Angela Rayner initially consulted three people about the purchase of her £800,000 flat in Hove, which she has admitted to underpaying stamp duty on, the BBC understands.

It is understood that the deputy prime minister consulted one individual experienced in conveyancing and two experts on the law around trusts before the purchase.

However, it is unclear if any of those people were experts in complex tax law and it is not known if they knew about the full details of the trust.

Rayner has denied she tried to dodge the full tax rate on the apartment and blamed the "mistake" on initial legal advice that failed to "properly take account" of the situation.

She has been under mounting pressure in recent weeks after reports emerged she had saved £40,000 in stamp duty on her East Sussex flat by not paying the higher rate reserved for additional home purchases.

She says she acted on the expert advice at the time, but has in recent days learned that arrangements involving her family home in Greater Manchester meant she should have paid a higher rate.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC Sir Keir Starmer continues to have full confidence in Rayner, but he said it will be up to the Independent Adviser on Ministers' Interests, Sir Laurie Magnus, to decide whether she took appropriate advice.

If precedent is a guide, the investigation by Sir Laurie that may decide Rayner's future could be done in a matter of days.

Speaking on the BBC's Newsnight programme, Kyle said he had "full confidence" that the investigation process "will get to the bottom of things" and reassure the public.

Kyle conceded that while mistakes were made, he believed the deputy prime minister acted in good faith by consulting legal advice.

"This is somebody who's striving to be upfront and do the right thing," he said.

He added the question would be whether Rayner took enough precautions when making the purchase.

"At the end of the day, people will be looking at Angela based on the outcome of this report and what they want to see is, did she strive to make the right decision?"

"Did she try and avoid scrutiny? No. Did she take legal advice and try and understand the intricacies of the complex family situations she was in and the purchase of a property? Yes," he said.

Former Tory chief whip Mark Harper told Newsnight he thought Rayner should resign and that "there were a lot of holes" in her story.

Harper said asking ministers to defend her publicly if she knew she might be liable for extra tax would be a breach of the ministerial code.

"Up until yesterday, ministers were going out saying it was all fine. The prime minister on Monday said it was all fine. She must have known at some point before then, because she sought this extra advice, that it wasn't all fine."

"So she's had people going out for her basically not being straight with people and that's not acceptable," he added.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK's Nigel Farage have also called for Rayner's resignation.

The deputy prime minister said she has contacted His Majesty's Revenue And Customs (HMRC) to work out the tax she needs to pay and referred herself for investigation by the prime minister's standards adviser.

The Conservatives have also written to HMRC calling for it to launch its own investigation on whether she tried to evade tax.

If the department decides her actions were careless, Rayner will have a £12,000 penalty to pay on top of the £40,000 tax shortfall.

If her actions are found to be deliberate, then the fine would be 100% of the tax underpaid.

Sean Randall, an independent stamp duty expert, said the key question will be whether Rayner had a reasonable excuse for making the error in the stamp duty.

"It's not enough just to say that she relied on advice. I think she also needs to explain what it is that she told her lawyer and what advice that she received from her lawyer," he added.

On Wednesday, Sir Keir stood by his deputy at Prime Minister's Questions, saying he was "very proud to sit alongside her".

In a statement, Rayner said she part-funded the purchase of the flat in May by selling her remaining stake in her family home in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, which she shares with her ex-husband and family.

Some of her interest in the home had already been sold following her divorce to a court-instructed trust previously set up to help fund the care for her son, who has lifelong disabilities, she said.

The arrangement had been designed to give him "security of knowing the home is his, allowing him to continue to live in the home he feels safe in," she added, and was "a standard practice in circumstances like ours".

But fresh legal advice revealed "complex deeming provisions" in the trust meant she should have paid the higher stamp duty rate on the purchase of the Hove flat, she said.

Rayner acknowledged her "reliance on advice on lawyers" did not take into account all the provisions of the situation.

"I deeply regret the error that has been made. I am committed to resolving this matter fully and providing the transparency that public service demands," she said.

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 day they appeared he could hardly believe his eyes. Small boat after small boat bearing in from the Turkish side. "I have so many memories that are coming back to me now," says Paris Louamis, 50, a hotelier on the Greek island of Lesbos. "There were people from Syria, Afghanistan, many countries."

