LONDON (AP) — Britain's deputy prime minister said Sunday that he told U.S. Vice President JD Vance he was wrong to blame immigration for the death of a university student who was handcuffed as he lay dying from a stab wound.
David Lammy, who is also the justice minister, said he challenged Vance in what he described as a “robust” phone call on Saturday. Lammy and Vance have struck up a friendship, based on their religious beliefs and family backgrounds, even though they come from different sides of the political spectrum.
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FILE - Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, right, and US Vice President JD Vance fish in a lake in the grounds of Chevening House in Kent, England, Aug. 8, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett/Pool via AP, File)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he visits STARK, a leading defence tech company in Swindon, England, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)
People gather to protest outside Southampton police station, Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026, after the fatal stabbing of Henry Nowak, a British teenager who was handcuffed despite claiming he was the crime victim. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
In this image taken from PA Video, police and protestors clash during a protest following the death of Henry Nowak, a 18-year-old student stabbed to death with a Sikh kirpan ceremonial by Vickrum Digwa, in Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool)
“We had an agreeable conversation because we have got a relationship, but I wanted to make him clear that I disagree with some of the facts that he was asserting and to present the facts to him," Lammy told Sky News.
The call came a day after Vance said in a post on social platform X that there should be “righteous anger” in response to the murder of Henry Nowak, 18, who died in December after being stabbed by Vickrum Digwa in the English city of Southampton.
Digwa, who is Sikh, falsely claimed to police he was the victim of a racist assault by Nowak, who was white. When police officers arrived, they initially treated the wounded man as a suspect before noticing his injury and trying to resuscitate him.
Vance appeared to blame the murder in part on “the mass invasion of migrants, many of whom despise the West and the people who love it.”
Lammy said he wanted to “emphasize a number of things” to Vance, including that the killer was British and is now behind bars.
"This has got nothing to do with mass migration," Lammy said.
Digwa, 23, was convicted of murder for stabbing Nowak with an 8-inch (21 centimeter) Sikh dagger and sentenced this week to life in prison with a minimum 21-year term.
The case has been seized on by anti-immigration activists and politicians in the U.K. On Tuesday, police in Southampton were pelted with chairs, cans, rocks and flares after a demonstration over Nowak’s death attended by far-right figures and others.
In a statement issued Friday in response to Vance's comments, Prime Minister Keir Starmer 's office criticized people “trying to interfere in our democracy and seeking to stir up division on our streets.”
The Independent Office for Police Conduct, which investigates allegations of police wrongdoing, is probing the actions of police officers on the scene.
The victim’s father, Mark Nowak, has said the case was not about racism or religion, and that he wanted his son’s death to lead to safer streets and not to be used to create “further division, hatred or tension.”
Lammy also said he told Vance “it’s not helpful to tweet in this way, partly because of what the Nowak family have asked for, and reminded him about their desire not to make this an issue of division and hatred, but to make this an issue of common sense.”
FILE - Britain's Foreign Secretary David Lammy, right, and US Vice President JD Vance fish in a lake in the grounds of Chevening House in Kent, England, Aug. 8, 2025. (Suzanne Plunkett/Pool via AP, File)
Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks as he visits STARK, a leading defence tech company in Swindon, England, Friday, June 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, Pool)
People gather to protest outside Southampton police station, Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026, after the fatal stabbing of Henry Nowak, a British teenager who was handcuffed despite claiming he was the crime victim. (Gareth Fuller/PA via AP)
In this image taken from PA Video, police and protestors clash during a protest following the death of Henry Nowak, a 18-year-old student stabbed to death with a Sikh kirpan ceremonial by Vickrum Digwa, in Southampton, England, Tuesday June 2, 2026. (Jamie Lashmar/PA via AP)
Vice President JD Vance speaks with reporters upon arriving on Air Force Two at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, May 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, Pool)
MREIJEH, Lebanon (AP) — Israel struck Beirut's southern suburbs without warning on Sunday, days after a ceasefire agreement in Washington went into effect and despite a U.S. request not to attack Lebanon 's capital. Lebanon’s state-run national news agency said two people were killed and 11 wounded in a preliminary count.
Iran had warned that an attack on Beirut would renew full-scale war across the Mideast, even as Pakistan tries to restart talks between Tehran and Washington. Iran wants a deal to include ending the war in Lebanon.
Iran’s powerful parliament speaker hinted at retaliation. “The (U.S.) naval blockade imposed against the Iranian people, together with Washington’s green light today to the Zionist regime, makes U.S. and Israeli bases and assets in the region legitimate targets,” Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on X.
There was no immediate White House comment. A senior U.S. official said “we were not surprised” by the attack in Beirut. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, would not say if the U.S. had been given a heads-up on the strike.
The strike hit a residential building, damaging four of its seven floors. An unexploded weapon was found in the rubble.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said it was in retaliation for the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group firing at northern Israel earlier, and that Israel targeted “command centers” in the sprawling urban neighborhoods.
“We are striking them very hard, and we know that Hezbollah is on the run,” Netanyahu told his Cabinet.
