BRUSSELS — In the 10 years since the Brussels terror attacks, the EU has tightened its security strategy but the internet is opening up new threats, according to the bloc’s counterterrorism coordinator.  Daesh is “mutating jihadism,” Bartjan Wegter told POLITICO in an interview on the eve of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks in Brussels, which pushed the bloc to bolster border protection and step up collaboration and information-sharing. The group has “calculated that it’s much more effective to radicalize people who are already inside the EU through online environments rather than to organize orchestrated attacks from outside our borders,” he said.  “And they’re very good at it.” Ten years ago, two terrorists from Daesh (also known as the so-called Islamic State) blew themselves up at Brussels Airport. Another explosion tore through a metro car at Maelbeek station, in the heart of Brussels’ EU district. Thirty-two people were killed, and hundreds more injured.  The attacks came just months after terrorists killed 130 people in attacks on a concert hall, a stadium, restaurants and bars in Paris, exposing gaps in information-sharing in the bloc’s free-travel area. The terrorists had moved between countries, planning the attacks in one and carrying them out in another, said Wegter, who is Dutch. “That’s where our vulnerabilities were.” Today, violent jihadism remains a threat and new large-scale attacks can’t be excluded. But the probability is “much, much lower today than it was 10 years ago,” said Wegter. In the aftermath of the attacks, the bloc changed its security strategy with a focus on prevention and a “security reflex” across every policy field, according to Wegter. It’s also stepping up police and judicial collaboration through Europol and Eurojust, and it’s putting in place databases — including the Schengen Information System — so countries could alert each other about high-risk individuals, as well as an entry/exit system to monitor who enters and leaves the free-travel area. But the bloc is facing a new type of threat, as security officials see a gradual increase in attempted terrorist attacks by lone actors. A lot of that is being cultivated online and increasingly, younger people are involved. “We’ve seen cases of children 12 years old. And, the radicalization process [is] also happening faster,” Wegter said. “Sometimes we’re talking about weeks or months.” In 2024, a third of all arrests connected to potential terror threats were of people aged between 12 and 20 years old, and France recorded a tripling of the number of minors radicalized between 2023 and 2024, said Wegter.  “Just put yourself in the shoes of law enforcement … You’re dealing with young people who spend most of their time online … Who may not have a criminal record. Who, if they are plotting attacks, may not be using registered weapons. It’s very hard to prevent.” Violent jihadism is just one of the threats EU security officials worry are being cultivated online. Wegter said there is also an emerging trend of a violent right-wing extremist narrative online — and to a lesser extent, violent left-wing extremism. There’s also what he called “nihilistic extremist violence,” a new phenomenon that can feature elements of different ideologies or a drive to overthrow the system, but which is fundamentally minors seeking an identity through violence. “What we see online, some of these images are so horrible that even law enforcement needs psychological support to see this kind of stuff,” said Wegter. Law enforcement’s ability to get access to encrypted data and information on people under investigation is crucial, he stressed, and he drew parallels with the steps the EU took to secure the Schengen free movement 10 years ago. “If you want to preserve the good things of the internet, we also need to make sure that we have … some key mechanisms to safeguard the internet also.”

