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

Results from more than 100 English councils, as well as for several mayors, are announced. So far the Conservatives have suffered extensive council losses but kept hold the Tees Valley mayoralty. Find out what happened in your area

• Local and mayoral election results a live
• Visual analysis: Big Tory losses but no Labour landslide. What might happen at Westminster?
• Find your council result
• Full mayoral results

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.

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

Noon Liverpool City Region

1.30pm London*

2pm South Yorkshire

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

Tory council representation has imploded, but Labouras gains have not been seismic. These charts show what this may signal for a general election

• Local and mayoral election results a live
• Full 2024 council results for England
• UK general election opinion poll tracker

Conservative representation has collapsed to its lowest level since 1998 in the areas that voted in Thursdayas local elections, according to a Guardian analysis.

The Tories now control 19% of seats in the 98 council areas that had announced results by 20:40 on 3 May a their lowest level since Labouras Tony Blair swept to power in the late 1990s.

Hamas and US CIA officials will meet Egyptian mediators on Saturday, according to an Egyptian security source

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.

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.

The full 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.

• Updates from the 12.30pm BST kick-offs across the country
• Live scoreboard | And feel free to mail Scott

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.

National Pharmacy Association says some family doctors refusing to refer patients with minor ailments

GPs have been accused of scuppering Rishi Sunakas flagship plan to cut the time it takes to see them by refusing to refer patients with minor ailments to a pharmacist instead.

Pharmacists claim many GPs in England are not sending patients to them to be treated a and that some are refusing to participate at all in the agroundbreakinga Pharmacy First scheme.

Siblings Callum and Jake Robinson and US citizen Jack Carter Rhoad were travelling on a surfing holiday when they were reported missing

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Three bodies have been found in an area of northern Mexico where two Australian brothers and an American friend are missing.

Perth siblings Callum and Jake Robinson, both in their 30s, were travelling in the region on a surfing holiday, with their friend Jack Carter Rhoad, a US citizen. The trio was reported missing when they failed to check into pre-arranged accommodation near the city of Ensenada last weekend.

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Third-party hospitality packages are outlawed, yet agency part-owned by associates of Rafael Nadal and LeBron James promises access to top events as well as to stars

Members of the global super-rich are spending as much as $500,000 (APS400,000) on aultra-exclusivea packages for the Paris 2024 Olympics that promoters claim include meeting athletes, access to the athletesa village and athe chance to be part of the opening ceremonya.

GR8 Experience, an ainternational experience agencya part-owned by the business manager of the basketball star LeBron James and the PR manager of the tennis player Rafael Nadal, is selling Olympic packages that it claims include tickets to 14 events such as the menas 100m finals and the opening ceremony for $381,600.

Ex-presidentas former communications director says Access Hollywood tape awas a crisisa for his campaign

Hope Hicks, Donald Trumpas 2016 campaign press secretary, broke into tears on Friday while testifying in the ex-presidentas New York criminal hush-money trial, hours after she described his complete control over the campaign.

Hicks, who cut a skittish figure in Judge Juan Merchanas courtroom, is a key prosecution witness. She described Trump campaign staffersa panic when a recording emerged in which Trump bragged about groping women. aThis was a crisisa for his presidential bid, she said, describing the sentiment among the campaign staff.

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.

Cruise control sensors taken by thieves, forcing drivers to pay to replace them or face higher insurance premiums

Volkswagen owners targeted by thieves who have stolen cruise control sensors from cars across London are furious after discovering the caras apoor designa that makes them so easy to steal is set to cost them APS1,600 each.

The sensors, which cost about APS700 each, are fitted behind the VW badge, and appear to be a popular target for thieves.

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%.

As the war stretches on indefinitely, there are few eager recruits and Kyivas armed forces are short of soldiers

Anton* was on his way to work as a civilian volunteer in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv 10 days ago. Several men stopped him. They asked: aHi, who are you?a And: aCan you show me your documents please?a One of the officers produced a tablet and scrolled down a list. He found Antonas name. A single word was written next to it in red capital letters: ukhyliant, or draft dodger. The men took him to the nearest conscription office.

That morning, Anton and his colleague Serhii were due to drive a truck full of humanitarian aid to a frontline zone. The two men a aged 32 and 31 a had been checked twice before, once outside a metro station, and on a second occasion while waiting for a tram. They received pieces of paper. The first was a polite request to register details. The second an official summons to report to a recruiting centre as soon as possible.

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.

The founding members of the band on early gigs, a magical brush with a Beatle, and being lifelong friends

Tom Chaplin and Tim Rice-Oxley are childhood friends and founding members of Keane, a group from Battle, East Sussex. The band formed in 1995 and released their debut album, Hopes and Fears, in 2004. It won them a Brit award, and became one of the bestselling albums in UK chart history. The band took a hiatus in 2013, with Chaplin releasing a solo album and Rice-Oxley forming side project Mt Desolation. To celebrate 20 years of Hopes and Fears, the band tour the UK this spring and summer.

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!

At 84, The Handmaidas Tale author is as outspoken as ever. She talks about aging, culture wars - and why athe orange guya canat be allowed back into the White House

aIam the great sage on top of the mountain,a Margaret Atwood says with a smile, on a video call from her home in Toronto. aIf youave lived to a certain age people think you know something because they havenat got there yet.a

At 84, most writers could be forgiven for taking it easy, but especially Atwood, after a tumultuous few years that have seen The Handmaidas Tale become a hit TV series; the publication of its long-awaited sequel The Testaments, joint winner of the Booker prize in 2019; and the death of her partner of nearly 50 years, novelist Graeme Gibson. He died of a stroke two days after the UK launch of the novel, and Atwood, with typical grit, carried on with the tour.

• Updates from the 12.30pm BST kick-off at the Emirates
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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.

A world championship move away from its storied home would have implications in south Yorkshire beyond snooker

Picture the scene. There is live sport on a big screen, and on the artificial grass deckchairs are laid out, with pints of lager flowing. It sounds like a scene from continental Europe during a major football tournament: but this is Sheffield city centre on a grey, murky Friday morning.

It is perhaps fitting that Tudor Square, the part of Sheffield where the Crucible Theatre is situated, is dubbed the aHeart of the Citya on the tourist information around town. Because for two weeks every year, snooker and its most iconic venue is at the beating heart of Sheffield a for now, at least.

• Zak Brown claims aan increase in CVs coming our waya
• Max Verstappen on pole for Miami GP sprint race

The McLaren team principal, Zak Brown, has said Adrian Neweyas departure from Red Bull has Ainstigated a spate of applications from Red Bull personnel to join McLaren and that the British designer may be only the first domino to fall in an exodus he has precipitated.

Newey, the most successful car designer of the modern era, announced on Wednesday he was Aleaving Red Bull after almost two decades with the team. On AThursday Red Bullas world champion driver Max Verstappen Asaid he would prefer that Newey was not going and that he had played anA Aintegral part in Red Bullas success since the engineer joined the team in 2006, a year after they were formed.