The Guardian Articles

The United Nations envoy to Syria has told Islamist militants who toppled Bashar al-Assad that they need to oversee a “credible and inclusive” transition, as world powers sought to engage with the country’s new rulers.

Geir Pedersen, a Norwegian diplomat, met the Syrian rebel leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known by …

Keir Starmer has defended his government’s greater openness towards Beijing following revelations about an alleged Chinese spy who forged a close relationship with Prince Andrew, saying it was “important to engage”.

Questioned for the first time about the case, amid

calls from some MPs

Nearly 90% of the UK workforce at the telecoms company Lycamobile have been told they could be made redundant, the Guardian has learned, in an announcement that leaves more than 300 staff fearing for their jobs shortly before Christmas.

The company, owned by the multimillionaire Tory donor and

Ireland’s position on the war in Gaza “should not be seen as a hostile act”, the Irish deputy prime minister, Micheál Martin, has saidafter Israel decided to close its embassy in Dublin.

Israel

ordered the closure on Sunday,

UK businesses are cutting staff numbers at the fastest rate since the global financial crisis, according to a closely watched business survey blaming the

government’s tax-raising budget

The latest snapshot from the purchasing managers’ index (PMI) survey, which is monitored by the Treasury and the Bank of …

A

new package holiday

That …

The sale of Royal Mail’s parent company to the Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský has been approved by the UK government after a review under national security laws.

A £3.6bn takeover of International Distribution Services (IDS) – the owner of the 508-year-old Royal Mail – by Křetínský’s EP Group was confirmed …

Good morning. Espionage is an obviously mysterious business, but there can be fewer greater puzzles in the annals of national security than the one that has arisen in the last few days. If you were the mighty Chinese state, and making a list of British public figures who might hold …

Voters have broadly accepted that the £40bn in tax rises in Rachel Reeves’s first budget are “necessary” to improve public services, despite the majority expecting to be worse off as a result, according toresearch.

The chancellor announced in October

a package of tax increases

Fifty economists and policy experts have issued a warning to Rachel Reeves that encouraging the City to expand could threaten financial stability and jeopardise growth.

The chancellor has called the UK’s financial services sector “the crown jewel in our economy” and has claimed that regulations imposed after the global financial …