By MICHELLE L. PRICE and JILL LAWLESS, Associated Press

AYLESBURY, England (AP) — After the pomp, it’s time for the politics.

President Donald Trump met Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday, the final day of the U.S. leader’s state visit to Britain, with tech investment, steel tariffs and potentially tricky talks over Ukraine and Gaza on the agenda.

The president and first lady Melania Trump were feted by King Charles III and Queen Camilla on Wednesday at Windsor Castle with all the pageantry the monarchy can muster: gold-trimmed carriages, scarlet-clad soldiers, artillery salutes and a glittering banquet in a grand ceremonial hall.

British officials have festooned the trip with the kind of superlatives Trump revels in: It’s an “unprecedented” second state visit for the U.S. leader, featuring the biggest military honor guard ever assembled for such an occasion.

On Thursday it was Starmer’s turn to welcome the president to Chequers, a 16th-century manor house northwest of London that serves as a rural retreat for British leaders.

After bidding goodbye to the king and queen at Windsor — Trump called the monarch “a great gentleman, and a great king” — Trump flew by helicopter some 20 miles to Chequers. He was welcomed by the prime minister and his wife, Victoria Starmer, before the two men sat down for a formal meeting.

Trump’s British hosts want to celebrate the strength of the U.S-U.K. relationship, almost 250 years after its rocky start in 1776. Trump was welcomed by ceremonial honor guard complete with bagpipers — a nod to the president’s Scottish heritage — and shown items from the archive of wartime leader Winston Churchill, who coined the term “special relationship” for the bond between the United States and Britain.

There’s also a lunch of Dover sole followed by key lime pie, and a display by the Red Devils army parachute team.

The first lady, meanwhile, spent the morning in Windsor. She was shown treasures from the Royal Library by the queen before meeting young scouts with Kate, the Princess of Wales.

Trans-Atlantic tech partnership

To coincide with the visit, Britain said U.S. companies had pledged $204 billion in investment in the United Kingdom, including $122 billion from investment firm Blackstone in the next decade. Investment will also flow the other way, including almost $30 billion by pharmaceutical firm GSK in the U.S.

The two leaders will sign a “tech prosperity deal” that U.K. officials say will bring thousands of jobs and billions in investment in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and nuclear energy.

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It includes a U.K. arm of Stargate, a Trump-backed AI infrastructure project led by OpenAI, and a host of AI data centers around the U.K. American firms are announcing $42 billion investment in the U.K.’s AI sector, including $30 billion from Microsoft for protects including Britain’s largest supercomputer.

British officials say they have not agreed to scrap a digital services tax or water down internet regulation to get the deal, some details of which have yet to be announced.

The British government is learning that when it comes to deals with the U.S. administration, the devil is in the detail. In May, Starmer and Trump struck a trade agreement that reduced U.S. tariffs on Britain’s key auto and aerospace industries.

But talks on slashing duties on steel and aluminum to zero from their current level of 25% have stalled, despite a promise in May that the issue would be settled within weeks.

The British Chambers of Commerce said failure to cut the tariffs would “greeted with dismay” by the British steel industry.

Potentially awkward conversations

Starmer wants a successful state visit to balance weeks of bad news that saw him lose not just an ambassador but Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner — who quit over a tax error on a home purchase — and a senior aide. Fourteen months after winning a landslide election victory, Starmer’s government is struggling to kickstart Britain’s sluggish economy and his Labour Party is lagging in the polls.

Leslie Vinjamuri, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, said the trip is likely to be “a difficult visit for the prime minister, much more so than for the U.S. president.”

For Trump, “this plays well at home, it plays well abroad. It’s almost entirely to President Trump’s advantage to turn up to Britain and be celebrated by the British establishment,” she said.

Starmer will be bracing for awkward questions about Jeffrey Epstein when he and Trump hold a news conference at Chequers. Days before the state visit, Starmer fired Britain’s ambassador to the U.S., Peter Mandelson, over the envoy’s past friendship with the convicted sex offender.

