Police Scotland ‘planning' for US vice president visit as he holidays in UK
JD Vance's unconfirmed appearance north of the border would follow president Donald Trump's five-day trip last month, when he hosted Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at his golf resorts at Turnberry in South Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire.
Vance is holidaying in the Cotswolds but travelled to the Foreign Secretary's Chevening House retreat in Kent on Friday, where the Republican joined David Lammy carp fishing at the countryside estate.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: 'Planning is under way for a potential visit to Scotland by the vice president of the United States.
'Details of any visit would be for the White House to comment on, however, it is important that we prepare in advance for what would be a significant policing operation.'
Vance and his family are thought to be planning a visit to Ayrshire but would not stay at Trump's Turnberry resort, according to Sky News.
PA Media US president Donald Trump with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at Trump International golf course in Aberdeenshire. PA Media
In Kent, Vance said he had a 'love' for the UK but joked he had committed a diplomatic faux pas as he began his holiday.
'Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the Foreign Secretary did not,' he said.
He described Lammy as a 'very, very gracious host'.
Trump's visit to Scotland ended less than two weeks ago, after he met with both Sir Keir and First Minister John Swinney.
STV News is now on WhatsApp
Get all the latest news from around the country
Follow STV News
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
12 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Nicola was treated appallingly by the police over fraud probe insists close friend and crime writer Val McDermid
Nicola Sturgeon 's close friend the crime writer Val McDermid has launched an astonishing attack on Police Scotland, accusing the force of treating the former First Minister 'appallingly'. The long-time friend of the former first minister took aim at police as extracts of Ms Sturgeon's upcoming memoirs revealed the 'mental torture' she said she endured during the probe into the SNP 's finances. In the first extract of the book published by the Times, Ms Sturgeon describes how she felt like she had 'fallen into the plot of a dystopian novel' and was gripped by despair when she was arrested in connection with the investigation. Although she was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, Ms Sturgeon also said the experience of her husband Mr Murrell being rearrested and charged was like a nightmare without end. Giving her own take on the two year police investigation into her friend, Ms McDermid said: 'She's been treated appallingly by Police Scotland - and by the media, outside Scotland and inside.' Ms McDermid, who has been friends for the last decade with Ms Sturgeon, has also jumped to her friend's defence over the way she feels the ex SNP leader has been treated and has claimed mysogyny is at the root of the problem. She told the Daily Telegraph: 'I've seen some of the stuff she gets poured on her head and it's horrible. You would not say that to your wife or your sister – but to say it to a complete stranger seems to be acceptablae. 'It is misogynistic. Any woman in Scottish politics will tell you the same thing. I have friends who have left politics because of it. I have friends who grit their teeth and go into work every day and put up with it. It is not just Nicola who is the victim of this.' However, the impending publication of Ms Sturgeon's autobiography - Frankly - has already drawn the ire of one of Ms Sturgeon's female detractors - former SNP MP Joanna Cherry. Writing in the Daily Mail, Ms Cherry suggested that she does not expect the former first minister to answer questions that many Scots would want her to. For instance, she said many women as well as lesbian, gay and bisexual people 'will want to know why she was happy to throw our rights under the bus in the name of identity politics'. In concluding her opinion piece, she had added: 'I very much doubt the answers to any of these questions will be in Nicola Sturgeon's autobiography.' Ms McDermid and Ms Sturgeon have been friends ever since the crime writer was interviewed by the former first minister at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Ms McDermid invited Ms Sturgeon and her then husband Peter Murrell to dinner first 'to break the ice' she said, and the evening went to so well the guests stayed until after midnight. In January, The Mail revealed Ms Sturgeon had been spending time at a luxury £320,000 flat owned by McDermid and her wife. The former First Minister was spotted leaving the property in Edinburgh's upmarket New Town as her relationship with her husband broke down. That same month, Ms Sturgeon revealed she and Mr Murrell had separated, stating: 'To all intents and purposes we have been separated for some time now and feel it is time to bring others up to speed with where we are.' In the interview, Ms McDermid also shot down speculation that she failed to publish a new novel last year because she was too busy writing Ms Sturgeon's soon to be published memoir, Frankly, to focus on her own work. She said: 'I did not help with it. She did it herself. Truly.' The 70-year-old author instead said the reason she didn't publish a book last year was because she was having back surgery to treat spinal stenosis, which causes intense back pain. Operation Branchform was launched in July 2021 to look into how more than £600,000 of crowdfunding was used by the party - and became one of the longest-running fraud investigations in Police Scotland's history. Former party chief executive Peter Murrell, his wife and former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon along with ex-SNP treasurer Colin Beattie were all investigated by detectives as part of the four-year probe. In March it emerged Ms Sturgeon and Mr Beattie would not face charges over the investigation. Mr Murrell appeared in private at Edinburgh Sheriff Court that same month charged with embezzlement and was bailed after making no plea. He is now rarely seen in public, while Ms Sturgeon has focused on writing her memoir and book reviews.
