Taxi driver among three on trial over death of 10-year-old says she briefly opened her eyes and asked for water before dying in his arms

The father of Sara Sharif wept as he told how his limp daughter briefly opened her eyes and asked for water before dying in his arms, a court has heard.

Urfan Sharif said his wife, Beinash Batool, did not call an ambulance in Sara’s final moments, but had said the 10-year-old was being “dramatic and pretending”.

Continue reading...

Dave Penman says any findings of watchdog investigating potential misconduct by top politicians should be binding

Keir Starmer’s reforms to the ministerial code do not go far enough towards an “truly independent” standards regime to hold top politicians to account, the head of the senior civil servants union has said.

Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA, said Starmer had gone further than any previous prime minister in allowing the independent watchdog to initiate investigations into suspected misconduct by ministers, rather than requiring permission.

Continue reading...

Jonathan Powell led talks on Chagos Islands in September and played key role in Good Friday agreement

• UK politics live – latest updates

Jonathan Powell, the former chief of staff to Tony Blair, has been appointed as Keir Starmer’s new national security adviser in a further sign that important figures from the New Labour era are returning to the government.

The veteran former diplomat, who played a significant role in the Northern Ireland peace deal struck in 1998 and served Blair for a decade, will take up the job in Starmer’s No 10.

Continue reading...

Most recent fatality marks 17th beluga to die at Niagara Falls, Ontario, aquarium since 2019

A fifth beluga has died at Canada’s Marineland, as questions mount over the future of both the controversial theme park and one of the world’s largest populations of captive whales.

The most recent fatality marks the 17th beluga to die at the Niagara Falls aquarium since 2019.

Continue reading...

FBI investigating after people report texts saying they were selected to pick cotton and to go to nearest plantation

Just hours after Donald Trump’s election win on Tuesday, Black people across the US reported receiving racist text messages telling them that they had been “selected” to pick cotton and needed to report to “the nearest plantation”. While the texts, some of which were signed “ a Trump supporter ”, varied in detail, they all conveyed the same essential message about being selected to pick cotton. Some of the messages refer to the recipients by name .

A spokesperson for the president-elect told CNN that his “campaign has absolutely nothing to do with these text messages”. It’s not yet clear who is behind the messages, nor is there a comprehensive list of the people to whom the messages were sent, but social media posts indicate that the messages are widespread.

Continue reading...

In this week’s newsletter: They say quitters never prosper, but then what do ‘they’ really know? When we’re inundated with things to read, watch, hear and play, don’t be afraid to throw in the towel

• Don’t get the Guide delivered to your inbox? Sign up to get the full article here

It’s list-making season for those of us who write about culture, the point of the year where we tot up all the things we’ve consumed in the past 11-and-a-bit months and try to decide which of them is the best. For me, this exercise always comes with a pang of guilt over the culture I either haven’t got around to watching/listening to/reading or, even worse, started and then never finished. Books pile up on the bedside table, podcasts sit dormant in my series feed, and TV shows lie half-watched on the (far too) many streaming services I’ve signed up for.

In the age of so-much content, this isn’t a problem confined to professional list-makers. But should you stick with that TV show, game, podcast or book you’ve been struggling through, or should you abandon ship? To help you in that tricky decision, I’ve asked some of the Guardian’s sage cultural heads for their advice:

Continue reading...

Clear links to president-elect and rightwing document emerge after his attempts to distance himself from project

• US elections 2024 – live updates

Cheerleaders for Donald Trump have gleefully raised the prospect of the extremist Project 2025 policy blueprint being implemented by the new administration as they taunted Democrats after the Republicans ’ victory over Kamala Harris .

Project 2025 is an initiative coordinated by the rightwing Heritage Foundation and presented to the American public in the form of the Mandate, a 900-plus page policy plan . Proposals for a second Trump administration include political purges of the federal government and attacks on minority rights and environmental protections among many other hard-right policy ideas.

Continue reading...

Ken O’Toole says companies should be made to give young people workplace opportunities long before they turn 15

Companies should be made to give work experience to children as young as primary school age to help tackle the “absence epidemic” in schools, the boss of the UK’s biggest airport group has said.

Ken O’Toole, the chief executive of Manchester Airport Group, said firms had a “moral obligation” to offer opportunities to young people long before they turn 15, the age most UK schoolchildren complete a two-week work placement.

Continue reading...

Watching a pumpkin, crayons or a Furby get squashed isn’t just fun – it can also serve as an emotional release

There are lots of ways to unwind. You can go on a walk, call a friend or read a book. But sometimes it rains, friends are busy or your book is boring. What then?

I have a suggestion: watch random, unrelated objects get mercilessly crushed in the mechanical jaws of a hydraulic press.

Continue reading...