polls are closing in mexico in the biggest and deadliest election in the country's history. more than 21,000 seats are being contested for mayors, state legislators, and the entire lower house of congress, where the party of president 0brador is hoping to retain its two—thirds majority. israeli forces have fired stun grenades as they released two palestinians who campaigned against the threatened eviction of families in the sheikh jarrah neighbourhood of occupied east jerusalem. twins muna and mohammed al—kurd were detained on sunday morning. they have used social media to bring the issue to public attention. meghan markle and prince harry have announced they've had their second child — a baby girl who they've named after queen elizabeth and princess diana, harry's mother. lilibet diana mountbatten—windsor was born on friday morning in santa barbara, california, where the duke and duchess of sussex now live.

england's health secretary has admitted that the government is open to the idea of delaying the full lifting of coronavirus restrictions in england later this month, because of concerns over the spread of the delta variant first identified in india. here's our medical editor, fergus walsh. everyjab in every arm is another brick in a wall of immunity against coronavirus. but will that barrier be robust enough to hold back the delta variant, which is significantly more transmissible than previous strains and has led to a sharp increase in cases? ministers have just eight days before they must decide whether to lift all remaining restrictions in england. the good news is that hospitalisations, the number of people arriving at hospital, is broadly flat, and the majority appear to be those who've not had a vaccine at all, and only a very small minority are people who've had both jabs.

around three quarters of all cases caused by the delta variant are in unvaccinated people. just one in 25 are in those who've had both doses. and although the variant, first identified in india, seems more likely to cause severe illness, those in hospital are generally younger and recovering more quickly than patients admitted overwinter. scientists advising government are uncertain about what the coming weeks may bring in terms of the impact on the nhs. if hospitalisation rates remain flat, then i think there will be a substantial further easing of restrictions, possibly retaining the need to wear face coverings on public transport, maybe still encourage people to work from home if possible. and there were mixed views in london today about whether all remaining restrictions should be lifted on the 21st ofjune. it's more because i'm

vaccinated right now that i would say yes, but depending on the people, if you're not vaccinated, i can understand if you're maybe not that comfortable. i would feel 0k sat next to someone on the train as long as they were wearing a mask, but i think the two going, social distancing and masks going at the same time, would probably be a bit much. it wouldn't bother me if we waited - a couple of weeks intojuly. because of the indian variant. i think that element _ of caution might be worthwhile in the long run for us. bolton, which was the area worst hit by the new variant, is now seeing a decline in cases and more importantly a fall in the number of covid hospital patients, which thankfully remained far lower than in previous peaks. in england, booking will open this week for the under—305 to get their first dose of vaccine. public support for covid immunisation remains very high in the uk. and with 27 million people now fully immunised, many of those will be wondering when legal restrictions

on their freedoms to meet and travel will finally be lifted. fergus walsh, bbc news. now on bbc news — the bbc uncovers allegations of filth, lice, sickness and neglect, in a vast system of mostly closed off camps scattered across the us holding more than 20,000 migrant children. a warning — this programme contains discussion of subjects some viewers may find distressing. over 19,000 migrant children locked up in america. children speaking for the first time tell of disease, neglect, hunger and filth.

now children are being shipped en masse to 13 new sites around america... it feels a lot more like a detention facility, a prison for kids. ..sites that are shrouded in secrecy. they go to bed hungry. the boys have been in there for 45 days straight without any sunlight. this level of deprivation, which really amounts to child abuse, is very widespread in the largest facilities. what is the impact on thousands of children? and will their experiences come to haunt them?

the rio grande, and a night of fear. at midnight, migrants will cross the river from mexico to america. many are children, travelling alone. us guards are waiting. the rafts bring families with children, too. some have walked for weeks to get here.

over 36,000 unaccompanied children have crossed into america this spring. many of the adults will be deported. but under president biden, most of the children will remain. the children who came alone who are told to line up separately from the others. many came hoping tojoin a family member already in america. these girls are cousins.

