Former home secretary says Tory voters are aon strikea and are anot coming out to support usa in wake of dire local and mayoral election results

• Labour triumphs in London and West Midlands
• Braverman says no time to oust Sunak so he must aown this and fix ita
• Full mayoral and council results for England

Mark Harper is now being interview by Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC. When it is put to him that people in his party want it to change course, Harper says the government will stick to its plan.

In his interview on Sky News Mark Harper, the transport secretary, ducked a question about whether the party should shift to the right, as Suella Braverman is advocating, or to the centre, as Andy Street proposes. (See 7.55am.)

What he is talking about there is what I just said. He is talking about you focus on the priorities of the British people, that is what you do.

We are going to stick to focusing on the priorities that the prime minister set out, which are the governmentas priorities, the prime ministeras priorities but they are also the priorities of the British people.

Hopes for ceasefire fade as Israeli PM hardens stance against Hamas demands for end to war in Gaza

A local official in southern Lebanon said an Israeli strike on a village on Sunday killed a couple and their child, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

aThe dad, the mother and their little son were martyreda, according to the Mays al-Jabal municipality chief Abdelmoneim Chukair.

TV head hopes programme will spark aa #MeToo moment for mena ahead of two-part show on the Oscar-winning actor

One of the producers of a Channel 4 documentary that contains fresh claims that Kevin Spacey abehaved inappropriatelya with men says it will be broadcast as planned on Monday, despite public denials from the actor this weekend.

Dorothy Byrne, a former head of news and current affairs at the television channel, told the Observer that she hopes the new two-part programme, Spacey Unmasked, will prompt aa #MeToo moment for mena and start a wider discussion about standards of behaviour in working situations.

Area around Rio de Janeiro beach filled for several blocks as singer closes her Celebration world tour

More than a million people have thronged Brazilas Copacabana beach for a free Madonna concert, braving the heat to see the end of her Celebration world tour.

The sand and oceanfront boulevard around Rio de Janeiroas famed beach were filled for several blocks on Saturday night by a crowd the city estimated at 1.6 million.

Russian president attends service led by one of his staunchest backers while Zelenskiy asserts God is on Kyivas side

Orthodox Easter services in Ukraine and Russia have taken on a political tone, as Volodymyr Zelenskiy asserted that God had a aUkrainian flag on his shouldera and Vladimir Putin attended a church service led by a staunch supporter of Moscowas invasion.

Noting that Ukraine had now been fighting Russia for 802 days, Zelenskiy called on Ukrainians to pray for each other and the soldiers on the frontline. aAnd we believe: God has a chevron with the Ukrainian flag on his shoulder,a said the president, dressed in a traditional embroidered Ukrainian vyshyvanka shirt and khaki trousers. aSo with such an ally, life will definitely win over death.a

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Roberto De Zerbi speaks. He says playing without important players, especially the full-backs, changes something in build-up and athe last 40 metresa, hence the lack of goals and no wins in six. He respects Villa but they want to keep the ball, play football, and take a lot of shots.

So where do Villa a potentially fortified with Champions League money a need to strengthen this summer? A deputy for Ollie Watkins, perhaps, a right-back, and central-midfield competition for Douglas Luii, John McGinn and Youri Tielemans? Real talk, theyare pretty well covered, and I think they can do something in Big Ears next season.

Charities say FoI disclosure that 369 such children were held over 21-month period is ahugely concerninga

More than 350 lone children were held in UK-run detention facilities in northern France over a 21-month period, according to documents disclosed under freedom of information laws.

The Home Office has admitted that it failed to keep data on how many properly trained staff looked after the children held in four short-term holding facilities near Calais and Dunkirk in 2022 and 2023.

As more NHS trusts in England report budget deficits health leaders warn that waiting lists will rise

Hospitals are being forced to cut medical staff, threatening their ability to care for patients, senior health leaders have warned.

NHS trusts are reporting budget deficits after the chancellor Jeremy Hunt gave Englandas health service APS2.5bn extra funding, which only covers inflation and pay increases.

Academics warn loss of higher education arts and humanities courses will harm understanding of racism and imperial history

Cuts to arts and humanities subjects within higher education will have damaging implications for our understanding of race and colonialism, academics have warned.

