Good morning. War has broken out in the Middle East. As the Iran war broadens and spills out into neighbouring countries, media agencies have rightly focused on trying to understand how the conflict came about, where bombs have fallen, and how many have died, while many states globally fear spikes in energy prices and wonder how the war will impact their economies.

What can easily get lost are the voices of the people directly affected.

Iran is one of the world’s 20 largest countries by population. More than 60 languages are spoken there and its relatively young population – the average age is about 34 – is made up of many ethnic groups. It is not a monolithic society. Its population is spread across the world – and many more Iranians will find themselves displaced amid the ongoing attacks.

For today’s newsletter I spoke to Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, an Iranian-born NHS consultant anaesthetist and local councillor in Oxford, to hear how the US and Israeli assault on the country is being experienced and understood abroad. As you will see, the views in the Iranian diaspora, which is thought to number between two and four million people, are far from uniform. First, the headlines.

Five big stories

1. Iran | Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor.

2. UK politics | Keir Starmer sought to repair fractured relations with Donald Trump over the war with Iran on Sunday, as a Labour backlash gathered pace over Tony Blair’s assertion the UK should have supported the US’s initial airstrikes on Iran.

3. Energy | Great Britain has only two days of fossil gas stored after a decline in energy reserves, as more tankers carrying liquefied natural gas are diverted from their course to Europe towards Asia because of the Iran war. Meanwhile, global oil prices surged past the $100 (£74) a barrel mark for the first time since 2022.

4. Health | More than 400 lives may have been saved as a result of Martha’s rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care. Thousands of patients were either moved to intensive care, received drugs they needed or benefited from other changes as a direct result of over 10,000 calls to helplines.

5. AI | ChatGPT is driving a rise in reports of organised ritual abuse and “witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse” against children – which is historically under-reported in the UK – as survivors of “satanic” sexual violence use the AI tool for therapy.

In depth: ‘It feels like living in a parallel universe’

Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini is a local councillor in Oxford who came to the UK from Iran aged 13, speaking no English. By the age of 18 she was studying medicine at university.

She tells me the days since Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu launched the assault on Iran have felt like “living in a parallel universe”.

“One where life carries on normally – looking after patients, talking to colleagues – while at the same time you open your phone and see the destruction of places that mean so much to you,” she says.

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‘Everyone thinks this war is madness’

Djafari-Marbini’s father was a refugee who had been involved in the Iranian revolution at the end of the 1970s. “Later he and his friends were unwilling to stand by some of the regime’s actions,” she says. “He ended up serving five years in prison when I was little. We still have aunts, uncles, cousins and old friends in Iran.

“My memories of the streets we grew up in are very vivid. Seeing those same streets being bombed now – so indiscriminately – is heartbreaking. These are sights I prayed I would never see.”

An anaesthetic consultant at Oxford University Hospitals, she says her colleagues have been very supportive. “People from all backgrounds, faiths and political perspectives. From my experience, everyone I’ve spoken to thinks this war is madness.”

YouGov survey data has shown that 49% of Britons are opposed to the attacks, compared to 28% who favour it and the 23% who put “don’t know”. Matthew Smith, YouGov’s head of data journalism, explains, “Attitudes differ significantly by party, with the majority of Reform UK voters (58%) and a plurality of Tories (49%) backing the strikes, but the majority of Labour and Lib Dem voters (63% and 64%) and Greens (70%) opposed.”

“The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed attacks on health infrastructure in Iran,” and schools have also been hit, Djafari-Marbini says. “It’s horrific to think that the very people trying to keep others alive during war are being targeted. Even talking about it now makes me feel nauseous.”

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War seen from afar

Much of the news reporting on Iran has focused on the polarised opinions felt towards its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes. For some, Khamenei was revered: viewed as an unflinching leader, who refused to be threatened by the US and Israel. For others, he was despised: a brutal leader who led a repressive regime that subjugated women and killed possibly tens of thousands during widespread protests in January. And yet, it seems people on both sides show little enthusiasm for the way he was killed.

“Iranian civil society activists – women’s rights activists, trade unionists, people who have spent time in prison – have spoken out against foreign intervention,” Djafari-Marbini says. “They oppose both the regime and the idea that a foreign power should determine Iran’s future.”

In her view, Iranian voices are too often forced into a binary. “Either you support the regime or you support war. In reality, many of us reject both.”

Protests have taken place around the world since the attacks. Shiite Muslims in India-controlled Kashmir demonstrated against the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, while anti-war protesters gathered across the US, including outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square.

“I understand why some people who have suffered terribly under the regime might have felt a moment of satisfaction at the news of Khamenei’s death,” Djafari-Marbini says. “But that feeling quickly disappears when it comes alongside news that children have been killed in bombing raids.”

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Fear for civilians

Human rights groups have warned that Iran’s internet blackout could worsen the human toll of war, as state media broadcasts limited or gave contradictory information about airstrikes, and orders to flee specific locations from the attacking countries remain invisible to most civilians.

“Another thing that’s often overlooked is how diverse Iranian society is,” Djafari-Marbini says. “There are major class differences and many ethnic groups.”

