As antisemitism and Islamophobia rise, a community centre brings people together over shared meals, offering an antidote to food poverty, social isolation and division * Donate to the Guardian Charity Appeal 2025 here * Communities are our defence against hatred. Now, more than ever, we must invest in hope It’s 2.30pm on a Wednesday afternoon and the Himmah Hub, a community centre in Nottingham, is abuzz with activity. Crates of leftover supermarket food are being carried inside, trestle tables assembled, and volunteers are arriving to prepare meals that will be served in a few hours’ time to anyone who needs one – a queue has already begun to form outside. This is the Salaam Shalom kitchen, known as SaSh, a joint Muslim-Jewish project set up in 2015, and based on one of the core tenets of both faith groups: bringing people together through food. It also draws on a north Indian tradition of community meals, with food prepared collectively and duties shared across the village, Sajid Mohammed, director of the Muslim-led social justice initiative Himmah, explains. Continue reading...

People, including druids and pagans, come from across world to watch sunrise on shortest day of the year Thousands of revellers gathered at Stonehenge in the early hours of Sunday morning to celebrate the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Crowds amassed in the dark around the historical site in Wiltshire to watch the sunrise, with some dressed in traditional pagan clothing, just as they did to mark the sun rising on the summer solstice six months ago. Continue reading...

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