‘Everything is going up’: Americans struggle with affordability despite Trump’s claims

US workers are still struggling with the cost of living despite Donald Trump’s campaign promises to fix the US affordability crisis.The Guardian spoke to workers as an exclusive poll showed cross-party concerns about the Trump administration’s handling of the US economy.Dawn Levie, 61, a postal service worker in Paulden, Arizona, said she’s lost thousands in earnings over the past year due to cuts to her hours, making it more difficult for her to afford basic necessities like paying for groceries and utility bills.“It’s hard to describe how you feel when you can’t sustain your livelihood because your money is impacted,” Levie said. “You can’t pay bills, [and] creditors get mad

War prompts Europeans to switch holidays away from eastern Mediterranean

Holidaymakers who had planned to visit the eastern Mediterranean this summer are moving their trips to the west and the Caribbean because of the US-Israel war on Iran, travel companies have said.Travellers from the UK and mainland Europe are increasingly swapping their holiday destinations away from Cyprus, Turkey and Greece towards Italy, Spain, Malta and Croatia, as the region around the Middle East grapples with flight cancellations and airspace closures.Tui, Europe’s biggest holiday operator, said demand had risen sharply in recent days for holidays in Spain, Portugal, Greece and Cape Verde this summer as customers opted for “familiar, easy‑to‑reach locations”.“While we are seeing some cancellations in the affected areas, these are currently outweighed by customers choosing to amend their plans instead,” Neil Swanson, a director at Tui, said.Jonathon Woodall-Johnston, of Hays Travel, the holiday agency that took on some of the collapsed Thomas Cook high street stores, added that demand was growing particularly strongly for trips to Italy, Malta and Croatia

New study raises concerns about AI chatbots fueling delusional thinking

A new scientific review raises concerns about how chatbots powered by artificial intelligence may encourage delusional thinking, especially in vulnerable people.A summary of existing evidence on artificial intelligence-induced psychosis was published last week in the Lancet Psychiatry, highlighting how chatbots can encourage delusional thinking – though possibly only in people who are already vulnerable to psychotic symptoms. The authors advocate for clinical testing of AI chatbots in conjunction with trained mental health professionals.For his paper, Dr Hamilton Morrin, a psychiatrist and researcher at King’s College in London, analyzed 20 media reports on so-called “AI psychosis”, which describes current theories as to how chatbots might induce or exacerbate delusions.“Emerging evidence indicates that agential AI might validate or amplify delusional or grandiose content, particularly in users already vulnerable to psychosis, although it is not clear whether these interactions can result in the emergence of de novo psychosis in the absence of pre-existing vulnerability,” he wrote

Fake rooms, props and a script to lure victims: inside an abandoned Cambodia scam centre

It is as if you have walked into a branch of one of Vietnam’s banks. A row of customer service desks, divided by plastic screens, with landline phones, promotional leaflets and staff business cards. A seated waiting area and a private meeting room. All of it features the OCB bank’s logo, or its trademark green colour.This is not a genuine bank branch, however

Heartbreak for England but spirited display signposts the way forward | Gerard Meagher

Just as Steve Borthwick was reaching for his coat, he finally has something to hang his hat on. The ledger records an agonising defeat but a performance brimming with positives, carried out with a swagger that must signpost the way forward if this is to be the turning point in Borthwick’s tenure. Moments of naivety, too, plenty of mistakes and a maddening feeling that leaves you questioning why they do not always play like this.Around half an hour before kick-off of this bonkers Six Nations finale, as part of an equally mind-boggling, gloriously French, pre-match show, there was a moment when two white horses cantered down the middle of the pitch, hitched up on their hind legs before galloping away in different directions down the touchline to take up residence behind each goal. The two horsemen facing each other down

Ireland savage Scotland to land triple crown and heal wounds of France defeat

In sporting vernacular Scotland have long looked on Dublin as a “hard place to go”. Roughly an hour’s flight time from Edinburgh, they get to stay in a decent hotel, play in a relatively modern stadium with good facilities, against modestly resourced opponents, and in conditions they could never describe as alien. Despite this comforting familiarity, ever since Dan Parks nailed a touchline penalty at Croke Park in 2010 to scuttle Ireland’s triple crown voyage the Scots have associated this fixture with trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube wearing oven gloves.On it goes. Faced with the losing run in the fixture hitting a dozen, Scotland did their best to change the narrative