Usha Vance – the lawyer who is now America’s ‘second lady’

Published

7 months ago

November 6, 2024

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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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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Irish politician faces deportation from Egypt after trying to cross into Gaza

Published

11 hours ago

June 14, 2025

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Irish politician faces deportation from Egypt after trying to cross into Gaza

An Irish politician who was detained in Egypt trying to cross into Gaza says the police were violent towards the group after seizing his phone.

People Before Profit-Solidarity TD (MP) Paul Murphy was part of a large demonstration attempting to march to the Rafah crossing in a bid to get aid into the region.

The opposition politician said his phone and passport were confiscated on Friday before he was put on a bus to Cairo airport for deportation.

Israel-Iran live: ‘Tehran will burn’ if it keeps firing missiles

Footage of the seconds before his phone was seized shows authorities forcibly dragging protesters away from the sit-down demonstration.

Ireland’s deputy premier said several Irish citizens who were detained have now been released. Mr Murphy confirmed he was among the released protesters, posting a photo on his Facebook page saying he was back in Cairo and “meeting shortly to decide next steps”.

In a message from Mr Murphy after he was detained, posted online by his social media team, he said: “I’m ok, but they still have my phone.

“Egyptian police say we’re going to airport but this isn’t the road we came on because there are 1000s of marchers on the streets. They’re taking us south past a lake, then west towards Cairo.

“Violence got worse after they seized my phone.

“One American woman in my group was badly kicked & beaten, and had her hijab torn off.”

Sky News has contacted Egypt’s police regarding Mr Murphy’s claims of violence towards the group.

Mr Murphy previously said other Irish citizen were among those who had been stopped from entering Gaza.

“The world has watched a horrific genocide for the past 20 months. Since March, a total attempt of starvation,” he added.

“And that this is a peaceful march to demand that it be ended and demand that western governments stop their complicity.”

Appeal to foreign affairs minister

Mr Murphy’s partner, Councillor Jess Spear, had previously appealed to Ireland’s Foreign Affairs Minister and deputy premier Simon Harris to make a public statement on Mr Murphy’s detention.

She expressed “relief” that the group had been released from detention.

She said: “However, they still want to reach Rafah to try and get humanitarian aid into Gaza. That has been the sole purpose of being in Egypt.

“Paul has appealed to Tanaiste Simon Harris to put pressure on the Egyptian authorities to let the marchers reach Rafah. The situation of the people of Gaza worsens by the day as they suffer starvation imposed by Israel.”

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Nuclear threat wasn’t the only reason Israel attacked Iran

Published

13 hours ago

June 14, 2025

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Nuclear threat wasn't the only reason Israel attacked Iran

Why did Israel attack Iran? Certainly, it was worried about the threat of a nuclear weapon being developed.

But it’s also becoming clearer that there was a second reason – that this is about laying the ground for regime change in Tehran.

Follow latest: Israel warns ‘Tehran will burn’ if it continues

Because, hours after his country launched its first, surprise attack, the message from Benjamin Netanyahu couldn’t be clearer – Iranians, he said, should overthrow their “evil and oppressive regime”. He said Israel’s attack would “pave the way for you to achieve your freedom”.

On the one hand, he would say that, wouldn’t he? The Iranian government does not recognise the legitimacy of the Israeli state and has called for its destruction, while funding proxy groups that have attacked Israel – including Hamas, Lebanese Hezbollah, and the Houthis in Yemen.

But perhaps this time there is more than just wishful thinking.

Although it’s very hard to gauge the level of opposition in Iran, it seems likely the majority of the population of 90 million are at least disenchanted with the regime.

Living standards have fallen and supplies are running short. While tens of billions of dollars have been spent on a nuclear programme, electricity is being rationed and cooking gas is running low.

Priority is being given to those who are close to the regime, notably the members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a branch of the Iranian army that is fiercely loyal to the ruling regime.

