‘Change begins immediately,’ says Keir Starmer after Labour’s landslide election win – live

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Labour leader said he wanted to restore service and respect in politics and ‘end the era of noisy performance’

Clive Myrie is opening the BBC’s election night coverage. He is co-presenting with Laura Kuenssberg.

No 10 has also announced knightoods for four Tories in the dissolution honours – Oliver Dowden, the deputy PM; Julian Smith, the former chief whip and Northern Ireland secretary; Ben Wallace, the former defence secretary; and Alister Jack, the outgoing Scottish secretary – and one damehood, for Thérèse Coffey, the former deputy PM.

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Israel-Gaza war: hopes grow over ceasefire as US hails proposal as ‘breakthrough’

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A senior US official said a new proposal by Hamas could lead to a pact that would be a step to a permanent ceasefire

The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that “further disruption to health services is imminent in Gaza due to a severe lack of fuel”.

Posting on Thursday evening, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, wrote on X: “Only 90,000L of fuel entered Gaza yesterday. The health sector alone needs 80,000L daily, forcing the UN – incl WHO – and partners to make impossible choices.”

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Babbling scouse youngster shows babies can have accents, say scientists

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Newborns are tuned in to the ups and downs of speech, and even a cry mimics language heard while in the womb

The upward intonation, the guttural “ck” and even the cheeky comeback to win the argument: at just 19 months old, baby Orla has mastered the crucial elements of speaking like a scouser.

Impressively, the toddler who featured in a viral video this week appears to have done so without the need for actual words.

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Keir Starmer promises ‘stability and moderation’ in first speech as PM

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First Labour prime minister since 2010 promises to serve whole country as he speaks outside No 10

Keir Starmer pitched himself as a leader for “stability and moderation” who will rebuild Britain, as he reached out to those who did not vote for Labour with a promise to serve the whole country.

The Labour leader gave a speech on the steps of Downing Street after going to Buckingham Palace to accept the king’s invitation to form a new government.

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Greens to push Labour to ‘be braver’ on climate, sewage and cost of living

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Party co-leader and new MP Carla Denyer says election shows voters ‘have had enough of incremental change’

The Green party will push the incoming Labour government to “be braver” on key issues, from the climate crisis and sewage in rivers to housing and tax, according to Carla Denyer, the party’s co-leader and one of its four new MPs.

The party quadrupled its number of MPs, beating Labour in Bristol Central and Brighton Pavilion and the Conservatives in Waveney Valley and North Herefordshire.

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Can Murdoch’s Tubi repeat its US success as it launches in the UK?

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Ad-funded streamer wades into market with offering it says will appeal to those underserved by rivals

The Wes Anderson classic Moonrise Kingdom, the Channel 4 sitcom Fresh Meat, a reality TV series about adult content creators, some Bollywood hits and a handful of shark flicks: Tubi’s home screen is not short of viewing options, just like the British video-streaming market it waded into this week.

Tubi is taking on the likes of Netflix, Disney+, ITVX and the BBC’s iPlayer with a free, ad-funded service offering 20,000 films and TV episodes, and an ambition of repeating its success in the US, where it has amassed nearly 80 million monthly users. But will it have a similar impact in the UK, where rival platforms are already well established?

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Viktor Orbán visits Vladimir Putin to condemnation from fellow EU leaders

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Brussels disassociates itself from Hungarian PM’s Moscow trip, which he has tried to cast as a peace mission

Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most pro-Russia leader, arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Vladimir Putin, days after making his first visit to Kyiv, as the Hungarian prime minister attempts to position himself as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine.

Orbán’s trip to Moscow has drawn strong rebukes from fellow EU leaders and comes in the week that Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year.

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Labour wins big but the UK’s electoral system is creaking

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Voters turned away from a deeply unpopular party but the true story of this election is more complex

The story of the 2024 general election is of voters turning away from a deeply unpopular governing party. What parties they turned to and how that interacted with the electoral system is a more complex story that may take some time to fully grasp.

Paula Surridge is a professor of political sociology at the University of Bristol

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Two dead after truck strikes group on Fourth of July in New York City park

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Ford F-150 came down a street ‘at a high rate of speed’, went past a stop sign, on to the sidewalk and into a park

Two people were killed and nine others injured, four critically, when a pickup truck drove into a group celebrating the Fourth of July holiday in New York City, authorities said.

