Pro-Palestine protesters meet JD Vance as he lands in Scotland
US vice president JD Vance has been met with pro- Palestine protesters as he arrived in Scotland for his family holiday to the UK.
He was greeted at the resort by dozens of pro-Palestine protesters, who accused him of supporting a 'genocide' by Israel in Gaza.
The demonstrated were kettled by police as they bashed pots and pans, waved Palestine flags and shouted pro-Palestine chants.
READ MORE: Scottish Enterprise panned for lack of checks on Israeli-linked arms firms
Police had initially told the protesters they would need to move and that officers would do so if they refused to leave to a different space nearby.
The National previously told how protesters were expected to gather outside the estate as the vice president arrived.
Campaigners from Mothers Against Genocide and Stop Trump UK urged protesters to gather outside the estate "to make as much noise as possible for the people of Gaza".
(Image: Craig Meighan/PA Wire) (Image: Craig Meighan/PA Wire)
Airspace restrictions are in place around the estate until Sunday.
Vance will reportedly spend five days in Scotland – the same amount of time his boss did during his trip to the country last month.
President Trump split his stay between his golf courses in South Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire, during which time he met the First Minister and Prime Minister.
(Image: Craig Meighan/PA Wire)
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: 'This visit requires a significant police operation and we have appropriate resources in place using local, national and specialist officers from across Police Scotland.'
Vance had been holidaying in the Cotswolds, but travelled to the Foreign Secretary's Chevening House retreat in Kent on Friday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Anthony Albanese erupts over Trump ambassador Mike Huckabee's 'disgust' at Palestine move
The Prime Minister has returned fire at a US diplomat, throwing his words back at him to defend Australia's recognition of Palestine. Australia on Monday revealed it would join other Western nations, including the UK, France and Canada, in recognising a state of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly in September, in response to the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Mike Huckabee, who was appointed America's ambassador to Israel by President Donald Trump in April, said the US was taken aback by the move, and stressed there was an 'enormous level of disappointment and some disgust' over the announcement. But Anthony Albanese backed Australia's decision, saying the continued human suffering in Gaza had disgusted the nation. '(Mike Huckabee) is an ambassador of a country - not Australia - to another country,' he told ABC Radio on Friday. 'My job is to represent Australia's interest and Australians have been disgusted by what they see on their TV every night. 'When you have children starving, when you have children losing their lives with families queuing for food and water, that provokes - not surprisingly - a human reaction.' Mr Huckabee also criticised the timing of the statehood announcement. 'What Australia and the other countries may have done inadvertently is to push Israel towards doing exactly what they're afraid of,' he told ABC's 7.30 program on Thursday night. 'The result of this has been to completely halt any type of thoughtful negotiations going forward.' Almost 150 out of the 193 UN member states already recognise the state of Palestine. While the ambassador said the US got 'no heads up' about Australia's decision, Foreign Minister Penny Wong did inform US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ahead of it being made public. Mr Albanese also spoke in advance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tense phone call. Liberal senator Jane Hume claimed Americans on both sides of politics had been shocked by Australia's decision on statehood. 'This decision by the Labor government has bewildered the Americans, that (the government) essentially departed from years of a strong alliance between Israel and America and Australia to make this decision unilaterally,' she told Seven's Sunrise. The Coalition has pledged to reverse Australia's position if it wins the next election. Australia's decision to recognise a Palestinian state was fuelled in part by Israel's newly unveiled plans to occupy Gaza City and came after at least 90,000 people marched across the Sydney Harbour Bridge in support of Palestine. 'There have been tens of thousands of people suggesting this is not the way forward. You just can't continue with the same pattern without an endpoint,' Mr Albanese said. 'The endpoint has to be to isolate Hamas.' The conditions for Australia's recognition include assurances that the designated terrorist group Hamas, which controls Gaza, plays no role in a future state. Many within the pro-Palestine movement say recognition will do nothing to change the situation on the ground, urging the government to go further and impose sanctions on Israel. Israel's campaign in Gaza has killed almost 62,000 Palestinians, including 18,000 children, since October 7, 2023, according to local health authorities. It began after Hamas's invasion on October 7, 2023, when it killed more than 1200 Israelis and took about 250 people hostage. Not all of the hostages have been released.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Israel is put 'on notice' as it may be placed on the UN's blacklist over sex violence claims
