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Prisons and probationAmelia Gentleman visits Halden, the high-security jail in Norway where every cell has a flatscreen TV, an en-suite shower and fluffy, white towelsHalden prison smells of freshly brewed coffee. It hits you in the workshop areas, lingers in the games rooms and in the communal apartment-style areas where prisoners live together in groups of eight. This much coffee makes you hungry, so a couple of hours after lunch the guards on Unit A (a quiet, separated wing where sex offenders are held for their own protection) bring inmates a tall stack of steaming, heart-shaped waffles and pots of jam, which they set down on a checked tablecloth and eat together, whiling away the afternoon.

History booksObituarySir Christopher Bayly obituaryLeading historian of India who took an Asian-centred view of the British empire Sir Christopher Bayly, who has died suddenly aged 69, was the pre-eminent historian of India and the British empire and a pioneer of the field of global history. In 2007 he was the first scholar to be knighted “for services to history outside of Europe”. His adult life was anchored in Cambridge, where he was fellow of St Catharine’s College from 1970 and professor of imperial and naval history from 1992 to 2013.

US news This article is more than 15 years oldTexas defies Hague and executes José MedellínThis article is more than 15 years oldMexican man at centre of international legal dispute is executed in Texas for rape and murder in 1993A Mexican man at the centre of an international legal dispute has been executed in Texas for the rape and murder of a 16-year-old girl in 1993. While protestors both for and against the death penalty demonstrated outside the Huntsville Unit near Houston last night, José Medellín, 33, died after being given a lethal injection.

Tour de FranceAs France celebrated a World Cup win 20 years ago, a drugs scandal broke that almost killed the race The echoes are everywhere. In July 1998, as an irresistible French football team closed on World Cup victory, the Grand Départ of that year’s Tour de France was overshadowed by a fast-developing doping controversy. In Ireland, where the peloton was gathering for the Tour’s start, there was fear and loathing in the air.

Data and computer security This article is more than 9 years oldWebcam 'creepshot' pictures viewed and shared on RedditThis article is more than 9 years oldRussian site Insecam, and others, were scoured for shots of women in private security camera feeds Commenters on the discussion site Reddit pored over compromised security camera feeds linked from the Russian website Insecam, screenshotting and sharing pictures of naked or half-dressed women. The website, which has been live since September, is just the latest of a string of sites which exploit knowledge of default passwords to access supposedly private security camera feeds.

From the Guardian archiveTelevision1 June 1979: Franklyn returns to straight television work after spending years making TV commercials for Schweppes tonic water Schh ... It’s a great life if you won’t weaken. William Franklyn schh... ould know. And William Franklyn has weakened. He’s going straight. That is, if we are talking about acting. When it comes to cricket, he’s decided to revive the leg break, and claims 18 wickets so far on this season’s rain-affected pitches.

‘Ideally choking would involve conversations and research that allow people to take a calculated risk, but instead it has become mainstream to the point where it is too often assumed that consent is not necessary.’ Photograph: Himani Baisla/Getty Images/EyeEm‘Ideally choking would involve conversations and research that allow people to take a calculated risk, but instead it has become mainstream to the point where it is too often assumed that consent is not necessary.

Book of the dayDeborah LevyReviewThis vivid follow-up to the Booker-shortlisted Swimming Home tackles identity, obsession and dutyA little more than halfway through Deborah Levy’s hypnotic new novel, Hot Milk, its narrator, Sofia, throws a vase on the floor. She is in a rented beach house with her mother, Rose, in southern Spain – but if this sounds like a holiday, it’s not. Rose has remortgaged her flat to come here, to a mysterious clinic run by a man called Gómez: perhaps Gómez can cure the mysterious paralysis that confines Rose to a wheelchair and binds her daughter to her with chains of control and dependency.

Jennifer Lawrence This article is more than 5 years oldJennifer Lawrence responds to 'sexist' dress criticism: 'It was my choice'This article is more than 5 years oldThe actor criticized media outlets for ‘ridiculous’ comments about an outfit she wore during the press tour for her latest film Jennifer Lawrence has criticized “sexist” media coverage of her fashion choices in a new Facebook post. The Oscar-winning actor, currently on a press tour for thriller Red Sparrow, responded to comments suggesting that the sleeveless Versace outfit worn during a photocall in London implied that she was being mistreated alongside her coat-wearing male co-stars.