who've finally been reunited. hello, and welcome to bbc news. south africa has said goodbye to archbishop desmond tutu with a state funeral at his former cathedral in cape town. he was famous for his modesty, and archbishop tutu gave instructions for a no—frills ceremony, with a simple wooden coffin, and an eco—friendly cremation. in his eulogy, president cyril ramaphosa called him the hero of the apartheid struggle, and a "crusaderfor freedom, forjustice, for equality, and for peace". the bbc�*s nomsa maseko was there. family, friends and politicians bidding farewell to a man who became one of the most important voices of the 20th century. this was a final send—off for archbishop desmond tutu, following a week of events to honour him. speakers shared memories of the anglican priest who did all he could to expose and to heal the wounds of south africa's brutal past. many of the messages we received have said, "thank you for sharing him with the world." well, it actually is a two—way street. because we shared him with the world, you shared part of the love you held for him with us. south africa's president delivered the main eulogy. archbishop desmond tutu has been our moral compass, but he has also been our national conscience. a few blocks away from the church, mourners gathered to watch the funeral on screens provided to allow ordinary citizens to pay tribute to the man they affectionately referred to as the arch. i have a strong sense that i needed to be in a community of people who were honouring him. the archbishop is a very important man, notjust in south africa but to the rest of the world. he's a great humanitarian, he's a wonderful person. he's done so much for this country. it was during south africa's long and violent struggle against the country's brutal regime that he rose to prominence. we will be free! after the country became a democracy, he presided over the tumultuous reconciliation process. in accordance with his wishes, the archbishop will be aquamated — this is a greener alternative to cremation. his ashes will be interred beneath the floor here at st george's cathedral. it's the end of an era — the last of south africa's well known freedom fighters leaves behind a difficult task for the leaders to rid the country of corruption and racial divisions, and to also forge the way forward in the spirit of the moral compass that many believe was the driving force to tutu's leadership. nomsa maseko, bbc news, cape town. let's look at the pandemic now — and governments across europe have been releasing their latest figures — all of which seem to indicate a continued, rapid spread of covid. in the uk, the confirmed number of new infections is 162,572. that's lower than previous days this week — but it only takes in figures from england, with northern ireland, scotland and wales not reporting. the uk has also reported 154 deaths from covid — that's a death recorded within 28 days of a positive test. france has reported almost 220,000 new infections. that's the fourth day in a row they have exceeded 200,000, but is a little lower than the record which was set on friday. and covid cases remain close to record levels in italy, with more than 140,000 infections confirmed on saturday — the second successive day they've topped that figure. a senior british health official has warned that the "next few days are crucial" in the battle against 0micron. chris hopson, the chief executive of national health service providers, says the uk government "must be ready to introduce new restrictions if they're needed." latest figures show hospital admissions in england, have risen to their highest level, since january last year. britiain�*s health secretary, sajid javid, has warned new restrictions on freedom "must be an absolute last resort." here's our health correspondent, sophie hutchinson. this is a platinum - jubilee line train to... ..2022! a new year and with it, the hope that 2022 will draw us closer to the end of the pandemic, but, once again, january is likely to see soaring infection rates. last night, restrictions in some places, and advice in others, meant more subdued celebrations, but some were determined to celebrate. we've got our vaxes, we've got our boosters, we've done our things, we've followed the guidance. new year's eve has been a funny one this year because we obviously want to stay safe, but, also, in 15 years of living here, i've never been and done the london fireworks. so, boris had a cheese and wine party, so why can't i come and see the fireworks? hi, how are you? come in and take a seat. some had resolved to get protected for the new year and went for boosters today. this is third shot, booster, just want to make sure that i got all the protection we can get, stay out there, meeting friends and family, being out there living a normal life. the main priority right now is to keep everyone safe, keep spreading the awareness, please, please, please get vaccinated, it's so important. whether it's the first, second dose or booster, and to look out for each other and protect one another. the health secretary in england is hoping vaccines will prevent the need for more restrictions and said additional measures