welcome to bbc news, i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: a former top us vaccine official turns whistleblower to tell congress lives have been lost unnecessarily, and the outbreak will only get worse without a plan. if we fail to improve our response now, based on science, i fear the pandemic will get worse and be prolonged. are seriously ill people avoiding hospitals in england? visits to a&e have more than halved since the outbreak started. the conflict in yemen continues, as the number of people dying from coronavirus—like symptoms rises dramatically. the shocking story of babies born to surrogates now stranded due to the lockdown. these are the 35 babies born here in ukraine, their parents all

around the world. and, the philippines prepares to ease coronavirus restrictions, as a typhoon forces thousands to evacuate. hello and welcome to the programme. we start with the latest developments on the coronavirus outbreak in the uk, and globally. the number of people confirmed to have died from covid—19 now stands atjust over 300,000, with 1.5 million people recovered. scientists at the world health 0rganisation say nearly a quarter of a billion people in africa could catch coronavirus in a year. they predict between 150 and 190,000 africans could die from the virus.

in england, 1 in 400 people is infected with coronavirus — that's according to a survey of 11,000 people in households. this means about 148,000 people in england could be currently infected. and, there's some good news for fans of english football. the government says it's opening the door for professional football to resume in june. that's if they've reached their goal of containing the virus. those are the main developments. we begin with the damning warning from a whistle—blower and leading virus expert — that the united states faces its darkest winter in modern history. that's if the country fails to improve its response to the coronavirus pandemic. nada tawfik reports. scenes of protest continue across america as governors try to strike a balance between protecting public health and reopening the economy. this one in michigan by a militia group demanding an end to the lockdown highlights the partisan gulf on the pandemic.

the bitter divide was at the forefront of lawmakers‘ minds in washington as rick bright, the administration's former top vaccine researcher turned whistle—blower, arrived at a house hearing to testify. mask on and gloves off, the ousted official calmly disinfected his space but refused to sanitise the criticism of his superiors. he said the administration didn't take critical steps at the start of the crisis, ignored warnings and even now, lacked a centralised and co—ordinated plan to respond. without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history. first and foremost, we need to be truthful with the american people. americans deserve the truth. the truth must be based on science. we have the world's greatest scientists, let us lead, let us speak without fear of retribution. president trump, though, has bragged about his performance. on his way to visit a facility in pennsylvania that makes

personal protective equipment, he hit back against dr bright. i watched him and he looks like an angry, disgruntled employee who frankly, according to some people, didn't do a very good job. on his tour of the facility which distributes n95 masks, president trump chose not to wear one himself. while he's eager to highlight the government's efforts to combat the virus, his reelection strategy includes a quick reopening. announcer: the president of the united states, donald j trump. he may not be able to hold packed rallies, but he needs to drive voter turnout in the pivotal state of pennsylvania to repeat his victory in 2016. thank you, all that social distancing, look at you people all spread out six feet, that's pretty impressive. but we like it the old way a little bit better, don't we? in wisconsin, also a swing state, no social distancing in place at this bar. it's what happened yesterday night when word got out that the state supreme court overturned the stay—at—home order.

when the coronavirus first hit, the message was for communities to come together by staying apart. but months on, the country is more divided than ever in its battle against the virus. nada tawfik, bbc news, newjersey. we'll have more on this later in the programme. in another development, us senator richard burr is stepping down as chairman of the chamber‘s intelligence committee. that's after the fbi seized his phone as part of an inquiry into his sale of stocks in february. that was just before the market crashed amid coronavirus worries. at the time, the senator was receiving classified briefings about the severity of the impending crisis. here in the uk, there are concerns tens of thousands of seriously ill people in england aren't seeking help

because of fears they might catch the coronavirus in hospital — or be a burden on the national health service. the starkest illustration of this is the drop in visits to accident and emergency departments — which are down by more than half since the outbreak began. here's our health editor hugh pym. plenty of staff and not many patients. it's got a little busier here in a&e in recent days, but not much. like many other hospitals, they saw an astonishing drop in the number of patients coming through the doors last month. april here was busy from a covid—19 perspective, dealing with sick patients. it was all very calm, controlled and safe, but we were busy from that perspective, but we saw a real drop—off in demand of other types of patients that we usually see. normally, assessment cubicles in a&e would be pretty busy, but right now all these ones along here are empty.

