The results of mayoral elections in Greater Manchester, London and the West Midlands are among those expected on Saturday

• Local elections 2024: full council results for England

Rishi Sunak is braced for the result of key mayoral elections in London and the West Midlands, after the Conservatives were trounced in the first day of local election results.

As Fridayas result declarations closed, the Conservatives had suffered a net loss of 371 seats, and lost control of 10 councils.

Cheshire

Dorset

Hertfordshire

Kent

Merseyside

Sussex

Thames Valley

Warwickshire

West Midlands

Wiltshire

Full mayoral results are expected today, as the remaining English council results come in. Labour has held the Liverpool mayoralty, while reports suggest the London race may be tighter than expected. Find out what happened in your area

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• Council results a visual analysis
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Unnamed source said Andy Street was likely to win mayoral vote thanks to aMiddle East not West Midlandsa

• Local and mayoral election results a live updates

Labour has condemned a aracista comment provided by an unnamed party source to the BBC after it lost support in heavily Muslim areas.

The source told the BBC they believed the West Midlands mayor, Andy Street, was on course to win as a result of the aMiddle East not West Midlandsa and called Hamas the areal villainsa.

Most councils in England and Wales declared on Friday, but some contests will conclude on Saturday afternoon

• Local elections 2024: full council results for England

Rishi Sunak is braced for the result of key mayoral elections in London and the West Midlands, after the Conservatives were trounced in the first day of local election results.

The Conservatives are facing one of their worst local election results in 40 years, with striking Labour gains across England and Wales in key battlegrounds they need to win to secure victory at the general election.

TBC Epping Forest

4pm North Tyneside, Stroud, Warrington

1.30pm London*

3pm West Midlands

3.15pm West Yorkshire

4pm Greater Manchester

5pm Salford

Noon Hertfordshire

2pm Thames Valley

2.30pm Warwickshire, West Midlands

3pm Cheshire, Dorset

3.30pm Merseyside

4pm Wiltshire

Ex-PM turned away from South Oxfordshire police commissioner vote for not having valid ID a a rule he introduced

• Local and mayoral election results a live updates

Boris Johnson has thanked three villagers who turned him away from a polling station on Thursday for trying to vote without a valid ID.

The former prime minister was told by polling station staff that he would not be allowed to vote in the police and crime commissioner election for South Oxfordshire without proving his identity.

With public finances in a worse position than expected, chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering pushing back further pledges

Jeremy Hunt and his team are considering not holding another tax-cutting autumn statement before the next election, amid uncertainty about the public finances.

The chancellor has already hinted that he plans to pledge further tax cuts a including another down payment on Rishi Sunakas ambition to abolish national insurance a before a general election, which is expected to be held in the autumn. He also remains under pressure from the right of the party to lower taxes.

UK medicines regulator says information on boxes of montelukast will alert users to risk of mood and behaviour changes

More than 500 adverse neuropsychiatric reactions have been reported in children under the age of nine involving an asthma drug which is to get new warnings over its risks.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced last week that more prominent warnings would be added to the information provided on boxes of the asthma drug montelukast, sold under the brand name Singulair.

Water bottle stations set up in St Leonards-on-Sea and part of Hastings as customers face days without service

More than 30,000 properties in East Sussex are without water because of a burst water main.

The disruption in St Leonards-on-Sea was first reported on Thursday afternoon and is expected to continue into Sunday, according to Southern Water.

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Birmingham 0-0 Norwich. The home side have started in lively fashion. Miyoshi has a dig from distance. Gunn behind it all the way.

Leeds 0-0 Southampton. aIam not sure a season where Leeds missed out on the title on the final day is the best memory to cheer Leeds fans up!a writes Adam Becker. Yes, good point, though you get the general gist, and in any case, this is Don Revieas Leeds weare talking about, last-gasp misery is baked in and taken for granted.

Government investigation into wartime atrocities on Channel Island will ask why Nazi perpetrators never stood trial in Britain

The government inquiry into Nazi wartime atrocities on the Channel Island of Alderney has been extended to investigate why none of the Nazi perpetrators responsible for the crimes was put on trial in Britain, the Observer can reveal.

Originally set up to review the number of victims in camps on the island, the inquiry will release a report later this month revealing the full scale of the aunspeakable and unimaginable brutality and sadisma that occurred on British soil.

