- At least 10 dead in Florida but Hurricane Milton not as bad as feared
- Far from eye, Hurricane Milton's deadly tornados rampaged Florida
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- Argentina held, Bolivia stun Colombia in 2026 qualifiers
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- Bolivia stun Colombia in World Cup qualifiers
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- Greece earn late win against England in Nations League, Italy-Belgium stalemate
- Trump biopic 'The Apprentice' hits US theaters weeks before election
- Pavlidis dedicates 'special' Greece win over England to tragic Baldock
- Wall Street stocks retreat from records on US inflation data
- 'Like a quake': Beirut shaken after deadliest strikes on centre
- Fallen giants Ghana in AFCON trouble after Sudan draw
- Asian leaders meet in Laos with US, Russia on world turmoil
- England gamble backfires as Pavlidis fires emotional Greece to victory
- Obama stumps for Harris, Trump talks US protectionism
- New-look France ease past Israel in Nations League
- Belgium fight back to draw with 10-man Italy in Nations League
- 'Get a life': Hurricane whips up US election storm
- Japan stay perfect in World Cup qualifying
- Relief as Lebanon evacuees dock in Turkey
- Lebanon says 22 dead in Israeli strikes on central Beirut
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- Civilians flee Gaza's Jabalia in tightening Israeli siege
- Israel strikes central Beirut, killing 18
- At least 10 dead in Florida from tornadoes caused by Hurricane Milton
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- S.Sudan floods affect 893,000, over 241,000 displaced: UN
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- Windies sweat on injury to 'crucial' Taylor at World Cup
- Lebanon says 11 dead, 48 injured in Israeli strikes on Beirut
- Panama lashes out at EU over tax haven 'outrage'
- Erdogan says Gaza 'shame of humanity', calls for permanent ceasfire
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- 'Good opportunity': Nagelsmann upbeat despite Germany's long injury list
- Hurricane whips up bitter US election battle
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- Lebanon state media says Israeli strikes hit central Beirut
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- France's City of Light switches to climate-resilient power cables
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David Lammy: friend of Obama now UK foreign minister
Britain's new foreign minister David Lammy, appointed Friday, is a trailblazing black lawmaker descended from slaves who calls former US president Barack Obama a friend.
Lammy has also made the odd outspoken comment, including about US ex-president Donald Trump, meaning he could be in for a bumpy ride as the UK's top diplomat.
The 51-year-old's ancestors were enslaved in Guyana, South America -- a family history that Lammy says will inform his approach to foreign policy.
"I will take the responsibility of being the first foreign secretary descended from the slave trade incredibly seriously," he said in a recent speech.
Lammy has been Labour's international affairs spokesman for over two years and by his own count has made more than 40 foreign visits during that time.
Along the way he has sharpened his vision for UK diplomacy -- a model that he calls "progressive realism".
It combines the fact-based approach of arguably Labour's most famous foreign secretary, Ernest Bevin, with the ethical idealism of Robin Cook in the late 1990s.
Bevin helped establish NATO after World War II and pushed for Britain to acquire nuclear weapons, while Cook oversaw successful interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone before resigning from Tony Blair's cabinet over the invasion of Iraq.
"Taking the world as it is, not as we would wish it to be... but believing that we can get Britain its future back while delivering for the wider world," Lammy has said.
He argues that British diplomacy "needs to rediscover the art of grand strategy" following the country's bitter exit from the European Union.
Lammy favours closer cooperation with the EU, continued backing for Ukraine, and a Palestinian state when the conditions for peace in the Middle East allow.
Born in London in 1972 to Guyanese immigrants, Lammy's childhood was shaped by his father walking out on his mother and their five children when he was 12.
"I never saw him again. I have always felt that hole in my life -- and I am not alone," Lammy wrote in The Guardian in 2013, one of several articles he has penned about the importance of fathers being active in children's lives.
Lammy grew up in Tottenham, the area of north London that he has represented in parliament since 2000, before gaining a law degree.
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In the late 1990s, he became the first black Briton to attend Harvard Law School and later befriended Obama during an event for black alumni.
His wife, the artist Nicola Green, chronicled Obama's successful 2008 presidential campaign in a series of portraits.
Lammy became the youngest member of parliament when he was first elected aged 27 and soon gained ministerial experience, serving in the governments of Blair and Gordon Brown.
He apologised in 2013 after claiming the BBC had made a "silly innuendo about the race" of the next pope when in fact it had cited the role of black and white smoke in the election of pontiffs.
Lammy is a strong Atlanticist -- through his time spent in the United States and contacts with the Democratic Party via Obama -- and favours maintaining Britain and America's so-called special relationship.
As Labour repositioned itself from opposition party to government-in-waiting, Lammy had to reassure the Republican Party that he had common cause with it as well.
During a trip to Washington DC in early May, he told the right-wing Hudson Institute think-tank that he was a "good Christian boy" and "small C conservative".
Lammy has also had to offer reassurances that he could work with Trump if the presumptive Republican nominee defeats President Joe Biden in November's election.
Labour's shadow foreign secretary once called Trump a "woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathising sociopath", but recently described him as "misunderstood".
"Whoever is in the White House, or Number 10, in a big election year we must work together," Lammy said, stressing that the relationship is "core not just to our own national security, but the security of much of the world."
A.Mahlangu--AMWN