this is bbc news with the latest headlines for viewers in the uk and around the world. no new coronavirus restrictions will be introduced in england before the new year. but the health secretary says people should remain cautious and that the figures are being monitored. we'll watch the situation very carefully and should, in the future, we need to act, of course, we won't hesitate to do so. a sharp rise in the the number of coronavirus cases in scotland, the highest yet, as new restrictions in bars and restaurants come into force. as covid cases increase rapidly in france, home working will become mandatory for at least three days per week where possible. in new york, children aged 12 and over have to be fully vaccinated to go into restaurants and leisure facilities, as infections rise in the city.

cape town's city hall is bathed in purple light, to honour archbishop desmond tutu, south africa's anti—apartheid leader, who died on sunday. and the new technology which could revolutionise the sorting of plastic packaging and boost recycling rates around the world. hello, and welcome to bbc news. the uk health secretary, sajid javid, has ruled out introducing any new covid restrictions in england before the new year. ministers had been under pressure to respond to rising infection levels after the devolved administrations in scotland, wales and northern ireland all implemented measures to stem the spread of the omicron variant. scotland has seen its highest

ever number of cases this christmas period — 11,030 were recorded on boxing day, and today, there were just over 10,500. meanwhile, england confirmed 98,515 cases in the past day. the health secretary said 90% of covid cases in england are now thought to be the 0micron variant and he urged people to remain cautious when celebrating new year's eve, saying the government won't hesitate to act in the future if necessary. here's our correspondent simonjones. after the christmas festivities, tough decisions. the government has been poring over the latest covid data to see if it thinks new measures are needed in england. but this afternoon, this decision... there will be no further measures before the new year. we won't be taking any further measures. of course, people should remain cautious as we approach new year celebrations and, you know, take a lateralflow

test, that makes sense, celebrate outside if you can. have some ventilation indoors if you can. please, remain cautious. at this bar in bristol, they say many customers have decided of their own accord to stay away. we've already lost a very, very big trading period already, a really key trading period. next month, it will have little impact because it's a quiet time of year anyway. the government will continue to look at hospital admissions, although early findings last week suggested people with omicron were less likely to be admitted, along with staff absences and whether the nhs faces being overwhelmed. covid is having a significant impact on staffing in our emergency departments. the most common figure coming back at us is that departments are reporting 20—25% of their staff off because of covid—related reasons at the moment, and that's a really, really big dealfor emergency departments. yesterday in wales, social distancing measures were reintroduced. from today in northern ireland,

there are new restrictions for pubs and restaurants. it will be table service only and a maximum of six people will be allowed to sit together. we've tried to be sensible and both protect ourselves and each other. i am slightly bewildered, i don't understand them. i have come over from scotland, so everything is different. table service too has come in in scotland where alcohol is served, nightclubs will have to close for a period of at least three weeks. the scottish health secretary this morning visited a vaccination centre in perth. 0ver christmas, scotland recorded the highest number of daily covid cases since the start of the pandemic. this will still be very difficult for businesses, but, of course, if we let this virus get out of control or get ahead of us, that would be even worse for the economy. downing street says it won't hesitate to act if more restrictions in england are needed in the future. today's briefing by scientists

is one of a series of regular updates given to the prime minister. for now, it's a call for caution, but new year celebrations are set to look very different in different parts of the uk. simon jones, bbc news. 0ur political correspondent iain watson has been explaining that it'll be confusing to many people that the four nations in the uk are going down different routes for tackling the spread of the 0micron variant. the biggest divergence, really, is between scotland, wales and northern ireland together, who are advising households to limit their mixing, who are closing nightclubs, who are deciding that there has to be table service in bars, and england, where no new restrictions are being introduced at all. now, we had some earlier this month, the advice to work from home, for example, but in the face of those kind of cases that we heard, record cases in scotland, record cases in england on christmas day, in the face of those figures, the government at westminster has decided not to go

