Martha's rule, a way for families to seek an urgent second opinion if they are concerned about the care their loved ones receive, will be rolled out across all English hospitals delivering acute or short-term treatment.

The telephone helpline, the result of a campaign by the parents of 13-year-old Martha Mills who died after serious failings in her care, has been piloted in 143 hospital sites in England since April 2024.

Figures from NHS England show that since then there have been almost 5,000 calls, resulting in 241 potentially life-saving interventions.

Martha's mother, Merope Mills, welcomed the expansion on what would have been her daughter's 18th birthday but wants UK-wide access.

She told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the new figures proved the need for the rule and "a different, more equal kind of doctor-patient relationship".

Martha Mills, died at King's College Hospital in London after developing sepsis. Her family's concerns were not listened to.

In 2022 a coroner ruled Martha would probably have survived if she had been transferred earlier to intensive care and given appropriate treatment

The initiative encourages families, carers and patients to speak up if they notice changes in the patient's condition and to seek an urgent review from a critical care team if the patient is deteriorating and their concerns are not being listened to.

Under the scheme, clinicians also record daily insights about a patient's health directly from families.

Staff, including those in junior roles, can also ask for a review from a team independent of the one they work with.

Data from NHS England shows of 4,906 calls to Martha's Rule helplines, almost three quarters (71.9%) were from families seeking help:

• 720 led to changes in care, such as new antibiotics or drugs
• 794 helped address delays in investigations or treatments
• 1,030 helped resolve communication issues or problems with patients being discharged

Merope Mills said she was delighted more people were going to get access to the rule.

"I think the data proves there is an need for it and has reassured us and clinicians up and down the country that it is already saving lives.

"And more importantly it has highlighted the need for a different, more equal kind of doctor-patient relationship in the country."

She called for an expansion of the scheme to the rest of the UK, saying it was unfair patients did not have access to it everywhere. She also highlighted a need for it in maternity care.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said he was grateful to NHS staff who have embraced the campaign and "most of all to Merope and Paul and the Mills family for their campaigning efforts".

He promised to share the latest results with colleagues in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

He said he had "seen and heard similar experiences where mothers were not listened to in maternity services".

"So I do think that there are common issues here for the NHS to learn from in terms of listening to patients, listening to women in particular, and making sure that we respond in the right way, in the right place, at the right time to avoid harm and in worst cases, fatalities."

On Radio 4, Ms Mills read out an email she had received from a Today programme listener who believed the life of a child in her family had been saved after calling the hotline.

She read: "I followed Martha's story on Radio 4, never thinking anyone I knew would need to use Martha's rule.

"Thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything you have done and are doing to raise awareness and to empower people in an environment where we all naturally feel intimidated."

Ms Mills said while she knows some people feel the word patient doesn't apply to them: "The reality is we are all, as I know, one disaster away from it being about us...

"It could be your mother, it could be your sibling, God forbid it could be your kid who one day needs this," she said.

An ongoing full evaluation of Martha's rule will help inform its possible future expansion into hospitals involved in longer term care, mental health trusts and community settings.

The Welsh Government is introducing a similar scheme, called Call4Concern, which is expected to be rolled out to all hospitals by the end of next year.

The Scottish Government is testing a number of Martha's rule pilots and considering developing a "more consistent, nationwide approach".

The department of health in Northern Ireland said it was "committed to improving patient safety" and whilst there were no immediate plans to introduce Martha's rule there, it would continue to monitor the roll-out and impact in England.

The five-year, £80m restoration of the Big Ben tower in London has been nominated for the UK's leading architecture award, alongside a new fashion college campus, a science laboratory and an "inventive" home extension.

The refurbishment of Big Ben - officially known as the Elizabeth Tower - is among the six nominees for the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize.

The list also includes the London College of Fashion campus on the former Olympic Park in east London and AstraZeneca's medical research centre in Cambridge.

