South Africa, Mali, North Korea.

Today's three stories you should know.

South Africa

South Africa today held a state funeral for Archbishop Desmond Tutu after a week of mourning for perhaps the last towering figure of the anti-apartheid struggle. As per Tutu’s instructions, the funeral was deliberately simple with no pomp or ostentatious displays. A man so often described as a “moral compass” was brought into Cape Town’s St George’s Cathedral in a cheap box, donations to charity were accepted instead of floral displays, and he will be buried in an eco-friendly manner.

More from South Africa’s Mail & Guardian here.

Mali

Mali’s already complicated coup took another twist today as the country’s interim leaders proposed to neighboring countries that it delay holding elections for up to five years. The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a powerful regional bloc, had booted Mali out after the coup and demanded the restoration of democracy. ECOWAS has not yet commented on the proposal.

More from Al Jazeera here.

North Korea

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un, who has just marked 10 years in power, today addressed the nation and said it faced a "great life-and-death struggle," with its economy in freefall. He promised progress would be made in addressing food, clothing and housing shortages, and underlined that fighting the pandemic would remain a priority in 2022. Though he did touch on shoring up Pyongyang’s defence capabilities, he made no mention of his opponents in South Korea and the US.

More from the BBC here.