Several people have died and others are missing after flash flooding hit parts of central Texas on Friday morning.

Disaster declarations have been issued for the Hill Country and Concho Valley regions.

Rescues and evacuations have been underway since the early morning, but there are warnings of more potential flash flooding to come.

"Even if the rain is light, more flooding can occur in those areas," Acting Governor Dan Patrick said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the state was providing "all necessary resources to Kerrville, Ingram, Hunt and the entire Texas Hill Country dealing with these devastating floods".

The region is to the north-west of the Texas city of San Antonio.

Pictures show the deep flood waters swamping bridges and fast moving water swirling down roads.

Exactly how many people have died or are missing has not yet been confirmed by authorities.

"Folks, please don't take chances. Stay alert, follow local emergency warnings, and do not drive through flooded roads," Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller said.

Kerr County Sheriff's Office said the area had suffered a "catastrophic flooding event" and confirmed that fatalities had been reported.

It told residents near creeks, streams and the Guadalupe River to move to higher ground.

Hamas says it is consulting other Palestinian groups before giving a formal response to the latest proposal for a new Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal put forward by the US.

President Donald Trump said on Friday morning that expected to know within 24 hours whether Hamas has agreed to the plan.

On Tuesday, Trump said Israel had accepted the conditions necessary for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the 20-month war.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military is continuing to bomb targets across the Gaza Strip.

Local journalists reported hearing explosions and gunfire as Israeli helicopter gunships and artillery struck the southern Khan Younis area on Friday morning.

Overnight, at least 15 Palestinians were killed in strikes on two tents housing displaced people in Khan Younis, the local Nasser hospital said.

The Israeli military has not yet commented on the strikes, but it did say its forces were "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities".

In a statement issued early on Friday, Hamas said it was discussing with the leaders of other Palestinian factions the ceasefire proposal that it had received from regional mediators Qatar and Egypt.

Hamas said it would deliver a "final decision" to the mediators once the consultations had ended and then announce it officially.

The proposal is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages and the bodies of 18 other hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails.

Fifty hostages are still being held in Gaza, at least 20 of whom are believed to be alive.

One of Hamas's key demands is the resumption of unrestricted food and medical aid into Gaza, and the proposal reportedly says sufficient quantities would enter the territory immediately with the involvement of the United Nations and Red Cross.

It is said the plan would also include a phased Israeli military withdrawal from parts of Gaza.

Above all, Hamas wants a guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations will not resume after the end of the 60-day ceasefire.

The proposal is believed to say that negotiations on an end to the war and the release of the remaining hostages would begin on day one.

Donald Trump told reporters early on Friday that he expected to know "over the next 24 hours" whether the proposals would be accepted by Hamas.

The hope then would be the resumption of formal, indirect, talks ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington next week.

"We sure hope it's a done deal, but I think it's all going to be what Hamas is willing to accept," US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee told Israel's Channel 12 TV on Thursday.

"One thing is clear: The president wants it to be over. The prime minister wants it to be over. The American people, the Israeli people, want it to be over."

Netanyahu meanwhile promised to secure the release of all the remaining hostages during a visit to Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Israel-Gaza border where a total of 76 residents were abducted during the Hamas-led attack on 7 October 2023 that triggered the war.

"I feel a deep commitment, first of all, to ensure the return of all of our hostages, all of them," he said. "We will bring them all back."

He did not, however, commit to ending the war. He has insisted that will not happen until the hostages are freed and Hamas's military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

The Israeli military launched a campaign in Gaza in response to the 7 October 2023 attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage.

At least 57,130 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry.

In late 2023, sisters Lisa and Nicole were told they had inherited a substantial sum from their late Aunt Christine. But while they were absorbing this life-changing news, the windfall was just as quickly snatched away.

A man unknown to Christine's family, friends or neighbours, appeared - apparently from nowhere - and produced a will, naming him sole heir to her entire estate.

Doubts about the man's claim grew as troubling details emerged. However, the police and probate service said they would not investigate.

Lisa and Nicole's is one of several similar cases investigated by BBC News in the south of England.

We found mounting evidence that a criminal gang has been carrying out systematic will fraud by exploiting weaknesses in the probate system, stealing millions of pounds from the estates of dead people, and committing serious tax fraud.

'My dear friend'

Lisa and Nicole were upset to hear about the death of their aunt, Christine Harverson, whom they had not seen since their early childhood. They were also shocked to be told that they stood to inherit her entire estate, including a house in Wimbledon, south London, which could be worth nearly £1m. She had not left a will, and they were her closest living relatives.

The sisters were alerted to their inheritance by an "heir-finder" company, Anglia Research Services. Heir-finders use an official government register that lists estates where no will has been made. They research the dead person's family in order to identify, locate and contact the rightful heirs.

In return for a portion of the inheritance, these companies act on the heirs' behalf and apply for what's known as a grant of probate. This gives them the legal right to deal with a deceased person's estate – in other words, their property, money and possessions.

However, on this occasion, the application for probate on behalf of Lisa and Nicole was stopped in its tracks.

A Hungarian man by the name of Tamas Szvercsok contacted the probate service, and produced a will describing him as Christine's "dear friend".

It named him the beneficiary of her entire estate, as well as sole executor - the person legally responsible for carrying out the instructions in the will.

The possibility that Mr Szvercsok was genuine, initially was not dismissed out of hand.

"It happens - sometimes cases slip through the net and a will is unearthed," says Matt Boardman, a former police officer who works for Anglia Research.

However, there were clear signs something was amiss:

• Christine's neighbour and friend, Sue, said she had never mentioned a Hungarian friend at any point in the years they had known each other
• The will was dated 2016 - Christine was housebound and disabled by this time, and receiving practically no visitors
• The terms of the will meant that Christine would have disinherited her husband and carer Dennis, who in 2016 was still alive (he died in 2020)
• Moreover, because Dennis was the joint owner of their house, Christine could not have legally bequeathed the house without his consent
• After Dennis's death, Christine entered a care home, but there was no record of Mr Szvercsok ever visiting her

Other even more troubling details stood out.

Christine's home address was misspelled on the will, and even though it was dated 2016, the address given for Mr Szvercsok was a block of flats that had not been built until 2021.

Matt Boardman contacted Mr Szvercsok, who replied by email: "I never heard of any family. I'm the sole executor of her will."