LONDON — Brexit was “a colossal mistake” and the U.K. should rejoin the European Union, Alexander Stubb said Tuesday.   But instead of waiting for that to happen, London and Brussels should work together now to deepen their relationship in key areas such as defense and intelligence sharing, trade and access to the single market, and technology and innovation, the Finnish president said.  Speaking at the Chatham House think tank during a visit to London, he said the chaotic state of the world in which the old, rules-based order no longer holds should prompt a radical rethink of the EU-U.K. relationship.  “I think Brexit was a colossal mistake,” said former London student Stubb, who has a British wife and children with dual nationality. “I am too diplomatic to express exactly what I think about those who promoted Brexit during the campaign, and those who still say that Brexit is a good thing … But I do think it’s not only shooting yourself in the foot, but it’s like amputating your leg without medical reason for doing it.”  Stubb said he recognized that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not aim to rejoin the EU but argued that Brits and Europeans should be “pragmatic” now and show flexibility on both sides.  Negotiations have been ongoing over moves toward deepening the partnership between London and Brussels since Starmer’s Labour won power in 2024, but progress has been held back over disagreements over youth mobility programs, student fees and how much the U.K. should pay to take part in an arms investment package.  “We need a U.K. voice in Europe. We really miss you guys,” Stubb said. “I should probably express my view that it took you seven years to negotiate yourselves out of the EU, it will take you seven years to regret it, and then seven years to come back in. I hope.” Stubb said British membership of the EU’s customs union should be possible, alongside participation in the single market. Red lines during years of Brexit negotiations meant the U.K. left both structures five years ago, under a bare bones deal that Boris Johnson negotiated.  “We need to be super pragmatic,” he said, instead of Europeans thinking they should “continue to punish” the U.K. for leaving the bloc. “Get out of the mindset that the U.K. should not be a part of the customs union, or the U.K. should not be a part of the internal market. Think about a flexible way of dealing with it.” More broadly, Stubb suggested the EU should reform its structures to allow more flexibility in the way member countries work together, and work with states that are not formal members of the EU.  He said Iceland is renewing its interest in becoming a member, he’d like to see Norway join the bloc, and he joked to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada should also take a look at EU membership when the pair went running together on Tuesday morning in London. 

The 21st century is more likely to belong to Beijing than to Washington — at least that’s the view from four key U.S. allies. Swaths of the public in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. have soured on the U.S., driven by President Donald Trump’s foreign policy decisions, according to recent results from The POLITICO Poll. Respondents in these countries increasingly see China as a more dependable partner than the U.S. and believe the Asian economic colossus is leading on advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence. Critically, Europeans surveyed see it as possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. but harder to reduce reliance on China — suggesting newfound entanglements that could drastically tip the balance of global power away from the West. Here are five key takeaways from the poll highlighting the pivot from the U.S. to China. The POLITICO Poll — in partnership with U.K. polling firm Public First — found that respondents in those four allied countries believe it is better to depend on China than the U.S. following Trump’s turbulent return to office. That appears to be driven by Trump’s disruption, not by a newfound stability in China: In a follow-up question, a majority of respondents in both Canada and Germany agreed that any attempts to get closer to China are because the U.S. has become harder to depend on — not because China itself has become a more reliable partner. Many respondents in France (38 percent) and the U.K. (42 percent) also shared that sentiment. Under Trump’s “America First” ethos, Washington has upended the “rules-based international order” of the past with sharp-elbowed policies that have isolated the U.S. on the global stage. This includes slow-walking aid to Ukraine, threatening NATO allies with economic punishment and withdrawing from major international institutions, including the World Health Organization and the United Nations Human Rights Council. His punitive liberation day tariffs, as well as threats to annex Greenland and make Canada “the 51st state,” have only further strained relationships with top allies. Beijing has seized the moment to cultivate better business ties with European countries looking for an alternative to high U.S. tariffs on their exports. Last October, Beijing hosted a forum aimed at shoring up mutual investments with Europe. More recently, senior Chinese officials described EU-China ties as a partnership rather than a rivalry. “The administration has assisted the Chinese narrative by acting like a bully,” Mark Lambert, former deputy assistant secretary of State for China and Taiwan in the Biden administration, told POLITICO. “Everyone still recognizes the challenges China poses — but now, Washington no longer works in partnership and is only focused on itself.” These sentiments are already being translated into action. Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney declared a “rupture” between Ottawa and Washington in January and backed that rhetoric by sealing a trade deal with Beijing that same month. The U.K. inked several high-value export deals with China not long after, while both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have returned from recent summits in Beijing with Chinese purchase orders for European products. Respondents across all four allied countries are broadly supportive of efforts to create some distance from the U.S. — and say they’re also more dependent on China. In Canada, 48 percent said it would be possible to reduce reliance on the U.S. and believe their government should do so. In the U.K., 42 percent said reducing reliance on the U.S. sounded good in theory, but were skeptical it could happen in practice. By contrast, fewer respondents across those countries believe it would actually be possible to reduce reliance on China — a testament to Beijing’s dominance of global supply chains. Young adults may be drawn to China as an alternative to U.S. cultural hegemony. Respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 were significantly more supportive than their older peers of building a closer relationship with China. A recent study commissioned by the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences — a Beijing-based think tank — suggests most young Europeans get their information about China and Chinese life through social media. Nearly 70 percent of those aged 18 to 25 said they rely on social media and other short-form video platforms for information on China. And the media they consume is likely overwhelmingly supportive of China, as TikTok, one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, was built by Chinese company ByteDance and has previously been accused of suppressing content deemed negative toward China. According to Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, younger generations believe the U.S. has led efforts to depict China as an authoritarian regime and a threat to democracy, while simultaneously degrading its own democratic values. The trend “pushes a narrative that ‘we’ve been lied to’ about what China is,” said Bachulska, as “social sentiment among the youth turns against the U.S.” “It’s an expression of dissatisfaction with the state of U.S. politics,” she added. There’s a clear consensus among those surveyed in Europe and Canada that China is winning the global tech race — a coveted title central to Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s grand policy vision. China is leading the U.S. and other Western nations in the development of electric batteries and robotics, while Chinese designs have also become the global standard in electric vehicles and solar panels. “There has been a real vibe shift in global perception of Chinese tech and innovation dominance,” said Sarah Beran, who served as deputy chief of mission in the U.S. embassy in Beijing during the Biden administration. This digital rat race is most apparent in the fast-paced development of artificial intelligence. China has poured billions of dollars into research initiatives, poaching top tech talent from U.S. universities and funding state-backed tech firms to advance its interests in AI. The investment appears to be paying off — a plurality of respondents from Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. believe that China is more likely to develop the first superintelligent AI. But these advancements have done little to change American minds. A majority of respondents in the U.S. still see American-made tech as superior to Chinese tech, even in the realm of AI. As Washington and its allies grow more estranged, the perception of the U.S. as the dominant world power is in retreat — though most Americans don’t see it that way. About half of all respondents in Canada, Germany, France and the U.K. believe that China is rapidly becoming a more consequential superpower. This is particularly true among those who say the U.S. is no longer a positive force for the world. By contrast, 63 percent of respondents in the U.S. believe their nation will maintain its dominance in 10 years — reflecting major disparities in beliefs about global power dynamics between the U.S. and its European allies. This view of China as the world’s power center may not have been entirely organic. The U.S. has accused Beijing of pouring billions of dollars into international information manipulation efforts, including state-backed media initiatives and the deployment of tools to stifle online criticism of China and its policies. Some fear that a misplaced belief among U.S. allies in the inevitability of China surpassing the U.S. as a global superpower could be helping accelerate Beijing’s rise. “Europe is capable of defending itself against threats from China and contesting China’s vision of a more Sinocentric, authoritarian-friendly world order,” said Henrietta Levin, former National Security Council director for China in the Biden administration. “But if Europe believes this is impossible and does not try to do so, the survey results may become a self-fulfilling prophecy.” METHOLODGY The POLITICO Poll was conducted from Feb. 6 to Feb. 9, surveying 10,289 adults online, with at least 2,000 respondents each from the U.S., Canada, U.K., France and Germany. Results for each country were weighted to be representative on dimensions including age, gender and geography, and have an overall margin of sampling error of ±2 percentage points for each country. Smaller subgroups have higher margins of error.

