Santa Claus with some lucky kids. Kennedy said that ‘even in fictional characters like Santa, Black kids need to see themselves reflected’. Photograph: Tina Sams PhotographySanta Claus with some lucky kids. Kennedy said that ‘even in fictional characters like Santa, Black kids need to see themselves reflected’. Photograph: Tina Sams PhotographyChristmasChris Kennedy got a note in 2020 criticizing his Black Santa display and decided to embody the spirit of Christmas in return

Florida This article is more than 2 months oldUS man found guilty of wife’s murder in row over Zombie House Flipping showThis article is more than 2 months oldFlorida jury convicts David Tronnes for murder of Shanti Cooper-Tronnes after she refused to appear on home renovation show Shanti Cooper-Tronnes abruptly walked out of a meeting with the producers of a home renovation television series that her husband coveted appearing on in 2018.

Neuroscience This article is more than 4 years oldBionic neurons could enable implants to restore failing brain circuitsThis article is more than 4 years oldScientists say creation could be used to circumvent nerve damage and help paralysed people regain movement Scientists have created artificial neurons that could potentially be implanted into patients to overcome paralysis, restore failing brain circuits, and even connect their minds to machines. The bionic neurons can receive electrical signals from healthy nerve cells, and process them in a natural way, before sending fresh signals on to other neurons, or to muscles and organs elsewhere in the body.

LGBTQ+ rights This article is more than 3 months oldDylan Mulvaney says woman-of-the-year award ‘means so much more’ after Bud Light backlashThis article is more than 3 months oldAttitude magazine celebrates TikTok star who collaborated with beer maker who left her high and dry after conservatives boycotted After gaining Attitude magazine’s first-ever woman of the year award, US trans activist Dylan Mulvaney said receiving such recognition from the UK-based LGBTQ+ publication “means so much more” after a substantial transphobic backlash undermined her Bud Light advertisement.

Denis Reyes’ mother on the fatal NYPD encounter: ‘I saw death on the face of my son.’ Link to video GuardianThe countedNew York This article is more than 8 years oldThis article is more than 8 years oldThe family of a troubled New York man may never know what happened when multiple police officers encountered him in their living room behind a window shade. But his mysterious death is just the latest violent encounter between America’s new first responders and its most vulnerable

Book of the dayPhilosophy booksReviewGoing through a crisis? Why not head off into the mountains in the footsteps of a great German thinkerIf Friedrich Nietzsche were alive today, what would he think of our times? “The nations are again drawing away from one another and long to tear one another to pieces,” he might observe. “The sciences, pursued without any restraint and in a spirit of the blindest laissez faire, are shattering and dissolving all firmly held belief; the educated classes and states are being swept away by a hugely contemptible money economy.

Architecture This article is more than 7 years oldInside the Big Lebowski house – a masterpiece donated to LacmaThis article is more than 7 years oldThe Sheats-Goldstein house will be left to the Los Angeles museum by the businessmen who bought and restored it with the original architect John Lautner The glories of the Big Lebowski house – in picturesRead moreTo get to architect John Lautner’s Sheats-Goldstein house in Los Angeles, you drive upward to where the Hills of Beverly become mere mounds compared with the vertical winding lanes of Beverly Crest.

John BanvilleReviewJohn Banville invokes the gods for his new novel, says Christopher TaylerPoetry, Ezra Pound liked to say, should be at least as well written as prose. Irish novelist John Banville has dedicated his writing life to turning Pound's prescription on its head. Banville made his name with his third book, Birchwood (1973), which treated his country's history as a bewildering black joke rather than something to be handled with patriotic reverence.

Leonardo da VinciIs the $450m Salvator Mundi a fake? This film – featuring tearful sycophants, sneering experts, dodgy dealers and a secretive superyacht – may finally settle the great da Vinci controversy It is almost exactly 10 years since Salvator Mundi was unveiled, this “lost Leonardo” instantly triggering astonishment around the world. Since those giddy days, the work has had a turbulent time. As well as becoming the most expensive painting in history, going for $450m (£326m) at auction, Salvator Mundi was denounced by many as a fake and subsequently vanished from view.

The ObserverScienceHow exactly did the Carthaginian general and his elephants reach Italy? Scientists have got their hands dirty to come up with an answer Having battled their deadly rivals the Romans in Spain, in 218BC the Carthaginian army made a move that no one expected. Their commander Hannibal marched his troops, including cavalry and African war elephants, across a high pass in the Alps to strike at Rome itself from the north of the Italian peninsula.