Petitions have been launched to save anthropology at Kent University, where the subject has come under threat of closure, while Oxford Brookes confirmed the closure of its music programme earlier this year.

Parisian bakers prepare to win record back from those in Italy who created a baguette almost 133 metres long in 2019

For the past five years, bragging rights over the worldas longest baguette have belonged not to the residents of a small village or a city in France, but rather to a clutch of bakers 500 miles away in Como, Italy.

On Sunday a crop of 12 bakers from France set out to rectify this, with plans to spend at least eight hours kneading, shaping and baking their way back to victory.

Rishi Sunakas government tries to limit the damage as the Conservativesa worst fears prove correct in the English local elections

Keir Starmer was advised by his team to get an early night on Thursday before the first election results started to come through at dawn the next day.

They booked the Labour leader into a hotel at a secret location in the north-west, so he could be bright and breezy when celebrating an anticipated parliamentary byelection win in Blackpool South.

Rob Ford was part of the BBC team analysing the local election results as they poured in over the past 48 hours. Here he tells how a dramatic set of results for the government unfolded

The nervous wait for the first result was longer than usual, as counting centres wrestled with multiple ballots for councils, mayors and police and crime commissioners. It was well past midnight on Friday morning when the first ward flashed up, coming as always from Sunderland, which prides itself on its rapid vote counting. A big Tory to Labour swing in Sunderlandas Copt Hill.

As we moved into the small hours of the morning, the flow of data rose from a trickle to a torrent, and an overall picture began to form. Voters clearly wanted the Conservatives out. Who they wanted instead was less clear.

Britain has turned out in force to vote for change. Whenever the Tories go to the country, we will be ready to provide it

Rishi Sunak might have been too scared to put his name on the ballot this week, but voters sent him a clear message in the local elections anyway. Across the country, people turned out to vote for change a from the manufacturing heartlands of Derby to industrial Redditch and Thurrock in Essex. In Aldershot, home of the British army, Labour won Rushmoor borough council, ending 24 years of Tory rule. Ten more police and crime commissioners a which, as a former chief prosecutor, makes me incredibly proud. And in York and North Yorkshire, the first Labour mayor, in the prime ministeras back garden.

Victories in traditional Tory territory across the country are important to me. Itas not just about the numbers, though of course they matter: itas the choice of the electorate to turn their back on 14 years of decline and division, and embrace national renewal with Labour.

From the new mayoralties through to bellwether councils, find out what happened in your area

• Council results a visual analysis

Water detective Dr Leon Barron studies Londonas wastewater, analysing it in all its chemical, narcotic, polluted glory, before and after treatment. Amazingly, he still drinks the stuff from the tap

If you live in London, Dr Leon Barron knows what youare up to. He knows what prescribed drugs youare on a painkillers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or beta blockers a and what illicit ones youare taking for fun. He knows if youave been drinking and when (aFriday and Saturday are the main onesa); perhaps even if youare worried about your dog getting fleas.

Of course, I only mean the collective ayoua, the city. Barron, who leads the Emerging Chemical Contaminants team at Imperial College, has no idea what any individual is taking or doing; he explains that very clearly and carefully. He has a research scientistas precision plus the slight wariness of someone whose research has grabbed headlines, with the inaccuracies and misinterpretations that brings (I wonder what he thought about aPrawn to be wilda, reporting his research on cocaine residue in wild river shrimps.) But heas also infectiously enthusiastic and generous with his time, spending a whole morning taking me round his lab and through his groundbreaking work.

Pro-Palestine protesters hope encampments at universities will contribute to an ainternational student revolta

Students across Britain have said they hope pro-Palestine protests will reach the same scale as those seen on US campuses as they call for universities to divest from companies supplying arms to Israel.

Protests have spread across university campuses in Sheffield, Bristol and Leeds, after a crackdown in the US on protests, which led to mass arrests of students and staff.

The partyas move made it look pro-business, but some say the system makes for inefficient use of our rail network

A direct train from London to Wrexham? The chance to whiz to Scotland for less than APS50? Trains run by a firm specialising in a single route, competing to lure customers away from the expensive big operators? Whatas not to like?

Given the promise of cheaper fares to under-served UK destinations, it is perhaps little wonder that Labouras plan for a apragmatica renationalisation of the railways matches the Conservativesa policy on aopen accessa train providers. It also signals that the party remains open for business.