LONDON — Brussels is insisting that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer agree to a cut in tuition fees for EU students as the price of his Brexit reset, according to two officials familiar with the state of negotiations. EU officials say they are frustrated that the U.K. is yet to engage on the topic in talks — which are meant to finish by the summer. “It needs to be worked out before talks can be concluded,” one EU official told POLITICO. “There is some frustration on our side that we haven’t reached a point in negotiations where this issue has been openly discussed.” The EU official added that a cut in fees for European students was “a very key point for our member states” and “a clear interest for us.” Before Brexit, EU students paid “home” U.K. tuition fees of about £9,500 a year in England — but are now subject to eye-watering “international” rates that can lock out all but the wealthiest students. Overseas rates can range from roughly double the U.K. rate for some courses to huge sums for the most prestigious degrees, such as the £62,820 a year international fee to study computer science at Oxford University. Under pressure from its member countries, the EU wants fees cut for Europeans studying in the U.K. as part of talks to set up a “youth experience” scheme. But Starmer and his negotiators are under pressure from British universities not to accede to the demand. Universities say they will face a cash crisis if lucrative foreign fee income is cut and not replaced, with one recently published analysis by the Russell Group suggesting the sector would be left £580 million out of pocket. A U.K. official said the home fees demand wasn’t mentioned in the “common understanding” drawn up as a blueprint for talks last year — and that negotiations are about implementing that document. The agreement does not explicitly mention tuition fees and only says the youth scheme should “facilitate the participation of young people from the European Union and the United Kingdom” in areas including study. But the EU official quoted above said that, while it was debatable whether the change was alluded to in last year’s communique, it was nevertheless the EU’s position. They stressed that other issues under discussion, like the planned agri-food agreement or linking emissions trading systems, were largely U.K. “asks” — and that the EU also had its own interest to pursue. “It’s important to look at the position from the other side,” they added. A U.K. government spokesperson said: “We will not give a running commentary on ongoing talks.” They added: “We are working together with the EU to create a balanced youth experience scheme which will create new opportunities for young people to live, work, study and travel. “Any final scheme must be time-limited, capped and will be based on our existing youth mobility schemes, which do not include access to home tuition fee status.”

In a sign of the bad state of relations between Spain and Israel, Madrid on Wednesday permanently withdrew its ambassador to Tel Aviv. The diplomatic downgrade comes after years of tense exchanges between both governments. Spain has been a leading critic of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military operations in Gaza and, this month, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez blasted Israel for joining the U.S. in its “illegitimate” attack on Iran. Madrid recalled its ambassador to Tel Aviv, veteran diplomat Ana María Salomón Pérez, last September, after Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar accused Sánchez’s government of inciting a “pro-Palestinian mob” and banned Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz and Minister of Youth Sira Rego from entering the country. The decision to definitively retire the ambassador is a highly symbolic move that underscores the degradation of ties between the two countries. With the ambassador’s removal, Spain’s diplomatic representation will now be handled by its chargé d’affaires, a lower-ranking official whose status is meant to reflect the downgraded relations. Madrid established diplomatic ties with Tel Aviv in 1986, and the two countries enjoyed good relations until the outbreak of the war in Gaza in 2023. Since then, Sánchez has repeatedly demanded Israel respect international law, while Netanyahu’s government has accused the Spanish prime minister of waging an “anti-Israeli” campaign in a bid to distract the domestic public from corruption scandals at home. Israel recalled its ambassador to Madrid in May 2024, shortly after Spain announced its intention to recognize the state of Palestine.

