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President-elect Donald Trump on the campaign trail laid out a broad array of ideas aimed at making life more affordable and strengthening the economy, which rank at the top of voters’ concerns. Nearly all of the measures, which lack detail, would require congressional approval. That could be tough to achieve in the partisan climate on Capitol Hill. Here’s what you need to know about what Trump has said he’ll do to address the economy:Some parts of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one of Trump’s signature achievements during his time in the White House, are scheduled to lapse at the end of 2025. While the law reduced taxes for most people, Democrats often criticize the TCJA for disproportionately benefiting the wealthy. Trump wants to extend all the individual income and estate tax cuts that the 2017 law provided. This includes, among other things, an increase to the standard deduction, lower marginal income tax rates for most income brackets, and an increase to the estate tax exemption. Trump has suggested he would get rid of the cap on state and local tax deductions, known as SALT. The TCJA limited the deduction to $10,000, but the controversial cap expires at the end of 2025. Additionally, Trump has called for lowering the corporate tax rate to 15% for certain companies. The TJCA permanently lowered the top corporate tax rate from 35% to 21%. Trump would also restore companies’ ability to immediately deduct investments in equipment and research. Eliminate taxes The president-elect has rolled out a series of targeted tax breaks, including eliminating federal taxes on tips, Social Security benefits and overtime pay. Trump was the first candidate to promise an end to taxes on tips, floating it at a rally in Las Vegas about two months earlier than Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Though his campaign hasn’t released details on the proposal, Trump has indicated that he would eliminate both federal income taxes and payroll taxes, which fund Social Security and Medicare. Virtually all tipped workers would get some tax relief if Trump also gets rid of payroll taxes on tips, the Tax Policy Center found. However, these workers would then get smaller Social Security payments after they retire. Seeking to appeal to senior citizens, a dedicated voting bloc, Trump has vowed that Social Security recipients would no longer have to pay taxes on the monthly benefits they receive. Around half of beneficiaries – mainly those with higher incomes – pay federal income tax on their Social Security payments. In addition, Trump has proposed jettisoning taxes on overtime pay, though his campaign has not provided any details. However, if workers don’t owe payroll taxes on their overtime compensation, they could receive less from Social Security in retirement. If enacted, all three of these measures could reduce the taxes that help fund Social Security, which could deplete the program’s trust funds by 2031 and force a roughly 30% cut in benefits for enrollees if the revenue is not replaced, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Trump has also floated ending the federal income tax and replacing it with revenue from tariffs. Help the middle class The former president unveiled on the campaign trail several measures aimed at helping Americans afford the cost of living. He has said he would temporarily cap credit card interest rates at around 10%, which is less than half the current rate. And Trump promised to make the interest paid on car loans fully tax deductible, similar to the po[CENSORED]r existing deduction for mortgage interest. While he argues this will stimulate car ownership, some experts say it will mainly help wealthier Americans who itemize their deductions – and who typically buy more expensive cars. To assist aging seniors and their family members, Trump has said he would push for a tax credit for family caregivers. Also, he would shift resources to at-home care and end disincentives that lead to care worker shortages, according to his platform. Trump’s running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has floated beefing up the child tax credit to $5,000 per child, but the president-elect has not formally adopted that idea. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/11/06/politics/heres-what-trump-is-proposing-for-the-economy/index.html