The IRGC are crucial in propping up Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country’s 86-year-old supreme leader. Not only do they offer military power, but also domestic surveillance, intimidation and secret policing in order to stifle dissent.

So for any opposition to emerge, let alone flourish, the IRGC would need to be degraded – and that is precisely what Israel has done, targeting its senior leaders as well as bases.

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The regular army, so far, has been left alone. Israel’s gamble is that a majority of the rest of the military harbour the same dislike of the IRGC as the wider population.

It was no coincidence that Netanyahu quoted the expression “woman, life, freedom”, which was a rallying call during the 2022 protests in Iran – eventually suppressed by the IRGC.

It is very hard to believe that a coherent, public opposition movement will burst into life any time soon. Iranians are well aware their regime will respond with brutality against any attempted uprising.

Instead, dissidents seem to be biding their time and waiting to see if Israel continues its assaults, and whether they can sense genuine signs that the regime is starting to struggle to maintain control. If the cracks emerge, then regime change – or at least an attempt – is possible.

Possible, but not certain. “They will do anything to stay in power, and when other uprisings have happened, they’ve been successfully suppressed,” one Middle East diplomat tells me.

“And there is no unifying leader ready to step in. Even if there is regime change, it could be a military takeover rather than a popular uprising.”

And that leaves one final question – if Khamenei did feel his grip on power was failing, might he still have the time, desire and power to resort to final, desperate military actions? The truth is, we don’t know.

At the moment, the Middle East is a region full of unanswerable, high-risk questions.

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Children orphaned as father killed in Air India plane crash days after mother dies

Published

14 hours ago

June 14, 2025

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Children orphaned as father killed in Air India plane crash days after mother dies

A father returning home after scattering his wife’s ashes was among the victims of the Air India crash, leaving his two young children suddenly orphaned.

Flight 171 was carrying 242 people when it struck a medical college hostel less than a minute after taking off from Ahmedabad airport, in western India.

Twenty-nine people on the ground were killed, taking the total number of victims to 270. A hospital official confirmed 270 bodies have been recovered from the crash site, but DNA testing is being conducted to identify the bodies.

Just one passenger, a British man from Leicester, survived what has become the worst aviation crash in a decade.

Among the victims, 37-year-old Arjun Patoliya had been visiting India to fulfil his wife Bharti’s “final wish” to be laid to rest in her hometown of Gujarat.

Bharti had died just over two weeks ago, following a “courageous battle with cancer”.

A GoFundMe page, set up to raise funds for their two children, says: “Arjun left to bid farewell to his wife, never returned to the children they both raised.

“Now, these two beautiful young girls have been left without parents – their world turned upside down in just over two weeks.”

A fundraiser, which has topped more than a quarter of a million pounds, confirms all money raised will go directly into a legal trust, “to ensure every penny is dedicated to the girls’ needs”.

Investigation will take three months

India’s aviation minister has said a government panel reviewing the crash will complete its assessment in three months.

Ram Mohan Naidu said the government has also ordered “extended surveillance” of Boeing 787 planes. Air India operates 33 Boeing 787s, while rival airline IndiGo has one, according to data from Flightradar24.

Mr Naidu said the plane started descending after reaching 650 feet.

Every theory as to what happened will be looked into, he said. But in the meantime, he has instructed the airline to assist the families of passengers to ensure there is no delay in handing over the bodies of those who died.

Black box has been found

India’s aviation ministry says workers have recovered the digital flight data recorder – one of two black boxes on the plane, from the rooftop of the building where it crashed.

This box has data on engine and control settings, so will be able to show if there was a loss of engine power or lift after takeoff.

The investigation will initially focus on the engine, flaps and landing gear, a source told Reuters on Friday.

A possible bird-hit is not among the key areas of focus, the source said, adding that teams of anti-terror experts were part of the investigation process.

There is no information yet on the cockpit voice recorder, the other black box, which will be a crucial part of understanding what caused the plane to crash.