Times
12 minutes ago
- Times
Frantic Europeans push their own Ukraine plan before Trump summit
European leaders were pulling together an alternative peace plan for Ukraine on Saturday night before Donald Trump's summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. The US president will meet Putin on American soil without President Zelensky, to seek an end to the war. Trump has strongly suggested a deal would involve Kyiv conceding territory, but in an address to the nation yesterday morning, Zelensky insisted that Ukrainians 'will not gift their land to the occupier'. Hours later JD Vance, the US vice-president, outlined Trump's plan for the summit to senior European and Ukrainian officials at a meeting co-hosted by David Lammy at Chevening, the foreign secretary's mansion in Kent. • What's up for grabs at the summit and can Trump outsmart Putin? Those present included Jonathan Powell, the UK's national security adviser, Andriy Yermak, head of Zelensky's office, and Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's national security and defence council. European officials put forward alternative proposals, according to The Wall Street Journal, including that any territorial concession by Kyiv must be safeguarded by ironclad security guarantees, including potential Nato membership. Russia must also agree to a ceasefire before any other steps are taken and that territory can only be exchanged in a reciprocal manner, meaning that if Ukraine pulls out of some regions, Russia must withdraw from others. Earlier, Zelensky made a flurry of calls to European allies, speaking to his counterparts in the UK, France, Spain, Finland, Denmark and Estonia. After a call with Sir Keir Starmer, a Downing Street spokesman said: 'Both leaders welcomed President Trump's desire to bring this barbaric war to an end and agreed that we must keep up the pressure on Putin to end his illegal war. The prime minister ended the call by reiterating his unwavering support for Ukraine and its people.' President Macron declared that Ukrainians and Europeans must not be excluded from negotiations. 'Ukraine's future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians who have been fighting for their freedom and security for more than three years now,' he wrote on social media. 'Europeans will also necessarily be part of the solution because their security depends on it.' On Friday, Trump announced he would meet Putin this week in Alaska — the first time the Russian leader will have visited America in a decade. Critics say the gesture has given Putin validation after western allies sought to make him a pariah following his full invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The meeting was confirmed on the day that Trump had threatened to impose secondary tariffs on countries buying Russian oil if Putin had not ended the war. No new sanctions were announced. Instead, Trump suggested that a peace deal would involve Kyiv ceding territory. 'There will be some swapping of territories, to the betterment of both,' he said. Hours later, Zelensky pushed back. 'The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question is already in the constitution in Ukraine,' he said. 'No one will deviate from this — and no one will be able to.' Efforts to end the war in Ukraine gained momentum last week with a three-hour meeting in the Kremlin between Putin and the US special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who briefed colleagues in the White House that Russia was willing to agree to a ceasefire. But confusion quickly followed. Sources in the US said that Witkoff had struggled to clearly describe what Russia's proposals were. A European diplomat said they were concerned that Witkoff did not fully grasp the message that Russia was sending to the US. Negotiations appear to be focused on four regions in the east and south of Ukraine: Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk. Russia annexed all four in 2022 although it did not control any entirely. Putin is expected to tell Trump that Russia would agree to a ceasefire if Ukraine surrendered Donetsk and Luhansk, the coal-mining territories collectively known as the Donbas. In exchange, Putin is thought to be ready to freeze the front lines in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Ukraine would be forced to withdraw troops from Donetsk, where its forces control around a third of the territory, but Russia is advancing steadily. Towns and cities such as Kramatorsk and Sloviansk are coming under intense drone and missile attack. About 700 people a day are fleeing their homes, a figure that has doubled since last month, according to Ukrainian officials. Russia said last month that its army had seized the whole of Luhansk. Two people died when a Russian drone struck their car in the Zaporizhzhia region yesterday, while two others were killed when a Russian drone hit a minibus in Kherson. For Ukrainian soldiers, surrendering their homes in the Donbas would be a bitter pill to swallow. Oleh, a serviceman who was injured during fighting in the Donbas, opposed surrender, saying 'if we give up the Donbas, what's to stop Putin coming back for more later?' Although Zelensky has said he will not give up land, 69 per cent of Ukrainians want a settlement to the war as soon as possible, according to a Gallup poll. Just 24 per cent said they thought Ukraine should fight on until victory.
