Today’s Big Story

Micro-Retirements

The latest Gen Z trend might impact your financial future and career progression but DIFTP

Kids these days. Have you heard of “micro-retirement”? It’s a new workplace trend apparently. Some young people are spending their savings on extended breaks to avoid burnout and find greater fulfillment in both their lives and work. Sounds good, in theory, but isn’t this really more of a rebranding?

Fast Company says these micro-retirements involve taking a one to two-week break from work every 12 to 18 months. As strategist Michael Miraflor points out on X, we used to call this “using your PTO,” or simply “taking a vacation.” Have we got so used to the rat race and afraid of using our vacation days that we’ve needed to slap a new, wellness-focused label on it to take advantage of it?

But with the cost of living in the U.S. rising, a growing unemployment rate due to mass layoffs, our population’s struggle with debt, and overall financial uncertainty, micro-retirement comes with pros and cons. However, it’s not just Gen Z: according to a survey from Side Hustles, 10% of workers are considering taking a micro-retirement and 75% thought employers should offer micro-retirement policies such as unpaid sabbaticals. Of course, taking multiple extended breaks may have long term impacts on your finances and career advancement.

But these extended breaks can be a little longer, too, in order to offer an opportunity to recharge or even reconsider your career. “Sabbaticals are seen as the thing that an organization offers to you for paid time off, and then you come back to that job,” one professor who is researching such breaks, tells the New York Times. “People are just taking it into their own hands.”

To take a micro-retirement career break, experts say you’ll need to determine how much money you'll need to live off of. Many recommend calculating that number and then adding an additional 20% cushion to account for the time it might take to find your next job. “The way we think is changing. Millennials specifically [are really changing]. We don’t need to sit in an office 40/50 hours a week,” said Leona Marlene, a travel content creator, in a 2024 TikTok.

Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Passes

Republicans overcame multiple procedural hurdles and Democratic delay tactics to secure passage

Whatever lawmakers say they will do, we all know it will always take them a profoundly longer period of time in which to do it. But Republicans somehow managed to fight through some messy holdouts to successfully push their One Big Beautiful Bill Act to President Donald Trump’s desk for a Fourth of July signing ceremony.

The Washington Post says the GOP spent months selling the bill to themselves. “Now they have to talk to a wider audience with many voters saying they don’t know what’s in it.” The nearly 900-page package of tax breaks and spending cuts will affect millions of low-income recipients while growing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency by thousands of workers. The wealthiest U.S. families will enjoy an average of $12,000 in tax savings, while the poorest people will have to pay an additional $1,600 a year, on average, mainly due to reductions in Medicaid and food aid, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

Previous tax breaks meant to create incentives for wind and solar energy are being hacked dramatically. And while $350 billion is being allocated for border and national security, many state lawmakers will be forced to find billions of dollars in their already squeezed budgets to cover the new Medicaid expenses. More than 300 rural hospitals and nearly 600 nursing homes are at risk of shutting down. This will, no doubt, cause confusion for many Americans and likely cost the GOP come midterms.

Elon Musk Wants to Form New Political Party

The billionaire’s effort, called the America Party, comes amid a ramped-up feud with the president

We all sort of saw this coming, right? Billionaire Elon Musk said over the weekend he is forming a third political party after a dramatic falling out with Donald Trump, indicating he will make good on threats he made if the president’s domestic policy bill became law. “When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy,” Trump’s former “first buddy” said on X. “Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

Musk, of course, was the largest individual donor to Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign and, until recently, the guy who spearheaded the White House’s push to cut government waste. For his part, Trump called Musk’s announcement of the new party “ridiculous” and said it would sow confusion. He added that Musk was also furious that Trump had pulled the nomination of his friend Jared Isaacman, who has twice launched to orbit in a SpaceX vehicle, to run NASA (after learning that Isaacman had previously donated to prominent Democrats).

According to the Associated Press, the formation of new political parties is not uncommon, but they typically struggle to pull any significant support away from the Republican and Democratic parties. But Musk, the world’s richest man who personally spent at least $250 million supporting Trump in the 2024 election, could impact the 2026 elections determining control of Congress if he is willing to spend significant amounts of money.

Are You Ready for an iPhone Upgrade?

If these rumors pan out, people might actually line up again

The rumors are starting to reach a fever pitch. A new image from Apple leaker Majin Bu just provided a new look at the repositioned Apple logo on the upcoming iPhone 17 Pro. One of the less talked about design elements of the new iPhone 17 Pro design is the fact that Apple will be shifting to a two-tone design of sorts, with an all aluminum frame and camera bump. However, for wireless charging, MagSafe, and wireless passthrough—there’ll still be a piece of glass (with the logo centered on the glass, not the actual center of the phone).

And inside, reports suggest the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have a 5,000mAh battery—the first ever 5,000mAh cell from Apple in an iPhone. It would beat the previous biggest iPhone battery, which was the 4,685mAh cell in the iPhone 16 Pro Max. The Pro models are expected to use Apple’s next-generation A19 Pro chip. And all iPhone 17 models, and even the iPhone 17 Air, are rumored to have 12GB of RAM. This upgrade should help to improve the performance of Apple Intelligence and multitasking.

But people are really getting excited about the camera refresh. The new bump and expansive camera island stretches across the width of the iPhone back. But that’s to house a 48-megapixel Telephoto camera (up from the 12-megapixel Telephoto camera on iPhone 16 Pro models) that will allow users to record video with the front and rear cameras simultaneously in the Camera app. And many are expecting 8K video recording to debut. We’ll have to wait until September, but that will be here sooner than you think.

The Long Read

Some mental-health-care providers are trying new approaches to treat patients whose worst fears have come true

It works both ways.