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!)".

Sign up for our morning newsletter and get BBC News in your inbox.

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."