this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk, on pbs in america or around the globe. i'm lewis vaughan jones. our top stories: the remarkable story of the babies born to surrogates now stranded due to the lockdown. these are the 35 babies born here in ukraine, their parents all round the world. a former top us vaccine official turns whistle—blower 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. 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 organization say nearly 250,000 million people in africa could catch coronavirus ina year. they predict between 150,000 and 190,000 africans could die from the virus. in the us, a new study suggests

an experimental vaccine against covid—19 appears to offer protection to monkeys. the vaccine, developed at oxford university, is undergoing human trials in britain. and there's some good news for fans of english football. the government says it's "opening the door" for professional football to resume injune — that's if they've reached their goal of containing the virus. those are the main developments. first, we begin with ukraine, where 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." cries. 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. a whistle—blower in the us has warned that without a coordinated, science—based response to the coronavirus, the country faces its "darkest winter" in modern history. dr rick bright led the government agency in charge of developing drugs to fight and prevent covid—i9, until he was sacked last month. president trump has described him as an "angry employee". 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 is eager to highlight the government's efforts to combat the virus, his re—election 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 here in the pivotal state of pennsylvania to repeat his victory of 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 is what happened yesterday night when word got out that the state's 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. let's get some of the day's other news. 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. 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 quarantine for two weeks. japan's prime minister has partially lifted the country's state of emergency. the measures were due to expire at the end of the month. they'll be lifted early in 39 of japan's 47 prefectures, but they will remain in place in some of the biggest cities, including tokyo and osaka, where new cases are still emerging. 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 has 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 is a sign of how different things are right now. the worry is that people who might need urgent care are staying away because they're scared of catching the virus. the message from all hospitals — we're open for business, and patients who need treatment should come in. if you are concerned about 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 has 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 is deemed urgent for a reason. i think there are an awful lot of people who have various conditions that are being put at very, you know, 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 that i'd like to get it over and done with, really, 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. 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. —— to significantly underestimate the scale of 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, —— the red cross estimated that before the pandemic, 20 million people — or three quarters of the population — lacked any access to healthcare. sara beysolow nya nti is unicef‘s representative for yemen. i asked her what effect the global pandemic has had on the supply of international aid to a country as dependant as yemen. for the most part in 2019, we were not fully funded for the humanitarian response. donors did provide 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 of five will not benefit from immunisation campaigns. we have children who will not be prevented from dying from preventable diseases. over 2.4 million children will not benefit from cholera prevention if we don't have the money we need. we had, prior to covid, almost 500,000 children who were in need of severe acute malnutrition treatment. those children today still require that treatment, and those children today now have underlying causes that if they don't get that treatment could be confronted with coronavirus. and so you find a population already vulnerable, a population already suffering from low immunity, then you have a health system on the brink of collapse. those three factors mean we have a catastrophe in waiting if we don't act swiftly in yemen. stay with us on bbc news. you can find out much more on

oui’ you can find out much more on our website. do check that out. stay with us. still to come: an afternoon of art. the three peruvian penguins given a day pass to roam the local museum. 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 world news. the latest headlines: at least 35 babies, born to surrogate mothers in ukraine, are stranded because coronavirus restrictions have prevented their parents, from overseas, picking them up. a former top us vaccine official turned whistleblower has told congress that lives have been lost unnecessarily and the outbreak will only get worse, without a plan. the first cases of coronavirus have reached the world's largest refugee camp, in cox's bazar,

bangladesh. the camps are home to more than 800,000 rohingya muslims, who fled persecution in myanmar. officials are now trying to trace anyone who might have come into contact with those who have the virus. 0ur south asia correspondent rajini vaidya nathan reports. for weeks, the world's largest refugee camps been in lockdown. now, the news they been dreading — coronavirus has officially arrived. officials say two cases were identified in the camps — one rohingya refugee and a local bangladeshi. both were taken to a nearby health facility. for the refugees who live in the cramped and congested dwellings where social distancing is tough, there's fear. translation: we are very afraid of coronavirus. the camps are crowded. i'm worried that many people could die from covid—19. health care facilities in the camps are basic,