A Ford F-150 came down a street “at a high rate of speed” shortly before 9pm Thursday. The truck went through an intersection and past a stop sign, drove on to the sidewalk and into Corlears Hook Park on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, said Jeffrey Maddrey, the New York police department chief, during a news conference.

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Civil servants obliged to carry out Tory Rwanda deportations, court rules

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Union for civil servants claimed Home Office staff could be open to prosecution if Strasbourg rulings on Rwanda ignored

• General election 2024: live news

Guidance drawn up by Conservative ministers which told civil servants to ignore Strasbourg rulings and remove asylum seekers to Rwanda is lawful, the high court has ruled.

The FDA trade union, which represents senior civil servants, brought legal action claiming senior Home Office staff could be in breach of international law if they implement the government’s Rwanda deportation bill.

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First Thing: Labour win landslide UK election victory

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Conservative party records its worst general election performance ever. Plus, Democratic backers pause donations

Good morning.

Labour has won a landslide UK election victory, bringing a crushing end to 14 years of rule by the Conservatives, who recorded the worst general election result in their near 200-year history. The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, will officially become prime minister later today after Rishi Sunak conceded.

A vote for Palestine. There were shock victories for several pro-Palestine independent candidates, with Jonathan Ashworth, one of Labour’s election chiefs, voted out in Leicester South, while the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn won in Islington North.

‘Will we get our money back?’ According to Reuters and the Associated Press, a call with about 40 top donors over the weekend turned tense after Biden’s campaign manager was asked whether the campaign would offer a refund if Biden does not run.

Don’t blame me, its just my brain. Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, is reported to have asked Biden about his health yesterday. “It’s just my brain,” Biden said, in what some heard as a joke but at least one person found odd.

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‘The claims are just outrageous’: Republican ex-governor condemns Arizona election lies

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Jan Brewer has had it with election denialism – and she’s speaking out to defend poll workers across the political divide

The former governor of Arizona, once a Trump surrogate in the swing state, is now speaking up to defend the state’s elections as election denialism continues to grip Republican politics.

Jan Brewer, the Republican governor from 2009 to 2015, signed an infamous anti-immigration law, which reverberated in state politics and affected the state’s reputation for years. She was secretary of state, which oversees elections, before becoming governor.

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‘It’s a snowball effect’: the generation Z book club making waves in New York

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Cassidy Grady’s Sunday reading series ‘Confessions’ seeks fresh avenues for creative expression in wake of pandemic

Reading nights and avant-garde literary groups are rapidly emerging as platforms for younger generations to foster community and creatively share personal narratives – and one new series is making waves in New York.

Literary events are on the rise across the US, with CNN citing that book club listings have grown 24% in 2023 from the previous year.

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After pivotal 2020 voter drive, US union braces for another fight against Trump

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Hospitality union Unite Here hopes to do the same again in 2024 election – and this time the stakes may be even higher

America’s hospitality workers had it tough in 2020. Covid triggered mass layoffs and many wondered when – and even if – the industry would recover. But the turmoil didn’t stop the industry’s largest union from pulling off one of the most successful voter drives of the election.

As the 2024 election cycle gets into full swing, Unite Here is hoping to do the same again, and this time the stakes may be even higher.

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Abolished cashless debit card still divides, two years after Labor ordered its demise

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Some users reported ‘poor decision making’ and financial coercion while others experienced positive outcomes such as reduced discrimination

The majority of past cashless debit card users have said the ending of the program was a positive step that reduced stigmatisation and discrimination but some reported it led to “poor decision making” and financial coercion once the controversial scheme was abolished, a review has found.

The review by the University of Adelaide found reports of alcohol use and gambling had increased in most of the areas where the card was formerly used. But it noted “no causal statements can be issued” about whether the card’s abolition was to blame, saying other factors, like local trends and the cost-of-living crisis, could be at play.

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Shell to take hit of up to $2bn on Rotterdam and Singapore sites

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Oil firm’s warning comes after it had to halt work on Europe’s largest biofuel project and sell refinery in Asia

Shell has warned investors that it will take an impairment charge of up to $2bn (£1.6bn) in its next set of results after it was forced to halt work on Europe’s largest biofuel project and sell off a Singapore refinery.

The oil company told investors to expect a non-cash writedown of between $600m and $1bn when it publishes its second-quarter results next month because of trouble at a major biofuel project in Rotterdam in the Netherlands.

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