you are watching bbc news. our top story: the united nations says the storm that has ravaged parts of southern africa is possibly the worst weather—related disaster ever to hit the southern hemisphere. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. the headlines: 1.7 million people were in the direct path of cyclone idai, in mozambique, zimbabwe and milawi. fears that hundreds of thousands are homeless in africa, hundreds of thousands of people after what the un says might be one are now homeless and in desperate need of humanitarian help of the worst natural disasters to hit the southern hemisphere. the really striking thing the funerals have begun for some as you walk through here is just how of the 50 victims of friday's mosque exhausted they are. person after person has come up attacks in christchurch. speaking to schoolchildren to us, asking for help, wondering when aid in the city, the prime minister said that the stories of those who died is going to arrive. need to keep being told. the first funerals begin and this video is in christchurch for some of the 50 trending on bbc.com: people who were killed in the mosque attacks last friday. a group of skiers were caught i'm kasia madera in london. by surprise as a ridge of snow also in the programme: collapsed under them. fortunately no—one was injured in the incident in the austrian alps, theresa may will write to the eu but the skiers did to ask for a brexit extension, possibly for a few months, have to be rescued. or maybe for up to two years. the eu's negotiator and the top story in the uk:

sounds unimpressed. translation: both short and long? well, it's either one of the other, isn't it? but the real question is what is the real purpose of it? after 18 years, polio returns to papua new guinea. we find out what is being done to contain the outbreak. good morning. it is 9:00am in singapore, 1:00am in london and 3:00am in the morning in mozambique, where a tragedy of immense proportions is developing. the un says cyclone idai could be one of the worst weather—related disasters to hit the southern hemisphere. according to the president of mozambique, which was hardest—hit, the death toll could rise to 1,000. it is thought a 30—mile stretch of land is underwater after the river buzi

burst its banks. the storm made landfall near the port city of beira, north of the capital, with winds of over 100 mph. it then moved inland, carrying the floodwaters with it to malawi and zimbabwe. 0ur africa editor fergal keane reports from beira, which has been badly damaged. whatever once lay here has been overwhelmed. now, the flooded land is an expanse of questions. what has become of those who lived here? only a silence below, and very occasional moments of reprieve. these survivors landing at beira airport, rescued from high ground near their submerged village. driving into the city, we saw how nature's full, awesome force had ripped through homes and lives.

90% of this city has suffered destruction, and you see it in the ruins, and in faces. because we were foreign, because we came from a richer world, the people called out to us for help. no food, no water, no place to rest. we heard it again and again. this man led me to his family's battered one—room house. the floodwater soaked their meagre belongings. so how many of you live here? ten — ten peoples. ten people. yes. in this little room? yes. here, his sister, seriously ill with tuberculosis. already marginal lives now made desperate.

i have more problems. my house is broken. and in my house, i don't have nothing to eat — nothing, nothing. from morning up to now, we have nothing to eat. we're getting a few minutes‘ respite now from the rain, because it's been falling non—stop, and just adding to people's misery. the really striking thing as you walk through here is just how exhausted they are. person after person has come up to us, as you've seen, asking for help, wondering when aid is going to arrive. beira is severely damaged, but it is at least reachable, and even here, the warehouses that store food aid have been badly damaged. it is out in the countryside, though, that many are thought to be waiting for rescue. this is a glimpse of what helicopters and courage can do, but there are too few such rescues. some food aid is now being distributed, but the relief effort is still nowhere

near what is needed. everything the storm could destroy, it did, and there is an ominous sense that the tragedy we have seen so farforeshadows much worse to come. fergal keane, bbc news, beira. and we will be hearing from someone from the world food programme. another story that continues to dominate the news here in the uk is brexit, the uk leaving the european union. britain's prime minister, theresa may, is writing to the eu to formally ask for brexit to be postponed. with just ten days to go until britain is due to leave the eu, she is now asking for an exension until at least the end ofjune, and possibly much longer. the eu's chief brexit negotiator, michel barnier, says britain must come up with a concrete plan if it wants a delay. the european council will need to assess what is in the best interest of the eu.