An unnamed Palestinian official familiar with the mediation efforts expressed cautious optimism to the Reuters news agency

Israeli warplanes have attacked targets in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, after a rocket was launched towards the Ein Hashlosha kibbutz in Israel on Friday, the IDF has said.

The Israeli army said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter, that the rocket fell in an area near the border fence between Israel and southern Gaza.

Daniel Rooney stood in at 30-minutesa notice on Friday night when Mursa flight from London was cancelled

A Scottish singer has said he is astill on a higha after being plucked from obscurity to replace Olly Murs as the opening act for Take That at the last minute.

Murs was due to open for Take That at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow on Friday but had to pull out after getting stuck in London when his flight was cancelled.

Campaigners are calling for public inquiry into high number of patient fatalities over a decade at crisis-hit service

More than 30 patients died after risks were not acted on in the decade following a controversial service redesign at a crisis-hit NHS mental health trust, according to an analysis by campaigners.

The report by the Campaign to Save Mental Health Services in Norfolk and Suffolk also logged nearly 20 patients of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) who have died since 2013 after communication failures, while family concerns were ignored in 15 cases.

The set of folios published by John Gould will be presented at Firsts book fair in London in mid-May

John Gould was one of the most sought-after taxidermists in 19th-century London, commissioned by King George IV to stuff the first giraffe to arrive in England.

But Gouldas lasting legacy is birds. He travelled the world documenting and cataloguing as many avian species as he could find, many of them never seen before, earning him the nickname the Bird Man and the appointment as official abird stuffera to the Zoological Society.

This Morning presenter told his friend not to moan and gave him advice that ultimately proved fatal

Gyles Brandreth has said he blames himself for the death of Rod Hull, the entertainer who fell to his death as he was trying to adjust the TV aerial on the roof of his home.

Hull, 63, famous for his antics with his puppet Emu, fell from a ladder outside his bungalow in Winchelsea, East Sussex, in 1999.

Our inadequate electricity network is stopping the building of thousands of new homes. And the necessary move to low-carbon heating and cars is only increasing demand

Oxford has a severe housing problem. With house prices 12 times the average salary, it has become one of the least affordable cities in the country. Its council house waiting list has grown to more than 3,000 households, with many having to live in temporary accommodation.

An obvious solution is to build more homes, but those trying to do this face a big barrier: electricity.

Tuesdayas debate on whether the existing rules do not in fact bar women comes amid rising resignations and threats

In May 1924, the Manchester Guardian revealed a arecent innovation in the Garrick Club to admit ladies to one of its roomsa meant that the queen of Romania would be lunching at the club during her visit to London. aWhat would Queen Victoria have said about such a notion!a the article wondered.

A hundred years later, the clubas lethargic advance towards allowing women into the building on equal terms with men continues. On Tuesday, members will once again vote on the matter.

The UK is expected to come out of recession, but it would be wise not to expect a reduction any time soon

It would come as a shock to most economists if the Bank of England opted to cut interest rates at its policy meeting this week.

Financial markets, which were baying for a cut last May, are these days betting that August or possibly September will be the point at which the Bank starts to lower interest rates from their current level of 5.25%.

Covid vaccines, chemtrails, the Great Reset a| Why do people invent false conspiracies when there are so many real ones to worry about? Thereas only one way to find out: ask a believer

I am a conspiracy theorist. I believe that groups of people conspire secretly against our interests to line their pockets, cover their backs or achieve political goals. By this definition I suspect you are, too. We see evidence of these conspiracies every day. We see them in the Horizon scandal, in which the Post Office kept prosecuting innocent operators. We see them in the governmentas use of a aVIPa lane for procuring PPE from friends and donors at extortionate prices. We see them in the Windrush scandal, in which people were denied their legal rights and unlawfully deported by the UK government. In the Cambridge Analytica scandal: a secretive micro-targeting campaign likely to have influenced the Brexit vote. In the Panama Papers and the Pandora Papers, showing how the ultra-rich hide their money from taxes and legal scrutiny.

All these are conspiracies in the true sense: hidden machinations that advance particular interests while causing harm to others. A theory is a rational explanation, subject to disproof. If you accept these scandals are the result of hidden machinations, which they evidently are, you are a conspiracy theorist.

I love intercourse a so why has it been so long since I actually had any?