The Independent
41 minutes ago
- The Independent
Armenians and Azerbaijanis greet US-brokered peace deal with hope but also caution
Residents and politicians in Armenia and Azerbaijan responded Saturday with cautious hope — and skepticism in some cases — after their leaders signed a U.S.-brokered agreement at the White House aimed at ending decades of hostilities. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan signed the agreement on Friday in the presence of U.S. President Donald Trump, who stood between the leaders as they shook hands — a gesture Trump reinforced by clasping their hands together. While the agreement does not constitute a formal peace treaty, it represents a significant diplomatic step toward normalization of relations. The two countries remain technically at war, and the deal does not resolve the longstanding dispute over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It does, however, reflect the shifting power dynamics following Azerbaijan's 2023 military victory, which forced the withdrawal of Armenian forces and ethnic Armenians from the region. Among the agreement's provisions is the creation of a new transit corridor, dubbed the 'Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity,' highlighting a changing geopolitical landscape amid declining Russian influence in the South Caucasus. Nagorno-Karabakh has been at the heart of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict since the Soviet Union's collapse. Although internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan, the mountainous region was controlled for decades by ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia. Two wars — in the early 1990s and again in 2020 — left tens of thousands dead and displaced. In 2023, Azerbaijan regained control of most of the territory in a swift offensive. Hopeful for peace and a weaker Moscow Ali Karimli, head of the opposition People's Front of Azerbaijan Party, wrote on Facebook that the signing of the agreement 'has undoubtedly brought Azerbaijan and Armenia significantly closer to peace,' and noted that it delivered 'another blow … to Russia's influence in the South Caucasus,' while deepening ties with the U.S. Arif Hajili, chairman of Azerbaijani opposition party Musavat, said he believed that 'the most positive aspect of the initialing in Washington was the absence of Russia from the process.' He said lasting stability in the region hinges on the continual dwindling of Russian power, which 'depends on the outcome of the Russian‑Ukrainian war.' Hajili also warned of lingering challenges, including Armenia's economic dependence on Russia and some 2 million Azerbaijanis living in Russia. 'Russia will continue to use these factors as levers of pressure,' he said. Hope on the streets of Azerbaijan's capital 'We have been waiting for a long time for this agreement to be signed,' a resident of Baku, Gunduz Aliyev, told The Associated Press. 'We did not trust our neighbor, Armenia. That's why a strong state was needed to act as a guarantor. Russia couldn't do it, but the United States succeeded.' 'The U.S. is taking full responsibility for security. This will bring peace and stability," said another, Ali Mammadov. "Borders will open soon, and normal relations with Armenia will be established.' Abulfat Jafarov, also in Baku, expressed gratitude to all three leaders involved. 'Peace is always a good thing,' he said. "We welcome every step taken towards progress.' More divided views in the Armenian capital Some people in Yerevan were unsure of the meaning of the agreement. 'I feel uncertain because much still needs clarification. There are unclear aspects, and although the prime minister of Armenia made some statements from the U.S., more details are needed,' Edvard Avoyan said. But entrepreneur Hrach Ghasumyan could see economic benefits. 'If gas and oil pipelines pass through Armenia and railway routes are opened, it would be beneficial for the country,' he said. 'Until now, all major routes have passed through Georgia, leaving Armenia sidelined and economically limited.' Others were skeptical that peace could be achieved, and expressed discontent with the terms of the agreement. 'That declaration is unlikely to bring real peace to the region, and we are well aware of Azerbaijan's stance,' Ruzanna Ghazaryan said. 'This initial agreement offers us nothing; the concessions are entirely one-sided.'