would be a last resort. the debate about whether it's safe to mix or if we need more restrictions will continue but the question is, just how effective might those be? government—commissioned modelling from warwick university suggests the window to suppress the peak may already have passed and that the last opportunity to introduce effective restrictions was a week ago, on boxing day. the number of patients in hospital with covid—i9 has increased by about 70% in a week, according to nhs providers. they say it's too early to know how this wave will play out. if the evidence shows that we are getting very significant numbers of people coming into hospital with covid, then the government needs to be ready to introduce further restrictions at pace. what we're trying to balance this against is the fact that the vaccines have changed the rules of the game. with most days now bringing record numbers of infections, as the virus spreads rapidly amongst us, the health secretary in england has warned of a big increase in hospitalisations this month, which is likely to test the limits of the nhs. sophie hutchinson, bbc news. let's get some of the day's other news. covid is continuing to cause major disruption for travellers worldwide. airlines cancelled more than 4,300 flights on saturday — more than half of them were services into, out of, or within the us. a belgian scientific research station in antarctica is dealing with an outbreak of covid—i9. the infection has been reported in at least 16 of the 25 members of staff at the princess elisabeth polar station. more than 20 people have been rescued after spending a night trapped in two cable cars in the us state of new mexico. the sandia peak tramway, in albuquerque, became stuck because of icy conditions. those on board — all employees of the company and a restaurant at the top — were supplied with food, water, and emergency blankets. a german sea rescue charity has taken hundreds of migrants to the italian port of pozzallo, in sicily. the sea watch three vessel has spent the last week searching for a port that would accept them. the migrants were picked up in five separate operations in the mediterranean. crew members say the group includes more than 200 unaccompanied children. mattea weihe is the head of mission for sea—watch 3. she explains what the process is for disembarking everyone safely. we started the disembarkation process today, but it takes a lot of time so we currently have about half the amount of people on board, around 200 people currently. that issue is more of a logistical kind. basically the people need to have places in hotspots, they need to be registered, need to be put on quarantine ferries and this process takes a long time so basically as soon as they have places for people we can disembark them and when more places open up we can disembark the rest. the people are from all different kinds of places. they all fled libya and they all tell is horrible stories about the time they spent there, so when you sit down on deck and have a talk with them they actually tell them the most terrific stories you probably would have ever heard in your life. they come from various countries, sub—saharan countries, north african countries and they've made this really dangerous journey and they are really happy they can hopefully start a new life which is peaceful and actually gives them some sort of protection that they deserve. we always demand a quick disembarkation process because as you know a ship is not necessarily a place for 440 people who have been through hell and who ended up here so we are always really eager to get a disembarkation as quickly as possible in a place where they can be safe. however, we realised also in the past these processes take a very long time and we demand actually that they go quicker and quicker in the future. in the united states, forecasters are predicting more extreme weather, with cold weather warnings in place for parts of kansas. however, just a few hundred miles away in tenneessee there could be a 30 celsius difference in the temperature. chris fawkes from the bbc weather centre has been looking at the unusual cold front forecast for the american midwest. new year's day will bring some severe weather to the united states, as extreme cold air hits extreme mild air. in the south, the temperature contrasts are enormous. in wichita, temperatures through saturday afternoon will be around —14 for a time — whereas on the warm side of the front, +2i in memphis. the difference is 35 celsius. those enormous temperature contrasts will be powering a nasty area of low pressure, bringing multiple hazards across many areas of the us. first of all, in the cold air, we are looking at a zone of heavy snow extending from colorado across the central plains to illinois. here we could be looking at 10—20 cm of snow — that would lead to some transport disruption. but just to the south of this zone, as well as the snow, some of the warm air could for a time climb above cold air at the surface — that's a recipe for freezing rain which could affect parts of oklahoma, kansas, missouri. now freezing rain is really dangerous — it's liquid rain that's got a