This was August 2015 and Europe was witnessing the greatest movement in population since the end of the Second World War. More than a million people would arrive in the EU over the next few months driven by violence in Syria, as well as Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere.

I witnessed the arrivals on Lesbos and met Paris Laoumis as he was busy helping exhausted asylum seekers near his hotel. "I am proud of what we did back then," he tells me. Along with international volunteers he provided food and clothing to those arriving.

Today the beach is quiet. There are no asylum seekers. But Paris is worried. He believes another crisis is possible. With the number of arrivals rising over the summer months, his country's migration minister has warned of the risk of an "invasion", with thousands arriving from countries such as Sudan, Egypt, Bangladesh and Yemen.

"Of course I worry. I can see the suffering of the people. They are not coming here but we see it on Crete (Greece's largest island) where people have come. So it is possible that with the wars more people will come here."

In 2015 I followed as the asylum seekers boarded ferries, trudged in the heat along railway lines, through cornfields, down country lanes and along highways, making their way up through the Balkans and onwards to Germany and Scandinavia.

The numbers entering Germany jumped from 76,000 in July to 170,000 the following month. On the last day of August the Chancellor Angela Merkel declared 'wir schaffen das' - we can do it - interpreted by many as extending open arms to the asylum seekers.

"Germany is a strong country," she said. "The motive with which we approach these things must be: we have achieved so much – we can do it! We can do it, and where something stands in our way, it has to be overcome, it has to be worked on."

But the high emotions of that summer, when crowds welcomed asylum seekers along the roads north, seem to belong to a very different time.

That optimistic proclamation soon became a political liability for Mrs Merkel. Political opponents and some European leaders felt the words acted as a magnet for asylum seekers to the EU. Within a fortnight the Chancellor was forced to impose controls on Germany's borders due to the influx of asylum seekers.

And a decade on, concerns over migration have become a major political issue in many European countries. The causes are complex and vary from country to country, but concerns around security, struggling economies and disillusionment with governing parties have all had a major role in shaping attitudes towards those who arrive who are fleeing war, hunger and economic desperation.

It has fuelled the rise of far right parties and seen centre and even left wing parties scramble to impose controls on migration, fearing electoral defeat by populist right-wingers. Data from the Atlas Institute of International Affairs shows how support for far right parties in Europe nearly doubled over the term of two electoral cycles to 27.6%.

Since 2015, when the UNHCR says over a million people entered Europe on asylum routes, there has been a dramatic drop in arrivals. But since 2016, the average number of people entering Europe has still been around 200,000 people a year. So far this year a total of 96,200 asylum seekers have been recorded arriving. So can tough new controls really further bring down the numbers trying to come to Europe? Or does global conflict and economic desperation make their continuing flow inevitable, with ebbs and flows in the numbers?

Hungary's tough stance

In Hungary, the far right government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has taken one of the toughest approaches to migration. Back in September 2015, I was present when Hungary's first fence was erected along the border with Serbia, and witnessed hundreds of people scrambling to cross into the EU before they could be shut out.

In Budapest, this week I met the country's minister for the EU, János Bóka, who said Hungary's approach has been vindicated by the restrictive measures now being put forward in the UK - where the government plan to make it harder for refugees to bring family members to the UK - as well as countries like Ireland, Denmark and Sweden.

"We feel vindicated not only because of what's going on in other countries in Europe. This is of course also a sign that we took the right path 10 years ago, that now we see most of the countries are doing what we have been doing for the past 10 years."

Hungary immediately returns people who arrive at the border without permission to enter. They can only apply for asylum in the Serbian capital Belgrade, or in Kyiv in war battered Ukraine.

Human rights lawyer Timea Kovács says this effectively makes it impossible to enter the EU via Hungary. "Basically there is no legal way to enter the Hungarian territory as a refugee," she asserts.

As a result Hungary is being fined one million Euros per day for breaching its responsibilities to asylum seekers under EU law. EU minister Bóka says the country is not about to change its policy. "If it is the price that we pay for the protection of our borders and maintaining peace and stability in Hungary, this is a price worth paying."