Growing up on set put Oscar-winning actor Jennifer Connelly on the fast track to Hollywood fame. But despite her success, one of her lasting regrets was not finishing college a and, she says, itas still on her to-do lista|

Jennifer Connelly is on a Zoom call from her home in Brooklyn, jetlagged after attending Louis Vuittonas pre-fall 2024 show in Shanghai, which does not bode well: she is known to have been reticent in past interviews, and sometimes while working. When she made A Beautiful Mind, the 2001 movie for which she won an Oscar for playing the wife of schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, the co-producer Brian Grazer was unnerved by her reserve. aIt was hard for me to get to know her on the set because Iam so emotional,a he told a writer in 2001. aSheas very serious. Sheas not silly. She doesnat have that buoyancy.a

It is a relief, then, to find Connelly to be thoughtful and lovely and erudite, happy enough to discuss her life and career. I ask if Grazeras description is one shead recognise.

Sarah Manavis and her partner have a guilty secret. What they love to do most of all in private isa| read out loud to each other. And, as sheas discovered, it has many surprising benefits

Neither of us can remember exactly how it happened, but we both agree we were probably a little drunk. It was December 2016. We had been dating for eight months. Even with the booze we were, by many measures, still shy around each other, fearful of spoiling the magic. Which is why neither I nor my partner can fathom the conversation that landed us either in bed or on the sofa with him reading A Christmas Carol out loud to me for an hour. It wasnat something either of us had ever done with another adult. It wasnat something wead heard of adults in the real world ever doing. But the book kept getting read a always by my boyfriend, out loud to me, who listened with total fixation. It was finished before we left to be with our respective families for the Christmas break. And when we returned to be together again in January, we decided we wanted to do it again.

Seven years later, reading together is something we do regularly throughout the year. Without meaning to, we have read mostly classics a The Picture of Dorian Gray, Alice in Wonderland, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde a always, without fail, returning to A Christmas Carol in December, me blurting out the big lines Iave memorised over time like an eager audience member at a kidsa sing-along.

From a hideaway with star-gazing spectacular enough to keep you off your phone to a aburnouta retreat and a reimagined coastguard lookout

Bordering the Consall Nature Park, a nature reserve featuring 740 acres of woodland, heath and moor, is The Tawny, a adeconstructed hotela. This means that instead of a single house with rooms there are a collection of boathouses, huts and treehouses scattered around the woodlands and lakes. At the top of the hill is a modern glass building, the Plumicorn restaurant, and a heated outdoor pool looking out over the gardens. Stargazing sessions and night-time meditation are on offer, while spa treatments can be booked in the thatched cottage onsite.
Huts from APS240 B&B; thetawny.co.uk

The actor on catching the theatre bug playing Sally Bowles in Cabaret, being a football fan, and dealing with a fire that destroyed her home in LA

London-born Cara Delevingne, 31, began modelling in her teens and was twice model of the year at the British fashion awards. She started her acting career in Joe Wrightas 2012 film adaptation of Anna Karenina. Subsequent big screen roles include Paper Towns, Suicide Squad, Tulip Fever and London Fields. On TV, she has starred in Carnival Row, Only Murders in the Building and American Horror Story. She is now making her stage debut in the West End production of Cabaret.

Weare speaking the morning after you went to a Chelsea match. Are you a big fan?
I definitely was in childhood, so it was a treat to return. I grew up going to Stamford Bridge with my uncle. Gianfranco Zola was my favourite player. When I was eight, I refused to take off my Chelsea kit for a wedding, so I wore it beneath my bridesmaidas dress. Luckily, the groom was a Chelsea fan too, so nobody minded.

I travelled the UK interviewing teenage boys. I found openness, thoughtfulness, honesty and vulnerability on topics from sex to pornography, feelings and isolation

It was two separate conversations that made me think properly about what life might be like as a boy these days. The first was about a 13-year-old, the son of a friend, who said he had been rounded on for making a small (and, he thought, complimentary) comment about a girlas haircut.

He told his mother that the girlas friends were outraged: aOh my God, you canat say that about someoneas appearance. Thatas so bad. You canat talk about a girl like that!a

Many prisoners are homeless after release but former inmate and probation worker want to fix that

Darryn Frost and Steve Gallant are still dealing with the trauma of tackling a terrorist at Fishmongersa Hall, London Bridge, in 2019.

