Usha Vance, the wife of Vice-President JD Vance, has announced she is pregnant with her fourth child.

In a post on X, the second lady said she is looking forward to welcoming a boy in late July.

“Usha and the baby are doing well,” a statement posted on Tuesday to the second lady’s social media account read.

Vance and his wife, Usha, 40, have three young children: Ewan, Vivek and Mirabel.

Usha Vance (née Chilukuri) was born and raised in the working-class suburbs of San Diego, California, to a mechanical engineer father and a molecular biologist mother who had moved to the US from Andhra Pradesh, India.

She met JD Vance as a student at Yale Law School in 2010, when they joined a discussion group on “social decline in white America”.

Before becoming second lady, Usha Vance had a legal career, including a job as a corporate litigator at firm Munger, Tolles & Olson in San Francisco. She also worked for conservative judges, Chief Justice John Roberts on the Supreme Court and appeals court judge Brett Kavanaugh, before he was appointed by Trump to the Supreme Court.

Usha Vance is the first to have a baby as second lady, though other first ladies have had children while their husbands were in office.

First lady Frances Cleveland, wife of President Grover Cleveland, gave birth to daughter Esther in the White House in 1893, followed by a second child, Marion, who was born outside the White House.

JD Vance has been one of the most vocal members of the Trump administration in calling for higher birth rates in the US.

“Let me say very simply: I want more babies in the United States of America,” he said in 2025.

(BBC)

Italian fashion designer Valentino Garavani, known as Valentino, has died at the age of 93.

One of the giants of 20th Century fashion, Valentino’s creations were worn by celebrities and well-known figures including Elizabeth Taylor, Nancy Reagan, Sharon Stone, Julia Roberts and Gwyneth Paltrow.

He co-founded the Valentino fashion house in 1960 and ranked alongside Giorgio Armani and Karl Lagerfeld at the top of the profession.

In a statement posted on Instagram, the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation said: “He passed away peacefully in his Roman home, surrounded by the love of his family.”

The foundation said Valentino will be lying in state at Rome’s Piazza Mignanelli between 21 and 22 January.

Valentino’s funeral service will be held the following day at the Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels and Martyrs, the foundation said.

Born in Lombardy in May 1932, Valentino was known for his collections that displayed luxury, wealth and opulence.

At least six people have been killed and about 20 injured when a fire tore through a shopping mall in Karachi, Pakistani officials say, as firefighters try to bring the blaze under control.

The fire broke out on Saturday at the Gul Plaza shopping mall, a densely packed commercial complex, and continued to burn for hours. By early Sunday, authorities said crews had managed to control about 30 percent of the fire.

South Deputy Inspector General Syed Asad Raza told the Dawn newspaper that the death toll had risen from an initial three to five. The Edhi Foundation, a medical complex, later confirmed a sixth death in a statement.

Rescue officials said the mall contains roughly 1,200 shops, raising fears that people could still be trapped inside. The Edhi Foundation said part of the building collapsed due to the intensity of the fire, complicating rescue efforts.

Garden subdivision police officer Mohsin Raza said initial findings suggested the fire started due to a short circuit in one of the shops before rapidly spreading throughout the complex.

He said the exact cause must be determined through a detailed investigation and warned that the structure needs to be secured to prevent further damage.

President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed condolences over the loss of life.

In a statement carried by PTV, Sharif ordered authorities to take “all possible measures” to protect lives and property, provide assistance to affected traders and ensure medical care for the injured.

Zardari urged the government of Sindh province, whose capital is Karachi, to offer “immediate and every possible assistance” and said: “No stone should be left unturned in providing the best medical facilities to the injured.”

[Aljazeera]