to build — is aligned to the position of the sun at both midwinter and midsummer. 0ur reporter fiona lamdining. thousands, over3,000 people have been here in the stones, they arrived very early this morning. the sunrise, if you could call it a sunrise, was about 0812 but it is really cloudy so we didn't see anything dramatic. but the great thing is it is not raining. first of all, let's just hear about the importance of today. just tell us, you say that the winter solstice is actually more special than the summer. why is that? well, we think it was because it was a time when people were gathering, and the people who actually built stonehenge just lived a few miles down the road, and we know that they were having giant feasts at the time of stonehenge, as they were putting up the stones, so it is kind of like the equivalent of our christmas holidays, where people are coming together, gathering, celebrating, and we've got over 4,000 years of people coming to stonehenge to celebrate so, you know, everybody here at english heritage is really delighted to have everyone here today, it's been a re

fiona lamdin, bbc news. a reminder of our top headline this afternoon...nced towards syria. and the teen darts sensation luke littler took the sports world by storm in his debut season, and now he has a new title away from the dartboard. we'll find out more shortly. we'll have a full forecast in the next half hour, but it's time now for a quick look at the weather. here's helen. thanks. still almost 30 flood warnings in england at the moment but all the rain bearing clouds and weather fronts to the north of us right now because we have high pressure with us, but will stay with us for the next three or four days, keeping the weather fronts are bay. even when they edge southwards later in the week it does not look like they will bring a great deal of rain. a ridge of high pressure at this time of year also has the consequences of frost and freezing fog, that has been a problem this morning lingering in parts of northern ireland and the central belt of scotland and will be another problem through the night. i will tell you more later. let's return to our top

let's speak to our reporter fiona lamdin who is at stonehenge for us this morning.een a fabulous event, despite the cloud. everyone has really enjoyed themselves. it has really enjoyed themselves. it has been peaceful and great. you are one of those, you have come because she was studying it at school. you came up last night with your dad stop tell is about the trip. your dad stop tell is about the tri -. ~ , ., your dad stop tell is about the tri, ~ , ., ., , your dad stop tell is about the j trip-— took your dad stop tell is about the l trip-— took a trip. my dad was driving. took a wron: trip. my dad was driving. took a wrong turning- _ trip. my dad was driving. took a wrong turning. what _ trip. my dad was driving. took a wrong turning. what time - trip. my dad was driving. took a wrong turning. what time did i trip. my dad was driving. took a l wrong turning. what time did you trip. my dad was driving. took a - wrong turning. what time did you get u . wrong turning. what time did you get u- this wrong turning. what time did you get up this morning? _ wrong turn

fiona lamdin, bbc news.s not a threat to its neighbours or to the west. ahmed al—sharaa, the head of the islamist militant group hts, told the bbc sanctions on the country should be lifted, insiting he does not lead a terrorist organisation. the duke of york will not be attending the traditional royal family pre—christmas lunch at buckingham palace today. prince andrew has also pulled out of attending the christmas gathering at sandringham, after a chinese businessman, who had links with the prince, was barred from the uk on national security grounds. health experts are calling for urgent action after what they've described as a catastrophic rise in deaths from alcohol in england. more than 8,200 people died because of alcohol last year, that's 42% more than in 2019. the government says it will prioritise public health in its 10—year plan for the nhs in england. the ministry of defence is considering sending british troops to ukraine to help train its armed forces. support for ukraine was one of the topics d

fiona lamdin, bbc news.ought their killers to justice , there's a special film on the bbc iplayer — it's called the mistaken identity murders. let's take a look at today's papers. many of them lead with an image of the woman gisele pelicot, whose ex—husband has been jailed for 20 years in a mass rape trial which has shocked france. the mirror describes her as the world's bravest woman. the guardian also leads with that story — reporting on some of the reaction to the verdicts. the paper quotes the german chancellor 0laf scholz saying that pelicot has given "women around the world a strong voice". the times focuses on the economy for its main story. it looks at comments by the bank of england governor, andrew bailey, who says that "with the heightened uncertainty in the economy", the bank didn't say when interest rates will be cut next. the daily telegraph focuses on the news that lord mandelson will be named as the uk's next ambassador to the us. the paper believes the reasoning for the appointment is so tha