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Nikki Haley This article is more than 10 months oldNikki Haley says Florida’s ‘don’t say gay’ law does not go ‘far enough’This article is more than 10 months oldRepublican presidential candidate makes comments in New Hampshire on controversial law signed by governor Ron DeSantis Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told a New Hampshire audience the controversial “don’t say gay” education law signed by the governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, does not go “far enough”. [Read More]

US news This article is more than 9 years oldRikers Island inmate died after seven days alone in New York City cellThis article is more than 9 years oldMentally ill Bradley Ballard was found naked and unresponsive on the floor of his cell after seven increasingly agitated days After a mentally ill Bradley Ballard made a lewd gesture to a female guard at the Rikers Island jail in New York, he was locked in his cell alone for seven increasingly agitated days in which he was denied some of his medication, clogged his toilet so that it overflowed, stripped off his clothes and tied a rubber band tightly around his genitals. [Read More]

The running blogRunningIs a full marathon with 23 wine stops also offering specialities such as oysters, steak, and ice-cream a recipe for success – or disaster?As any long-distance runner knows, there are a number of cardinal rules when it comes to marathons and, while waiting at the start line for my third, I realise I have broken most of them. My general health is poor, in fact I woke coughing up so much phlegm that I was reminded of Slimer from Ghostbusters; I haven’t allowed myself a good night’s sleep; and I’ve not trained in my race outfit - a police costume bought off eBay for £15 - partly from fear of getting beaten up in my north London hood, and partly because I’ve not really trained much at all. [Read More]

The author notices how dancing en pointe ‘weaponises’ ballet for adolescent girls. Photograph: David Levene/The GuardianThe author notices how dancing en pointe ‘weaponises’ ballet for adolescent girls. Photograph: David Levene/The GuardianThe ObserverFictionReviewA choreographer’s long estrangement from her father drives this compelling novel shaped by the 80s Aids crisis, written with detail by a former dancer For Carlisle Martin, a dance-obsessed girl growing up with her mother in Ohio, an annual fortnight with her father and his boyfriend in their Greenwich Village home exuded impossible glamour. [Read More]

Books advent calendarReference and languages books4. The four suits of a pack of cardsOur numerical festive countdown, extracted from Rogerson's Book of Numbers, continues with the cultural history of card suits ♣ Clubs ♦ Diamonds ♥ Hearts ♠ Spades If you count up the numerical value of a whole pack of cards – reckoning on 11 for a jack, 12 for a queen and 13 for a king – you reach 364, which with the addition of one for the joker makes 365, the number of days in the year. [Read More]

Renewable energy This article is more than 1 year oldCo-founder of collapsed energy firm Bulb hopes to expand battery businessThis article is more than 1 year oldLoss-making venture led by Amit Gudka eyes continent as countries move towards using renewable power The co-founder of collapsed energy supplier Bulb is planning to expand his loss-making battery storage venture into Europe as the energy crisis escalates. Amit Gudka hopes to develop Field Energy, the business he set up after leaving Bulb in February 2021, on the continent as countries attempt to switch toward renewable power. [Read More]

Pinneys beach on Nevis, and the volcano in the distance. Photograph: Peter Phipp/GettyThe years since 2008 have seen a global crackdown on offshore finance. Yet a few places have doubled down on offering secrecy to the super-rich. Among these, one tiny Caribbean island might be the worst offender. By Oliver Bullough by Oliver BulloughTax havens hate attention. Places such as Jersey, Switzerland and the British Virgin Islands made a handsome living from helping their clients break other countries’ laws for decades, without anyone really noticing. [Read More]

Reading groupPD JamesJames’s novels spanned cosy crime and tough police procedurals as well as an eerie dystopia and an Austen pastiche. To mark her centenary, help choose one This month on the reading group, we’re going to read a book by PD James. This week marks 100 years since the birth of the writer known not only as “the new queen of crime”, and one of the last links to the genre’s golden age (she was dubbed the new queen after Agatha Christie’s death, a title James did not mind), but also “the doyenne of detective novelists”. [Read More]

Jay Rayner on restaurantsFoodReviewThere’s so much to enjoy in this most beautiful city, but little to match this glorious slab of meat Regina Bistecca, Via Ricasoli 14r, Florence 50122, Italy (+39 055 269 3772; reginabistecca.com). Starters €8-€14, main courses €15-€29, T-bone steaks for two to share €60-€90, wines from €23 Dusk falls in Florence at the end of another oven-baked day and from dozens of apparently identical trattorias, crisp-shirted waiters step. [Read More]

The ObserverAutobiography and memoirReviewThe half-Ukrainian, half-Russian Belim offers a personal perspective on the region’s recent history while circling around a family mystery Anyone wanting to understand the geopolitical background of the current conflict in Ukraine will probably have found their head spinning at the complex history of occupation, independence and ethnic, linguistic and political divisions in this contested “borderland” region. As Victoria Belim writes in her memoir: “Ukraine, with its key position between Russia and western Europe, was always going to be a battleground for Russian imperial ambitions. [Read More]