they're for non—covid patients. it's a sign of how different things are right now. the worry is that people who might need urgent care are staying away because they are scared of catching the virus. the message from all hospitals — we are open for business and patients who need treatment should come in. if you are concerned about having a stroke, a heart attack, perhaps cancer, do come forward, and at the same time, the nhs will be redesigning the way in which services are offered to keep them safe. the latest figures for england show that a&e visits fell by nearly 57% in the year to april. the monthly total was below 917,000, the lowest since records began in 2010. there are no comparable figures yet from other parts of the uk. the number coming in for routine operations fell by nearly a third in the year to march. it was about the same in scotland. all non—emergency surgery was postponed because the nhs needed to clear beds for coronavirus patients, but that's left others, like helen, frustrated. she was told she needed a hysterectomy urgently in february. it didn't happen and she

hasn't heard any more. if something is deemed urgent, it's deemed urgent for a reason. i think there are an awful lot of people who have various conditions that are being put at great risk of further damage due to these precautions being taken. jane has been waiting since february for a gall bladder operation, and, again, hasn't been told when it could happen. i understand that in this current situation that, you know, i'm not a priority. i understand that fully. it does concern me. i'd like to get it over and done with, really, and you know, so that i feel it won't build up again and there won't be any further problems. nhs england have now told hospitals to restart non—urgent operations and procedures, but patients will be instructed to self—isolate for 1h days beforehand along with members of their household.

a reminder of the continuing concern about the possible spread of the virus. hugh pym, bbc news. let's get some of the other developments. another three million people in the us applied for unemployment benefits last week. that means more than 36—million americans have lost theirjobs in the last two months — nearly a quarter of the whole us workforce. the three baltic states — estonia, latvia and lithuania, are reopening their borders to one another, after they were closed due to the pandemic. travellers entering from outside the baltic states must still go into quarantaine for two weeks. japan has partially lifted its state of emergency. the measures were due to expire at the end of the month, now they'll be lifted early in 39 of japan's 47 prefectures. but they'll remain in place in some of the biggest cities, including tokyo and osaka, where new cases are still emerging.

aid workers in yemen say there's a dramatic rise in the number of people dying with coronavirus—like symptoms in the southern city of aden. save the children warns the official figures are likely to significantly underestimate the scale fo the outbreak in the war—torn middle eastern state. official data cited by the who puts the number of confirmed covid—19 deaths at 13. however save the children, using local data from aden civic officials, reports there've been over 380 deaths from coronavirus like symptoms, in the last week alone. the country is in an extremely vulnerable position — the red cross estimated that before to the pandemic 20 million people — or three quarters of the population lacked any access to healthcare.

sara bay solo nee antee is unicef‘s representative for yemen — shejoins me now from atlanta. we have a big problem with data, without knowing the real situation on the ground. —— sara beysolow nya nti. situation on the ground. —— sara beysolow nyanti. we have a problem knowing what is happening in the communities and that is because we have a pre—existing problem in yemen. after several years pre—existing problem in yemen. after several yea rs of pre—existing problem in yemen. after several years of heavy conflict, yemen has been facing a collapse of the basic social services. we have been confronted with dengee, with cholera and for the most part, the humanitarian operation has been trying to preserve the health system from collapse and they are trying to ensure that response to food and security in the economic crisis was up you can imagine, with over 30 frontlines, about 19 of them being very active, and having