But even such restrictive measures haven't managed to entirely halt the entry of asylum seekers.

Austrian police told the BBC that there were between 20 to 50 people detected every day trying to enter their country illegally from Hungary. This is just the figure for those detected.

On a trip to the border with Serbia I heard the frustration of one group of Hungarian guards. We left the tar road and followed a patrol onto a dirt track into the forest. The trees closed over forming a natural tunnel. Bright sunlight gave way to shadows. The men in the vehicle ahead of us carried shotguns.

'Just one big circus'

Dressed in military camouflage Sándor Nagy and Eric Molner are citizen volunteers, paid by the state to patrol the Hungarian side of the border with Serbia.

"I feel sad and angry, and most of all, worried about what is coming," says Sandor. He believes Europe is failing to stop people from coming across its borders. "To be honest, what we experience here is basically just one big circus. What we see is that border defence here is mostly a show, a political performance."

We emerge into a clearing where a 12ft high border fence appears, topped with barbed wire, equipped with sensors and cameras to detect illegal crossings.

"They simply cut through it, and groups rush in at several points at once—this has been the same for years." The problem, he argues, is with organised crime, which is constantly one step ahead of the authorities. "This fence does not stop anyone in the long run … It delays the flow, but cannot stop it."

A deluge of abuses

With the growth of criminal trafficking has come a deluge of human rights abuses, according to the United Nations. People traffickers dump people in the Sahara desert; others crowd them onto unsafe boats. Some of those who get through find themselves being forced back into the desert by local security forces.

More than 32,000 people have died trying to reach Europe in the past 10 years - including 1,300 dead or missing this year.

According to the UN's International Organisation of Migration "much of this is happening in a situation of near complete impunity".

The summer of 2015 was not only a summer of welcome. It prompted immediate changes in the approaches of several European states. Not just with the erection of the fence in Hungary but, among several examples, the deployment of riot police in Croatia, and migrants being detained in Slovenia.

By March 2016 - six months after Mrs Merkel's statement - the EU had reached agreement with Turkey to keep migrants from crossing into Greece and Bulgaria.

Since then the EU has done deals with countries including Morocco, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt to prevent their countries being used as launch points to Europe.

Now, there are numerous well documented cases of asylum seekers being pushed back across EU borders by police and coast guards. Last January the European Court of Human Rights found Greece guilty of illegal and "systematic" pushbacks of asylum seekers to Turkey.

Gerasimos Tsourapa, a professor of international relations at the University of Birmingham, describes the policy of outsourcing the asylum issue as a dramatic change for Europe. "The idea that migration can be leveraged for money or aid or other concessions, which was fairly exceptional for Europe in 2016, has now become a pattern.

"Migration diplomacy is contagious. Once the deal is struck then the logic spreads."

There is also a paradox here, he says. "We are restricting asylum, we're keeping borders closed, but we also need to find labour migrants to fill shortages and help our national economy."

A changing Sweden

Persistent public concern has seen a rise in support for far right parties across the EU, even in places like Sweden, which historically prided itself as a welcoming nation for those fleeing persecution. The far right Sweden Democrats won 20.5 percent of the vote in the 2022 general election - making them the country's second largest party. In return for supporting a minority coalition government they have seen much of their anti-migration platform shape government policy.

Family re-unification for migrants has been made more difficult, as have conditions for permanent residency, and asylum quotas have been substantially reduced.

For the final leg of my journey I went to the western Swedish city of Karlstad, a picture postcard place on the banks of the River Klarälven, the longest waterway in Scandinavia.

Syrian refugee, Abdulmenem Alsatouf, 44, remembered the welcome he received here in 2015.

That has changed, he says. "At the beginning people treated us very well. But after a few years — and after the government changed — things shifted. They became more racist." He cites incidents of racist abuse, including one neighbour leaving a toy pig outside this devoutly Muslim family's home.

I first met Abdulmenem and his family ten years ago as they were trying to reach Europe from Turkey. I remember their hope for a new life. Now his wife Nour says she would prefer to be in Syria. "They look at us as if we only came here to take their money or live off their aid. But that's not true. When I first arrived, I studied Swedish for two years, I learned the language, I finished school. Then I went to work — cleaning, kitchens, childcare. I pay taxes here, just like anyone else. I'm part of this society."