The children killed in the Shajareh Tayyebeh school bombing in Minab, she notes, came from very poor backgrounds. “Their experiences are very different from many people in diaspora communities who now live in the west.”

Military investigators now believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the strike. The strike killed up to 168 people, and in this visual guide the Guardian pieced together the incident and its aftermath using verified footage and images.

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A diaspora divided

The concerns of Djafari-Marbini (pictured above) are shared by some Iranians abroad – but the reaction across the diaspora has been far from uniform.

Before the US and Israel launched their attacks, the Guardian’s community team asked Iranians how they felt about the possibility of US military intervention. Some respondents said repression in recent years had convinced them outside help was necessary.

A 28-year-old student from Tehran now living in the Netherlands said many felt they had run out of options. “No one likes a foreign country invading their homeland,” they said. “However, many of us believe other countries must intervene and help us fight this regime.”

Others said they feared the consequences of a widening conflict. In north London, the Guardian’s Amelia Hill spoke to Iranian people in the area sometimes known as “Little Tehran”. One resident told her the celebrations that followed the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei left her uneasy. “Even though he was a terrible man, it felt barbaric to celebrate his death,” she said.

For many abroad, the most immediate worry has been family. Guardian Australia’s community affairs reporter Adeshola Ore spoke to Ehsan Hakimi, who grew up in Tehran and now lives in Sydney, who said he had been watching footage of rubble in the neighbourhood where he once lived. “This is just 200 metres away from my home,” he said. “It is so hard to see your country bombarded in this scale.”

Others report a very different mood among relatives inside Iran. Saeid Zand, in Melbourne, said his mother in Shiraz called him shouting: “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead. They have been waiting for this for decades.”

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Fears about what comes next

For Djafari-Marbini, the greatest worry is what happens if the conflict deepens. With the war widening, and millions set to be displaced, she won’t be the only one.

“If it leads to civil war,” she says, “the west has already signalled it doesn’t particularly care about the country’s long-term stability.” Reports suggest the US has encouraged Kurds in Iran’s north to join the US-Israeli war effort.

“What makes me so fearful,” she says, “is that I cannot see how this leads to a stable, democratic outcome.”

What else we’ve been reading

• Our regular Flashback feature is always fun, but this week’s photo of Nick Mohammed, with accompanying anecdote, is particularly sweet: “I look half delighted and half terrified to ride a pony. I probably got to feed a guinea pig at some point, too.” Toby Moses, head of newsletters

• It sounds like Charlotte Edwardes had a “testy” time with Louis Theroux in this interview ahead of his latest documentary, in which he digs into the manosphere. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team

• Simon Tisdall makes a strong case that Keir Starmer should be worrying less about the UK’s traditional rivals, and start waking up to the fact that Donald Trump is a real and present danger. Toby

• Emma Beddington has a lovely column on being an “oblivious idiot” going into motherhood … and why she wouldn’t have had it any other way. “If I’d known more, might I have hesitated? Maybe,” she writes, “but I’m happy with the trade-off for everything my sons have given me”. Charlie

• The attack on Iran, and the backlash is affecting the whole of the Middle East – but even Cyprus, which was hit by a drone last week, and its traditional tourist hotspots like Ayia Napa are suffering as a result of Iran’s retaliation. Toby

Sport

Football | League One Port Vale stunned Sunderland in the FA Cup fifth round, winning 1-0 to secure a place in the quarter-final thanks to a winner from Ben Waine, pictured above.

Cricket | India retained the T20 World Cup, defeating New Zealand by 96 runs thanks to a quickfire 89 by Sanju Samson and Jasprit Bumrah’s four for 15.

Formula One | George Russell won the Australian GP for Mercedes, with his teammate Kimi Antonelli coming in second.

The front pages

“Fears for global economy grow as Iran threatens oil facilities” is the Guardian splash. The Telegraph says “Defiant Iran turns to Khamenei’s son”, the Times has “Ayatollah’s son chosen in challenge to Trump” and “US and Israel intensify strikes on Iran” is top story at the FT. “Have you learned nothing, Mr Blair?” questions the Mirror, while the Mail splashes on “Starmer’s humbling phone call to Trump”. The i Paper has “Easter holidays at risk as fallout from Middle East war spreads” and the Sun leads on “Huntley: the final letter”.

Today in Focus

Who really took one of history’s most famous pictures?

The photo of a Vietnamese girl running away from a napalm strike is one of the most famous in history. But who actually took it? Film-maker Bao Nguyen and war photographer Gary Knight talk Annie Kelly through their investigation.

Cartoon of the day | Artist Name

The Upside

A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad

In this week’s A new start after 60 column, Paula Cocozza meets Craig Munns who, at the sprightly age of 62, finally unearthed the career for him: paleontology.

His work involves fewer dinosaurs than you might expect, however. “I’m more of an invertebrate sort of guy,” he says – think worms, insects, lobsters and other spineless creatures.

“I don’t understand this retirement stuff,” he concludes. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would I do that?”

Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday

Bored at work?

And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.