Newsnight, followed by Weather

Newsnight began with the IMF's Kristalina Georgieva warning of a slow-moving tsunami for jobs, saying artificial intelligence and other changes could affect around 40% of jobs globally and that young people entering the labour market are among those most at risk. The programme heard from unemployed graduates Emily, Hannah and Jugraj, and from Olachi, a biomedical sciences graduate working in retail, about hundreds of applications, rejections, AI screening and the difficulty of finding entry-level work that matched their degrees.

James Reed of recruitment agency Reed said graduate opportunities had contracted sharply: 25,000 graduate jobs posted on reed.co.uk this year, down 27.5% year on year, and a fall from 180,000 five years ago to a likely figure below 40,000 this year. He cited business costs, employer national insurance, the national minimum wage and employment rights laws. Labour MP Gordon McKee said the problem was long-term and pointed to government measures including a £3,000 grant for hiring young people out of work for six months and wage support for disabled young people. Miranda Green of the Financial Times described the national insurance rise as a mistake, while Nick referred to Alan Milburn's interim report on young people being screened by portals, tests and algorithms.

Former Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told the BBC he believed President Trump wanted Russia to win the war. The discussion covered UK support for Ukraine, a warm welcome in London for Volodymyr Zelensky, and concerns about US intelligence and Starlink. Defence Secretary Wes Streeting visited the United States and met Pete Hegseth; Streeting said he had been reassured that the Starshield system vital for spotting Russian ballistic missiles had been restored.