Usha Vance – the lawyer who is now America’s ‘second lady’
Usha Vance is a lawyer, a Yale graduate, the Hindu daughter of Indian immigrants – and has just become the United States’ “second lady”.
She was thrust into the spotlight after her husband, JD Vance, was chosen as Donald Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election.
Almost immediately, she quit her job as a lawyer and appeared on stage to introduce him at the Republican Convention.
There, she gave a flavour of her husband; a “working-class guy” who had overcome childhood traumas to attend Yale Law School.
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A “meat and potatoes” man who had adapted to her vegetarian diet and learned to cook Indian food for her mother.
A “tough Marine” who had served in Iraq but loved nothing more than “playing with puppies and watching the movie Babe”.
That duality was also present in the way the pair positioned themselves as committed Republicans, but parents first and foremost.
Mrs Vance talked of her husband’s “over-riding ambition” to have a family, while he called her “an incredible lawyer and a better mom”.
Early life and family background
Mrs Vance, 38, was raised in San Diego by parents who had moved to the US from India in the 1970s.
Her mother is a biologist and provost at the University of California at San Diego; her father is an engineer, according to Mr Vance’s campaign.
In her introductory speech at the Republican Convention, she said her middle-class upbringing was very different to her husband’s experience growing up poor in Ohio.
“That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry is a testament to this great country,” Mrs Vance said. “It is also a testament to JD.”
Pic: AP
Pic: Reuters
In a June interview with Fox News alongside her husband, Mrs Vance talked about being raised in a religious household.
“My parents are Hindu and that is one of the things that made them such good parents, that made them really good people. And so I have seen the power of that.”
Mr Vance told the broadcaster his wife had helped him “re-engage” with his Christian faith.
Mrs Vance received an undergraduate degree at Yale University and a master of philosophy at the University of Cambridge through the Gates Cambridge scholarship.
She then returned to Yale for law school, where she met her now-husband.
How the couple met
In his 2016 memoir Hillbilly Elegy, Mr Vance said the two got to know each other through a class assignment, where he soon “fell hard” for his writing partner.
“In a place that always seemed a little foreign, Usha’s presence made me feel at home,” he wrote.
In a 2017 NBC interview, Mrs Vance described liking that Mr Vance – then just a friend – was “very diligent” when they were assigned to work together on a brief in law school.
“He would show up for these 9am appointments that I set for us to work on the brief together,” she said.
The pair graduated in 2013 and got married the following year.
They live in Cincinnati, Ohio, and have three children together: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.
Pic: Reuters
Career as a lawyer
After law school, Mrs Vance spent a year clerking for Justice Brett Kavanaugh – who is now on the Supreme Court – when he served as an appeals court judge in Washington, followed by a year as a law clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts.
During that time, Justice Roberts authored a 5-4 ruling upholding Mr Trump’s travel ban targeting several Muslim-majority countries.
In another ruling, he was in the 7-2 majority that backed a Christian baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.
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Until recently, Mrs Vance was an associate at the 200-lawyer Munger Tolles & Olson firm, where she focused on civil litigation and appeals.
The firm has counted Berkshire Hathaway, Bank of America, and PG&E among its clients.
Her clients there included a division of the Walt Disney Company and the Regents of the University of California, court records show.
A Munger spokesman said she had been an “excellent lawyer and colleague”.
What JD Vance has said about his wife
Talking about meeting as law students in a 2017 interview, Mr Vance said: “The thing I remember about Usha is how completely forward and confident with herself she was.”
In his memoir, he credited part of his success and happiness to his wife.
“Even at my best, I’m a delayed explosion – I can be defused, but only with skill and precision,” he wrote.
“It’s not just that I’ve learned to control myself but that Usha has learned how to manage me.”
He also told the Megyn Kelly Show podcast in 2020 that he benefits from having a “powerful female voice” on his shoulder.
“Usha definitely brings me back to earth a little bit, and if I maybe get a little bit too cocky or a little too proud, I just remind myself that she is way more accomplished than I am,” he said.
World
US blocks Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials from United Nations’ annual meeting in New York
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and 80 other officials have been blocked from attending September’s annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio has revoked the US visas of delegates from the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and denied others from applying for one.
It is the latest step by Donald Trump’s administration to target Palestinians with visa restrictions, and follows the suspension of a programme to allow injured children from Gaza to receive treatment in the US.
Mahmoud Abbas addressed the general assembly in 2024, but is barred from next month’s meeting. Pic: Reuters
“It is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” a statement from the US State Department said.
