hello, this is bbc news. the headlines: more than 60 people are still missing following tuesday's explosion in beirut — as anti—government protests are expected to take place.

the ministry of defence says it's had a formal request to help the home office — as it steps up efforts to reduce the number of migrants crossing the english channel. the use of face masks in england and scotland is expanded with coverings now compulsory at cinemas, museums and place of worship. the black box is recovered from the air india plane which skidded off the runway and split into two parts at an airport in kerala. at least 20 people have been killed, including both pilots. stricter lockdown measures are reinforced in preston following a spike in virus cases in the city. and, people are warned to stay away from some of the uk's busiest beaches amid fears over the lack of social distancing as the heatwave continues. now on bbc news. we follow three expectant mothers from canada,

argentina and the uk as they cope with the challenges and the uncertainty of being pregnant and giving birth during a pandemic. are you sure? this is my 3a week belly. my partner lives overseas. baby is right here. a quarter of the world's population is now living under some form of lockdown due to coronavirus. more than 3 billion people in more than 70 countries and territories have been

asked to stay at home. not seen that before. not that we have anywhere to drive to right now. my partner is supposed to be checking in. for his flight. which obviously isn't happening. hold on, hold on. when you walk out of this building we are going to have our baby with us. you ready? i've got the really short ones because we are having a summer baby. i expect it to be quite hot. my name is melinda

and i am 33 years old. i live in london and my partner lives overseas. i am 38 weeks pregnant with my first baby. he lives in barbados. i go over there quite often so that is how we met. it is a long distance relationship that we are doing 0k. we thought we would have a babyjust to spice a bit. this is an exact side profile of daddy. i was like, yes, this baby looks like his dad 100%. my partner was due to fly out in a couple of weeks for the baby. due to the virus we have had to postpone his flight indefinitely. we speak every day but that helps to keep in contact but it is difficult. the first week of working from home is really difficult. i literallyjust had... that was when they were making

announcements to change the excel centre near me into hospital. i thought it was something out of horror movie, the world is going to end. i am going to have start stop filing food. —— stock piling. it was crazy. by the time we got to lock down, i was begging for it because it was getting really scary. this is the baby's room. it was meant to be completed by now. but the floor isn't done. so it has become a bit of a dumping ground, waiting for this bed to be moved. but we cannot due to coronavirus, cannot get the flooring and due to coronavirus. you have an image of how it is going to look and now it is the stomping ground and baby stuff. had to cancel my baby shower, just lots of things that you are finding your looking forward... sorry! sorry, i didn't mean

to get upset. it is just a really hard time. just kind of took away the enjoyment of having a baby and all the little things that aren't really a big deal by themselves. but i think once you get over that and like you realise, ok, this is out of my control. these are small things in the grand scheme of my health and my baby's halth and some how you kind of adjust. i have got lots of parcels delivered randomly with lots of different gift. so it was still exciting, it was still fine, i still got spoiled, just in a different way. modern day social distancing cards meant that all my messages were printed. this book, my mum got me. baby's first year. this is a page from a newspaper on the day you are born.

not entirely sure i want to put that in there. these things were in the news, coronavirus. this will be a really interesting thing for baby to look back on. because we are in a moment of history, aren't we? there is my mum bringing me some shopping. thank you! the last two weeks is now back into the almost nine months pregnant mode of i'm glad i'm at home, ijust want to sleep. so my mum lives nearby, we have been cooking for each other. all right. see you later. i get people doing all my shopping for me, so i am able to sit at home and rest which is what i should be doing anyway.

what a weird time. basically, this video has is because i have been thinking a lot about how one day i am going to try and explain to my kids what was going on in the world a month before they were born and it is not even going to make sense. i am not going to know how to explain it. i thought i will blog as much as possible so one day i can just turn this video on and show them what things look like, what daddy and i went up to and sadly what the world look like a month before they were born. today we are going to install our car seat. isn't that cute? locked, loaded and ready to go. ready to roll! you feel like a dad yet? yes, this is normally full of people. everywhere you look around and it is quiet.

there is somebody over there. unfortunately, andy works in the restaurant business. every restaurant in vancouver has been forced to close. just like many other places in the world right now, which is so crazy when you think about it. and andy was likely one of the very few that got to work until the very end. but now... it's time. it's time to be unemployed for a little bit. i'm going to practice social distancing now. yeah! we had to empty out the coolors and clean the place out and now we are sitting alone in an empty restaurant. hopefully it will not be much longer

until you are back in here. hopefully not long. put them out. not -- 0.99. not seen that before. not that we have anywhere to drive before. but i have never seen gas that cheap. it's been years since it's been that cheap. years and years. speak spanish. so how is your first day of unemployment?

i'm technically still employed today. this is a vacation day. tomorrow is my first day of unemployment. we laugh because we are trying to make light of things after i literally finished crying because i am so overwhelmed. this is pretty much that is happening just now. we wake up,... we breakfast. we clean—up. we eat lunch. we clean—up. we make dinner. having my husband home has been kind of like a blessing. he has been keeping me calm through all of this. this is my 3a week belly. getting ready to leave for what is going to be a very unique midwife appointment, this is the first appointment

since all of the coronavirus, self isolation has been going on. for the first moment of our appointment, we are going to be sitting in a car going over how i am feeling. hello? hello. have you any advice on women who want to have their family close by? no, i would encourage them not to. they are being quite restrictive. so even if they are close by, it is going to be disappointing. you would be much better off connecting with them on facetime. all right. telephone call is done, now we are going to go into the clinic to check the ba by‘s heartbeat. but the news about the family literally broke my heart. hello. hello mum. so the appointment was good? heartbeat was good, everything was good. between 150 and 155.

