victoria gill, bbc news. britain's longest serving postman has finally called time on his career.own 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

victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba.or a look at the weather with ben rich. hello. it's been a pretty blustery day across many parts of the uk. some more windy weather to come over the next few days. 0n the satellite picture you can see one curl of cloud, one weather system sliding away, but another one hurtling in from the south—west, bringing some heavy rain, some more brisk winds and then as that weather front clears through, well, we will continue to introduce some colder air from the north—west. so as we go through the rest of the evening, some quite windy weather for a time through the english channel coast, on the southern flank of this weather system, that's sliding away eastwards. staying windy through the night in the north of scotland and with that colder air digging in, we will start to see some wintry showers. particularly cold across the northern half of the uk, but even further south, not as mild as it was last night. and then into tomorrow, well, that weather system clears away. we are all into these cold

victoria gill, bbc news. britain's longest serving postman has finally called time on his career.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. 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 mi

victoria gill, bbc news.ing 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 caus

victoria gill, bbc news. now on bbc news, tecthlore: beyond the games.ore, we go in search of the most exciting innovations around the world. and this summer, for the paris 0lympics, i tracked down the ground—breaking technology pioneered behind the scenes. it's been an amazing event, and now i'm looking at the tech living on beyond the games. the sustainable innovations fit for the future... ..more precise tracking than ever before... the first i've done for television. ..game—changing new broadcast experiences... that's the magic of volumetric broadcasting. ..and a lasting legacy celebrating accessibility for all. join me for tecthlore paris — beyond the games. in 2024, all eyes were on paris. cheering the fans, the organisers and, above all, the athletes combined to pull off an amazing show — helped along the way by transformative technologies. paris 2024 was the largest spectacle ever to take place on french soil. in technology terms, its size means it's a unique test—bed. innovations developed in broadcasting, staging and sport all live on well beyo

victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba.ocumentary about the polar bears is available on bbc iplayer right now. china's space agency says two of its astronauts, or taikonauts, have broken the world record for the longest single spacewalk. they spent a total of nine hours and six minutes working on the outside the tian—gong space station. they installed space debris protection devices and inspected external equipment and facilities. the previous record for extra—vehicular activity was set at eight hours and 56 minutes in 2001 by nasa astronauts. the tian—gong space station is china's first long—term space station. in may this year, beijing announced its plans to become a space superpower within 20 years. 0ur correspondent martin yip in hong kong told me state media are giving prominence to the story. this piece of news at least, is being published on page two, in page two of today's people's daily, the national flagship newspaper. of course, is the key propaganda mouthpiece, if you if you like, of the communist party, so it's

our science correspondent victoria gill has more.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 g

victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba. have to wait even longer to get home. suni williams and butch wilmore arrived at the space station injune and were originally due to return to earth after just one week. their initial stay was extended to february 2025 because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft, starliner. now — following a delay in launching a new capsule to the iss — the pair won't be back until late march or possibly april. nasa said the delay posed no risk to the astronauts. let's speak to our science correspondent, pallab ghosh. talk us through what is going on. g talk us through what is going on. ~ ., ., talk us through what is going on,�* ., ., , talk us through what is going on. .,., , on. a lot of people will be thinking. _ on. a lot of people will be thinking, poor— on. a lot of people will be thinking, poor butch - on. a lot of people will be thinking, poor butch and l on. a lot of people will be - thinking, poor butch and suni williams, because they were blasted off injune to great fanfar

victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba. remember the horrible story in august of the three little girls who were killed in stockport, surrey, southport, at a taylor swift themed event. a 17—year—old teenager has sat not guilty plea is entered on his behalf on charges of murdering the three girls in southport injuly. we will bring you more on this story as we get it. hello. some of us have seen some pretty strong winds so far today. there are further bouts of windy weather to come over the next few days. 0n the satellite picture, one curl of cloud, one area of low pressure moving away northeastwards, but our next frontal system approaching from the southwest. some wet and windy weather with that. we have seen some very mild air tucked up into these weather systems, but some colder air is now starting to dig its way down from the north, so temperatures dropping through the rest of the day across scotland, northern ireland, northern england, some clear spells and some showers to take us into the first part of the evening. it s