It added that, to be considered partners for peace, both groups “must consistently repudiate terrorism, and end incitement to terrorism in education, as required by US law and as promised by the PLO”.
Offensive will cause ‘intolerable deaths’
Several US allies, including France, Malta, and Australia have announced plans to recognise Palestine as a state at September’s United Nations General Assembly. Canada and the UK will too, unless Israel meets certain conditions.
Israel declared Gaza’s largest city a dangerous combat zone on Friday.
The army launched a planned offensive that has drawn international condemnation.
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Thick smoke rises from Gaza City after Israeli strikes
Foreign ministers from Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Norway, Slovenia and Spain released a joint statement saying the military operations in Gaza City will cause “intolerable deaths of innocent Palestinian civilians”.
Gaza latest: Israel’s Gaza City offensive condemned
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are sheltering in Gaza City while enduring famine.
An Israeli armoured vehicle in northern Gaza on Friday. Pic: AP
Palestinians ride a truck carrying humanitarian aid in Gaza City. Pic: AP
The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations (UN), Riyad Mansour, said Mr Abbas had planned to lead the delegation to the UN meetings and was expected to address the general assembly at the general debate, which begins on 23 September.
He was also expected to attend a high-level meeting co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia on 22 September about a two-state solution, a broad idea involving Israel coexisting with an independent Palestinian state.
The State of Palestine is an observer member of the UN, meaning it can speak at meetings but not vote on resolutions.
The State of Palestine cannot vote on UN resolutions. Pic: AP
US decision ‘contravenes international law’
The Palestinian Authority “expressed its deep regret and astonishment” at the visa decision, calling it “a violation of US commitments” as the host of the UN, and claiming it “contravenes international law”.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said the world body would be seeking clarification in the “hope that this will be resolved”.
Hundreds of diplomats left when Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu began speaking at the general assembly in 2024. Pic: Reuters
The State Department said that the Palestinian Authority’s mission to the UN, comprising officials who are permanently based there, would not be included in the restrictions.
Under a 1947 UN agreement, the US is generally required to allow access for foreign diplomats to the UN in New York.
But Washington has said it can deny visas for security, extremism and foreign policy reasons.
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The death toll in Gaza has now risen to 63,025, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
It also reported five more malnutrition-related deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the total number during the war to 322, with 121 of them children.
World
Brazil implores businesses to attend major climate summit, despite ‘second thoughts’ amid Trump backlash
The Brazilian hosts of the biggest climate meeting of the year have implored businesses to attend in November, amid concerns some are backing away from the climate agenda into the shadow of Donald Trump.
In an interview with Sky News, Ana Toni, chief executive of the COP30 climate summit in November, admitted some companies were having “second thoughts” about the global switch to green economies because policymakers were creating uncertainty.
The US President Donald Trump has been attacking wind farms and waging tariff wars that could slow the transition to green energy.
Banks including HSBC and Barclays have ditched a net zero alliance set up just four years ago by Mark Carney, now the Canadian Prime Minister.
Ana Toni, Brazil’s climate secretary, is chief executive of the COP30 climate talks. Pic: Reuters
But even before Trump took office, tech companies were quietly dropping climate targets to prioritise energy-hungry AI, and other businesses were “greenhushing” their climate initiatives for fear of backlash.
In this environment, there are fears fewer business leaders will attend the annual talks, which are also being hosted in a city on the edge of the Amazon that hasn’t enough hotel rooms.
On Friday, the COP30 team wrote to business leaders urging them to “step forward, not back” and travel to Belem, despite “logistical challenges” and the “background of systemic uncertainty”.
Ana Toni told Sky News: “We are very concerned that the enabling conditions must be there so that the private sector can also deliver where they do best, which is bringing in technology, bringing innovation and accelerating the process of decarbonisation.”
In August the share price of Danish wind farm developer plummeted after the US halted its Rhode Island wind farm, while the British Tories and Reform parties are also attacking net zero.
Ana Toni met with King Charles and leaders of other COP summits at Clarence House last year. Pic: Reuters
But Ms Toni there is “nothing to panic [about], because we can see that the transition is inevitable,” citing major progress in China, India and Europe and Brazil.
Referring to the US’s withdrawal from the COP process, she said: “198 countries minus one is not zero. And we will put all our efforts of working with the 197 countries that want to go forward and want to protect their population.”
“Climate action is not only [still] cool, it is necessary,” Ms Toni said.
“We all need to face reality. We are going through a huge climate crisis… If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Companies understand that.”
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