Buy now, pay later holiday purchases leaving travellers exposed to losses

People are missing out on vital protections by using buy now, pay later instead of credit cards to pay for holidays, experts warn.Buy now, pay later (BNPL) has grown hugely in recent years, and holiday firms and hotel chains have been adding it to the options for payment when booking online, saying it can make trips more attainable.“Stay now, pay later” is the new slogan from budget hotel chain Travelodge, which recently announced that guests can now pay via Klarna, Clearpay or PayPal – the three companies that dominate the UK BNPL market.Similarly, a number of travel agents and flight booking sites offer BNPL under the banner of “Fly now pay later”. Customers do not have to pay the full cost of their flights upfront – they can spread the cost over instalments

Co-op staff told to boost promotion of vapes after costly cyber-attack, document shows

The Co-op has quietly told staff to boost promotion of vapes in an effort to win back customers and sales after a devastating cyber-attack.The ethical retailer is making vapes more prominent in stores via new​ displays and additional advertising, according to an internal document seen by the Guardian. It is also stocking a bigger range of vapes and nicotine pouches.The action plan is to tackle a big sales drop after the April hack that resulted in gaps on its shelves.Called Powering Up: Focus Sprint: Cigs, Tobacco and Vape, the document says: “Sales haven’t recovered compared to pre-cyber

‘He’s one of the few politicians who likes crypto’: my day with the UK tech bros hosting Nigel Farage

It is a grey morning in Shadwell, east London. But inside the old shell of Tobacco Dock, the gloom gives way to pulsating neon lights, flashy cars and cryptocurrency chatter.Evangelists for Web3, a vision for the next era of the internet, have descended on the old trading dock to network for two days. For many, the main event is one man: Nigel Farage.“Whether you like me or don’t like me is irrelevant, I’m actually a champion for this space,” the leader of Reform UK tells the audience of largely male crypto fanatics at the Zebu Live conference

‘Sycophantic’ AI chatbots tell users what they want to hear, study shows

Turning to AI chatbots for personal advice poses “insidious risks”, according to a study showing the technology consistently affirms a user’s actions and opinions even when harmful.Scientists said the findings raised urgent concerns over the power of chatbots to distort people’s self-perceptions and make them less willing to patch things up after a row.With chatbots becoming a major source of advice on relationships and other personal issues, they could “reshape social interactions at scale”, the researchers added, calling on developers to address this risk.Myra Cheng, a computer scientist at Stanford University in California, said “social sycophancy” in AI chatbots was a huge problem: “Our key concern is that if models are always affirming people, then this may distort people’s judgments of themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. It can be hard to even realise that models are subtly, or not-so-subtly, reinforcing their existing beliefs, assumptions, and decisions

Lando Norris claims F1 Mexico City GP pole as teammate Oscar Piastri falters

Lando Norris claimed pole position for the Mexico City Grand Prix, with a superb lap for McLaren at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. The Briton left his title rivals in his wake and in so doing earned a chance to make a major impact on the championship standings and potentially retake the lead.Enjoying a huge boost to his world championship ambitions, Norris delivered perhaps his best lap of the season in qualifying, to beat the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton into second and third. Of greater import was that his fellow title protagonists Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, Norris’s McLaren teammate, could manage only fifth and eighth fastest respectively.The pole was a real statement of intent from Norris and McLaren and exactly the riposte they required after the recent momentum Verstappen has gathered as he closed the gap to the leaders

Vladimir Kramnik denies wrongdoing in death of US chess star Daniel Naroditsky

Vladimir Kramnik has broken his silence following the death of American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky, calling the 29-year-old’s passing a tragedy while accusing critics of mounting an “unprecedentedly cynical and unlawful campaign of harassment” against him and his family.The 50-year-old former world champion, who has faced widespread condemnation for accusing Naroditsky of online cheating without evidence, expressed condolences but denied any personal attacks.“Despite the tensions in our relationship, I was the only person in the chess community who, noticing on video Daniel’s obvious health issues a day before his death, publicly called for him to receive help,” Kramnik wrote in a statement on X. “The subsequent attempts, immediately following his passing, to directly link this tragic event to my name … cross all boundaries of basic human morality.”Kramnik said his earlier calls for a review of Naroditsky’s online play had been ignored “despite a significant amount of evidence”, and claimed he would provide material to “any relevant authority”, He said his lawyers were preparing civil and criminal suits over “false accusations” that have led to threats against him and his family