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In the darkness of winter solstice, pagans celebrate Yule — welcoming longer days to come.

(Image credit: Rose Conlon)

Ukrainian soldiers are struggling to stabilize defensive lines near the city of Pokrovsk, in the country's east, against Russia's much larger advancing army. We go to the front lines of Pokrovsk, to see how the fight is playing out.

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Some of the All Things Considered staff whose voices you don't always hear on air share their favorite stories that aired on the show in 2024.

If lawmakers can't reach a deal to avoid a shutdown, many federal workers would be furloughed, while essential functions like Social Security payments would continue.

(Image credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds)

Anti-death penalty advocates hope President Biden will grant clemency to 40 people on federal death row. He has already commuted the sentences of nearly 1,500 people and pardoned 39 others.

A car plowed into a busy outdoor Christmas market in the eastern German city of Magdeburg in what authorities suspect was an attack. The driver was arrested.

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Over a decade later, none of the bodies of the 239 passengers and crew members abroad have been recovered.

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But several hurdles remain to avert a government shutdown ahead of a Friday midnight deadline.

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Millions of Americans are planning to travel in the coming days. Here's what a potential government shutdown could mean for flying, driving and more — and what you can do to prepare.

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Lawmakers will have to authorize additional borrowing to pay the government's bills, but there's no reason it has to be done right away — except for politics.

(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The consumer financial watchdog says customers of the top three banks lost more than $870 million over seven years due to a lack of safeguards against fraud on the Zelle network.

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Richard Allen, who was convicted in the 2017 killings of two teens who vanished during a winter hike, received the maximum prison sentence in a case that's long cast a shadow over the town of Delphi.

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People love looking at photos. (Just ask Instagram.) This year, we published a number of photo-driven posts that resonated deeply with our audience. Here are some of our favorites.

(Image credit: Ben de la Cruz/NPR)

About the size of Rhode Island, the iceberg known as A23a got stuck in an ocean vortex this summer, spinning in place for months. Now, it's free, and heading back into open Antarctic waters.

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Congress has until midnight tonight to avoid a government shutdown after House Republicans were unable to pass a stop-gap funding bill yesterday. And, tips to improve your dance moves.

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Starbucks and Starbucks Workers United said in February they had come to common ground in moving forward for the rest of the year. But the union says Starbucks has not kept its end of the commitment.

Oxford professor Ben Ansell says we are witnessing a battle between nationalism and liberalism that will write our own time indelibly into the history books of tomorrow.

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The national discount retailer says that a previously announced deal to sell itself to a private-equity group fell through.

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Saturday marks the shortest day of the year and the official start of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. NPR has compiled plenty of expert tips for celebrating the solstice and weathering winter.

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Since 2018, readers and listeners sent KFF Health News-NPR's "Bill of the Month" thousands of questionable bills. Our crowdsourced investigation paved the way for landmark legislation and highlighted cost-saving strategies for all patients

(Image credit: Bram Sable-Smith/KFF Health New Julia Robinson Lauren Justice Heidi de Marco Zack Wittman Nitashia Johnson Kevin Painchaud and Laura Buckman for KFF Health)