I first had sex when I was 16; I have since had quite a few people inside my body. Some were more welcome than others a like the surgeon who removed my inflamed appendix, and that incredibly hot Dutch photographer in a Utrecht Airbnb, to whom I would have given my appendix, had he asked. Others have only penetrated me with their words or in my fantasies. Some of the experiences feel unreal, like the guy who referred to himself as aBig Mikea and claimed that he was moving to Finland the next day, despite there being no packed moving boxes or suitcases in his house. I wouldnat be able to pick him out of a lineup today.

I am torn between two different versions of that story. In one, I was twentysomething, wild, confident and single. I met a hot guy in a bar and we went back to his place. He read me some of his poems, I elegantly undressed and we had sex. Twice. The next day, when I was deliciously hungover, I revelled in the fact that we didnat even exchange phone numbers, as if I was in Sex and the City.

For two years, a viral joke mocking the singeras dancing threatened to overshadow her record-breaking success a but the laser-focused star had the last laugh. And now she has her sights set on building a media empire

The London hotel room is huge, with a grand piano in one corner. In the middle is a stash of crisps, nuts and drinks, laid out as if we were in a high-end store. And on a sofa I can just about make out Dua Lipa, lost in the vastness. She could be a top footballer a red hair tied back, fresh-faced, wearing black tracksuit bottoms and a striped top. Iam trying to think what club it is. Barcelona?

She laughs. aNo, I designed it. Itas merch.a I look closely. On the front, it says Training Season a the title of the second single from her forthcoming album, Radical Optimism. Ah, that makes sense; she is playing for FC Dua Lipa. Over the next hour, Lipa makes it clear that sheas a devoted fan of FC Dua Lipa, gives her all to it, and can only see it growing exponentially. Something I wouldnat dare to disagree with.

The theatre adaptation of Studio Ghiblias beloved animation sold out in Japan in four minutes. As it comes to the UK, we meet the international team of creatives bringing its giant dragons and tiny soot sprites to life

The dragon stirs to life as Toby OliA(c) plucks it up by its tail. He spirals it through the air and, quick as ripping off a plaster, tears the creature in two. aEven when he was curled up on the floor,a the puppet designer says, undoing another of the dragonas joints, ahe took up too much space.a OliA(c) sticks the body back together, a little shorter but more malleable now, and the tail wriggles back into being.

Best known for his work on War Horse, OliA(c) is holding a miniature prototype for Haku, a boy who transforms into an enormous serpentine dragon. Haku is one of the leading characters in Hayao Miyazakias exquisite animation Spirited Away, which has been adapted into a major stage production. For the last four years, the creative team have been conjuring, tweaking and perfecting Miyazakias world of gods and monsters in three dimensions. The full-sized dragon, for whom OliA(c) took inspiration from fan art as well as close studies of the film, is now more than four metres long, with 4,000 hairs inserted individually down his spine, ears that pin back when heas scared, and a body powerful enough to carry a child on his back as he flies.

Pizzas, aperitivos and a big sandy beach add to the offbeat charm of this Adriatic resort town

I hadnat heard of Pesaro before my ex-flatmate sent me there in summer 2018. I was writing a book at the time, and Giulia reckoned the best place for me to do such work was in her grandadas old flat, a modest unit in a block put up in 1946, during the short reign of Umberto II. It had lain empty since her nonno a Dottor Spinicci a died of liver failure, having failed to take his own medicine.

The flatas balcony looked on to a hot and dusty courtyard shared with the local police station. When, on my first morning in the flat, I discovered a faded handwritten recipe for ragA1 alla bolognese that didnat involve tomatoes, I was tempted to head down to the cop shop and report it as a thoughtcrime.

The DJ, 45, on her fan Prince William, improving lesbian representation, recovering from cancer and why colostomy bags are nothing to be ashamed of

Silence doesnat sit well with me. Iam the eldest of six children, so my early years were chaotic. Every day was an adventure; the house was filled with music, laughter and chat. If Iam home alone now, I always have the telly on.

Racism was everywhere when I was a kid. Mumas parents were from Barbados, Dad was white English: mixed relationships werenat common in the late-70s. Home, in Stockport, felt safe, but away from home theread be abuse. For a while we lived in Skem [Skelmersdale] a I heard the N-word every day.

Mum and Dad are grafters. She was always helping people on the estate and he worked on building sites from dawn to dusk to provide. I used to feel guilty, working in the media. DJ-ing is wonderful, but itas pressing buttons. I couldnat shake the idea that I should work harder for the wonderful life I have.

