标签： Europe

LONDON – On Wednesday, King Charles III will step into the centuries-old pageantry of the UK Parliament’s state opening to unveil the British government’s 12-month legislative agenda, a ceremonial event layered with unprecedented political tension as Prime Minister Keir Starmer fights to save his grip on power.

The upcoming address marks Starmer’s second high-stakes effort to shore up his premiership, coming just one week after his Labour Party delivered catastrophic results in national local and regional elections. Those losses exacerbated his already fragile hold on Downing Street, amplifying internal unrest within his own party. Critics inside Labour argue Starmer has been far too cautious in addressing three of the UK’s most pressing pain points: skyrocketing living costs, widening wealth inequality, and crumbling underfunded public services, leading to growing calls for his resignation.

Pressure on Starmer escalated sharply this week after a comeback speech to party supporters on Monday was widely panned as out of touch with public concerns and devoid of the bold policy changes many say are needed to turn the country around. The backlash intensified on Tuesday, when former Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips stepped down from the Cabinet, issuing a blunt rebuke that the government needed to “have a row, push back, make arguments, bring people along” instead of sticking to its timid approach.

Beyond the immediate political upheaval, this year’s state opening lays bare the clash between Britain’s monarchical historic grandeur and its modern-day realities. As a mid-sized European power, the UK currently grapples with a host of deep-seated challenges: an underfunded military, soaring national debt, diminished global influence, uncontrolled immigration flows, and strained budgets for core public services from healthcare to education.

The state opening of Parliament itself is a carefully choreographed ritual dating back to the 16th century, with its modern format established in 1852. It was crafted to symbolize the UK’s transition from absolute monarchy to parliamentary democracy, where ultimate governing authority rests with the elected House of Commons. This year, all eyes will not be on the pageantry, but on the precarious future of Starmer’s leadership.

Policy proposals expected to be outlined in the King’s speech, which is always written by the sitting government rather than the monarch, include measures to tackle the ongoing cost of living crisis, the creation of a national wealth fund to boost private investment in public infrastructure, and stricter regulations for asylum seekers. Also on the draft agenda are controversial plans: abolishing jury trials for select criminal cases in England and Wales, lowering the national voting age from 18 to 16, and implementing a new “duty of candor” that requires public officials to disclose truthfully and cooperate fully with official investigations.

The key obstacle Starmer faces is that most of these proposals have already been announced publicly. That has left political analysts and party skeptics questioning whether the speech will be enough to win over disillusioned lawmakers and party members.

The full day of ritual will follow its traditional script to the letter: King Charles will travel the less-than-one-mile route from Buckingham Palace to the Houses of Parliament in a historic horse-drawn carriage, before donning the heavy Imperial State Crown and ceremonial robe of state to process into the unelected House of Lords. The official known as Black Rod, named for the ebony rod they carry, will then journey to the House of Commons to summon its members to a joint sitting. In a centuries-old symbol of parliamentary independence from the crown, the doors of the Commons are deliberately slammed in Black Rod’s face, only opening after the official strikes them three times with the rod. After the King reads the speech and departs, both houses of Parliament will launch several days of debate over the proposed legislative program.

Just days after the long-negotiated EU-Mercosur free trade agreement entered provisional force, a new trade dispute has emerged between Brazil and the European Union, after Brasilia confirmed Tuesday that Brussels will implement a full block on Brazilian animal product imports starting this September.

The landmark transatlantic trade pact, which covers a combined $22 trillion market and includes Mercosur members Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, was formally signed in January 2025 and entered provisional application on May 1. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen pushed forward the provisional enactment, moving ahead of full ratification and sidestepping the European Parliament, where the agreement has faced fierce criticism from multiple blocs of lawmakers. The deal is currently being reviewed by the European Court of Justice, and will be scrapped entirely if the court rules against its legal standing.

From its earliest stages of negotiation, the trade agreement has faced staunch pushback from European farmers and environmental advocacy groups. Opponents cite a range of concerns including unfair competitive pressure from lower-cost South American imports, risks to the livelihoods of EU agricultural producers, downward pressure on European food prices, and lower environmental and food safety standards among Mercosur exporting nations.

Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture said in an official statement Tuesday that the EU’s import ban came as a complete surprise to Brazilian authorities, and that the federal government will launch immediate diplomatic efforts to reverse the decision. Per Brazilian media reporting, the EU has justified the new restriction by stating it has not received sufficient documentation proving that Brazilian animal products are free of growth-promoting antimicrobial substances, a common livestock feed additive banned under EU food safety rules.