extending this uncertainty without a clear plan would add to the economic cost for our businesses, but could also incur a political cost for the eu. it is for the british government and parliament to decide very quickly what the uk wants to do next. also making news today: the us president, donald trump, is hosting his brazilian counterpart, jair bolsonaro, at the white house, as the two countries look to strengthen trade and military ties. the two right—wing populist leaders exchanged football tops ahead of a private face—to—face sit—down in the oval house. it is the first official trip abroad for mr bolsonaro since he took office in january. he is sometimes called the ‘trump of the tropics‘. kazakhstan‘s president, who has led the country since independence from the soviet union, has announced his resignation. nursultan nazarbayev says he is handing over to the leader of the senate for the

remainder of his term. but he will remain as chair of kazakhstan‘s security council and as head of the country's ruling party. the first burials of victims of the two mosque attacks in new zealand have been taking place in christchurch. the families have not released their names, and have asked for privacy. 50 people died and dozens were injured in the mass shootings carried out by a lone gunman last friday. meanwhile the prime minister, jacinda ardern, has arrived in christchurch and has been talking to pupils at cashmir high school, which lost two students and a former pupil in the attack. we have a lot of holes in our gun laws in new zealand, and we need to fix that. we also know that there are lots of questions left to answer, as well, around should we have known

more, been able to detect that this individual was planning this terrorist attack? we want an inquiry in to do that, so we can make sure there is some independence to the way we do that. so it isn't me standing up and giving explanations, the public can hear somebody independently come and look into that as well so we are looking to set that up very quickly and also there is work around social media that we want to do. let's talk now to our correspondent mariko 0i, who is in christchurch for us. nice to see you, i know that the prime minister is meeting with emergency first responders right 110w. emergency first responders right now. do you know what she is expected to say to them? is she making any other press announcements later today? well, we are expecting the prime minister to hold a press conference the prime minister to hold a press c0 nfe re nce very the prime minister to hold a press conference very shortly, as you said. she has been meeting with the first responders, who have been really praised for their work. the police commissioner was speaking

several hours ago, talking about how they managed to arrest the attacker on his way to what they think was a third location for the attack, and that many lives were saved because of their very quick action. as you can see, i am standing outside a botanical garden where people are also continuing to pay tribute to the victims of friday's attack. we have really been struck by the support and the strength of the local community, really. we have been hearing a lot of stories that people coming up to us are sharing. we also saw a police officer offering muffins to the people on the street. so, while the mood is very sombre. we have been also very struck by the support and the strength of the community. yes, i can see the signs and certainly the outpouring of support and sympathy right behind you, people still carrying flowers, even as we are so many days on from the attack. but as the funerals begin today, there is

still that very difficult process of identification, which has yet to be completed. i appreciate it must be very difficult, but questions are being raised, aren't they, about just why it is taking so long. that's right, family members have voiced some frustration that the identification process has been taking quite awhile. 0f identification process has been taking quite awhile. of course, islamic tradition requires bodies to be buried immediately, which they couldn't do so. we heard from the police commissioner, apologising for the delay, but he also emphasised the delay, but he also emphasised the importance of the whole process, to get all the evidence in order to build a criminal case against the attacker. the funerals, as you say, 110w attacker. the funerals, as you say, now under way, taking place not too far away from here. and of course, we have 50 people confirmed dead, so the funerals will continue taking place over the next couple of days. within hours of the attack, the prime minister, jacinda ardern, promised to toughen gun laws. since then, her government has agreed to measures in principle, but exactly what is

changing isn't yet known. this isn't the first time the country has debated gun reforms. back in 2016, the country's police association sent a warning that gun controls were inadequate. earlier i spoke to kevin clements, a professor at the centre for peace and conflict studies at 0tago university. i started by asking him if he suppoted a ban on semi—automatic weapons in new zealand. 0h, absolutely time. in fact the proposal — the initial proposal of this was in 1995, withjudge thorpe's report on gun control. he recommended the complete ban of military—style semiautomatic weapons and pistols. that was never picked up by the government at that stage. it's been proposed in other reviews of gun control, and the government's always avoided it.

