Hundreds of rescuers have been deployed to search for survivors in central Texas, after flash floods killed 43 people, including 15 children.

“The work continues, and will continue, until everyone is found,” promised Larry Leitha, the sheriff of Kerr County.

As the search goes into a second night, county officials said 27 children remained missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river.

Some parents confirmed their child’s death on social media. About 850 people have been rescued so far.

Multiple flash flood warnings remain in place over the weekend in central Texas.

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had signed an expanded disaster declaration to boost search efforts.

He said officials would be relentless in ensuring they locate “every single person who’s been a victim of this event”, adding that “we will stop when job is completed”.

It remains a search and rescue mission, officials said, not a recovery effort.

They said rescuers were going up and down the Guadalupe River to try to find people who may have been swept away by the floods.

US President Donald Trump said his administration is working closely with local authorities to respond to the emergency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the federal government would deploy the Coast Guard to help search efforts.

Forecasters have warned that central Texas may see more flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the area could see 2 to 5in (5cm to 12cm) of rain on Saturday.

Up to 10in of rain was possible in some areas badly affected by Friday’s deluge.

Much of the rescue has focused on a large all-girls’ Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic, located along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told the BBC’s Radio 4 PM programme many of 27 missing girls were “under the age of 12”.

Pictures from the camp show it in disarray, with blankets, mattresses, teddy bears and other belongings caked in mud.

Many were asleep when the river rose more than 26ft (8m) in less than an hour in the early hours of Friday.

In an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers, Camp Mystic said that if they haven’t been contacted directly, their child is considered missing.

Some of the families have already stated publicly that their children were among those who were found dead.

A special mass will be held at Notre Dame Catholic Church on Sunday for those who died or are missing, and their families.

Rachel Reed drove five hours from Dallas to pick up her daughter. She told the BBC that members of her church and children’s school district were among the girls dead and missing.

“The families of those campers are living every parent’s worst nightmare,” she said. “Of course, it could have been me.”

Others started returning to the flooded areas.

Jonathan and Brittany Rojas visited their relatives’ home – where only the foundation remained.

They told the BBC that the mother and a baby of the family remained missing. A teenage son, Leo, survived after he became snared in barbed wire.

Another resident, Anthony, found his apartment full of mud and debris. His belongings were not salvageable, except a box holding childhood photos and his baby blanket.

“I lost everything I own,” he told the BBC. “Now I’m trying to figure things out.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made his first public appearance since the start of Iran’s conflict with Israel, according to state media.

State television footage showed him greeting worshippers at a mosque on Saturday during a ceremony a day before the Shia festival of Ashura.

Khamenei’s last appearance was in a recorded address during the conflict with Israel, which began on 13 June and during which top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists were killed.

Israel launched a surprise attack on nuclear and military sites in Iran, after which Iran retaliated with aerial attacks targeting Israel.

• When Iran’s supreme leader emerges from hiding he will find a very different nation

During the 12-day war with Israel, Khamenei appeared on TV in three video messages and there was speculation that he was hiding in a bunker.

On Saturday Iranian media coverage was dominated by Khamenei’s appearance, with footage of supporters expressing joy at seeing him on television.

Khamenei is seen turning to senior cleric Mahmoud Karimi, encouraging him to “sing the anthem, O Iran”. The patriotic song became particularly popular during the recent conflict with Israel.

State TV said the clip was filmed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosque, named after the founder of the Islamic republic.

Iranian TV has invited people to send in videos sharing their reactions to Khamenei’s return to the public eye.

His appearance comes as the predominantly Shia Muslim country observes a period of mourning during the month of Muharram, traditionally attended by the supreme leader.

Ashura is held on the 10th day of Muharram – this year falling on 6 July – during which Shia Muslims commemorate the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hossein.

On 26 June, in pre-recorded remarks aired on state television, Khamenei said Iran would not surrender to Israel despite US President Donald Trump’s calls.

The US joined the war with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on 22 June.

The operation involved 125 US military aircraft and targeted three nuclear facilities: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

Iran’s judiciary said more than 900 people were killed during the 12-day war.

Sabrina Carpenter brought her signature sugary pop sound to a crowd of 65,000 at London’s BST Festival on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old has built a brand around sexual confidence and racy lyrics, which were noticeably toned down as the US singer embraced a more family friendly show in London’s Hyde Park.

At one point a graphic flashed up on screen advising “parental discretion” as Carpenter launched into album track Bed Chem. She ditched her usual sexually suggestive performance on song Juno and instead used a cannon to fire t-shirts into the crowd.

Despite these changes she was still at her best, storming through a 17-song tracklist that comprised her biggest hits, charming the crowd with her Hollywood smile and incredibly bouncy hair.

Carpenter writes music for women of the dating app generation and her songs are filled with the type of anecdotes you’ve heard over Friday night drinks with the girls – from the anger over not getting closure to the fear of a man embarrassing you when they meet all your friends.

Perhaps that is what makes her so relatable. She’s a talented singer and dancer who shot to fame on the Disney Channel, but she could also so easily be your mate who brings over ice cream when you’re going through a break-up.

Her ability to switch from a sassy upbeat dance number to a vulnerable, acoustic solo performance is also impressive.

She’s an accomplished performer for someone whose breakout hit, Espresso, is little over a year old. But much to the surprise of many, she’s been in this game for a very long time.

The Pennsylvania-born star began posting videos of herself on YouTube at the age of 10 and came third in a competition to find the next Miley Cyrus a year later.

After starring in a few small acting roles, the singer became a bona fide Disney star in 2013 when she was cast in TV series Girl Meets World.

She began releasing music the following year and has released six albums to date, but has only recently received global recognition.

Carpenter became the first female artist to hold both the number one and number two positions on the UK singles chart for three consecutive weeks in 2024 and she also became the first artist in 71 years to spend 20 weeks at the top of the charts with Espresso.

From watching her live, it appears she’s been waiting patiently for this moment for quite some time, to perform on the biggest stages around the world and to thousands of fans – something she references a few times between songs.

She told the crowd she was “so, so grateful” that the audience had chosen to spend their Saturday evening with her, gushing that “London is so fun and there’s so much to do here”.

Much of the cheekiness she has built her brand on was weaved in throughout her performance, including 1950s style infomercials advertising sprays that erase no-good men from your life and mattresses that are perfect for “activities”.

But aside from a racy rendition of Bed Chem and a snippet of Pony by Ginuine (one for the Magic Mike fans) the show was more PG than expected.

Perhaps it was due to the large volume of young children stood in the crowd amongst us Gen Zs and millennials.

Or perhaps the pop princess needs a break from making headlines.

The first was back in March, when her Brit Awards opening performance was criticised for being too racy for pre-watershed television.

Media watchdog Ofcom received more than 800 complaints, with the majority relating to Carpenter’s choreography with dancers dressed in Beefeater outfits.

Then in June this year she was once again under fire for sharing artwork for her new album, Man’s Best Friend, which showed her on her hands and knees in a short dress whilst an anonymous man in a suit grabbed her hair.

Carpenter then revealed alternative artwork she said was “approved by God” and shows her holding the arm of a suited man.

Criticism for the original artwork came from charities including Glasgow Women’s Aid which supports victims of domestic abuse. It said Carpenter’s album cover was “regressive” and “promotes an element of violence and control”.

Heather Binning of Women’s Rights Network, also told the BBC that violence against women should “never be used as satire”.

But what Saturday’s performance showed is that Carpenter is a true professional, someone who can easily adapt both her style and setlist to cater to different audiences.

She ended the show perfectly, taking to a crane that panned across the huge mass of people, thrilling fans and giving them the opportunity for a close-up video to post on their social media.

“Damn nobody showed up,” she joked, adding: “London thank you so much for having us tonight, this has to be one of the biggest shows I’ve played in my entire life.”

She wrapped up with Espresso, marking the end of the show by downing some in martini-form from a crystal glass.

There were a few mutters from the crowd, who perhaps were expecting a special guest or two, but it was clear from the offset that this would be a defining moment in the popstar’s career and one where she only wants the spotlight on her.

Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar on Sunday for proximity talks with Hamas on the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had accepted the invitation despite what he described as the “unacceptable” changes that Hamas wanted to make to a plan presented by mediators from Qatar, the US and Egypt.

On Friday night, Hamas said it had delivered a “positive response” to the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire and that it was ready for negotiations.

However, a Palestinian official said the group had sought amendments including a guarantee that hostilities would not resume if talks on a permanent truce failed.

In Gaza itself, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 35 Palestinians on Saturday.

Seven people were killed, including a doctor and his three children, when tents in the al-Mawasi area were bombed, according to a hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, two American employees of the controversial aid distribution organisation backed by Israel and the US – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – were wounded in what it said was a grenade attack at its site in the Khan Younis area.

The Israeli and US governments both blamed Hamas, which has not commented.

Late on Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that “the changes that Hamas is seeking to make” to the ceasefire proposal were “unacceptable to Israel”.

But it added: “In light of an assessment of the situation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed that the invitation to proximity talks be accepted and that the contacts for the return of our hostages – on the basis of the Qatari proposal that Israel has agreed to – be continued. The negotiating team will leave tomorrow.”

Earlier, an Israeli official had briefed local media that there was “something to work with” in the way that Hamas had responded.

Mediators are likely to have their work cut out to bridge the remaining gaps at the indirect talks in Doha.

Watching them closely will be US President Donald Trump, who has been talking up the chances of an agreement in recent days.

On Friday, before he was briefed on Hamas’s response, he said it was “good” that the group was positive and that “there could be a Gaza deal next week”.

Trump is due to meet Netanyahu on Monday, and it is clear that he would very much like to be able to announce a significant breakthrough then.

The families of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza will also once again be holding their breath.

Hostages’ relatives and thousands of their supporters attended a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call for a comprehensive deal that would bring home all of the hostages.

Among those who spoke was Yechiel Yehoud. His daughter Arbel Yehoud was released from captivity during the last ceasefire, which Trump helped to broker before he took office and which collapsed when Israel resumed its offensive in March.

“President Trump, thank you for bringing our Arbel back to us. We will be indebted to you for the rest of our lives. Please don’t stop, please make a ‘big beautiful hostages deal’,” he said.

On Tuesday, the US president said that Israel had accepted the “necessary conditions” for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the war.

The plan is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages by Hamas 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.

The proposal also reportedly says sufficient quantities of aid would enter Gaza immediately with the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC on Friday that Hamas was demanding aid be distributed exclusively by the UN and its partners, and that the GHF’s operations end immediately.

Another amendment demanded by Hamas was about Israeli troop withdrawals, according to the official.

The US proposal is believed to include phased Israeli pull-outs from parts of Gaza. But the official said Hamas wanted troops to return to the positions they held before the last ceasefire collapsed in March, when Israel resumed its offensive.

The official said Hamas also wanted a US guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations would not resume even if the ceasefire ended without a permanent truce.

The proposal is believed to say mediators will guarantee that serious negotiations will take place from day one, and that they can extend the ceasefire if necessary.

The Israeli prime minister has ruled out ending the war until all of the hostages are released and Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

Far-right members of his cabinet have also expressed their opposition to the proposed deal.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Saturday that the only way to secure the return of the hostages was the “full conquest of the Gaza Strip, a complete halt to so-called ‘humanitarian’ aid, and the encouragement of emigration” of the Palestinian population.

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 57,338 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Elon Musk says he is launching a new political party, weeks after a dramatic falling out with US President Donald Trump.

The billionaire announced on his social media platform X that he had set up the America Party and billed it as a challenge to the Republican and Democratic two-party system.

However, it is unclear whether the party has been formally registered with US election authorities, and Musk has not provided details about who will lead it or what form it will take.

He first raised the prospect of launching a party during his public feud with Trump, which saw him leave his role in the administration and engage in a vicious public spat with his former ally.

During that row, Musk posted a poll on X asking users if there should be a new political party in the US.

Referencing that poll in his post on Saturday, Musk wrote: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!

“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.