Questions about Epstein overshadowed Trump’s last visit to the U.K. in July, when he sat with Starmer at his golf club in Scotland. As they took questions from journalists, Trump was repeatedly peppered with queries about Epstein as his government faced pressure to release government records into the criminal case of the now-disgraced financier, who authorities say killed himself in 2019.

Difficult discussions on Ukraine, Middle East

There are also potentially difficult conversations to be had over Ukraine and the Middle East.

Starmer has played a major part in European efforts to shore up U.S. support for Ukraine. Trump has expressed frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin but has not made good on threats to impose new sanctions on Russia for shunning peace negotiations. On Tuesday, Trump appeared to put the onus on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying, “He’s going to have to make a deal.”

Last week’s Russian drone incursion into NATO member Poland drew strong condemnation from European NATO allies, and pledges of more planes and troops for the bloc’s eastern flank. Trump played down the incident’s severity, musing that it “ could have been a mistake. ”

The king gave Trump a gentle nudge in his state banquet speech on the strength of the trans-Atlantic relationship. Charles noted that “as tyranny once again threatens Europe, we and our allies stand together in support of Ukraine, to deter aggression and secure peace.”

Starmer also departs from Trump on Israel’s war in Gaza, and has said the U.K. will formally recognize a Palestinian state later this month.

Trump has threatened to penalize Canada during trade negotiations for making a similar move.

AP Technology Writer Matt O’Brien contributed to this story.

By MIKE STOBBE and LAURA UNGAR, Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s new vaccine advisory committee meets Thursday to begin a two-day session focused on shots against COVID-19, hepatitis B and chickenpox.

Votes are expected Thursday afternoon on hepatitis B and on a combined shot against measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox, but Department of Health and Human Services officials have not said exactly what proposals would be considered.

Information on the meeting agenda suggests the committee may be poised to roll back — at least partly — a longstanding recommendation that all U.S. children get an initial dose of hepatitis B vaccine right after birth.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics and many public health officials support that decades-old practice.

Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health department director in Columbus, Ohio, said rates of the liver disease among children have dropped tremendously since it was put into place.

“I don’t understand the rationale of why we would stop providing that vaccine and that guidance to babies when we’ve seen such great progress in that area,” said Roberts, who was scheduled to join the vaccine panel but was dismissed by Kennedy. “If it’s not broken, why change it?”

The committee’s chair, Martin Kulldorff, also has raised the idea of recommending the MMRV combination shot not be given to children younger than 4. In a June presentation to the committee, he discussed rare instances of feverish seizures that have been associated with the first dose, given to kids between ages 1 and 2.

The ACIP last dealt with the issue in 2009, when it said either the combination shot or separate MMR and varicella shots were acceptable for the first dose. Today, most pediatricians suggest separate doses for the first round and give the combined shot for the second dose, pediatrics experts say.

Some doctors and public health experts say they are not aware of any new safety data that would explain the revisiting of those vaccination recommendations. They worry that the panel is raising unwarranted new questions about vaccines in the minds of parents, and that it may limit the ability of families to get their children protected.

The panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, makes recommendations to the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how already-approved vaccines should be used. CDC directors have almost always accepted those recommendations, which are widely heeded by doctors and guide vaccination programs.

Kennedy, a leading antivaccine activist before becoming the nation’s top health official, fired the entire 17-member panel earlier this year and replaced it with a group that includes several anti-vaccine voices. On Monday, HHS announced the addition of five more people, some of them noted skeptics of COVID-19 vaccinations or pandemic prevention measures.

Doctors’ groups and public health organizations have voiced alarm about Kennedy and his new panel. Concern intensified in May, when Kennedy announced he was removing COVID-19 shots from the CDC’s recommendations for healthy children and pregnant women. The move was heavily criticized by doctors’ groups and public health organizations, and prompted a lawsuit by the American Academy of Pediatrics and other groups.

The committee is scheduled to make COVID-19 vaccine recommendations on Friday.

The AAP and some others groups have issued their own vaccination recommendations, which disagree with recommendations put out by federal officials this year.