Despite presenting what they thought was a strong case to police and the probate service, Lisa and Nicole were told they would have to bring a civil action if they wanted to prove that the will was a fake. That would cost tens of thousands of pounds which they do not have.

Lisa now says she sometimes wishes she had never been told about the will in the first place: "All it's done is bring misery really, and heartache. It's just a whole nightmare."

'Vacant goods'

Stealing a dead person's property and financial assets appears to be extremely easy under UK law, if no will can be located.

The official government register of unclaimed estates in England and Wales is called Bona Vacantia (Latin for "vacant goods"), and is freely accessible online. It currently contains about 6,000 names and is updated daily.

Legitimate heir-hunting companies use Bona Vacantia to research potential clients, but it also appears to have become a valuable resource for criminals.

To claim an estate where there is no known heir, a fraudster simply has to find a promising name on Bona Vacantia, produce a will quickly enough, and be awarded grant of probate.

Since 2017 it's been possible to apply for grant of probate online, but critics of the system say it is failing to detect suspicious applicants, and it also appears to increase the opportunity for tax fraud.

When someone dies, their estate has to be assessed for inheritance tax. This is not payable on estates worth £325,000 or less, but any amount over that threshold – with some exceptions - is taxed at 40%.

It's the responsibility of the person awarded grant of probate to make sure inheritance tax has been paid.

Applicants for grant of probate must complete a form to say this has been done, but under the current arrangements, they need do no more than declare on the online form that no tax is due.

It is a system that relies largely on trust, but gives ample opportunity for that trust to be roundly abused.

During our investigations we have come across cases where estates have been valued at just under the inheritance tax threshold, even though they include property worth far more.

One of these was the estate of Charles Haxton.

Whose house?

At the time of his death in 2021, Charles Haxton was living alone in a terraced house in Tooting, south London.

He was reclusive and only occasionally spoke to neighbours, although one of them, Roye Chapman, was there for him near the end when he suffered a bad fall outside.

"I rang the police and then got him up and got him into the ambulance," he says. "His head was all cut open, and then two weeks later, he died."

No will was initially found for Mr Haxton, and his name and address appeared on Bona Vacantia. This prompted Anglia Research to look for possible heirs, and they told several of his cousins that they could be in line to inherit Mr Haxton's estate.

Then, as with Lisa and Nicole, the cousins were told that a will had appeared after all, leaving everything to one man - also Hungarian - called Roland Silye.

The family initially accepted his claim, to have been an old friend of Mr Haxton, but one relation, Barry, obtained a copy of the will and was struck by how odd it looked.

It left Mr Silye two properties - not only Mr Haxton's home in London, but also a house in Hertfordshire.

Together, the two properties would have been worth about £2m. However, Mr Silye listed the value of the estate as £320,500 – just £4,500 short of the amount at which inheritance tax kicked in.

What was even stranger was that Mr Haxton had never owned, and had no connection to, any house in Hertfordshire.

We visited this property. It was large and dilapidated, and neighbours told us it had been unoccupied for a long time.

The puzzle of the extra house also caught the attention of Neil Fraser, a partner in another heir-hunting company. He thinks that Mr Silye may have bundled the Hertfordshire property into a will in an attempt to fake ownership.

"He must have gone past that house and thought, 'I'll just take that derelict house. How can I get that house? Well, I can put it inside a will!"

Crucially, the will was accepted by the probate service, who did not check or raise any questions about the Hertfordshire house.

We were unable to trace Roland Silye in our investigation, and his motivation remains a mystery.

The will would not give him possession of the Hertfordshire house - the property registry and the electoral roll name the owner as a woman who would be in her 70s.

However, Mr Fraser speculates that the will could be used in future as leverage to take ownership when the real owner dies.

Despite reporting his suspicions to the police and the probate service, he says action was not taken.

Mr Silye cleared probate not only for Mr Haxton's estate, but also that of George Woon, an elderly man from Southall, west London.

Mr Woon also died in 2021, and shortly afterwards, his name appeared on Bona Vacantia. Mr Silye came forward with a will which named him as sole heir. Mr Woon's house was later sold at auction for £360,000.

A complex web

We asked an expert in financial fraud, Graham Barrow, to check whether there could be any connection between Roland Silye and Tamas Szvercsok.

Both have names of Hungarian origin, and, according to Companies House, both appear to be directors in a complex and interlinked web of companies.

Mr Barrow established that the address Mr Szvercsok gave in Mrs Harverson's will was also used by Mr Silye for some of his companies.

What these companies do is unclear, although some have been struck off for fraudulent addresses, and others have been warned for failing to provide accounts.

The pattern - multiple businesses, related addresses, similar names - is one which often indicates a criminal network, says Mr Barrow.

He adds that owning multiple companies can allow criminals to disperse funds across different accounts and locations, and makes life more difficult for law enforcement.

Another Hungarian name featuring in this web of companies is Bela Kovacs, who, according to a will dated 2021, was heir to the entire estate of Michael Judd, from Pinner, west London.

According to his neighbours, Mr Judd was a multi-talented individual with a distinguished record in the security services. However, in his final years he had become something of a hoarder, seldom leaving his house.

One neighbour, Chris, told us he thought the will had sounded strange and not only because Mr Judd had never mentioned Bela Kovacs.

A few months before his death in 2024, Mr Judd told Chris he had made a will long ago, but the people named on it were all now dead. In any case, he added, he did not know where it was.

"I suppose I better try and dig it out some time," Chris remembers him saying.

He feels it's inconceivable that Mr Judd would have troubled himself with these decisions if he had made a will three years previously.

We tracked Mr Kovacs down to a luxury estate in the Watford area but he refused to talk to us.

Joined-up writing

Other factors seem to connect these cases.

The wills made out for Charles Haxton, George Woon and the others we have seen, appear to have been written by the same person, according to handwriting expert Christina Strang.

"The numbers two, four and seven are all written in the same way on several addresses," she says.

She also sees other similarities, such as the spacing of the letters in different signatures, and the positioning of the signatures on the line.

"It seems to be one person actually signing, forging all of these."

Ms Strang also thinks this same person may have also forged signatures for the witnesses named on the wills, none of whom, we found, were apparently known to the deceased, and some of whom might have been completely fictitious.

