95 minutes ago Holly Willoughby beams as she takes family on festive day out to Winter Wonderland

Holly Willoughby appeared in high spirits this weekend as she enjoyed a family day out to Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland with her kids, wrapping up warm for the festive trip.

Politics

18 hours ago DWP update as 42,500 people entitled to free TV licence and Winter Fuel Payment

DWP have issued an update and urged pensioners to act quickly to claim Pension Credit worth £4,000 a year along with the bonus of free TV licenses

Politics

26 hours ago Urgent DWP scam warning to pensioners claiming credit and Winter Fuel Payment

Millions of benefit recipients could be at risk

Events

26 hours ago Pensioners warned just hours left to claim key benefit and access Winter Fuel Payment

Applications must be made before midnight on December 21

Events

27 hours ago Winter Solstice: Pagans, druids and tourists descend on Stonehenge to mark the shortest day of the year

Revellers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 am over the giant standing stones on the winter solstice - the shortest day and the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere

Politics

30 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

31 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