BRUSSELS — In the corridors of Brussels, policymakers endlessly debate the intricacies of the Vision for Agriculture and Food, the urgency of the European Child Guarantee and the future of the Common Agricultural Policy. Yet the place where these high-level strategies actually collide, and succeed or fail, is likely the noisiest room in any building: the school canteen. This week, as we mark International School Meals Day, we need to stop treating school food as a mere logistical cost or a side dish to education. Instead, we must recognize it for what it is: the single most powerful but under-utilized lever for systemic change. Beyond the plate: a systemic warning The statistics are sobering. Today, one in four European adolescents is overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organization. This is not merely a matter of individual choice or poverty. This trend is driven by a food landscape where ultra-processed, low-nutrient options have become the most accessible and affordable default for almost every family, regardless of socio-economic background. For many children, school meals are the only reliable window of high-quality nutrition in a day otherwise dominated by a broken food system. On the production side, our farmers are protesting for fair incomes, while the climate crisis demands a shift to sustainable food systems. It sounds like an impossible knot to untie. But for the past three years, a growing revolution has been taking place in close to 4,000 schools across 22 European countries, reaching over one million children. > For many children, school meals are the only reliable window of high-quality > nutrition in a day otherwise dominated by a broken food system. Through the EU-funded initiative SchoolFood4Change (SF4C), cities and schools have gone far beyond updating their menus; they have dismantled the old model entirely. While thousands have begun transforming how food is sourced, prepared and valued, more than 850 schools have taken the leap even further by fully implementing the Whole School Food Approach (WSFA). The results, published by Rikolto in a new report this week, offer a blueprint for an EU-wide roll-out of the model. “Evidence proves the framework works, yet we are currently hitting a bureaucratic ceiling,” explains Amalia Ochoa, head of sustainable food systems at ICLEI Europe and coordinator of SF4C. “Healthy school meals combined with food education represent the most accessible pathway to food system transformation, directly benefiting the 93 million children and young people across Europe. By aligning existing initiatives under a coherent framework, the EU can deliver on its promises to public health and both economic and environmental sustainability in one integrated approach.” Breaking the silos The WSFA works because it shifts the focus from the individual plate to the entire ecosystem. It recognizes that school meals are not an isolated education cost, but a powerful crossroads where public health, regional economics and environmental policy meet. Credit: LAYLA AERTS The approach integrates four pillars: meaningful policy leadership; sustainable procurement (favoring local and organic); hands-on education (gardening and cooking); and community partnership. When procurement is aligned with regional sustainability goals, magic happens. Children understand the value of food, waste less and local farmers gain a stable, predictable market, shielding them from global market volatility, while simultaneously lowering the long-term healthcare costs associated with diet-related diseases. The missing ingredient: it’s not just the food, it’s the people However, the report reveals a critical bottleneck. The biggest barrier to scaling this success isn’t necessarily the cost of the ingredients; it is the lack of dedicated coordination. > School meals are not an isolated education cost, but a powerful crossroads > where public health, regional economics and environmental policy meet. Transformation requires human power. It needs local coordinators who can navigate the labyrinth between a city’s health department, the procurement office and the school board. Too often, we fund the infrastructure but forget the implementation. For the WSFA to become an EU-wide standard, national and regional authorities need to move beyond project-based thinking. It’s not just another subsidy; it’s a strategic investment in Europe’s social and ecological resilience. As Thibault Geerardyn, director at Rikolto Europe, notes in the report:“The true obstacle to scaling up is institutional, not ideological. Changes in policy must be embedded in the current system, not merely added to it as a ‘nice to have’ project.” The mandate for change: a strategic imperative As the EU begins implementing its new mandate, school food offers a rare ‘triple dividend’ that hits every major political target on the Brussels agenda. It serves as a public health shield, a guaranteed market for local farmers and a tangible safety net for the European Child Guarantee. > Systemic change cannot be led by temporary staff or volunteers. The EU can > make the difference. However, this potential remains locked as long as school food is treated as a secondary concern. Systemic change cannot be led by temporary staff or volunteers. The EU can make the difference. We call on the European Parliament and Commission to: 1. Standardize quality: establish an EU-wide minimum standard of healthy school food and education to drive quality upwards across all member states. 2. Fund the coordinators: move away from short-term grants toward long-term strategic investment in the permanent operational implementation and coordination needed to guide schools through this transition. You cannot build a resilient system on temporary project cycles. 3. Connect the dots: create an interdepartmental taskforce. School food is currently a political orphan, sitting awkwardly between agricultural, health, youth and social policies. It needs a permanent home in the EU institutions and a unified strategy. The revolution is on the menu. We have the recipe. We have the evidence from more than 850 schools. Now, what’s needed is the political courage to serve it. Read the full evidence-based report here: “From Pilots to Policy: Evidence from Three Years of Implementing the Whole School Food Approach in Europe.” This article has been published with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101036763. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT * The sponsor is Rikolto België vzw * The ultimate controlling entity is Rikolto België vzw * The political advertisement is linked to encouraging change to European policy on food systems with calls to action for EU Institutions. Reference to the Green Deal, the European Child Guarantee, and agricultural reform. More information here.