Israel has been put 'on notice' that it may be placed on the United Nations ' blacklist for countries suspected of committing sexual violence in armed conflict. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has cited 'grave concern' over multiple allegations that Palestinian prisoners have been subjected to degrading treatment in prisons, a detention facility and a military base. It comes as Hamas was added to the list of shame for the first time last night – marking formal acknowledgment for its crimes on October 7, 2023 and to the hostages since that attack. Israel was not listed on the 2025 annual report on Conflict-Related Sexual Violence despite the warning. Guterres wrote to Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon on Monday citing concern over his country's refusal to grant UN inspectors access to areas where allegations have been made. The Secretary General said Israel must take steps to avoid being blacklisted including issuing directives against sexual violence. Allegations cited by the UN include accounts of rape of male Palestinian detainees.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Aid groups say Israel's new registration rules are ‘weaponising aid'
More than 100 aid organisations working in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have accused Israel of dangerously 'weaponising aid' in its application of new rules for registering groups involved in delivering humanitarian assistance. The letter represents the latest broadside from the international aid community against Israel after the EU, Britain and Japan on Tuesday called for urgent action to stop 'famine' spreading in the Gaza Strip. The letter was published as Gaza's health authority reported continuing deaths from malnutrition in the besieged Palestinian territory, and amid threats by Israel to take full military control of the coastal strip with reports in Hebrew media suggesting the country may be planning to mobilise up to 100,000 reservists for the new offensive. The letter, signed by organisations including Oxfam, Médecins Sans Frontières and Care, was written in response to registration rules announced by Israel in March that require organisations to hand over lists of their donors and Palestinian staff for vetting. The groups contend that doing so could endanger their staff and give Israel broad grounds to block aid if groups are deemed to be 'delegitimising' the country or supporting boycotts or divestment. The registration measures were 'designed to control independent organisations, silence advocacy and censor humanitarian reporting', they said. The letter added: 'This obstruction has left millions of dollars' worth of food, medicine, water and shelter items stranded in warehouses across Jordan and Egypt.' On Tuesday, Israel's ministry for diaspora and combating antisemitism said it had revoked the work permits of 10 NGOs that had applied for authorisations. Under the new rules, which are vague and broad-reaching, a team led by the diaspora ministry can refuse registration to aid groups if they or their members published calls to boycott Israel in the past seven years; if there is 'reasonable basis to assume' that they oppose Israel's existence as a Jewish and democratic state; or if they 'actively advance delegitimisation activities against the state of Israel'. The aid groups' letter said the rules violated European data privacy regulations, noting that in some cases aid groups had been given only seven days to comply. 'Instead of clearing the growing backlog of goods, Israeli authorities have rejected requests from dozens of NGOs to bring in lifesaving goods, citing that these organisations are 'not authorised to deliver aid',' the letter added, saying that 60 requests from 29 organisations were denied in July citing this justification. Cogat, the Israeli military body in charge of humanitarian aid to Gaza, denied the letter's claims, adding without evidence that aid groups were being used as cover by Hamas to 'exploit the aid to strengthen its military capabilities and consolidate its control', despite the fact that Israel already claims to control 75% of Gaza. The aid groups stressed on Thursday that most of them had not been able to deliver 'a single truck' of life-saving assistance since Israel implemented a blockade in March. The vast majority of aid is not reaching civilians in Gaza, where tens of thousands of people have been killed, most of the population has been displaced and famine is taking hold. UN agencies and a small number of aid groups have resumed delivering assistance, but say the number of trucks allowed in remains far from sufficient. The letter was published as Israel's far-right finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, backed plans for a major settlement development outside Jerusalem, which he said would represent the 'final nail in the coffin' of Palestinian ambitions for their own state. The E1 settlement plan for more than 3,000 housing units – which critics, including much of the international community, say would split the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem – is highly likely to be approved by a planning body next week. But it still remains uncertain whether the plan, which has been frozen for more than five years, will advance, given the likely international fallout. While his support for the plan was announced by Smotrich at a press conference on Thursday, it remains uncertain how much backing it has from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as does the attitude of Donald Trump's White House. Smotrich's comments come after many countries said they would recognise a Palestinian state in September. 'This reality finally buries the idea of a Palestinian state, because there is nothing to recognise and no one to recognise,' said Smotrich, whose extremist party has experienced a collapse in support.