There are disturbing similarities in the way that properties were treated during and after the probate process:

• Shortly after Mr Szvercsok made his initial claim on Mrs Harverson's estate, her nieces discovered her Wimbledon house had been ransacked
• A workman employed to empty Mr Judd's house told us he had been instructed to empty it quickly, even though this meant having to destroy what appeared to be valuable heirlooms
• After Mr Haxton's house was cleared, the windows and doors were blacked out, and the locks strengthened; a year later, it emerged that it was being used as a cannabis farm (a fact that only emerged when a rival gang tried to force entry and neighbours alerted the police)

A system in trouble

As a result of our investigation, bank accounts for dozens of companies connected to the suspected fraudsters, have been suspended.

In addition, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has told us it now wants to question Roland Silye about inheritance tax which he might owe on the estate of Charles Haxton.

Bela Kovacs was granted probate over the estate of Michael Judd, which was valued at £310,000 - just below the inheritance tax threshold. However, HMRC's interest was also piqued by this case, and it has now suspended a planned sale of Mr Judd's bungalow in Pinner.

Meanwhile, the dispute over Christine Harverson's estate means the probate process has been frozen, and it looks unlikely to be resolved soon. Tamas Szvercsok cannot take possession of her Wimbledon house, but Lisa and Nicole lack the funds to go to the civil court and prove his will is fake.

We wrote to Mr Szvercsok and Mr Silye at the addresses supplied with their probate applications, offering them a right of reply, but we did not hear back.

When we shared our findings with the Ministry of Justice, which is ultimately responsible for the probate system, it told us that it was "working with law enforcement to ensure criminals feel the full force of the law".

However, a different picture emerges from others who know the system.

"Because probate isn't high profile – it's not sort of, for want of a better word, politically sexy, it doesn't stay in the headlines," says former MP Sir Bob Neill, who until the 2024 general election was the chair of the House of Commons Justice Select Committee.

In 2023, the select committee launched an inquiry into the probate system, but it was cut short by the election.

Sir Bob believes an over-eagerness to cut costs by digitising the probate system, has produced weaknesses which fraudsters are now exploiting.

"When you had regional offices you had human awareness, contact and scrutiny that was better suited to pick up cases where things have gone wrong," he says. "A purely sort of automated system isn't really good at doing that."

He says the system introduced in 2017 was a cheap and quick fix. It lacks the sophistication, he says, of programs used by insurance companies to deal with fraud, which can detect patterns of suspicious behaviour.

His concerns are echoed by Anglia Research's investigator, Matt Boardman, who says that previously, executors of wills would have had to attend their local probate registry to swear an oath, which "would allow the registrar to evaluate every single case on its own merit".

He says the system's move online "completely eliminated" the chance to question the executor's demeanour or behaviour.

"Goodness knows just how many of these have already gone through and been processed by the probate registry," he says, "and how rich we're making these people."

All eyes are on stunning Switzerland, as 16 teams battle it out to win Euro 2025, including Wales and defending champions England.

But how much do you know about the tournament? Take our quiz and limber up for the football event of the summer.

Written and produced by: Text Formats and Special Projects teams

Designs by: Dan Hague

Image credit: Getty Images

The Times reports that Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told the Cabinet that the decision to abandon welfare reforms means that taxes will have to rise to cover the cost. The paper says her comments "went significantly further than her public statements". To underline that point, "I can't rule out tax rises" is how the chancellor's interview with the Guardian is headlined.

The Daily Express suggests Reeves may target millions of middle earners with income tax rises as she is forced to clear up what the paper calls "Labour's welfare mess". Experts reportedly believe she may have to plug a black hole of £40 billion.

"Just ignore Farage", is the advice from Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph to Conservatives concerned about the rise of Reform UK. The paper quotes an interview the former prime minister has given to a Swiss magazine, in which he says the Tories should focus on what they are going to offer people. A Reform source says Mr Johnson did "unprecedented damage" to the country.

"A decidedly mixed record", is how the Times describes Sir Keir Starmer's first year as prime minister. The Daily Mail leads on comments from the leader of the Conservatives, Kemi Badenoch, in which she accuses the PM of presiding over a "year of lies and U-turns". According FT Weekend, many Labour MPs believe there have been "too many mistakes". But in its school report for the PM, the Daily Mirror says he "coped well" with Trump and Putin and "excelled" on defence and NHS spending.

"One for the bucket hat list", is the Guardian's take on the Oasis reunion gig in Cardiff. Liam and Noel Gallagher walked on stage hand-in-hand, but according to the Daily Star they had "lost none of their sneering cool and arrogant indifference". The Daily Mirror says the brothers "found their stride" with "Morning Glory and Some Might Say". "The best reunion ever?" asks the Daily Mail. The answer: "Definitely (not maybe!)".

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On Saturday more than one million people are expected to attend Pride in London, the UK's largest LGBTQ+ event.

But despite huge visitor numbers, organisers say the event - and others like it around the country - face an uncertain future due to a drop in funding and falling volunteer numbers.

More than 85 Pride organisations say they've seen a reduction in corporate sponsorships or partnerships, according to a questionnaire by the UK Pride Organisers Network (UKPON), which said it represents the majority of UK Pride events.

Some celebrations have already been cancelled or postponed, while others are scaling back plans or charging for tickets to what have previously been free-to-attend events.

The UK's Pride movement began in 1972 when a group called the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) decided that, as well as protesting, it was also important to celebrate the community.

At the time, same-sex couples showing affection in public could have seen them arrested.

Now, Pride events take part across the world, often combining protest, in the form of marches and rallies, with parties and live entertainment.

BBC News has spoken to a number of Pride organisers about their worries for the future of Pride events, and what they believe is behind the drop in funding.

'If America sneezes, the UK catches a cold'

Dee Llewellyn is volunteer chair of UKPON, and also works full-time as Pride in London's head of partnerships.

She believes that, for large-scale celebrations such as in Pride in London, international corporations moving away from Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI) policies is one of the driving forces behind the drop in donations.

She said: "There's an old saying, if America sneezes, then the UK catches a cold, and I think we're really feeling that right now.

"Global corporations, with head offices based in America, have had their DEI funding cut, which has meant that some corporations, even ones that have been really long-standing supporters of Pride in the UK, have no longer got a budget to do so."

Despite the difficulties it faces, London continues to be the UK's largest Pride event and over the past few years attendance has grown to 1.5 million people, making it one of the city's largest public events.