They are joined by the "pioneering" Appleby Blue Almshouse retirement home and the Japanese-inspired Niwa House, both in south London, and an extension to an "eccentric" home in Hastings.

The Elizabeth line - London's east-west train line - won the prestigious award last year.

The prize is given to the building judged to be "the most significant of the year for the evolution of architecture and the built environment", and is judged on criteria including design vision, innovation and originality.

It is usually given to a brand new building, but can also go to major restorations and renovations.

Other previous winners of the prize - first presented in 1996 - include Liverpool's Everyman Theatre, Hastings Pier and the Scottish Parliament building in Edinburgh.

The 2025 nominees:

• Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects
• Elizabeth Tower by Purcell
• Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects
• London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison
• Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects
• The Discovery Centre by Herzog and de Meuron/BDP

Riba president Chris Williamson said the shortlsted projects all "demonstrate architecture's unique ability to address some of the most urgent challenges of our time, responding with creativity, adaptability and care".

Each offers "a blueprint for how architecture can enrich society", and they show a "hopeful vision for the future, one where architecture strengthens communities and helps shape a more sustainable and inclusive built environment", he added.

Appleby Blue Almshouse by Witherford Watson Mann Architects

This social housing development, with 57 flats for over-65s, in Southwark, south London, replaced an abandoned care home, and is billed as a modern version of the traditional almshouse.

The design is intended to "foster community and reduce isolation among residents", Riba said, with communal areas and shared facilities including a kitchen and double-height garden room. "The result is a new standard for inclusive social housing in later life."

Elizabeth Tower by Purcell

The Elizabeth Tower is one of London's best-known landmarks and is often known as Big Ben - although that's actually the name of the bell that produces the famous bongs.

The most extensive works to the tower in its 160-year history included repairs to the clock mechanism; changes to the colour scheme on the four clock faces to put back the Victorian blue and gold; and reinstating St George's Cross flag emblems. Accessibility improvements include a new lift.

The result is described as "a veritable masterclass in conservation and craftsmanship" by the judges - although it came at a cost, going way over its original budget, which was estimated at £29m to £45m.

Hastings House by Hugh Strange Architects

This late 19th Century detached hillside house in the East Sussex town has been extended with a series of timber-framed rooms and industrial exterior features including a concrete yard and galvanised steel staircase.

"The result goes beyond a house extension, transforming the entire home and producing a lesson in restrained, inventive reuse," the judges said.

London College of Fashion by Allies and Morrison

The college previously had six buildings but the 6,000 students and staff moved to the new 17-storey headquarters in the Queen Elizabeth Park in Stratford, east London, in 2023.

Judges approvingly noted features including its "dramatic staircases unfurling through a shared 'heart space' to encourage collaboration".

Niwa House by Takero Shimazaki Architects

This home, described as a "pavilion-like oasis", was built on a previously derelict plot behind a row of terraced houses in south London for a family with a love of Japanese design. It was also designed to be accessible for a wheelchair-using resident.

"The quality of light throughout the home is breathtaking," the judges said. "Large full-height sliding doors and full-height glazed walls seamlessly blend indoors and out – opening spaces to gardens, courtyards and balconies. It is difficult to see where the building ends and the gardens begin."

The Discovery Centre by Herzog and de Meuron/BDP

Medicine giant AstraZeneca's Discovery Centre "radically redefines the research facility", according to Riba, "blending cutting-edge laboratories with welcoming public spaces".

The striking building has a curved three-sided shape, with a high, jagged exterior glass front and roof. Inside, three glass-lined labs are linked by "clever interconnecting corridors that balance stringent security with transparency, putting science on display".

The TUC, the umbrella group for trade unions in the UK, is calling for Chancellor Rachel Reeves to consider a range of wealth taxes in November's Budget to help boost investment in public services.

Their top official, general secretary Paul Nowak, told the BBC that people needed to see evidence of change.

"We need a progressive tax system – a tax on online gaming companies and gambling companies, a tax on windfall profits which the banks and financial institutions have seen over the last couple of years."

