Afternoon.

It’s Thursday 24th September: new vocational GCSEs are coming to England, interest rates could be heading back up and more university students are choosing the delights of the family home.

Kettle on.

📅 On this day: In 1991, Nirvana released Nevermind, the album that turned the Seattle band into one of the biggest in the world and helped bring grunge firmly into the mainstream.

Teenagers in England are getting a new type of vocational GCSE, designed to give practical subjects the same nationally recognised structure as traditional GCSEs. Possible subjects include digital technology, construction, finance, creative media and child development. The first could be available from September 2029.

Vocational qualifications already exist in schools, but the current Technical Awards can differ between providers. The new qualifications will have nationally set content and grading regulated by Ofqual, the exams regulator, and are eventually intended to replace those awards.

The idea is to make the route from school into technical education or work a bit clearer. Students could move from the new GCSEs into T Levels, apprenticeships or new V Levels, which are vocational qualifications for 16 to 19-year-olds. The government is also promising another 200,000 work-experience placements as part of the wider shake-up.

Nearly two-thirds of people with high blood pressure may have gone undiagnosed, according to a huge new study in England. Oxford researchers analysed measurements from 1.4 million adults and found 37% had high blood pressure. Among those, 59% had never been diagnosed and weren't taking medication for it.

Even among people already taking blood-pressure medication, half still had readings above the level used by the researchers. High blood pressure, or hypertension, means the force of blood against your arteries is consistently too high. It often has no obvious symptoms, but increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

There is an important caveat: the study used people who volunteered for the Our Future Health research programme, so the figures aren't necessarily a perfect snapshot of every adult in England. Still, 1.4 million people is an unusually large study. The researchers say better detection and treatment could help prevent heart attacks and strokes.

Just when higher interest rates were beginning to look like yesterday's problem, the Bank of England is becoming increasingly worried that it may have to raise them again.

Bank Rate is currently 3.75%, but three of the nine people who set it voted for an immediate rise to 4% last week. Deputy governor Clare Lombardelli has now warned that the longer high and volatile energy prices persist, the greater the risk of further inflationary pressure.

Inflation rose to 3.1% in August and the Bank expects it to climb further over the coming quarters. Higher oil and gas prices are a particular problem because they don't just make energy more expensive: they can feed into the cost of making and transporting all sorts of other things.

Interest rates are the Bank's main tool for tackling inflation. Higher rates can cool spending and price rises, but they also make borrowing more expensive. Nobody has announced a rate rise yet. Six members of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee voted to keep rates unchanged last week, and the next decision isn't until November.

UK exports to the EU could have been between £3.7bn and £6.5bn higher each year if Britain and the EU recognised each other's product testing, according to new research. After Brexit, some British products need additional testing and certification before they can be sold in the EU. The Institute for Public Policy Research estimates cars, electronics and pharmaceuticals have been particularly affected.

One fairly important qualification: this isn't £6.5bn that has literally been billed to British companies. It's the think tank's estimate of how much higher exports could have been without the extra trade barrier.

Britain's biggest defence companies have promised to offer 40,000 opportunities a year to 18 to 24-year-olds by 2030, as the government tries to turn higher military spending into more UK jobs.

The pledge covers jobs, apprenticeships and work experience, so this isn't 40,000 new permanent jobs. Companies involved include BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce and MBDA. The target rises to 50,000 opportunities a year by 2035.

The ban on drinking alcohol while watching football from the stands could eventually be scrapped. Prime Minister Andy Burnham says the restriction is outdated and unfair, given spectators at sports such as rugby and cricket can drink while watching.

The law dates from the 1980s, when concerns about football hooliganism were at their height, and currently applies to the top five tiers of English men's football. Nothing is changing just yet.

Burnham has said there is a case for removing the ban and suggested trials could come first. Presumably to establish whether football fans can be trusted with the radical concept of watching sport while holding a pint.

The classic university experience of packing your worldly possessions into a parent's car may be becoming a little less universal. Figures from UCAS show 748,060 students said they intended to live at home during their course in 2026, up from 535,090 in 2017.

Separate data from the Office for Students shows 31% of UK 18-year-olds accepted onto higher-education courses now plan to live at home, compared with 22% a decade ago.

A rather spectacular-looking spider has been spotted in Cheshire for the first time. The wasp spider has a large black-and-yellow striped body and, despite appearances, isn't considered dangerous to humans. The species was once largely confined to southern England but has been steadily moving north as Britain's climate gets warmer.

Chester Zoo conservationists recorded the new arrival during wildlife surveys. So, good news if you're interested in Britain's changing wildlife. Slightly more complicated news if you had been hoping Britain's changing wildlife would involve fewer things with eight legs.

Have a great day.

See you tomorrow.

We're independent, completely free and rely on readers spreading the word to grow. So if you have a friend who'd enjoy five minutes of news without all the noise, forward this email their way. It genuinely helps.

And if you're that friend, hello. You can subscribe here.