In recent weeks, several states have announced policies to help residents maintain access to vaccines, in some cases signing orders that ensure COVID-19 vaccinations at pharmacies without individual prescriptions. Wisconsin this week joined a list of more than a dozen to take steps, when Gov. Tony Evers signed an executive order for state health officials to follow the guidance of national physician organizations.

Ungar reported from Louisville, Kentucky.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By AAMER MADHANI and LINLEY SANDERS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — At a moment of growing international alarm about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, more U.S. adults view Israel’s military action in the Palestinian territory as excessive than at the beginning of the war, according to a new poll.

About half of Americans say the military response from Israel in the Gaza Strip has “gone too far,” according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s up from November 2023, when 40% said Israel’s military action had gone too far. That AP-NORC poll was conducted shortly after Hamas started the conflict by launching an Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel in which militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.

But at the same time, Americans overall, particularly Republicans, are less likely to say that negotiating a ceasefire should be a high priority for the U.S. government than they were just a few months ago when the U.S. was holding ceasefire talks with Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to media at Ben Gurion International Airport, as he departs Tel Aviv for Qatar following an official visit, near Lod, Israel, Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025. (Nathan Howard/Pool Photo via AP)

The shift in American attitudes about Israel’s actions comes as Israel begins an expanded ground offensive on Gaza City. Israel is facing increased international scrutiny over its conduct in Gaza, with a team of independent experts commissioned by the United Nations’ Human Rights Council this week announcing it has concluded that Israel is committing genocide.

Israel has already destroyed vast areas of Gaza, displaced around 90% of the population and caused a catastrophic humanitarian crisis, with experts announcing a famine in Gaza City. The Palestinian death toll has surpassed 65,000, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

“The level of innocent women and children suffering,” said Renee Hollier, of Lafayette, Louisiana, who described herself as a political independent and mother of a toddler. “There’s just no justification for this kind of suffering to continue.”

Bipartisan uptick in views that Israel has ‘gone too far’

The poll found a bipartisan uptick in Americans finding Israel’s military response has “gone too far.”

About 7 in 10 Democrats say this now, up from 58% in November 2023. And roughly half of independents say the same, compared with about 4 in 10 in the earlier measure. Republicans have also moved slightly, from 18% to 24%.

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Concern about overreach from Israel was high in January 2024, when 50% of U.S. adults said Israel had “gone too far,” but that fell slightly as the war continued.

And 45% of U.S. adults now say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. to provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza, similar to Americans’ views at the start of the war but up slightly from 41% in March.

Miguel Martinez, 55, of Miami, said it remains critical for President Donald Trump’s Republican administration to prioritize humanitarian relief even as it backs the Israeli military’s effort to defeat Hamas. Martinez supports Israel’s aim to defeat Hamas, but he’s concerned that the conflict is dragging on.

“Not everyone there is the enemy,” said Martinez, a Republican who said he broadly approves of Trump’s handling of the conflict. “Those people need help.”

Fewer say negotiating a ceasefire should be a high US priority

Despite the growing view that Israel has overstepped, Americans are less likely to consider it a high priority to negotiate a permanent ceasefire between Israel and Hamas than they were when the Trump administration was heavily involved in negotiations. That downward shift is primarily driven by Republicans.

About half of U.S. adults say it’s “extremely” or “very” important, down from 59% in March but in line with views from last year. Republicans have grown less likely to say it’s “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. to negotiate a permanent ceasefire since earlier in the year, while Democrats haven’t shifted.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the conflict will continue until Hamas is eliminated and the remaining hostages are released from captivity. Hamas has said its assault was in response to the more than decadelong blockade of Gaza, Israeli raids inside West Bank cities, increasing attacks by settlers on Palestinians and the growth of settlements.

In interviews, Americans across the political spectrum were dour about the prospects of the Trump administration mediating a lasting ceasefire. During the campaign, Trump pledged to quickly end the Israel-Hamas war as well as the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He’s struggled with both.

Approval of Trump’s handling of the conflict is down slightly among U.S. adults to 37%, compared with 44% in March.

“There’s an all-or-nothing attitude on both sides,” Martinez said of Israel and Hamas. “Any resolution, any ceasefire, it’s hard to see it being anything more than temporary.”

