The Guardian Articles

We do it sitting in a tree, under the mistletoe, at midnight to ring in the new year. In fairytales, the act transforms frogs into princes and awakens heroines from enchanted slumber. We make up with it, seal with it, and – in Romeo Montague’s case at least – die …

Islamist rebels once exiled to a mountainous pocket of the Syrian countryside now roam the streets of central Aleppo, taking pictures below its ancient citadel and tearing down symbols of President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

The

surprise offensive in which insurgents seized territory

Keir Starmer will pledge this week to undertake the most ambitious programme for government “in a generation”, as he sets out new targets to refocus his premiership amid falling approval ratings and the first resignation from his cabinet.

In a political gamble designed to draw a line under the bumpy …

The last time Australia won in Dublin, in November 2013, Joe Schmidt was sitting in the other coaching box having just taken control of an Ireland team in disarray. Declan Kidney had presided over a fifth-place finish in the Six Nations, Ireland’s worst result since the competition was expanded to …

We were denied the consummation of another comeback from the dead, but we were treated to the usual entertainment all the same. Northampton’s struggles continue, here surrendering a 17-match unbeaten run at home. Gloucester, though, after an exhilarating opening 40 minutes move ever closer to the playoff zone with a …

At the finish it wasn’t readily apparent who was at the end of yet another enervating season and who was not even at the halfway point. It can get like that when the margins are tight and the mind takes over. For Australia they were trying to get beyond break-even …

We often hear how ministers should be more honest about the state of the economy. How they should signal their intentions and, before announcing a policy shift, have the guts and intellectual heft to debate the expected impact in public, such that when a section of the public dislikes the …

23andMe is facing implosion. As the once-promising

genetic

Thick, dark slurry flecked with stones and twigs covers the entire ground floor of Ralph Connor and Tina Honeyfield’s terraced house in the former coal mining village of Cwmtillery in south Wales. They use the lights on their phone to show what happened when a

long-abandoned coal …

Five minutes to go and the result is beyond doubt, yet still there are nerves. A woman dressed in blue in her 40s stands behind the goals, long ago finished chewing her nails.

The Kangaroos lead the Lions by 29 and there she is, with an entire finger in her …