down the road of scotland, wales and northern ireland and introduce some new restrictions. now, by ruling out restrictions before the new year, what they're also ruling out is a recall of parliament. what the prime minister, borisjohnson, had promised his mps was that if there were to be any new legally enforceable restrictions, they would be allowed to come back and have a vote on it. if you remember, there was a record rebellion under his leadership, 100 conservative mps who opposed the idea of covid passes being introduced, where people would have to prove vaccination status or a negative test before getting into some venues. that was a record rebellion. and i spoke to one of those rebels earlier today, who said, actually, if the prime minister had brought parliament back this week, introduced some new measures without hard data that the national health service was going to be overwhelmed, he would have faced an even bigger rebellion. now, that would allow, i think, some of borisjohnson�*s political opponents suggest that perhaps he's putting politics ahead of public health. what downing street would say is, quite simply, that he is keeping

a close eye on the data. he had that briefing that was mentioned with his scientific and medical advisers and he didn't see any need to push the red button, as they saw it. there was no need to do that at this stage. he's far more worried about people perhaps not taking up the offer of vaccinations and boosters. iain watson reporting there. the french government has announced new measures to deal with a spike in covid infections. working from home will become obligatory again where possible for at least three days a week, although schools will open on schedule in the first week of january. there are also no plans to impose an evening curfew, but there will be limits on the size of audiences for indoor and outdoor events. 0ur correspondent hugh schofield has the latest. there was a cabinet meeting, a special cabinet meeting, this afternoon convened by president macron at a distance. he's down in the south of france and he spoke via video link with his government up in paris, because of, as you were saying,

the huge growth of omicron—related covid, and they're projecting a really very, very sharp increase in the data. even maybe they're talking about 250,000 cases a day by early january. it's the same, of course, here as it is in other european countries, and what's interesting is that, so far, this unprecedented wave of covid has not been followed by the kind of crisis in the hospitals that we've had with previous waves. they draw some cautious optimism from that, but they're also very worried, which is why they are instituting these new measures to try and slow down the rate. there's nothing drastic here. people had been talking about curfews, maybe particularly on new year's eve. there's no new year's eve curfew. people had been talking about delaying the start of the school term next monday. no, that's not going to happen. that is going to remain the day that school reopens after christmas holidays. but there are these other measures, for example, new limits to the number of people at stadiums — 5,000 at football matches

and so on, 2,000 for indoor events — this new push on home working, mandatory three days a week, maybe four if possible for companies, and a new rule about consuming drinks and food at bars and restaurants. you can only do that sitting down. that's a return to a rule we had before. this is all for three weeks. so it's not a drastic change, but it is a change which will make people, the hope is, think twice about going out, think twice about their behaviour, think twice about maybe some of the habits of covering up and so on which they've dropped and lost in the last month, where we've seen people beginning to think that it was all over, but it obviously isn't. well, the us has also been seeing a spike in the number of covid cases, and it has to led to president biden warning that some us hospitals could be "overrun". speaking during a virtual meeting

with state governors, he said the us is generally well prepared to meet the surge of 0micron cases and its citizens need not panic. but he also urged americans to get their booster shots. because we have had so many vaccinated and boosted, we are not seeing hospitalisations rise as sharply as we did in march of 2020 or even this past fall. america has made progress. things are better, but we do know that with the rising cases, we still have tens of millions of unvaccinated people and we are seeing hospitalisations rise. it means our hospitals in some places are going to get overrun, both in terms of equipment and staff. new york city has made it compulsory for everyone aged 12 and above to be fully vaccinated against covid, in order to access indoor entertainment and sports activities. it has also become the first us city to require vaccines for all private sector workers. jabs are already mandatory

for state employees. new york city's mayor explained why the measures were being taken now. we make history in new york city. and we lead the nation with the strongest vaccine mandate anywhere, private sector vaccine mandate, reaching hundreds of thousands of businesses. and we put this mandate into action as 0micron was coming, but we had no idea it would be quite this intense, but we knew, with 0micron coming, with cold weather, it was time to do more. well, thank god we did, because these mandates have been absolutely necessary to keep this city going. the reason the city keeps going, the reason we are open when some other places are shut down, is because of our focus on vaccination, because we used mandates and incentives. we got to double down, because one thing we can all agree, and i've talked to a lot of business leaders about this, covid is bad for humans, it's bad for our health, but it's also bad for business. an israeli hospital has begun giving a fourth shot