The Karma Invictus is the latest version of a four-door sedan that draws its lineage all the way back to the 2012 Fisker Karma. The Invictus is the performance version of the Karma Revero and adds a carbon-fiber hood, roof, and trunk lid and gains Öhlins coil-over suspension. Only 30 will be built, all of which will use the same turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine to power two electric motors on the rear axle. The company has not announced a release date yet. Karma, the small Southern California automaker that rose from the ashes of Fisker Automotive, has a brand-new car. Well, sort of. Feast your eyes on the Karma Invictus, the new performance-focused version of the Karma Revero sedan. We say sort of because, before the Revero, the Invictus can draw its lineage straight through the Karma GS-6 and all the way back to the 2012 Fisker Karma. While most of the styling is shared with the Revero, the Invictus makes use of a carbon-fiber hood, roof, and rocker panels as well as the trunklid and spoiler. The front fenders are also carbon and feature a set of louvers to release air pressure from the front wheel arches. Karma also looked to make performance gains by adding a set of motorsports-derived coil-overs from Öhlins with springs from Swift. The steering is said to be improved as well, with Karma stating that it is both more direct and predictable at the cornering limit. Every Invictus will be powered by the same plug-in-hybrid powertrain that uses a turbocharged 1.5-liter three-cylinder engine to power a pair of electric motors on the rear axle. The system produces a combined 536 horsepower and 550 pound-feet of torque. Karma is only planning to build 30 of the Invictus, and the company has not released either pricing information or a delivery timeline. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a62804509/karma-invictus-revealed/

Celebrating "the joy of being together ", here are eight group portraits – taken by photographer Neal Slavin between 1972 and 1991 – that show both togetherness and peculiarity in US life. It's 50 years since photographer Neal Slavin began travelling around the US documenting the nation's diverse – and often bizarre – group gatherings. To mark the anniversary, a new edition of this body of work, When Two or More are Gathered Together, has just been published. Slavin's subjects, he writes, "affirm the joy of being together rather than being apart", and reveal the many different ways that people find common ground. A broad sweep of society is depicted: bingo players, stockbrokers, chambermaids and gravediggers. Some groups, such as the Tall Social Club, invite normality into the marginal; others share passions, from penny farthing bicycles to bodybuilding. Slavin likes his subjects to pose as they want to, allowing natural hierarchies and group dynamics to come to the fore. "I watch individuals who jockey for position, thrusting a shoulder in front of the next person or wearing the widest smile, while others recede into the background, who are posing only to be a part of something larger – the group," he writes in the book. When the first images were published in 1976, the book became a landmark work, indicating the potential of the new medium of colour photography. Now, with 54 additional photos, some taken as recently as 2023, Slavin's celebration of togetherness in an increasingly individualistic digital age feels especially relevant. Here are eight highlights from the book. The Capitol Wrestling Corporation photo shoot in Washington DC, chosen as the front cover of the book, had Slavin full of anticipation. "My father and I used to watch this kind of wrestling on Channel 11, so when it came time to find these guys, I was absolutely elated," the Brooklyn-born photographer tells the BBC. He had hoped to shoot the men in action, but a scheduled event meant that they got "shunted over to the boys' locker room". Shaking hands with Gorilla Monsoon (top right) proved to be an event in itself. "His hand was bigger than my head," Slavin jokes. But for all their brawn and hammed-up bravado, "the camaraderie between them was incredible," he says. "They talked about everything, and I think that's what made the picture." "I love that picture," says Slavin of his photo of a bingo club in St Petersburg, Florida. "For me it just reeks of straight-to-the-heart humanity. It's not humorous: it's human." The players sit in the same seat every time they get together, yet they all crowd in to be in the picture. "They want to be marked down that they were there and at a certain time in history," explains Slavin. "There's a social fabric among all these people," he adds, pointing out their varied responses to the camera. Some have their chests out, others are hunched over, and some are standing up to be seen. "That's what I look for. When I'm at my best, I've found the narrative in the group, and it's fascinating." Slavin asked these Los Angeles yogis to assume a number of positions before settling on this headstand. Here, the fruits of colour photography are clear, but it had taken some time for Slavin and others to topple a pervasive snobbery that favoured monochrome. "We broke the barrier," he says. It was the additional information that colour supplied that most appealed to him. "That opened up an entire world for me that was absolutely amazing," he says. Slavin – ever the outsider – was both bemused and fascinated by the yogis. He references the 19th-Century historian and sociologist Alexis de Tocqueville who observed that, in contrast to his home country of France, Americans instinctively form groups for almost every aspect of life, forging mini democracies. Slavin fears that the digital age threatens the physicality of these connections. "It's interrupting that very basic tribalism that we have survived on for millennia, and I lament that," he says. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20241101-weird-and-wonderful-gatherings-in-the-us

