As the number of economically inactive young people nears one million, British businesses are to be offered a £3,000 state bonus for hiring a young person who has been out of work for six months.

Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden said it was part of the government’s plans to “back Britain’s young people” after youth unemployment hit its highest level in more than a decade.

How bad is it?
According to the Office for National Statistics, 14% of Britons aged 18 to 24 were unemployed in the final quarter of 2025, compared with 12.7% in the same period of 2024. The number of people aged 16 to 24 who were not in employment, education or training (Neets) reached 957,000 – up from around 800,000 in 2019.

For many, “the challenge is not so much a lack of skills or visibility as the dearth of openings in a stagnating labour market”, said the Financial Times. “Young people say they lack work experience and something to talk about to employers,” said Sareena Bains, chief executive of charity Movement to Work. “Those opportunities are becoming few and far between.”

The tough labour landscape has been made worse by the rollout of AI, which threatens to erase many entry-level jobs. Business groups have also criticised the government’s decision to raise employers’ national insurance contributions and the youth minimum wage, as well as bringing in changes to workers’ rights – all of which could make companies less inclined to take a risk on a newcomer to the workforce over an experienced worker.

What else is to blame?
There is a “toxic cocktail” of “rising employment taxes, perverse incentives to claim benefits and a broken migration system”, said The Centre for Social Justice. The think tank’s Wasted Youth report found that businesses are turning to non-EU migrants while a growing number of young Britons are claiming benefits.

Health is another major factor. The share of Neets who report having a health condition that limits their ability to work rose from 26% in 2015 to 44% in 2025, according to The Health Foundation. This “mirrors trends among young people generally”, said the charity. “Regardless of whether they are in work or education, 16- to 24-year-olds today are much more likely to report having a work-limiting health condition than they were in the past”. This increase is “driven primarily by mental-health and neurodevelopmental conditions”.

Max Dowman made football history on Saturday. Running from his own half, he fired into an empty net to secure Arsenal a 2-0 win over Everton and become the youngest goalscorer in the Premier League.

But afterwards, in the “ecstatic dressing room, the man of the match wasn’t there”, said Miguel Delaney in The Independent. That’s because Dowman “isn’t actually the man of the match”, but a child. The midfielder, aged 16 years and 75 days, isn’t allowed in the same dressing room as the adult players, and gets changed in his own space near the referees’ room.

‘Far ahead’ of his peers
There has been “a buzz” around Dowman for years, said Sam Dean in The Telegraph. He was scouted when he was just four; at 13, he became the youngest player to represent Arsenal’s under-18s; at 14, he was the youngest to play for their under-21s. He also played for the England under-17s at 14, and started training with Arsenal’s first team.

Last season, Dowman was “so far ahead of his opponents and teammates that he was almost playing a different sport”. It was obvious he had “outgrown youth football”. If Premier League rules hadn’t prevented him from playing for the senior team last year, “he might have broken through even earlier”.

‘Clear rules in place’
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta once likened Dowman to a young Lionel Messi. The teenager has already signed a pre-contract agreement with the north London club (his father handled the negotiations), and a professional deal will follow when he turns 17 in December.

There are “clear rules in place” for minors playing adult football, said BBC Sport. Dowman only goes into the main changing room for team talks, and a member of Arsenal’s security team is “assigned to stay close” to him at all times. Due to sit his GCSEs this summer, the teenager divides his non-playing time between a private tutor and school.

His goal at the weekend will “go down in Arsenal folklore”, said Sky Sports. It took the team closer to their first Premier League title in two decades, but it looked like Dowman “had been doing that for years”.

Julia butterflies land on the eyes of a caiman in the Pantanal wetlands of Brazil. The photo, taken by Morris Hersko, is among a set of previously unseen pictures from last year’s Nikon Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, released this week to mark the start of the 2026 competition.

Morris Hersko / Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards

“If sozzled ‘Brits abroad’, super-clubs and €12 bottles of water” are the first things you think of when someone mentions Ibiza, “you’re long overdue a refresh”, said Joanna Whitehead in The Independent. In recent years, the Mediterranean island has also become a haven for wellness.

Cala San Miguel is a great base for discovering the “soulful”, wellness-focused side of Ibiza, said Karli Poliziani in Grazia. “Tucked away” on the island’s “serene” northern coast, the “adults-only sanctuary” offers guests a varied programme of activities, spanning everything from Pilates by the sea to sunset sound baths.

For indulgent spa sessions, you’d be hard pressed to do better than Six Senses Ibiza at Xarraca Bay, said Sarah Leigh Bannerman in Condé Nast Traveller. “A winding staircase leads underground to the typically mystical, darkened world of ‘zen’ that the brand does so well”, where guests can “enjoy the facilities inside this sprawling oasis of calm”. Over on the easterly side of Ibiza is the “understated” Hostal La Torre: drop by for one of its early morning yoga sessions on the cliff face and salute the sun “with a coastal breeze in your hair”.

And for “authentic farm-to-table dining”, head to Juntos Farm just outside Santa Gertrudis. Its owners are dedicated to regenerative farming and local food production. Either book an immersive tour to “explore the grounds and meet the animals” or “spend an evening in the courtyard, sampling creative, nourishing light bites and cocktails”.

Why I’m teaching my kids to lie
Kirsty Ketley in The i Paper
“I’m honest with my kids” about lies, writes Kirsty Ketley. I tell them the odd white lie is OK – “not to get out of trouble or to shift blame but rather to be kind or spare someone’s feelings”. It’s “less about deception and more about having empathy and tact”. There’s “a huge difference between lying to avoid accountability”, and a “harmless” fib that makes everything “feel a little easier”. The former “undermines trust; the latter oils the wheels” of daily life.

Donald Trump’s war is driving me mad
Séamas O’Reilly in The New Statesman
We’ve been given “at least six separate and contradictory rationales” for the US bombing of Iran, writes Séamas O’Reilly. Donald Trump calls it “an excursion”, flanked by a defence secretary who promotes “heinous acts of war” with “AI-generated meme videos”. We must look at this deadly conflict that’s “destroying the global economy” not “as the behaviour of a pugnacious yet effective superpower, but as the actions of a weird, unstable tyrant. A giant freak. A Mad King.”

What do we really gain from no-cry onions?
Harriet Fitch Little in the Financial Times
Japanese scientists have managed to strip an onion “of its mythical power to make grown chefs weep”, writes food expert Harriet Fitch Little. I imagine a “shiny fridge” where “no-cry onions room with the no-chop garlic” and “the no-cook salmon fillets” and other “ingredients that make no demand of your senses until the moment of tasting”. Perhaps the “end result” will be just “as delicious” but “I suspect a bit of the magic” of cooking “would be lost”.