but i think this time around, i think there's finally an opportunity for that to come into place. and it will put us in consonance with existing legislation in australia and the uk, and to some extent in canada as well. all of which have banned military—style semiautomatic weapons. what about legislation in the us, where they talk about licensing and registering? because in new zealand, explain the nuance there, because it is licensed. the people are registered, though? that is right, in the new zealand context, we have long been advocating that there needs to be a register of guns and those guns need to be registered to the individuals who are gun license owners. at the moment, we don't have this. an individual can build an arsenal

without anyone knowing. if there was a register of guns to individuals, we would have known that the murderer in this instance was building up a little arsenal, and doing that christchurch. the purchase of high—capacity magazines are then added to semiautomatic rifles to give them that high capacity. it's actually unregulated ? that's completely unregulated, and that's exactly what happened. you can purchase an ar 15 within a category license, but if you want to add extra magazines and cartridge capacity, you need an e—license. the purchaser of these guns didn't have that. he added a 30 magazine capacity, and it turned into an extraordinarily lethal weapon. and that's exactly why we've been opposing these weapons all along. they have no agricultural value, no sporting value, and they have no hunting value.

so that's why it's really important, i think, that this whole categories of weapons be banned. you are watching newsday on the bbc. still to come on the programme: we find out what is being done to contain papua new guinea's first outbreak of polio in 18 years. also on the programme: visiting a museum that really is for the dogs. we take a look at a collection of art where canines reign supreme. today, we have closed the book on apartheid and that chapter. more than 3,000 subway passengers were affected. nausea, bleeding, headaches and a dimming of vision — all of this caused by an apparently organised attack. the trophy itself was on the pedestal in the middle of the cabinet here. now, this was an international trophy, and we understand now that the search for it has

become an international search. above all, this was a triumph for the christian democrats of the west, offering reunification as quickly as possible, and that's what the voters wanted. this is mewsday on the bbc. i'm karishma vaswani in singapore. and i'm kasia madera in london. our top stories: aid workers in mozambique are warning that 400,000 people there have been made homeless by the cyclone that struck last week. the funerals begin in christchurch for some of the 50 people killed in friday's mosque attacks.

now let's take a look at some front pages from around the world. we start with the international edition of the japan times, which is reporting on a new set of laws banning parents from inflicting corporal punishment on their children. they say the proposed changes, 0ked by japan's cabinet, have been broadly welcomed by campaigners. now, in the south china morning post, they're focusing on president xijinping's visit to rome this week, where he's expected to be seeking a number of deals, opening up italian ports as part of china's belt and road initiative. and the new york times is looking at costa rica leading the charge in going green for the environment. the small south american nation is apparently aiming for a complete move away from all fossil fuels by 2050. many thanks. let's get more the aftermath

of storm idai, which has triggered a "massive disaster" in southern africa, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. challiss mcdonough works for the un world food programme. she says that the devastation in beira is hard to imagine. there were homes under water, people have lost their crops, their livestock. the roads in and out of the port city of beira are com pletely the port city of beira are completely underwater, so that critical port city has been largely cut off by road and the government estimates that around 600,000 people are affected, and we have done satellite imagery that indicates that there could be up to 1.7 million people in mozambique alone who might have been affected by the storm, so it really is a catastrophe of absolutely mind—boggling proportions and it is going to be an enormous challenge for the people who are on the ground, who are facing those floodwaters, who had

climbed onto trees and the tops of their houses to escape them, but also for the government and humanitarian agencies are trying to get assistance to them because the infrastructure has been decimated. when you have such a huge disaster across so many when you have such a huge disaster across so many different countries, where do you start? how do you start getting aid through and help to the people on the ground? well, i think you start with the people that you can reach the fastest. we did have food stocks in beira, warehouse was badly affected by the storm itself but there was still some food in that warehouse that was still usable. we have begun disputing that to people who are sheltering in schools and churches around downtown. also, we have flown in 20 tons of high—energy biscuits, which are ready to eat and do not require