A fourth and final raccoon that escaped from an island zoo has now been rescued and reunited with her sisters. Amazon World Zoo Park, near Sandown on the Isle of Wight, appealed for help from islanders on Friday after four, 18-month-old female raccoons escaped from their enclosure. Three of the animals were found by Monday and the final escapee was rescued at 02:30 GMT. Rachel Patrick, head keeper at the zoo, said she was "elated and so pleased that we have them all back now”. None of the escapees actually left the zoo premises and are all uninjured. Tracker dogs and thermal cameras were all used to try and detect the animals. Ms Patrick said the final sister was spotted "in a little crevice" at 19:30 on Tuesday night. The search team had a trap set up in the area, with meat inside, but the young raccoon teased them for seven hours. "Every time she got closer, and then she suddenly decided she wasn't going in," she said. There are five raccoon sisters at the site, each named after parts of the US, where the animals live in the wild. Winnipeg, Dakota, Myrtle and Alma left Marion behind on Thursday night after they "bust a hole in the roof" of their enclosure, Ms Patrick said. They are now being held in a temporary enclosure while repairs to the roof of their enclosure take place. "They are very happy to all be back together and have been sleeping on top of each other overnight," Ms Patrick said. She added: "Thank you to everybody who offered help and the kind words and messages, they kept us going." Tony Stevens runs a voluntary organisation that uses trained dogs to track lost dogs. He said the group offered its services to the zoo when it appealed for help. "We've been doing whatever we can," Mr Stevens said, adding it had been "a massive team effort from the community". The tracking dogs used a scent from the raccoon's straw bedding to try and pinpoint the location of the missing animals. "It was a new experience for the dogs," Mr Stevens said. Meanwhile, Ben Ford, a commercial drone specialist, offered his help and had been searching for the escapees since Sunday. He said it was hard to distinguish the raccoons from other animals, particularly when they went into dense foliage. His team used a thermal cameras to help locate the sisters. Raccoons live throughout the US, except for parts of the Rocky Mountains and the deserts. They are also found in Canada and Central America They are excellent climbers and can climb almost any surface thanks to their sharp claws and nimble paws The animals are known for their bandit-like dark face masks. One theory is that the distinctive dark markings help them see clearly. They deflect the sun’s glare and also may enhance night vision Raccoons are very intelligent animals and have been known to solve complex puzzles and escape from captivity They are omnivores, meaning they will eat both meat and vegetables. They like grasshoppers, nuts, berries, mice, squirrels and birds' eggs Raccoons can live for 16 years in the wild but often only live for an average of five years https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c704rzp25dko

Ex-Manchester City footballer Benjamin Mendy has won the majority of his employment tribunal claim against the club over £11.5m in unpaid salary the club withheld from him after he was charged with sex offences. The France international and World Cup winner was later cleared of all charges after two trials. Employment judge Joanne Dunlop said she had concluded that Mendy is "entitled to recover some, but not all of the sums claimed", following a hearing at Manchester Employment Tribunal. Ms Dunlop said that while Mr Mendy was not in custody, he was "ready and willing" to work and was "prevented from doing so which were unavoidable or involuntary on his part". "In those circumstances, and absent any authorisation in the contract for the employer to withhold pay, he was entitled to be paid." The exact amount he will receive is to be calculated by Mendy and the club, or determined at a future hearing if they cannot reach an agreement. A statement from Mendy read: "Today the Employment Tribunal upheld the main part of my claim against Manchester City Football Club for unpaid wages, finding that the club had unlawfully made deductions from my wages for a total period of 16 months and 23 days. "Having had to wait for three years for my wages, I am delighted with the decision and sincerely hope that the club will now do the honourable thing and pay the outstanding amounts, as well as the other amounts promised to me under the contract, without further delay, so I can finally put this difficult part of my life behind me. "I would like to thank my friends, family, agent (Meissa N'Diaye) and my legal team (Nick De Marco KC, Laffer Abogados and Fletcher Sports Law) for all of their support." https://www.skysports.com/football/news/12040/13249334/benjamin-mendy-wins-majority-of-employment-tribunal-claim-against-man-city-over-gbp11-5m-of-unpaid-salary

