on sunday after friday's deadly crush at] jewish pilgrimage. 45 men and boys died after being trapped in a narrow walkway during the festival at mount meron, attended by up to 100,000 mostly ultra—orthodoxjews. india's expanded vaccination drive — offering all adults over the age of 18 a jab — has stalled, with some states forced to close centres after running out of vaccines. the country is in the grips of record levels of covid—19 infections, reporting more than 400,000 cases in the last 2a hours. the head of the us—led military mission in afghanistan has warned against attacks on foreign troops as they start to withdraw, saying they had the means to "respond forcefully". the comments come after the taliban said they were no longer bound by an earlier commitment not to attack international forces. a campaign has been launched to raise money to build a memorial in st paul's cathedral to those who've died

as a result of coronavirus. costing £2.3 million, it would be the first new structure of its kind inside st paul's for 150 years. charlotte wright reports. for centuries, st paul's cathedral has been a place to reflect on significant international events, —— to reflect on significant national events, which is why campaigners say it's a fitting site for this — a covid memorial, designed by an architect who himself lost his mother during the pandemic. there are now over 100,000 other families who will have gone through that same sense of dislocating anguish. and for us, i think a memorial could not be more important. the plan is to build the memorial here at the north door, the site of a porch that was bombed during world war ii, and visitors will walk through to an area of reflection where there will be a digital book of condolence and they can call up entries, including

photos and epitaphs. more than 7,300 names have already been uploaded to the online book. it's a different way of doing memorials but it's having a physical and an online memorial together, which is a really — it's a new thing for us, but we think it means that thousands and thousands of people can be remembered. 0rganisers are hoping to raise £2.3 million to pay for the structure and install it next year. they say this would be a monument for all, regardless of faith or background. charlotte wright, bbc news. now on bbc news, it's time for this week's edition of our world. amira is fighting for the right to have a home birth.

women in the balkan region are routinely exposed to brutal and they are demanding change. the united nations has uncovered the scale of the abuse. violence against women in childbirth is so normalised that it is not yet considered violence against women. to protect herself, amira has hired a foreign midwife, who's taking a risk to help her deliver the baby at home. if the police came and said "who are you? what are you doing?", hopefully reasonableness will prevail. can amira reclaim one of her life's most important moments?

sarajevo, bosnia and herzegovina. amira cerimagic is a doctor and an activist for productive rights. she's preparing for the arrival of her fourth child. she wants to have a home birth, but in bosnia and herzegovina, that's not an option. the health system here only allows births in hospitals. bosnia and herzegovina is one of europe's poorest countries. its health care system was destroyed by the bosnian war in the �*90s. 30% of medical staff were lost.

and today, the system remains underfunded and understaffed. but although hospital births are safe in this country, hundreds of women say they've experienced mistreatment and violence in state maternity wards. amira is one of them.

a home birth can be as safe as a hospital birth for women like amira who have straightforward pregnancies and who are having their second or subsequent child. through activism and working as a doctor, amira knows the health system well. but although she feels empowered by the idea of a home birth, her husband elmir still has some doubts.

in a home birth that takes place within a health system, a midwife is present throughout the labour. but while in many other european countries midwives are trained to work independently, here they can't make clinical decisions without the approval of a doctor.

in countries where home births are allowed, only around 1—2% of women choose them. but in some places, the pandemic has made them more popular. in neighbouring croatia, home births are up by almost a third.

but for amira, having her baby at home is her best chance of avoiding another traumatic birth. the family's getting the living room ready. earlier in her pregnancy, amira wrote to a hospital to register her wishes to have a home birth and to ask for a midwife to assist her.

with no support from the state, amira is worried she won't be able to find a midwife. but she knows there are women who've arranged home births outside the health system. dzenita is one of them.

amira may be planning this birth in secret, but she's not alone. she's one of thousands of women in many countries across the balkan region who have come together demanding an end to abusive pregnancy care. it started in 2018 when, in neighbouring croatia, mp ivana nincevic—lesandric made a speech in parliament. after that, i came home and i told my husband

what happened to me and i googled it because ijust, at that moment, i wanted to see is there any chance that this happened to someone else? and then i saw that it's something that is normal — it's happening to everyone in 2018. ivana nincevic— lesandric stood up and used the word "uterus", "pain" and "painful procedure" in croatian parliament. daniella drandic from the croatian campaigning organisation parents in action had begun to collect testimonies from women experiencing violence in hospitals. when we think of maternity services, we think of happy mothers and beautiful little babies. but what we weren't thinking about was many of the human rights violations that were happening behind those closed doors. unfortunately, this is something that is quite normal in croatia and throughout the region, and it's something that ivana put on the table. she shone a very striking light on it.

i mean, what would i and all of these women should say about our "awkward" situation? we have a person here coming to you and telling you what she experienced and telling it to you because i want things to change. 0n the back of ivana's speech, women started using the hashtag #breakthesilence to expose abusive treatment during gynaecological

procedures. 45 minutes of stitching with no anaesthesia. i don't want to have more children ever again. the nurses in the labour room called me a "cow", an "awful mother", an "idiot". they performed a surgical- miscarriage with no anaesthesia and without informing me. they forced me to have another caesarean section. they told me i would kill my baby if i did not agree to an induction. the doctor asked me why i had screwed. i felt and feel abused. we really started asking each other, you know, i is this type of behaviour- or this type of care acceptable on other wards in a hospital? and the resounding conclusion from that was that it wasn't i acceptable.

