V levels will become the “only pathway” for young people aged 16-19 to gain vocational qualifications equivalent to an A level, the government announced yesterday.

What are they exactly?
V levels will replace BTecs, which have been around since the mid-1980s. While A levels are geared towards university entrance, and a T level (a two-year course equivalent to three A levels) offers training for a specific career, V levels are designed for young people to keep their options open, said FE Week.

They are tied to “rigorous and real-world  job standards” and mix theoretical learning with developing practical skills. A student could, for example, study a V level in finance and accounting in conjunction with A levels in environmental science and geography. This student might then go on to an apprenticeship in the renewables sector.

Why are they needed?
V levels represent one of the first steps towards Keir Starmer’s target for two-thirds of young people either to go to university or to pursue a “gold-standard apprenticeship”. Last year, “roughly one in seven” people aged between 16 and 24 were not in education, employment or training, said the Financial Times. Worryingly, the trend appears to be on the rise.

Will they make a difference?
“If you’re feeling a bit confused by it all, you’re not alone,” said HuffPost. It’s not yet clear which subjects will be on offer or how they will be rolled out. And, for students, the A level/T level hybrid approach may inadvertently fail to direct them towards a clear end goal.

While the announcement is a “big step forward” for level 3 education, it is “not everything we would want”, said David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges. The plans are “ambitious and exciting” but the white paper highlights the “lack of support and funding” within post-16 education, which is plagued by “low pay” and an “absence of collaboration”.

Larry Ellison has been a Silicon Valley titan for nearly half a century. Now 81, he is redefining himself, with the help of his son David, as a 21st-century version of the 20th-century press baron, at the head of an empire straddling tech, media and politics.

‘Back to the top of the tech heap’
Ellison co-founded Software Development Laboratories in 1977 with an initial investment of just $2,000. The software and database company, which would later become Oracle Corporation, is now valued at more than $800 billion, and Ellison still owns 40%. He stepped down as CEO in 2014 but, far from calling it a day, he has since “clawed his way back to the top of the tech heap”, said the Financial Times.

Ellison is “forging new personal alliances” as he attempts to position himself in the “vanguard of the AI revolution”. His net worth has doubled in the past year, largely due to the key role Oracle is playing in building AI infrastructure, entering lucrative deals with the likes of OpenAI and governments around the world. His big bet on AI saw him briefly become the world’s richest person in September.

‘CEO of everything’
Ellison’s extracurricular interests have “tended to skew towards yachting, tennis, anti-ageing research and buying an island in Hawaii”, said the BBC, and a late-in-life transformation into media mogul is “an unlikely path”. Yet the father-and-son duo are pursuing deals “that would give them control over some of the biggest media companies on the planet”.

David Ellison’s Skydance Media, the Hollywood production company behind hit films like “Top Gun: Maverick”, has secured an $8 billion deal to purchase Paramount and its subsidiaries. The company is also in talks to take over Warner Bros Discovery, and Oracle will be part of a consortium to take over a minority stake in TikTok’s US operations, giving it a greater role in retraining the platform’s algorithm.

These deals would not have been possible without the explicit support of Donald Trump. The US president has called Ellison a “sort of CEO of everything”. And indeed, “taken together”, said The Telegraph, “these investments put Ellison at the heart of some of the world’s most powerful outlets in both traditional and new media”.

Nicolas Sarkozy leaves home, with his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, to present himself to La Santé prison and begin his five-year sentence. The former French president was convicted of criminal conspiracy to fund his 2007 electoral campaign with Libyan money, becoming the first former head of an EU country to serve time behind bars.

Julien De Rosa / AFP / Getty Images

As the cost of a skiing holiday continues to soar, do consider more affordable Austria over the big, glitzy resorts in France and Switzerland. The Austrian Alps are home to postcard-worthy villages, stunning mountain scenery and an array of tree-lined runs for all levels. Here are some of the best spots.

Obergurgl
Located at the southern end of the Ötztal Valley at an altitude of around 1,930 metres, Obergurgl (pictured above) is “one of the loftiest resorts in Europe”, said The Telegraph. This means you’re all but guaranteed excellent snow conditions, and a long season that typically runs from around mid-November until April. It’s well worth taking the two-way gondola to explore the neighbouring village of Hochgurgl.

SkiWelt
For an “eco-friendly” break, head to Austria’s SkiWelt region, said The Guardian. The resort has sustainability at its core, from the solar-powered ski lift to the efficient snow-making system. It can be reached by train and there is plenty of variety when it comes to trails, from gentle beginner slopes to thrilling black runs.

Montafon
If you’re looking for somewhere wonderfully off-the-beaten-track, the Montafon Valley is a great choice, said Bloomberg. It’s “rare” to find a quiet skiing destination these days but this 25-mile valley “feels almost like an Alpine Brigadoon”. In total, there are five ski areas threaded with trails that dip into “cobblestoned villages, home to onion-domed chapels, dark-timber farmhouses and tiny, family-run inns”.

Standing with Maccabi’s football hooligans against local police – is that what patriotism looks like now?
Jonathan Liew in The Guardian
Maccabi Tel Aviv have a “fervid” far-right following who “chant racist and anti-Arab slogans” and sometimes “indulge in a little light violence”, writes Jonathan Liew. That doesn’t entirely explain the police decision to ban their fans from Villa Park “but it does offer a context so sorely lacking from the incendiary discussion”. This isn’t “common or garden football hooliganism”; it’s “targeted, politicised football violence”. Those “bandwagon-jumping” to condemn the police decision are indulging in “wilful blindness”.

The final blow to Starmer’s authority could come this weekend
Tom Harris in The Telegraph
Keir Starmer will be left “in a difficult and weakened position” if Lucy Powell is declared the winner of Labour’s deputy leadership race on Saturday, says Tom Harris. The former Commons leader has run a “rebel” campaign and her criticisms of the PM and his government “have not been subtle or nuanced”. For party members to choose a deputy that Starmer “does not want foisted on him” would be “significant”, signalling “trouble ahead”.

Why can’t I buy a small smartphone?
Sarah O’Connor in the Financial Times
“I don’t think I’m alone” in wanting a smaller phone, writes Sarah O’Connor. For women, “the inconvenience is compounded by the smallness of our pockets”. While “phone manufacturers think we have hands the size of bears”, jean makers “think we have hands the size of pixies”. Market economies usually cater for “different segments of consumer demand”, so even if we “small phone aficionados” are in the minority, “why won’t capitalism give us what we want”?