According to the Pride in London website, the cost of their 2024 event was £1.7m.

Asked why a Pride event - which is seen by many as a form of protest first and foremost - costs this much to run, Dee told the BBC: "It's about making safe spaces, not just emotionally safe but physically safe for everybody there as well - it means paying for security staff, barriers, road closures.

"As Pride grows, and the numbers grow, the cost and the level of health and safety and other infrastructure grows as well. No Pride would be able to go ahead without meeting those health and safety regulations."

Although the focus this weekend will be very much on the capital, UKPON told the BBC that Pride events up and down the country are facing similar issues.

In April UKPON asked its 201 members whether they were facing any financial or operational pressures.

Of the 112 organisations that responded:

• More than 85 reported lost revenue from corporate sponsorships and partnerships this year
• More than 40 said that the drop was between 26% - 50% compared to last year
• 21 said they'd experienced their revenue fall by more than half in that same period
• More than 60 said they'd seen reductions in grants from corporations or charities

In recent weeks, several Pride organisations have taken the decision to cancel events.

Liverpool City Region Pride announced in June that rising costs and difficulty securing funding "made it impossible to bring Pride to Liverpool this year".

Another charity has since stepped in to organise an alternative event.

'I'm absolutely gutted'

Plymouth Pride, which organisers say usually has an estimated 6,000-7,000 attendees, will this year also not go ahead in its official capacity.

Organisers told the BBC they were £12,000 short of the estimated £35,000 it costs to put on their annual event, which includes a march through the city and a number of stages showing entertainment.

Alex MacDonald, chair of Plymouth Pride, told the BBC that rising costs for things like security, first aid and toilet facilities, combined with a drop in grant funding, had left the organisation with no choice but to cancel the official event.

He said: "Ultimately it was [grant] funding that was the make or break for us and this year it didn't work.

"I'm just absolutely gutted because I think it's more important this year to have Pride than any other year."

A smaller group, Plymouth Community Pride, has now raised funds to host an alternative event in the city.

"We've been very lucky this year, the community rallied together and a separate organisation is putting on lots of little events. We'll hopefully come back bigger and stronger next year," Alex added.

Charging for tickets is 'one of the most difficult decisions'

In June, more than 6,000 people attended The Pink Picnic, an event organised by a team of volunteers from Salford Pride in the city's Peel Park.

Started in 2011, it's marketed by organisers as a small, community-focused Pride event and is seen as a quieter alternative to Manchester Pride, a ticketed multi-day event with celebrity headliners which takes place a few miles down the road.

In 2025, Salford Pride took the decision to charge for tickets for the first time in order to plug what they say was a £40,000 shortfall in sponsorships from corporate partners.

The team, made up entirely of volunteers, decided to charge £5 per ticket, but estimate that the event costs around £18 per head.

Reece Holmes, event lead for Salford Pride, said it was "one of the most difficult decisions" his team of volunteers have had to make and that it led to some "being subjected to quite a lot of abuse online."

Despite The Pink Picnic being a relatively small event, costs such as security and stewards - which Reece said are essential to run a public event - mean it costs around £100,000 a year to run.

He told the BBC: "We've had a 28% increase in costs from 2024, but we've also lost three corporate sponsors since then.

"It's a mixture of economic issues and I think the political climate at the minute, I think [companies] are a little bit scared to support Prides."

Reece said that without charging for tickets to cover some of the costs, the event would not have been able to go ahead.

"We're being forced to make these kinds of decisions due to a lack of funding, due to economic issues and due to the political climate."

Although many Prides have told the BBC they are struggling financially, and may have to scale back or charge more for events in the future, Dee Llewellyn said there is "no chance" Pride as a movement will stop.

She added: "We need to remember that we as a community are incredibly resilient.

"We have always been resilient and we always will be, so while we might go through this ebb and flow, and we've fallen off a cliff this year with corporate partnerships, we will find ways around that.

"We are going to club together, stand together and be stronger and more united and we will come back stronger."

Oasis blew off the cobwebs and swept away the doubters as they kicked off their reunion tour in Cardiff.

Taking to the stage after a 16-year break, the band sounded refreshed and rejuvenated, tearing into classics like Cigarettes and Alcohol, Live Forever and Slide Away - as 70,000 fans clasped each other and spilled beer all over themselves.

They opened with Hello, with its chorus of "it's good to be back", following up with Acquiesce - one of the few songs that features vocals from both Noel and Liam Gallagher.

The lyric "we need each other" felt like a reconciliation - or a sigh of relief - as the brothers buried the hatchet of a decades-long feud and reconnected with their fans.

Liam, in particular, attacked the gig with wild-eyed passion - stalking the stage and biting into the lyrics like a lion tearing apart its prey.

The audience responded in kind. A communal fervour greeted songs like Wonderwall and Don't Look Back In Anger, both pulled from Oasis's 1995 masterpiece, (What's The Story Morning Glory) - one of the biggest selling British albums of all time.

All night, it was one singalong after another: Some Might Say, Supersonic, Whatever, Half The World Away, Rock 'n' Roll Star.

During Live Forever - which they dedicated to Liverpool footballer Diogo Jota - the audience even sang Noel's guitar solo.

"You sound like a load of Charlotte Churches," said Liam, impressed, after Stand By Me.

The frontman sounded fresh and powerful himself, putting to rest the vocal issues that had plagued him on previous tours - a result of Hashimoto's disease, an auto-immune condition that can affect the voice.

As fans will know, Oasis were never the most dynamic act on stage. Noel, in particular, wears the studious look of a man trying to remember his National Insurance number - but somehow, it's impossible to take your eyes off them.

Although they came out hand in hand, there were few other signs of chemistry between the brothers, who never addressed one another during the two-and-a-quarter hour show.

But just hearing them harmonise again, after all the animosity, and the turbulent waters under the bridge, was hugely emotional.

"Nice one for putting up with us over the years," said Liam, introducing the night's last song, Champagne Supernova. "We are hard work, I get it."

As they left the stage, the Gallaghers shared a brief hug.

But the band's volatility was always part of the appeal.

Their off-stage antics made the headlines as often as their music: They missed their first European gig after getting arrested on a cross-channel ferry, Liam lost two front teeth in a fight with German police, and later abandoned a pivotal US tour go house-hunting.

Half the fun was working out which act of the Shakespearean drama was being enacted in front of you.