Why has Swedish public opinion shifted to the right on migration? One of the more frequently cited reasons in local media and by politicians is crime, specifically the rise of organised crime, with young perpetrators used to commit extreme violence. Since 2013 the rate of gun crime in the country has more than doubled.

People born abroad, and their children born in Sweden, are over-represented in crime statistics. But Sweden's foreign ministry warns against a simplistic analysis of figures. It says low levels of education, unemployment, social segregation and refugee's war trauma are all causes - not the fact of being a migrant.

Outside the local cultural museum, where he and his apprentice were busy painting the walls, I met Daniel Hessarp, 46, who is among the 60% of Swedes that opinion polls record as being concerned about crime. "We see the statistics of the crimes, who does it and such. So, there you have the answer. We didn't have this before in Sweden.

The apprentice, Theo Bergsten, 20, said he wasn't opposed to immigration because "you learn from, they learn from you…so it's really nice also." But he said the growth in crime was a "sad part" of the story.

Maria Moberg, a sociology lecturer at the University of Karlstad, says social media has allowed the far right's message to thrive and find new support among those who feel excluded from society.

"Sweden Democrats are very open with [us] - they don't want any asylum seekers. They actually want people to leave Sweden. And the whole government is sort of setting the agenda for being a hostile country. It's more acceptable now to not be welcoming."

Graves marked 'Unknown'

Back on Lesbos, I went to visit a place I have come to know over many years of reporting migration issues there. About 30 minutes drive from the Mytilene airport, in the middle of some olive groves, are the graves of asylum seekers who have died trying to reach here, or in the refugee camps set up after 2015. Numerous graves are simply marked 'Unknown', the last resting place of those who believed Europe would offer them a better life.

When I visited there were three fresh graves, and a fourth open waiting for a burial to take place. It is a sobering reminder that desperate people will keep trying to reach Europe, despite the enormous risks.

So far this year the numbers of asylum seekers detected trying to reach Europe is down by 20 percent. The numbers may surge and fall, but the global crises that drive migration are not going to disappear. That is the fundamental challenge for politicians, whatever party is in power.

Top image credit: Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto via Getty Images

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A mother who feared her two-year-old son's untreated constipation could have killed him is calling for access to children's continence services to be made a national priority.

Elissa Novak said Ivan was constantly vomiting, losing weight and in severe pain when it was at its worst, and a doctor said 2kg of his 10kg (22lb) body weight was estimated to be stool.

The number of children aged up to 16 admitted to English hospitals suffering with constipation, among other symptoms, is at a 10-year high, with more than 44,000 admissions in 2023-24, according to NHS figures.

Children are being failed by the absence of dedicated bladder and bowel services in some parts of the country, an expert said.

About 1.5 million children in the UK suffer with constipation, according to the charity Bladder and Bowel UK.

As many children returned to school this week, charities have told the BBC they are seeing a spike in calls to their helplines.

"It's a huge problem and many healthcare professionals don't consider it a serious issue in children," said Davina Richardson, a children's specialist nurse with the charity.

"Discussing wee and poo is very un-British. It's not something that we as a culture do."

Elissa said Ivan, who is now aged five, had been "completely robbed of his toddler years" due to health issues resulting from constipation.

He was admitted to hospital 25 times in one six-month period in 2022 for emergency treatment.

"It was horrific," Elissa said. "He was so frail he couldn't lift himself up or do anything.

"He was in pain all the time and either screaming or just lying there because he was too weak."

Elissa, 35, from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, said she had constantly gone to her GP to try to get help and answers.

At that time in Warwickshire, there was no bowel or bladder community service, which meant they were going to A&E up to four times a week.

It was only when things got to a crisis point that Elissa was told constipation was causing Ivan's pain.

She thinks he would have died had there been any further delay in treating it.

Elissa was told Ivan's entire colon was impacted, which had pushed up into his lung cavity and compromised his lungs.

'Signs missed'

"His stomach was squashed. All of his organs were being pushed out of the way," Elissa said.

"We were in A&E for up to 12 hours at a time... just waiting for an enema of all things.