Donald Trump’s return to the White House is set to reshape US foreign policy, promising potentially radical shifts on multiple fronts as war and uncertainty grip parts of the world. During his campaign, Trump made broad policy pledges, often lacking specific details, based on principles of non-interventionism and trade protectionism - or as he puts it “America First”. His victory signals one of the most significant potential disruptions in many years in Washington’s approach to foreign affairs in the midst of parallel crises. We can piece together some of his likely approach to different areas from both his comments on the campaign trail and his track record in office from 2017 to 2021. During the campaign, Trump repeatedly said he could end the war between Russia and Ukraine “in a day”. When asked how, he suggested overseeing a deal, but has declined to give specifics. A research paper written by two of Trump’s former national security chiefs in May said the US should continue its weapons supply to Ukraine, but make the support conditional on Kyiv entering peace talks with Russia. To entice Russia, the West would promise to delay Ukraine’s much-wanted entry into Nato. The former advisers said Ukraine should not give up its hopes of getting all of its territory back from Russian occupation, but that it should negotiate based on current front lines. Trump’s Democratic opponents, who accuse him of cosying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, say his approach amounts to surrender for Ukraine and will endanger all of Europe. He has consistently said his priority is to end the war and stem the drain on US resources. Follow live election night updates Full results: Check the count state by state US election weighs on Ukraine's frontline soldiers It’s not clear how far the former advisers’ paper represents Trump’s own thinking, but it’s likely to give us a guide to the kind of advice he’ll get. His “America First” approach to ending the war also extends to the strategic issue of the future of Nato, the transatlantic all-for-one and one-for-all military alliance set up after the World War Two, originally as a bulwark against the Soviet Union. Nato now counts 32 countries and Trump has long been a sceptic of the alliance, accusing Europe of free-riding on America’s promise of protection. Whether he would actually withdraw the US from Nato, which would signal the most significant shift in transatlantic defence relations in nearly a century, remains a matter of debate. Some of his allies suggest his hard line is just a negotiating tactic to get members to meet the alliance’s defence spending guidelines. But the reality is Nato leaders will be seriously worried about what his victory means for the alliance’s future and how its deterrent effect is perceived by hostile leaders. The Middle East As with Ukraine, Trump has promised to bring “peace” to the Middle East - implying he would end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon - but has not said how. He has repeatedly said that, if he had been in power rather than Joe Biden, Hamas would not have attacked Israel because of his “maximum pressure” policy on Iran, which funds the group. Broadly, it’s likely Trump would attempt to return to the policy, which saw his administration pull the US out of the Iran nuclear deal, apply greater sanctions against Iran and kill Gen Qasem Soleimani - Iran’s most powerful military commander. In the White House, Trump enacted strongly pro-Israel policies, naming Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moving the US embassy there from Tel Aviv - a move which energised Trump’s Christian evangelical base, a core Republican voter group. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Trump the “best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House”. But critics argue his policy had a destabilising effect on the region. The Palestinians boycotted the Trump administration, because of Washington’s abandonment of their claim to Jerusalem - the city that forms the historical centre of national and religious life for Palestinians. How Israelis and Palestinians see US election US calls for Israel ceasefire with Hezbollah They were further isolated when Trump brokered the so-called “Abraham Accords”, which saw a historic deal to normalise diplomatic ties between Israel and several Arab and Muslim countries. They did so without Israel having to accept a future independent Palestinian state alongside it - the so-called two-state solution - previously a condition of Arab countries for such a regional deal. The countries involved were instead given access to advanced US weapons in return for recognising Israel. The Palestinians were left at one of the most isolated points in their history by the only power that can really apply leverage to both sides in the conflict - further eroding their ability as they saw it to protect themselves on the ground. Trump made several statements during the campaign saying he wants the Gaza war to end. He has had a complex, at times dysfunctional relationship with Netanyahu, but certainly has the ability to apply pressure on him. He also has a history of strong relations with leaders in the key Arab countries that have contacts with Hamas. It’s unclear how he would navigate between his desire to show strong support for the Israeli leadership while also trying to bring the war to a close. Trump’s allies have often portrayed his unpredictability as a diplomatic asset, but in the highly contested and volatile Middle East in the midst of a crisis already of historical proportions, it’s far from clear how this would play out. Trump will have to decide how - or whether - to take forward the stalled diplomatic process launched by the Biden administration to get a Gaza ceasefire in return for the release of the hostages held by Hamas. America’s approach to China is its most strategically important area of foreign policy - and one which has the biggest implications for global security and trade. When he was in office, Trump labelled China a “strategic competitor” and imposed tariffs on some Chinese imports to the US. This sparked tit-for-tat tariffs by Beijing on American imports. There were efforts to de-escalate the trade dispute, but the Covid pandemic wiped out this possibility, and relations got worse as the former president labelled Covid a “Chinese virus”. While the Biden administration claimed to take a more responsible approach to China policy, it did, in fact, keep in place many of the Trump-era tariffs on imports. What Chinese people want from the US The trade policy has become closely linked to domestic voter perceptions in the US about protecting American manufacturing jobs - even though much of the long-term jobs decline in traditional US industries like steel has been as much about factory automation and production changes as global competition and offshoring. Trump has praised Chinese President Xi Jinping as both “brilliant” and “dangerous” and a highly effective leader who controls 1.4 billion people with an “iron fist”- part of what opponents characterised as Trump’s admiration for “dictators”. The former president seems likely to shift away from the Biden administration’s approach of building stronger US security partnerships with other regional countries in a bid to contain China. The US has maintained military assistance for self-ruled Taiwan, which China sees as a breakaway province that will eventually be under Beijing’s control. Trump said in October that if he returned to the White House, he would not have to use military force to prevent a Chinese blockade of Taiwan because President Xi knew he was “[expletive] crazy”, and he would impose paralysing tariffs on Chinese imports if that happened. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2dl0e4l7lzo

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Calling Vice President Kamala Harris “a liar,” former President Donald Trump claimed that he never wanted to terminate the Affordable Care Act – an accusation Harris has repeatedly levied against him on the campaign trail. “Lyin’ Kamala is giving a News Conference now, saying that I want to end the Affordable Care Act. I never mentioned doing that, never even thought about such a thing,” the former president posted on X Thursday. Facts First: Trump is trying to rewrite history. Repealing and replacing the landmark health reform law, po[CENSORED]rly known as Obamacare, was among his top campaign promises when he first ran for president in 2016, and he spent the initial months of his term pushing Congress to pass legislation to do just that. Trump revived the idea early in the current campaign before backtracking. At September’s presidential debate with Harris, he called the Affordable Care Act “lousy” and said “we” are working on “things” to replace it Even before he ran for office, Trump was crusading on Twitter, now known as X, to repeal the law signed by his predecessor, Barack Obama. During his 2016 campaign, he promised supporters that he would quickly dismantle the Affordable Care Act. Within hours of