she said it was fast because the baby had kicked and was moving around. my belly. looking very big! very big, so this is me at 39 plus one. strange waking up this morning thinking this could be the last morning i wake up pregnant. these could be the last kicks and stuff i feel. so, yeah, quite nerve—racking and exciting as well. i had a couple of chats with a dog a few months ago. your life will change. you will feel like... on his head and he doesn't move at all. hejust sits there.

it is like the bbc and get off me. and he is like, no. dog snores. baby's head is right here. haven't really been out of the area, so it is strange going out now. it is the first time i have in getting on a bus since we have been allowed back outdoors. today we have passed the highest death toll in europe, so we do now have the highest death toll in europe which is concerning. newham has one of the highest death toll‘s in the country. so... very scary.

to be going out of my little bubble of protection. there is the nhs nightingale london. i'm waiting to pass on peoplejust... the one place you would expect social distancing to be happening, literally has stopped. people walk past me at the doorway, this is what i don't like. this is when i start to get anxious. anyway... i'm here. finished at the hospital. told you it ramps up every time, so this time they gave us a face mask to wear. so literally every appointment it has escalated a bit more. but, yeah, everything is ok with baby, heartbeat is fine. another appointment for next week when we look at

possibly booking an induction. this is the first time since the pandemic that i've actually been in a shop with actual baby clothes! i'm so excited! i have been looking at stuff online, but you don't feel the excitement because you're just clicking on a picture. being in a shop and seeing them, it was nice. it was just a nice bit of normality and because i am at the end as well, it was nice to have some of that i'm having a baby excitement back. look! that is just the cutest. yeah, i can only came in for milk. i came in and shivered immediately. to cut my hair and in my pyjamas. if i was a key work and saw the amount of people out today, i would have been really upset. especially being in the borough that supposedly has the most deaths in london. today i could see why.

everyone lives their lives the way they live it, it is not very to tell people how to live. it is just upsetting that if we carry on the way we are, the longer this goes on. the longer it is before flights resume, the longer it is before my baby meets his or her dad. so i am going to show you what i bought. they are. it says, cuddles are my favourite thing. even though i will be the only one cuddling him while social distancing. so that is the bigger size. hopefully, if we are able to travel, this will be the age that baby will be when we go to barbados. for the first time. so, could actually be an aeroplane outfit. fingers crossed! speaking in spanish.

i have been in labour for over 2a hours now. i know this is going to be it. are you ready? not sure what to expect. there is a contraction. hold on, hold on. take a second because the next time you walk out of this building, you are going to have our baby with us. come on, look. take it all in. ready? yeah. it's a girl! oh my god! i'm happy. i want to see her face, can you hold a there you go. where just about to

the hospital. andy has been making runs back and forth to the car. our families are outside waiting to meet us. it is going to be their first time meeting little indie. 0h! are you ok? excited to see them? very. hello! aww! look at her! hi, mum. we're going home now, indie. are you ok? it was just hard not

to let anyone get close. my partner is supposed to be checking in for his flight. which obviously isn't happening. so plan b. cameras out. we arejust going to have to film it. tomorrow is a new day, one step closer to me meeting my new person. one step closer to me being a mum. i'm very proud of her. i am the lucky one. she is lucky and i am lucky. well, it's been a few weeks since we had our girl.

she is doing really well. the heat and humidity yesterday across many central and southern parts of the uk was probably too much for many to bear. it is our top temperatures of 36.4 celsius and a of locations across the south—east and it was warm pretty widely but parts of wales, northern ireland and scotla nd parts of wales, northern ireland and scotland were cooler because of cloud and a few showers. now, for the weekend it looks as if it is going to be mainly dry and sunny thanks to high pressure, again. the heatwave continues across southern

portions of the uk. high pressure is slowly pushing out into the north sea and dragging on a north—easterly breeze so some sea and dragging on a north—easterly breeze so some eastern sea and dragging on a north—easterly breeze so some eastern coastal sea and dragging on a north—easterly breeze so some eastern coastal areas will be refreshingly cool letter this afternoon. variable amounts of cloud and the chance of a shower developing across england in the north midlands but most places will be dry and sunny and it is going to be dry and sunny and it is going to be quite warm, too. light winds for many. that is an easterly breeze and it will be fairly noticeable across eastern coastal counties. the hot today for parts of england and wales. the low to mid 30s in the south—east, high teens and low 20s in scotland and northern ireland so co mforta ble in scotland and northern ireland so comfortable here in the sunshine. as we head through to night a bit of low cloud rolling in from across the north sea. a little bit of drizzle with that but it will blanket in the warmth so it is going to be another warmth so it is going to be another warm and muggy night particularly in the south—east. a bit cooler and fresher both scotland and northern ireland. for sunday we start off on a bit ofa ireland. for sunday we start off on a bit of a grey note. may be a few spots of drizzle around but it looks

as if that cloud willjust melt away as if that cloud willjust melt away as the sun gets going on it and much of the country will be dry and sunny into cloud lingering on across the north—east coast weather we'll be that cool breeze. another warm day for many. again, the heatwave in the south—east. temperatures of 33 degrees or so for the london area. as you move into next week we start to see their sundry low move up from the continent which is going to produce some intense showers and thunderstorms across the uk through next week. there will be hit and mist showers. not everyone will get them and there will be warm sunshine in between but humidity will be quite high as well. a greater threat of thundery showers will be across england and wales and you will notice as we move through the week those temperatures gradually coming down especially across the south.

this is bbc news. the latest headlines: the ministry of defence says it's had a formal request to help the home office as it steps up efforts to reduce the number of migrants crossing the english channel. anger grows in beirut where more than 60 people are still missing and thousands homeless following tuesday's explosion. these are live pictures from the lebanese capital as anti—government protests begin to get underway.