EDITION 889
4 OCTOBER 2021

There is no escaping it: too much news is bad for you. It should come with a government health warning: “This intellectual diet is fine taken in small doses, and preferably in weekly instalments, via a well-balanced newsletter, such as 10 things from William Montgomery."

So, as another week slips by, here are 10 things which caught my attention and may have escaped yours. Please feel free to share on social media and forward to your colleagues and friends so they can also subscribe, learn and engage. I would be very grateful if you did.

William Montgomery
Editor and CEO of TEN

1. How to get your schedule on track. It would be easy to abandon restorative practices you’ve established during summer, but that would be a mistake. Instead, prioritise these five essentials of healthy achievement. READ MORE >>

2. Secret wealth and dealings of world leaders exposed. The offshore dealings of world leaders, politicians and billionaires have been laid bare in one of the biggest leaks of financial documents. Millions of documents, dubbed the Pandora Papers, reveal the secret transactions of 35 present and former leaders and more than 300 public officials. The leak could prove embarrassing for the British government, which has repeatedly failed to act on promises to introduce a register of offshore property owners despite concerns that buyers could be hiding money-laundering activities. The Sunday Times

3. Biden struggling to assert his leadership. Eight months after the transfer of power, former president Donald Trump has overtaken President Joe Biden in the favourability ratings: voters now rate Trump as the better president by 48% to 46%. Biden’s popularity has slumped in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan, a renewed surge in Covid-19 cases and the migrant crisis at the Mexican border. Among elected presidents since the Second World War, only Trump has had a lower job approval rating than Biden at a similar point in their presidencies. Gallup

4. Furlough ends, uncertainty ahead. The government’s £70bn furlough scheme, which began in March 2020, ended on Thursday, leaving many uncertain about their employment futures. The ONS estimates that nearly one million workers were still on furlough at the end of September, and the Federation of Small Businesses warned of an “autumn storm” from the simultaneous scrapping of the furlough scheme, the small employer sick pay rebate and the apprenticeship incentive scheme. Think-tank the Resolution Foundation praised the furlough scheme, but noted that its own research suggested a rise in unemployment was a “real risk”, especially for older workers and those in the travel sector. The Guardian

5. Call me Craig, Commander Craig. Daniel Craig was made an honorary commander in the Royal Navy, the same rank as his character James Bond. The Navy said the appointment was in recognition of Craig’s “personal support for UK Armed Forces”. The actor, whose final performance as 007 won rave reviews this week, can now describe himself as “Commander Craig”. In other navy news, the UK now has two world-leading aircraft carriers ready for duties around the globe after HMS Prince of Wales was declared fully operational. It means she can now join her sister HMS Queen Elizabeth on the world stage. BZ to all involved in making this a reality. Editor

6. Survey finds mental health pandemic. Britain is “in the grip of a mental health pandemic” as it was revealed that one in four adults in a study said their state of mind was now worse than before the virus emerged. One in 12 of all adults polled has had panic attacks and one in 15 has had suicidal thoughts. Experts fear that if the government does not tackle the problem, the nation “will be plunged into a post-Covid mental health crisis that could take more than a generation to recover from”, the paper said. The Daily Mirror

7. Commuting ‘helps mental and physical health’. Commuting brings benefits for mental health, fitness levels and work-life balance, according to researchers from University College London. Nearly half of the 3,000 people surveyed said that being in the office put them in a better frame of mind for work. Half said that they ate snacks more often when working from home and 43% believed that they were more distracted. Commuting “can have a positive impact on cognitive performance, wellbeing and productivity,” said Joseph Devlin, professor of brain sciences at UCL. The Times

8. Study reveals long Covid toll. More than one-third of people infected with coronavirus will experience at least one symptom of long Covid, a new study has found. Researchers studied more than 270,000 people recovering from Covid and found 37% of patients had at least one long Covid symptom diagnosed three to six months after infection. The most commonplace symptoms were breathing issues, abdominal problems, fatigue, pain and anxiety or depression. University of Oxford

9. What do office workers really want? The key to retaining staff - and attracting top talent in big city markets - is unlikely to be offering hybrid schedules. As the pandemic's impact on working life continues to ripple across workforces nationwide, workers are increasingly demanding flexibility. Hybrid schedules dictating when employees must commute to the office and when they are permitted to work remotely are deemed mostly undesirable, compared to open-minded hybrid arrangements where staff come in as needed on sporadic days. CNBC

10. The bottom line. 7,590 people in the UK celebrated their 100th birthday last year, more than any other year in British history – a result of the spike in births at the end of WWI. Office for National Statistics