“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

As of Saturday, the Federal Electoral Commission had not published documents indicating the party had been formally registered.

Musk was a key Trump advocate during the 2024 election and spent $250m (£187m) to help him regain office.

After the election, he was appointed to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which was tasked with identifying swingeing cuts in the federal budget.

His fallout with Trump began when he left the administration in May and publicly criticised Trump’s tax and spending plans. The legislation – which Trump has called his “big, beautiful bill” – was narrowly passed by Congress and signed into law by the president this week.

The massive law includes huge spending commitments and tax cuts, and is estimated to add more than $3tn to the US deficit over the next decade.

Asked last month whether he was planning to join Israel in attacking Iran, US President Donald Trump said “I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.

He let the world believe he had agreed a two-week pause to allow Iran to resume negotiations. And then he bombed anyway.

A pattern is emerging: The most predictable thing about Trump is his unpredictability. He changes his mind. He contradicts himself. He is inconsistent.

“[Trump] has put together a highly centralised policy-making operation, arguably the most centralised, at least in the area of foreign policy, since Richard Nixon,” says Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.

“And that makes policy decisions more dependent on Trump’s character, his preferences, his temperament.”

Trump has put this to political use; he has made his own unpredictability a key strategic and political asset. He has elevated unpredictability to the status of a doctrine. And now the personality trait he brought to the White House is driving foreign and security policy.

It is changing the shape of the world.

Political scientists call this the Madman Theory, in which a world leader seeks to persuade his adversary that he is temperamentally capable of anything, to extract concessions. Used successfully it can be a form of coercion and Trump believes it is paying dividends, getting the US’s allies where he wants them.

But is it an approach that can work against enemies? And could its flaw be that rather than being a sleight of hand designed to fool adversaries, it is in fact based on well established and clearly documented character traits, with the effect that his behaviour becomes easier to predict?

Trump began his second presidency by embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacking America’s allies. He insulted Canada by saying it should become the 51st state of the US.

He said he was prepared to consider using military force to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of America’s ally Denmark. And he said the US should retake ownership and control of the Panama Canal.

Article 5 of the Nato charter commits each member to come to the defence of all others. Trump threw America’s commitment to that into doubt. “I think Article 5 is on life support” declared Ben Wallace, Britain’s former defence secretary.

Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: “For now the trans-Atlantic alliance is over.”

A series of leaked text messages revealed the culture of contempt in Trump’s White House for European allies. “I fully share your loathing of European freeloaders,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told his colleagues, adding “PATHETIC”.

In Munich earlier this year, Trump’s Vice-President JD Vance said the US would no longer be the guarantor of European security.

That appeared to turn the page on 80 years of trans-Atlantic solidarity. “What Trump has done is raise serious doubts and questions about the credibility of America’s international commitments,” says Prof Trubowitz.

“Whatever understanding those countries [in Europe] have with the United States, on security, on economic or other matters, they’re now subject to negotiation at a moment’s notice.

“My sense is that most people in Trump’s orbit think that unpredictability is a good thing, because it allows Donald Trump to leverage America’s clout for maximum gain…

“This is one of of his takeaways from negotiating in the world of real estate.”

Trump’s approach paid dividends. Only four months ago, Sir Keir Starmer told the House of Commons that Britain would increase defence and security spending from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.

Last month, at a Nato summit, that had increased to 5%, a huge increase, now matched by every other member of the Alliance.

Trump is not the first American president to deploy an Unpredictability Doctrine. In 1968, when US President Richard Nixon was trying to end the war in Vietnam, he found the North Vietnamese enemy intractable.

“At one point Nixon said to his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, ‘you ought to tell the North Vietnamese negotiators that Nixon’s crazy and you don’t know what he’s going to do, so you better come to an agreement before things get really crazy’,” says Michael Desch, professor of international relations at Notre Dame University. “That’s the madman theory.”

Julie Norman, professor of politics at University College London, agrees that there is now an Unpredictability Doctrine.

“It’s very hard to know what’s coming from day to day,” she argues. “And that has always been Trump’s approach.”

Trump successfully harnessed his reputation for volatility to change the trans-Atlantic defence relationship. And apparently to keep Trump on side, some European leaders have flattered and fawned.

Last month’s Nato summit in The Hague was an exercise in obsequious courtship. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte had earlier sent President Trump (or “Dear Donald”) a text message, which Trump leaked.

“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, it was truly extraordinary,” he wrote.

On the forthcoming announcement that all Nato members had agreed to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP, he continued: “You will achieve something NO president in decades could get done.”

Anthony Scaramucci, who previously served as Trump’s communications director in his first term, said: “Mr Rutte, he’s trying to embarrass you, sir. He’s literally sitting on Air Force One laughing at you.”

And this may prove to be the weakness at the heart of Trump’s Unpredictability Doctrine: their actions may be based on the idea that Trump craves adulation. Or that he seeks short-term wins, favouring them over long and complicated processes.

If that is the case and their assumption is correct, then it limits Trump’s ability to perform sleights of hand to fool adversaries – rather, he has well established and clearly documented character traits that they have become aware of.

Then there is the question of whether an Unpredictability Doctrine or the Madman Theory can work on adversaries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an ally who was given a dressing down by Trump and Vance in the Oval Office, later agreed to grant the US lucrative rights to exploit Ukrainian mineral resources.

Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, apparently remains impervious to Trump’s charms and threats alike. On Thursday, following a telephone call, Trump said he was “disappointed” that Putin was not ready to end the war against Ukraine.

And Iran? Trump promised his base that he would end American involvement in Middle Eastern “forever wars”. His decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities was perhaps the most unpredictable policy choice of his second term so far. The question is whether it will have the desired effect.

The former British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has argued that it will do precisely the opposite: it will make Iran more, not less likely, to seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

Prof Desch agrees. “I think it’s now highly likely that Iran will make the decision to pursue a nuclear weapon,” he says. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if they lie low and do everything they can to complete the full fuel cycle and conduct a [nuclear] test.

“I think the lesson of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi is not lost on other dictators facing the US and potential regime change…

“So the Iranians will desperately feel the need for the ultimate deterrent and they’ll look at Saddam and Gaddafi as the negative examples and Kim Jong Un of North Korea as the positive example.”

One of the likely scenarios is the consolidation of the Islamic Republic, according to Mohsen Milani, a professor of politics at the University of South Florida and author of Iran’s Rise and Rivalry with the US in the Middle East.

“In 1980, when Saddam Hussein attacked Iran his aim was the collapse of the Islamic Republic,” he says. “The exact opposite happened.

“That was the Israeli and American calculation too… That if we get rid of the top guys, Iran is going to surrender quickly or the whole system is going to collapse.”

Looking ahead, unpredictability may not work on foes, but it is unclear whether the recent shifts it has yielded among allies can be sustained.

Whilst possible, this is a process built largely on impulse. And there may be a worry that the US could be seen as an unreliable broker.

“People won’t want to do business with the US if they don’t trust the US in negotiations, if they’re not sure the US will stand by them in defence and security issues,” argues Prof Norman. “So the isolation that many in the MAGA world seek is, I think, going to backfire.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for one has said Europe now needs to become operationally independent of the US.

“The importance of the chancellor’s comment is that it’s a recognition that US strategic priorities are changing,” says Prof Trubowitz. “They’re not going to snap back to the way they were before Trump took office.

“So yes, Europe is going to have to get more operationally independent.”

This would require European nations to develop a much bigger European defence industry, to acquire kit and capabilities that currently only the US has, argues Prof Desch. For example, the Europeans have some sophisticated global intelligence capability, he says, but a lot of it is provided by the US.

“Europe, if it had to go it alone, would also require a significant increase in its independent armaments production capability,” he continues. “Manpower would also be an issue. Western Europe would have to look to Poland to see the level of manpower they would need.”

All of which will take years to build up.

So, have the Europeans really been spooked by Trump’s unpredictability, into making the most dramatic change to the security architecture of the western world since the end of the Cold War?

“It has contributed,” says Prof Trubowitz. “But more fundamentally, Trump has uncorked something… Politics in the United States has changed. Priorities have changed. To the MAGA coalition, China is a bigger problem than Russia. That’s maybe not true for the Europeans.”

And according to Prof Milani, Trump is trying to consolidate American power in the global order.

“It’s very unlikely that he’s going to change the order that was established after World War Two. He wants to consolidate America’s position in that order because China is challenging America’s position in that order.”

But this all means that the defence and security imperatives faced by the US and Europe are diverging.

The European allies may be satisfied that through flattery and real policy shifts, they have kept Trump broadly onside; he did, after all, reaffirm his commitment to Article 5 at the most recent Nato summit. But the unpredictability means this cannot be guaranteed – and they have seemed to accept that they can no longer complacently rely on the US to honour its historic commitment to their defence.

And in that sense, even if the unpredictability doctrine comes from a combination of conscious choice and Trump’s very real character traits, it is working, on some at least.

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath have gone out with a bang at what they say will be their final gig, in front of 40,000 fans and supported by an all-star line-up of rock legends who have been influenced by the founding fathers of heavy metal.

Ozzy, 76, who has Parkinson’s disease, sang while seated on a black throne – clapping, waving his arms and pulling wild-eyed looks, just like old times.

He appeared overwhelmed at some moments. “You have no idea how I feel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he told the crowd at Villa Park in Birmingham.

He was joined by the full original Sabbath line-up for the first time in 20 years.

The show’s bill also included fellow rock gods Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.

Wearing a leather overcoat and gold armband bearing his name, Ozzy rose from below the stage in his throne to a huge roar from the crowd.

“Are you ready? Let the madness begin,” he called.

“It’s so good to be on this stage. You have no idea,” he told the crowd, who responded by chanting his name.

After playing five songs from his solo career, Ozzy was joined by his Sabbath bandmates – guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward – for four more, finishing with 1970 classic Paranoid.

The Parkinson’s, other health problems and age have taken their toll, meaning he performed sitting down throughout. His voice wavered a bit but still packed a fair punch.

Fans came from all over the world – if they could get tickets – for the all-day Back to the Beginning gig at Aston Villa’s football stadium, a stone’s throw from Ozzy’s childhood home.

The star-studded show was dubbed the “heavy metal Live Aid”, and profits will go to charity.

The pitch was a sea of Black Sabbath T-shirts and rock hand signs, with some areas becoming a melee of moshing. One person waved an inflatable bat, a reference to the infamous 1982 incident when Ozzy bit the head off a live bat on stage – the most notorious moment of many in the rock star’s wild career.

The day’s other performers paid homage to him and the other band members.

“Without Sabbath there would be no Metallica,” the US group’s frontman James Hetfield told the crowd during their set. “Thank you for giving us a purpose in life.”

Guns N’ Roses’ appearance included a cover of Sabbath’s 1978 song Never Say Die, with frontman Axl Rose ending with the cry: “Birmingham! Ozzy! Sabbath! Thank you!”

A series of star-studded supergroups saw Tyler, who has suffered serious vocal problems in recent years, sound back on form as part of a band including Ronnie Wood, Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

Another version of the band included Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and KK Downing from Judas Priest, another of the West Midlands’ original metal heroes.

Younger performers included Yungblud, who sang one of Sabbath’s more tender songs, Changes, originally released in 1972, and which Ozzy took to number one as a duet with daughter Kelly in 2003.

Yungblud was part of another supergroup whose revolving cast of musicians included members of Megadeth, Faith No More and Anthrax.

There was also a titanic battle of three drummers in a “drum-off” between Barker, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Danny Carey of Tool.

Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo told the crowd the artists on the bill “would all be different people” without Black Sabbath. “That’s the truth. I wouldn’t be up here with this microphone in my hand without Black Sabbath. The greatest of all time.”

Hollywood actor Jason Momoa was the show’s compere and while introducing Pantera, told fans he was joining the moshpit, saying: “Make some space for me, I’m coming in.”

At another point, he told the crowd: “The history of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne is to look back at the best who’ve ever done it. We have some of the greatest rock and metal musicians ever here today on this stage.”

