Yes the darkest day of the year is here, but that means brighter days are ahead.

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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.

The word “solstice” comes from the Latin words “sol” for sun and “stitium” which can mean “pause” or “stop.” The solstice is an end of the sun’s annual march higher or lower in the sky. The winter solstice is when the sun makes its shortest, lowest arc. The good news for sun lovers: It then starts climbing again and days will get a little longer every day until late June.

People have marked solstices for eons with celebrations and monuments such as Stonehenge, which was designed to align with the sun’s paths at the solstices. But what is happening in the heavens? Here’s what to know about the Earth’s orbit.

What is the solstice?

As the Earth travels around the sun, it does so at an angle, making the sun’s warmth and light fall unequally on the northern and southern halves of the planet for most of the year.

The solstices mark the times when the Earth’s tilt toward or away from the sun is at its maximum. This means the hemispheres are getting very different amounts of sunlight — and days and nights are at their most unequal.

At the Northern Hemisphere’s winter solstice the upper half of the Earth is at its furthest lean away from the sun — leading to the shortest day and longest night of the year. The winter solstice falls can fall between Dec. 20 and 23 — this year it’s the 21st.

The opposite happens at a Northern Hemisphere summer solstice: The upper half of the Earth is leaning toward the sun, creating the longest day and shortest night of the year. This solstice falls between June 20 and 22.

What is the equinox?

During the equinox, the Earth’s axis and its orbit align so that both hemispheres get an equal amount of sunlight.

Aymara Indigenous people hold up their hands to receive the first rays of sunlight in celebration of the Andean New Year 5533, marking the Southern Hemisphere’s winter solstice, in El Alto, Bolivia, June 21, 2025. (AP Photo/Juan Karita, File)

The word equinox comes from two Latin words meaning equal and night. That’s because on the equinox, day and night last almost the same amount of time — though one may get a few extra minutes, depending on where you are on the planet.oo

The Northern Hemisphere’s fall — or autumnal — equinox can land between Sept. 21 and 24, depending on the year. Its spring — or vernal — equinox can land between March 19 and 21.

What’s the difference between meteorological and astronomical seasons?

These are just two different ways to carve up the year.

While astronomical seasons depend on how the Earth moves around the sun, meteorological seasons are defined by the weather. Meteorologists break down the year into three-month seasons based on annual temperature cycles. By that calendar, spring starts on March 1, summer on June 1, fall on Sept. 1 and winter on Dec. 1.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

By MICHAEL CASEY and PATRICK WHITTLE

BOSTON (AP) — A Boston-area man was sentenced Thursday to life in prison for the grisly murder of his wife, who disappeared nearly three years ago and whose body has never been found.

Brian Walshe was convicted Monday of first-degree murder in the killing of Ana Walshe. The sentence carries no possibility of parole.

He pleaded guilty in November to misleading police and illegally disposing of a body after admitting he had dismembered her body and disposed of it in dumpster. He said he did so only after panicking when he found she had died in bed.

Judge Diane Freniere called Walshe’s crimes “barbaric and incomprehensible” and she chastised him for “deceitful and manipulative behavior.” Walshe showed no emotion as the sentence was read.

Before the sentencing, Ana Walshe’s sister Aleksandra Dimitrijevic told the court about how the death has devastated her family, especially because they cannot have a proper burial without a body.

“I struggle with the grief that comes without warning, hoping every morning that this is just a terrible dream,” she said. “The most painful part of this loss is knowing her children must now grow up without their mother’s hand to hold. They now face a lifetime of milestones, big and small, where her absence will be deeply and painfully felt.”

The couple’s three young children are in state custody.

Walshe was also sentenced to 19 to 25 years for witness intimidation and two to three years for improper disposal of a body. Those sentences are to run consecutive to his life sentence, the judge ruled.

Walshe’s lawyer, Kelli Porges, described the consecutive sentencing — which prosecutors requested due to the severity of the crimes — as “excessive.”

Ana Walshe, a real estate agent who immigrated from Serbia, was last seen early Jan. 1, 2023, after a New Year’s Eve dinner at the couple’s home.

When initially questioned by investigators, Walshe said his wife had been called to Washington, D.C., for a work emergency. But witnesses testified there was no evidence Ana Walshe took a ride service to the airport or boarded a flight. Walshe didn’t contact her employer until Jan. 4.