cooking. we have got teams of experts, emergency response experts, logisticians, people who have been brought into the country to try and mmp brought into the country to try and ramp up that response as quickly as possible. we do have people on the grounds me trying to get out of those remote areas, to towns that are north of beira, to people who are north of beira, to people who are sheltering in northern areas to reach them as quickly as possible, to get them first of all safe in the floodwaters, and secondly to ensure that they can get food, water, shelter, blankets, the kind of support that humanitarian community can bring to them and the basics of life to try to stay alive until the floodwaters recede and we can begin trying to rebuild the infrastructure that has been damaged and rebuild those lives. one of the most expensive vaccination campaigns in the world is taking place in papua new guinea, to tackle a virus which was once

commonplace but has come close to being eradicated worldwide. last year, polio returned to papua new guinea after an 18 year absence. it's an incurable virus that can cause paralysis. but tackling the outbreak in papua new guinea is a painstaking process, where 80% of its people live in rural areas which are hard to reach and healthcare workers also have to avoid tribal conflicts. earlier, i spoke to global affairs analyst, michael bociurkiw. he's just spent a month in papua new guinea working alongside unicef, and i asked him how concerning the outbreak is. well, it's very serious when you think about it. 26 cases out of a global total of about 120 last year. -- 128. that's a very, very high proportion for such a small country. but i think what's happened here is kind of a perfect storm combination of factors — neglected investment in the health system, collapse of routine immunisation, then you have security factors as well. there's tribal warfare going on in the highlands region, and also, there was an earthquake last year in february, a big one that displaced a lot of people. so, a lot of instability and displacement contributes to that spread. you know, michael, i was in papua new guinea

for the apec conference last year. it was a scene of big, you know, tremendous investment into getting that event off the ground, but there was criticism, wan't there, that the government wasn't spending funds on things like this, where it's really needed? right. i think that will be one the main kind of — one of the key messages from the international community, who are giving millions and millions to defeat this. so, the main thing here is for the government to put in a system where routine immunisation happens. in other words, when a woman gives birth, she goes to the hospital and the baby gets that set of routine immunisation. the problem is a lot of women, a lot of mothers in papua new guinea actually give birth at home, a large percentage in some areas, so they don't have that early contact with the health system, that actually gets them recorded and gets them that vaccination record. and michael, i know that you've travelled extensively through the country. it's very difficult, ins't it,

to reach some of these communities that are worst affected? extremely difficult. seaplane, by boat, walking. vaccination workers have to walk hours and hours. and then there are threats to vaccination workers as well. we visited one of the polio victims, a 7—year—old girl. it took a long drive, and then a one—hour walk through the jungle. i have to say, it's just so sad to see a girl like that paralysed for life, not her fault whatsoever, but a collapse of the system. and just how much of an effort is the government currently making to try and address this? well, it's huge. for example, unicef has procured 14.1; million doses of vaccine, but it's one thing to get it into the country, then the other part is to distribute it in a country that is very widely dispersed. but social mobilisation, convincing people to take the vaccine is a very big effort. don't forget, a lot of places in the country, you don't have facebook, twitter, no telephone service, so how do you convince people? but, it seems to be working. the demand is huge and, it's kind of, just quickly, it's kind of ironic because of the pacific north—west, there's very low vaccination.