high population movement, you can imagine that the technical expertise that existed prior to the conflict is not as strong as it used to be. they are not all available as they used to be so that humanitarian operation is challenged, very seriously, in relation to how we can manage surveillance and management of data gathering. and i am sure the humanitarian effort there must be hampered as well because it is so dependent on aid. what has happened to that aid supply? for the most part in 2019, we we re for the most part in 2019, we were not fully funded for the humanitarian response. donors did provide a significant support but the support was not enough and we enter 2020 underfunded and then we are confronted with covid and what that means is 5 million children under the age, under the age of five, will not benefit from immunisation campaigns. we have children who will not be prevented from

dying from preventable diseases. 0ver dying from preventable diseases. over 2.4 million children will not benefit from colour the —— cholera prevention if we do not have the money we need. we had, prior to covid, almost half a million children who were in need of severe acute malian —— malnutrition treatment of children now have underlying causes, that if they don't get that treatment, could be confronted with coronavirus put up confronted with coronavirus put up you find an already vulnerable population, already suffering from low immunity, then you have a health system on the brink of collapse was up those three factors mean we have a catastrophe in waiting if we don't act swiftly in yemen. those three fact is, they can't be helped by the fa ct they can't be helped by the fact that there is no peace. fundamentally without a proper peace agreement and deal is difficult to see how any of these things improve. today we had some, i would say, light

from the briefing at the security council where there was a said there was some hope in terms of the truths, the ceasefire. there are positive signals and we are calling on all parties of the conflict, reminding them that we can't have development in yemen, can't talk about being able to respond to coronavirus. we can't talk about being able to preserve the systems or even start to strengthen them if we don't have peace. and the children of yemen deserve peace. the children of yemen are crying for peace, the children of yemen want peace. thank you so much for your time, sara beysolow nyanti. stay with us on bbc news, still to come: the babies left stranded in kiev after ukraine closed its borders. the pope was shot, the pope will live — that's the essence of the appalling news from rome

this afternoon, that, as an italian television commentator put it, terrorism had come to the vatican. the man they called the ‘butcher of lyon,‘ klaus barbie, went on trial today in the french town where he was the gestapo chief in the second world war. winnie mandela never looked like a woman just sentenced to six years injail. the judge told mrs mandela there was no indication she felt even the slightest remorse. the chinese government has called for an all—out effort to help the victims of a powerful earthquake, the worst to hit the country for 30 years. the computer deep blue has tonight triumphed over the world chess champion, garry kasparov. it's the first time a machine has defeated a reigning world champion in a classical chess match. america's first legal same—sex marriages have been taking place in massachusetts. god bless america! cheering

this is bbc news. i'm lewis vaughan jones. the latest headlines: a former top us vaccine official turned whistle—blower has told congress that lives have been lost unnecessarily, and the outbreak will only get worse without a plan. let's get more on our top story. drjohn swartzberg is professor of infectious diseases at the university of california in berkeley. thank california in berkeley. you very much for being with thank you very much for being with us. so the whistleblower, as now terms, made lots of charges today, one that there was basically in action and a lack of leadership within the white house and that that cost lives. do you think that is a credible charge to make was yellow it was an absolutely credible charge to make. there was no question of the inaction in the white house and the misinformation from the white house and the prevarications from the white house directly

led to the lack of —— loss of lives due to the lack of preparation. do you think that this very, very public, we are reporting on it all the way around the world, claim will actually make any kind of difference? i hope so. i hope the american people listen carefully to what he had to say. he was very thoughtful, clearly very intelligent, very well—informed. in the message was very straightforward. we haven't done what we needed to do. we have no good plans to do what we need to do in the future. we absolutely need better direction. that was his message. and i'd just pray that the american people heard that. we are seeing doctor brate now, he is not exactly a household name, can you give us a he is not exactly a household name, can you give us a bit of background into why he is no longer in a job.