border guards demand the children's belts and laces — a measure usually reserved for prisoners, to prevent them from committing suicide. jordi has fled violent gangs in guatemala. tonight, he has a new dread — america's camps for migrant children. what do you expect is going to happen next? this is donna, texas.

these tents held over 3000 children earlier this spring. these, the notorious cubicles the migrants call �*ice boxes�*. these children's stories have not yet been heard. journalists have been banned from talking to them. but we've been tracking down children who have been released. this is sonia. she is waiting for her daughter, ariani, a ten—year—old. sonia fled violence in honduras six years ago, leaving ariani behind. she thought she was too young for the dangerous journey. we are seeing more folks landing. i think we're gonna be seeing them soon. 0h, she's here! they are not sure, because they can't recognise her, but it is her. her daughter travelled hundreds of miles, only to be locked up in donna.

she didn't want to let go of her mother. how did you feel when you saw ariani again? ariani slept in one of the plastic cubicles.

cindy, 16 years old, who fled honduras for her safety, was also in donna. here are some of the photos of donna. it was more crowded than this? much more crowded? wow. pipes were dripping, cindy said, and inside her mylar blanket, she was wet.

when night fell on the borderlands, the sounds of crying filled the tents. paola, 16 years old, cried on her mattress many nights. and on top of everything, there was the filth.

illness in the tents became rampant. paola became sick. so did ariani. cindy got covid. now, a mass movement of children is under way. we obtained flight logs. here, children are about to be flown to a set

of new and secretive detention centres across the country which have the capacity for over 19,000 children. one day, cindy was told to get on a bus. she was taken to the airport in the dark with a large group of sick girls. they were not told where they were going. cindy was flown 1500 miles away to a new detention site in san diego, california.

we set out to find the new facilities. there are about a dozen of them. several here in texas. setting them up has reduced overcrowding in centres like donna. we entered san antonio. just east of town was a sports stadium with beds for over 2000 migrant teenagers. in february, a month before this facility opened, it was used for a rodeo. we were given this image, showing where the children have been kept. we've been told it was the same building that's normally used for animals in the annual rodeo. this detention site, which is now set to close,

has been under investigation following allegations of sexual abuse, inadequate food and neglect of the children. an hour away in the heart of downtown dallas, the business district, we'd heard that hundreds of teenage boys were being held here in the convention centre. i'd been told there were no windows in the part of the building they were kept in, but where were they? we asked for access, but no. you guys have to go somewhere else. 0k. this is where the children are being held? yes, so you guys cannot be over here. staff said they had to sign agreements that they won't talk about what goes on inside. private contractors run the place on behalf of the government.

this woman, an employee, spoke to us on the condition of anonymity. there's rows and rows and rows of cots and there's guards everywhere. it feels a lot more like a detention facility — a prison for kids. this is a rare glimpse inside the dallas detention site. it was secretly filmed and given to us. children spend, on average, a month in these sites. releases are processed slowly, even though most children have sponsors in america ready to take them. this man, who has also been working in the centre, was deeply upset by conditions. it's freezing cold. each boy has one thin blanket. the children have always complained about not having enough, not eating enough. the boys have been in there for 45 days straight without any sunlight. absolutely no recreational time outside, none of that. no fresh air, nothing.

how did the boys cope with that? how can they cope, you know? they're all depressed. i heard the other day some were contemplating suicide because of the conditions here. detention sites are regularly opened and closed. children are moved. many are now flooding into this place. fort bliss, a tented camp that can hold 10,000 children in el paso, texas. in april, crowds protested. here in the heat of the desert, some of the tents hold hundreds of children. insiders have told the bbc large numbers of children here now have covid and say there are tents for those

with lice and scabies. we are hearing some terrible stories coming out of fort bliss, including instances of sexual abuse of children by workers there, including children who are having to be on suicide watch for long periods of time because of the conditions there. i have deep, deep concerns about the physiological and psychological deterioration of children in a camp like that. democratic congresswoman silvia garcia has visited several of the sites and was keen to stress progress made. and you're not aware of problems in these facilities when the facility closed i think because there have been problems and allegations... let me just be clear. you asked me about issues in dallas. i am not aware of issues in dallas. obviously, if you're looking at all facilities,