The Treasury said the government's number one priority was to grow the economy.

In the interview, Mr Nowak called for Reeves "not to take anything off the table" and look at other options including equalising capital gains tax with income tax and, he said, "a wealth tax itself".

"It has been introduced in other countries including Spain, which has one of the fastest growing economies."

Individual unions are likely to make similar demands when the TUC's annual Congress gets under way this weekend.

Mr Nowak focused in particular on the case for levying more from financial institutions.

"Banks have record profits driven by a high-interest environment.

"We think we can still have a profitable bank sector and ask them to pay their fair share."

The prime minister reiterated this week that Labour's financial rules were non-negotiable.

So, to meet the chancellor's self-imposed constraints on debt and borrowing, tax rises appear to be inevitable in November.

The debate in the Labour movement – and elsewhere – is over who to tax and by how much.

Mr Nowak argued that "the big four high street banks made £46bn in profits in one year alone".

Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of Lloyds Bank, has previously spoken out against any potential tax rises for banks in the government's Budget announcement this autumn.

He said efforts to boost the UK economy and foster a strong financial services sector "wouldn't be consistent with tax rises".

And when the left-leaning think tank the IPPR suggested further taxing bank profits, share prices fell.

Asked if this approach could make the markets jittery and potentially drive investors away, Mr Nowak said: "Britain is an attractive place for international investors" and he suggested there hadn't been "an exodus of millionaires" after tax changes for non-doms and ending the VAT exemption for school fees.

He claimed that the TUC's own polling suggested that introducing wealth taxes to fund public services was most popular among voters who had gone from Labour to Reform UK.

Nigel Farage's party conference begins on Friday in Birmingham and Mr Nowak issued this warning to Keir Starmer: "Change still feels like a slogan not lived reality. There is a real danger if the government doesn't deliver the change people want, they will become disillusioned with mainstream politics, and some will look for divisive alternatives like Reform."

While the chancellor has been far from keen on a conventional wealth tax on assets, some in the wider Labour movement are pressing her to look at how those with "the broadest shoulders" pay more.

There is some hope that with a new economic adviser now ensconced in Downing Street and reporting to the prime minister, that the debate on tax is more open than before.

That adviser - Baroness Shafik - has called for taxation on wealth and land in the past.

"The public aren't daft – they know there are difficult choices," said Mr Nowak.

"We need a grown up conversation."

A Treasury spokesman told the BBC that the government's number one priority was to grow the economy and pointed to the chancellor's words last month.

Rachel Reeves said: "We introduced increased taxes on private jets, on second homes and increased capital gains tax.

"So I think we've got the balance right in terms of how we tax those with the broadest shoulders. But any further decisions will be ones that are made at a budget in the normal way."

The UK and its allies stand ready to support Ukraine before negotiations to end the war as well as to secure an eventual peace deal, the UK defence secretary says.

On the eve of a top-level meeting in Paris, John Healey told the BBC in Kyiv that Ukraine's allies would "help make the skies safe, to make the seas safe, and to secure the land", once a peace deal had been struck.

But moments earlier, Russia's President Vladimir Putin had conveyed a defiant message from China, vowing that his full-scale invasion could continue.

Healey suggested there was bluster in Putin's words, insisting that Russia was under pressure. He also praised US President Donald Trump who he said had "brought Putin into talks" and "not closed off any options", despite widespread criticism of the warm welcome Trump gave the Russian leader last month in Alaska.

As late as Tuesday, Trump said he was "disappointed" in Putin, but he has said that before. He has also threatened to punish the Russian leader for the apparent refusal to end the war - or even meet Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for peace talks.

When asked on Wednesday whether the war in Ukraine could end soon, Putin said "there is a certain light at the end of the tunnel".

"It seems to me that if common sense prevails, it will be possible to agree on an acceptable solution to end this conflict," he said, before threatening: "If not, then we will have to resolve all our tasks militarily."

