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Good morning and welcome back. In today’s newsletter:
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UK minimum wage nears City entry-level salaries
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US Supreme Court hearing on Trump’s emergency tariff power
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Top AI groups work to fix security flaw
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How a warming world is making pregnancy riskier
We begin in London, where City executives have warned that the UK minimum wage is bumping up against starting salaries for graduates at professional services firms, raising concern about the impact on hiring for accountancy, law and finance.
What happened: The lowest graduate salary for roles in finance and professional services is £25,726 while the median is £33,000 and the highest is £65,000, data from the Institute of Student Employers shows.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves meanwhile is expected to announce in this month’s Budget a 4 per cent increase in the minimum wage to £12.70 an hour. That would lift the average salary for a minimum wage worker on a 40-hour week from £25,376 to £26,416.
Why it matters: Several chief executives have voiced their fears about the impact on recruitment if the minimum wage reaches pay levels for graduate positions in traditional white-collar jobs. “Why would young people take on £45,000 of student debt if they can earn the same stacking shelves?” asked one. Read the full report.
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‘Broken social contract’: Young Britons’ attitudes towards benefits claimants and criminals are hardening, survey shows.
Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:
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Economic data: Manufacturing PMI data is due for Canada, the Eurozone, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the US.
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Turkey: The country hosts a meeting of foreign ministers from several Muslim countries on the Gaza ceasefire.
Five more top stories
1. Businesses, lawmakers and former US officials are pressing the Supreme Court to rule against US President Donald Trump’s use of emergency tariff powers ahead of a showpiece hearing this week. Aime Williams has more from Washington.
2. The world’s top artificial intelligence groups are stepping up efforts to solve a critical security flaw in their large language models that can be exploited by cyber criminals. Read more on their efforts to guard against so-called indirect prompt injection attacks.
3. Exclusive: Commerzbank is in talks that could lead to the lender moving its Frankfurt headquarters out of Germany’s tallest building. The discussions with Samsung SRA, the owner of Commerzbank Tower, come as the bank pushes to cut costs and fend off a potential takeover by Italy’s UniCredit.
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Andrea Orcel: UniCredit’s chief wants to build a pan-European banking powerhouse, but his efforts face roadblocks.
4. The EU received a record number of applications for its top research and innovation grants this year, including a tripling of US bids for a key fund compared with 2024, as US researchers look for options abroad in response to Trump’s attacks on higher education.
5. Czech Eurosceptic billionaire Andrej Babiš is set to return as prime minister as he is expected to sign a coalition pact today with two extremist parties, a move that consolidates the rightwing populist bloc in central and eastern Europe. Read the full story.
The Big Read
© FT montage/Getty/Reuters
Some scientists argue that the link between increasing heat and adverse maternal outcomes is becoming a public health emergency. Find out how a warming world is making pregnancy riskier.
We’re also reading . . .
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Joy of analogue: In certain sectors, the physical world still rules as consumers resist and even turn their back on the digital revolution, writes Ruchir Sharma.
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Stop fearing ‘feminisation’: US conservatives don’t seem to recognise that the world will need more of what women bring, writes Rana Foroohar.
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Class tech: Pearson boss Omar Abbosh has reassuring words for teachers around the world: AI will not take your jobs.
State of AI: The newsletter series begins this week with a focus on the battle for AI supremacy between the US and China with writers from the Financial Times and MIT Technology Review. Sign up here.
Chart of the day
There’s a new hot job in artificial intelligence: the “forward-deployed engineer”. Groups including Anthropic, OpenAI and Cohere are on a hiring spree for this rare kind of software developer who can code and talk to customers, helping businesses adopt their AI models.
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Take a break from the news . . .
Is there any point trying to learn a language late in life? Don’t be put off by age or the myth of perfectionism, writes Pilita Clark. Older learners may even have some advantages over younger students.
© Kenneth Andersson