are there issues? yes, there are. but i am telling you that i think that based on everything i have seen in the ones i have visited, the administration is doing a much betterjob today than they were when it first started because they were not prepared for the sheer numbers, they did not have the facilities in place, they do now. the government told the bbc that children in dallas and the other new centres have access to nutritious food and recreation. and they are being kept in a healthy environment. they say they are trying to speed up releases. this is wilton, ten years old. he had been wandering for hours in the desert in march when a border guard found him.

president biden is not the first to deal with a surge of migrant children over the border. in 2018, under president trump, nearly 3000 children were separated from their parents and crammed with others into detention centres. these are believed to be some of their voices. parents were taken off to be charged with illegal entry. the policy left a searing mark on america's conscience.

republicans are now accusing president biden of separating families. pointing out that trump later made children stay in mexico with their families to await asylum hearings. they are absolutely incentivising the separation of families and they are putting them in detention centres notjust on the borders but in detention centres across the country, and the centres by the way were never equipped to house children. but this is fundamentally different than president trump's trial separation policy, right? which deliberately separated children from parents and was widely seen as cruel. i think the administration will take unaccompanied minors, they are specifically separating children from families. the trump administration was the expert on family

separation. it was cruel, it was inhumane and it goes against our values as americans, but certainly it is the opposite with the biden administration because for this administration, the goal is to reunify them with families as quickly as possible, and again, the numbers are huge. 80% of the children that are coming unaccompanied have a relative in this country. in biden�*s america, migrant children are not being physically taken from their parents by us border officials. but they are being separated from other relatives. many of whom are sent back to mexico whilst the children stay. those children are uniformly removed from the arms of their grandmothers and the laps of their aunts and uncles and older siblings and the trauma they experience

is identical to the trauma experienced by a child who is taken away from a biological parent. when ariani got to america, she was separated from her adult sister, who had become like mother to her. the trauma of their experiences followed the girls home. cindy was not the same.

ariani drew pictures in detention of love hearts and flowers to fight off her sadness. ariani, once a bubbly and sociable girl, is now largely silent.

the children we worry about most are the children who go quiet. they become despairing internally. for those children, the trauma goes underground. it sits like landmines under the surface. they are more likely to have substance abuse problems, more likely to suicide, more likely to have physiological problems. and those can be long—term consequences of this kind of trauma, consequences that these children live with for the rest of their lives. children are still crossing the border in large numbers. as night falls on the river, another group prepares for the journey into a country that promises dreams, but which for thousands of children leave scars. ariani's nights now are filled with terror.

hello there. still plenty of dry and, at times, warm weather across the country as we go through the week ahead. there will be some subtle differences, but for today, it's going to be a case of largely dry with some sunny spells and just a few showers. could be quite a grey

start to the morning, with some low cloud and some mist and fog, but that should start to break up. we'll see some sunshine coming through, and that into the afternoon could trigger off a few sharp, possibly thundery downpours. and favoured spots for those are going to be to the north—east of england. top temperatures likely to peak at highs of 23 degrees. now, as we move out of monday into tuesday, high—pressure centres itself across england and wales, with weak weather fronts trying to push in to the far north—west, so that's going to introduce a little more in the way of cloud and some showery outbreaks of rain to the north and west of the uk. further south and east, we keep the drier weather, we keep the warm weather, with temperatures potentially peaking back into the mid—20s later on.

welcome to bbc news. i'm david eades. our top stories: polls are closing in mexico's biggest and deadliest election, seen as a referendum on the policies of president 0brador. israeli forces fire stun grenades as two high—profile palestinian campaigners are released after being questioned by police. named in honour of her great grandmother and her grandmother, harry and meghan announce the arrival of lilibet diana. and the thick layer of slimy sludge that's causing environmental chaos in turkey's sea of marmara.