Ex-Waitrose worker needs our support | Brief letters

Perhaps the boss of Waitrose should leave his ivory tower and spend an extended period on the shop floor to experience the life of a shop worker and see the shoplifting epidemic that is happening day in and day out. He may then reach boiling point one day and react out of character. Perhaps a “Don’t-shop Wednesday” at Waitrose, in support of Walker Smith (Waitrose employee sacked after stopping shoplifter from taking Easter eggs, 5 April), might have some effect and reach top executives.Roy WilsonHarrow, London The heartwarming column on how Beau the labrador saved his master’s life after he suffered cardiac arrest on a beach (The pet I’ll never forget, 6 April) reminded me of when we got our new collie. Arriving home, my husband went on ahead to open the house door and didn’t see that I had tripped and landed face down on our lane

Oil and gas crisis from Iran war worse than 1973, ​1979 and 2022 together, says IEA

The oil and ‌gas crisis triggered by the blockade of the strait of Hormuz is “more serious than the ones in 1973, ​1979 and 2022 together”, the head of the International Energy Agency (IEA) has said.Speaking as Donald Trump’s deadline for Iran to reopen the waterway approached, Fatih Birol told ⁠Le Figaro newspaper that the impact of the Middle East conflict on the oil market was larger than the combined force of the twin shocks of the 1970s and the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The IEA executive director also warned that the countries most at risk were developing nations, ‌which ⁠would suffer from higher oil and gas prices, higher food prices and a general acceleration of inflation, while European countries, Japan and Australia would also feel an impact.Oil prices seesawed around the $110 (£83) a barrel mark on Tuesday, rising above that level after Trump warned that a “whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran made a deal, before later easing to just below.Investors are growing increasingly anxious as Trump escalates his threats against Iran, demanding that it reopen the strait of Hormuz as part of any deal to stop the war

The life-changing magic of wearing smartglasses | Letters

I read with sympathy the concerns of Elle Hunt in relation to privacy issues around Meta smartglasses (I wore Meta’s smartglasses for a month – and it left me feeling like a creep, 1 April). Clearly there needs to be ongoing development of technology and protocols that protect the public from ill-intentioned users. As the chief executive of a charity supporting people with a visual impairment, however, I would like to emphasise the point touched upon in your article: how transformative this technology is already proving for blind people.We are seeing significant numbers of our visually impaired staff and clients using Meta glasses in conjunction with their mobile phones to improve their ability to perform ordinary functions that most of us take for granted. A visual impairment can be disempowering and isolating

Tell us: do you use AI chatbots to make decisions for you?

AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude are now a part of everyday life.More and more people are using them to help make decisions in their lives, like sending text messages, deciding what to cook, or navigating relationships.We want to hear about your experiences of using chatbots. Are you addicted to them? And what type of decisions are you using them for?You can tell us your experiences of using chatbots using this form.Please include as much detail as possible

Bryson DeChambeau making his own golf clubs in quest for Masters title

Bryson DeChambeau has revealed the latest strand to his career: golf club manufacturing. The two-time major winner used pre-tournament media duties at the Masters to explain he is making his own clubs, in what marks a stark departure from elite golfers working in tandem with equipment companies.“I think it’s the willingness to always try to improve,” DeChambeau said. “There’s this nature that I have about myself where innovation is a habit of mine and I really find and take pride in that ability to learn, even through failure, even through making a bad decision or a good decision.“South Africa [at the recent LIV event] I was trying wedges

Rory McIlroy returns to scene of Masters glory with ‘big weight off my shoulders’ | Andy Bull

On the Tuesday of last year’s Masters, Rory McIlroy dined with Justin Rose in the clubhouse at Augusta. He arrived right around the time that all the guests at Scottie Scheffler’s champions dinner were having cocktails on the balcony. “I was pulling up Magnolia Lane,” McIlroy says. “And I’m like, well, do I go and park way over at the parking lot? Because I’m not going to park in the champions parking lot.’”Not when there’s Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods and everyone else looking down