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.

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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.

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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

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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The star is out in front with multiple genre recognition for Cowboy Carter while Kendrick Lamar, Charli xcx, Post Malone and Billie Eilish follow

Beyoncé is out in front with the nominations for the 67th Grammy awards in what promises to be another female-heavy year.

The star has scored 11 nods for her country album Cowboy Carter with recognition in the country, pop and Americana categories. It’s the biggest number of nominations she has received in a single year and she now holds the joint record of most-nominated artist ever alongside her husband, Jay-Z.

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Steve Borthwick’s side need to find another gear and a different mindset to end their frustrating run of narrow defeats

All year England have been a team who find themselves in arm wrestles and last weekend was no different. They get themselves into tight matches that are still in the balance in the final few minutes - it has almost become the trademark of this team. They’ve played eight matches against tier one nations and the aggregate margin has been 27 points. The biggest margin has been against Scotland, when they lost by nine, but the rest have been decided by a score or less.

That tells me that England have adopted a certain mindset this year but, based on the evidence, they are not very good at winning tight matches. The ledger reads won three, lost five so my question is, do England need to find a way to get better at winning tight matches? Or do they find another way to win matches? My opinion is that they should go for the latter.

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Ivory Coast drinks festival aims to champion and change perceptions of alcohol made in the region

At an event in Abidjan in late October, Alexandre Quest Bede noticed someone staring at him. Then the stranger walked up to him with a T-shirt and asked for an autograph.

“He pointed at me excitedly and said: ‘You’re Monsieur Gnamakou, I know you from Instagram!’” recalls Bede at the poolside bar of Bissa, a boutique hotel in the upmarket Deux Plateaux neighbourhood on the eve of Abidjan cocktail week.

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