Still, Liam’s antics often frustrated his brother.

"Noel is the guy who's chained to the Tasmanian devil," Danny Eccleston, consultant editor of Mojo, once said. "A lifetime of that would wear you down."

It all came to a head at a gig in Paris in 2009. Oasis split up after a backstage altercation that began with Liam throwing a plum at his older brother's head.

In the intervening years, they engaged in a long war of words in the press, on stage and social media.

Liam repeatedly called Noel a "massive potato" on Twitter and, more seriously, accused him of skipping the One Love concert for victims of the Manchester Arena bombing.

Noel responded by saying Liam was a "village idiot" who "needs to see a psychiatrist".

But relations thawed last year, with Liam dedicating Half The World Away to his brother at the Reading Festival last August.

Two days later, the reunion was announced, with the band declaring: "The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over. Come see. It will not be televised."

A scramble for tickets ensued, with more than 10 million people applying to see the 19 UK dates alone.

Those who succeeded were shocked by the high prices - especially when standing tickets advertised at £155 were re-labelled "in demand" and changed on Ticketmaster to £355 plus fees.

On stage, Liam made light of the scandal, asking the audience: "Is it worth the £4,000 you paid for a ticket?"

For many, the answer was yes. Cardiff was awash with Oasis fanatics from all over the world - including Peru, Japan, Argentina, Spain and South Korea.

An Italian couple had "live forever" inscribed in their wedding rings. A British woman, expecting her first child, had scrawled "our kid" - Noel's nickname for Liam - across her baby bump.

The city was awash in bucket hats and branded tracksuit tops. Outside the stadium, an enterprising busker drew a massive crowd by playing a set of Oasis songs. Everyone joined in.

Inside, the band stuck to the classics, with a setlist that only strayed out of the 1990s once, for 2002's Little By Little.

The songs held up remarkably well.

The youthful hunger of tracks like Live Forever and Supersonic crackled with energy. And Cigarettes and Alcohol, written by Noel in 1991, about the discontent of Manchester's working classes after 15 years of Conservative rule, sounded as relevant in 2025 as it did then.

"Is it worth the aggravation to find yourself a job when there's nothing worth working for?" snarled Liam. Fans, young and old, roared along in recognition and approval.

I have seen Oasis many, many times and this was the best they've been since 1995, when I caught them supporting REM at Ireland's Slane Castle, as they limbered up for the release of (What's The Story) Morning Glory.

The Manchester band blew the headliners away - instantly making them seem dated and irrelevant - in a show that threatened to devolve into chaos after Liam threatened a fan who'd thrown a projectile on stage.

They might not have that sense of danger in 2025, but there was a hunger and a passion that was missing from their last shows in 2009.

Fans, and some parts of the British press, are already speculating over whether Liam and Noel's rapprochement will hold – but from the evidence on stage in Cardiff, the Gallaghers are finally, belatedly mad fer it once more.

Oasis setlist - 4 July 2025

• Hello
• Acquiesce
• Morning Glory
• Some Might Say
• Bring it on down
• Cigarettes & Alcohol
• Fade Away
• Supersonic
• Roll With It
• Talk Tonight (Noel sings)
• Half the World Away (Noel sings)
• Little by Little (Noel sings)
• D'You Know What I Mean
• Stand By Me
• Cast No Shadow
• Slide Away
• Whatever
• Live Forever
• Rock and Roll Star

Encore

• The Masterplan (Noel sings)
• Don't Look Back in Anger (Noel sings)
• Wonderwall
• Champagne Supernova

Palestine Action will be banned from midnight after a judge refused its request to temporarily block the government from proscribing it as a terror group.

On Friday, a High Court judge refused the group more time to pursue legal action against the government's decision.

The proposed ban, which amends the Terrorism Act 2000, will come into force after being approved by both the House of Commons and House of Lords earlier this week.

It means supporting Palestine Action will become a criminal offence, with membership or expressing support for the direct action group punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

The move was taken to ban the group after an estimated £7m of damage was caused to planes at RAF Brize Norton last month, in action claimed by Palestine Action.

At a hearing earlier on Friday, Raza Husain KC, barrister for Palestine Action's co-founder Huda Ammori, told the court banning the group would be "ill-considered" and an "authoritarian abuse" of power.

"This is the first time in our history that a direct action civil disobedience group, which does not advocate for violence, has been sought to be proscribed as terrorists," he said.

Pictures of a weepy Rachel Reeves dominated the newspaper front pages and TV news after her tearful appearance at Prime Minister's Questions earlier this week.

The markets were spooked so much by her emotional appearance that the cost of government borrowing immediately jumped and the pound took a dive.

The sight of most of us crying in the workplace is unlikely to move financial markets, but does it matter if you do?

Does it show weakness, or strength, or simply that you're in touch with your emotions?

Anecdotally, it's not unusual to have a bit of a sniffle at work. Several people got in touch with the BBC to say they had let it all out.

Clara, 48, from Lancaster, said she had become emotional when she was a young graduate getting a "blasting", and years later "in frustration".

"I've also cried after receiving bad news from home and left work immediately."

Emma, meanwhile, felt she had to keep her emotions under wraps because she worked in "a tough male-dominated environment" and would give herself a hard time for "showing emotion or 'weakness'."

Although some research has suggested women are more likely than men to cry, plenty of men told us they had also shed tears in front of colleagues.

Guy Clayton, a doctor, said he had often cried "with patients, colleagues and families over the years, when I've shared their sadness".

A 38-year-old from London who works in finance said he had become emotional at work when dealing with personal issues and felt it showed "a professional dedication" to still turn up.

'Strength, not a liability'

So is crying a strength or a weakness? Executive coach and success mentor Shereen Hoban says it's old-fashioned to think weeping at work is unacceptable.

"We've moved beyond the old-school idea that professionalism means leaving emotion at the door," she says. "In today's world, emotional intelligence is a strength, not a liability."

Career coach Georgia Blackburn says it's not unusual for people at work to be upset, so firms need to know how to handle and support staff who are feeling a bit fragile.

Ultimately, she says it will mean workers get more done.

"An employer that truly listens, shows compassion and understanding, is so much more likely to keep their staff motivated and happier in the long run," she says.

That's been the case for Amanda in Stockport who contacted the Jeremy Vine show on BBC Radio 2.

She cried at a job interview at the University of Manchester 17 years ago, just after her father had been diagnosed with cancer.