Momoa’s Minecraft Movie co-star Jack Black sent a video message, as did other big names ranging from Billy Idol to Dolly Parton.

“Black Sabbath really kind of started all this, the metal era,” former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar told BBC News backstage. “Everyone looks at them like the kings, and if the kings are going to go out then we’re going to go honour them.

“Everyone that was asked to do this, shoot, you drop everything and do this. This is going to go down in history as the greatest metal event of all of all time.”

Ozzy said beforehand that the show would be “a goodbye as far as my live performances go, and what a way to go out”.

The line-up of legends “means everything”, he said in an interview provided by organisers.

“I am forever in their debt for showing up for me and the fans. I can’t quite put it into words, but I feel very emotional and blessed.”

Ticket prices ranged from about £200 to £2,000, with profits being shared between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Back to the Beginning line-up:

• Black Sabbath
• Ozzy Osbourne solo
• Metallica
• Guns N’ Roses
• Slayer
• Tool
• Pantera
• Supergroup including Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ronnie Wood (the Rolling Stones), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Adam Jones (Tool), KK Downing (Judas Priest), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and Tobias Forge (Ghost)
• Drum-off – Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and Danny Carey (Tool)
• Gojira
• Alice in Chains
• Anthrax
• Supergroup including Lizzy Hale (Halestorm), David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), David Draiman (Disturbed), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Yungblud and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)
• Lamb of God
• Halestorm
• Rival Sons
• Mastodon

Footballers Diogo Jota and André Silva have been honoured by their family, friends and teammates at a joint funeral in Portugal.

Jota, 28, was laid to rest alongside his brother, Silva, 25, after they died in a car crash on Thursday.

Hundreds of locals and supporters gathered at the Igreja Matriz in Gondomar, where the brothers are from, on Saturday.

The funeral also brought together huge names from across football, including Jota’s teammates Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson, who were seen carrying floral tributes into the church ahead of the ceremony.

The service was held in Gondomar, a small Portuguese city near Porto, that has been left reeling after the brothers died.

Jota and Silva died at about 00:30 local time in the Spanish province of Zamora.

It is understood they were on the way to take a ferry and return to Liverpool for Jota’s pre-season training when the accident happened.

The Portugal forward had undergone minor surgery and doctors had advised him against flying.

The accident came just 11 days after Jota married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso, with whom he had three children.

Players from Liverpool FC, who only three months ago were celebrating their Premier League win, arrived at the funeral together.

Watching them walk in line with each other, almost as they do when walking onto the pitch, was an emotional experience.

There was a strong feeling of community, but also a shared sombreness.

Many were visibly upset, with supporters on the other side of the barrier applauding the players. One woman in the crowd shouted towards them as they walked in: “Força!” – strength.

Family and close friends walked into the church in complete silence, many of them with their heads bowed down as the church bell rung.

One person in the procession held up a sign with Silva’s photograph, which read: “Para sempre um de nós.” (Forever one of us.)

So much was the brothers’ impact on football and their local community that some of the guests had to watch the ceremony from outside of the church, often hugging and comforting one another.

Locals and football fans in the crowd watched silently for most of the service, which went on for about an hour.

Many wore football shirts and carried merchandise from the different teams across Portugal and abroad where Jota and Silva, who played for local club Penafiel, spent some time in.

One of these fans was Antônio Moreira, who set off early in the morning to be one of the first outside the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar where the funeral took place.

“I know I won’t be able to go inside, but I wanted to pay my respects,” he told me from the barrier outside the church.

Antônio later showed me his phone case – a little old, he said – with the emblem of FC Porto.

Antônio recalled fond memories of Jota on the field, as he spent a year playing for the local club, but added that the brothers were so much more than football stars.

“They were good people, from a humble family, people like us.”

This has hit him especially hard, he said, as 40 years ago his family went through a similar tragedy. His aunt, uncle and young cousin died in a car accident three days before Christmas, leaving his other cousin behind.

Jota and Silva may not have been his direct family, he said, but their deaths felt personal.

“This is what I think: losing your parents is hard, really hard. But losing your children is unimaginable,” he added.

Jota’s journey as a player inspired many people here in Gondomar, football fan Fábio Silva told me.

He has kept up with the brothers since they started in the local clubs – and said he had to be here for their final journey.

“Despite the impact they had on football, and even financially, they never let it show,” he told me, adding the family are well-loved in the town.

“The community is sad, devastated,” he said.

Having spent some time with them over the years, Fábio said there was only one reason he was here: “Respect for the brothers, the family.”

Avid football fans Fábio and Rafaela travelled from the nearby town Lordelo to honour Jota and Silva.

Wearing Jota’s shirt, Fábio said it was important to him to be here “for Jota’s final day”. Both said it meant a lot to the community that so many people showed up to pay their respects.

They watched the ceremony from outside the church, like hundreds of other fans – which Fábio said was hard. Nodding, Rafaela agreed, but said it was also beautiful.

“This is an example that you need to live life to the max,” Rafaela said, “because you never know when will be your last day.”

“Say everything you want to say, and need to say – tomorrow could be too late,” Fábio added.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy has become the first UK minister to visit Syria since the uprising that led to the country’s civil war began 14 years ago.

Lammy met Syria’s interim president Ahmad al-Sharaa eight months after the collapse of the Assad regime and as the new Islamic-led government continues to establish control within the country.

Alongside the visit, the UK government announced an additional £94.5m support package to cover humanitarian aid and support longer-term recovery within Syria and countries helping Syrian refugees.

Lammy told the BBC the purpose of his meeting was to promote inclusivity, transparency and accountability with the new government.

“I’m here to speak to this new government, to urge them to continue to be inclusive, to ensure that there’s transparency and accountability in the way that they govern,” he said.

“But [also] to stand by the Syrian people and Syria as it makes this peaceful transition over the coming months.”

Syria is in a fragile situation with a new Islamic-led government in charge.

In December, rebels led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group which has been proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the UK, UN and US, stormed Damascus, toppling the Assad regime which had ruled the country for 54 years.

Since then, Western countries have sought to reset relations with the country.

At the end of June, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending sanctions against the country.

The White House said at the time it would monitor the new Syrian government’s actions including by “addressing foreign terrorists” and “banning Palestinian terrorist groups”.

The UK has also lifted sanctions.

Al-Sharaa met French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in May while other foreign officials, including Ukraine’s foreign minister, have visited Syria.

Many members of Syria’s new government, including the interim president, were members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.

Asked how the government deals with a group it had listed on the proscribed terror group as a pseudonym for al-Qaeda, Lammy said he recognised the country has a bloody recent history associated with terrorism and war, but said the UK is looking “to the future” and engaging with the new government.

Various violent attacks against minority groups have been committed in Syria in recent months.

Hundreds have been killed from the Alawite minority, there were violent attacks on the Druze community, and recently a brutal attack on peaceful worshippers inside a church in Damascus.

Internationally, these attacks have prompted concern about how much Syria’s new government can protect minorities but also provide safety and stability.

Almost every day, there are reported cases of killing or kidnapping.

Lammy said: “It’s important that the UK lean in to ensure that the balance is tipped in the right direction, a balance towards accountability, transparency, inclusivity for all of the communities that make up this country, a prosperous one and a peaceful one.”

Within Syria, many people are worried the government is slipping towards a new form of dictatorship.

There are restrictions on social freedoms, the role of women is being marginalised in the government, and there is more and more enforcement of Islamic practices rather than a clear governance based on civic codes representing the whole society.

In these early days of the government there are also fears around how it is being formed.

Only one female minister has been appointed and al-Sharaa has made almost every other appointment – with no election, referendum or opinion polls.

Many appointments in the government are reported to be based on connections rather than qualifications, and most of those in charge have a radical Islamic agenda and are enforcing it.

Lammy said the UK wants Syria to “move in the direction of peace, of prosperity, of stability for the people and an inclusive country” and will use humanitarian aid to help that.

He added the UK would monitor the situation to ensure the new government ruled the population in an inclusive manner.

The UK government is also supporting the Organisation of the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to help dismantle Assad’s chemical weapons in Syria.

A further £2m was committed to the organisation this financial year in addition to around £837,000 provided since the fall of Assad.

There are many challenges ahead of Syria – both internally and in the region.

Israel has invaded parts of Syria and carried out hundreds of air strikes, and continues to hold hundreds of square kilometres inside Syrian territory.

Lammy said he “urged the Israeli government to think again about some of their actions” to avoid undermining “the progress that could be made in this new Syria”.

Hundreds of foreign fighters and their families have been held in detention camps in north-west Syria for years, including dozens from the UK.

Asked whether the UK was going to take them back home, Lammy did not give a clear answer.

He said he had discussed the issue of camps with Syria’s president, as well as how to help the country deal with counterterrorism and irregular migration.

The situation in Syria remains precarious, and its security is at risk with threats from the Islamic State group and radical jihadist fighters who have joined the government.

While international support will certainly help the war-torn country recover, it could also help pressure the government to be a representative of a diverse and open society.

Colombian police have arrested the alleged mastermind of the assassination attempt against a presidential hopeful during a rally last month.

Miguel Uribe, a conservative senator, was twice shot in the head in the capital, Bogotá, as he was campaigning for his party’s nomination in the 2026 presidential election.

Police arrested a suspected criminal, Élder José Arteaga Hernandez, who they say persuaded a 15-year-old to carry out the attack. Four other people had already been arrested, including the teenager charged with shooting Uribe.

Uribe remains in a critical condition. The motive for the attempt on his life on 7 June is unclear.

• Colombia presidential hopeful shot in head at rally

Colombian police chief Carlos Fernando Triana said on Friday that Arteaga had a long criminal history and was wanted for “aggravated attempted homicide” and “use of minors for the commission of crimes” over the attack on Uribe.

Police say he co-ordinated the assault, hired the gunman and provided him with a weapon.

Authorities had previously accused Arteaga, who uses the aliases Chipi and Costeño, of being near the Bogotá park where Uribe was shot.

The 15-year-old suspect was arrested as he was fleeing the scene. He subsequently pleaded not guilty, the prosecutor’s office said.

Uribe, a critic of left-wing President Gustavo Petro, announced his candidacy for next year’s presidential election last October. The 39-year-old has been a senator since 2022.

He is from a prominent political family, with links to Colombia’s Liberal Party. His father was a union leader and businessman.

His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was killed in 1991 in a rescue attempt after she was kidnapped by the Medellin drugs cartel.

The 7 June attack prompted silent protests attended by tens of thousands of Colombians.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

Experts are warning that some young people are taking dangerous amounts of ketamine not only due to its 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 Resilience, 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.

• 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.”

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.”

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.

Iconic Indian director and actor Guru Dutt was just 39 years old when he died in 1964 but he left behind a cinematic legacy that continues to resonate decades later.

Born on 9 July 1925 in the southern state of Karnataka, next week marks his birth centenary. But the man behind the camera, his emotional turmoil and mental health struggles remain largely unexplored.

The maker of classic Hindi films such as Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool – film school staples for their timeless themes – Dutt forged a deeply personal, introspective style of filmmaking that was novel in the post-independence era.

His complex characters often reflected his personal struggles; his plots touched upon universal motifs, inviting the audience to confront uncomfortable realities through hauntingly beautiful cinema.

Dutt’s beginnings were humble and his childhood was marked by financial hardship and a turbulent family life. After his family shifted to Bengal in eastern India for work, a young Dutt became deeply inspired by the region’s culture and it would shape his cinematic vision later in life.

He dropped his surname – Padukone – after entering the Bombay film industry in the 1940s. He made his debut not as a director but as a choreographer, and also worked as a telephone operator to make ends meet. The turbulence and uncertainty of the decade – India’s independence struggle had intensified – impacted the aspiring filmmaker’s prospects.

It was during this phase that he penned Kashmakash, a story rooted in artistic frustration and social disillusionment, ideas that would later shape his cinematic masterpiece Pyaasa.

Dutt’s friendship with fellow struggler Dev Anand – who soon rose to fame as an actor – helped him get the chance to direct his first film in 1951. The noir thriller, Baazi, propelled him into the spotlight.