He went on to list Russia's maximalist demands as usual - including for the authorities in Kyiv to end what he called discrimination against ethnic Russians - one of the allegations mentioned as a pretext for the full-scale invasion of the neighbour he launched in February 2022.

As for meeting Zelensky, Putin seemed to mock the very idea – which Trump had said he was ready for.

"I have never ruled out the possibility of such a meeting. But is there any point? Let's see," Putin said in Beijing.

Zelensky could always go to Moscow to see him, he said – a "knowingly unacceptable" idea, Ukraine's foreign minister was quick to point out.

Last week, France's President Emmanuel Macron suggested Putin was "playing" Trump.

But John Healey stressed that the US president "has not ruled out any further action, including economic measures, to put more pressure on Putin".

"We in the Coalition of the Willing, nations like the UK are willing to put extra economic pressure on Putin. We're willing to give extra aid to Ukraine so they can keep in the fight.

"It's why we've passed today £1bn ($1.24bn) of seized Russian assets, recycled into military aid and kit to Ukraine. If you like, Putin's dirty money returned with interest."

On Thursday, Macron will host a meeting of that so-called Coalition of the Willing - a grouping of allies of Ukraine, committed to enforcing any peace deal.

A source at the Élysée, Macron's office, has said the group are now ready to provide security guarantees for Ukraine, only waiting for US confirmation that it will act as the ultimate backstop.

The proposed deal includes continuing to train and supply Ukraine's own army.

It also envisages European troops being deployed to Ukraine - in unspecified numbers - to deter any future to Russian aggression - a signal that Ukraine can count on its allies "full solidarity and... commitment", the Élysée source said.

Such a deployment would need a ceasefire, the responsibility for which "falls to the Americans who are negotiating with the Russians".

John Healey refused to give details, despite being pressed, "because that will only make Putin wiser."

The German government is also playing down expectations of any big announcement at Thursday's meeting.

For the time being, like Italy and other coalition members, Berlin has ruled out sending soldiers to Ukraine to police any future peace on the ground.

A German government spokesman told the BBC that the priority for now was getting Russia to agree to a ceasefire - which Putin has consistently rejected.

President Trump pressed Putin for that during their summit in Alaska last month, then emerged to cite Putin's argument that finding a final deal would be a better way out of the the conflict.

In the meantime, Russia's aerial attacks have intensified in both frequency and scale. On Wednesday night more than Russian 500 drones and 24 cruise missiles were launched at Ukraine.

Across the country, as civilians sheltered in basements or on the metro, the air defence guns went to work.

As usual, the government did not say whether any military targets were hit, but the impact for civilians is often devastating.

Last week, a Russian missile hit a block of flats in Kyiv killing 22 people, including four children, in one of the deadliest strikes since Russia's full-scale invasion.

There is now a heap of stuffed toys in the ruins, and photographs.

From shattered stairways, residents emerge with potted plants and bags of clothes covered in dust that somehow survived the strike. A few steps away, others stand and stare at the wreckage.

A teenage girl said she had left the bomb shelter that morning because it filled with smoke after the first missile hit. Then a second landed across the road and her sister was killed.

Ihor Maharynsky only survived because he was out of town that night. His wife, Natalia, was in their fifth-floor flat and didn't make it to the shelter. He had to identify her body in the mortuary.

"What kind of strategic target is there here?" he demanded, looking around at a car park and a technical college nearby. "There's nothing."

Right now, Ihor sees no prospect at all of peace with Russia.

And like many Ukrainians, he is furious at Donald Trump for rolling out the red carpet in Alaska last month for Vladimir Putin.

"Peace talks with Putin? With this ****?" Ihor wanted to know, with a string of expletives. "It is peaceful people who are dying."

At an ice rink in Vladivostok in Russia's far east, 30-year-old Dmitry Afanasyev is in training with teammates from Soyuz, the local Para ice hockey team.

The players have removed their prosthetic legs and are sitting in specially designed sleds. They're using their hockey sticks to propel themselves around the rink.