She got the job and is still there.

"I cried every day for about nine months until my dad sadly passed away. It just made me realise what an amazing person I work for, and what an amazing place I work at, where that was OK."

'Bring back crying'

Fashion designer Amy Powney was having a bit of a rough time at the end of last year.

She was having an "intense" time leaving a job, and it coincided with traumatic things happening in her life.

Amy, who founded sustainable fashion brand Akyn earlier this year, also felt pressure to be a "poster child" for ethical fashion.

"My to-do list at that time was: feed the kids, pick them up from school, sort that nursery thing out, design the next collection, make sure the staff are OK, sort out that VAT return... and then save the world," she told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

"I went through this period of time where I just could not stop crying and I was doing it in public places, I was doing it on stage."

She thinks that showing emotion at work has been "demonised" and is unapologetic about breaking down.

"I just think bring back the crying, bring back the emotions," she says.

"Women in leadership should be able to show their emotion. I think it's a superpower. I think it's a strength."

Men v women, staff v bosses

But not everybody thinks that way. Some people are still a teensy bit judgemental, says Ann Francke, chief executive at the Chartered Management Institute (CMI).

Women who weep are seen as "too emotional" while men who mope can be shamed for being soft and vulnerable, she says.

Junior staff can get away with it more than their bosses, but this shouldn't necessarily be the case, she adds.

"When a senior leader cries, it can be seen as shocking or even inappropriate. But when handled with authenticity, it can also be powerful. It shows that leaders are human and care deeply about what they do," she says.

But if you want to climb the greasy pole, it could be best to keep a stiff upper lip, at least in some organisations, says executive coach Shereen Hoban.

Crying could affect your promotion prospects, she says. "Let's be honest. There's still a bias in some workplaces that sees composure as strength and emotion as instability."

But she says some organisations see things differently, and value leaders who are "real, self-aware, and able to navigate complexity, including their own emotions".

She adds that if you break down once at work it "won't ruin your career", and that what matters more is the bigger picture:

"Your performance, your presence, and how you bounce back or move forward with intention," she says.

What to do if you become tearful at work

• Give yourself permission to step back and take a moment

• You don't need to hide your emotions, it often shows you care deeply about your job – that's not a bad thing

• But you should feel supported, so maybe talk to a trusted colleague, take a short break or ask for support from your manager or HR

• Managers and colleagues need to acknowledge when their staff are crying – offer a tissue to them, don't pretend it's not happening

Provided by the CMI

Abbie was 16 years old when she started using ketamine. It was the first time she had felt in control.

The negative thoughts that had swamped her mind since a young age began to dissipate.

Twelve years later and fresh out of rehab she's still battling with the addiction that almost took her life.

She wants to speak out to explain why ketamine has become such a popular drug - especially among young people with mental health problems - and to talk about the damage it can do long term.

Abbie's warning comes as the first NHS clinic in the UK - dedicated to helping children struggling with ketamine use - opens on Merseyside, with patients as young as 12 needing help.

Ketamine is unlike many other street drugs due to the way it interacts with the brain.

Small amounts of the Class B drug can give a sense of euphoria and excitement, while large amounts can lead to a state known as the "K-hole," where users feel detached from reality - an out-of-body-type experience.

The number of under 16s reporting a problem with the drug has nearly doubled over the past two years, overtaking cocaine in popularity with children and young people.

Nearly half those (49%) who started treatment for drug misuse in 2023-24 said they had a mental health problem, with more than a quarter not receiving any treatment for the latter.

Details of help and support with addiction are available in the UK at BBC Action Line

Experts are warning that some young people are taking dangerous amounts of ketamine not only due to it's low price and ease of availability, but also because of the dissociative feelings it brings.

"What we are seeing is a perfect storm," David Gill, the founder of Risk and Reliance, a company which trains front-line workers on emerging drug trends.

"We have more young people struggling with depression, trauma, anxiety, a lack of services - and we have a very cheap street drug that helps them disconnect."

Abbie's first line of ketamine did exactly that. She says it "felt like such a powerful place to be".

"My thoughts no longer had a negative effect on me - life was passing me by, but I didn't have to engage with it."

Abbie's childhood had been hard. Struggling with mental health problems and undiagnosed ADHD, she had left school at 14 and found herself in a whirlwind of drink, drugs and unhealthy relationships.

Although addiction cast a long shadow throughout her 20s, Abbie managed to secure a place at university, staying clean throughout, and obtained a healthcare degree.

She is smart, articulate and wants to do well, but after two abusive and controlling relationships ketamine became the only means she had to block out the trauma.

Yet when she went to her GP to seek help she was prescribed sleeping tablets and told to "come off the ket".

"The withdrawals were so bad I would be shaking and vomiting," she says, "it wasn't that easy to just come off it."

Then a deeper level of addiction took hold.

"I always prided myself in the early stages of addiction of keeping my morals and my values and not lying to people," Abbie says, "but I couldn't stop the drugs and I found myself hiding my use to my friends."

Things escalated. Eventually Abbie was taking ketamine every day - incessantly. The only time she would take a shower, she says, would be when she went out to meet her dealer on the street.

The physical effects of overuse began to kick in - horrific abdominal pains, known as K-cramps, would leave her screaming in agony. She would place boiling hot water bottles on her abdomen - burning her skin. And then she would take even more ketamine to numb the pain.

What is ketamine?

• Often referred to as ket, Special K or just K, ketamine is a powerful horse tranquilliser and anaesthetic. It is a licensed drug and can be prescribed medically
• When misused, it can cause serious and sometimes permanent damage to the bladder
• It is currently a Class B drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971
• The penalty for possession is up to five years in prison, an unlimited fine - or both

This cycle of drug abuse is something public health consultant Professor Rachel Isba also sees in her new clinic for under 16s experiencing the physical side effects of ketamine use.

Chronic use of the drug can cause ketamine-induced uropathy, a relatively new condition, which affects the bladder, kidneys and liver. The bladder lining becomes so inflamed it can result in permanent damage and it has to be removed.

Prof Isba says the first signs of ketamine bladder are severe abdominal pains, urinating blood and jelly from the damaged bladder lining.

"Patients referred to the clinic will receive a holistic approach," she says, "care from the specialist urology team to treat the physical effects of the drug, and then they will be supported - and referred if necessary - to community services who can help with the often complex reasons behind their drug use."

