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The world’s largest agriculture producers are pushing back against new European Union rules that require proof that crops

The term ‘soft life’ is trending on TikTok, with the #softlifeera tag clocking 12.2million views. While not brand new, it seems a growing number of social media users are leaning towards the lifestyle concept – but what does soft life actually mean and how can it benefit people? Where does the trend come from? As the wording suggests, soft life is all about veering away from stress and struggle and embracing a more easy and enriched life. But this isn’t just about life looking ‘perfect’ on social media. “Soft life isn’t new, however I’m really grateful to see its resurgence,” said Chlöe Pierre, founder of wellness platform thy.self and author of Take Care: The Black Women’s Guide To Wellness. “Essentially to me, especially as a black woman, soft life is about making choices that can avoid me having to live a much longer, and unsustainable, life in hardship. For me it’s about wellness in general, and sustainable wellness. “My only concern when seeing trends [on social media] is that they are inclusive, and generally they aren’t. First and foremost, soft life is a choice – and it’s a privilege to be able to make that choice,” Pierre added. “Originally, the soft life kind of movement had origins in places like Nigeria and other places around the continent, but was popularised via America and a lot of African American women, [who were often] fictional characters on TV. Because there weren’t, especially not in the UK, reachable or visible representations of black women and women of colour that had amassed a wealth, and therefore the privilege of living a ‘soft life’.”Permission to live a soft life For Dr Evelyn Okpanachi, author of The Emotionally Empowered Woman, it makes sense people are increasingly leaning towards the trend. “Collectively, we are still tired. We have had the Covid era, austerity and more, and we simply want to live and breathe a little. This is why we are leaning towards it more right now. Collectively, we are breathing a sigh of relief,” said Okpanachi. “Most people associate the soft life with booking last-minute flights, mojitos on the beach, dining at nice restaurants and all of the externalities. It is in part, but it a lot deeper than that. “Soft life is living life on your terms. Creating a career you want, the business you want, and looking after yourself holistically. This starts with empowering yourself to succeed by elevating your mindset and knowing you deserve to live a soft life.” Nothing comes easy Okpanachi noted the work that can be involved, however. “In order to enter the soft life era, the average person tends to go through an element of stress. Nothing comes easy,” she explained. “It is essentially about purposely creating a lifestyle with minimal stress and setting boundaries – boundary setting is key. It’s embracing the things that serve you and letting go/eliminating the things that don’t. We all deserve to live a soft life, and we all should. But we have to put the work in to attain it.” This is something social media can often miss out. As Pierre noted, influencers or celebrities may “show you one side of their life – you don’t get to see the struggle they have had to get to that point, or to maintain that lifestyle they have in front of the camera”. Making space for a softer lifeFor many, the dilemma is making these things a reality when work takes up so much energy, along with caring/parenting duties, health challenges and everything else. Pierre discusses in her book about how our identities can be “very wrapped up” in work, which can make it so much more draining – especially for black women who have faced “more hardship in the workplace, compared to other demographics”. Setting “clear expectations and intentions” for yourself can be helpful, she added, and getting to know yourself better. “So making clear expectations about who I am, what I will accept, and what I want – and having the belief that I don’t have to go through too much hardship, that it’s not a benchmark for who I am,” Pierre explained. “This can even be applied to dating.” Ditch the guilt Donna Noble, yoga teacher and author of Teaching Body Positive Yoga: A Guide To Inclusivity, Language And Props, also believes making things intentional is key for how people can embrace the soft life in their everyday routines. “[People] can prioritise their me-time and be intentional about it – for instance, meditating, journaling or doing yoga as soon as they get up (before the rest of the world invades their space), as this will set you up nicely for the rest of the day,” said Noble. “I believe rest and self-care are part of our birth-right – no feeling guilty for just being and not doing. Normalise taking the pause, and that it can be the most powerful thing we do in our day.” For those who struggle to put themselves first, Noble suggested taking time to work on giving yourself permission. “The key here is a shift in perspective and empowerment – you’ve got to discover the precious gem that is your wellbeing. Society’s old scripts may try to hold us back, but rewriting the narrative is where the magic happens,” she said. “Giving ourselves a permission slip to prioritise self-care isn’t just a luxury; it’s a necessity. It’s about understanding that nurturing ourselves isn’t selfish; it’s the foundation for health and wellbeing.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Kim Kardashian teased as the face of a major fashion brand Shoppers make seven big impulse buys per year on average – survey Even 4,000 steps a day could ‘reduce risk of death’ – study

President Joe Biden stopped short of saying he would declare a national climate emergency, a move progressive lawmakers

The checklist for a safe car trip in the era of climate change goes a little something like

Mexico’s inflation decelerated in line with expectations last month but remained elevated when volatile items were not considered,