Netanyahu last week approved an audacious strike targeting Hamas officials in the Gulf emirate of Qatar, an operation that killed six people but that Hamas claims failed to kill any of the group’s leaders. The attack also threatened to upend months of ceasefire diplomacy mediated by Qatar, which has served as an intermediary with Hamas.

Democrats are more likely to prioritize negotiations on an independent Palestinian state

Larry Kapenstein, 71, a Democrat from Middletown, Pennsylvania, said he’s worried about the conflict’s long-term ramifications for Israel’s economy and standing in the world.

“I side with Israel, and I think they’re in the right in this, but I think Netanyahu has just taken this too far,” Kapenstein said. “There’s got to be a better way.”

About 3 in 10 U.S. adults said it is “extremely” or “very” important to negotiate the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, unchanged from January 2024. But that belief is especially pronounced among Democrats: About half now say this is highly important, up from 41% in 2024. That compares with 19% of independents and 14% of Republicans.

The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly last week to support a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict and urge Israel to commit to a Palestinian state, a move that Netanyahu vehemently opposed and that the U.S. was one of the 10 countries to vote against.

Support for military aid for Israel falls

The survey also found slightly less support for military aid for Israel.

About 2 in 10 U.S. adults said it is “extremely” or “very” important for the U.S. to provide aid to Israel’s military to fight Hamas, down from 36% at the war’s start. The decline has been particularly dramatic among Democrats, from 30% at the beginning of the war to 15% now.

Lehks Wright, 50, of Albany, Georgia, who is an independent, said it’s difficult to justify spending billions of dollars backing Israel’s military when the Trump administration is calling for sweeping cuts in federal spending on health care and other social programs.

“If you’re going to say we’re in a deficit and there’s government bloat, and I am not doubting that, then cut spending on other countries, too,” Wright said.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,183 adults was conducted Sept. 11-15, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.

It’s that time of year when our garden is producing insane amounts of ripe tomatoes.

A bowl full of tomatoes from the Flemings’ garden. (Courtesy of Ed Fleming)

This past weekend, I went out to harvest and ended up with probably 15 pounds of beautiful heirlooms, which was great, but I had to come up with a plan for them, and fast.

If you’re in the same boat, we have a few tried-and-true recipes that use up a ton of tomatoes and yield something so delicious that it’s worth every second of energy you put into growing, harvesting and cooking them.

This year, I grew five varieties — green zebra, brandywine, black krim, black cherry and San Marzano. I also have a towering tomatillo plant that is producing like crazy.

For two of the four recipes below, you have to prep the tomatoes before cooking. Because we grow so many, we have a tomato press that removes the skins and seeds (a food mill works, too), but you can do it the old-fashioned way.

Here’s how: Use a paring knife to place an “X” at the bottom of your tomato. Drop it into boiling water for a few minutes, or until the skin starts to peel away, then plunge it into an ice bath. The skin should come off easily. If you want to get rid of the seeds, too, cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the gelatinous pulp and seeds. (Lots of people don’t mind the seeds, so feel free to skip this step.)

Here are four of my favorite recipes that use a lot of tomatoes, for those times when eating a few BLTs a day (definitely something I’m still doing) isn’t putting a dent in your harvest.

And if you don’t grow tomatoes but are interested in making these recipes, this is the time of year that you can often pick up a bushel of tomatoes for pretty cheap at the farmers’ market, because farmers are eager to get rid of them. They might not be the prettiest specimens, but they are perfect for sauces, salsas and soups.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

Tomato puree from San Marzano tomatoes grown in the Fleming garden. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

I wasn’t sure I’d grow San Marzanos again until I sent them through the press. The resulting pulp was so thick and beautiful that next year, I might plant two! We mixed them with some brandywine and black krim because we had so many we needed to use up, but you would probably have to simmer it for far less time if you stuck to those San Marzanos or romas.

We were overachievers and served this over fresh, homemade ravioli, and it was incredible, but the sauce is great over your favorite dried pasta, too.