the health minister of croatia changed in 2020, and although there haven't been any law changes criminalising this type of violence, the social media movement has broken down taboos. violence against women in childbirth is so normalised that it is not yet considered violence against women. in 2019, the united nations special rapporteur for violence against women dubravka simonovic investigated the extent of this type of violence, and spoke about herfindings in the general assembly. new social movements like break the silence have shed light on the patterns of mistreatment and violence that women suffer, demonstrating that mistreatment and violence during childbirth is widespread and ingrained in health systems

all over the world. to protect herself from being mistreated in hospital, amira's found a british midwife to help with the birth.

as well as paying paul's fees, she's rented an apartment for him for three weeks. hello, welcome. hi, amira. please enter. finally, thank you. but this is about so much more than money. we meet in person, yes. for amira, it's about regaining control of the process of birth. how are you feeling today? how's baby and how are you? i'm feeling, every night, when i go to bed, i think "this is it" and i was glad paul is in bosnia. i'm here foryou. i'm your midwife. that means i'm on yourjourney. it is yourjourney, and ijust

come with you on that journey. later that day, paul follows amira home to meet herfamily. i'm quite relaxed about following the woman's choice, wherever she is. because home births are unregulated by law, paul is also taking a risk. people might challenge our authority, why we're here, why we're providing for home birth. if the police came and said, "who are you? what are you doing?", and take your laptop, your phone, even take you to an interview at the police station, hopefully reasonableness will prevail. although home births can be both rewarding and safe, emergencies can happen. despite all the preparations, amira has a one in ten chance of having to go to hospital during labour, but with no guarantee of an ambulance,

it would be paul and elmir�*s job to get her there. yeah, we can turn the water on, like, for the shower and do the shower and put the hose and bring it to here. 0k, 0k, iunderstand, iunderstand. paul is doing a practice run of the birth with elmir. so, inside is only amira? the husband can get in if... no, no, idon't want to do this. sometimes, sometimes the woman just needs to lean back and she needs the man behind her — sometimes. 0k. paul has worked on five different continents, enabling hundreds of women to have home births. paul has worked on five different continents, enabling hundreds of women to have home births.

i have one question, in all this process, who is the boss in this process? you or somebody else? the woman is always the boss, she's the decision—maker, but i will give very strong, very clear advice if anything is a worry. yeah, but i know her and she always push to the limits, and i want to know, if you recognise some bad signs? yeah, for sure. if i saw any concern with mother or baby, i'm very clear — very, very clear — about it. so, you will decide in moment when will we go into hospital? yes, if you needed to transfer, i would say "you need to transfer now". however, it's still amira's choice, because the woman makes the decision. ok, but i ask if you recognise the bad sign? i would recognise the bad signs, yes. and i'm always giving you the information. i'm very honest and i might seem very gentle, but i'm

actually very strong when it's very important. so, 0k there? i understand. crying. crying and laughing.

amira was able to give birth in the way she wanted, and now she's campaigning

for change in the health system. she's hired lawyers and is taking the government to court to make it easier for others to choose home birth. for amira, this is only the beginning. we approached the institutions amira requested a midwife from. they sent us the

following statements. we also approached the ministry of health of bosnia and herzegovina, but they didn't reply. hello again. well, there probably aren't too many of you that escaped

with a completely dry day today, it's been a day of sunshine and showers but those showers have been really widespread. so, yes, although skies look like these at times, other times we had the heavens open. and this one, quite an impressive shower bringing a covering of hail to the roads and pavements of leek in staffordshire. you can see just how extensive today's showers have been. nationwide, really. and although they are beginning to fade away now, there are still a few left over. now, the reason we've had so many showers during the day is because over the last few days we've had a lump of cold air move across the uk, and that gets heated strongly by the may sun, which causes the air to rise, causes those showers to break out. and we've got the same kind of mechanism with us for the forecast into sunday. now, right now, most of the showers have cleared out of the way, just one or two left over for scotland to take us into the first part of the night. it's another cold night, though, with clearing skies, light winds and a widespread frost. temperatures getting down to about —2 or —3 in the very coldest areas.

so, a cold start to the da, sunday morning but then a lovely start with clear, blue skies for many of you. through the day, though, showers will start to break out, initially across the north—west of the country and then they'll become really extensive for most areas as we head into the afternoon. probably some of the heaviest showers across central and eastern england, eastern areas of scotland. and those temperatures, well, a bit disappointing, really, for this time of year, highs of 11—14 degrees for most of you. and, talking about disappointing weather, here comes your bank holiday. yeah, it's an area of low pressure coming in off the atlantic, bringing wet weather, bringing windy weather, bringing fairly chilly weather as well. now, may will start off bright across eastern areas of the uk, but outbreaks of rain will quickly spread in from the west, it might well be cold and have a little bit of snow mixed in of the highest ground in scotland and northern england, and it's going to be pretty windy. pretty windy and pretty chilly, really, for the time of year. temperatures doing well, to get into double figures across england and wales. further north, scotland and northern ireland, about 7—9. maybe the far north of scotland

the place to be for the best of the weather. after that, it's these pretty showery for most areas and we could see further low pressures coming in from the south—west. that's your latest weather.

this is bbc news. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: a national day of mourning is being held in israel to remember the victims of friday's crush during ajewish pilgrimage. a lockdown in the indian capital, delhi, has been extended for another week in the face of rising covid infection levels. as foreign troops begin their delayed withdrawal from afghanistan, a warning to the taliban against renewed attacks. the american actress and 0scar—winner 0lympia dukakis has died at the age of 89. and an icon of manhattan, the empire state building, turns 90.