very quickly, what happens, what's at stake if these efforts aren't successful? well, what's at stake is more children are going to get polio, more could die and then it could spread. australia is very close to the rest of asia, so i think that's a big worry to the international community. this next story's for all the dog lovers among you. there's a new museum in the heart of manhattan dedicated to our four legged friends. jane 0'brien has been to take a look. the museum of the dog does exactly what it says on the label, and i've been allowed to bring a very special guest to see it. this is alfie. this is the largest collection of canine—related paintings and objects in the world, courtesy of the american kennel club. this is alan. alan fausel is the curator. who's a good boy? good boy. his job is to bridge the job between art lovers and dog lovers — using art to tell the history of the dog. it's part of the english culture of portraiture,

memorialising your ancestors. it started with people and then moved to horses and moved to dogs in the victorian era. in fact, it was queen victoria who really started the craze for dog portraits, and british women in particular were highly influential as breeders and painters. well, this is a painting called silent sorrow by maud earl, one of the great female artists in britain. maud earl was a favourite of the royal family and painted this portrait of caesar mourning the death of his owner, king edward vii. here we see, after the king has passed away, she's placed caesar on the armchair of edward vii and the armchair itself sort of fades into the background. like a memory. absolutely. this is also a hall of fame, with artworks doubling as historic documents. written standards began in the 1850s, but many breeds didn't come into existence until the 1900s. this chart shows the 193 officially recognised breeds. now, unfortunately, alfie, being a labradoodle, isn't on this chart because he's actually a designer dog,

not a pedigree, but don't tell him! painters often idealise dogs in the same way human portrait painters idealise their patrons, and the aesthetic quality of some of the works here is the same. and then there's that old saying that dogs look like their owners. or is it the other way round? this is fun. what breed do i look like? i look into the camera, it takes my photograph, it does its magic... and — ta—da — i am a cavalier king charles spaniel, affectionate, gentle and graceful. clearly, there's something in this collection for everyone. what do you think of that, alfie? unless, of course, you're a cat. jane o'brien and alfie, bbc news, new york. trust jane to sneak a dog into trustjane to sneak a dog into a

museum. thanks for watching, we will see you soon. bye—bye. hello there. the most noticeable feature of the weather for the next few days will be the feel of it. it is going to be very mild with temperatures a little above the seasonal average, in fact. it should be largely dry too with the high pressure taking control. winds will be light for most away from the far north of the country. now, the air mass is key to how it's going to feel for the next few days. low pressure to the north of the uk. high pressure to the south, and we're bringing this warm air on a south—westerly wind. but it is very moisture laden off the atlantic, which is why we're seeing quite a lot of cloud around, thick enough to produce light rain and drizzle early on wednesday. there could be a bit of mist and fog too. a mild start to wednesday in places.

no lower than 10 degrees, for example, in belfast. and through this morning, we will have quite a lot of cloud around, generally light wind. i am hopeful though through the afternoon we could see some good breaks of sunny spells appearing. across the far north—west of the uk, windy with outbreaks of rain for the northwest highlands. we could see temperatures reaching the high teens, but generally even when you have the cloud, it's going to feel very mild, temperatures around 13 or 1a degrees. thursday, a similar picture. quite a bit of cloud but some good holes breaking, particularly to the east of high ground. staying very wet, though, for the north—west of scotland, where it will be breezier, temperatures 11 or 12 degrees here. further south, given some good spells of sunshine, we could make 16 or 17 celsius. into friday, a developing area of low pressure, which will bring a spell of gales and rain to the north of the country. the further south you are, close to the area of higher pressure, largely fine.

some sunny spells. it will be a breezy day across the board, very windy across parts of scotland with gales, 50 to 60 miles an hour gusts inland. 60 to 70 perhaps for the northern isles and the western isles, and we'll also see rain, which will spill its way southwards and eastwards, tending to weaken as it does. another very mild day ahead of it, given some spells of sunshine. even where it is cloudy, it will be mild. through friday evening and night, that band of cloud and rain sinks south—eastwards, introducing cooler air. a few wintry showers pushing to the north of scotland. you can see the blue colours invading from the north—west as we head on in towards the weekend, but it's still high pressure in charge. it means it should be largely fine and dry, and with drier, cooler air, we could see more sunshine on saturday and sunday. notice the temperatures a little bit lower and nights will be chilly too with a touch of frost in places.