"It was a very horrible time. It was so traumatic for everybody."

Ivan has two genetic syndromes which affect his cognitive functions.

Elissa thinks this played a part in the signs being missed and constipation not being diagnosed sooner.

"It was seen as 'that's just what disabled children are like'. We did actually have one consultant who said 'disabled children just scream'," Elissa said.

"It wasn't looked into properly, it wasn't taken seriously until he was really at crisis point. His signs of pain weren't recognised. It was just a perfect storm really."

Ivan now has a care package so his constipation can be managed at home with laxatives and daily bowel wash outs.

"It is a huge part of his life and a huge part of his day. He still suffers pain but it's so much better," his mother said.

Elissa is campaigning for better bladder and bowel care services across the country.

"People are falling through the cracks," she said.

Tips for parents and carers

Here are some of the ways to prevent a child from becoming constipated:

• Ensure your child's diet includes plenty of fruit and vegetables
• Make sure children are drinking enough water-based drinks daily - dehydration can make constipation more likely or worse
• A good toilet position is also helpful. Children need their bottom and the backs of their thighs well supported. Feet need to be flat on a firm surface with knees slightly higher than hips, as that helps relax the pelvic floor

Source: Bladder and Bowel UK

Brenda Cheer, a paediatric specialist continence nurse with children's bowel and bladder charity Eric, said children's constipation was on the rise for a number of reasons, including delayed potty training and today's generation of children spending more time in childcare.

She said children were being failed in areas where there was no dedicated children's continence service.

"There's huge disparity of those services," she said.

"Where is the parent supposed to go? How are they supposed to get the help they need? How is a family supposed to access support if there is no children's bladder and bowel nurse?"

Constipation can be treated in the community and should not require a hospital admission, but is not being recognised, Ms Cheer added.

Holly Brennan told the BBC her daughter Ayda had suffered with chronic constipation for three years and she had been in "turmoil" at the lack of help.

It started when Ayda got a virus when she was two years old and spiralled from there, Holly said.

The 31-year-old described going to her GP six times and being prescribed laxatives to treat it - but not being given any guidance on how to use them, and said she had been told her daughter would grow out of it.

When it was at its worst, Ayda, now five, would have up to 15 accidents a day.

Holly, from Clevedon, Bristol, said: "It was three years of hell. She very much didn't grow out of it.

"We didn't want to go out for day trips because you wouldn't know where the toilet would be and she was constantly having accidents.

"It was just complete stress and caused arguments between my husband and I [about] how to deal with it. It upset her [Ayda] and you try not to get cross with them but it's just frustration and it just affects everything."

Sometimes it would take Ayda a week to go to the toilet because she associated it with pain, her mum explained.

"It was a vicious circle. It was just complete turmoil... something that everyone just used to say she would grow out of or 'it's a phase' or 'she just needs to learn'," Holly added.

"Our life literally revolved around the toilet for three years."

Holly was not referred for further treatment for Ayda or told about children's continence services that could help.

She said it felt like "the blind leading the blind" with several doctors unable to advise her and she had reached a dead end.

It was only when she was told about the charity Eric that things started to get better.

"There was finally an answer on how to help her," Holly added. "It [the website] described my child."

Ayda is now off laxatives and able to control her bowels.

"I'm very proud of her and how she's coped. She's taken it all in her stride," Holly said.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it is committed to ensuring children get the right care and support when they need it for conditions such as constipation.

In a statement, it said: "As part of our 10-year health plan, neighbourhood health services will bring together teams of professionals closer to people's home to provide comprehensive community care.

"We will also strengthen health visiting services so all families have access to high-quality, personalised support."

Jodie Gosling, MP for Nuneaton and who chairs the all-party parliamentary group for bladder and bowel continence care, said constipation had fallen low on the list of priorities facing local council and integrated care boards.

She said children's continence care "has been a silent casualty of chronic underfunding and reactive healthcare".

"This leads to a postcode lottery, where even high-need areas fail to address issues like constipation adequately."

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More than 30,000 UK homes have had botched insulation fitted under government schemes putting them at risk of damp and mould, ministers have revealed.

