mexican authorities have promised that an investigation into a metro overpass collapse will be open and independent. at least 2a people were killed and almost 80 injured when a train plunged onto the road below. the perilous rescue efforts are still under way. derek chauvin, the white former minneapolis police officer convicted last month of the murder of black man george floyd has requested a new trial. his legal team alleges misconduct by prosecutors and jurors and say the process was impartial because of pre—trial publicity. pressure is mounting on india's government to impose a national lockdown as the country officially records more than 20 million covid infections and as the health system struggles to cope.

one of the leading advisers to the government behind one of the government behind one of the first lockdown says it is unlikely that there will be a need for further lockdown. professor niall ferguson says life should start getting back to normal thanks to the vaccination programme. he says questions remain over holidays particularly travelling abroad this year but was optimistic about life returning with far fewer restrictions. masks and social distancing, strict limits on gatherings and socialising, they've been unprecedented restrictions on everyday lives for much of the pandemic, but there's an increasing sense that things could be much closer to the old normal by the summer. one of the key scientists involved in lockdown policy told me he's much more confident. it will feel a lot more normal in terms of being able to visit friends, family, go out to restaurants. we have yet to see

what will happen in terms of holidays, particularly overseas holidays, but we will have many fewer restrictions. pubs and restaurants will allow customers back indoors soon. this was manchester today. then there's the planned end of all legal restrictions in england from june 21. professor ferguson believes another lockdown is unlikely and that the data suggests things are track. with the one caveat, we need to keep watching those variants carefully to get more data on them, but i'm feeling very optimistic and that optimism three months have unfolded. but the terrible situation we were in injanuary, to now, a remarkably good situation, by comparison. there was more encouraging news from schools. an ons survey for england said in december 1.2% of secondary pupils had the virus and the figure for staff was 1.6%, but in the last two weeks of march, after schools

had opened up earlier in the month, infections were lower, with 0.3% of secondary school pupils with the virus, and the same percentage of staff. we found that infections were higher in schools in november and december, as they were in the general population, and lower in march — exactly the same in schools as it is in the general population. more than 50 million vaccine doses have now been delivered, and at this centre today people were looking forward to better things ahead. back to freedom, finally. mostly because i really want to see my family again. hopefully the more people who have it, we can have greater, freedoms, the end of social distancing, we can go and see people. some experts say that more time is needed to assess the data as restrictions are eased. we have to wait at least 3—4 weeks after the middle of may to see what impact that's having, and also see what is happening in europe, america, asia, with new variants and covid cases before we can sit there and say,

"we've done it, we're through it," because we are not there yet. we are getting there for sure, but we are not there yet. odeon is to open almost all of its cinemas on may 17, the first possible day allowed out of the road map in england — another sign of confidence in the current direction of travel. hugh pym, bbc news. now on bbc news, our world amira is fighting for the right to have a home birth. women in the balkan region are routinely exposed to brutal treatment in hospital during pregnancy and childbirth, 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 i% or 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. daniela 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. on 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. ——fine. 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. 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. it seems like everything is running late this spring, and now the april showers have finally arrived. there's nothing like an angry sky to get the weather watchers out. there'll be more like this during wednesday. sunshine, yes, in between the showers, but catch a shower — heavy, hail and thunder and it's going to feel quite chilly as well with the air coming down from the north. around an area of low pressure which may be some distance away now, but in its way, we have this northerly flow of chilly air, unstable air with the showers developing. cold enough for them to be

wintry on hills as well. temperatures well below average, but make a mental note of this — it will look quite different by the time we get to this weekend, as i'll show you in a moment. we start wednesday with the return of frost possible in any cold rural spots, but particularly into parts of scotland and northern england, as you can see. whilst many of us will start dry and sunny, there will be scattered wintry showers in northern scotland from the word go, into northern ireland, in parts of wales, some showers, too, and across the midlands, eastern and southern england. this zone here is where we're likely to see most of the showers during wednesday. some heavy with hail and thunder. there could be some gusty winds around the showers, although overall, the winds are lighter than they've been. and temperatures, well, they're not going to rise too far. we're just looking really at highs around 8—12 degrees celsius. so, some showers will continue into wednesday evening, perhaps flaring up across parts of northeast england, for example, again wintry on hills. another batch heading south across scotland overnight and into thursday. could well bring some snow to relatively low levels, so that'll be surprising if you see that falling on thursday morning. again, the chance of frost as the day begins. these showers will move

on south into northern ireland and northern england. there is an area of cloud and rain flirting with southern parts of england. still something to play for in how much rain will fall here, so we'll keep you updated. in between the two zones of wet or potential wet weather, there'll be some sunshine. another chilly start on friday morning, another day of sunshine and showers. the heaviest ones look to be focused across eastern parts, temperatures a little bit higher. and then, here comes some more rain. that's from another area of low pressure heading our wayjust in time for next weekend. that means the winds picking up and more rain moving in and as that clears, there'll be showers following. but the air is coming in from the south, so although it'll be windy, although it'll be wet at times, at least the temperatures will be heading up.

welcome to bbc news. our top stories: mexico city's mayor promises a full investigation into the rail bridge collapse, which has killed at least 2a people. translation: there will be an investigation - by the attorney—general�*s office as well as independent experts so that we can find out the whole truth and know what happened. derek chauvin, the police officer convicted of murdering george floyd, requests a re—trial alleging misconduct by both prosecutors and jurors. pressure grows for a national lockdown in india as official coronavirus cases pass 20 million. president biden sets ambitious vaccination targets so americans can celebrate independence day.

our goal byjuly 11th is to have 70% of adult americans