'Completely helpless'

Sarah Norman, from St Helens, says she felt like a "silent watcher" as her daughter began to "fade in front" of her eyes.

Last September she discovered that Maisie, 25, was addicted to ketamine, which had caused potentially irreversible damage to her kidneys.

"We are just an average family," Sarah says. "I never thought Maisie would have ended up addicted to any drugs - she doesn't even drink alcohol."

Maisie had kept it quiet - ashamed of the stigma attached to her ketamine use. But what had started as a party drug she'd take at festivals had become a substance she couldn't function without.

In the end her partner moved out with their three-year-old son.

"I had nothing left to live for," Maisie says. "It got to the point I was doing bump after bump [snorting small amounts of it].

"For a short time I would be knocked out of reality - then I would take more."

Eventually, Maisie's mum and sister carried her into hospital - she weighed just five stone (32kg).

"The doctors said her body was failing her," Sarah says. "We thought we might lose her."

As a parent, she says, she felt completely helpless.

"It's hell on earth, there is nothing you can do. You ask yourself what you should have done."

Maisie's kidneys were fitted with nephrostomy tubes, which drain the urine out into two bags - which she now carries around with her.

Yet even this major operation didn't end Maisie's addiction. But finally, after fighting for a place in rehab she has now been clean for five months.

Sarah posts about her daughter's drug journey on Tik Tok where many parents reach out to her for help and advice with their own children.

"This drug is just horrific, so many other young people are struggling with it," Sarah says. "I am so proud of Maisie though, she's going to Narcotics Anonymous meetings every night.

"The pain she must have been through - and still goes through - I'm not sure if I'd have been as resilient and strong as she is."

Abbie was rejected from NHS rehabilitation services twice, and reached a point where she considered taking her own life.

"There was so much chaos around me and the services weren't going to help me, I just wanted to end it all," she says.

But after sending a five-page letter to the panel that decides on eligibility she finally managed to access a detox and rehabilitation service.

"I had three choices," Abbie says, "rehab, section - or in a coffin."

Abbie was treated in the same rehabilitation unit as Maisie. She is now out, clean and proud of herself but says the treatment she received failed to deal with her trauma.

"I can look after myself on a daily basis and I'm doing OK. The real work starts now I'm out of rehab," she says, " and now I am clean, hopefully I can get the mental health support I so desperately needed when I was using."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said that as part of its 10 Year Health Plan to reform the NHS, it was going to be much "bolder in moving from sickness to prevention".

"This government is driving down the use of drugs like ketamine, ensuring more people receive timely treatment and support, and making our streets and communities safer."

A tiny, obscure animal often sold as aquarium food has been quietly protecting our planet from global warming by undertaking an epic migration, according to new research.

These "unsung heroes" called zooplankton gorge themselves and grow fat in spring before sinking hundreds of metres into the deep ocean in Antarctica where they burn the fat.

This locks away as much planet-warming carbon as the annual emissions of roughly 55 million petrol cars, stopping it from further warming our atmosphere, according to researchers.

This is much more than scientists expected. But just as researchers uncover this service to our planet, threats to the zooplankton are growing.

Scientists have spent years probing the animal's annual migration in Antarctic waters, or the Southern Ocean, and what it means for climate change.

The findings are "remarkable", says lead author Dr Guang Yang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, adding that it forces a re-think about how much carbon the Southern Ocean stores.

"The animals are an unsung hero because they have such a cool way of life," says co-author Dr Jennifer Freer from British Antarctic Survey.

But compared to the most popular Antarctic animals like the whale or penguin, the small but mighty zooplankton are overlooked and under-appreciated.

If anyone has heard of them, it's probably as a type of fish food available to buy online.

But their life cycle is odd and fascinating. Take the copepod, a type of zooplankton that is a distant relative of crabs and lobsters.

Just 1-10mm in size, they spend most of their lives asleep between 500m to 2km deep in the ocean.

In pictures taken under a microscope, you can see long sausages of fat inside their bodies, and fat bubbles in their heads, explains Prof Daniel Mayor who photographed them in Antarctica.

Without them, our planet's atmosphere would be significantly warmer.

Globally the oceans have absorbed 90% of the excess heat humans have created by burning fossil fuels. Of that figure, the Southern Ocean is responsible for about 40%, and a lot of that is down to zooplankton.

Millions of pounds is being spent globally to understand how exactly they store carbon.

Scientists were already aware that the zooplankton contributed to carbon storage in a daily process when the animals carbon-rich waste sinks to the deep ocean.

But what happened when the animals migrate in the Southern Ocean had not been quantified.

The latest research focussed on copepods, as well as other types of zooplankton called krill, and salps.

The creatures eat phytoplankton on the ocean surface which grow by transforming carbon dioxide into living matter through photosynthesis. This turns into fat in the zooplankton.

"Their fat is like a battery pack. When they spend the winter deep in the ocean, they just sit and slowly burn off this fat or carbon," explains Prof Daniel Mayor at University of Exeter, who was not part of the study.

"This releases carbon dioxide. Because of the way the oceans work, if you put carbon really deep down, it takes decades or even centuries for that CO2 to come out and contribute to atmospheric warming," he says.

The research team calculated that this process - called the seasonal vertical migration pump - transports 65 million tonnes of carbon annually to at least 500m below the ocean surface.

Of that, it found that copepods contribute the most, followed by krill and salps.

That is roughly equivalent to the emissions from driving 55 million diesel cars for a year, according to a greenhouse gas emissions calculator by the US EPA.

The latest research looked at data stretching back to the 1920s to quantify this carbon storage, also called carbon sequestration.

But the scientific discovery is ongoing as researchers seek to understand more details about the migration cycle.

Earlier this year, Dr Freer and Prof Mayor spent two months on the Sir David Attenborough polar research ship near the South Orkney island and South Georgia.

Using large nets the scientists caught zooplankton and brought the animals onboard.

"We worked in complete darkness under red light so we didn't disturb them," says Dr Freer.

"Others worked in rooms kept at 3-4C. You wear a lot of protection to stay there for hours at a time looking down the microscope," she adds.

But warming waters as well as commercial harvesting of krill could threaten the future of zooplankton.

"Climate change, disturbance to ocean layers and extreme weather are all threats," explains Prof Atkinson.