He soon found love with celebrated singer Geeta Roy, and by many accounts, these early years were his happiest.

After Dutt launched his own film company, he scored back-to-back hits with romantic comedies Aar-Paar and Mr & Mrs 55, both featuring him in lead roles. But yearning for artistic depth, he set out to make what would become his defining film – Pyaasa.

The hard-hitting, haunting film explored an artist’s struggle in a materialistic world and decades later, it would go on to be the only Hindi film in Time magazine’s list of the 20th Century’s 100 greatest movies.

Dutt’s late younger sister, Lalitha Lajmi, who collaborated with me when I wrote his biography, said that Pyaasa was her brother’s “dream project” and that “he wanted it to be perfect”.

As a director, Dutt was fond of ‘creating’ the film as it took shape on the sets, making a lot of changes in the script and dialogues and experimenting with camera techniques. While he was known for scrapping and reshooting scenes, this reached worrying levels during Pyaasa – for instance, he shot 104 takes of the now famous climax sequence.

He would shout and get bad-tempered when things did not go right, Lajmi said.

“Sleep evaded him. The misuse of and dependence on alcohol had begun. At his worst, he started experimenting with sleeping pills, mixing them in his whiskey. Guru Dutt gave his all to make Pyaasa – his sleep, his dreams, and his memories,” she said.

In 1956, as his dream project neared completion, 31-year-old Dutt attempted suicide.

“When the news came, we rushed to Pali Hill [where he lived],” Lajmi said. “I knew he was in turmoil. He often called me, saying we need to talk but wouldn’t say a word when I got there,” she added.

But following his discharge from hospital, no professional support was sought by the family.

Mental health was a “socially stigmatised” topic at the time, and with big money riding on Pyaasa, Lajmi said that the family tried to move on, without fully confronting the reasons behind her brother’s internal struggles.

Released in 1957, Pyaasa was a critical and commercial triumph that catapulted Dutt to stardom. But the filmmaker often expressed a sense of emptiness despite his success.

Pyaasa’s chief cinematographer VK Murthy recalled Dutt saying, “I wanted to be a director, an actor, make good films – I have achieved it all. I have money, I have everything, yet I have nothing.”

There was also a strange paradox between Dutt’s films and his personal life.

His films often portrayed strong, independent women but off screen, as Lajmi recalled, he expected his wife to embrace more traditional roles and wanted her to sing only in films produced by his company.

To keep his company thriving, Dutt had a simple rule: each artistic gamble should be followed by a bankable commercial film.

But buoyed by the success of Pyaasa, he ignored his own rule and dived straight into making his most personal, expensive and semi-autobiographical film: Kaagaz Ke Phool.

It tells the story of a filmmaker’s unhappy marriage and confused relationship with his muse. It eerily ends with the death of the filmmaker after he fails to come to terms with his acute loneliness and doomed relationships.

Though now hailed as a classic, it was a commercial failure at the time, a blow Dutt reportedly never overcame.

In the Channel 4 documentary In Search of Guru Dutt, his co-star Waheeda Rehman remembered him saying, “. (There are only two things in life: success and failure) There is nothing in between.”

After Kagaz Ke Phool, he never directed a film again.

But his company recovered over time, and he made a strong comeback as a producer with Chaudhvin Ka Chand, the most commercially successful film of his career.

He then launched Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam directed by his trusted screenwriter Abrar Alvi. By this time, Lajmi said, his personal life was in severe turmoil, marked by mood swings.

The film delved into the loneliness of a woman trapped in a loveless marriage to a philandering, often tyrannical landlord in an opulent yet feudal world.

Writer Bimal Mitra recalls that Dutt told him about his struggle with sleeplessness and reliance on sleeping pills during this time. By then, his marriage had collapsed and mental health had worsened. Mitra recalled many conversations with Guru Dutt’s constant refrain: “I think I will go crazy.”

One night, Dutt attempted to take his own life again. He was unconscious for three days.

Lajmi says that after this, on the doctor’s advice, his family called a psychiatrist to inquire about treatment for Dutt but they never followed up. “We never called the psychiatrist again,” she added with regret.

For years, she believed her brother was silently crying for help, perhaps feeling trapped in a dark space where no one could see his pain, so dark that even he could not find a way out of it.

A few days after Dutt was discharged, the shooting for Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam resumed as if nothing had happened.

When Mitra asked him about the incident, Dutt said, “Nowadays, I often wonder what unrest was this, what was the restlessness that I was hell-bent on committing suicide? When I think about this, I get terrorised with fear. But that day, I felt no dilemma in swallowing those sleeping pills.”

The film was a success, became India’s official entry to the 1963 Berlin Film Festival and also won a national award.

But Dutt’s personal struggles continued to mount. He separated from his wife and even though he continued acting in films, he battled profound loneliness, often turning to alcohol and sleeping pills for respite.

On 10 October 1964, Dutt, 39, was found dead in his room.

“I know that he had always wished for it [death], longed for it… and he got it,’ his co-star Waheeda Rehman wrote in the Journal of Film Industry, 1967.

Like the protagonist of Pyaasa, true acclaim came to Dutt only after he was gone.

Cinema enthusiasts often wonder what might have been had he lived longer; perhaps he would have continued to reshape India’s cinematic landscape with his visionary, poetic works.

Fifty years ago Arthur Ashe pulled off an amazing feat, upsetting the odds and becoming the first black man to win the Wimbledon Men’s final when he beat fellow American Jimmy Connors – but it was not something he wanted to define his life.

His fight to break down barriers around racial discrimination was closer to his heart – and apartheid South Africa became one of his battle grounds.

“I don’t want to be remembered in the final analysis for having won Wimbledon… I take applause for having done it, but it’s not the most important thing in my life – not even close,” he said in a BBC interview a year before his death in 1993.

Nonetheless his Centre Court victory on 5 July 1975 was hailed as one of those spine-tingling sporting moments that stopped everyone in their tracks, whether a tennis fan or not, and it is being commemorated with a special display at the Wimbledon museum.

Ashe was already in his 30s, tall, serene and with a quiet and even-tempered demeanour. Connors, 10 years younger and the defending champion, was an aggressive player and often described as “brattish”.

Ashe’s achievements and the skills and courage he displayed on the court were certainly matched by his actions off it.

In the early 1970s, South Africa repeatedly refused to issue a visa for him to travel to the country alongside other US players.

The white-minority government there had legalised an extreme system of racial segregation, known as apartheid – or apartness – in 1948.

The authorities said the decision to bar him was based on his “general antagonism” and outspoken remarks about South Africa.

However, in 1973, the government relented and granted Ashe a visa to play in the South African Open, which was one of the top tournaments in the world at the time.

It was Ashe’s first visit to South Africa, and although he stipulated he would only play on condition that the stadium be open to both black and white spectators, it sparked anger among anti-apartheid activists in the US and strong opposition from sections of the black community in South Africa.

British journalist and tennis historian Richard Evans, who became a life-long friend of Ashe, was a member of the press corps on that South Africa tour.

He says that Ashe was “painfully aware” of the criticism and the accusation that he was in some way giving legitimacy to the South African government – but he was determined to see for himself how people lived there.

“He felt that he was always being asked about South Africa, but he’d never been. He said: ‘How can I comment on a place I don’t know? I need to see it and make a judgment. And until I go, I can’t do that.'”

Evans recalls that during the tour, the South African writer and poet Don Mattera had organised for Ashe to meet a group of black journalists, but the atmosphere was tense and hostile.

“As I passed someone,” Evans told the BBC, “I heard someone say: ‘Uncle Tom'” – a slur used to disparage a black person considered servile towards white people.

“And then one or two very vociferous journalists stood up and said: ‘Arthur, go home. We don’t want you here. You’re just making it easier for the government to be able to show that they allow someone like you in.'”

But not all black South Africans were so vehemently opposed to Ashe’s presence in the country.

The South African author and academic Mark Mathabane grew up in the Alexandra township – popularly known as Alex – in the north of Johannesburg. Such townships were set up under apartheid on the outskirts of cities for non-white people to live.

He first became aware of Ashe as a boy while accompanying his grandmother to her gardening job at a British family’s mansion in a whites-only suburb.

The lady of the house gifted him a September 1968 edition of Life magazine from her collection, and there, on the front cover, was a bespectacled Arthur Ashe at the net.

Mathabane was mesmerised by the image and its cover line “The Icy Elegance of Arthur Ashe” – and he set out to emulate him.

When Ashe went on the 1973 tour, Mathabane had only one mission – to meet Ashe, or at least get close to him.

The opportunity came when Ashe took time off from competing to hold a tennis clinic in Soweto, a southern Johannesburg township.

The 13-year-old Mathabane made the train journey to get there and join scores of other black – and mostly young – people who had turned out to see the tennis star, who they had given the nickname “Sipho”.

“He may have been honorary white to white people, but to us black people he was Sipho. It’s a Zulu word for gift,” Mathabane, now aged 64, told the BBC.

“You know, a gift from God, from the ancestors, meaning that this is very priceless, take care of it. Sipho is here, Sipho from America is here.”

The excitement generated at the Soweto clinic was not just contained to that township but had spread across the country, he said.

From rural reservations to shebeens or speakeasies (bars) – wherever black people gathered, they were talking about Ashe’s visit.

“For me, he was literally the first free black man I’d ever seen,” said Mathabane.

After the 1973 tour, Ashe went back to South Africa a few more times. In early 1976 he helped to establish the Arthur Ashe Soweto Tennis Centre (AASTC) for budding players in the township.

But not long after it opened, the centre was vandalised in the student-led uprisings against the apartheid regime that broke out in June of that year.

It remained neglected and in disrepair for several years before undergoing a major refurbishment in 2007, and was reopened by Ashe’s widow Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.

The complex now has 16 courts, and hosts a library and skills development centre.

The ambition is to produce a tennis star and Grand Slam champion from the township – and legends such as Serena and Venus Williams have since run clinics there.

For Mothobi Seseli and Masodi Xaba, who were once both South African national junior champions and now sit on the AASTC board, the centre goes beyond tennis.

They feel that fundamentally it is about instilling a work ethic that embraces a range of life skills and self-belief.

“We’re building young leaders,” Ms Xaba, a successful businesswoman, told the BBC.

Mr Seseli, an entrepreneur born and raised in Soweto, agrees that this would be Ashe’s vision too: “When I think about what his legacy is, it is believing that we can, at the smallest of scales, move the dial in very big ways.”

Ashe was initially inclined to challenge apartheid through conversations and participation, believing that by being visible and winning matches in the country he could undermine the very foundation of the regime.

But his experience within South Africa, and international pressure from the anti-apartheid movement, persuaded him that isolation rather than engagement would be the most effective way to bring about change in South Africa.

He became a powerful advocate and supporter of an international sporting boycott of South Africa, speaking before the United Nations and the US Congress.

In 1983, at a joint press conference set up by the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and UN, he spoke about the aims of the Artists and Athletes Against Apartheid, which he had just co-founded with the American singer Harry Belafonte.

The organisation lobbied for sanctions against the South African government, and at its height had more than 500 members.

Ashe joined many protests and rallies, and when he was arrested outside the South African embassy in Washington DC in 1985, it drew more international attention to the cause and helped to amplify global condemnation of the South African regime.

He was the captain of the US Davis Cup team at the time, and always felt that the arrest cost him his job.

Ashe used his platform to confront social injustice wherever he saw it, not just in Africa and South Africa, but also in the US and Haiti.

He was also an educator on many issues, and specifically HIV/Aids, which he succumbed to, after contracting the disease from a blood transfusion during heart surgery in the early 1980s.

But he had a particular affinity with South Africa’s black population living under a repressive regime.

He said that he identified with them because of his upbringing in racially segregated Richmond in the US state of Virginia.

No wonder then that Ashe was one of the key figures that South African anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela was keen to meet on a trip to New York, inviting him to a historic townhall gathering in 1990 shortly after his release from 27 years in prison.

