¶A band in Ukraine thought they would be welcoming Neil Young to the stage, in a bar, as a guest guitarist. The Secretary of State showed up instead.

¶“We thought, and we were messaged, that it would be Neil Young,” Mr Gorbach said on BBC Radio 4’sToday programme on Wednesday morning. However, before the gig, the band were in fact informed that they would be performing alongside Mr Blinken, with the news seemingly leaving 19.99 dispirited.

¶Strange days indeed.

¶“To me, email is probably the worst because it’s become a symbol of work,” she said, adding that her research has found a direct correlation between email and more stress. “We cut off email for some workers in an organization for one workweek,” she said. “Using heart rate monitors, we found that they became significantly less stressed and were able to focus significantly longer.”

¶I remind myself daily that email is an application that can be closed. I don’t have any personal data, but I can feel the drop in stress and increase in focus mentioned in that quote when my email app is closed. It’s hard, but I’m trying to get to a point where I only check it three to four times a day.