What happened
Britain is “sleepwalking into a quiet epidemic” of joblessness, with millions of people outside the workforce and the reliance on benefits remaining high, the head of the nation’s largest supermarket chain has warned. Ashwin Prasad, who runs Tesco’s UK business, said too many people were detached from work and that the trend could cause long-term economic damage.

Who said what
Speaking at a Resolution Foundation event, Prasad argued that government ministers must stop “tinkering at the edges” of labour market policy. He said lower-income households had faced “an incredibly challenging” decade, but added that, from an employer’s perspective, “far fewer people are at work than there could be”.

More than nine million people aged 16 to 64 in the UK are classed as economically inactive, “meaning they are not looking for work or available to start a job”, said Tom Knowles in The Guardian.

What next?
The government has pledged £820 million to help young people move into jobs or training, while business leaders are pressing for broader reforms to boost work participation and growth.

What happened
A landmark legal case against leading social media companies is underway in Los Angeles, with Meta and YouTube accused of creating addiction “machines” that target children. The proceedings, which began on Monday, are expected to last six weeks and will have significant implications for thousands of similar actions brought in the US.

Who said what
“These companies built machines designed to addict the brains of children, and they did it on purpose,” said lawyer Mark Lanier. He claimed that this addiction caused the plaintiff, Kaley G.M. (a minor at the time), to suffer mental health issues. Meta and YouTube had failed to warn minors about the dangers posed by their platforms’ design, he added.

Lawyers for Meta and YouTube told the court that Kaley G.M.’s mental health struggles were the result of neglect and abuse by her parents.

The verdict “may provide a benchmark for monetary damages”, according to the BBC. Snap and TikTok have already settled with Kaley G.M.

What next?
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to testify in the trial, along with the heads of Instagram and YouTube. The court will also hear from former Meta employees who have turned whistleblower.

After more than 100 days on the road, a party of Buddhist monks has arrived in Washington, completing a 2,300 mile “walk for peace” across the United States.

The group, which set off from a temple near Fort Worth, Texas in late October, numbered about two dozen and included monks from Thailand, Vietnam, France, Burma and Sri Lanka. They have amassed more than five million followers across Facebook, Instagram and TikTok over the course of their journey, according to Rolling Stone.

The monks plan to use their visit to the capital to petition for Vesak – the Buddha’s birthday – to be recognised as a national holiday, said the BBC. But they stressed on Dhammacetiya, their official website, that they were not marching with a political agenda or to “force peace upon the world, but to help nurture it, one awakened heart at a time”.

The journey has “not been easy”, said The New York Times. The southern states have experienced an “unusually harsh” winter. To make matters worse, before the group had even left Texas, a truck driver accidentally crashed into one of the support vehicles, which in turn struck two of the monks, one of whom was so severely injured that he required a leg amputation.

At every stage crowds have “swarmed” around the monks, added The New York Times. These supporters have “transcended racial, religious, economic, educational and geographic lines”, sharing a common belief that the monks were providing “comfort, hope and encouragement” that “otherwise seemed to be in short supply” in a politically polarised nation.