The Queen was accompanied by the Prince of Wales in the traditional ceremony in the House of Lords, after Buckingham Palace announced that the Duke of Edinburgh had been admitted to hospital as a precaution on Tuesday night.
His rare absence from the State Opening of Parliament added to the solemnity of an occasion cherished by the British people and replete with tradition.
But the speech glided over the invitation to Trump, which was widely criticized in Britain as an attempt by Prime Minister Theresa May to curry favor with the president during his first year in office.
A major theme of this year's speech?
May slimmed down her plans and omitted several policies touted in the Conservative election campaign, including plans to change funding for the care of older people, which opponents dubbed the "dementia tax". Also missing was ending free school lunches and limiting winter fuel payments to low-income elderly.
There was no mention of US President Donald Trump's proposed state visit to the United Kingdom later this year, appearing to confirm suggestions the visit has been delayed.
British newspaper the Guardian reported that Trump had revealed his unease about the visit during a conversation with May, citing a Downing Street adviser who was in the room.
United Kingdom prime minister Theresa May was the first foreign head of state to visit Trump in the White House, and her decision to invite him on a state visit to the United Kingdom was immediately controversial; a petition calling for the visit to be canceled received more than a million signatures. She has yet to secure a deal with Northern Ireland's DUP party to prop up her government.
Truce collapses in Syria's south amid offensive
Iran is a solid backer of the Syrian regime and has given President Bashar Assad extensive military and political support. This is the first time since its 1980s war with Iraq that Iran has launched a major missile strike outside the country.
"But this government will respond with humility and resolve to the message the electorate sent", she said. I believe in the bill on the courts which I think is supposed to address some of those issues and I think one thing in particular that we are looking at is... um... measures to... hang on a second... there are all sorts of measures that we want to take to ensure that we do not discriminate against everybody.
Trump is set to meet with both the Queen and Prime Minister Theresa May.
The debate also saw Labour MPs, who had previously passed a motion of no confidence in their extreme Leftwing leader and refused to serve on his front bench, try to claim Mrs May should step down.
After four terror attacks and a deadly tower block blaze that have darkened the national mood in the past three months, anti-government campaigners also staged "Day of Rage" protests that converged outside parliament. She said that result was "better than the pundits predicted, and many of his own MPs hoped for".
"It is very important that the other parties and the public sector are engaged and involved in some of these very important decisions", she said.
Queen Elizabeth II read out a list of the government's intentions - as is tradition before parliament begins a new session - at a tumultuous time for Britain and as May's leadership comes into question.
The event is usually filled with pomp and circumstance, like royal robes and a horse-drawn carriage. Instead of wearing the heavy crown, it was carried by an officer of state. Both ceremonies take weeks of preparation and planning, and it was deemed too hard to prepare for two such events so close together.
It says that the market for automated vehicles in Britain will be worth £28 billion by 2035.
Comments