background into why he is no longer in ajob. i can't background into why he is no longer in a job. i can't tell you why he is no longer anyjob because i are not privy to a lot of information. his claim is because he did not adequately support the president's desire to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine, a drug that frankly no rigorous scientists had much faith and to start with, but that dr bright didn't promote that adequately and because of that he was promoted to a —— demoted toa he was promoted to a —— demoted to a very differentjob. he was promoted to a —— demoted to a very different job. mizzly thatis to a very different job. mizzly that is his side of the story, as you very fairly pointed out. that is him, his evidence, why he is speaking out in the way he is speaking out in the way he is. he is calling for a signs lead administration. is your charge that the signs isn't being considered well enough by the government? absolutely. and i'm not

speaking alone. this is the consensus of every colleague i have. at this problem is a scientific problem that needs solutions that only scientists can give us... there is always a political element and an economic element, states and countries need to open up, there are always other factors in play. i'm not at all suggesting scientists should be making the decision. what am suggesting strongly is that scientists inform the politicians and the politicians listen carefully to the scientists in making decisions. well, we have certainly been listening to you carefully and we really appreciate your time, drjohn swartzberg, thank you. thank you. in ukraine, at least 35 newborn babies have been left stranded after coronavirus restrictions prevented them being claimed by their parents. the babies, who were born to surrogates, are being looked after by a team of nannies and nurses in a hotel room in kyiv. ukraine closed its borders in response to the coronavirus pandemic, making it nearly impossible for their biological parents to come from around the world to claim them.

jonah fisher sent this report. in a hotel on the outskirts of ukraine's capital, we found the lost children. so, if you just go and have a look in here. these are the 35 babies born here in ukraine, their parents all around the world. they're being looked after, you can see the nurses looking after them. but desperately sad. they're on their own, because ukraine closed its borders in response to the coronavirus. it stopped the babies, born to surrogates, being claimed by their biological parents. we've got chinese babies, italian babies, spanish babies, british babies.

surrogacy is a big and legal business here in ukraine. it cost about £40,000 for each of these babies to be carried by a ukrainian woman. but the surrogates have now gone and the babies must stay in this hotel room, cared for by nannies like 0lga. "we feel so sorry for them," she says, "we know that no one can replace their parents." some have overcome the virus restrictions to reach their babies. this is the emotional moment when a couple from sweden were handed their twins ella and louis by the surrogate mother. they only made to it ukraine after an anonymous donor stepped in and paid for a private jet. to sit here and have them in ourarms andjust like, we made it...

yeah. i don't know, it's incredible. it's incredible. their next challenge is to get home. the hotel newborns are less fortunate. they must keep waiting for life and love to really begin. jonah fisher, bbc news, in kiev. parts of the philippines were due to start easing lockdown restrictions this week but the country now faces a new challenge. tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, with typhoon vongfong forecast to approach the country's most populous island, luzon, after making landfall in the province of eastern samar on thursday. i spoke with our correspondent, howard johnson a short time ago. yesterday, meteorologists were concerned about this one, they said it was a grade three hurricane on the us scale and now it has dropped to a grade one in the last 12 hours, so it's weakened, but it still has strong winds and is dumping rain

across the country. we have seen images on social media of roofs ripped off houses, we've seen trees scattered along streets, and there is concern that there could be flooding and landslides as a result of this. but as you can see behind me, people here quite relaxed as it approaches luzon. this place receives around 20 storms every year and at the moment this is the first one, and what is interesting about this one is it's the first to hit the country during the covid—19 pandemic. i want to pick you up on exactly that. how do these two things play into each other? of course it's very difficult to social distance when you're in an evacuation centre so what the authorities are saying is that before you go into one, you have got to have your temperature checked, they're handing out face masks, and what they're also doing is appealing to schools and churches to open up their spaces so that there isn't as many people crowded into these evacuation centres as there normally are. so they're trying to disperse the crowd to different areas and also what we've seen