taking office in January 2017, he issued an executive order aimed at rolling back the law. After the GOP-led House of Representatives passed a repeal bill in May 2017, Trump called them to the White House for a celebratory appearance and said Obamacare was “essentially dead.” “This is a great plan. I actually think it will get even better. This is a repeal and replace of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it,” Trump said. However, even though Republicans controlled Congress and the White House that year, they failed to unite behind a plan to do so, ending any serious attempts to completely jettison the Affordable Care Act. Trump spent the rest of his term chipping away at the law. The former president revived the debate over the law’s fate in November 2023, when he wrote on his Truth Social platform that he’s “seriously looking at alternatives” and that the failure to terminate it “was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!” Trump has recently tried to change his tack – promising to come up with a health care plan that’s better. “What we will do is we’re looking at different plans,” Trump said at September’s debate, noting that he had “concepts of a plan.” “If we can come up with a plan that’s going to cost our people, our po[CENSORED]tion, less money and be better health care than Obamacare, then I would absolutely do it. But until then, I’d run it as good as it can be run,” he said. https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/31/politics/aca-trump-repeal-affordable-care-act/index.html

The Toyota RAV-X is the latest in a lineup of concept cars debuting this week at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The RAV-X is based on a plug-in-hybrid RAV4 and rides two inches higher with a 6.3-inch-wider track thanks to a heavily reworked suspension. Toyota also fitted the concept with unique front and rear bumpers, skid plates, and a roof spoiler. The Toyota 4Runner and Land Cruiser were ideal candidates to be converted into off-road-focused concepts for the 2024 SEMA show. Now Toyota is getting more experimental with yet another concept geared towards getting off the beaten path. The RAV-X is based on a 2024 RAV4 Prime plug-in hybrid and draws inspiration from the burly machines that conquer the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia. The RAV-X makes its debut this week at the SEMA show in Las Vegas. The concept was crafted by the Toyota Service Parts and Accessories Development (SPAD) team, which fully reworked the suspension and tweaked the body for better off-road performance and a true motorsports-influenced look. The SPAD group aimed to create a halo car for the RAV4 lineup and was in charge of the entire process, from sketches to designing in CAD and 3-D-printed parts. The biggest upgrades live within the wheel wells, where Toyota fitted a long-travel suspension that lifted the RAV-X by two inches and increased the track width by 6.3 inches over the standard RAV4. The off-road SUV sports custom 2.5-inch internal-bypass dampers from Fox at the front and rear, which feature dual-speed compression adjustment. The dampers also include external reservoirs up front and piggyback-style reservoirs at the rear to maintain ideal oil temperatures. Additionally, Toyota fashioned forged aluminum front lower control arms and forged aluminum rear upper supports. No major changes were made to the powertrain, which consists of a 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine mated to a trio of electric motors and a continuously variable automatic transmission (CVT). Toyota stated that the output was 302 horsepower "before being paired with a ram air intake," implying that the RAV-X makes a few more ponies than a standard plug-in RAV4. To protect the powertrain, the RAV-X wears front and rear skid plates, and the rocker panels were raised to provide more ground clearance. A redesigned front bumper emulates those of Dakar racers like the GR DKR Hilux that won the rally in 2023, with large cooling ducts, integrated Rigid LED lights, and a pair of red tow hooks. The RAV-X also dressed up with wider fenders, extra ventilation on the hood, red mud flaps, and a rear spoiler. The inner section of the taillights was replaced by a large black trim piece, itself wearing a small lip spoiler. The rear bumper also features a high-clearance dual exhaust, and the RAV-X rides on 17-inch forged aluminum wheels shod in 265/65R-17 tires. The wheels are painted white, with red accents up front and black accents at the rear. It seems unlikely that the RAV-X will ever reach production, but it certainly looks the part. We would welcome a more capable off-road variant of Toyota's po[CENSORED]r SUV. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a62807194/toyota-rav-x-concept-sema/

