National news

Here are the latest stories from the team at Radio News Hub. The links will open in a new page and take you to the Radio News Hub website. You can hear the latest national news every hour on the radio station.

• Thousands greet sun with cheers at Stonehenge to mark winter solstice

  Thousands of people greeted the sun with cheers and applause as it rose over Stonehenge at the winter solstice.

• Germany mourns victims after BMW driven into Christmas market

  Germany is in mourning after a Saudi doctor drove a BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing two people and injuring at least 60 others in what authorities called a deliberate attack.

• Mandelson says it is great honour to be named UK ambassador to US

  Lord Peter Mandelson has said it is a “great honour to serve the country” as the Prime Minister confirmed he had appointed him the next British ambassador to the US.

• Sue Gray among 30 new Labour peers

  Sue Gray, the partygate investigator who went on to become Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, has been named among 30 new Labour peers.

• King jokes Im still alive during visit celebrating Walthamstow community

  The King joked that he was “still alive” during a visit with the Queen to Walthamstow after August’s peaceful anti-racist protest in the area.

• Lord Mandelson good fit for ambassador to US Cabinet minister says

  Lord Peter Mandelson is a “really good fit” to become the next UK ambassador to the US, a Cabinet minister has said as the Labour grandee is expected to be named to the post.

• PM urges councils to get on with fixing broken roads

  Sir Keir Starmer has urged councils to “get on with the job” of fixing pothole-plagued roads.

• Two men have been charged with assaulting police after a disturbance at Manchester Airport

  But no police officers will face charges over their role in the incident, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

• Four million people embarking on foreign festive trips

  An estimated four million people in the UK are preparing to spend the Christmas and new year period overseas, according to a travel trade organisation.

• Disruptive pupils parents should be forced to co operate with schools report

  Teachers should be given powers to compel parents of disruptive children to engage with them – tackling the “burgeoning crisis of behaviour” in schools, a report has said.