All posts tagged: Dear

AI chatbot fraud: the ‘gift card’ subcription that may cost you dear | Scams

AI chatbot fraud: the ‘gift card’ subcription that may cost you dear | Scams

David Duggan* was so impressed with the ability of the Claude chatbot to answer medical questions and organise family life, that a $20-a-month (£15) subscription seemed like money well spent. But then his wife spotted two $200 payments on his credit card bill for gift cards to use the artificial intelligence tool. Duggan, who lives on the east coast of the US, had not bought them, and immediately realised something was wrong. “My wife asked me: ‘Hey, did you make these $200 purchases?’ It was $400 in total. And then there was a third one, but that needed a confirmation and did not go through,” he says. When he contacted Anthropic, the company behind the Claude family of AI tools, his account was suspended, but the computer-generated responses to his questions did not shed any light on what had happened. He started searching online for other victims, and found that a number of Claude users had had similar experiences and detailed them on online forum Reddit. One person reported that 10 payments, each for £18, …

Julia Langbein on her new novel “Dear Monica Lewinsky”

Julia Langbein on her new novel “Dear Monica Lewinsky”

If you turned on cable news in the summer of 1998, you were all but guaranteed to see the face of then 24-year-old Monica Lewinsky. Earlier that year, in January, news of her relationship with President Bill Clinton broke, and for the months following, Lewinsky endured a shame-spinning spectacle of puritanism, contempt, and blame—much of it hurled at her first by Ken Starr in a hotel room at the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City, where she was questioned for twelve hours, then later by members of the federal grand jury, who demanded she retrace her encounters with the President of the United States in painful detail. This says nothing of her greatest abuser of all: the general public. Related Articles Monica’s mortification that summer of ’98 forms the backbone of Julia Langbein’s latest novel Dear Monica Lewinsky, out this month from Doubleday. But Langbein’s narrative begins two decades later, in 2019, as forty-year old Jean Dornan, a translator stuck in an ever-present malaise, finds herself on the brink of crisis. David, a professor with whom …

‘My dear son’: the Ukrainian soldier who came back from the dead | Ukraine

‘My dear son’: the Ukrainian soldier who came back from the dead | Ukraine

Nazar Daletskyi was declared dead in May 2023. The DNA match left no room for doubt, officials told his mother, Nataliia. A Ukrainian soldier who volunteered for the front in the early weeks of the war, Nazar had become one more casualty of Russia’s invasion. Nazar’s remains were laid to rest in the cemetery of his home village. In the months after the funeral, Nataliia visited the grave at least once a week, at first to cry and later to stand in quiet contemplation, remembering her only son. A few weeks ago, almost three years after the funeral, Nazar was freed from a Russian jail as part of a prisoner exchange. Soon after stepping off the bus and into Ukrainian territory, he was handed a mobile phone. Nataliia Daletska speaks to her son Nazar for the first time since captivity – video The moment Nataliia heard her son’s voice again was captured by a village official, in a grainy mobile-phone video of raw emotional power. “My God, how long I’ve waited for you, my precious child,” …

Diane Warren Performs Medley of Oscar-Nominated Songs and ‘Dear Me’

Diane Warren Performs Medley of Oscar-Nominated Songs and ‘Dear Me’

“Dear Me” is the name of the original song for which the legendary songwriter Diane Warren is Oscar-nominated this year — but it’s also what she says she thought, with a little bit of exasperation, when she sat down to record the medley, posted below, of all 17 songs for which she’s been nominated over the course of her career, as that is quite a lot of tunes to have written and to have to remember! The tune, which Warren wrote for and is featured in Bess Kargman’s documentary Diane Warren: Relentless, extends the songwriter’s undesirable records for most noms in that Oscar category without a win and most noms for a woman in any Oscar category without a win. (Warren did receive an honorary statuette from the Academy in 2022, but it’s just not the same thing!) It’s also her ninth consecutive nom in the category, and eleventh nom in 12 years. Given that Warren is a perennial bridesmaid, one might assume that the 69-year-old Van Nuys native is disliked by her peers, but the …

Inside Prince William and ‘dear friend’ Tom Cruise’s unexpected bromance

Inside Prince William and ‘dear friend’ Tom Cruise’s unexpected bromance

Step aside, Goose. Prince William could easily be Tom Cruise’s wingman. The friendship between Hollywood royalty and the future King has taken off in recent years, and appears to still be soaring. The Prince of Wales himself has admitted to being “a little biased to a particular person” a.k.a. Tom when it comes to films. While at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards, the royal was asked what his favorite film is.  A family of fans “I’ve got to be careful because I’m a little biased to a particular person,” William answered. “But Top Gun 2, for instance, is one of the most incredible films I’ve watched in a long time.”  “Highest grossing, so serious about how he takes the action scenes. How it doesn’t win anything, ever? That’s what I care about,” the Prince continued. “It just doesn’t win anything. How could it not win anything? It’s one of the biggest grossing films probably in recent times, and it just needs a mention somewhere, that’s all I care about.” © Daniel Leal – WPA Pool/Getty …