It is the first time the government has documented the number of homes blighted by sub-standard work under ECO4 and the Great British Insulation Scheme since 2022.

Energy Consumer Minister Miatta Fahnbulleh told parliament it amounted to ''systemic failure". While some households have had remedial work done, anyone concerned should contact Ofgem, the government said.

Mohammed told the BBC he cannot sleep in his bedroom due to damp and mould and is battling to get it fixed: "I have been given nothing but broken promises and false hope."

Mohammed, who did not want to use his full name, applied to get external wall insulation fitted to his Luton home in 2023 under the government scheme ECO4.

He hoped it would make the house warmer and help his late father - who suffered from chronic asthma - to cope during the colder months.

But instead of providing relief, Mohammed said the botched insulation led to damp and mould which covered the walls of his father's bedroom and caused his condition to worsen.

''Day after day, he was forced to inhale this, further weakening his already fragile lungs. My father's health deteriorated until it was too late," he said.

For the last two years, Mohammed says he has had an '''awful battle'' to get the installer to take responsibility.

''The whole experience has taken such a toll on me mentally," he said.

Mohammed now can't sleep in his own bedroom due to black mould, damp and crumbling plaster.

After the BBC revealed last year that botched insulation was leading to damp and mould, the government ordered an audit be carried out of 60,000 properties insulated under the GBIS and ECO4 schemes.

The preliminary findings of the audit suggest that in more than 30,000 homes insulation was not fitted to the appropriate standard and this could lead to damp and mould growth, Fahnbulleh told parliament in a written statement in July.

The government said it is ''working at speed to ensure substandard installations are identified and remediated with no cost to the consumer'.'

Ministers are also promising to soon set out plans to overhaul the consumer protection system ''to restore trust and help more people cut their bills''.

The task ahead is daunting - tens of thousands of homes are likely to need repairs.

Mohammed said he is now in talks with his installer and Trustmark, the organisation responsible for monitoring the quality of insulation, to try to get his home fixed.

Until that happens, he is worried about his young family's health.

"We are inhaling poor quality air because of the damp, the mould and the dust,'' he said.

More than 260,000 properties have had solid or external wall insulation fitted under government programmes over the last 15 years.

Audits are currently only being carried out on homes insulated since 2022 because, ministers argue, ''current data suggests there is not a widespread issue'' in earlier schemes.

Yet the BBC reported in February that residents of Chilton, County Durham, whose homes were insulated in 2021 have also had damp and mould.

The government says concerned consumers should contact Ofgem for advice and support by email at: ECOhelp@ofgem.gov.uk(opens in a new tab) or Freephone 0808 169 444 Monday – Friday (excluding bank holidays) 09:30 to 16:30

A US federal court has overturned billions in funding cuts by President Donald Trump's administration to Harvard University.

Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the government violated the Ivy League college's free speech rights when it revoked around $2bn (£1.5bn) in research grants.

The ruling is a major legal victory for Harvard, but the White House has vowed to appeal. When it froze funding in April, the Trump administration accused the college of antisemitism, "radical left" ideologies and racial bias.

Three other Ivy League universities, Columbia, Penn and Brown, struck deals with Trump to preserve funding that was at risk due to similar claims by the administration, rather than go to court.

Boston-based Judge Burroughs wrote in Wednesday's ruling: "The Court vacates and sets aside the Freeze Orders and Termination Letters as violative of the First Amendment."

She blocked the administration from stopping any more federal funding to the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based college and barred the government from withholding payment on existing grants.

The White House said they would immediately challenge the "egregious decision" and called the judge an "activist" who was appointed by former President Barack Obama and was never going to rule in their favour.

"Harvard does not have a constitutional right to taxpayer dollars and remains ineligible for grants in the future," assistant press secretary Liz Huston said.

Alan Garber, president of the university, said in a statement on their website that "the ruling affirms Harvard's First Amendment and procedural rights".

"We will continue to assess the implications of the opinion, monitor further legal developments, and be mindful of the changing landscape in which we seek to fulfill our mission," he added.

Judge Burroughs wrote in her 84-page decision that Harvard should have done more to deal with antisemitism, which she said had "plagued" the institution in recent years.

