

Conflict in the Middle East continues to lead many of the front pages. Iranian clerics named Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader, in what the Times describes as a "challenge to Trump". It cites the US President's previous comments that the 56-year-old "would not be an acceptable new leader" of Iran. Mojtaba Khamenei "may already be injured" following recent US-Israeli strikes, the paper adds.


Trump says Mojtaba Khamenei is a "lightweight" who "won't last long" as Iran's ruler, the Daily Telegraph reports. The paper says the "mid-ranking hardliner was elected by clerics despite lacking the senior religious credentials typically required".


The Metro says the Supreme Leader's role is a "death sentence" as Israel warns it will "pursue every successor" of the late Ayatollah Khamenei.


A fresh wave of US and Israeli air strikes on Iran is the lead for the Financial Times, which reports the allies targeted "fuel storage depots in Tehran, sparking fires that sent huge plumes of thick, black smoke over the capital". Iran's retaliatory strikes on Gulf states has seen "oil states slash production", the paper says, as oil prices continue to rise.


"Iran threatens oil facilities" across the Gulf states, according to the Guardian's front page. The paper says it comes after "Israel struck at least five energy sites in and around Tehran, smothering the city in black smoke and escalating fears that the conflict will result in significant disruption to the global economy".


Bombardments of Iranian oil depots, disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and strikes on the Gulf States threatens "to bring energy crisis to UK", the Independent says, citing Goldman Sachs analyst warnings that oil could spike to $150 (£113) a barrel.


Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer "scrambled to save the special relationship" with the US last night during a phone call with Trump, the Daily Mail writes. Tension between the two leaders spiked after Sir Keir's "refusal to let US planes take off from the UK to attack Iran" leading to a "week of insults" from Trump, according to the paper.


The Daily Express also leads with tensions between Trump and Sir Keir. It quotes opposition MPs criticising the prime minister, who they claim is "wrecking Britain's 'special relationship' with the US".


The i Paper writes UK Easter holiday plans are "at risk as fallout from Middle East war spreads". Iranian drone and missile threats mean "British holidaymakers could see travel to Cyprus, Dubai and other destinations disrupted", the paper says.


Backlash against Sir Tony Blair's comments that Sir Keir should have immediately supported the US strikes on Iran leads the Daily Mirror. "Have you learned nothing Mr Blair?" is their headline, as the paper quotes Labour MP Jon Trickett who calls the former PM's record "disastrous" for leading the UK into the Iraq war in 2003.


Meanwhile, the Sun leads with Soham murderer Ian Huntley's "self-pitying final letter" sent to a female pen pal "eight days before he was brutally battered in the savage prison attack which took his life". In the letter, he hinted at "having a tough time in Frankland Prison, County Durham", the paper writes.


And finally, the Daily Star reports the "great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi has backed [the paper's] campaign to save Britain's first curry house, where his famous relative was a customer".





10 hours ago
1