The pair met on a few occasions, however Ashe did not live to see Mandela become president of South Africa following the 1994 election, which brought in democratic rule and the dismantling of apartheid.

But like Ashe, Mandela was able to use sport to push for change – by helping unify South Africa – notably during the 1995 Rugby World Cup when he famously wore the Springbok jersey, once a hated symbol of apartheid.

To celebrate this year’s anniversary of Ashe’s victory, the Wimbledon Championships have an installation in the International Tennis Centre tunnel and a new museum display about him. They are also taking a trailblazer workshop on the road to mark his achievement.

His Wimbledon title was the third of his Grand Slam crowns, having previously won the US and Australian Opens.

But to many people like Mathabane – who in 1978 became the first black South African to earn a tennis scholarship to a US university – Arthur Ashe’s legacy was his activism, not his tennis.

“He was literally helping to liberate my mind from those mental chains of self-doubt, of believing the big lie about your inferiority and the fact that you’re doomed to repeat the work of your parents as a drudge,” he said.

“So that was the magic – because he was showing me possibilities.”

• ‘I’m not afraid of dying’: The pioneering tennis champion who told the world he had Aids
• Arthur Ashe’s 1976 interview: ‘Fighting the myth’
• ‘Growing up black’ made Arthur Ashe crave control

Australian actor Julian McMahon, famed for roles in popular series like Nip/Tuck and Charmed, has died aged 56.

His wife said the actor passed away in Clearwater, Florida, on Wednesday. He had been diagnosed with cancer.

“Julian loved life. He loved his family. He loved his friends. He loved his work, and he loved his fans. His deepest wish was to bring joy into as many lives as possible,” Kelly Paniagua said in a statement carried by Deadline.

McMahon’s career took off with the hit supernatural television series Charmed before he gained wider recognition with Nip/Tuck, the medical drama in which he played the role of plastic surgeon Dr Christian Troy.

Running for six seasons from 2003 to 2010, the show earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

Co-star Dylan Walsh told Deadline he was “stunned”.

“We rode this wave together and I loved him.

“Jules! I know you’d want me to say something to make you smile — all the inside jokes. All those years you had my back, and my god, we laughed. My heart is with you. Rest in peace.”

McMahon also played Doctor Doom in two Fantastic Four films in 2005 and 2007 and later appeared in three seasons of FBI: Most Wanted.

Dick Wolf, the producer of FBI: Most Wanted, said McMahon’s death was “shocking news”.

McMahon was the son of a former Australian prime minister and went on to play an Australian prime minister’s role in Netflix’s The Residence – one of his recent appearances.

McMahon married three times – the first to Australian singer-actress Dannii Minogue, sister of Kylie Minogue.

The River Seine in Paris has reopened publicly to swimmers for the first time since 1923 after a century-long ban.

The seasonal opening of the Seine for swimming is viewed as a key legacy of the Paris 2024 Olympics, when open water swimmers and triathletes competed in its waters which were specially cleaned for the event.

On Saturday morning at 08:00 local time (07:00 BST) a few dozen swimmers arrived ahead of the opening and dived into the water when they were able to do so.

There are three designated areas for public swimming in the Seine – one near the Eiffel Tower, another close to Notre Dame Cathedral and a third in eastern Paris.

Zones have changing rooms, showers, and beach-style furniture, which allow for up to 300 people to lay out their towels.

Until the end of August, the three swimming sites will be open for free at scheduled times to anyone with a minimum age of 10 or 14 years, depending on the location.

Lifeguards will also be present keeping an eye on those in the river.

The promise to lift the swimming ban dates back to 1988, when then-mayor of Paris and future president Jacques Chirac first advocated for its reversal.

Improvements over the last 20 years have already led to a sharp reduction in faecal bacteria entering the river.

• Paris to bring back swimming in Seine after 100 years
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For 100 years swimming was banned in the river because of the levels of water pollution that could make people ill.

Ahead of last summer’s Olympics more than €1.4bn (£1.2bn; $1.6bn) was invested into cleaning up the Seine.

But, in the lead up to the games there were doubts as to whether the River Seine would be ready for the Olympics after it was revealed it failed water quality tests.

Organisers blamed rainfall for the increased pollution which limited athletes’ abilities to train for the triathlon, marathon swimming and paratriathlon.

Last July, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and other members of the Olympic committee went into the Seine to prove that it was safe to swim in.

As Donald Trump cheered the passage of his self-styled, and officially named, Big Beautiful Budget Bill through Congress this week, long-sown seeds of doubt about the scale and sustainability of US borrowing from the rest of the world sprouted anew.

Trump’s tax-cutting budget bill is expected to add at least $3 trillion (£2.2 trillion) to the US’s already eye-watering $37tn (£27tn) debt pile. There is no shortage of critics of the plan, not least Trump’s former ally Elon Musk, who has called it a “disgusting abomination”.

The growing debt pile leaves some to wonder whether there is a limit to how much the rest of the world will lend Uncle Sam.

Those doubts have been showing up recently in the weaker value of the dollar and the higher interest rate investors are demanding to lend money to America.

It needs to borrow this money to make up the difference between what it earns and what it spends every year.

Since the beginning of this year, the dollar has fallen 10% against the pound and 15% against the euro.

Although US borrowing costs have been steady overall, the difference between the interest rates paid on longer-term loans versus shorter-term loans – what’s known as the yield curve – has increased, or steepened, signalling increased doubts about the long-term sustainability of US borrowing.

And that is despite the fact that the US has lowered interest rates more slowly than the EU and the UK, which would normally make the dollar stronger because investors can get higher interest rates on bank deposits.

The founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund, Ray Dalio, believes that US borrowing is at a crossroads.

On its current trajectory he estimates the US will soon be spending $10tn a year in loan and interest repayments.

“I am confident that the [US] government’s financial condition is at an inflection point because, if this is not dealt with now, the debts will build up to levels where they can’t be managed without great trauma,” he says.

So what might that trauma look like?

The first option is a drastic reduction in government spending, a big increase in taxes or both.

Ray Dalio suggests that cutting the budget deficit from its current 6% to 3% soon could head off trouble in the future.

Trump’s new budget bill did cut some spending, but it also cut taxes more, and so the current political trajectory is going the other way.

Secondly, as in previous crises, the US central bank could print more money and use it to buy up government debt – as we saw after the great financial crisis of 2008.

But that can end up fuelling inflation and inequality as the owners of assets like houses and shares do much better than those who rely on the value of labour.

The third is a straightforward US default. Can’t pay won’t pay. Given that the “full faith and credit of the US Treasury” underpins the entire global financial system, that would make the great financial crisis look like a picnic.

So how likely is any of this?

Right now, mercifully, not very.

But the reasons why are not actually that comforting. The fact is, whether we like it or not, the world has few alternatives to the dollar.

Economist and former bond supremo Mohamed El-Erian told the BBC that many are trying to reduce dollar holdings, “the dollar is overweight and the world knows it, which is why we have seen a rise in gold, the euro and the pound, but it’s hard to move at scale so there’s really very few places to go”.

“The dollar is like your cleanest dirty shirt, you have to keep wearing it.”

Nevertheless, the future of the dollar and the world’s benchmark asset – US government bonds – is being discussed at the highest levels.

The governor of the Bank of England recently told the BBC that the levels of US debt and the status of the dollar is “very much on [US Treasury] Secretary Bessent’s mind. I don’t think the dollar is fundamentally under threat at the moment but he is very aware of these issues and I don’t think it is something that he underestimates.”

Debt of $37tn is an unfathomable number. If you saved a million dollars every day, it would take you 100,000 years to save up that much.

The sensible way to look at debt is as a percentage of a country’s income. The US economy produces income of around $25tn a year.

While its debt to income level is much higher than many, it’s not as high as Japan or Italy, and it has the benefit of the world’s most innovative and wealth creating economy behind it.

At home I have a book called Death of the Dollar by William F Rickenbacker in which he warns of the risks to the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. It was written in 1968. Mr Rickenbacker is no longer with us – the dollar is.

But it doesn’t mean that its status and value is a divine right.

Former Arsenal footballer Thomas Partey has been charged with five counts of rape and one count of sexual assault.

The offences are reported to have taken place between 2021-2022, the Metropolitan Police said.

The charges involve three women, with two counts of rape relating to one woman, three counts of rape in connection to a second woman and one count of sexual assault linked to a third woman.

The Ghanaian international denies the charges and “welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name”, his lawyer said.

The charges follow an investigation by detectives, which started in February 2022 after police first received a report of rape.

The 32-year-old’s contract with Arsenal ended on Monday after playing with the team since 2020.

An Arsenal spokesman said: “The player’s contract ended on June 30. Due to ongoing legal proceedings the club is unable to comment on the case.”

The Football Association and the Premier League declined to comment.

Det Supt Andy Furphy, who is leading the investigation, said: “Our priority remains providing support to the women who have come forward.

“We would ask anyone who has been impacted by this case, or anyone who has information, to speak with our team. You can contact detectives about this investigation by emailing CIT@met.police.uk”

Mr Partey, of Hertfordshire, is expected to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday 5 August.

In a statement, his lawyer Jenny Wiltshire said: “Thomas Partey denies all the charges against him.

“He has fully cooperated with the police and CPS throughout their three-year investigation.

“He now welcomes the opportunity to finally clear his name.

“Given that there are now ongoing legal proceedings, my client is unable to comment further.”

Mr Partey joined Arsenal for £45.3m from Atletico Madrid in October 2020, made 35 top-flight appearances last season and scored four goals as the London club finished second in the Premier League.

He also played 12 times in the Champions League as the Gunners reached the semi-finals before being knocked out by eventual winners Paris St-Germain.

Overall, he made 130 Premier League appearances for Mikel Arteta’s side, scoring nine goals.

Mr Partey has also made more than 50 appearances for Ghana’s national team, and most recently played at World Cup qualification matches in March.

Australia’s prime minister has promised to take strong action following an apparent arson attack on a synagogue in Melbourne.

Police are looking for a man who poured liquid on the synagogue’s front door before setting it on fire on Friday night. Some 20 people having dinner inside at the time were evacuated without any injuries.

Police are also trying to determine if the incident is linked to an attack against a Jewish-owned restaurant in the city on the same night.

A string of antisemitic attacks have occurred in Australia in the past few months, sparked by tensions over the Israel-Hamas war.

The Australian government has appointed a special envoy to combat antisemitism, and passed tougher laws against hate crimes following a wave of high-profile attacks.

“Antisemitism has no place in Australia,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said following the attack on the East Melbourne synagogue.

“Those responsible for these shocking acts must face the full force of the law and my government will provide all necessary support toward this effort,” Albanese said.

It is not clear if the incident was linked to the attack on the Miznon restaurant in the city’s business district during which rioters broke in, throwing chairs and other objects while chanting “death to the IDF [Israel Defense Forces]”. Some of the attackers were led away in handcuffs.

“These events are a severe escalation directed towards our community,” said Alex Ryvchin, co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.

“There have been too many antisemitic attacks in Australia,” Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said.

“The Australian government must do more to fight this toxic disease.”

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has become a volatile political issue in Australia.

It has resulted in protests from both Jewish and Muslim communities, as well as a sharp uptick in Islamophobia and antisemitism.

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 57,268 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s health ministry.

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 best 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.

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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 to 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 the Mojo magazine, 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.

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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 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 fans from all over the world – including Peru, Japan, Argentina, Spain and South Korea.

An Italian couple had “live forever” inscribed on 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.

“?” snarled Liam. Fans, young and old, roared along in recognition and approval.

Later, during Wonderwall, the frontman cheekily changed the lyrics to say: “.”

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 turn 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.

• 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

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

Elon Musk says he is launching a new political party, weeks after a dramatic falling out with US President Donald Trump.

The billionaire announced on his social media platform X that he had set up the America Party and billed it as a challenge to the Republican and Democratic two-party system.

However, it is unclear whether the party has been formally registered with US election authorities, and Musk has not provided details about who will lead it or what form it will take.