of the coronavirus vaccine, in a clinical trial to find out whether it is safe and effective in containing the spread of covid. the trial in tel aviv includes 150 health care workers who received their third shot no later than august this year. israel is considering approving a fourth dose, or second booster, for vulnerable people as 0micron infections surge despite a comprehensive vaccination programme. there have been more covid—related flight cancellations today, with more than 2,800 flights cancelled around the world. destinations in the united states and china have been the worst hit, with us airlines saying the disruption is due to crews testing positive or isolating. in all, since christmas eve, approaching 10,000 flights have been grounded. south africa has seen the end of the first day of a week of events to commemorate the life

of the anti—apartheid campaigner archbishop desmond tutu. he died on sunday, aged 90. the bells of cape town's st george's cathedral will toll for ten minutes a day, every day at noon, until friday. people have also been gathering outside the city's st george's cathedral and also outside his home, ahead of his funeral on the 1st of january. 0thers laid wreaths and lit candles in soweto. and these pictures are of south african president cyril ramaphosa arriving at the archbishop's residence to offer condolences to his widow leah and otherfamily members. 0ur correspondent nomsa maseko is in cape town, outside st george's cathedral. she told me what people had been saying to her about desmond tutu. people are reflecting about archbishop desmond tutu as a man who was small in stature but had a big heart. because, after all, he was the man who was chosen by nelson mandela to head the reconciliation process

here back in 1994, when south africa became a democracy. a lot of people speak about the man who played a prominent role in ensuring that south africa does indeed become a democracy. so he wasn'tjust respected here in this country but all over the world, and also with world leaders having paid their own tribute, speaking about the man, describing desmond tutu as a moral compass not just for south africa, but also for them in their respective countries. but also the death of desmond tutu signals an end of an era of people who played a serious big role in laying down their lives to ensure that south africa does indeed become a democracy, so young people have also been coming here with their parents to pay their respects and speak of a man who was kind—hearted, a man who loved to dance. i mean, if you've ever watched

desmond tutu dancing, he was an old man with a lot of rhythm and he also had a very lovely sense of humour, so there will be lots of things to remember him by. nomsa maseko there, remembering desmond tutu. there's a growing political stand—off in somalia between the president and prime minister. president mohamed abdullahi mohamed says he has suspended the prime minister, accusing him of corruption over a land grab case. the prime minister, mohamed hussein roble, says the president is attempting an informal coup. bella shegow has sent this report from mogadishu. the power struggle between the two leaders took a new turn today when, early this morning, vehicles from the presidential palace blocked roads close to the prime minister's residence, forcing the prime minister to get to his office on foot. mr roble then accused the president of sabotaging the elections. translation: i would like to make it

clear to the somali people _ that the somali federal government will be in charge during the transition period, and i therefore give order to all somali forces to work under the command of the office of the prime minister from today. and former president mohamed abdullahi farmaajo is no more than a presidential candidate, so therefore he should stand aside. today's move comes just three months after the president, mohamed abdullahi farmaajo, and the prime minister agreed to end a bitter feud sparked by the disappearance of a female intelligence officer in june. the fear now is that today's development will only deepen the political crisis and could trigger clashes between the forces loyal to the two men, such as the ones in mogadishu, where president mohamed abdullahi farmaajo unilaterally extended his four—year term by two years. bella shegow, bbc news, mogadishu.

let's take a look at some of the other stories making the news. geologists in iceland are warning that a series of tremors near the capital reykjavik could signal that a new volcanic eruption is on the way. thousands of mini quakes have been recorded in recent days. experts say the cause is magma moving beneath the earth's surface. the canadian film—maker jean—marc vallee, whose work included the oscar—nominated films dallas buyers club and the young victoria, has died at the age of 58. he also won an emmy award for his work on the television series big little lies. hbo described jean—marc vallee as a brilliant, truly phenomenal talent. every single day, most of us use products that come in plastic packaging. yet globally only a fraction gets reused or recycled. a project is now under way in europe, focused on bringing

industry players together to test out new technology that could help sort plastic packaging better and boost recycling. trials have been taking place in copenhagen, denmark, from where adrienne murray has been finding out more. early each morning, rubbish trucks are on the streets collecting binloads of household plastic. this is the start of its recycling journey. it's then brought to this facility, ready to be sent for sorting. in europe, each person generates 35 kilos of waste plastic packaging a year. only 40% gets recycled. globally, it's much less. while plastics are useful, a lot of packaging is difficult to reuse, and most of it ends up in landfill or incinerated. a big problem is plastic pollution. and yet more resources get used making new plastic products. here in copenhagen, new technology is being trialled that could help boost recycling rates.