temperature below zero, freezing solidly to ice on impact. roads could be turned to ice rinks locally. and very dangerous, indeed. and talking about dangerous weather across parts of the southeast, we're looking at some severe thunderstorms breaking out later on. the risk extends from parts of mississippi, arkansas, and areas of tennessee and kentucky — we could see some very powerful tornadoes late in the day. in parts of europe. there are also unusual temperatures in parts of europe. britain has enjoyed the warmest new year on record with temperatures of 16 celsius. and these pictures are from a french beach in arcochon — where people have also been enjoying the unusually warm weather. but the balmy temperatures have meteorologists worried — warmer winters are one of the key indicators of climate change. assisted suicide is now legal in austria, within a tightly regulated framework. the new law allows people over 18 who are terminally or chronically ill to end their lives, but they will need to be assessed by two doctors. assisted suicide is where someone is given the means to end their own life — it's already legal in switzerland. and has been decriminalised in belgium, luxembourg, the netherlands, and spain. bethany bell in vienna explains how the new austrian law will work. well, this is for people who are terminally ill or people who have a permanent and debilitating condition. they will now have the right to ask for assisted suicide. and, as you mentioned, it will be very tightly regulated — two doctors, one of whom must be an expert in palliative care, have to assess the cases, they also have to assess whether the person is making this decision independently, whether they are able to make this decision independently. and then there will be a 12 week period before the assistance is given. in some cases, that waiting period will be reduced to two weeks if it is for a patient who is in what the law calls the terminal phase. this is something that is not uncontroversial here in austria — notably the catholic church has said that they are against this, and the austrian conference of bishops issued a statement saying they hope this law will never have to be used because there would be enough, when it called, solidarity in austria to prevent people needing to ask for assisted suicide. this is bbc news — a reminder of our headlines... south africa's president leads funeral tributes to archbishop desmond tutu — calling him the nation's moral compass. north korea's leader kim jong—un has admitted his country is facing severe economic problems, including food shortages. in an address to a meeting of the ruling party, mr kim didn't mention his country's issues with the united states — something he usually focuses on. instead, he said increasing development and improving people's living standards would be his main task this year. a self—imposed coronavirus blockade has left north korea struggling with food shortages. i've been speaking to soo kim. she's a policy analyst at the rand corporation — an american global policy think tank — and says the north korean leader will be focussing on food supplies because he's back into a tight corner politically... he can't afford to take his eyes off domestic situation. imagine the lockdown, the covid—i9 pandemic, on top of that, the sanctions, the natural disasters from the last couple of years — it's really compounded the already dire food situation and humanitarian situation in north korea. so for kim jong—un to have sent a direct message to the united states and south korea now would not have worked too well upon the superficial image he wants to give to both the north korean population, but also to the united states and south korea. paint a picture for us here. what state is the north korean economy in right row? how bad are things right now? so we are, i would say, fumbling through the dark when it comes to dealing with any facts coming out of north korea. but we have seen reports saying that the government has asked the people to basically tighten their belts again for three more years — so we are looking until 2025. when the government, presumably wants to reopen borders with china. and again, compounding the situation where the already dire situation north koreans have been facing for the past 6—7 decades, so this is not looking good and kim said to the north korean population they should be expecting things to get worse. there's been an emphasis on rebuilding the rural areas of north korea — that is a way for kim to divert attention away from his own faults and for him to divert the energy and onus of responsibility onto the north korean people to basically find a way to weather the storms, from the covid—i9 pandemic and north korean isolation. we do know that north korea is the first country to have closed its borders at the start of the pandemic, and we know that north korea has not accepted some donations of vaccines, global donations — so why doesn't kim jong—un simply relax his covid restrictions a little bit, or start to begin accepting some vaccine donations? so if he were to open his borders to a select number of international workers, this is going to expose kim jong—un�*s