SACRAMENTO, California — California Gov. Gavin Newsom stepped into the fight over age limits on social media Thursday, saying he wants state legislation that would restrict access to the powerful online platforms for teens under 16. In a policy position shared first with POLITICO, Newsom spokesperson Tara Gallegos said that the Democratic governor supports passing age-gating rules inspired by those Australia began enforcing last year, which bar teens under 16 from having social media accounts. Her comments came minutes after Newsom told reporters that “we have to address this issue” of teenagers’ chronic use of social media. “We need help. I think it’s long overdue that we’re having the debate,” Newsom said, when asked about age-gating during a press conference near San Francisco. “It is something that I’m very grateful that we are debating and pursuing at the state level.” With his remarks, the governor moved a step ahead of a bipartisan group of state lawmakers who this month introduced legislation that calls for “a minimum age requirement to open or maintain a social media account.” His comments mark a notable break from the governor’s typical reluctance to weigh in on pending legislation before it reaches his desk. Lawmakers are debating the age limit to include in the legislation. The bill’s lead author, Long Beach Democrat Josh Lowenthal, previously said he’s leaning toward setting the cutoff at 16. In staking out his position, Newsom joins a growing group of high-profile politicians arguing for the need to restrict access to Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and other social media platforms that draw billions of daily users and have upended how people interact. The call for age limits has gained momentum since Australia put its ban in place, citing a growing body of research that the platforms can be addictive and harmful to teens’ mental health. When asked whether the governor would specifically support an outright ban on social media accounts for teens under 16 — as Australia has done — Gallegos said that was still in flux. Newsom’s comments Thursday follow recent overseas trips he made to the World Economic Forum in Switzerland and the Munich Security Conference. The governor said he directly discussed social media age limits in meetings with world leaders, including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Spain and Malaysia are exploring Australia-style bans, while officials in France, Denmark and Italy are mulling a ban for kids under 15. On Wednesday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signaled he may back a proposal to restrict access for kids under 14 — an idea that’s gained steam back in the U.S., where bipartisan members of Congress are pushing a 13-and-under ban. Newsom previously touched on the issue during his State of the State address in January, in which he called on state lawmakers to explore stronger youth social media controls. During the speech, he questioned if California could “do more” following Australia’s social media ban. Even with the governor’s support, proposals to legally cut off teens’ access to social media are likely to spark fierce pushback from tech giants. Google, TikTok and Meta, which owns Facebook, are currently suing to block a 2024 state law that requires parental consent before minors view personalized content feeds, arguing it infringes on free speech. Tech industry group NetChoice, which lists Meta, Google and TikTok as members, has also indicated it may challenge two California social media laws passed last year: one requiring platforms to show minors health warning labels, and another requiring device-makers like Apple and Google to collect user ages. The same group of state lawmakers behind California’s age-gating bill also recently introduced legislation that would create an independent “eSafety Commission” to enforce digital platform regulations, modeled on a similarly named Australian agency. Newsom has not said whether he supports the measure.