Hezbollah did not immediately claim responsibility for firing at Israel.
Israel on Monday announced it would strike the southern suburbs after Hezbollah claimed attacks in northern Israel, but urgent talks via Washington halted the attacks on the condition that Hezbollah stop targeting Israeli border towns. Lebanon and Israel later renewed a ceasefire agreement in talks that Beirut hopes will end the fighting.
The first such agreement took effect on April 17, days after a 10-minute Israeli bombardment of Beirut killed over 300 people. Israel struck Beirut’s southern suburbs twice following that deal. Israeli strikes over southern Lebanon continue daily, and Israeli forces have seized around a fifth of Lebanon in a ground invasion.
Netanyahu, who faces elections later this year, wants to press ahead with Israel’s offensive until he believes Hezbollah no longer poses a threat.
Hezbollah has scathingly rejected the U.S.-brokered deal and urged Lebanon to end its direct talks with Israel. Instead, it backs Iran’s inclusion of a ceasefire in Lebanon as a condition in negotiations with the U.S.
The fighting threatens efforts to end the Iran war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key transit point for oil and gas and related products like fertilizer. Its closure has jolted the world economy and spiked warnings of hunger in vulnerable regions.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in an interview taped Friday and aired Sunday with NBC's “Meet the Press,” said that “I’d like to see Lebanon have a better life. I’d like to see a more surgical attack on Hezbollah. I think it should be more surgical.”
Trump added that he is “not demanding” that Lebanon be part of the short-term deal to extend the ceasefire in the Iran war.
More than 3,500 people have been killed in Lebanon since the war began March 2 when Hezbollah fired rockets at northern Israel, two days after Israel and the U.S. began attacking Iran. More than 1 million people in Lebanon have been displaced. The fighting has killed at least 31 Israeli soldiers and three civilians.
Lebanon’s army commander, Gen. Rodolphe Haikal, went to Pakistan on Saturday at the invitation of Pakistan’s army chief, who has been involved in mediating talks between the U.S. and Iran. The Lebanese army did not say whether the visit is related to those mediation efforts.
Pakistan’s interior minister was in Tehran on Sunday in a fresh bid to restart negotiations between Iran and the U.S.
Mohsin Naqvi was delivering a message to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei from Pakistan’s army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, according to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency. There were no details on the message's contents.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since he was named the Islamic Republic’s ruler after his father was killed on Feb. 28, the first day of the war.
Naqvi met with Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni late Saturday and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Sunday, according to official Iranian media.
Pakistani authorities have said Islamabad, with support from regional countries including Qatar, Turkey and Egypt, is working to help bridge differences between the United States and Iran.
In Cairo, Egyptian Foreign Minister Bader Abdelatty and Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani discussed “proposed elements” of a potential agreement between the U.S. and Iran, the Egyptian foreign ministry said, without details.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said it shot down two more Iranian drones over the Strait of Hormuz that it said threatened international maritime traffic.
The heaviest fighting ended with a preliminary ceasefire on April 8, but Washington and Tehran have not agreed on a long-term end to the war.
The U.S. military has kept up its blockade on Iranian ports in response to Tehran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz. Energy prices have spiked, posing political problems for Trump’s Republican Party ahead of midterm congressional elections in November.
Chehayeb reported from Beirut, Magdy from Cairo and Lidman from Tel Aviv, Israel. Associated Press writers Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Pakistan, Matthew Lee in Washington and Michelle L. Price in Bridgewater, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
Lebanese intelligence officers look at an unexploded missile, centre, at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Relatives of the Lebanese soldier Hussein Nazzal, who was killed Saturday in south Lebanon along with a brigadier general and a captain in an Israeli airstrike, mourn during his funeral procession in Beirut, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A mourner touches the coffin of the Lebanese army Brig. Gen. Wissam Sabra, who was killed Saturday in south Lebanon along with a captain and a soldier in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral procession in Beirut, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Municipality workers use a skid loader as they remove the rubble of destroyed apartments that where hit by an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
The mother, center, and the wife, left, of the Lebanese Brig. Gen. Wissam Sabra, who was killed Saturday in south Lebanon along with a captain and a soldier in an Israeli airstrike, mourn during his funeral procession in Beirut, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese security officers gather at the site where an Israeli airstrike hit a building in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburb, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Lebanese army soldiers carry the coffin of Brig. Gen. Wissam Sabra, who was killed Saturday in south Lebanon along with a captain and a soldier in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral procession in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A relative of the Lebanese soldier Hassan Nazzal, who was killed Saturday in south Lebanon along with a brigadier general and a captain in an Israeli airstrike, mourns as she holds his portrait during his funeral procession in Beirut, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Army soldiers carry the coffin of Brig. Gen. Wissam Sabra, who was killed Saturday in south Lebanon along with a captain and a soldier in an Israeli airstrike, during his funeral procession in Beirut, Sunday, June 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A man walks past anti-U.S. graffiti painted on the wall of the British Embassy in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People walk under a banner showing portraits of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, left, and the slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S. and Israeli strikes on Feb. 28, in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, June 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
