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Many of Friday's papers continue to focus on Sir Keir Starmer's response to conflict in the Middle East. Metro says the prime minister has promised to send four additional Typhoon jets to Qatar to build a "shield over the British people", leading on his comments at a Downing Street news conference on Thursday. The paper says Sir Keir also played down his much-speculated rift with Donald Trump, emphasising that his focus was defending British forces and bringing stranded citizens home.
Sir Keir has also called on the US to negotiate with Iran, with the Daily Telegraph warning that his comments threaten to strain an "increasingly fraught special relationship". The prime minister said that it was his "strong view" that the two nations needed to de-escalate the conflict through talks, the paper reports, while the president refused to deny reports that he had called Sir Keir a "loser".
The Daily Mail has a less flattering interpretation, declaring the prime minister "Desperate and deluded" in its headline. Sir Keir insists he is delivering "calm, level-headed leadership" amid ongoing conflict, according to the paper, which adds that the nation has become a "laughing stock" under his prime ministership.
"We can't stand by and expect others to help Britain" says the Daily Express, quoting criticism levelled at the government by Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch. She is expected to unveil her party's proposition to increase defence spending in a speech on Thursday.
The Daily Star also joins the pile-on, with the headline "Dithering Heights for Keir" as its sub-editors employ all their Photoshop skills to reimagine Sir Keir Starmer and Donald Trump in a Wuthering Heights-style clinch.
The front page of the i Paper illustrates "Panic in Dubai", reporting that expats and tourists are sheltering in basements amid ongoing strikes. It says that alerts in the United Arab Emirates are causing "global travel turmoil", with passenger planes increasingly limited by airspace closures. The paper adds that Azerbaijan is the latest country to be "dragged into conflict", after its airport was struck by Iranian drones.
A photo of traffic on the road out of southern Beirut takes centre stage on the Guardian front page, following an Israeli Defence Force evaculation order issued on Thursday to residents of the city's southern suburbs. The paper says that approximately 500,000 people live in Beirut's south, and notes that several hospitals and government ministries fall within the evacuation zone.
Defence Secretary John Healey is currently visiting RAF Akrotiri in Cyrpus, and the Mirror reports that he was forced to take cover twice on Thursday due to drone alerts. Healey tells the paper that it was a reminder of the "increasingly indiscriminate threat from Iran", and refuses to rule out the UK joining US-Israel strikes on Tehran.
The Times leads with Trump's declaration that he must play a part in choosing Iran's next leader. The president rejected the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as "unacceptable", and added that seeing Mojtaba Khamenei succeed his father could force the US into another conflict with Iran in five years time.
"US to tap Ukraine for Iran interceptors" reads the Financial Times, writing that the Pentagon and at least one Gulf government are in talks to buy Ukrainian-made interceptors to fend off attacks from Iranian drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the reports in a news conference, and said he would hope to receive Patriot interceptor missiles in exchange for Kyiv's interceptors.
Zelensky has also spoken to the Independent, and the website says the Ukrainian leader is warning the US "not to use up all its weapons against Iran" as they will be needed to "force Russia into a meaningful peace".
The Sun is the only paper that doesn't feature conflict in the Middle East on its front page, instead homing in on the health of convicted murderer Ian Huntley. The incarcerated 52-year-old was seriously injured in late February, after he was attacked by another inmate at HMP Frankland. "Huntley blinded" and "Soham fiend near end" is the Sun's update on his condition.
