More than 2,600 seats are up for election in 107 English councils on Thursday.

Now, YouGov has made its final calls for some key contests using the MRP polling method after interviewing almost 9,000 people over two weeks.

Here, exclusively on Sky News, are the headlines. We’ll start with two key battlegrounds:

Labour HQ will be very happy that YouGov says they will go red.

Hyndburn is a red wall council that has proved sticky in recent council elections. Milton Keynes is also a great political bellwether – Labour needs to be doing well here in the general election.

Then there are races that are more of a toss-up – councils that might change hands but YouGov says the races are too close to make a firm prediction.

Norwich and Tamworth are two places where Labour looks like they’re building momentum in both councils, but it’s too close to call.

Winning Norwich would be pretty seismic for Labour, given it only has one target seat, Norwich North. To be doing well in a general election, Labour only needs not to be going backwards.

Reigate is an exceptional council – local difficulties and defections in recent years make it easier to win back.

YouGov says there will also be parties possibly losing control of councils.

Lib Dem control of Hull in Yorkshire and Tory control of Walsall in the West Midlands are both on the edge – and both are big contests.

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Hull in Yorkshire is where Labour is snapping at the Lib Dem’s heels. Lib Dems tell me they are worried but they’ve always just about held on in the past – it’s quite a rare head-to-head between these two.

Walsall really matters, not only because there’s a key general election seat here. But also because it’s where we will all be watching to see how much Reform UK – which is fielding candidates in 15 of the 20 wards – eats into the Tory vote and what impact that has.

Now, Thursday is not just about councils maybe changing hands. We want to know where voting patterns are changing significantly and who’s got momentum – and who hasn’t.

The big story of the night will be measuring Labour advances – and here’s where YouGov says that’s happening.

So that’s Labour momentum in the South – Milton Keynes and Thurrock; the East – Peterborough; the Midlands – Walsall – and the North.

North East Lincolnshire covers Grimsby and Cleethorpes where Sky has its target towns project, so you’re seeing lots of coverage of that race. Labour will be pleased with this – showing they’re competitive in the places they need.

And you can also see where Labour is also advancing – but YouGov says that advance is less strong.

Again, this list has areas from all around the country.

Top is Hyndburn – which you saw earlier may as a council fall Labour hands, but it’s doing so with more modest Labour momentum.

It’s a place – and places like it – that matter so much that Labour might want to be doing a bit better.

By contrast, Rugby and Tamworth are lower down the list Labour needs to worry about when they’re considering the general election. If Tories are losing there – it’s total wipe out.

Finally, here’s where YouGov projects Labour is not advancing – or where the Tories are doing okay.

Read more:
What elections are taking place on 2 May and who can I vote for?
Are the Conservatives missing Boris Johnson?

The big picture in several of these is there are more parties than Labour who benefit when the Tory vote declines, including the Lib Dems.

But little change in Colchester is a small warning bell for Labour – at the general election here they need to overturn a majority of 10,000. If this happens on the night, they’ll be asking why. And Reigate, which as we said before saw defections, is predicted to have some Tory gains.

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Much of the local elections will be dominated by the mayoral contests – the biggest names standing.

But big personalities can mean politics in these races looking very different to the rest of the country.

What happens in the council elections will be poured over in far more detail, particularly by Labour, desperate to write a story that ends up with them winning at the general election.

Amazon reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the first quarter, driven by growth in advertising and cloud computing. The stock ticked higher in extended trading.

Here’s how the company did:

• Earnings per share: 98 cents vs. 83 cents expected by LSEG
• Revenue: $143.3 billion vs. $142.5 billion expected by LSEG

Wall Street is also looking at these key numbers:

• Amazon Web Services: $25 billion vs. $24.5 billion in revenue, according to StreetAccount
• Advertising: $11.8 billion vs. 11.7 billion in revenue, according to StreetAccount

Operating income soared more than 200% in the period to $15.3 billion, far outpacing revenue growth, the latest sign that the company’s cost-cutting measures and focus on efficiency is bolstering its bottom line. AWS accounted for 62% of total operating profit. Net income also more than tripled to $10.4 billion, or 98 cents a share, from $3.17 billion, or 31 cents a share, a year ago.

Sales increased 13% from $127.4 billion a year earlier.

Amazon expects a continued jump in profitability for the second quarter but at a more measured pace. The company said operating income will be $10 billion to $14 billion, up from $7.7 billion a year earlier.

Revenue in the current quarter will be $144 billion to $149 billion, Amazon said, representing growth of 7% to 11%. Analysts were expecting growth of 12% to $150.1 billion, according to LSEG.

Sales at AWS accelerated 17% in the first quarter to $25 billion, topping Wall Street’s forecast for sales growth of 12% to $24.5 billion. For the past year, growth in AWS has slowed, as businesses trimmed their cloud spend. But Amazon executives have said they’re seeing cost optimizations taper off, and they’ve indicated that demand for generative artificial intelligence can be a boon for its cloud business.

Amazon’s earnings growth has been driven in part by widespread cost-cutting, tweaks to its fulfillment operations, and the stabilizing of cloud spending. CEO Andy Jassy has become more disciplined in the company’s spending, while growing profitable services like advertising, cloud computing, Prime memberships and its third-party marketplace.

The company has laid off more than 27,000 employees since late 2022, with the cuts bleeding into 2024. During the first quarter, Amazon let go hundreds of staffers in its health and AWS businesses.

Amazon’s advertising unit saw sales surge 24%, just ahead of consensus estimates. It’s the first report since Amazon started running ads in Prime Video, a move analysts predict could generate significant revenue over time.

The company’s ad business, which grew faster than retail or cloud computing, has become an increasingly important profit driver for Amazon and has emerged as a main player in online advertising.

That market overall started growing again after a brutal 2022, when brands reeled in spending to cope with inflation and rising interest rates. Meta, Snap and Google parent Alphabet all reported first-quarter results last week and showed better-than-expected revenue growth, which was primarily driven by improvements across their ad businesses.

Revenue from third-party seller services, which includes commissions collected by Amazon, fulfillment, shipping fees and other charges, continued to surge. Sales in the unit grew 16% year over year to $34.5 billion.

Amazon remains a standout among mega-cap internet companies in that it’s yet to implement a quarterly dividend, even as cash and equivalents jumped to $73.9 billion in the quarter from $54.3 billion a year earlier. Meta announced its first dividend in February at 50 cents a share, and Alphabet followed, telling investors last week that it will start paying a dividend of 20 cents a share. Those companies also announced plans to buy back tens of billions of dollars in stock.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.