here in the bay of manila is cruise ships coming to repatriate filipino crew now there are no cruise ships operating at the moment because of the pandemic. we've seen that many of the cruise ships, around 20 earlier on this week, have now gone out to sea because they're concerned when the storm hits manila in the next 4 hours, you can see the rain beginning here, it could cause those ships to crash into one other if they're tightly packed in the bay, so many of them have moved out to sea. obviously this is a big concern for the authorities given these coronavirus concerns as well. the lockdown here in manila has been extended to the end of may, and people will be enforcing strict social distancing measures today. howard johnson there. now, even horse racing is adapting to the era of coronavirus. before dawn, racehorses were warming up at churchill downs in kentucky. racing at this famed venue will resume on saturday, but without the crowds. no spectators are allowed, because of social distancing rules. the kentucky derby itself has been postponed until september

due to the pandemic. in the meantime, these majestic horses are getting ready to race, minus the cheering. and finally, many museums around the world remain closed for humans, but not necessarily for furry creatures. three peruvian penguins from kansas city zoo have been given a day pass to roam through the nelson—atkins museum of art. zoo keepers say the birds miss social interaction so it was a chance to boost spirits. they were free to roam — and museum staff believe they responded much better to the caravaggios than the monets. that is it from me this hour. i will be back with the headlines ina will be back with the headlines in a couple of minutes.

you can reach me on twitter. i'm @lvaughanjones. i'm lewis vaughan jones. i'm lewis vaughanjones. and this is bbc news. bye—bye. hello. well, it's fairly chilly out there at the moment, but nowhere near as cold as the last couple of nights. last night in northern ireland, it was down to minus six degrees celsius, the coldest may night there in nearly 40 yea rs. this morning, most major towns and cities will be generally above zero, but it is cold air that's sitting on top of us at the moment. you can see the pale blue colours there. the really cold air‘s to the north of us, but we're certainly in that chilly air mass. we'll have to wait before the warmer air from the southern climes arrives, and that's not going to happen for a few more days. so, the forecast for friday morning, well, early hours of the morning shows some clear weather, but also patchy cloud. temperatures in norwich close to freezing. that does mean a ground frost outside of town, but more generally speaking, we're talking around 4—6 degrees. so, a bright start to the day.

i wouldn't go as far as saying it's going to be a sunny day on friday, but it is going to be a bright one. there'll be some scattered clouds, and actually in the north of the country at times, it will cloud over and there will be a little bit of fleeting rain. now, temperatures are just starting to rise a little bit now. in fact, we're expecting around 17 degrees in the south of the country and around 13 degrees for our northern towns and cities. and friday and towards the weekend, we'll start to see high pressure building in from the south. this is actually going to help to introduce some slightly warmer air from the southern climes, so day—by—day those temperatures will be creeping up just that little bit. saturday's actually going to be very similar to friday, so sunny spells across the uk and some spots of rain in the very far north of scotland, in the northern isles and the northern highlands. so, temperatures around 17 degrees again in london, but perhaps rising a little bit across the north of england there, 16 for yorkshire, 14 for glasgow and edinburgh. and then saturday night into sunday, we are going to see a change in western scotland and northern ireland. in fact, southwesterly winds will blow in cloud, moisture and a fair bit of rain, so it could be quite wet here second half of the weekend. around 15 degrees expected in the lowlands and in belfast,

but to the south of that in london, those milder southwesterlies, temperatures will get up to around 20 degrees. and indeed, you can see those temperatures climbing as we head into next week. in fact, next week, the indication is that temperatures could hit the mid—20s, so again it's going to feel more likejune. that's it from me. bye— bye.

this is bbc news, the headlines: a whistle—blower and virus expert has warned the united states faces its darkest winter in modern history, if the country fails to improve its response to the coronavirus pandemic. dr rick bright told a congressional committee that a resurgence of the virus — could cause unprecedented illness and deaths. in england, accident and emergency visits have fallen by more than half since the pandemic started. there are concerns that tens of thousands of seriously ill people are not seeking help because of fears that they might catch the coronavirus in hospital, or be a burden on the health service. 35 babies born to surrogate mothers in ukraine have been left stranded because their parents are unable to collect them due to coronavirus restrictions. ukraine closed its borders after the corona outbreak, making it impossible for parents to claim their babies.