leadership failures. it's also going to expose the realities of living in north korea. we've seen villages where things looked perfect, very well—maintained. that's not the case for, i would say, the majority of the north korean population. so to open the borders, to allow the international workers in is going to expose kimjong—un even more — and that's not what he wants to see and have to deal with at this point. meanwhile, officialfigures in sri lanka show that food prices have increased by a record 22% in december, as the country struggles to pay for imports due to a shortage of foreign exchange. the bbc�*s anbarasan ethirajan reports from colombo. this woman is adjusting to the new reality. until recently, she was using a kooky dutch cooking gas cylinder prepare for, orfood for cooking gas cylinder prepare for, or food for her four children. but now, is only children. but now, is only children. her husband is a day wage labour. with the cost of essential items rising, they are struggling to make ends meet. translation: ., ., ~ ., , translation: cooking gas finder translation: cooking gas cylinder prices _ translation: cooking gas cylinder prices have - translation: cooking gas cylinder prices have almost| cylinder prices have almost doubled, and we cannot afford it any more. i used to provide fish and vegetables daily to my children. now we are giving them one vegetable with rice. earlier we used to have three meals a day. now we can afford only two. we can't spend all the money on food, as we have to spend on their education, as well. . . , to spend on their education, as well. . ., , ., ., well. the increasing food -rices well. the increasing food prices are _ well. the increasing food prices are hitting - well. the increasing food | prices are hitting families hard, particularly low income group families. in the prices have gone up to 30% for some items in this year. with the government facing more problems in the foreign exchange reserves, the prices of certain food commodities are likely to go food commodities are likely to 9° up food commodities are likely to go up further. the crisis is unprecedented. sri lanka has banned the import of several items following the sharp decline in foreign an extended reserves. the pandemic has made matters worse for tourism. the mainstay of sri lanka's and economy. as a result, millions of sri lankans have been stretched to the limits. sri lankans — stretched to the limits. sri lankans are _ stretched to the limits. 5 lankans are quite sensitive to food price inflation. there's already been a lot of negative sentiment regarding the constraints that we are seeing. i think it is probably quite close to a point where there is a lack of further tolerance of this level of price escalation on food prices in particular. sri lanka has been borrowing heavily to bolster its economy and infrastructure over the years, especially after the end of the civil war in 2009. now it faces the prospect of a loan default for the first time since independence from britain in 1948. we since independence from britain in 1948. ~ ., , . ., in 1948. we have resurgence of im orts in 1948. we have resurgence of imports because _ in1948. we have resurgence of imports because of— in 1948. we have resurgence of imports because of the - in 1948. we have resurgence of| imports because of the pressure on our— imports because of the pressure on our current account was increasing, due to the pandemic situation — increasing, due to the pandemic situation. we need to manage it - one _ situation. we need to manage it - one thing _ situation. we need to manage it — one thing that would make stuff— — one thing that would make stuff available. and then, make it available for the right price _ it available for the right rice. ., ., price. the government have dispatched its _ price. the government have dispatched its ministers to i several capitals, desperately seeking loans. but it's seen as a firefighting exercise then going for the real cost. with a further import assertions on cars, it will be a challenge to keep the firewood in the kitchen going. the pandemic made 2021 a difficult year for many reasons — one of them was travel restrictions, which meant many families were forced to live apart. but the recent lifting of some restrictions has meant airports have been the scene of emotional reunions across the world. and we've been looking back at some of those special moments. efrem gebreab reports. all across the world, 2021 has been a difficult year, yet despite newly—introduced travel restrictions there have been emotional reunions in some places. we spoke to three families reunited after covid restrictions were lifted. to surprise her family in california, she travelled all the way from dubai. i was literally preparing my line for the whole entire flight, because i knew they'd be in the restaurant. "where are we eating today?" 