In a next step to resolve the dispute, Brazil’s head of mission to the European Union will hold a formal meeting with EU agricultural regulators on Wednesday to demand clarity on the new restriction and push back on the ban, the agriculture ministry confirmed.

Data from the Brazilian Animal Product Industry Association shows that EU member states ranked as the third-largest export market for Brazilian beef in 2025, trailing only the United States and China. The new import block is expected to deal a significant blow to Brazilian beef producers who had anticipated expanded market access under the new trade deal.

On a Tuesday in Moscow, Russian military officials carried out a successful test launch of the new Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), a key milestone in the Kremlin’s years-long campaign to modernize its aging nuclear strategic forces. The announcement came just days after President Vladimir Putin claimed that the nearly three-year full-scale conflict in Ukraine was drawing to a close, delivering a high-profile display of Moscow’s nuclear military capabilities to the West.

Speaking after the test, Putin confirmed that the nuclear-capable Sarmat missile – codenamed “Satan II” by Western defense analysts – will enter official combat service with Russia’s strategic nuclear forces by the end of 2025. The new system is engineered to replace the Soviet-designed Voyevoda ICBM, a decades-old platform that has formed the core of Russia’s land-based nuclear deterrent for generations.

Putin emphasized the Sarmat’s unprecedented destructive power, describing it as “the most powerful missile in the world.” He noted that the combined explosive yield of the system’s multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles is more than four times greater than that of any comparable ICBM fielded by Western nuclear powers. The missile boasts a maximum range of more than 35,000 kilometers, or 21,700 miles, enabling it to strike targets anywhere on the globe via suborbital flight, and incorporates advanced design features that allow it to penetrate even the most sophisticated prospective Western missile defense networks. Compared to its Soviet-era predecessor, the Sarmat also delivers dramatically improved targeting accuracy, Putin added.

This test marks the second publicly acknowledged successful test of the Sarmat, after development began back in 2011. Reports indicate the program suffered a major setback in 2024, when a test launch ended in a large accidental explosion at the test site. The Sarmat is one of several next-generation strategic nuclear systems Putin first unveiled in a 2018 address, when he claimed the new weapons would render any U.S.-built missile defense systems completely ineffective.

The test launch fits into a broader pattern that has played out since Putin ordered the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022: the Russian leader has repeatedly emphasized his country’s nuclear capabilities to deter Western nations from expanding military and political support for Kyiv. Just three days before the test, Putin oversaw the annual Victory Day military parade on Moscow’s Red Square, marking the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Notably, the 2025 parade broke with nearly 20 years of tradition by excluding all heavy weapons and armor, a shift widely interpreted as a security measure to reduce vulnerability to Ukrainian cross-border attacks.

Since Putin first took office in 2000, upgrading Russia’s Soviet-era nuclear triad – the three-pronged force of land-based ICBMs, nuclear-armed submarine-launched missiles, and nuclear-capable strategic bombers – has been a core national security priority. To date, the Kremlin has overseen the deployment of hundreds of new land-based ICBMs, commissioned new nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines, and completed modernization work on its fleet of strategic bombers. Beyond the Sarmat, multiple other next-generation nuclear systems have reached deployment or are in late-stage development:
– The Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, capable of reaching speeds up to 27 times the speed of sound, has already entered operational service.
– The new Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile, which can be fitted with either conventional or nuclear warheads, has already been used twice in conventional strikes against targets in Ukraine. With a maximum range of 5,000 kilometers (3,100 miles), the system can reach any target across the entire European continent.
– Development of the Poseidon, a nuclear-powered underwater drone designed to carry a massive thermonuclear warhead, is in its final stages. The system is engineered to detonate offshore near enemy coastal cities, generating a catastrophic radioactive tsunami that would render large swathes of coastline uninhabitable for decades.
– The Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, also in late-stage development, boasts effectively unlimited range thanks to its miniature atomic reactor propulsion system. The design allows the missile to loiter for days outside enemy air defenses, bypassing traditional defensive networks to strike targets from unexpected directions.

Putin framed the development of these new systems as a forced response to U.S. policy dating back to 2001, when Washington withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, a Cold War-era agreement between the U.S. and Soviet Union that limited the deployment of national missile defense systems. Russian military strategists have long warned that a U.S. national missile shield could create an incentive for Washington to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Russia, counting on the shield to intercept the small number of Russian warheads that would survive an initial first strike.