Dmitry hopes that one day he'll be a Paralympic ice hockey champion.

Making that happen won't be easy. Russian teams were banned from the last Paralympic Games over the war in Ukraine.

And like all his teammates, Dmitry was on the front line.

"A mine came flying towards me," recalls Dmitry, who was mobilised to fight in Ukraine. "I fell to the ground and could feel my leg burning. I looked down and everything was torn apart. I put on a tourniquet myself and told the guys to drag me out of there.

"My wife's a surgeon. So, I sent her a picture of my leg and she replied: 'They'll probably saw it off.' 'OK,' I said. Whether I have one leg, or two legs. Whatever."

The port city of Vladivostok is more than 4,000 miles from Ukraine and from Russia's capital. This is Asia. The border with North Korea is 80 miles from Vladivostok. China is just 35 miles away.

Yet the consequences of a distant war in Europe are more than visible.

At a cemetery on a hill overlooking Vladivostok there are lines of fresh graves: Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine. In addition to Orthodox Christian crosses, military banners and Russian tricolours mark each plot.

In another section of the cemetery stands a memorial "to the heroes of the Special Military Operation", the official label the Kremlin continues to employ for Russia's war on Ukraine. Here there are more graves of Russian servicemen and the statue of an armed Russian soldier.

"Soldiers live forever," reads the inscription.

On the orders of President Putin, Russian troops poured across the border with Ukraine in February 2022. The full-scale invasion of Russia's neighbour was widely seen as the Kremlin's attempt to force Ukraine back into Moscow's orbit.

More than three and a half years later the war rages on.

On air I'm often asked: what do the Russian people think about the war in Ukraine, about confrontation with the West, and about President Putin?

"What do Russians think?" is a difficult question to answer.

After all, Russia is so big and varied. The largest country in the world spans two continents and 11 time zones. Some parts of Russia, such as Kursk and Belgorod, border Ukraine.

Other Russian regions, like Primorsky Krai where I am now are a long way from the fighting. Vladivostok is its administrative centre.

This is the furthest I've travelled inside Russia since the start of the war. It's a chance to gauge the mood in a very different part of the country.

"Of course we're worried," Svetlana tells me in a Vladivostok park when I ask her about Ukraine. "This has been going on for years now and we want it to end as soon as possible. We had hoped the Alaska summit [of Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin] would change something. It hasn't.

"People are people. No matter whether they're British or American, Japanese or Ukrainian. I don't know where all the hatred comes from."

I get chatting to Ilya, who claims that war in Ukraine hasn't fundamentally changed his life in Russia.

"You can still earn a living and get by here," Ilya says.

"The standard of living isn't rising, but it's not falling, either. Still, we hope that relations with other countries will improve and that we'll be re-integrated into the global space."

In the centre of Vladivostok I stop to listen to a band busking on a pedestrian street. I'm not alone. A large crowd has gathered to enjoy the improvised rock concert.

Between songs I talk to the lead singer, a young local musician who calls himself Johnny London.

"Do people talk much about what's happening in Ukraine?" I enquire.

"People of my age, we don't usually discuss that stuff. Not very often. I would go as far as to say we never talk about that."

"Why?" I ask.

"We can do nothing about that. It's out of our hands, out of our reach. Hopefully in a couple of years it will get back to normal."

"And what is normal?"

"No war, I guess. That would be nice."

When I finish talking to Johnny London, a pensioner called Viktor walks up. He's recognised me. He saw me on TV last year at a press conference with Vladimir Putin.

"You asked Putin a question, didn't you?" Viktor says. "You're with the BBC."

Viktor's a big fan. Not of the BBC, but of President Putin. He criticises my "provocative question" to the Kremlin leader on the war in Ukraine, he defends Russia's political system and takes aim at the Biden administration over the 2016 US presidential election.

"With the help of mail-in ballots Biden practically stole the election from Trump," Viktor says.

"That's what Trump says," I point out.

"Not only. Putin says it too," retorts Viktor.