Makes enough sauce for 8-10 servings of pasta

INGREDIENTS

6 pounds fresh tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped, or run through a food mill
1 large shallot, minced
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 springs fresh basil
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons butter or olive oil

DIRECTIONS

Melt the butter or heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

Add the shallot and stir for a few minutes, then add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add the tomatoes, salt and pepper. Bring just barely to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until it’s as thick as you prefer it, anywhere from an hour to three hours. When it’s how you like it, add the basil and let it cook for a few minutes to infuse its flavor.

Serve over your favorite pasta and top with more basil and parmesan cheese (optional).

Tip: If you have leftover sauce, freeze it in a zip-top bag for up to six months. Pasta with this fresh sauce in the middle of winter is like a warm, summery hug.

Salsa Verde

Salsa Verde made with a mixture of tomatillos and green zebra heirloom tomatoes from the Fleming garden. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

This beautiful salsa is like a magic trick if you have green zebras. People taste it expecting the tartness of tomatillo, but they get that incredible heirloom sweetness instead. I did throw in some homegrown tomatillos, too, so I got the best of both worlds. If you don’t like spice, remove the seeds and inner membrane of the jalapenos. If you do, add more or even hotter peppers, like Thai bird or habanero.

Makes about 5 cups of salsa

INGREDIENTS

3 pounds green zebra tomatoes, tomatillos or a mix of the two, sliced in half
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 large white onion, sliced
3 whole jalapenos, stem removed and sliced in half
½ cup cilantro, chopped
Juice of one lime, or more to taste
3/4 teaspoon of kosher salt, or more to taste

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place tomatoes and/or tomatillos, cut-side down, on one of them and the jalapenos, garlic and onion on another.

Roast for 30 minutes.

Heat the broiler and place each sheet under it for a few minutes, until you get some nice char on the vegetables. Watch closely so you don’t completely torch them. Remove vegetables from the oven and let cool slightly.

Add vegetables to the bowl of a food processor, working in batches if necessary. Pulse the vegetables until you get your desired consistency.

Add pulsed vegetables to a large bowl, then add salt, lime juice and cilantro. Taste and add more lime juice or salt if desired. Cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour before serving.

Old-fashioned Tomato Soup

Tomato soup and grilled cheese is the perfect summer meal. (Jess Fleming / Pioneer Press)

This is my husband’s baby — he makes it every year while I crank out grilled cheese for the family to go with it. This year, I coated the outside of the sourdough bread for the sandwiches with butter and finely grated parmesan and stuffed them with extra-sharp cheddar for tang and muenster for meltiness. This soup was the perfect thing to dunk them in!

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

INGREDIENTS

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 pounds ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped (or run through a tomato press)
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced
¾ teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup heavy cream
Thinly sliced basil, for serving (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Heat the olive oil in a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until translucent. Add the garlic and stir for about 30 seconds, or until fragrant.

Add tomatoes, salt and pepper and simmer for about 25 minutes. Using an immersion blender, puree mixture until smooth. Swirl in cream and taste for seasonings, adding more salt or pepper if desired. Top with basil, if using, and serve immediately.

Panzanella Salad

We have also had an absolute bumper crop of cucumbers this year, and this traditional Italian bread salad is a great way to use up both tomatoes and cucumbers. It’s also an excellent use for stale bread! We served it with some grilled chicken and called it a meal.

Adapted from loveandlemons.com

Makes about 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

For the salad:

½ pound of sourdough bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
1½ pounds tomatoes, sliced into wedges or cherry tomatoes, halved
1 English cucumber, sliced into half moons
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cubed (I used pearls)
1 cup fresh basil leaves, torn, plus more for garnish
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing:

¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons sherry vinegar or red wine vinegar
2 garlic cloves, grated
½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Heaping ½ teaspoon kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place the bread on the baking sheet, drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. Toss to coat and spread evenly on the sheet. Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until crisp around the edges.

Make the dressing: In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil, vinegar, garlic, mustard, salt, and several grinds of pepper.

Add the onion, tomatoes, cucumber, and bread to the bowl with the dressing and toss to coat. Add the cheese and basil and gently toss. Season to taste and serve with more fresh basil on top.

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