it's part of an industry—led project called holygrail 2.0. what we're trying to do is really use intelligence that is embedded in the packaging, using the digital watermarks to revolutionise the way we sort or recycle plastics. more than 100,000 packaging samples are being sent along this line to a smart sorting machine. each piece of packaging is printed or embossed with a digital watermark that's about the size of a postage stamp. it can barely be seen by the naked eye, but it's like having an invisible bar code stamped all over it. this identifies what it is. consumers can even use a smartphone app to find out more about the product and how to recycle it. inside the machine, a high—resolution camera scans the digital watermarks. this tells a computer what the plastic is, and what it was used for. air jets accurately separate the items. that's important if we want to reuse it.

the digital watermark is embossed... american firm digimarc has developed the watermark technology. today's technology is able to identify the type of plastic, but not necessarily whether it came from a food application or non—food application. with watermarks, you can precisely identify what it was. dozens of firms are taking parts — including big consumer brands like nestle, unilever and pepsico. it's sorting very, very accurately. the question now is, will that yield the kind of recycling results at scale that we would need for this to become a commercially viable solution for the future? however, the amount of plastic we consume is growing. yes, we have to improve waste management and recycling. but overall, i mean, the world is drowning in plastic and plastic waste. we have to look more into, how can we prevent waste in the first place? the tech will be tested out further. that means hundreds of watermarked products will be on supermarket shelves in denmark, france and germany as soon as next year. adrienne murray,

bbc news, copenhagen. there've been emergency talks between the uk business secretary, kwasi kwarteng, and the energy industry to try to resolve the ongoing crisis caused by rising wholesale gas prices. energy companies have warned that bills could go up by 50% next year without government action. theo leggett reports. a midwinter meeting at a time when the energy industry is facing an unprecedented crisis. the cost of gas on european wholesale markets has been hitting record levels and suppliers say consumers here will end up paying a heavy price. energy companies themselves have already been badly hit. more than two dozen have gone out of business since the summer and more casualties are expected. that's because so far they have had to absorb most of the extra costs themselves. it's a situation that won't last.

if we don't find a solution in the coming weeks, we are certainly going to be locking uk consumers into more and more expensive energy for years to come. people within the industry say ministers could consider cutting the environmental and social levies that energy consumers have to pay. a real rethink, listening to industry leaders to see what they recommend, would be an important thing to do before february. and february is when 0fgem meets to decide what its price is going to be for the domestic consumer on the 1st of april.

labour wants vat on bills to be removed. today's meeting is unlikely to be the last. the government says talks will continue over the coming days and weeks to ensure uk consumers are protected. theo leggett, bbc news. the cost of global shipping has risen dramatically this year, as supply chains around the world battle with the impact of the covid pandemic. it's led to frustrating delays for businesses struggling to meet consumer demand, but also to tens of billions of pounds of profits for shipping companies. our global trade correspondent chris morris reports. on a misty morning in leeds, just before christmas, at long last, a container arrives, all the way from china. cheering this family—run business develops and designs fun gifts, and this is the busiest time of year. 90% of their stock is made in china. it helps keep consumer prices down. but nearly all deliveries in 2021 have been late. several containers, full of christmas gifts, won't get here untiljanuary. if we don't get this stock to them today, the order�*s gone. it's been a year of good business, but increasing delays and rising costs. it was delayed three weeks getting out of china. it was delayed another month on the sea.

so you can see there that we've lost, for a seasonal business... you know, this is stock that people can't buy, until the last minute. it really hurts for a small business like ours. this is where the container came from, ningbo, nearshanghai. the trouble is, there aren't enough empty containers in china to meet the demand for sending goods around the world. covid shutdowns and delays have put global supply chains out of kilter. we already know it's a sensitive system. the evergiven, the ship that blocked the suez canal six days in march, caused massive backlogs, but it's covid that's done the real damage. container lines are run like train lines. they have schedules, and they're meant to call at fixed times for fixed durations, and that'sjust not happening, because they can't. and the of sending shipping containers by sea has risen dramatically. it has absolutely gone crazy this year. so if you're looking at short—term freight rates from asia to europe, you're looking at a 366% increase.