During the trial, prosecutors leaned heavily on digital evidence found on devices connected to Walshe, including online searches for “dismemberment and best ways to dispose of a body,” “how long before a body starts to smell” and “hacksaw best tool to dismember.”

Investigators also found searches on a laptop that included “how long for someone missing to inherit,” “how long missing to be dead,” and “can you throw away body parts,” prosecutors told the jury.

Surveillance video also showed a man resembling Walshe throwing what appeared to be heavy trash bags into a dumpster not far from the couple’s home. A subsequent search of a trash processing facility near his mother’s home uncovered bags containing a hatchet, hammer, sheers, hacksaw, towels and a protective Tyvek suit, cleaning agents, a Prada purse, boots like the ones Ana Walshe was last seen wearing and a COVID-19 vaccination card with her name.

Prosecutors told the jury that the Massachusetts State Crime Laboratory examined some of the items and found Ana and Brian Walshe’s DNA on the Tyvek suit and Ana Walshe’s DNA on the hatchet, hacksaw and other items.

Prosecutors floated several possible motives for the killing.

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An insurance executive testified that Brian Walshe was the sole beneficiary of Ana Walshe’s $1 million life insurance policy, suggesting a financial motive. But prosecutors also portrayed a marriage that was falling apart; Brian Walshe was confined at their home in the affluent coastal community of Cohasset, about 15 miles (24 kilometers) southeast of Boston, awaiting sentencing on an art fraud case. Ana Walshe meanwhile commuted from their home to Washington, D.C., where she worked.

The year before she died, his wife had started an affair, details of which were shared in court by her boyfriend William Fastow. Brian Walshe’s attorney denied that his client knew about the affair.

In his opening, Walshe’s attorney, Larry Tipton, argued it was not a murder case but what he called a “sudden unexplained death.” He said the couple loved each other and were planning for the future.

But Walshe’s defense never called a witness and Brian Walshe declined to testify.

Whittle reported from Portland, Maine.

By PAUL WISEMAN and ANNE D’INNOCENZIO, AP Business Writers

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. inflation slowed unexpectedly last month according to data that was delayed, and likely distorted, by the government shutdown.

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The Labor Department reported Thursday that its consumer price index rose 2.7% in November from a year earlier. Yet, year-over-year inflation remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target, and Americans are dismayed by the high cost of living.

The report was delayed eight days by the federal government’s 43-day shutdown, which also prevented the Labor Department from compiling overall numbers for consumer prices and core inflation in October. Thursday’s report gave investors, businesses and policymakers their first look at CPI since the September numbers were released on Oct. 24.

Consumer prices had risen 3% in September from a year earlier, and forecasters had expected the November CPI to match that year-over-year increase.

“It’s likely a bit distorted,’’ said Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG. “The good news is that it’s cooling. We’ll take a win when we can get it.’’

Still, Swonk added: “The data is truncated, and we just don’t know how much of it to trust.’’ By disrupting the economy – especially government contracting – the shutdown may have contributed to a cooling in prices, she said.

Energy prices, driven up by sharply higher fuel oil prices, rose 4.2% in November. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core inflation rose 2.6%, compared with a 3% year-over-year gain in September and the lowest since March 2021.

U.S. inflation remains stubbornly high, partly because of President Donald Trump’s decision to impose double-digit taxes on imports from almost every country on earth along with targeted tariffs on specific products like steel, aluminum and autos.

The president’s tariffs have so far proved less inflationary than economists feared. But they do put upward pressure on prices and complicate matters at the Fed, which is trying to decide whether to keep cutting its benchmark interest rate to support a sputtering job market or whether to hold off until inflationary pressures ease. The central bank last week decided to reduce the rate for the third time this year, but Fed officials signaled that they expect just one cut in 2026.

Kay Haigh, global co-head of fixed income and liquidity solutions at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, warned that the November numbers were “noisy … The canceling of the October report makes month-on-month comparisons impossible, for example, while the truncated information-gathering process given the shutdown could have caused systematic biases in the data.

“The Fed will instead focus on the December CPI released in mid-January, just two weeks before its next meeting, as a more accurate bellwether for inflation.”

Trump delivered a politically charged speech Wednesday that aired live during prime time by network television, seeking to pin the blame for economic challenges on Democrats.

The speech was a rehash of his recent messaging that has so far been unable to calm public anxiety about the rising cost of groceries, housing, utilities and other basic goods.

As the holiday season approaches, Americans dipping into savings, scouring for bargains and feeling like the overall economy is sputtering, a new AP-NORC poll finds.