Gallant, 47, who was on day release from prison where he was serving a life sentence for murder, helped fend off the attacker alongside Frost, 43, a probation worker who had grabbed a 1.5-metre long narwhal tusk as a weapon.

Much art, from Bob Dylan to Robert Frank, derives its greatness from its flaws. But sporting perfection is a whole different ball game

Iam not one to boast but on a recent Sunday morning I achieved perfection. To be precise a and there is no perfection without precision a I was half of something perfectly achieved. On the second version of the song Love Sick a which only saw the light of day last year as part of the continuing series of official Bootleg releases a Bob Dylan says heas astruggling, striving / For perfectiona. Proof of the struggle and strife is the way that this declaration was absent from the first take and deleted from the subsequent version selected for the album Time Out of Mind (1997). Despite what he claims, Dylan is not a and never has been a interested in perfection. Heas always been plunging on to the next line, the next verse, the next song. Yes, he looks forward, in another song, to the day when heall paint his masterpiece but on several occasions potential masterpieces were abandoned a Sheas Your Lover Now, Iam Not There a because other imperfect masterpieces were soon jostling for attention.

Dylan has written more great songs than anyone in history but a condition of that greatness is that he was not hung up on perfecting any of them. Every version of every Dylan song could be improved. For each enhancement made to a songas lyrics thereas a corresponding loss. He throws in wonderful lines, chucks out great lines and leaves terrible ones intact. His constant tampering with the lyrics is evidence not of perfectionism but of a restless hunger that is in some ways its opposite. In this respect heas similar to the photographer Robert Frank, who said that a book of photographs by Hermann Eidenbenz (in whose studio he worked) aput me off perfection for lifea.

In the 1970s, the photographer began teaching in a progressive US womenas prison and made moving portraits of many of the inmates. Looking back, he sees how many of them actually felt safer in prison

In 1970, aged 35, Jack Lueders-Booth left a well-paid management job at an insurance company in his native Boston, Massachusetts, to pursue his interest in photography. aUntil then, I was a serious hobbyist,a he tells me over the phone from the city where he still lives, abut my interest had deepened to the point where it was more and more difficult to do my day job. I needed something more stimulating. Photography was my real vocation.a

Soon afterwards he landed a job as an administrator for the fledgling photography department at Harvard University, where later he also enrolled as a student. For his masteras thesis, he submitted a proposal that would alter the course of his life. aI told them I wanted to teach photography in places of confinement such as prisons and mental hospitals,a he elaborates, aI thought it would be beneficial for the inmates in all sorts of ways, not least because they could share their experience with their families through the images they made.a

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How does the title race shake out from here until the end of the season on 18 May? Well the two clubs who can still win the title are Manchester City and Chelsea, here are the fixtures they both have left:

Man City:

Arsenal, 5 May

Aston Villa, 18 May

Bristol City, 5 May

Tottenham, 15 May

Manchester United, 18 May

Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos have a big decision to make but will an unlikely FA Cup final win be enough to save the manager?

And so the real business begins. The four months since Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Ineos bought a little over a quarter of Manchester United have been the phoney war. No transfers could be done, so little could be changed on the pitch. The task of Ratcliffe and his advisers was to watch and learn and rejig the executive tier so that when the window opens they are ready to act.

That rejig has been more dramatic than many anticipated. The chief executive, Richard Arnold, and the football director, John Murtough, are just the highest profile departures. Omar Berrada will come in as chief executive from Manchester City when his notice period expires on 13 July while Murtough has effectively been replaced by Jason Wilcox, the new technical director, and Dan Ashworth, who will come in once the terms of his severance from Newcastle have been agreed.

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Sarah Rendellas got an eye on the title fight. Can Arsenal do Emma Hayes a massive favour (even if that means the Gunners briefly move ahead of Chelsea)?

Iave crunched the numbers: Liverpool are unchanged from their midweek win over Chelsea, while Manchester United have three from the starting XI in their 1-0 win over Leicester last weekend. Ella Toone, Nikita Parris and LucAa GarcAa start; Hinata Miyazawa, Geyse and Melvine Malard make way.