the grandmaster was defending his titles at the fide world rapid and blitz chess championships when officials objected to his choice of trousers. despite offering to change them for the next day, carlsen was fined and told he needed to change immediately. instead he decided to pull out of the tournaments altogether. the norwegian also hit the headlines last year when he settled a long—running legal dispute after accusing a rival of cheating in a tournament. a reminder of our top story before we go. bath put 10 tries past saracens to open up a five point gap at the top of the table. the 68 points to 10 victory helps with their bid to be title contenders at the halfway point of the campaign.

you are watching bbc news. ahead of the ban on disposable vapes and e—cigarettes next year in england and wales, trading standards have been working alongside police to find and seize illegal and counterfeit products. in south—east wales, officials have recovered almost two million pounds worth of goods in just over a year — largely from locations with links to organised crime. our reporter yolloh cheung has more. 23,000 vapes... before heading out, time for a briefing. officers from gwent police and newport city council's trading standards are told they will be raiding three locations all at once this afternoon. what they're looking for is illegal vape and tobacco products.

they are not normally on display. as we arrive, two people are keeping an eye on the vape shop, but there's no sign of the owner. while they're spoken to by an officer, the others searched the back room, but after 15 minutes, they've only found one bag of counterfeit cigarettes. then... ..jackpot. hey! got it. a hidden shelf filled with dozens of suspected illegal vapes. then another. and then a third. these ones here were found in this. it's obviously makeshift to look like it's part of the bookcase. that was on the floor, sort of behind. we're finding that in quite a few shops now whereby they will look for those different places to hide. so obviously here we've had the ceiling and now underneath the bookcases. her colleague mark watts then finds another haul. we do find difficulty in nailing these people down, so we put lots of intel in to find out who the shop owners are. we do all the background checks

and try and then link those people via intelligence. and then it goes on for the long burn game of further visits, further closures and ultimately prosecutions. enforcement visits such as this are an important part of gwent police and the council's efforts to tackle criminal activity around vaping. since launching 0peration firecrest last year, they've seized almost £2 million in illegal tobacco and vape products. the problem is that these traps still pop up. the evidence is bagged up and taken away. no action is taken against the two individuals in the shop, but trading standards are now investigating the premises. the knock on effect of that is around lower and no sales to youngsters. for the police, it's more than simply a matter of trading in illegal goods.

criminals are profiting at the expense of people's health. it's used to fund crime on a large scale. organised crime gangs working together, using the money that they're getting from these vapes, and tobacco sold illegally in pop—up shops or market stalls to attract youngsters in, buying these vapes, and the funds they're getting from that is then used to fund their criminal activity at a higher level. the aim eventually is to shut down premises and disrupt organised crime. whether they're winning that battle remains to be seen. a threat to poison english water supplies during the period known as the troubles in northern ireland is among the revelations in the latest release of irish state papers. each year, documents relating to the near 30—year conflict are declassified, as our ireland correspondent sara girvin reports. every year the irish state papers are released, and every year they give us a glimpse of previously secret government files

dating back decades. this release details a threat received in 1999 to poison england's water supplies on behalf of what was called the republican revenge group. it threatened to introduce weedkiller into drinking water through fire hydrants unless the british government announced its intention to withdraw from what was described as occupied ireland. the plans may appearfar fetched, but the threat was taken seriously. it was thought most people who drank contaminated water would suffer nothing worse than a stomach upset, but media representatives were asked by the government not to report the story for fear of causing panic over what could have been a hoax. the papers state that a man was arrested over the threats but never charged. other documents from 2001 show that the us administration, led by george w bush, was considering designating the real ira as a foreign terrorist organisation. briefing notes to irish politicians warned that

the plans might give the dissident republican paramilitary group an unintentional boost by encouraging recruitment. the real ira was responsible for the 1998 0magh bomb, which killed 29 people. it was the single greatest loss of life in 30 years of violence in northern ireland, known as the troubles. ultimately, the us did add the real ira to its list. this release of documents also details a football related gaffe from former prime minister tony blair. he's reported to have asked a nationalist politician if his party would be supporting england in the 2002 world cup, after ireland were knocked out. sara girvin, bbc news. more than a thousand critically endangered snails — some of which were bred in captivity here in the uk — have been released onto a remote portuguese island. the desertas island land snails

were believed to be extinct until an expedition team discovered a tiny native population, and set about growing their numbers. 0ur science correspondent victoria gill has more. this is a story with some very tiny main characters. these are desertas island land snails. they were rescued from the brink of extinction and brought here to chester zoo, where they've been living and breeding inside this converted shipping container. these were snails at risk of extinction or thought to be actually extinct in the wild, so we were lucky enough to have them brought to us, and this is where we've managed to breed up from very low numbers to what we have here today, which is almost 1,400 snails ready for release. there are two snail species the team are bringing back to their wild island home off the coast of portugal — discula snails and the even smaller geomitra. they're prepared for their journey with a little scientific makeover. we have uv markers and

literallyjust a metallic pen. why do they need to be marked? basically, so there are some individuals left in the wild and we just want to be able to distinguish the ones we have bred and released so we can track their progress. this is a discula snail. you can just see the shell is marked with a green mark and there is a uv mark in the middle. they are ready to go. the desertas islands, close to madeira in portugal, are their destination and their natural home. the largest of the islands where the last snails were found has had its habitat decimated, eaten away by goats, rats, goats and mice brought here by people, so the team has transported the snails to the protected neighbouring island of bugio. it has meant a long and precariousjourney. after waiting for the ideal cooler evening conditions... they're quite active.

