelson Mandela and Dalai Lama citations. There is, mercilessly, nothing wacky.And there’s plenty of humour to offset the more Sandhursty bits. When he talks about “putting the work in” during drama training, he jokes that he wants his money back for the accent-removal classes. He chops off the bottom half of every pair of his joggers so he can work on his calves more easily. He’s also extremely smart (it still bums him out that bodybuilders are dismissed as airheads) and obsessed with knowledge. One section is called Be a Sponge. His approach is the opposite of Goveism; Schwarzenegger can’t get enough of experts. Whether it’s being taught how to bricklay to make ends meet, or being schooled on the history of gerrymandering as a rookie politician, Schwarzenegger wants your help. And, in turn, he’ll pay it forward. Sometimes literally, as when donating $1m to Covid relief efforts or in time and mentorship, when teaching kids with learning disabilities to bench-press. He hates the phrase “self-made” because, while he recognises it’s meant as a compliment, he believes the opposite – namely, it takes a village (specifically, in his case, Thal in Austria, and then a man called Fredi Gerstl).There’s always a concern with books such as these: will they acknowledge the discriminatory nature of social hierarchical structures and institutions, economic circumstances, health issues and various other impediments to fulfilling potential? Schwarzenegger nods towards them, but more so takes the line that if he, a kid who grew up in a house with no running water, can make it, then anyone can. People will have their views on that, although he’s transparent that one person’s version of fulfilment (pushing through groundbreaking environmental legislation) might differ from another’s (wholesome family; a good job that pays the bills). He loves pain, because “pain is the measure of growth potential”. I sort of love pain in the service of growth – which is why I’m happy to swim in 4C open water – but most of us would be a bit pissed off if, say, a lackadaisical surgeon butchered our aorta during what was supposed to be a routine procedure. Arnie just sets about counting how many laps he can do to the bathroom while stuck in hospital.The triumph of this book is that it’s quite rare in the self-help canon – or what publishers now term personal development – to not make a cynic such as myself roll their eyes, and this one doesn’t. It’s a shame that whoever was responsible for the jacket blurbs takes a shoving-a-finger-in-your chest approach that isn’t replicated by the variable tone inside, which is sometimes dogmatic but often reflects the genuine kindness and enthusiasm of its author. Be Useful, it turns out, is very helpful. More

New York City police arrested more than 130 anti-war protesters after hundreds of people blocked traffic on Fifth Avenue on Friday night.A crowd of about 1,000 demonstrators called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas conflict and marched in the rain from Bryant Park to the Midtown Manhattan office of the New York US senator Kirsten Gillibrand.“Senator Gillibrand, we will not stop until you call for a ceasefire,” a crowd, led by the New York state assemblymember Zohran Kwame Mamdani, chanted in front of her office.The demonstration was co-organized by the Democratic Socialists of America and other activist groups. Throughout the night, protesters called for a ceasefire and denounced the murder of Israelis and Palestinians.“Unfortunately, our political leaders seem to keep failing to learn that lesson again and again that war is not the answer,” Jeremy Cohan, a co-chair of the New York City Democratic Socialists of America, told local news station WABC.About 8pm local time, a crowd of police officers gathered around the rows of demonstrators blocking traffic and began making arrests. Protesters on the sidewalks shouted “shame on you!” at the officers. Those arrested were handcuffed, transported on white buses and issued summonses to appear in court.In a statement, the New York police department (NYPD) said a total of 137 people were taken into custody by officers on the scene.The arrests are the latest this week after mass protests against the Israel-Hamas war. On Wednesday, more than 300 demonstrators at the US Capitol were arrested by police after gathering inside the building. Participants in an earlier demonstration at the White House also were arrested.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionMeeting with the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, Joe Biden vowed to provide Israel with security needs, at the same time appealing to Netanyahu that Israel not be “consumed” by its rage against Hamas. On Friday, the president submitted a $106bn request for Congress for military and humanitarian aid for Israel and Ukraine, along with humanitarian assistance for Gaza.Congress will not be able to approve the aid request until a new speaker for the US House is chosen. Selecting a speaker is a conflict among House Republicans that has been ongoing for weeks. More

The first Palestinian American to serve as a US Congress member said he was grieving after several of his relatives were killed at a Greek Orthodox church in Gaza that authorities report was hit by an Israeli airstrike.Justin Amash detailed his sorrow over losing family members amid the Israel-Hamas war in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.“I was really worried about this. With great sadness, I have now confirmed that several of my relatives … were killed at Saint Porphyrius Orthodox Church in Gaza, where they had been sheltering, when part of the complex was destroyed as the result of an Israeli airstrike,” Amash wrote in a post that pictured whom he identified as two lost family members, Viola and Yara.The ex-congressman’s post continued: “Give rest, O Lord, to their souls, and may their memories be eternal. The Palestinian Christian community has endured so much. Our family is hurting badly. May God watch over all Christians in Gaza – and all Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering, whatever their religion or creed.”Born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Amash has previously said his father was a Palestinian Christian who lived in Ramla until his family was forced out during the Arab-Israeli war in 1948.The 43-year-old Amash served as a US House representative for Michigan from 2011 to 2021. He was elected as a Republican but declared himself an independent in 2019 after supporting the first impeachment of the party’s leader, then president Donald Trump.Amash was the first and only Palestinian American in Congress until Rashida Tlaib joined the US House in 2019. Tlaib, a fellow Michigander and progressive Democrat, became the first Palestinian American woman elected to Congress.On Thursday evening, hundreds of Christians and Muslims were sheltering inside Saint Porphyrius in Gaza City when a missile took down part of the church, killing at least 16 people. The bodies of those killed – including four small children – were wrapped in white sheets and laid out in the church courtyard Friday for a mass funeral.The church authority that runs Saint Porphyrius, the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, said many of those inside at the time of the missile strike were women and children. The patriarchate also accused Israel of targeting churches, which it condemned.Israel’s military said in response it had damaged “a wall of a church” while hitting a Hamas “command and control center” nearby, but it denied deliberately targeting Saint Porphyrius.Saint Porphyrius is less than 300 meters (nearly 1,000ft) from the al-Ahli hospital compound where an explosion on Tuesday killed and injured hundreds of people who had fled there to escape Israeli airstrikes.Israel has blamed the hospital explosion on a failed Palestinian rocket, an assessment that has received US and French backing. Hamas blamed an Israeli missile.The US estimated between 100 and 300 people died in the hospital courtyard. Hamas-controlled local authorities have said the death toll was nearly 500.Amash’s lamentation over his late relatives was one of two statements he made on Friday about the war that Israel launched in retaliation for the 7 October attack by Hamas, in which 1,400 were killed as they overran military posts, murdered civilians in their homes and took nearly 200 hostages.He also commented on Hamas’s release on Friday of two American hostages.“This is fantastic news,” he wrote. But Amash also said Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad “need to unconditionally release all hostages of every nationality”. More