A private school scholarship changed my life. I saw how others lived, was offered opportunities and learned whatas possible. We could never have afforded it a even my uniform was paid for by a bursary. I was never treated differently there, though Iam not sure anyone quite understood where I was from.

Stubbornness is my worst habit. I donat back down. Slowly, Iam learning to admit Iam wrong once the moment is over, but in the heat of it I still canat.

Getting my BBC pass felt like a real moment. Mum and Dad finally accepted that being a DJ wasnat a phase Iad grow out of. That I wasnat going back to finish uni. That day, I knew they were proud.

My GP told me I was too young for cancer. She sent me for tests anyway, which saved my life. I was 42, fit and in my prime when I got my diagnosis. While I waited to hear how serious it was, I made a promise: if I survived, Iad tell the tale. Reading other peopleas stories comforted me while I was struggling. Sharing my own is the least I could do.

Being told I was cancer-free was the most beautiful moment. A yearas worth of worry, pain and fear rushed out my body. Cancer made me a better person. Iave stopped worrying about the silly things. I appreciate the privilege of being healthy. Iave traded my brattiness for gratitude.

Lesbian representation in the media still has a way to go. Often, inclusivity means a gay man a we need more space for the rest of the LGBTQ+ letters.

I regret not spending enough time with Mum. She passed away earlier this year. I left Radio 1 to be with her, and we had an amazing summer together. For years, I sacrificed that for my career. I shouldnat have.

Prince William used to text me regularly. Will and Kate came to Radio 1 to wish me luck before I ran the London marathon. He told me when he worked on the air ambulances, he used to listen to me on the early breakfast show, and would sometimes message in with a fake name asking for a shout-out.

Thereas a Lauryn Hill lyric: aIt could all be so simple, but youad rather make it hard.a That was my approach to past relationships. Then I met my girlfriend, Kate, and realised you just know when itas supposed to be a it now feels like the easiest thing in the world. Lots of aYes dearsa also help.

My stoma is called Audrey. Naming it helps you bond and get used to it. Mine looked like the plant from Little Shop of Horrors: Audrey II. She keeps me alive a and thatas beautiful. Iam determined to be loud and proud about her a so many people are made to feel ashamed of theirs.

Personal Best by Adele Roberts is published by Hodder Catalyst and is out now

A rocky patch in Ava and Loganas marriage forced them to talk openly about their desires a and now theyare having their best sex ever

How do you do it? Share the story of your sex life, anonymously

We watch porn frequently, which is a positive thing we do together. Iave learned new things about my own body

The ninth and final series of the ever-inventive black comedy is packed with stars and cements its status as a classic. Itas such a shock America hasnat tried to copy it yet

Oh, so weird. I thought they were meant to be more careful with these. Anyway Iave been given a leaked script from the new a and final a series of Inside No 9 (8 May, 10pm, BBC Two), so I suppose it is my duty as a journalist to publicly leak it. Shame to spoil the series but that is part of the job. I take no pleasure in reporting this.

STEVE PEMBERTON DRESSED AS A WOMAN: Ooh, are we doing a growing sense of horror in this one or a ludicrous farce? Oooooh!

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Mikel Arteta is in his seat, black-clad and quite impassive. His childhood pal Andoni Iraola is in black too.

aLooking forward to your MBM for the game,a says Vaibhav Raghunandan, aas Iam stuck on a train from Amsterdam to Berlin which has been delayed by an hour due to some trouble on the track. (Not the first time Iave been on a train to Germany with a delay. Efficient = not.) Hoping for a sufficiently easy Arsenal win a love the Basque connection and the beautiful story, but this is about breaking a petrostateas hegemony.a

• Forward, 30, is clubas all-time top scorer in womenas football
• aIt has been one of the biggest privileges of my lifea

Fran Kirby has announced she will end her aincredible journeya at Chelsea at the end of the current season. The 30-year-old England midfielder has helped the club to six WSL titles, five FA Cups and two League Cups since signing from Reading in 2015. She leaves the club as the all-time leading goalscorer with 115 goals in 205 appearances.

In an emotional interview on the clubas website, she said: aTo leave with the trophies that I have won, with the teammates Iave played with a some of the worldas best players a it has been one of the biggest privileges of my life.