0h! so i didn't see my family from 2019. obviously, the pandemic happened. and i wasn't able to go and meet them for that long. i called my brother, like, three days before. he was like, "book the tickets." "0k, i'lljust book it now." they had no idea. my mum had a feeling. i knew it, i knew it! i knew it! due to ongoing travel restrictions, priyanka couldn't see her family. the 25—year—old science student from india was stuck in the uk. when this covid thing. came, i was very much afraid for my family, - for my grandfather especially. like, he is very old, _ and for older people, the covid thing attaches very much. so i was worried about my grandfather, mainly. - this woman hasn't seen her nephews and brother in years. she made a surprise visit to india. her mother is still in disbelief. alejandra hasn't seen her nephews and brother in years. she lives in argentina and couldn't travel to the united states. the emergence of new variants globally has made travel harder again and, as we start the new year, many around the world can't wait to be reunited once more. efrem gebreab, bbc news. the vienna new year's concert — with daniel barenboim conducting — has been broadcast to millions of viewers around the world. in 2021, the concert was performed without an audience. this year, the 1,000 visitors in the golden hall had to have been vaccinated, tested, and wear a mask for the duration. the artistic collaboration with daniel barenboim as conductor began in 1989, although he first appeared with the orchestra as a pianist in 1956. don't forget, you can get in touch with me and some of the team on twitter — i'm @celiahatton. bye— bye. hello. it's been an unusually warm start to the brand—new year. not only did new year's day bring us the warm start to a january morning on record, temperature overnight — didn't drop below 13.2 celsius in devon — but we picked up our warmest new year's day on record, 16.3 celsius in london. it wasn'tjust here in the uk that experienced an exceptional warmth — that's been across much of europe, as you can see by these yellow and amber colours. record—breaking for some, but a change as colder air pushes him through next week for something much more akin to january, even the return of snow for some. no snow to start sunday morning, it will be a bit chilly across parts of northeast scotland, but elsewhere a very mild start and some heavy downpours to begin with across the eastern half of england. quickly gets out of the way, then lots of sunshine through much of the day. a few showers in the west becoming more extensive and frequent as we go through the morning, some of those becoming heavy with hail and thunder, particularly lively through wales and the southwest, pushing towards the midlands and central and southern england for the afternoon. some eastern areas will stay dry after that morning rain until later on, but a blustery day across the board, not quite as windy in western scotland as we saw on new year's day. temperature—wise down a little bit on new year's day values, but still significantly above where we'd normally expect at this stage injanuary. some heavy rain into sunday evening spreading across eastern half of england — that clears through, a few showers through the night and into monday morning. most of those though will be across parts of scotland and northern ireland, and they could start to turn a bit wintry across the far north of scotland as colder air tries to edge its way in. and that's all to the north of this weather front — that'll be slowly pushing its way southwards through monday, at the same time and approaching one to the southwest. in between those two areas, and a lot of dry weather for england and wales on monday, a bank holiday for many, just 1—2 showers. cold and wintry showers spreading into the north of scotland, the dividing line between that cold air, though, by the end of the day belying somewhere across northern ireland, southern scotland and northern england with outbreaks of rain — and that, a wet end to the day for those around the english channel. that low will clear through and, as it does so monday night into tuesday, the cold air floods its way southwards and it will be a much chillier day. in fact, we could see some pretty frequent snow showers in the north of scotland and strengthening winds which could cause problems later on tuesday and wednesday. but the upshot is for all of us, temperatures much lower next week — as you can see here, from a selection of towns and cities from the four nations, temperatures in single figures and, as i said, a bit of snow for some of you. this is bbc news — the headlines... south africa has paid its official farewell to archbishop desmond tutu. president cyril ramaphosa called him the nation's moral compass. in a eulogy delivered at the state funeral — mr ramaphosa said desmond tutu had been the spiritual father of the new nation and the bearer of its conscience. covid 19 is continuing to cause major disruption for travellers worldwide — airlines cancelled more than 4,400 flights on saturday. it's one of the highest single—day tolls since the cancellations began just before christmas, and thousands of flights were grounded due to surging covid cases among airline crews and ground personnel. the north korean leader — kim jong—un — has signalled that the country's faltering economy will be the national priority this year. mr kim said increasing development and improving people's living standards was the main task.