She was born with an ultra-rare genetic disorder. After my decades working in film PR, I now face the biggest campaign of all: the fight for her life

My daughter Elsie has beautiful curls – blond like a little Botticelli cherub’s, hair that someone dark like me could only ever dream of. She laughs a lot, has a cheeky sense of humour and soaks in all the sounds around her – rustling leaves, the sea, a dog barking, children playing around a pool, me impersonating the alarm clock every morning, me impersonating monkeys. Indeed, me impersonating any animal.

Sound is important for Elsie because she has a visual impairment and, while we know she has some peripheral vision, is legally classed as blind. As a result, she uses her tongue to check her environment. When she’s excited it sticks out, tasting the air around her, licking anyone close, sensing space. And when she likes the taste of something she keeps her tongue out until you give her more. This is how we know she likes lollies.

As Russians vote this weekend, remember that Britain is not immune to the cynical tactics and corrosion of trust that keep him in power

Millions of people will participate in elections in Russia this weekend and a new parliament will be chosen, but not necessarily in that order. The purpose of the exercise is to maintain Vladimir Putin’s authority over the political process, which means United Russia, the president’s party, will retain control of the Duma.

That much is settled before the polls open, although the scale of the government’s victory won’t be declared until the votes are counted. A portion of seats is available for other “systemic parties” that function as Kremlin licensed-opposition, padding out the pretence of pluralism. They serve as a pressure valves for public frustration and parliamentary proxies when rival factions within the ruling elite want to nudge Kremlin policy in one direction or another.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Thousands of children in state care were evacuated when Russia invaded. Kyiv wants them back – but many resist

When he first arrived in his new home in a small village in the Italian Alps in March 2022, 15-year-old Denys* says he felt homesick and confused. He had been put on an overnight bus and relocated along with more than 100 other children from his orphanage in Berdiansk, in eastern Ukraine, which was one of the first areas to be invaded by Russian troops.

“Ukraine was all I knew,” says Denys. “I had never left it my whole life.”

The landmark documentary series looked like it was done for good – until one participant was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Asif Kapadia takes the helm for its most elegaic, thoughtful outing ever

And so the great experiment begun by Granada Television in 1964 is over. That year, Seven Up! introduced the viewing public to 14 primary school children – 10 boys and four girls from a range of backgrounds – who would become part of an ongoing documentary project that returned to film them at regular intervals and interrogate the truth of the Jesuitical motto “Give me the child for the first seven years and I will give you the man”.

Seven Up!, part of ITV’s flagship World in Action series, was directed by Paul Almond but thereafter the enterprise became synonymous with Michael Apted, who originally helped find the children and took over the making of the programmes. He died in 2021, two years after completing 63 Up. It had been thought the series would end there but when one of the participants, Nick Hitchon – a Yorkshire farmer’s son who grew up to be a nuclear scientist – called one of the team to say that he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and wanted to give one last interview, a final episode was commissioned.

US president insists that fears expressed by top experts are a hoax – and that humanity can sleep easy while he’s at the wheel

We can all sleep easy. In a post on his Truth Social account, Donald Trump has declared that fears over artificial intelligence were all a hoax dreamed up by conspiracy theorists. Obviously that includes the top bods at Anthropic and its competitors, who all called for a coordinated global slowdown while the industry works out how to mitigate the risks. Still, good to know the tech bros are just fantasists and space cadets at heart.

All that was needed to keep humanity safe and well, The Donald insisted, was a president with a very high IQ. Someone very like him. The only man alive who could out-think the combined power of the world’s supercomputers. He could tell them where to draw the line and they would reprogram themselves to back off. Inside every AI network is a default off switch that kneels before the US president. Trump can rewire the world with the power of his mind.

The characters are dead-eyed waxworks which speak with all the nuance of a satnav. But this AI-created workplace comedy is so bad that even the greatest actors alive couldn’t stop it being unwatchable

As you will no doubt be aware, one Anthropic researcher claimed there is a greater than one in 10 chance that AI will end all of humanity as we know it within the next decade. However, now that I’ve given it some thought, I think this statistic might actually be a little conservative. This is because I have just watched an episode of a sitcom created by AI, and if I ever have to do it again I’m genuinely going to die of boredom.

The show is No Big Deal, and it premiered on YouTube on Friday. I was apparently only the 376th person to watch it. This is by no means a recommendation that you become the 377th, more a warning to avoid it if your algorithm ever decides it hates you enough to suggest this.

Rotherham has 46 online vacancies for every 1,000 young people but there are 288 in Cotswold district council area

Young people in Rotherham face a local jobs market with the fewest suitable opportunities in Britain, according to a report that warns stark regional divisions are fuelling a crisis in youth work.

As ministers push to combat rising youth unemployment, the analysis from the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) showed young people faced a tougher challenge in some parts of the country to find work than in others.

Lady Justice Thirlwall’s report concludes three babies might have survived if hospital had acted on concerns about nurse

Ministers have promised sweeping changes to the NHS after a “devastating” official review concluded that three babies might have survived if hospital bosses and doctors had acted on concerns about the nurse Lucy Letby.

A public inquiry found a “complete failure” to protect babies on the neonatal unit at the Countess of Chester hospital in north-west England.

More than a million people have left work to look after loved ones in the past two years, Carers UK says

About 1,500 Britons a day are quitting their jobs to become unpaid carers, as they try to balance their vulnerable relatives’ growing care needs with declining access to state-funded social care services.

Research estimates that more than a million people have left the workplace to look after ageing, ill and disabled loved ones in the past two years, highlighting the social challenges caused by UK’s rapidly changing demographic profile.

More than 100 people reported to have joined search for Noah, who is autistic, non-verbal and has partial hearing loss

Police are urging people to check their gardens and sheds for a three-year-old boy who went missing on Tuesday during a visit to a playground near the Suffolk-Essex border.

The boy, named Noah, was last seen at 3pm in Merriam Close in Brantham, near Manningtree, before being separated from a relative. Officers from Suffolk constabulary said Noah was reported to have run down an alleyway near the playground towards a housing estate.