The youth minimum wage is set to rise over this parliament, but it’s putting off employers from hiring people into their first roles

When Keir Starmer was 14 years old, he got a part-time job clearing stones from a local farmer’s field. At 16, Kemi Badenoch was flipping burgers and cleaning toilets in McDonald’s. Me, I waitressed at weekends from the age of 15 in an Essex pub owned by an ex-paratrooper with two formidable rottweilers roaming behind the bar, which was a life lesson all of its own.

But whatever your first job may have been, there’s a reasonable chance it combined the thrill of hard cash with several mortifying mistakes and a crash course in handling stroppy customers, taking criticism more or less gracefully and moaning about it only out of earshot. Though teenage starter jobs have been in decline for decades – for reasons varying from academic pressures on sixth-formers to the rise of side hustles on Vinted that don’t show up in official statistics – everyone still has to start somewhere, even if it’s now more likely at 18 than 14. But getting that start is becoming harder than it was.

The actor, comedian and raconteur, who would have turned 100 on Sunday, could play humble or haughty, cheeky or Chekhov – but always stole the show

When standup comic Tom Allen received Attitude magazine’s comedy award last year, he used his acceptance speech to salute the subversive wits who paved the way for freedoms now enjoyed by queer people in Britain. Joining Oscar Wilde and Noël Coward on the list was an actor and raconteur singled out by Allen as “a big hero of mine”, and feted by everyone from Orson Welles to Judy Garland, Maggie Smith to Morrissey.

“I wanted to mention Kenneth Williams because he was so profound,” Allen tells me. “And yet, because he was also funny, that profundity hasn’t been acknowledged. As a child, I connected with his outsiderness. Rather than trying to fit in, he went in the opposite direction. Not only did he not apologise for being different, but he was queer in every sense, truly at odds with the world in which he found himself.”

I cut small trees around Offa’s Dyke, then shape the wood by hand

I never wanted to be part of an unsustainable society. I’ve always tried to live as peaceful a life as I can, outside the big cities. Now I am the last person left in England making clogs by hand. I spend most days in my studio in Kington, Herefordshire, carving green sycamore wood that I collect myself, hand-dyeing the leather and making sure the soles are as near perfect a match to someone’s foot as possible. I don’t think you can have a more peaceful life than that.

I grew up in Ceredigion, surrounded by sheep. There were no jobs in the area and in 1976 I had to go on benefits. I developed extreme anxiety after breaking up with my first girlfriend. Convent schooling and boys’ boarding schools weren’t the best places to learn to develop relationships and I needed to find something therapeutic to do.

Information content manager Rosie Weatherley says harmful inaccuracies are presented as uncontroversial facts

• Mind launches inquiry into AI and mental health after Guardian investigation

A year-long commission has been launched by Mind to examine AI and mental health after a Guardian investigation exposed how Google’s AI Overviews, which are shown to 2 billion people each month, gave people “very dangerous” mental health advice.

Here, Rosie Weatherley, information content manager at the largest mental health charity in England and Wales, describes the risks posed to people by the AI-generated summaries, which appear above search results on the world’s most visited website.

Political correspondent Alexandra Topping and special educational needs student Jake with his mum, Laura, explore the government’s controversial plans for reform

Next week, the government is expected to announce its education white paper. It is a moment, as political correspondent Alexandra Topping explains, of high political peril.

Part of the proposals will be reforms to special educational needs provision in England. And while nearly all agree that the current system is broken – extremely expensive, very divisive, and failing the most vulnerable children – the mood around the announcements is still tense. Simply put, many disability rights campaigners fear the reforms are not about improving the system, but cutting costs.

Graham Readfearn enters a simulation to investigate how heatwaves affect the human body

The arrest of the 66-year old former prince has sent shockwaves through the UK and abroad, with reaction rolling in from the US to Australia

• King says ‘law must take its course’

• What the papers say

• Calls for justice in the US

Here are the main stories from yesterday on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest:

Why was the former prince arrested and what happens next? Our home affairs editor Rajeev Syal explains:

Read Harriet Sherwood’s report on how the ‘most shocking’ day unfolded:

Largest January total since records began in 1993 is sharp reversal from December’s £11.6bn deficit

• Business live – latest updates

The UK government has posted the biggest ever budget surplus, official figures show, after a large boost in self-assessment and capital gains tax receipts.

In a boost for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in the run-up to her spring statement next month, public sector finances recorded a surplus of £30.4bn at the start of the year, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This was £15.9bn higher than the surplus recorded in January 2025.

US president links deal with military strikes against Iran in connection with Tehran’s nuclear ambitions

Donald Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told.

In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was “making a big mistake” by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia.

Exclusive: England and Wales charity to examine safeguards after Guardian exposed ‘very dangerous’ advice on Google AI Overviews

• ‘Very dangerous’: a Mind mental health expert on Google’s AI summaries

Mind is launching a significant inquiry into artificial intelligence and mental health after a Guardian investigation exposed how Google’s AI Overviews gave people “very dangerous” medical advice.

In a year-long commission, the mental health charity, which operates in England and Wales, will examine the risks and safeguards required as AI increasingly influences the lives of millions of people affected by mental health issues worldwide.