Just 4,000 steps a day could be enough to reduce a person’s risk of early death, according to a new study – but academics found people reap more health benefits from every additional step. Fitness trackers and smart phones mean that people are more focused than ever on achieving the lauded 10,000 steps a day. But the new study, published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology, found that the number of steps a person needs to walk each day to benefit their health could be lower than previously thought. Researchers found that walking at least 3,967 steps a day helped a person start to reduce their risk of dying from any cause. And walking at least 2,337 steps a day started to reduce the risk of dying from heart diseases. The study, the largest of its kind to date, did conclude that the more a person walks, the lower the risk of premature death. Even if people walked as many as 20,000 steps a day, the health benefits continued to increase, they said. They found that the risk of dying from any cause or from cardiovascular disease – diseases of the heart and blood vessels – decreases significantly with every 500 to 1,000 extra steps a person walks. Indeed an extra 1,000 steps a day was associated with a 15 per cent reduction in the risk of dying from any cause, and an increase of 500 steps a day was associated with a seven per cent reduction in dying from cardiovascular disease. Academics, led by Maciej Banach, professor of cardiology at the Medical University of Lodz in Poland, and adjunct professor at the Ciccarone Centre for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US, examined 17 different studied with information on almost 227,000 people. People were tracked for an average of seven years. “Our study confirms that the more you walk, the better,” said Prof Banach. “We found that this applied to both men and women, irrespective of age, and irrespective of whether you live in a temperate, sub-tropical or sub-polar region of the world, or a region with a mixture of climates. “In addition, our analysis indicates that as little as 4,000 steps a day are needed to significantly reduce deaths from any cause, and even fewer to reduce deaths from cardiovascular disease.” “In a world where we have more and more advanced drugs to target specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease, I believe we should always emphasise that lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, which was a main hero of our analysis, might be at least as, or even more effective in reducing cardiovascular risk and prolonging lives.” Dr Ibadete Bytyci, from the University Clinical Centre of Kosovo, and senior author of the paper, added: “Until now, it’s not been clear what is the optimal number of steps, both in terms of the cut-off points over which we can start to see health benefits, and the upper limit, if any, and the role this plays in people’s health. However, I should emphasise that there were limited data available on step counts up to 20,000 a day, and so these results need to be confirmed in larger groups of people.” Health officials in England previously urged people to focus on increase the pace of their walking, rather than just focus on the distance or number of steps. People should “focus on brisk walking, not just 10,000 steps”, according to 2018 advice from Public Health England and the Royal College of GPs. Read More Wilko isn’t just a shop – it’s a magical portal to essential British tat ‘Oblivious’ woman defended after walking through beach wedding: ‘They don’t own the beach’ Woman behind ‘not real’ plane tirade identified as marketing executive with $2m home Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

Ohio voters have resoundingly rejected a measure that would make it more difficult to amend the state’s constitution, a proposal that Republican officials bluntly admitted was an effort to kneecap an upcoming ballot measure asking voters to enshrine a right to abortion care. That proposal has failed, with roughly 65 per cent of the vote tallied by Tuesday night after polls had closed, according to projections from the Associated Press. Issue 1 would have required that proposed amendments to the state constitution receive at least 60 per cent of the vote, raising the threshold substantially from a current simple majority vote. It also would have increased the minimum number of petition signatures that groups would have to collect before qualifying an issue to get on a ballot. The proposal’s failure means that a November referendum on abortion rights will need only 50 per cent of the vote to enshrine those protections into the state’s constitution, a major victory for abortion rights advocates and democratic campaigns in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Roe v Wade. President Joe Biden called the measure a “blatant attempt to weaken voters’ voices and further erode the freedom of women to make their own health care decisions.” “Ohioans spoke loud and clear, and tonight democracy won,” he said in a statement. Within the last year, voters have also turned out in record numbers to protect abortion rights in California, Kansas, Michigan and Vermont, underscoring the overwhelming unpopularity of the Supreme Court’s decision and the volatile landscape for reproductive healthcare in its wake, while scrambling anti-abortion campaigns from Republican officials emboldened by the ruling. Issue 1 campaign Protect Our Constitution was largely supported by GOP mega-donor and Illinois businessman Richard Uihlein. A coalition of abortion right, civil rights and democratic advocacy groups joined a No On Issue 1 campaign. “Tonight was a major victory for democracy in Ohio,” the group said in a statement following projections of the measure’s defeat. “The majority still rules in Ohio, and the people’s power has been preserved – because Ohio voters showed up and overwhelmingly voted down Issue 1.” Ohio voters saw the proposal for “what it was: a deceptive power grab designed to silence their voices and diminish their voting power,” the group added. Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project, said the results mark an “incredibly profound and inspiring day for democracy”. “When faced with the choice of whether to allow politicians and special interests to consolidate power and strip voters of their rights, Ohioans fought back,” she said in a statement. “The defeat of Issue 1 should send a clear message to other extremist officials around the country that democracy will not die; people are ready to defend their rights against blatant attacks like Issue 1.” The upcoming proposal for a constitutional amendment in November will ask Ohio voters whether “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s reproductive decisions.” After the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization last June, Ohio lawmakers swiftly outlawed most abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy, a law that is currently suspended by a state court injunction but could be reinstated by the state Supreme Court. A vote to enshrine abortion rights in the state’s constitution would effectively overrule any such law. Abortion rights advocates and providers have warned that Ohio’s ban, which does not include exceptions for pregnancies from rape or incest, ignited a healthcare crisis that endangered patients and their families across the state, forcing people to seek care hundreds of miles out of state and navigate complicated legal and medical minefields while experiencing pregnancy complications. Ohio Republicans initially canceled August elections altogether, which have historically low turnout. But in May, they reversed that decision to put Issue 1 on the ballot – a decision that appears to have backfired for them. Nearly 600,000 Ohio voters cast their ballots early, with voters reporting busy polling locations across the state on election day. Read More Texas judge sides with women after harrowing testimony over anti-abortion law DeSantis won’t rule out national abortion ban but suggests there’s no ‘mileage’ left in Congress

