Yes the darkest day of the year is here, but that means brighter days are ahead. Sunday is the shortest day of the year north of the equator, where the solstice marks the start of astronomical winter. It’s the opposite in the Southern Hemisphere, where it is the longest day of the year and summer will start.

PARIS (AP) – France’s first lady has defended her use of a sexist slur to denounce feminist protesters, saying the comments were “clumsy” but made in private when “I didn’t see that someone behind me was filming.”

The Christmas holiday season is a time to step back from the busy pace of modern life and connect with our nearest and dearest instead of screens, apps and chatbots.

It’s been called an “epidemic” of loneliness and isolation. The “bowling alone” phenomenon. By any name, it refers to Americans’ growing social disconnection by many measures. Americans are less likely to join civic groups, unions and churches than in recent generations.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – In 2018, German artist Michael Triegel asked a homeless man in Rome to pose for a drawing, thinking that he would make an ideal model for St. Peter if he ever needed to paint the first pope.

NEW YORK (AP) – Welcome to exhausted America 2025: Most adults are more than a little fine with doling out cash as gifts, and many plan to be asleep before midnight on New Year’s Eve, according to a new AP-NORC poll.

NEW YORK (AP) – Teen use of alcohol, nicotine and marijuana remains at record lows, according to national survey results released Wednesday.  They consume a lot of energy drinks, though. And there are slight increases in heroin and cocaine use. But overall, the findings indicate teens are drinking, smoking and using substances at much lower rates than in the past.

The U.S. Treasury asked major philanthropic donors to contribute to new investment accounts for children Wednesday as part of what Secretary Scott Bessent called a “50 State Challenge” to raise funds for the Trump Accounts program.