Is a slower, more mindful pace of life the answer to stress – or is it just another unachievable, privileged lifestyle brag? Meet the author who battled burnout with "a year of nothing". How does the idea of doing nothing for a year sound? No work, no emails, no career progression, no striving or achieving or being productive. For many of us, such a thought might once have brought its own anxiety attack – surely, work is status, earning money is achievement, and being busy is a brag? But these days, a year of nothing is more likely to sound dreamy, even aspirational – there has been, as they say, a vibe shift. Millennials are embracing the concept of #SlowLiving – the hashtag has been used more than six million times on Instagram (despite posting on Insta being fairly antithetical to its principles of a mindful, sustainable lifestyle, with much reduced screen-time). Gen Z, meanwhile, have pioneered quiet quitting and "lazy girl jobs", where one does the minimum at work to preserve your energy for the more meaningful parts of your life, be that hobbies, relationships, or self-care. And people across the generations are united to wanting to work less: in the UK, the concept of the four-day week is gaining serious traction. To be facetious about it: hustle is out, and rest is in. And this is something Emma Gannon knows all about: the prolific author, podcaster, and Substack entrepreneur published A Year of Nothing – her account of taking an entire 12 months off – earlier this year. It quickly sold out when published earlier this summer, and has proved so po[CENSORED]r it will now be reprinted and available to buy in November. Not that it was, initially, a lifestyle choice: Gannon suffered such extremely bad burnout, she had no choice but to stop working. Her account of her year of rest and recuperation is now published in two small, sweetly readable volumes by The Pound Project, charting her journey back to health via gentle activities such as journaling, watching children's TV, birdwatching, and the inevitable cold-water swimming (which Gannon knowingly acknowledges is a cliché for "Millennial writers with their bobs and tote bags", but comes to love anyway). Having been fully on-board with the girl-boss culture of the 2010s, Gannon had already stepped away from that with her last book, The Success Myth: Letting Go of Having It All, which explored how relentlessly striving for success rarely brings true happiness. But it was experiencing complete burnout that forced her to really confront the importance of rest. "Looking back, there were lots of red flags – feeling very confused, pulsating headaches, not being able to focus on things in the room, quite scary stuff. But I over-rode it, [thinking]: 'I'm busy, I've got to crack on'," she recalls. Suddenly, in 2022, her body went into a forced shut-down mode. "Couldn't look at a phone, couldn't look at a screen, couldn't walk down a street without feeling fragile. It was the feeling that, 'oh you can't muddle your way through this – you have to stop'. Many people with chronic burnout have to get to that point before they'll take time off [work], because we're so conditioned in this society to push through at all costs. "But we were designed to have naps, and [walks in] the park. To go for a swim, and look at the sky. That stuff's really important," Gannon insists. And she's determined to carry the lessons from her burnout, and her recovery, into a slower, more spacious life. "Nothing is worth your health." But she's far from ploughing a lonely furrow, here – a scan of the self-help or pop philosophy sections of your local bookshop, or indeed a glance at the list of recommended reading at the back of A Year of Nothing, reveals a flourishing crop of books encouraging us to slow the heck down. Jenny Odell's How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy became a sensation in 2019, linking our frazzled brains to how profit-hungry technology and social media use up our attention and distract us. She advocated re-wiring our awareness to the natural world around us, and to our own interiority. Odell is also part of a wave of writers encouraging active resistance to the relentless "goal-oriented" expectation that, "in a world where our value is determined by our productivity", every hour and minute of our time should be put to good use – if not at work, then in self-improvement. Resisting the pressure to always be optimising can also be found in Oliver Burkeman's surprisingly comforting 2021 book Four Thousand Weeks – which reminds us that life is brief, and we will never get everything on our to-do list done. Rather than seeking to be ever-more efficient, he argues that we should focus on what really matters (spoiler alert: it's probably not hitting inbox zero), ditch perfectionism and completism, and live more fully in the present. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240724-why-doing-nothing-intentionally-is-good-for-us-the-rise-of-the-slow-living-movement