"Harvard was wrong to tolerate hateful behavior for as long as it did," wrote the judge.

But she said that fighting antisemitism was not the Trump administration's "true aim" in penalising the nation's oldest and richest university.

She suggested the government had "used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country's premier universities".

Judge Burroughs has previously blocked Trump's efforts to prevent Harvard from hosting international students.

The university sued the Trump administration over the funding freeze in April, while also pledging to fight antisemitism.

Harvard's president said no government "should dictate what private universities can teach, whom they can admit and hire, and which areas of study and inquiry they can pursue".

Trump has also threatened to revoke Harvard's tax-exempt status and take control of the university's patents stemming from federally funded research.

The government has been discussing with Harvard a potential deal to unfreeze federal funding. Trump has said he wants the university to pay no less than $500m.

A widening gap?

Money owed could be 'potentially contagious'

Loans and player power

Ticket prices

Many of Thursday's papers lead on Angela Rayner's stamp duty admission.

"If PM had backbone he would sack her" reads the Daily Express' headline.

The Daily Mail asks if Sir Keir Starmer is too "spineless" to fire her, reminding its readers that as well as being the deputy prime minister, Rayner is the housing secretary. It says she is "fighting to save her political career".

The Metro leads with the Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch's comments calling for her to be sacked.

"Three pads... zero excuses" reads the Sun's headline.

The Daily Telegraph says she has the public backing of Sir Keir, but quotes a No 10 insider who says "she's finished".

The Daily Mirror leads with another story: the family of Virginia Giuffre, who sued the Duke of York for sexual assault and later took her own life, warning that they will not be silenced.

Her brother has called for files relating to the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein - who was at one time friends with Prince Andrew - to be released. Ms Giuffre's claim against Prince Andrew was settled out of court. Prince Andrew has consistently denied all the allegations against him.

The Guardian highlights comments by the head of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, who said forces shouldn't be "policing toxic culture war debates". His remarks follow the arrest of the comedy writer, Graham Linehan, on suspicion of inciting violence in social media posts about trans people.

Sir Mark said policing had been left "between a rock and a hard place", according to the paper.

The Times says underperforming universities could be stopped from charging full tuition fees, under plans being considered by the regulator. The paper interviewed the new chairman of the Office for Students, Prof Edward Peck, who told it that the ratings institutions get "will have consequences".

The Financial Times says scientists in London have used artificial intelligence to help teams of robots work together without colliding. It says the system, known as Robo Ballet and developed by researchers at University College London, aims to boost the efficiency of various production lines.

Some supermarket chains are introducing a new scanner, which will tell shoppers how long their avocados have before they go off, according to a report in the Daily Mail. It says the company behind the technology, One Third, wants to cut down on food waste.

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Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner is at risk of a fine from the tax authorities in addition to having to pay an additional £40,000 in underpaid stamp duty, tax experts have said.

Rayner, who is also the minister in charge of housing, has admitted she paid less in stamp duty on her £800,000 flat in Hove, East Sussex, than she should have done, claiming she was badly advised.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) can levy penalties when tax has been underpaid if someone has been "careless" with their tax affairs.

Any penalty for Rayner, which is typically 20% or 30% of the underpaid tax, could hinge on whether she took appropriate legal advice.

Rayner has said she was misinformed by lawyers, but questions have been raised about whether she sought specialist tax advice.

Even if she did, she could still face a fine likely to be 30% of the underpaid tax, meaning an additional £12,000.

"Someone has made a big mistake. Whether it's the law firm acting for her on the purchase, or whether it is her," said Sean Randall, an independent stamp duty expert.

He said she was at "significant risk" of a penalty because blaming an adviser may not be a sufficient defence.

"She might say I relied on my tax advisers to advise me correctly. And I definitely sympathise with that [but] usually simply relying on your adviser is not a defence for a penalty of carelessness," Randall added.

What we know

The dispute centres around a three-bedroom flat in Hove, East Sussex which Angela Rayner bought for £800,000 in May this year.

When she bought the flat, she declared that it was the only property she owned, meaning £30,000 of stamp duty was paid, rather than the £70,000 due if it is a second home.

She claimed it was the only home she owned because she had previously given up her stake in the family home in her constituency in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.