He first raised the prospect of launching a party during his public feud with Trump, which saw him leave his role in the administration and engage in a vicious public spat with his former ally.

During that row, Musk posted a poll on X asking users if there should be a new political party in the US.

Referencing that poll in his post on Saturday, Musk wrote: “By a factor of 2 to 1, you want a new political party and you shall have it!

“When it comes to bankrupting our country with waste & graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy.

“Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom.”

As of Saturday, the Federal Electoral Commission had not published documents indicating the party had been formally registered.

Musk was a key Trump advocate during the 2024 election and spent $250m (£187m) to help him regain office.

After the election, he was appointed to lead the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which was tasked with identifying swingeing cuts in the federal budget.

His fallout with Trump began when he left the administration in May and publicly criticised Trump’s tax and spending plans. The legislation – which Trump has called his “big, beautiful bill” – was narrowly passed by Congress and signed into law by the president this week.

The massive law includes huge spending commitments and tax cuts, and is estimated to add more than $3tn to the US deficit over the next decade.

Asked last month whether he was planning to join Israel in attacking Iran, US President Donald Trump said “I may do it. I may not do it. Nobody knows what I’m going to do”.

He let the world believe he had agreed a two-week pause to allow Iran to resume negotiations. And then he bombed anyway.

A pattern is emerging: The most predictable thing about Trump is his unpredictability. He changes his mind. He contradicts himself. He is inconsistent.

“[Trump] has put together a highly centralised policy-making operation, arguably the most centralised, at least in the area of foreign policy, since Richard Nixon,” says Peter Trubowitz, professor of international relations at the London School of Economics.

“And that makes policy decisions more dependent on Trump’s character, his preferences, his temperament.”

Trump has put this to political use; he has made his own unpredictability a key strategic and political asset. He has elevated unpredictability to the status of a doctrine. And now the personality trait he brought to the White House is driving foreign and security policy.

It is changing the shape of the world.

Political scientists call this the Madman Theory, in which a world leader seeks to persuade his adversary that he is temperamentally capable of anything, to extract concessions. Used successfully it can be a form of coercion and Trump believes it is paying dividends, getting the US’s allies where he wants them.

But is it an approach that can work against enemies? And could its flaw be that rather than being a sleight of hand designed to fool adversaries, it is in fact based on well established and clearly documented character traits, with the effect that his behaviour becomes easier to predict?

Trump began his second presidency by embracing Russian President Vladimir Putin and attacking America’s allies. He insulted Canada by saying it should become the 51st state of the US.

He said he was prepared to consider using military force to annex Greenland, an autonomous territory of America’s ally Denmark. And he said the US should retake ownership and control of the Panama Canal.

Article 5 of the Nato charter commits each member to come to the defence of all others. Trump threw America’s commitment to that into doubt. “I think Article 5 is on life support” declared Ben Wallace, Britain’s former defence secretary.

Conservative Attorney General Dominic Grieve said: “For now the trans-Atlantic alliance is over.”

A series of leaked text messages revealed the culture of contempt in Trump’s White House for European allies. “I fully share your loathing of European freeloaders,” US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth told his colleagues, adding “PATHETIC”.

In Munich earlier this year, Trump’s Vice-President JD Vance said the US would no longer be the guarantor of European security.

That appeared to turn the page on 80 years of trans-Atlantic solidarity. “What Trump has done is raise serious doubts and questions about the credibility of America’s international commitments,” says Prof Trubowitz.

“Whatever understanding those countries [in Europe] have with the United States, on security, on economic or other matters, they’re now subject to negotiation at a moment’s notice.

“My sense is that most people in Trump’s orbit think that unpredictability is a good thing, because it allows Donald Trump to leverage America’s clout for maximum gain…

“This is one of of his takeaways from negotiating in the world of real estate.”

Trump’s approach paid dividends. Only four months ago, Sir Keir Starmer told the House of Commons that Britain would increase defence and security spending from 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.

Last month, at a Nato summit, that had increased to 5%, a huge increase, now matched by every other member of the Alliance.

Trump is not the first American president to deploy an Unpredictability Doctrine. In 1968, when US President Richard Nixon was trying to end the war in Vietnam, he found the North Vietnamese enemy intractable.

“At one point Nixon said to his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, ‘you ought to tell the North Vietnamese negotiators that Nixon’s crazy and you don’t know what he’s going to do, so you better come to an agreement before things get really crazy’,” says Michael Desch, professor of international relations at Notre Dame University. “That’s the madman theory.”

Julie Norman, professor of politics at University College London, agrees that there is now an Unpredictability Doctrine.

“It’s very hard to know what’s coming from day to day,” she argues. “And that has always been Trump’s approach.”

Trump successfully harnessed his reputation for volatility to change the trans-Atlantic defence relationship. And apparently to keep Trump on side, some European leaders have flattered and fawned.

Last month’s Nato summit in The Hague was an exercise in obsequious courtship. Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte had earlier sent President Trump (or “Dear Donald”) a text message, which Trump leaked.

“Congratulations and thank you for your decisive action in Iran, it was truly extraordinary,” he wrote.

On the forthcoming announcement that all Nato members had agreed to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP, he continued: “You will achieve something NO president in decades could get done.”

Anthony Scaramucci, who previously served as Trump’s communications director in his first term, said: “Mr Rutte, he’s trying to embarrass you, sir. He’s literally sitting on Air Force One laughing at you.”

And this may prove to be the weakness at the heart of Trump’s Unpredictability Doctrine: their actions may be based on the idea that Trump craves adulation. Or that he seeks short-term wins, favouring them over long and complicated processes.

If that is the case and their assumption is correct, then it limits Trump’s ability to perform sleights of hand to fool adversaries – rather, he has well established and clearly documented character traits that they have become aware of.

Then there is the question of whether an Unpredictability Doctrine or the Madman Theory can work on adversaries.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, an ally who was given a dressing down by Trump and Vance in the Oval Office, later agreed to grant the US lucrative rights to exploit Ukrainian mineral resources.

Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, apparently remains impervious to Trump’s charms and threats alike. On Thursday, following a telephone call, Trump said he was “disappointed” that Putin was not ready to end the war against Ukraine.

And Iran? Trump promised his base that he would end American involvement in Middle Eastern “forever wars”. His decision to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities was perhaps the most unpredictable policy choice of his second term so far. The question is whether it will have the desired effect.

The former British Foreign Secretary, William Hague, has argued that it will do precisely the opposite: it will make Iran more, not less likely, to seek to acquire nuclear weapons.

Prof Desch agrees. “I think it’s now highly likely that Iran will make the decision to pursue a nuclear weapon,” he says. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if they lie low and do everything they can to complete the full fuel cycle and conduct a [nuclear] test.

“I think the lesson of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi is not lost on other dictators facing the US and potential regime change…

“So the Iranians will desperately feel the need for the ultimate deterrent and they’ll look at Saddam and Gaddafi as the negative examples and Kim Jong Un of North Korea as the positive example.”

One of the likely scenarios is the consolidation of the Islamic Republic, according to Mohsen Milani, a professor of politics at the University of South Florida and author of Iran’s Rise and Rivalry with the US in the Middle East.

“In 1980, when Saddam Hussein attacked Iran his aim was the collapse of the Islamic Republic,” he says. “The exact opposite happened.

“That was the Israeli and American calculation too… That if we get rid of the top guys, Iran is going to surrender quickly or the whole system is going to collapse.”

Looking ahead, unpredictability may not work on foes, but it is unclear whether the recent shifts it has yielded among allies can be sustained.

Whilst possible, this is a process built largely on impulse. And there may be a worry that the US could be seen as an unreliable broker.

“People won’t want to do business with the US if they don’t trust the US in negotiations, if they’re not sure the US will stand by them in defence and security issues,” argues Prof Norman. “So the isolation that many in the MAGA world seek is, I think, going to backfire.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz for one has said Europe now needs to become operationally independent of the US.

“The importance of the chancellor’s comment is that it’s a recognition that US strategic priorities are changing,” says Prof Trubowitz. “They’re not going to snap back to the way they were before Trump took office.

“So yes, Europe is going to have to get more operationally independent.”

This would require European nations to develop a much bigger European defence industry, to acquire kit and capabilities that currently only the US has, argues Prof Desch. For example, the Europeans have some sophisticated global intelligence capability, he says, but a lot of it is provided by the US.

“Europe, if it had to go it alone, would also require a significant increase in its independent armaments production capability,” he continues. “Manpower would also be an issue. Western Europe would have to look to Poland to see the level of manpower they would need.”

All of which will take years to build up.

So, have the Europeans really been spooked by Trump’s unpredictability, into making the most dramatic change to the security architecture of the western world since the end of the Cold War?

“It has contributed,” says Prof Trubowitz. “But more fundamentally, Trump has uncorked something… Politics in the United States has changed. Priorities have changed. To the MAGA coalition, China is a bigger problem than Russia. That’s maybe not true for the Europeans.”

And according to Prof Milani, Trump is trying to consolidate American power in the global order.

“It’s very unlikely that he’s going to change the order that was established after World War Two. He wants to consolidate America’s position in that order because China is challenging America’s position in that order.”

But this all means that the defence and security imperatives faced by the US and Europe are diverging.

The European allies may be satisfied that through flattery and real policy shifts, they have kept Trump broadly onside; he did, after all, reaffirm his commitment to Article 5 at the most recent Nato summit. But the unpredictability means this cannot be guaranteed – and they have seemed to accept that they can no longer complacently rely on the US to honour its historic commitment to their defence.

And in that sense, even if the unpredictability doctrine comes from a combination of conscious choice and Trump’s very real character traits, it is working, on some at least.

Hundreds of rescuers have been deployed to search for survivors in central Texas, after flash floods killed 43 people, including 15 children.

“The work continues, and will continue, until everyone is found,” promised Larry Leitha, the sheriff of Kerr County.

As the search goes into a second night, county officials said 27 children remained missing from a Christian youth camp located along the river.

Some parents confirmed their child’s death on social media. About 850 people have been rescued so far.

Multiple flash flood warnings remain in place over the weekend in central Texas.

At a press conference on Saturday afternoon, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he had signed an expanded disaster declaration to boost search efforts.

He said officials would be relentless in ensuring they locate “every single person who’s been a victim of this event”, adding that “we will stop when job is completed”.

It remains a search and rescue mission, officials said, not a recovery effort.

They said rescuers were going up and down the Guadalupe River to try to find people who may have been swept away by the floods.

US President Donald Trump said his administration is working closely with local authorities to respond to the emergency.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the federal government would deploy the Coast Guard to help search efforts.

Forecasters have warned that central Texas may see more flooding this weekend.

The National Weather Service (NWS) said the area could see 2 to 5in (5cm to 12cm) of rain on Saturday.

Up to 10in of rain was possible in some areas badly affected by Friday’s deluge.

Much of the rescue has focused on a large all-girls’ Christian summer camp called Camp Mystic, located along the banks of the Guadalupe River.

Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick told the BBC’s Radio 4 PM programme many of 27 missing girls were “under the age of 12”.

Pictures from the camp show it in disarray, with blankets, mattresses, teddy bears and other belongings caked in mud.

Many were asleep when the river rose more than 26ft (8m) in less than an hour in the early hours of Friday.

In an email to parents of the roughly 750 campers, Camp Mystic said that if they haven’t been contacted directly, their child is considered missing.

Some of the families have already stated publicly that their children were among those who were found dead.

A special mass will be held at Notre Dame Catholic Church on Sunday for those who died or are missing, and their families.

Rachel Reed drove five hours from Dallas to pick up her daughter. She told the BBC that members of her church and children’s school district were among the girls dead and missing.

“The families of those campers are living every parent’s worst nightmare,” she said. “Of course, it could have been me.”

Others started returning to the flooded areas.

Jonathan and Brittany Rojas visited their relatives’ home – where only the foundation remained.

They told the BBC that the mother and a baby of the family remained missing. A teenage son, Leo, survived after he became snared in barbed wire.