Photographer Richard Young speaks of ‘dear’ relationship with Amy Winehouse

Photographer Richard Young speaks of ‘dear’ relationship with Amy Winehouse

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Celebrity photographer Richard Young has offered a rare glimpse into his illustrious career, sharing poignant anecdotes about Amy Winehouse and Princess Diana during his appearance on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs. Young, renowned for capturing icons like Elizabeth Taylor and Mick Jagger, spoke fondly of his “dear” relationship with Winehouse. He recounted being invited to photograph the singer on the night she won her first Grammy awards, as she was unable to attend the ceremony in the US. Young was en route to a hotel when Universal Music’s PR called, asking him to Riverside Studios in Hammersmith. “We’ve got this thing going on… Amy’s here. There’s a possibility she might get one or two awards. We would love you to come down and photograph it,” he was told. During the evening, Winehouse’s mother, Janis, offered Young a bagel, prompting a playful interjection …

‘Oh dear’: Craig David’s attempt to rescue flying fish goes hilariously wrong

‘Oh dear’: Craig David’s attempt to rescue flying fish goes hilariously wrong

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Craig David has shared a TikTok of him trying to rescue a flying fish, only for it to be eaten by a bigger fish when he released it back into the sea. The UK garage legend shared the unfortunate but endearing clip this week, while holidaying in the Maldives. The saga begins with David, 44, finding a flying fish on the dock while having dinner. “I’m just gonna grab you, here we go, [I’m] putting you back in, come on man, stay with me, stay with me, stay with me,” he says. “Oh my gosh,” he says, throwing the fish back into the sea. “That’s the full moon for you. Hope he’s still alive.” The Born to Do It artist then pans to the moon. which cast a bright light over the sea: “Come on, come on, you’ve still got it inside of …

Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden

There’s something deliciously subversive about watching a middle-aged advice columnist transform from doormat to vigilante, and Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden delivers this transformation with the author’s signature blend of psychological suspense and dark wit. McFadden, the #1 New York Times bestselling author behind The Housemaid series, returns with a twisted tale that asks: what happens when a woman who spends her life solving other people’s problems finally decides to solve her own? The Unraveling of a Perfect Suburban Life Debbie Mullen appears to have it all figured out. As the voice behind the beloved “Dear Debbie” advice column in her local newspaper, she dispenses wisdom to the wives of New England with neighborly warmth and practical solutions. She’s a devoted mother to two teenage daughters, a supportive wife to her accountant husband Cooper, and the kind of woman who makes homemade brownies and maintains a pristine suburban existence. But beneath this carefully constructed facade, everything is falling apart. When Dear Debbie by Freida McFadden opens, we’re immediately thrust into Debbie’s world as it begins …

20 TV shows everyone will be talking about in 2026, from Pride & Prejudice to Dear England

20 TV shows everyone will be talking about in 2026, from Pride & Prejudice to Dear England

Get the latest entertainment news, reviews and star-studded interviews with our Independent Culture email Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter Get the latest entertainment news with our free Culture newsletter If your New Year’s resolution is to watch less TV and go out more, then good luck, because the next 12 months look set to be filled with plenty of irresistible television. Early in the year, to get things off to a cracking start, we’ve got a brand new Netflix comedy drama from Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, How to Get to Heaven from Belfast, about three friends on an odyssey through Ireland and beyond, who are trying to piece together the truth of the past. Waiting for the Out, an adaptation of Andy West’s acclaimed memoir The Life Inside, also looks like an unmissable bit of drama that lifts the lid on the experience of prisoners. And there are returning favourites, from The Night Manager (back after a 10-year wait) to Industry, Hijack and Rivals. Further ahead, there’s also Dolly …

Dear Eric Trump, I am not you: Life as the Doppelgänger of a Trump scion

Dear Eric Trump, I am not you: Life as the Doppelgänger of a Trump scion

Dear Eric Frederick Trump: My name is Eric Frederick Trump. Can I call you Eric? I feel I know you. We are in a long-term relationship, though only one of us, until now, has known about it. There is something going on here. Something very strange. Let me explain. For years, I have been fielding your calls and receiving your correspondence (no suspicious white powders, yet). Now is the glorious Summer of Trump, and I need to sort out this matter of nomenclature and apprise you of the dead letters that continue to arrive at my door and my inbox. This is a true story. I swear I exist. I still have my birth certificate and am happy to release it. Or you can go to Amazon.com and look up “Eric Trump, verbs, German” (you have to be very precise if you want to find me). There, squashed between Daddy-T’s “Never Enough” and “Think Big: Make it Happen in Business and Life,” you’ll find my modest book, “501 Essential German Verbs.” (I said it was modest—and available for only $5.69!). …