17,000 cyclists take over London to ride the Olympic course. Simon Usborne joined them

In a rod-swinging contest between hard-man rulers, Alexander Lukashenko, the President of Belarus, has outdone Russia’s Vladimir Putin by reeling in a real-life Blinky, the radioactive fish of The Simpsons fame.

At the Rainbow retirement village in France, residents will enjoy something perhaps for the first time: majority status. The development near Montpellier will be the country’s first such home for the lesbian, gay and transgender community.

It’s ’elf ’n’ safety gone, well,  a bit 007. MI5 has offered a new, partial glimpse of what recruitment looks like when your business is state secrecy. A job ad on its website seeks a new head of health and safety. The salary: £60,000. But don’t expect to learn much else.

If you know already, well done. If not, read on to find out about the gizmo with the silly name

A cyclist was killed last year by a driver who was adjusting her sat nav

Many of us can’t get through a workout without tunes or telly to make it less boring. And there’s nothing wrong with that, says Simon Usborne

What do Peter Fonda and Rihanna have in common? Both have had their pictures appear on T-shirts without permission – and they’ve lawyered up. By Simon Usborne

Why do most of the world’s best riders refuse to wear classic cycle caps? Simon Usborne on a debate splitting the peloton

The ordinariness of life inside Britain's busiest criminal law firm was as startling as the dedication to wrongdoing shared by so many of its clients. In one scene a brief calmly talked to a 21-year-old as a financial adviser might a customer thinking about opening an ISA: "If you brandish an axe in a public place, that would contravene conditions of your Asbo."