The Papers: 'Iran fires missile barrage' and 'New Eriksen hell'

The Daily Telegraph says the missile attacks by Iran against Israel, in response to strikes on Beirut, threaten to reignite war across the Middle East.

For the Guardian, the fragile ceasefire has been "shattered" in the conflict's most serious escalation since April.

The Daily Mail leads on former Nato leader Gen Sir Richard Shirreff's warning in a BBC Radio 4 interview when he said Britain faced a "blood cost" unless the government invested more in defence. The Mail says ministers are wrangling about how to free up resources to fund last year's Strategic Defence Review. Sources tell the paper the Ministry of Defence could be left with "barely two billion a year extra". That is substantially less, the Mail says, than Labour spent on removing the two-child benefit cap. The Ministry of Defence has said it is working hard to finalise its investment plan.

Sir Keir Starmer is poised to announce a ban on "harmful" social media platforms for under-16s, according to the Times. The move is a departure, the paper says, from a focus on solely banning features such as infinite scrolling. A Downing Street source tells the Times Sir Keir "hardened his approach" after speaking to bereaved parents and looking at the blanket ban in Australia. He will reportedly give a speech setting out the government's plans.

The White House is considering buying the Chagos Islands, reports the Daily Telegraph. The paper says it is one of several options being considered in Washington to secure the future of the US-UK military base at Diego Garcia. Such a deal would sink Sir Keir's plans, the paper says, to cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius. There is no comment from Downing Street. American officials have told the BBC they are in regular discussions with the UK on the matter.

The Financial Times reports that OpenAI is planning to turn its ChatGPT chatbot into a "superapp", as it hunts for "new engines of growth" ahead of a planned listing. The paper says there is a growing belief at the company that the future of AI lies in agents performing tasks for users. "Chat is dead," one employee tells the paper.