with no ventilators. charities are expecting the number of cases to skyrocket. it's very difficult to say but, given the cramped hygiene and the slow testing that we have, it could be anywhere in the thousands, hundreds, and it is very likely we will see an explosion in cases in the camps in the coming days. officials are currently trying to trace hundreds of others who may have come into contact with the two confirmed cases. the rohingya, who fled persecution in myanmar, now face a new deadly threat in the form of coronavirus. rajini vaidyanathan, bbc news. 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 wong fuung forecast to approach the country's most populous island, luzon, after making lanfall in the province of eastern samar on thursday. i spoke with our correspondent, howard johnson a short time

ago. well, yesterday meteorologists were concerned about this one. they said it was a grade three hurricane on the us scale. now it's 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've 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 are quite relaxed as it approaches luzon. this place receives around 20 typhoons every year, 20 storms every year, rather. 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? well, 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 better

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. and 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 four hours, and 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 ‘til the end of may. we often talk about those

on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis, meaning medical personnel, but that also includes jobs like pharmacists and grocery store workers. the majority of these essential jobs are held by women. these same women are taking on more responsibilities at home than their male partners. this gender inequity existed before the pandemic, of course, but it's been made worse during the crisis, as katty kay reports. slowly, america opens some dooi’s. shopping malls in texas, hair salons in georgia, even tattoo pa rlours in tennessee. but until someone opens schools and childcare centers, millions of women cannot go back to work. 60% of the job loss was women but now, women are being told that we are going to reopen the economy go back to work, but they've lost childcare, the public schools and i reopening for the most part and so, there's going to take

care of the children. so i do not think we have actually thought about what reopening the economy looks like for women who desperately need to go back to work, they need that economic, they need that income for theirfamilies but we make no provision for how they're was to do that. women do not die as often as men do from covid—19. in the us, they are the foot soldiers in the battle against it. more than two—thirds of grocery store and fast food check out staff are women. one third ofjobs held by women are seen as essential. it almost 70% of america's healthcare workers are women. doctor megan is one of them and emergency physician in rhode island. she is overwhelmed by juggling patients and two children at home. the first difficult part is that as an er doctor, my day—to—day is not standard. some days i work a morning or daytime shift, sometimes a working evening, sometimes are working overnight and, with covid—19, there is even more unpredictability and i will get called

in at the last minute, or called off last minute and so, trying to balance teaching of my kids and making sure theyjust don't spend the holidays day sitting in front of the screen, has been really tough. for some working women, the coronavirus has change things in positive ways. in canada, this freelance writing just fit in around her two young kids. when the pandemic hit, her husbands clinic was closed and she lost income. for my work was pretty invisible before, now it is much more central and i need to have my time without my children being able to interrupt, which is been a shift for them. she enjoys new status but you can already see that her husband's office will open before her children school does, putting herjob back in the supporting role. during world war ii, millions of american women surged into the workforce, taking jobs that men had left behind.

after the war, the men needed those jobs back and the women were fired. washington is littered with statues of dead war heroes, dead men war heroes. you have to hunt really hard to find even one statue of a woman, but in this new battle america is relying on its women, will it remember how essential they were, once this pandemic is over? social isolation gets to all of us, no matter how big or small. to beat the blues, three peruvian penguins have been given a day pass from kansas city zoo to visit the empty galleries of the nelson—atkins museum of art. 0ur reporter, freya cole, takes a look at their grand day out. dressed in their finest, dressed in theirfinest, three peruvian penguins waddle in for a dose of culture. they look at

monet's waterlilies and back again. but it was the works of caravaggio which proved the biggest hit. what was super curious was that there attention span and how they looked at things, they were exploring the space but their gaze was really looking at the paintings. they definitely gravitated more toward old masters and in particular the room where we have the caravaggio, which is one of the greatest masterpieces we have in the collection, stjohn the baptist. it was a welcome change of scenery. the penguins have been missing for social interaction and it gave museum staff something to do. and who knows when they will be van gough off to next! and, just a reminder you'll find many more stories

and information about coronavirus on our website, including this article on why a team of scientists are isolating in one of the most isolated places on earth in antarctica. you can also tell me what you thought of that terrible joke! 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 —6 degrees celsius, the coldest may night there in nearly a0 years. 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, 1a 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: 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 coronavirus outbreak making it impossible for parents to claim their babies. 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. now on bbc news, hardtalk.