Another resident, Anthony, found his apartment full of mud and debris. His belongings were not salvageable, except a box holding childhood photos and his baby blanket.

“I lost everything I own,” he told the BBC. “Now I’m trying to figure things out.”

Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath have gone out with a bang at what they say will be their final gig, in front of 40,000 fans and supported by an all-star line-up of rock legends who have been influenced by the founding fathers of heavy metal.

Ozzy, 76, who has Parkinson’s disease, sang while seated on a black throne – clapping, waving his arms and pulling wild-eyed looks, just like old times.

He appeared overwhelmed at some moments. “You have no idea how I feel. Thank you from the bottom of my heart,” he told the crowd at Villa Park in Birmingham.

He was joined by the full original Sabbath line-up for the first time in 20 years.

The show’s bill also included fellow rock gods Metallica, Guns N’ Roses, Slayer, the Rolling Stones’ Ronnie Wood and Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler.

Wearing a leather overcoat and gold armband bearing his name, Ozzy rose from below the stage in his throne to a huge roar from the crowd.

“Are you ready? Let the madness begin,” he called.

“It’s so good to be on this stage. You have no idea,” he told the crowd, who responded by chanting his name.

After playing five songs from his solo career, Ozzy was joined by his Sabbath bandmates – guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist and lyricist Geezer Butler, and drummer Bill Ward – for four more, finishing with 1970 classic Paranoid.

The Parkinson’s, other health problems and age have taken their toll, meaning he performed sitting down throughout. His voice wavered a bit but still packed a fair punch.

Fans came from all over the world – if they could get tickets – for the all-day Back to the Beginning gig at Aston Villa’s football stadium, a stone’s throw from Ozzy’s childhood home.

The star-studded show was dubbed the “heavy metal Live Aid”, and profits will go to charity.

The pitch was a sea of Black Sabbath T-shirts and rock hand signs, with some areas becoming a melee of moshing. One person waved an inflatable bat, a reference to the infamous 1982 incident when Ozzy bit the head off a live bat on stage – the most notorious moment of many in the rock star’s wild career.

The day’s other performers paid homage to him and the other band members.

“Without Sabbath there would be no Metallica,” the US group’s frontman James Hetfield told the crowd during their set. “Thank you for giving us a purpose in life.”

Guns N’ Roses’ appearance included a cover of Sabbath’s 1978 song Never Say Die, with frontman Axl Rose ending with the cry: “Birmingham! Ozzy! Sabbath! Thank you!”

A series of star-studded supergroups saw Tyler, who has suffered serious vocal problems in recent years, sound back on form as part of a band including Ronnie Wood, Blink-182’s Travis Barker and Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello.

Another version of the band included Smashing Pumpkins singer Billy Corgan and KK Downing from Judas Priest, another of the West Midlands’ original metal heroes.

Younger performers included Yungblud, who sang one of Sabbath’s more tender songs, Changes, originally released in 1972, and which Ozzy took to number one as a duet with daughter Kelly in 2003.

Yungblud was part of another supergroup whose revolving cast of musicians included members of Megadeth, Faith No More and Anthrax.

There was also a titanic battle of three drummers in a “drum-off” between Barker, Chad Smith from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Danny Carey of Tool.

Pantera frontman Phil Anselmo told the crowd the artists on the bill “would all be different people” without Black Sabbath. “That’s the truth. I wouldn’t be up here with this microphone in my hand without Black Sabbath. The greatest of all time.”

Hollywood actor Jason Momoa was the show’s compere and while introducing Pantera, told fans he was joining the moshpit, saying: “Make some space for me, I’m coming in.”

At another point, he told the crowd: “The history of Black Sabbath and Ozzy Osbourne is to look back at the best who’ve ever done it. We have some of the greatest rock and metal musicians ever here today on this stage.”

Momoa’s Minecraft Movie co-star Jack Black sent a video message, as did other big names ranging from Billy Idol to Dolly Parton.

“Black Sabbath really kind of started all this, the metal era,” former Van Halen frontman Sammy Hagar told BBC News backstage. “Everyone looks at them like the kings, and if the kings are going to go out then we’re going to go honour them.

“Everyone that was asked to do this, shoot, you drop everything and do this. This is going to go down in history as the greatest metal event of all of all time.”

Ozzy said beforehand that the show would be “a goodbye as far as my live performances go, and what a way to go out”.

The line-up of legends “means everything”, he said in an interview provided by organisers.

“I am forever in their debt for showing up for me and the fans. I can’t quite put it into words, but I feel very emotional and blessed.”

Ticket prices ranged from about £200 to £2,000, with profits being shared between Cure Parkinson’s, Birmingham Children’s Hospital and Acorn Children’s Hospice.

Back to the Beginning line-up:

• Black Sabbath
• Ozzy Osbourne solo
• Metallica
• Guns N’ Roses
• Slayer
• Tool
• Pantera
• Supergroup including Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Ronnie Wood (the Rolling Stones), Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Adam Jones (Tool), KK Downing (Judas Priest), Vernon Reid (Living Colour), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Sammy Hagar (Van Halen), Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and Tobias Forge (Ghost)
• Drum-off – Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Travis Barker (Blink-182) and Danny Carey (Tool)
• Gojira
• Alice in Chains
• Anthrax
• Supergroup including Lizzy Hale (Halestorm), David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mike Bordin (Faith No More), David Draiman (Disturbed), Scott Ian (Anthrax), Yungblud and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme)
• Lamb of God
• Halestorm
• Rival Sons
• Mastodon

The warning signs were already flashing as hundreds of young people celebrated the Fourth of July public holiday at Camp Mystic, an all-girls’ Christian summer retreat, nestled on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Texas.

There had not been a drop of rain in the area recently until the inundation, when the river rose 26ft (8m) in less than an hour, according to state officials.

By Saturday afternoon, at least 43 people were dead, including 15 children.

• Frantic search for survivors
• Texas flood victims: Girl ‘living her best life’ and ‘heart and soul’ of camp

The first hint of the devastation to come appeared on Thursday morning as rain and thunderstorms soaked a number of central Texas counties.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a common warning called a flood watch at 13:18 that afternoon for parts of the region, including Kerr County.

In the early hours of Friday, the outlook became more dire as the NWS issued a series of upgraded warnings. The San Saba river, the Concho River and the Colorado River were rising.

At 04.03, the NWS sent a “particularly dangerous situation” alert, reserved for the most urgent and potentially deadly scenarios such as wildfires.

Another “particularly dangerous situation” warning was issued for the city of Kerrville at 05.34, before dawn on Friday.

“Residents and campers should SEEK HIGHER GROUND NOW! Life threatening flash flooding along the river is expected,” forecasters said.

“Automated rain gauges indicate a large and deadly flood wave is moving down the Guadalupe River. Flash flooding is already occurring.”

Such alerts are shared on NWS social media accounts and by broadcast news outlets, but most people were asleep.

Elinor Lester, 13, said younger campers at Camp Mystic were bunked in cabins closer to the riverbank and those were the first to flood.

“The camp was completely destroyed,” Elinor, who was evacuated by helicopter, told the Associated Press news agency. “It was really scary.”

Just outside Kerrville, the BBC met Jonathan and Brittany Rojas as they came to see what was left of a relative’s home. Only the foundations remain.

Five people were in the house the night of the deluge – the mother and her baby are still missing.

The teenage son, Leo, survived after he became snared in barbed wire, preventing him from being swept away. The boy is recovering in hospital.

As the BBC was interviewing the Rojas couple, a neighbour walked up to present them with an item salvaged from the house.

It was the teenager’s money jar. The label on it read, “Leo’s survival kit”.

Desperate Camp Mystic parents took to social media looking for news of their children.

One Facebook group – Kerrville Breaking News – turned into a missing persons page.

Some parents have since updated their social media pleas to say their missing family members did not survive.

Kerr County is in the heart of the Texas Hill Country, a getaway destination because of its scenic rolling hills, countless rivers and lakes and abundance of wineries.

But the region is also known as “Flash Flood Alley”, because of the recurring threat that has devastated local communities over the years.

When asked why the riverside summer camp was not evacuated, officials said the sudden scale of the deluge caught them unawares.

“No-one knew this kind of flood was coming,” Kerr County Judge Rob Kelly said.

Plans for a futuristic city in Senegal dreamt up by the singer Akon have been scrapped and instead he will work on something more realistic, officials say.

“The Akon City project no longer exists,” Serigne Mamadou Mboup, the head of Senegal’s tourism development body, Sapco, told the BBC.

“Fortunately, an agreement has been reached between Sapco and the entrepreneur Alioune Badara Thiam [aka Akon]. What he’s preparing with us is a realistic project, which Sapco will fully support.”

Known for his string of noughties chart hits, Akon – who was born in the US but partly raised in Senegal – announced two ambitious projects in 2018 that were supposed to represent the future of African society.

The first was Akon City – reportedly costed at $6bn (£5bn). It was to run on the second initiative – a brand new cryptocurrency called Akoin.

Initial designs for Akon City, with its boldly curvaceous skyscrapers, were compared by commentators to the awe-inspiring fictional city of Wakanda in Marvel’s Black Panther films and comic books.

But after five years of setbacks, the 800-hectare site in Mbodiène – about 100km (60 miles) south of the capital, Dakar – remains mostly empty. The only structure is an incomplete reception building. There are no roads, no housing, no power grid.

“We were promised jobs and development,” one local resident told the BBC. “Instead, nothing has changed.”

Meanwhile the star’s Akoin cryptocurrency has struggled to repay its investors over the years, with Akon himself conceding: “It wasn’t being managed properly – I take full responsibility for that.”

There had also been questions over whether it would even be legal for Akoin to operate as the primary payment method for would-be residents of Akon City. Senegal uses the CFA franc, which is regulated and issued by the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO), and like many central banks has expressed opposition to cryptocurrency.

The plans for Akon City had been sweeping.

Phase one alone was to include a hospital, a shopping mall, a school, a police station, a waste centre, and a solar plant – all by the end of 2023.

Sitting on Senegal’s Atlantic Coast, Akon’s high-tech, eco-friendly city was supposed to run entirely on renewable energy.

But despite Akon’s insistence in a 2022 BBC interview that the project was “100,000% moving”, no significant construction followed the initial launch ceremony.

Now the Senegalese government has confirmed what many suspected – the project had stalled beyond recovery. Officials cited a lack of funding and halted construction efforts as key reasons for the decision.

Although Akon City as it was originally imagined has been shelved, the government says it is now working with Akon on a more “realistic” development project for the same site.

The land near Mbodiène remains of high strategic value, especially with the 2026 Youth Olympic Games approaching and increased tourism activity expected.

• Akon’s Wakanda, grazing goats and a crumbling crypto dream
• Born in France but searching for a future in Africa
• US basketball training for Senegal cancelled after visas rejected
• Senegal starts producing oil as president promises benefits

Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar on Sunday for proximity talks with Hamas on the latest proposal for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had accepted the invitation despite what he described as the “unacceptable” changes that Hamas wanted to make to a plan presented by mediators from Qatar, the US and Egypt.

On Friday night, Hamas said it had delivered a “positive response” to the proposal for a 60-day ceasefire and that it was ready for negotiations.

However, a Palestinian official said the group had sought amendments including a guarantee that hostilities would not resume if talks on a permanent truce failed.

In Gaza itself, the Hamas-run Civil Defence agency said Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 35 Palestinians on Saturday.

Seven people were killed, including a doctor and his three children, when tents in the al-Mawasi area were bombed, according to a hospital in the nearby city of Khan Younis.

Meanwhile, two American employees of the controversial aid distribution organisation backed by Israel and the US – the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) – were wounded in what it said was a grenade attack at its site in the Khan Younis area.

The Israeli and US governments both blamed Hamas, which has not commented.

Late on Saturday, the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said in a statement that “the changes that Hamas is seeking to make” to the ceasefire proposal were “unacceptable to Israel”.