victoria gill, bbc news, in churchill, manitoba.earth will be pushed back even further, from february to march next year. astronauts butch wilmore and suni williams travelled to space aboard the starliner injune. that mission was only supposed to last about eight to ten days, but further issues with the starliner meant that return was aborted. and instead, they are waiting for a ride home aboard a dragon capsule, which space x say they still prepping ahead of the upcoming mission next year and finally — a space record has been broken the chinese space agency. beijing says two of its astronauts have broken the world record for the longest single spacewalk, spending a total of nine hours and six minutes working on the outside the tian—gong space station. they installed space debris protection devices and inspected external equipment and facilities. the previous record for "extra—vehicular activity" was set at eight hours and 56 minutes in 2001 by nasa astronauts. the chinese are catching up, next leap is to the moon. hello. it�*s been

victoria gill has been in churchill, along with a team of polar bear researchers. season in churchill, manitoba, conservation scientists are out on the tundra, monitoring one of the most southerly polar bear populations in the world. yeah, the bears want to stay with the ice. the bears are waiting for the bay to freeze, so that they can use it as a platform to hunt seals. but as the climate warms up here, the bears are having to wait for longer. we had about 1,200 polar bears here in the 1980s. now, we have closer to about 618. we've lost almost about 50% of those polar bears in the last several decades. we've tied that to these bears are on land about a month longer than their grandparents were. in the long—term, this threatens the survival of this polar bear population, but in the short—term, it means these bears are getting hungrier. the longer they're onshore, the longer they're fasting, and the longer they might need to start looking for alternative sources of energy and food. and sometimes, those sources are us. that poses a particular challenge for churchuil

victoria gill, bbc news, in churchill, manitoba.rew tate and his brother, tristan. a court was told that the pair failed to pay any tax on £21 million of revenue from their online businesses. the brothers are facing a series of criminal allegations in romania, including human trafficking. andrew tate is also accused of rape. our home and legal correspondent, dominic casciani, is with me. a controversial pair. remind us who they are. andrew tate is a self proclaimed in his own words misogynist. he has a huge following online. a former kickboxer. he and his brother tristan, they run a suite of online businesses and at the heart of those get rich schemes and courses on height masculinity for the predominantly male following and also online pornography businesses as well. these allegations relate to their earnings over eight years and the police told the court here in the uk that the movements of millions of pounds defied all commercial logic and had the hallmarks of money laundering to evade taxation. the judge agreed today because the

victoria gill, bbc news. it to some goats. the urban growers collective is accepting donations of decoration—free pine christmas trees at its south chicago farm. the trees make a nutritious snack for goats, loaded with vitamins a and c, and it helps the animals maintain a healthy digestion. definitely no elves for them to munch on, otherwise it's bad for their tummy. a reminder of one of our main stories. the funeral quotation is under way for manmohan singh, the former prime minister of india, who passed away at the age of 92 on thursday. he will be cremated today, and do stay with us here on bbc news. plenty more coverage of that story and the rest of the day's news. thanks for watching. goodbye for now. hello. for some places, mist and fog lingered throughout friday, causing some disruption. some of that mist and murk lingered on into the night as well. but over the weekend, well, that fog should slowly start to lift as the breeze picks up. we will, though, see some rain setting in across the north of the

victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba.een announced as the judge of the next series of celebrity masterchef alongside john torode. i would eat this every day. i do not think the doctor would recommend it! the restaurant critic has appeared regularly as a guest on the show, and last year competed on masterchef, battle of the critics. it comes after gregg wallace stood down from the role amid a review into historical allegations of misconduct. when the blind comedian chris mccausland lifted the strictly come dancing glitter ball trophy on saturday, it was a seen as a pivotal moment in the effort to improve representation of those living with sight loss. the 47—year—old dedicated his win to his dance partner, dianne buswell as well as anyone who had ever doubted themselves. he's been speaking to our culture reporter noor nanji. the moment of victory. chris and diane! chris mccausland, the first ever blind contestant on strictly come dancing getting his hands on the glitter ball trophy. this come dancing getting his hands on t

victoria gill, bbc news in churchill, manitoba.led where the polar bears wait, on bbc iplayer now. coming up... how's this for a bit of light relief? we'll be hearing how a small town in scotland is taking a different approach to its festive display — by giving children's drawings a chance to really shine. that's at 20 past seven. they have asked children to draw or pictures of lights and they have made them into lights to give them a chance to really shine. how gorgeous is that? i love all of them. imagine being 80 years old and walking down the street and seeing your picture in lights? that is what your picture in lights? that is what you should have done. with my christmas lights? my christmas lights, i was so delighted with them until i saw this, and i realise they are really boring. if you have pictures of your lights, if you have done something equally interesting, maybe not this big, if you like to share your lights, get in touch. you like to share