Newspaper headlines: 'Bombshell' after Harry and Meghan 'quit' By BBC News

Staff Published duration 9 January

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The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are the main story for most of the papers, with their photograph on almost all the front pages.

"Harry and Meghan quit the firm" is the Daily Telegraph's take.

According to the Times , the couple's "personal message" has opened a rift with the rest of the Royal Family.

"They didn't even tell the Queen", complains the Daily Mirror , which accuses Prince Harry of petulance and selfishness.

The Sun headlines its story "Megxit". It says the couple have triggered a "civil war", leaving the Queen "deeply upset" and Prince Charles and Prince William "incandescent with rage".

The Daily Mail has brought out what it calls a "royal bombshell special issue", with coverage stretching to page 17.

It calls the couple "the rogue royals" and says they've "pressed the nuclear button".

Unnamed royal sources put the knife in, telling the Mail that Harry and Meghan are "awkward and childish", have treated the Queen "shoddily" and acted with a "staggering" level of deceit.

The Financial Times is more restrained but even it puts the story on the front page - with a headline focusing on the couple's desire for "financial independence".

The announcement has also made headlines on the other side of the Atlantic, where the Sussexes plan to spend more time.

For the Washington Post , it's a "bold and remarkable" move, signalling that two of the younger, more popular royals may be fed up with what it calls "an anachronistic, cosseted life of endless ribbon-cutting and fusty, scripted engagements - and the scrutiny that comes with all of that".

According to the Financial Times , Donald Trump has stepped back from the brink with a measured reaction to Iran's missile strikes against US forces in Iraq.

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The Guardian says that European leaders "breathed a sigh of relief" after the President heeded their public and private pleas to draw a line under the conflict.

In the Times cartoon, entitled "Special Relationship", Donald Trump is riding through the desert on a camel while Boris Johnson walks behind with a dustpan and brush, clearing up.

The Telegraph says Iran is facing mounting pressure to explain the crash of a Ukrainian airliner near Tehran, hours after the missile launches.

The Daily Star wonders if it was shot down. The Iranians say not, and Western intelligence agencies apparently agree.

The Times says video footage showing flames streaming from a wing, and photographs of the wreckage on the ground, are consistent with an uncontained engine failure. But it says none of the tell-tale traces of a missile strike is visible in the photos.

image copyright EPA image caption The remains of one of the plane's engines was among the debris

Finally, the government's new Town of the Year competition has - in the Guardian's words - "backfired spectacularly" after officials failed to realise that the place chosen for the launch, Wolverhampton, has been a city for almost 20 years.

Local civic leaders, it says, expressed incredulity when the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, announced he was kicking off a countrywide tour of towns in their city.