..it is finally time to set the snails free. we are going to release them really close under the rocks, which will be the perfect place for their new life, where they have protection, humidity and a lot of food. this is a small but significant part of a mission to restore the natural habitat and wildlife on these mountainous atlantic islands. if it goes well, more snails will be brought here next year, each bringing a small splash of colour back to their habitat. victoria gill, bbc news. britain's longest serving postman has finally called time on his career. robert hudson — known as rocky to his friends — began working for the royal mail at age 16, delivering telegrams. he moved to nights when his wife died, so he could look after his family. this morning, at the end of his final shift after 60 years, he looked back on some of the interesting characters he met. yeah, you get chased by dogs sometimes but, you know, that happens to all of them.

you carry a couple of biscuits in your pocket to keep them quiet. you get used to it, you try and make friends with them rather than enemies. yeah, i've thoroughly enjoyed it. i've had a good career there, i've met loads and loads of people. i've met the king twice. we didn't get a white christmas in the uk but if you're looking for some winter wonderland scenes, then take a look at the tai—hang mountains of china. people have been flocking there to see the huge icicles which form at this time of year. the area has a lot of water and is prone to sudden drops in temperature — creating these spectacular displays. i think it is actually getting colder now. now here's the weather with darren. hello there, some higher parts of england and wales have again been sticking out above this misty low cloud today. it's quite gloomy and murky

and a little damp in other parts of england and wales. the fog, though, probably not quite as extensive as it has been. and through the rest of the weekend, the breeze picks up a little, that mist and patchy fog will be lifting, promising some brighter skies more widely tomorrow, although there will be some rain still in scotland. the mist and fog is closer to this area of low pressure which is affecting other parts of europe as well, that weather front weakening as it moves south, and another band of rain heading into northern scotland by the end of the day. but temperatures in scotland and northern ireland in double figures. where it's grey and gloomy through the midlands, south—east england, it's going to be a chilly five or six degrees here, again. and still some extensive low cloud, some patches of mist and fog into the night, tending to lift from the north, as the breeze picks up, and we see some rain arriving across more of northern scotland, particularly towards the highlands. where we do see a few breaks in the cloud further south, temperatures could get close to freezing once again. we may still have some mist and patchy fog to start with in southern parts of england and wales on sunday. that should tend to lift,

skies brightening, there may even be a bit of sunshine across more areas. further north, though, with those stronger winds in scotland we are going to find some further rain across the northern half of the country. but temperatures should be higher in england and wales with the promise of a little sunshine, temperatures reaching nine or ten degrees. we are going to find that rain, though, continuing in scotland and every now and again an area of low pressure develops on that, intensifying the rain. and it's bumping into colder air in the far north of the country, so we could well find some snow in parts of scotland. it's rain for the most part, but some of that rain will be affecting northern england and northern ireland on monday. further south, the breeze continues to pick up a little, and bring in a few holes in the cloud but lifting temperatures into ten or 11 degrees. but it is colder in scotland, and this is where we could have some disruptive weather at the end of the year. monday into tuesday, from the central belt northwards, mainly some heavy rain, but there could be some snow for a while. as that melts it brings the risk of flooding and some travel disruption as well. but things could get even worse for new year's day because the next area of low pressure is going to be deeper, it'll bring stronger winds,

more widely, some heavy rain and some heavier snow in scotland.

live from london — this is bbc news. vladimir putin has apologised to azerbaijan's president over the passenger plane crash in kazakhstan. he called it a tragic incident over russian airspace, but didn't take responsibility. the health ministry in gaza

says israeli forces detained and interrogated around 100 medical staff from a hospital in northern gaza after they forcibly evacuated patients. thick fog continues to cause delays and cancellations at some of the uk's busiest international airports. and — these jeans were not made for chess — in fact it led to the resignation of the world's top grandmaster. president putin has apologised to azerbaijan's president for what he called a "tragic incident" in russian airspace involving the azerbaijan airlines plane that crashed in kazakhstan on christmas day, killing 38 people. there's no direct admission the plane was struck by a russian missile. a statement on the kremlin website says russian air defence was repelling a drone attack while the plane was attempting to land. in the latest development,

president putin has called for an �*objective and transparent�* probe