The vast majority of U.S. adults say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for groceries, electricity and holiday gifts in recent months, according to the survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Roughly half of Americans say it’s harder than usual to afford the things they want to give as holiday gifts, and similar numbers are delaying big purchases or cutting back on nonessential purchases more than they would normally.

Trump has promised an economic boom, yet inflation has stayed elevated and the job market has weakened sharply in the wake of his import taxes.

Trump’s tariffs are taking a toll on Wolverine Worldwide, which makes footwear brands like Merrell and Saucony. Facing extra tariff costs of $10 million this year and $55 million in 2026, the Rockford, Michigan, company had to increase prices between 5% and 8% on some products in June, and will have to raise prices again next year. It’s put a freeze on hiring and capital investments.

The company is getting squeezed even as it diversifies its sourcing network away from China, which now makes less than 10% of its products. During Trump’s first term, Wolverine shifted production to Vietnam. Now it’s moving to Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia.

The problem isn’t just the cost of the tariffs. It’s the uncertainty caused by the unpredictable way that Trump rolls them out. “From a business leader’s perspective, it’s one thing if there’s bad news,” said Wolverine CEO Christopher Hufnagel. “Just tell me what the bad news is, and I’ll go work to try to solve for it. It’s the uncertainty of how it actually plays out that causes so much trouble because then we’re modeling all these different scenarios and it seems like things can change in the middle of the night.”

AP Retail Writer Anne D’Innocenzio contributed to this story from New York.

Blood-soaked bandages, bodily fluids and body parts have been found mixed in with waste and recycling products at the Ramsey/Washington Recycling and Energy Center in Newport, according to the facility.

Medical facilities in the area have been improperly disposing of the infectious waste, according to facility management. Those items, as defined by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, include any sort of waste “that poses a human health and environmental risk due to its biological characteristics.” That includes bodily fluids, tissues and body parts — all of which the Recycling and Energy Center said it has received.

“This is unacceptable and poses significant health and safety hazards to waste workers, including those at the R&E Center,” according to a statement put out this week. “It also poses risks to staff at the medical facilities where this material is being improperly managed.”

Under Minnesota law, infectious waste is prohibited from being sent to municipal waste facilities, according to the Newport facility. Medical centers that accumulate infectious waste are supposed to separate the waste, store it away properly and dispose of it using authorized methods and vendors in accordance with their infectious waste management plan.

Alongside the health and safety risks, finding infectious waste in the mix slows down operations for workers — and can be very disturbing.

“Infectious waste is dangerous because it can contain pathogens, harmful chemicals, and sharps that can transmit diseases and contaminate the environment,” Recycling & Energy Center director Sam Holl said. “Proper management and disposal of this type of waste is critical for the mental and physical health and safety of our staff, their families and our environment. ”

Who’s to blame?

At least 12 major hospitals and outpatient clinics in the region have not followed the proper protocol, according to the Newport facility. Management declined to name which medical facilities have contributed as investigations are ongoing through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health.

“Most facilities we have reached out to have expressed the intent to properly dispose of infectious waste and have indicated that they are working on plans to correct procedures,” Holl said. “Facilities have also been in contact with the MPCA, MDH, and their waste haulers. However, this remains an ongoing issue.”

When the Recycling & Energy Center receives a load that looks to contain infectious waste, it notifies the medical facility, along with the Pollution Control agency, the Department of Health, the waste hauler and counties at the same time. But that routine has not been adequate.

“The usual notifications do not appear to be curbing the flow of infectious waste we are receiving,” Ramsey County Commissioner MaryJo McGuire said in the facility’s statement.

McGuire also serves as board chair for the Ramsey/Washington Recycling and Energy Center.

“The frequency of these incidents has created significant hazards, emotional strain and increased operational costs,” McGuire said. “Our shared priority must be protecting staff safety while maintaining compliance with all standards.”

‘Eager for their attention’

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According to Holl, all of the medical facilities that handle infectious waste have management plans in place. Those plans are not being followed consistently.

Holl said he is unsure why there has been an uptick in deliveries of infectious waste since November.

“Proper management and disposal of infectious waste requires sustained focus by medical facilities,”  Holl said. “We are eager for their attention to this matter, both now and in the future. … Proper disposal and compliance will require increased, ongoing monitoring and training at these facilities.”

The Recycling and Energy Center is working with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health to address the issue.