This could reduce the amount of zooplankton in Antarctica and limit the carbon stored in the deep ocean.

Krill fishing companies harvested almost half a million tonnes of krill in 2020, according to the UN.

It is permitted under international law, but has been criticised by environmental campaigners including in the recent David Attenborough Ocean documentary.

The scientists say their new findings should be incorporated into climate models that forecast how much our planet will warm.

"If this biological pump didn't exist, atmospheric CO2 levels would be roughly twice those as they are at the moment. So the oceans are doing a pretty good job of mopping up CO2 and getting rid of it," explains co-author Prof Angus Atkinson.

The research is published in the journal Limnology and Oceanography.

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The Western Indian town of Kolhapur has found itself in an unlikely global spotlight, as thousands of local artisans who hand-craft traditional leather footwear are mounting a collective attack on luxury fashion label Prada for plagiarising their designs without credit.

The rhythmic pounding of the hammer in 58-year-old Sadashiv Sanake's dimly lit workshop bears witness to the hard grind behind handcrafting the iconic Kolhapuri leather sandals.

"I learnt the craft as a child," he tells the BBC. A day's toil goes into making just "eight to 10 pairs" of these sandals he says, that retail at a modest $8-10

Barely 5,000 artisans in Kolhapur are still in the profession – a cottage industry that struggles to compete in a mechanised world, caught in the funk of dismal working conditions and low wages.

It's no surprise then that when Italian luxury brand Prada released a new line of footwear that bore a striking resemblance to the Kolhapuri sandals - but didn't mention the design origins - local artisans were up in arms.

The backlash was swift. Social media was flooded with accusations of cultural appropriation, prompting Prada to issue a statement acknowledging the sandals' roots.

Now local politicians and industry associations have thrown their weight behind the artisans who want better recognition of the craft and its cultural legacy.

Mr Sanake was not aware of Prada's show until the BBC showed him a video of it. When told that that the sandals could retail for hundreds of pounds in luxury markets, he scoffed. "Do they have gold in them?" he asked.

Prada hasn't revealed the price tag but its other sandals retail at between £600 to £1,000 in the UK as per its website.

The earliest records of Kolhapur sandals date back to the 12th Century.

"These sandals were originally crafted by members of the marginalised Charmakar (cobbler) community, also known as chamars," said Kavita Gagrani, a history professor at the New College in Kolhapur.

Chamar is a pejorative caste term used to describe Dalits (formerly known as untouchables) who work with animal hides.

"But in the early 20th Century, the craft flourished when the then ruler of Kolhapur, Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj granted royal patronage to this community," Ms Gagrani said.

Today, nearly 100,000 artisans across India are engaged in the trade with an industry worth over $200m, according to the Maharashtra Chamber of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture (MACCIA), a prominent industry trade group.

Yet, most of them continue to work in unorganised setups under dismal conditions.

"I was never educated. This is all I know, and I earn about $4-5 a day, depending on the number of orders," said 60-year-old Sunita Satpute.

Women like her play a critical role, particularly in engraving fine patterns by hand, but are not compensated fairly for their long hours of labour, she said.

That's why Sunita's children don't want to continue the craft.

A short distance away from her workshop lies Kolhapur's famous chappal gully, or sandal lane, a cluster of storefronts - many of them struggling to stay afloat.

"Leather has become very expensive and has pushed up our costs," said Anil Doipode, one of the first sellers to open a shop here.

Traditionally, artisans would use cow and buffalo hide to make these sandals. But since 2014, when the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power, there have been several reports of vigilantes - self-appointed protesters or activists - cracking down on alleged cow slaughter, sometimes with physical violence. The cow is considered sacred by Hindus.

In 2015, Maharashtra state banned the slaughter of cows and the sale and consumption of beef, forcing artisans to rely on buffalo leather sourced from neighbouring states, pushing up their production costs.

Traditional sellers are also struggling to compete with synthetic copies flooding the market.

"Customers want cheaper sandals and can't always tell the difference," said Rohit Balkrishna Gavali, a second-generation Kolhapuri sandal seller.

Industry experts say the controversy highlights the need for a better institutional framework to protect the rights of artisans.

In 2019, the Indian government had awarded Kolhapuri sandals the Geographical Indication (GI) - a mark of authenticity which protects its name and design within India, preventing unauthorised use by outsiders.

Globally, however, there is no binding law that stops other countries or brands from aesthetic imitation.

Aishwarya Sandeep, a Mumbai-based advocate, says that India could raise the issue at the World Trade Organization under its TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) agreement, of which it is a signatory.

But the system is cumbersome, expensive and often lacks enforceability, both in India and abroad, she adds.

Lalit Gandhi, the president of MCCIA, says his organisation is planning to patent the Kolhapuri sandal design, hoping to create a legal precedent for future cases.

But some say real change can only happen when India starts seeing its traditional heritage in a different light.

"It's about ethical recognition. India must push for royalty-sharing and co-branding," says Ritu Beri, a renowned designer. "The more we take pride in our culture, the less we will be exploited."

Of course, this isn't the first time a global fashion brand has been accused of appropriating Indian handicrafts.

Many big labels have featured Indian fabrics and embroidery work with little to no artist collaboration. "Take Chikankari (a delicate hand-embroidery style from the northern Indian city of Lucknow), Ikat (a cloth-dyeing technique), mirror work; they've all been used repeatedly. The artisans remain invisible while brands profit from their inspiration," Ms Beri says.

Mr Gandhi, however, says that Prada's endorsement of Kolhapuri sandals could also be beneficial for artisans.

"Under their label, the value [of Kolhapuri sandals] is going to increase manifold," he says. "But we want some share of that profit to be passed on to artisans for their betterment."

Rohit Balkrishna Gavali, a sandal-seller in Kolhapur, agrees - he has already begun to see the difference.

"The design Prada used wasn't even very popular, but now people are asking for it, with clients from Dubai, the US and Qatar" placing orders, he says.

"Sometimes, controversy can help," he adds. "But it would be nice if it also brought respect and better prices for those keeping this tradition alive."

The issue is unlikely to die down soon.

For now, a plea has been filed in a high court, demanding Prada pay damages and compensation to artisans, along with a court-supervised collaboration between the luxury label and artisan associations.

Prada has told BBC in a statement that it is in talks with the MCCIA on this matter.

Mr Gandhi, its chief, says a meeting between the two sides is going to take place next week.

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