Coupang Inc., the online retailer popular in South Korea for dawn and one-day delivery, posted its fourth straight

Ciara has revealed that she and her husband, Russell Wilson, are expecting their third baby. The singer, 37, shared a black-and-white video to Instagram on 8 August to announce her pregnancy. In the footage, Ciara could be seen posing and dancing next to a pool, while showcasing her baby bump. The video is also set to her and Chris Brown’s new song, “How We Roll.” She went on to confirm that she’s expecting in the caption of the post, as she included some of the lyrics from her latest tune. “You look at me like that again, we make another kid…You my heart I’m your rib,” she wrote. In the comments of the post, many famous faces have gone on to celebrate the baby news, with singer Chloe Bailey writing: “YEEEESSSSS,” along with three heart eyes emojis. “OMGGG CONGRATULATIONS @ciara @dangerusswilson,” singer Normani added. “I am screaming for y’all.” “Congratulations Mama!!! Sending [love] to you and @dangerusswilson!” Lupita Nyong’o wrote. Many fans also took to the comments to praise the video, with one writing: “Now that’s how you announce a pregnancy…Omg!!!!” Wilson also announced the news on his own Instagram, where he shared the video of his wife and noted that he’s the one who filmed it. In the caption, he quipped: “That’s just ‘How We Roll.’” The “Level Up” singer and her husband are already the parents of two: a six-year-old daughter, Sienna, and a three-year-old son, Win. Ciara also shares a nine-year-old son, Future, with her ex, Future. The pair’s announcement also comes a year after Wilson opened up about wanting to expand his family. While Ciara was guest hosting The Ellen DeGenres Show, she brought her husband onto the programme, during which he asked her: “Can we have more babies?... Just give me one more at least.” After the singer responded by bursting into laughter, she told her partner – who she’s been married to since 2016 – she agreed to have more children. “We definitely can,” she said. “We have a little time before we get there…But I’m down to do it again with you.” Back in 2020, the NFL star made a different joke about having another child. In a video posted to Ciara’s Instagram, to promote her fragrance line, he told her: “You smell like you about to get pregnant again.” Meanwhile, the “Body Party” singer has continued to speak candidly about motherhood. During an interview with People earlier this month, she confessed that while she’s “getting better” at managing the chaos of back-to-school season, she still has a busy schedule, as a parent of three. “There are three kids, three of these precious, beautiful, turned-up-crazy, fun, amazing human beings that come with so much. It’s like, ‘Oh my Lordy,’ but you also find a way to make it work,” she said. “That’s the beauty of it all, it’s organised chaos.” She continued: “That’s how life is in general for us, so that’s nothing new, but during back to school, you’re really carefully running through lists and crossing your Ts and dotting your Is, because you want your kids to be set up for success and go in prepared.” Read More Why TikTok is going wild for lip oil Get ready for a SpongeBob and slime Super Bowl. CBS and Nickelodeon team up for NFL's biggest game Future disses ex-fiancée Ciara’s husband Russell Wilson in new track Francia Raisa says she has polycystic ovary syndrome: ‘Learning to live with it’ Raven-Symoné details cosmetic surgeries she had before she turned 18 What is ALS and what are the causes?

Tilray Brands Inc. shares jumped the most since February 2021 after the cannabis and consumer packaged goods company

Action cameras are small, lightweight, and sometimes even waterproof. They're useful because you can mount

US oil production this year will rise faster than previously expected, providing additional crude supplies to a market