US has 'no plans' to recognise Palestinian state, Vance says before talks with UK foreign secretary
London, Aug 8 (AP): US Vice President JD Vance met with UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy on Friday at a stately home south of London, with the two leaders saying the agenda includes global economics and the Israel-Hamas war and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Taking questions from reporters before their talks, Vance addressed the UK decision to recognise a Palestinian state in September unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza, saying he wasn't sure what such recognition would even mean, “given the lack of a functional government there.”
Asked whether Trump had been given a heads up on Israel's announced intent to occupy Gaza City, Vance said he wouldn't go into such conversations.
“If it was easy to bring peace to that region of the world, it would have been done already,” he said.
The meeting comes amid debates between Washington and London about the best way to end the wars between Russia and Ukraine, as well as Israel and Hamas. It's also taking place as the United Kingdom tries to come to favourable terms for steel and aluminum exports to the US, and the two sides work out details of a broader trade deal announced at the end of June.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that he hoped to meet with US President Donald Trump next week, comments that came a day before Trump's deadline for Moscow to show progress in ending the nearly 3½-year war in Ukraine.
While Trump has focused on bilateral talks with Putin, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and other European leaders have stressed that Ukraine must be part of any negotiations on ending the war.
The US and Britain, which have historically close ties known as “the special relationship”, have also disagreed on their approach to ending the war in Gaza.
The meeting took place at Chevening, an almost 400-year-old mansion surrounded by 3,000 acres of gardens that serves as the foreign secretary's official country residence.
About two dozen protesters were spotted on the road before the turnoff to the stately home. A few were wearing keffiyeh scarves and another held up a round sign that had a meme making fun of Vance printed on it.
Vance and Lammy, who come from opposite ends of the political spectrum but have made a personal connection through their hardscrabble childhoods and Christian faith,
While Lammy is a member of the left-leaning Labour Party and Vance is a conservative Republican who supports Trump's “America First” agenda, the two men have bonded in recent months.
Lammy told the Guardian newspaper that the two men can relate over their “dysfunctional” working class childhoods and that he considers Vance a “friend”.
Lammy attended a Catholic Mass at the Vance home in Washington earlier this year, and the two men met again at the US Embassy in Rome when he and Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner attended the inauguration of Pope Leo XIV in May.
“I had this great sense that JD completely relates to me and he completely relates to Angela,” Lammy told the Guardian. “So it was a wonderful hour and a half.”
After spending a few days at Chevening, Vance and his family will head to the Cotswolds, an area that has become popular with wealthy American tourists because of its quaint villages, stone cottages and rural countryside that hark back to old England. The Vance family's trip will include official engagements, fundraising, visits to cultural sites and museums and meeting with US troops, according to a person familiar with Vance's trip who wasn't authorised to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
A host of celebrities descended on the area two weeks ago for the wedding of Eve Jobs, the daughter of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, and Harry Charles, a member of the British equestrian team at last summer's Olympic Games in Paris.
The Cotswolds cover about 800 square miles and parts of five counties in the west of England. Vance and his family have reportedly rented a house in the village of Charlbury, 12 miles west of Oxford, according to British media outlets.
“That area is very fashionable,” Plum Sykes, a socialite and journalist, told London-based newspaper The Times.
“If you wanted to be in the super-hot, super-social Cotswolds, that's where you'd go,” she said. “There's been this mass exodus from America to the Cotswolds. Americans just cannot get over the charm. Then power and money attract power and money.”
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Separate nodal officer in all districts to prevent female foeticides in Karnataka: Minister
Belagavi (PTI): Accepting that the female foeticide has not stopped in the state, Karnataka Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao on Tuesday said that the government is taking strict measures to prevent it.
The minister said the government is appointing separate nodal officers in all districts and tightening measures to prevent foeticide, which he called a "social evil".
He also assured that the government will consider strengthening legislation to control such activities.
The minister was responding to a question by BJP MLC C T Ravi in the Legislative Council.
"Female foeticides have certainly not stopped. If you look at the sex ratio, there is a lot of difference. I accept that this is happening," Rao said.
"Foeticides are not happening under pressure; voluntarily, it is happening, for not wanting a girl child. These things are happening based on the sex determination of the foetus at some hospitals. Sex determination is illegal, but with the advancement in technology, portable ultrasound machines have been developed, which can be easily carried anywhere, and scans and tests can be done. This needs to be controlled. We will bring it to the notice of the central government," he said.
In some districts and in a few hospitals, a higher number of male child births is happening. It is found with the help of intelligence input, the minister said.
"Information is being gathered on the taluk in which the male-female ratio is worsening, what is happening in which hospital, and appropriate action is being taken to crack down on such a network, after proper evaluation."
Decoy operations have been done at seven places in the last two years, to identify those involved in illegal activities linked to female foeticides, and actions have been taken against officials and hospitals involved, he said, adding that more needs to be done on priority.
Responding to a question by Ravi about whether any stringent legislation is being brought, Rao said, the government will consider strengthening the legislation and making it stricter to control this.
"Some amendments have been made to the existing laws in the last two years....advanced technology and the internet is being used to carry out such things, also oral medicines for abortions are available over the counter.
We need to look into bringing legislation to control them. The Food and Drug Administration has issued instructions to pharmacists that the sale of such drugs should be documented."
The minister also said that measures are also being taken for the effective implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PC & PNDT) Act, and awareness is being created against the identification of female foetuses and female foeticide.
