Britain’s King Charles III set out the agenda of a fragile U.K. government on Wednesday after Prime Minister Keir Starmer faced down calls for his resignation that sparked heavy selling pressure on gilts in the previous session.

The State Opening of Parliament and King’s Speech, a grand affair in which the monarch presents the government’s legislative agenda for the next parliamentary period, took place after Starmer’s political leadership remained under threat following the political fallout of the ruling Labour Party’s poor performance in local elections last week.

Starmer appears to have seen off any immediate leadership challenge for now, and will hope that today’s pomp, pageantry and policy agenda can shift attention away from the current crisis.

That doesn’t mean the leadership threat has gone away. Ahead of King’s address in the House of Lords Wednesday morning, Starmer had a brief meeting, reportedly lasting only 17 minutes, with one of his main leadership rivals, Wes Streeting.

Streeting — the U.K’s health secretary — had reportedly asked to meet privately with Starmer on Tuesday but had been refused. That came after a crunch cabinet meeting in which Starmer vowed to keep leading the Labour Party, despite over 80 lawmakers (at that point) calling on the PM to resign.

Markets had their own say on the political crisis in the U.K., which has seen four prime ministers in the past four years; yields on U.K. government bonds, known as gilts, saw double-digit gains on Tuesday as investors feared that any leadership would lead to a loosening of the fiscal discipline implemented by Starmer’s Chancellor Rachel Reeves.

On Wednesday, as Starmer’s position in office look more assured, yields fell 2 to 6 basis points with the interest rate on the benchmark 10-year gilt hovering around 5.067%.

Jim O’Neill, former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management and former U.K. treasury minister, told CNBC on Wednesday that the U.K. had to start being a “bit more adult.”

“It shocks me that voters are treating the leadership of the country like some kind of gameshow where you have a few months of the year and if we don’t like you you’re out, as evidenced by the scale of support for Reform in the council elections,” he told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

“It doesn’t look to me that any of these voters seem to be concerned about the lack of growth or stability of financial markets …on top of that, the idea that, constitutionally, some ambitious person can just come in and replace the current PM … I think that is a really dangerous thing to do, given the fragility of our current electoral status,” he added.

Neil Wilson, Saxo UK investor strategist, said today’s King’s Speech may offer Starmer a reprieve, but might not be a stay of execution.

“The King’s Speech may see a pause in the plotting, but bond markets are clearly on edge, and I would not be surprised if…

A new race to secure critical minerals is unfolding across the global economy.

From Washington’s proposed $12 billion Project Vault stockpile to expanding buffers in Asia and the European Union, governments are moving to secure access to metals increasingly viewed as essential to national security and industrial policy.

“In metals and minerals is where the newest wave of stockpiling is most visible,” said Patrick Schröder, senior research fellow at Chatham House. Governments are seeking to reduce exposure to concentrated supply chains and export controls, he said.

In the U.S., officials recently outlined a roughly $12 billion strategic mineral reserve dubbed Project Vault. The initiative aims to bolster supply-chain resilience for American industry by building stockpiles of rare earths and other essential metals for electrification, defense and advanced manufacturing.

Project Vault complements other initiatives such as the “Forum on Resource Geostrategic Engagement (FORGE),” a partnership to coordinate critical mineral policy pricing and projects, as well as Pax Silica, which centers on safeguarding the AI-related supply chain.

Australia in January announced plans to formalize a state-backed stockpiling strategy through an $800 million strategic critical minerals reserve, prioritizing antimony, gallium and rare earth elements.

The European Union is also advancing plans to build a joint reserve of critical raw materials under its RESourceEU strategy. Italy, France and Germany are expected to lead the effort, Reuters reported earlier this month, citing sources familiar with the matter.

As recently as last weekend, India and Brazil agreed to deepen cooperation on critical minerals and rare earths, as New Delhi seeks to diversify supply sources and reduce reliance on China. The pact is aimed at strengthening bilateral trade and building more resilient supply chains for materials critical to clean energy, technology and defense industries.

South Korea earlier this year rolled out a comprehensive critical minerals strategy backed by about $172 million in state support. Under this strategy, the government plans to expand stockpile volumes and infrastructure.

“We certainly see a shift to a more resource nationalist mindset amongst many countries,” said Schröder. “At this point, it’s a slippery slope and strategic stockpiling could become hoarding when measures become coercive, lack transparency and become weaponized.”

‘Resource nationalism’ in the works?

The strategic pivot marks what several analysts describe as a structural shift in commodity policy.

“Metal supply chains are fragile,” said Ewa Manthey at ING, pointing to years of underinvestment, long timelines…

Major technology companies and foreign governments are rushing to respond after President Donald Trump late Friday announced plans to impose a $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, threatening to upend the program that underpins America’s technology workforce.

The fee would apply to new H-1B applicants, not renewals or current visa holders, according to a White House official. It will first apply in the upcoming lottery cycle, and it does not apply to 2025 lottery winners, the person said. The White House also clarified that the new $100,000 fee is not an annual charge, as previously reported by several media outlets.

The move could deal a massive blow to companies — primarily in the technology and finance sectors — that rely heavily on highly skilled immigrants, particularly from India and China.

The announcement sent shockwaves through some of the country’s biggest tech and finance companies:

• Amazon’s immigration team advised its H-1B and H-4 visa holders to remain in the U.S. and for those overseas to return before 12:01 a.m. ET on Sept. 21, according to internal messages viewed by CNBC.

• JPMorgan Chase’s law firm sent a memo asking H-1B visa holders at the firm to remain in the U.S. and avoid international travel until further guidance, according to a person familiar with the matter.

• Goldman Sachs told employees holding H-1B visas to exercise caution when traveling internationally based on guidance from immigration services firm Fragomen, according to an internal memo seen by Reuters.

• Microsoft also has reportedly advised H-1B visa holders to remain in the U.S. and for those overseas to return, warning that international travel could jeopardize their immigration status, according to emails seen by Reuters.

The fee represents the administration’s most aggressive move yet to restrict legal immigration. Since taking office in January, Trump has advanced a broad crackdown on both illegal and legal entry into the U.S., but Friday’s announcement marks the most significant attempt to clamp down on employment visas.

Amazon employed the most H-1B holders — more than 14,000 as of the end of June. Microsoft, Meta, Apple and Google had over 4,000 such visas each, among the top 10 recipients for the fiscal year 2025.

CNBC has reached out to all of the public companies on the top 10 H-1B recipient list for comment. The White House didn’t immediately respond to an email asking for comment.

“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and this commonsense action does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down wages,” Taylor Rogers, a White House spokeswoman, told CNBC. “It also gives certainty to American businesses who actually want to bring high-skilled workers to our great country but have been trampled on by abuses of the system.”