What does it actually take to win a World Cup? Talent? Tactics? A functioning democracy? Not necessarily. As the 2026 World Cup begins, the largest ever, we analysed all 22 past tournaments to find the common threads that link every single champion. From the tactical innovations that shocked the world […]

An autism school in Wiltshire exemplifies what’s so different about education in a tailored environment, and the outcomes for children speak for themselves In the old Wiltshire milltown of Calne, there is an autism specialist school called the Springfields Academy. About 250 children and young people between the age of […]

Andrew Sparrow has been writing the Guardian’s daily political live blog for more than 15 years. How does he cope with the relentless psychodrama of British politics? On Monday at 14:12 BST, the Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow posted two sentences announcing one of the largest government document dumps in British political […]

Attempt to turn a stretch of the English-Scottish border into a commercial forest exposes threat to habitats from wealthy investors On the English-Scottish border a small species of butterfly, the northern brown argus, has fended off one of the biggest investors in the UK. Todrig, with its heath moorlands and […]