“We were forced to consider ensuring our strategic security in the face of the new reality and the need to maintain a strategic balance of power and parity,” Putin stated Tuesday.

Russia’s ongoing nuclear modernization push has already triggered reciprocal action from the United States, which has launched a costly multi-billion dollar upgrade of its own nuclear arsenal. The move comes at a time of historic erosion in bilateral nuclear arms control: the last remaining binding treaty limiting the size of the two countries’ nuclear arsenals, New START, expired in February 2025. For the first time in more than 50 years, there are no legal caps on the world’s two largest nuclear stockpiles, fueling widespread international concern that the world is now entering an unconstrained new nuclear arms race.

In a landmark political shift that reshapes both Hungary’s domestic trajectory and European Union dynamics, Péter Magyar’s new 16-member cabinet was officially sworn into office on Tuesday in Budapest, completing the full transfer of power away from Viktor Orbán, who led Hungary with a nationalist-populist agenda for 16 years. This historic handover follows a stunning electoral upset last month, where Magyar’s pro-European Tisza Party secured an unprecedented two-thirds parliamentary majority — a result unmatched in Hungary’s post-Communist history.

Magyar, a 45-year-old lawyer who assumed the prime ministership on Saturday, moved through parliamentary confirmation hearings for his cabinet in just two days, a deliberate timeline that signals his urgency to dismantle the political system Orbán built over nearly two decades. Tisza’s landslide victory gave the party 141 of the 199 total seats in parliament, pushing Orbán’s long-ruling Fidesz party from 135 seats to just 52, with the far-right Mi Hazánk movement holding the remaining six seats.

In remarks delivered moments after his cabinet’s swearing-in inside Hungary’s parliament, Magyar drew a clear line between his administration and his predecessor’s leadership. Stating that the new government would “be the government of all Hungarians” and act as “a servant of the nation and not of the prime minister”, he directly challenged the concentrated power that defined Orbán’s tenure. He outlined his core mandate: undoing the “destruction, division, backwardness and loss of trust” accumulated over the past 20 years, and rebuilding Hungary into a “functioning, livable and self-reliant country”.

A top priority for Magyar’s electorate is holding former Fidesz officials and their affiliated business allies accountable for alleged widespread corruption and misconduct during Orbán’s administration. To advance this goal, the new government plans to establish a National Asset Recovery and Protection Office, a dedicated body tasked with investigating and recovering public funds misused under the previous regime. Magyar has also committed to Hungary joining the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, a move that will allow EU investigators to probe cross-border fraud and the mismanagement of EU funding allocated to the country.

Media reform is another immediate policy focus: Magyar has vowed to suspend programming at Hungary’s public broadcaster, long decried as a partisan mouthpiece for Fidesz, until full editorial objectivity can be guaranteed. He has also called on all senior public officials appointed during Orbán’s tenure — including the Hungarian president, attorney general, head of the national media authority, and chief justice of the Constitutional Court — to resign by May 31 to clear the way for independent appointments aligned with democratic norms.

Structurally, the new government expands the cabinet from 12 ministries under Orbán’s final administration to 16, with standalone portfolios for health, environmental protection, and education, all of which were merged into larger departments under the previous government. This restructuring is part of a broader overhaul of state institutions, with Magyar prioritizing the restoration of democratic governance and the rule of law, both of which eroded significantly during Orbán’s time in power.

Beyond domestic reform, Magyar’s administration is set to transform decision-making dynamics within the EU. Orbán frequently used veto power to block bloc-wide initiatives, most recently blocking new support packages for Ukraine, creating repeated deadlock for the union. The new Hungarian government has made unlocking approximately 17 billion euros ($20 billion) in frozen EU funds its top foreign policy priority. The funds, frozen by the EU over rule-of-law and corruption concerns during Orbán’s tenure, are critically needed to revitalize Hungary’s stagnant economy, which has seen little to no growth for four consecutive years.

In a Facebook video posted the day before the cabinet swearing-in, new Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, a career diplomat and foreign policy expert, confirmed that her ministry’s core mission will be to “bring EU funds home” and “consolidate Hungary’s place in Europe and in the EU”. Other key cabinet appointees include former Shell executive István Kapitány, who takes on the role of Minister of Economy and Energy, and former Erste Bank economist András Kármán, who serves as Minister of Finance. This report included contributions from AP correspondent Don McNeil reporting out of Brussels and AP writer Béla Szandelszky based in Budapest.