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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 1. How to motivate a slacker. Everyone has worked with someone who doesn't pull their weight. You often don't know whether to confront the person, speak to your boss, or mind your own business. If someone's slacking is not affecting your work, don’t intervene. But if your job is suffering, here's what to do: READ MORE >> 2. Red Wall voters pessimistic. Three out of four Red Wall voters think nothing in Britain works anymore, a new poll has found. Some 91% believe “things are worse than before” and 80% think the social contract - the idea of a society based on moral and political rules of behaviour - has collapsed. Just 30% are optimistic for the future, found the New Britain Project think tank. The “depressing” poll is a “fresh blow to the Tories’ election chances in former Labour strongholds the party seized in December 2019”. The Mirror 3. UK population ‘to overtake France’. The population of the UK is set to overtake that of France for the first time in recorded history after net migration hit more than 600,000. The gap in population between the two countries has been “closing for decades”, said the outlet. In 2021, the UK had about 700,000 fewer residents than France but Britain’s net migration was 606,000 last year, while France estimates its net migration at 161,000. The figures suggest that within two years, the UK’s population will be larger than France’s. i News 4. A tale of two Brexits. A YouGov survey has revealed that more than a third of voters who backed Leave in the 2016 referendum think that Brexit has been more of a failure than a success; a fifth think it has been more of a success than a failure. Of all voters, 62% (including half of over-65s) think leaving the EU has been more of a failure, and only 9% more of a success. Seven in ten think the Government has handled Brexit badly. The Independent 5. Plant-based diets cut heart risk. Plant-based diets are good for heart health, according to a review of four decades of data. Researchers in Denmark found that vegetarian and vegan diets cut levels of cholesterol and fats in the blood that increase heart attacks, with a positive effect that is “really substantial”. The research “pulled together” 30 trials since 1982 and concluded that maintaining a plant-based a diet for 15 years could cut the risk of cardiovascular disease by 20%. The World Health Organization estimates cardiovascular disease kills nearly 18 million people every year. BBC 6. Britons back obesity curbs. A new study has found that voters overwhelmingly support the imposition of tougher curbs on junk food to tackle obesity. Some 80% of adults would back legislation to prevent the advertising of unhealthy food to children on television and online, according to the YouGov poll for the Obesity Health Alliance. Two thirds of adults in England are overweight or obese, a trend that is “driving record levels of long-term sickness in the UK”, with 2.6m people off work. The Times 7. Micro-breaks can improve your mood and productivity. Taking “micro-breaks”, or a break of under 10 minutes, may be one way to alleviate stress and burnout. A recent North Carolina State University study showed that employee’ mood and energy levels improved after a five-minute break, leading to a higher likelihood that they could set and achieve goals. USA Today 8. Students in 'career boycott' over climate. More than 500 students and graduates from Universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Edinburgh, and University College London, have agreed to a career boycott of a number of large insurance companies if they support fossil fuel projects. In a letter to Lloyds of London, the students said they refused to work in the service of climate wreckers that insure those responsible for the climate crisis. One in six Gen Z and Millennial workers say they have changed job or sector due to climate concerns, and another quarter say they plan to, according to a Deloitte study. The Guardian 9. WhatsApp to launch edit function. WhatsApp will allow users to edit messages for 15 minutes after they are sent. The messaging service’s owner, Meta, has started rolling out the editing function globally and it should become available to all users in the coming weeks. “From correcting a simple misspelling to adding extra context to a message, we’re excited to bring you more control over your chats,” it said in a blog post. Rival apps such as Telegram and Signal already allow users to edit messages. Daily Record 10. The bottom line. Data from the World Values Study showed that 49% of Britons believe in God, down from 75% in 1981. Only five of the 22 countries surveyed (Norway, South Korea, Japan, Sweden and China) came lower on that table. The Philippines topped it, with a score of 100%. Daily Mail |