Rayner had bought that property with her then-husband, Mark Rayner, in 2016.

As she outlined in a statement, in 2020 a trust was set up under the instructions of a court to manage a payout for a medical incident which had left their son with life-long disabilities.

In 2023, when her divorce from Mark was finalised, the pair elected to place part of their stakes in the home into their son's trust, for which they are among the trustees.

This was to enable a "nesting" arrangement, meaning the children could remain in the family home while the parents alternated living there.

Rayner sold her remaining 25% stake in the home to her son's trust in January this year, for which she received £162,500.

The trust had been set up by Shoosmiths, a major law firm which offers advice on many areas of law including tax and property.

But when she purchased the flat in Hove , she sought legal advice from a different, unidentified firm.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Shoosmiths told BBC News that they "did not act for the Rt Hon Angela Rayner in relation to the purchase of her Hove property and/or the [stamp duty] aspects of that property.

"Ms Rayner is not a current client of the firm and has not been for some time."

Rayner's team have not provided details of the law firm she used instead, and it is not clear if this was a conveyancing lawyer who specialises in property transactions or more specialist tax advice.

Rayner said that when she bought the Hove flat, "my understanding, on advice from lawyers, was that my circumstances meant I was liable for the standard rate of stamp duty".

This was because she had no financial stake in the Ashton home, even though her children remained there and she considered it her main residence. She also spends time at a government-provided flat in Admiralty Arch, central London.

However, this legal advice was wrong. This is because under tax law, if a property has been placed into trust for the benefit of children under 18, the parents of those children are deemed to be owners of the home for stamp duty purposes.

"If you have a trust in favour of your children, then it's treated as your property," said Dan Neidle, founder of Tax Policy Associates and a member of the Labour Party.

"We're talking about a deeming rule which deems a person, in this case Angela, to own a property in the stamp duty world…in circumstances [where] she doesn't own it at all in the real world," Randall added.

Unanswered questions

The question of what legal advice Rayner took when she bought the Hove property is crucial.

If it was simply a conveyancing lawyer with no tax expertise it is likely to be much harder for her to argue that she hasn't been negligent - and to avoid harsh penalties levied by the taxman.

"My suspicion in this case…is that she didn't give all the circumstances of the trust to the conveyancing lawyer," said James Quarmby, head of private wealth at Stephenson Harwood.

"The conveyancing lawyer may have just asked the bland question 'do you own any other properties?' And she says 'no'".

He said property lawyers typically state in their contracts that they don't provide tax advice.

Quarmby said he believed there was a "high" risk of Rayner being fined and that tax officials would want to see the advice she relied on and details of the instructions she had given her lawyer

"Relying on advice is not a complete defence - it must be reasonable to do so in the circumstances and that advice cannot be 'obviously wrong'," he said.

"Someone in the Revenue now with the whole glare of the UK's media on them is going to make a decision as to whether Rayner was careless," he said.

"If she gets a penalty for carelessness she is politically screwed".

Another key question - if the legal advice sought was from a conveyancer - is whether Rayner even mentioned her son's trust and the role it played in the ownership of her family home.

A spokesman for Rayner declined to answer these questions.

"If you're buying property and you have complicated affairs involving a trust, you need to speak to a tax adviser and tell them about the trust," Neidle said.

"If she did that and they got it wrong, {it is} not her fault. But if she didn't go to a specialist or didn't tell them about the trust, I think it was her fault," he added.

"I think a normal person with any sophistication would realise they should mention the trust when getting advice about something else. And a deputy prime minister who's already got into a previous tax scrape involving properties, surely should have a go."

He said this would also affect how HMRC levied penalties on the underpaid tax.

Rayner now faces an inquiry by the standards watchdog.

She has previously been critical of tax avoidance and also called former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi's position "untenable" when details emerged that he was in dispute with HMRC over his tax affairs.

Zahawi, who was forced to resign as Tory party chairman for failing to declare that he paid a settlement to HMRC, ended up paying £5m to settle the dispute - a sum which included a 30 per cent penalty for being "careless".

A similar verdict on Rayner's conduct from Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent ethics adviser, or from the tax authorities may prove politically fatal.

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.