"Putin saying it doesn't make it fact," I suggest.

"True," concedes Viktor. "But that's what our people think."

Viktor also thinks that the West is losing power and influence.

"Look what's happening," says Viktor. "This week in China the leaders of India, China and Russia got together, and with many other countries too. But there was no Trump, no Britain, no Germany, no France. India and China alone are three billion people."

On his way back from China Vladimir Putin is stopping off in Vladivostok. Should I get the opportunity to ask the president another question, Viktor suggests it should be about the "new world order".

The city has been preparing for the Kremlin leader's visit and participation in the Eastern Economic Forum. By the side of the road that leads to the venue, street artist Filipp Dulmachenko has used 1,800 cans of aerosol paint to create a most unusual image.

The gigantic mural depicts Vladimir Putin in military fatigues hugging a Siberian tiger.

"The Amur tiger has always been a symbol of wildlife," Filipp says. "And Vladimir Putin is a symbol of Russia."

Filipp tells me that when he was a teenager he had run-ins with the police over his street art. But the Putin mural has been officially approved by the regional authorities.

And to accompany the picture the artist has spray-painted a short sentence: a phrase Filipp says is simply about sunrise in the Russian Far East.

Combined, though, with the images of a tiger and of a president who believes he's restoring Russian power, the words seem to take on deeper meaning:

"The dawn starts here."

Hundreds of thousands of Australians forced to pay back welfare debts created by an illegal automated system have won the largest payout in the country's history.

Known as "Robodebt", the scheme wrongly told welfare recipients they had been overpaid and demanded they repay these debts, which often never existed.

In 2020, a successful class action resulted in a A$1.8bn (£876m; $1.2bn) settlement for victims of the scheme - some of whom took their own lives.

However, the group's lawyers appealed for more money after new evidence showed officials of the then-Liberal National coalition government knew the scheme was "unlawful" but continued anyway.

On Thursday, the current Labor government announced it would settle that claim, and hand an extra $475m over as compensation for the harms caused by the "illegal and immoral Robodebt scheme".

Another $13.5m has also been earmarked for legal costs and up to $60m to administer the compensation scheme.

"[It] is the just and fair thing to do," Attorney-General Michelle Rowland said, adding that it reflected the harm caused to thousands of vulnerable Australians under the "disastrous" scheme.

Lawyers for the class action said the extra compensation was "validation" for the victims.

"Today is also one more vindication of the principle that Australia remains a nation ruled by laws and not by kings - laws which even hold the government accountable," Peter Gordon told reporters, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).

One of the victims, Felicity Button, told reporters it was a bittersweet moment, as some victims had lost family members, gone through divorce or become bankrupt.

"Irreparable mental health issues that have stemmed from this... we can never compensate for that."

It is estimated that more than 440,000 people were impacted by the illegal system, which ran from 2016 to 2019 under the conservative government of former prime minister Scott Morrison. It was aimed to save about $1.7bn.

Those affected were some of the country's poorest, and a landmark inquiry heard the scheme led to at least three suicides.

A royal commission - Australia's most powerful form of public inquiry - into the scheme finished in mid-2023 and drew hundreds of public submissions.

It heard how the algorithm used to determine if someone had been overpaid was based on flawed calculations by averaging a person's fortnightly income.

This income figure was used to determine how much welfare was paid, but the calculation led to mistakes if a welfare recipient worked irregular hours from week to week.

The commission also unearthed new evidence that showed senior public servants who designed and ran the scheme knew it was unlawful.

This prompted lawyers handling the class action to appeal the original settlement, and demand further compensation due to "misfeasance in public office".

In total, the redress scheme amounts to about $2.4bn. This includes $1.76bn in debts that were wiped and and money given back to victims who paid false debts.

Thursday's announcement of an extra $475m in compensation is in addition to the $112m awarded in 2020, meaning a total of $587m.

The largest payout previously was $500m for survivors of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria - Australia's worst-ever - which killed 173 people, according to Nine.