CRISIS-HIT STARMER SEEKS SOLACE ON THE WORLD STAGE The British leader’s allies believe his clout on the world stage can shore him up — but his own side will take some convincing. By ESTHER WEBBER and SASCHA O’SULLIVAN in London Illustration by Natália Delgado/POLITICO After the week Keir Starmer’s had, talks about the teetering global order should be a welcome relief. The British PM arrives in Bavaria Friday for the Munich Security Conference having seen two of his closest aides walk out, his top man in Scotland urge him to quit, and continued rage from Labour MPs over the decision to appoint Jeffrey Epstein associate Peter Mandelson as Britain’s ambassador to the U.S. Having staved off his immediate ouster, Starmer is now making another outing on the international stage, where his allies argue he carries genuine clout. He has so far been keen to emphasize the links he’s built with foreign leaders, including his relationship with Donald Trump and his efforts at a “reset” with the EU, as a marker of the renewed British influence that would be at risk were he challenged. But Labour’s restive troops will take some serious convincing of this argument — and doubts remain about some of the key overseas achievements touted by the embattled prime minister. “Starmer would’ve been a really good diplomat … He isn’t such a political actor,” Olivia O’Sullivan of foreign policy think tank Chatham House told the latest episode of POLITICO’s Westminster Insider podcast. TUG OF WAR All leaders face a tug of war between their lives as statesmen and their domestic agendas, but Starmer’s has proved especially strenuous. He came to power promising to fix Britain’s failing public services and lower the cost of living, as counseled by his then-top aide Morgan McSweeney. When Starmer entered Downing Street, however, he defied McSweeney’s wishes by telling advisers he wanted to divide his time 50/50 between foreign and domestic affairs, unable to resist a slew of foreign visits after taking the reins. During his first 17 months, he visited 44 countries on 37 trips out of the U.K. That included a flurry of bilateral meetings and international summits in destinations including Washington D.C., Berlin, Brussels, Rio de Janeiro, New York, Samoa, Budapest, Canada and Azerbaijan. He followed up with high-profile visits to India and China — seen by most in his team as successful. His allies have consistently defended this approach, stressing that representing Britain in the world is one of Starmer’s most important duties and that he has made a success of it. The prime minister has sought to project maturity by building a steady relationship with the unpredictable Trump at the same time as he seeks closer ties with Europe post-Brexit. O’Sullivan, director of the U.K. in the World program at Chatham House, said Britain is now walking “a pretty difficult tightrope” of “flattering Trump, of offering concessions where we can, but figuring out how we defend particular economic interests, but also the interests of our allies, and particularly Ukraine.” U.S. President Donald Trump and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at Chequers, England, Sept. 18, 2025. | Leon Neal/Getty Images Peter Ricketts, former head of the U.K.’s diplomatic service, said the shift towards “a hyper-personalized world” demands Starmer’s presence. “Unless you are in the room with Donald Trump, you’re not influencing him,” Ricketts added. CONNECTING THE DOTS Eighteen months on from the Labour landslide of 2024, however, Starmer’s premiership has flown into more severe difficulties at home. And it’s forcing a rethink. An especially embarrassing climbdown over proposals to cut disability benefits partly unfolded as Starmer flew to the Hague for last year’s NATO summit. the prime minister appeared to admit he had been distracted from the issue, saying afterwards: “I was heavily focused on what was happening with NATO and the Middle East all weekend.” There has been an effort to redraw Starmer’s priorities since the start of the year, with one adviser saying he now wants to spend 20 percent of his time on international matters and 80 percent on domestic concerns. The opening weeks of 2026 showed just how hard this will be to achieve. His plans to talk about cutting the cost of living were immediately upended by Trump’s intervention in Venezuela and threats to Greenland. Unable to separate himself from global affairs, Starmer has instead attempted to send a message that his missions abroad will help improve Britain’s economy and quality of life. On recent trips to Brazil, South Africa and China he has been at pains to stress that “tackling the cost of living today also means engagement beyond our borders.” Ricketts said: “I understand the frustrations on the domestic sphere where he’s not around enough. But, heavens — the world is in a more turbulent place than I can ever remember it, and I’m glad my prime minister’s out there batting for Britain.” One Labour MP with a trade role, granted anonymity like others in this article to discuss internal party thinking, argued that the prime minister had delivered “lots of wins” which go down well among the party faithful. They cited Trump’s softening on NATO and carveout for the U.K. on tariffs.  