15 hours ago What does the Winter Solstice mean for your star sign? From 'party animal' Geminis to 'secretive' Scorpios

As the sun in the UK creeps up bit by bit, it signals changes to come in the cosmos - but what does that mean for your star sign?

Society

18 hours ago Kudus pegs back misfiring Brighton but West Ham desperate for Christmas lift

On the shortest day of the year, a game that burst only briefly into life. In the space of seven second-half minutes, from nothing and nowhere, things started to happen. Brighton took the lead. West Ham equalised. And then things stopped happening again.There were, to be fair, some rousing moments in the closing stages. Crysencio Summerville, a second-half substitute, robbed the ball off Jan Paul van Hecke and sprinted towards the area, but his shot was blocked; Yankuba Minteh, another, was played through on the right and eventually slid the ball across goal where Vladimir Coufal, a third, running back to defend his goal, deflected it into the foot of the far post. And finally, in the fourth minute of stoppage time and with Brighton finishing strongly, Evan Ferguson, a fourth, set up Yasin Ayari, a fifth, for a shot that was well saved. But the primary impression will be of two teams that started a hectic rush of festive fixtures as if their primary motivation was to preserve energy...

Politics

23 hours ago Thousands greet dawn with cheers at Stonehenge to mark winter solstice

The neolithic monument in Wiltshire is built on the alignment of the midsummer sunrise and the midwinter sunset.

Politics

26 hours ago Country diary: A needle of solstice sunlight reaches into my deep past | Mary Montague

County Meath, Ireland: The very existence of this 5,000-year-old monument, called Newgrange, is remarkable enough. On the shortest day it has truly magical qualitiesThe darkness was tomb-black. Through all of our breathing, the spell thickened as a needle of light stole across the chamber’s floor. The mind is a strange thing, hovering between past and future, aware of its own ability to draw meaning from an occurrence. As the glow lit our shadowy faces, we smiled and murmured with pleasure, but it was stronger emotion that brimmed my eyes.We were inside Newgrange, a neolithic monument built about 5,000 years ago by people who studied the sun’s movement with sufficient attention to pinpoint the moment when the season changed. To catch that brief occurrence, they built a cantilevered stone chamber and covered it with a mound of earth. Above the entrance to the passage from the outside world, they fixed a narrow aperture aligned to the winter solstice. On that day, a clear dawn floods ...

Politics

27 hours ago The dark days are over! Winter Solstice is today, marking the shortest day of the year with just 7 hours and 49 minutes of daylight

If you're getting sick of how early it gets dark in the UK, you'll be happy to hear that the dark days are almost over. We've finally reached the shortest day of the year, known as the Winter Solstice.

Politics