longer—term rates, locked in 12 months in advance, have gone up even more. the shipping container industry is on course to make vast record profits this year. ports are working longer hours to keep trade moving. more ships are on order. but it will take time for things to settle down. the huge disruption caused by covid—19 has exposed vulnerabilities in global supply chains. in some ways, they've held up remarkably well, given the scale of the pandemic, but it's been a reminder for all of us of how dependent we've become on getting shipping containers delivered around the world on schedule. one option is to increase local production. they're starting to do a bit of that here in leeds. but don't expect globalisation to retreat any time soon. this is still a hyper connected world, and now 0micron is creating more challenges for the supply chains we take for granted. chris morris, bbc news.

and we say goodbye now to viewers on bbc world. hello, i'm chetan pathak with your latest sports news. we start at stjames park, where newcastle are looking for only their second win of the season. manchester united are the visitors. and it's so far so good for the side, newcastle in front through allan saint—maximin�*s stunning strike. as things stand, newcastle remain in the relegation zone, but they'd be level on points with fourth—from—bottom watford. 1-0 1—0 there with just over an hour played. bournemouth are top of the championship tonight, after they beat qpr to get their first win in seven games. it was qpr's first match for over three weeks because of covid, and they fell behind to dominic solanke's first—half

header, which proved to be the only goal of the game. earlier, west brom lost ground in the championship title race. a terrible mix—up between defender cedric kipre and keeper samjohnstone handed the championship�*s bottom side derby county a vital1—0 win. colin kazim—richards with the winner. next, the premier league's released its latest figures showing a record 103 players and staff tested positive for covid in the seven days up to and including boxing day. some managers have questioned why games are still going ahead at speed. watford have only held one full training session in over two weeks — and their last three games have been called off because of covid in their squad. their manager claudio ranieri's been talking ahead of tomorrow's game against west ham. it's a bad moment now, it's a bad moment because the players can't strain properly, and i hope nobody will suffer some injury, because you know when they don't train and they

arrive, is very difficult to play. but that's it. they are like a formula 1 car, and when you don't make any training session, it's difficult, it's difficult, and i hope, i cross my finger, nobody has some injury. there was one match in rugby union's premiership, and harlequins moved up to third in the table after they beat northampton saints by 111—27 in the big game at twickenham. quins were 21—7 down at the end of the first half but came from behind to comfortably win it in the end. louis lynagh finished off with the pick of their six tries. it was a good day all round for harlequins fans. earlier, their women's side comfortably beat wasps by 29—5. have a look at this. heather cowell scoring the pick of the quins tries with a brilliant run almost the entire length of the pitch. it was the first premier 15s match to take place at the ground.

there were no fans at the welsh grand national for the second year in a row. the welsh government's introduced covid rules which prevent more than 50 spectators attending a sporting event. 0nly five horses finished a gruelling race, which was won by the 13—2 shot i will do it, ridden by sam sheppard and trained by sam thomas. the defending champion gerwyn pryce survived a huge scare to reach the last 16 of the pdc world darts championship at alexandra palace. the world number one was taken all the way to a sudden death leg by belgium's kim huybrechts. the ice man kept his cool, though, as he took out 76 to set up a meeting with the netherlands�* dirk van duijvenbode in the next round. that is all your sport for now. you can find more on those stories and father tonight's third ashes test from 11:30pm. england have to win to keep the series alive but resumed their second innings on 31—11.

england trail australia by 51 runs. that is all from me for now. this is bbc news. the headlines: no new covid restrictions are to be introduced in england before the new year, despite a record number of cases on christmas day. the government says people should remain cautious and ministers are watching the situation carefully. a sharp rise in the the number of coronavirus cases in scotland, the highest yet — as new restrictions in bars and restaurants have come into force. france has become the latest european country to tighten restrictions in the face of rapidly rising cases. employees are being told to work from home at least three days a week where possible. cape town's city hall has been bathed in purple light to honour archbishop desmond tutu, south africa's anti—apartheid leader, who died on sunday. an official state funeral will take place in the city on the 1st of january. millions of households in the uk are expected to face a dramatic rise in energy bills next year.