Key British allies overseas also say Starmer’s support for Kyiv has made a genuine difference in advocating for peace in Ukraine. With his premiership in crisis this week, his supporters have pushed harder on that argument. “We need his leadership not just at home but on the global stage, and we need to keep our focus where it matters, on keeping our country safe,” Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper posted amid a threat to his leadership this week. In his first public appearance since Monday’s public challenge to him, Starmer trumpeted the need to “stand tall” on the international stage. Starmer delivers a speech at a community center in Hertfordshire, England, the day after Monday’s challenge to his leadership. | Pool picture by Suzanne Plunkett/AFP via Getty Images) “Delivering for Britain means acting at home and abroad — not choosing between them,” a Downing Street spokesperson said in a statement to POLITICO. “The record speaks for itself: world‑first trade deals, major migration agreements, and defense contracts supporting thousands of UK jobs – real results for the British people.” LEAST-WORST SCENARIOS For all the boosting of Starmer’s achievements, however, some of his supposed negotiating triumphs have diminished with time. The U.K.’s deal with the U.S. on tariffs has been hard to nail down, and Starmer’s much-hyped trip to China was followed by Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigner Jimmy Lai’s sentencing to 20 years in jail. Substantive deals with the EU on youth mobility, food standards and even the low-hanging fruit of defense cooperation have also proved elusive. As O’Sullivan put it, Starmer has “managed to land us in the least-worst scenario on some of these issues.” A former No.10 official said: “I baulk at the idea that Britain is back on the international stage. All this becomes thin pretty soon — you can position well but the substance of it isn’t that different.” There is a downside to Starmer’s foreign diplomacy when it comes to his standing with his own restive party and the country at large, too.  The PM has long faced accusations that he is distant, both literally and figuratively, when it comes to his colleagues. Labour figures warn that he simply does not have the political space to make an argument about the link between statesmanship and living standards to angry voters. “Part of the reason he’s getting this criticism is because he’s doing so badly in polls… but the justification he’s using is not a good one,” says a second former adviser. “It’s retrofitting, because he wanted to spend a lot of time abroad. People aren’t going to believe spending time with Trump will help the cost of living.”

Spain’s youth minister has intensified Madrid’s clash with Big Tech after suggesting the country may need to curb — or even ban — access to Elon Musk’s social media platform X due to the “flagrant violations of fundamental rights” taking place there. Speaking Wednesday at a digital activism event in Barcelona, Sira Rego, a United Left politician in Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s governing coalition, said “the next battle would have to be oriented to limit and probably ban Twitter [X]” because the platform has become “a space in which we are seeing flagrant violations of fundamental rights.” Rego flagged controversies including sexual deepfake images generated by X’s AI chatbot Grok. Rego called the current digital space “undemocratic” and controlled by “a few digital strongmen,” framing possible limits on X as part of a broader push to reclaim sovereignty from powerful tech giants. Her push underscores how Europe’s struggle to police the digital public square is accelerating, with Spain increasingly at the center. The comments come as Sánchez advances plans to bar under-16s from social media, a proposal expected to reach the Council of Ministers next week. Big Tech isn’t happy. X boss Elon Musk has branded Sánchez a “tyrant,” while Telegram founder Pavel Durov warned that “Pedro Sánchez’s government is pushing dangerous new regulations that threaten your internet freedoms … [and] could turn Spain into a surveillance state under the guise of ‘protection’.” He added that the measures risk mass data collection and censorship. The clash lands amid a broader transatlantic fight over tech rules. U.S. lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday blasted Europe’s Digital Services Act as “draconian,” while several EU countries, including France, Greece, Denmark and Italy, are pursuing their own youth access restrictions. Australia has already enacted a ban.