But it added: “In light of an assessment of the situation, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has directed that the invitation to proximity talks be accepted and that the contacts for the return of our hostages – on the basis of the Qatari proposal that Israel has agreed to – be continued. The negotiating team will leave tomorrow.”

Earlier, an Israeli official had briefed local media that there was “something to work with” in the way that Hamas had responded.

Mediators are likely to have their work cut out to bridge the remaining gaps at the indirect talks in Doha.

Watching them closely will be US President Donald Trump, who has been talking up the chances of an agreement in recent days.

On Friday, before he was briefed on Hamas’s response, he said it was “good” that the group was positive and that “there could be a Gaza deal next week”.

Trump is due to meet Netanyahu on Monday, and it is clear that he would very much like to be able to announce a significant breakthrough then.

The families of Israeli hostages and Palestinians in Gaza will also once again be holding their breath.

Hostages’ relatives and thousands of their supporters attended a rally in Tel Aviv on Saturday night to call for a comprehensive deal that would bring home all of the hostages.

Among those who spoke was Yechiel Yehoud. His daughter Arbel Yehoud was released from captivity during the last ceasefire, which Trump helped to broker before he took office and which collapsed when Israel resumed its offensive in March.

“President Trump, thank you for bringing our Arbel back to us. We will be indebted to you for the rest of our lives. Please don’t stop, please make a ‘big beautiful hostages deal’,” he said.

On Tuesday, the US president said that Israel had accepted the “necessary conditions” for a 60-day ceasefire, during which the parties would work to end the war.

The plan is believed to include the staggered release of 10 living Israeli hostages by Hamas 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.

The proposal also reportedly says sufficient quantities of aid would enter Gaza immediately with the involvement of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross.

A senior Palestinian official familiar with the talks told the BBC on Friday that Hamas was demanding aid be distributed exclusively by the UN and its partners, and that the GHF’s operations end immediately.

Another amendment demanded by Hamas was about Israeli troop withdrawals, according to the official.

The US proposal is believed to include phased Israeli pull-outs from parts of Gaza. But the official said Hamas wanted troops to return to the positions they held before the last ceasefire collapsed in March, when Israel resumed its offensive.

The official said Hamas also wanted a US guarantee that Israeli air and ground operations would not resume even if the ceasefire ended without a permanent truce.

The proposal is believed to say mediators will guarantee that serious negotiations will take place from day one, and that they can extend the ceasefire if necessary.

The Israeli prime minister has ruled out ending the war until all of the hostages are released and Hamas’s military and governing capabilities are destroyed.

Far-right members of his cabinet have also expressed their opposition to the proposed deal.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said on Saturday that the only way to secure the return of the hostages was the “full conquest of the Gaza Strip, a complete halt to so-called ‘humanitarian’ aid, and the encouragement of emigration” of the Palestinian population.

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 57,338 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

Footballers Diogo Jota and André Silva have been honoured by their family, friends and teammates at a joint funeral in Portugal.

Jota, 28, was laid to rest alongside his brother, Silva, 25, after they died in a car crash on Thursday.

Hundreds of locals and supporters gathered at the Igreja Matriz in Gondomar, where the brothers are from, on Saturday.

The funeral also brought together huge names from across football, including Jota’s teammates Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson, who were seen carrying floral tributes into the church ahead of the ceremony.

The service was held in Gondomar, a small Portuguese city near Porto, that has been left reeling after the brothers died.

Jota and Silva died at about 00:30 local time in the Spanish province of Zamora.

It is understood they were on the way to take a ferry and return to Liverpool for Jota’s pre-season training when the accident happened.

The Portugal forward had undergone minor surgery and doctors had advised him against flying.

The accident came just 11 days after Jota married his long-term partner Rute Cardoso, with whom he had three children.

Players from Liverpool FC, who only three months ago were celebrating their Premier League win, arrived at the funeral together.

Watching them walk in line with each other, almost as they do when walking onto the pitch, was an emotional experience.

There was a strong feeling of community, but also a shared sombreness.

Many were visibly upset, with supporters on the other side of the barrier applauding the players. One woman in the crowd shouted towards them as they walked in: “Força!” – strength.

Family and close friends walked into the church in complete silence, many of them with their heads bowed down as the church bell rung.

One person in the procession held up a sign with Silva’s photograph, which read: “Para sempre um de nós.” (Forever one of us.)

So much was the brothers’ impact on football and their local community that some of the guests had to watch the ceremony from outside of the church, often hugging and comforting one another.

Locals and football fans in the crowd watched silently for most of the service, which went on for about an hour.

Many wore football shirts and carried merchandise from the different teams across Portugal and abroad where Jota and Silva, who played for local club Penafiel, spent some time in.

One of these fans was Antônio Moreira, who set off early in the morning to be one of the first outside the Igreja Matriz de Gondomar where the funeral took place.

“I know I won’t be able to go inside, but I wanted to pay my respects,” he told me from the barrier outside the church.

Antônio later showed me his phone case – a little old, he said – with the emblem of FC Porto.

Antônio recalled fond memories of Jota on the field, as he spent a year playing for the local club, but added that the brothers were so much more than football stars.

“They were good people, from a humble family, people like us.”

This has hit him especially hard, he said, as 40 years ago his family went through a similar tragedy. His aunt, uncle and young cousin died in a car accident three days before Christmas, leaving his other cousin behind.

Jota and Silva may not have been his direct family, he said, but their deaths felt personal.

“This is what I think: losing your parents is hard, really hard. But losing your children is unimaginable,” he added.

Jota’s journey as a player inspired many people here in Gondomar, football fan Fábio Silva told me.

He has kept up with the brothers since they started in the local clubs – and said he had to be here for their final journey.

“Despite the impact they had on football, and even financially, they never let it show,” he told me, adding the family are well-loved in the town.

“The community is sad, devastated,” he said.

Having spent some time with them over the years, Fábio said there was only one reason he was here: “Respect for the brothers, the family.”

Avid football fans Fábio and Rafaela travelled from the nearby town Lordelo to honour Jota and Silva.

Wearing Jota’s shirt, Fábio said it was important to him to be here “for Jota’s final day”. Both said it meant a lot to the community that so many people showed up to pay their respects.

They watched the ceremony from outside the church, like hundreds of other fans – which Fábio said was hard. Nodding, Rafaela agreed, but said it was also beautiful.

“This is an example that you need to live life to the max,” Rafaela said, “because you never know when will be your last day.”

“Say everything you want to say, and need to say – tomorrow could be too late,” Fábio added.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has made his first public appearance since the start of Iran’s conflict with Israel, according to state media.

State television footage showed him greeting worshippers at a mosque on Saturday during a ceremony a day before the Shia festival of Ashura.

Khamenei’s last appearance was in a recorded address during the conflict with Israel, which began on 13 June and during which top Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists were killed.

Israel launched a surprise attack on nuclear and military sites in Iran, after which Iran retaliated with aerial attacks targeting Israel.

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During the 12-day war with Israel, Khamenei appeared on TV in three video messages and there was speculation that he was hiding in a bunker.

On Saturday Iranian media coverage was dominated by Khamenei’s appearance, with footage of supporters expressing joy at seeing him on television.

Khamenei is seen turning to senior cleric Mahmoud Karimi, encouraging him to “sing the anthem, O Iran”. The patriotic song became particularly popular during the recent conflict with Israel.

State TV said the clip was filmed at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosque, named after the founder of the Islamic republic.

Iranian TV has invited people to send in videos sharing their reactions to Khamenei’s return to the public eye.

His appearance comes as the predominantly Shia Muslim country observes a period of mourning during the month of Muharram, traditionally attended by the supreme leader.

Ashura is held on the 10th day of Muharram – this year falling on 6 July – during which Shia Muslims commemorate the death of Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Hossein.

On 26 June, in pre-recorded remarks aired on state television, Khamenei said Iran would not surrender to Israel despite US President Donald Trump’s calls.

The US joined the war with strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities on 22 June.

The operation involved 125 US military aircraft and targeted three nuclear facilities: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan.

Iran’s judiciary said more than 900 people were killed during the 12-day war.

Sabrina Carpenter brought her signature sugary pop sound to a crowd of 65,000 at London’s BST Festival on Saturday night.

The 26-year-old has built a brand around sexual confidence and racy lyrics, which were noticeably toned down as the US singer embraced a more family friendly show in London’s Hyde Park.

At one point a graphic flashed up on screen advising “parental discretion” as Carpenter launched into album track Bed Chem. She ditched her usual sexually suggestive performance on song Juno and instead used a cannon to fire t-shirts into the crowd.

Despite these changes she was still at her best, storming through a 17-song tracklist that comprised her biggest hits, charming the crowd with her Hollywood smile and incredibly bouncy hair.

Carpenter writes music for women of the dating app generation and her songs are filled with the type of anecdotes you’ve heard over Friday night drinks with the girls – from the anger over not getting closure to the fear of a man embarrassing you when they meet all your friends.

Perhaps that is what makes her so relatable. She’s a talented singer and dancer who shot to fame on the Disney Channel, but she could also so easily be your mate who brings over ice cream when you’re going through a break-up.

Her ability to switch from a sassy upbeat dance number to a vulnerable, acoustic solo performance is also impressive.

She’s an accomplished performer for someone whose breakout hit, Espresso, is little over a year old. But much to the surprise of many, she’s been in this game for a very long time.

The Pennsylvania-born star began posting videos of herself on YouTube at the age of 10 and came third in a competition to find the next Miley Cyrus a year later.

After starring in a few small acting roles, the singer became a bona fide Disney star in 2013 when she was cast in TV series Girl Meets World.

She began releasing music the following year and has released six albums to date, but has only recently received global recognition.

Carpenter became the first female artist to hold both the number one and number two positions on the UK singles chart for three consecutive weeks in 2024 and she also became the first artist in 71 years to spend 20 weeks at the top of the charts with Espresso.

From watching her live, it appears she’s been waiting patiently for this moment for quite some time, to perform on the biggest stages around the world and to thousands of fans – something she references a few times between songs.

She told the crowd she was “so, so grateful” that the audience had chosen to spend their Saturday evening with her, gushing that “London is so fun and there’s so much to do here”.

Much of the cheekiness she has built her brand on was weaved in throughout her performance, including 1950s style infomercials advertising sprays that erase no-good men from your life and mattresses that are perfect for “activities”.

But aside from a racy rendition of Bed Chem and a snippet of Pony by Ginuine (one for the Magic Mike fans) the show was more PG than expected.

Perhaps it was due to the large volume of young children stood in the crowd amongst us Gen Zs and millennials.

Or perhaps the pop princess needs a break from making headlines.

The first was back in March, when her Brit Awards opening performance was criticised for being too racy for pre-watershed television.

Media watchdog Ofcom received more than 800 complaints, with the majority relating to Carpenter’s choreography with dancers dressed in Beefeater outfits.

Then in June this year she was once again under fire for sharing artwork for her new album, Man’s Best Friend, which showed her on her hands and knees in a short dress whilst an anonymous man in a suit grabbed her hair.

Carpenter then revealed alternative artwork she said was “approved by God” and shows her holding the arm of a suited man.

Criticism for the original artwork came from charities including Glasgow Women’s Aid which supports victims of domestic abuse. It said Carpenter’s album cover was “regressive” and “promotes an element of violence and control”.

Heather Binning of Women’s Rights Network, also told the BBC that violence against women should “never be used as satire”.

But what Saturday’s performance showed is that Carpenter is a true professional, someone who can easily adapt both her style and setlist to cater to different audiences.

She ended the show perfectly, taking to a crane that panned across the huge mass of people, thrilling fans and giving them the opportunity for a close-up video to post on their social media.

“Damn nobody showed up,” she joked, adding: “London thank you so much for having us tonight, this has to be one of the biggest shows I’ve played in my entire life.”

She wrapped up with Espresso, marking the end of the show by downing some in martini-form from a crystal glass.

There were a few mutters from the crowd, who perhaps were expecting a special guest or two, but it was clear from the offset that this would be a defining moment in the popstar’s career and one where she only wants the spotlight on her.