Caroline Hepker

As the US and Israeli bombing of Iran continues, President Trump has told ABC that his preferred candidates to lead the state were killed in the initial attack.

The death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader, has thrown the country's future leadership into question.

Khamenei did not publicly designate a successor.

Until one is appointed, a council compromising the president and two other senior figures is carrying out the leader's duties.

Wendy Sherman, former US Deputy Secretary of State, says Iran's regime will be extremely hard to dislodge.

Wendy Sherman's words came as it was reported that President Trump had agreed to talk to Iran's new leadership, the Atlantic magazine, quoting a conversation with the US president in which he said, they want to talk and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them.

Iran's National Security Chief Ali Larajani responding on X today that the country will not negotiate with the United States.

Meanwhile, NPR reporting that

that Iran hopes to elect a new supreme leader within the next few days, according to Iran's foreign ministry spokesman.

Meanwhile, oil prices surged as traders assessed the effect of the conflict on supplies and transit links through the Strait of Hormuz.

The global benchmark crude is currently up for Brent, 8.4% trading at $79 a barrel after rallying as much as

13% to the highest since January 2025.

Tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, which handles a fifth of the world's oil supply, has largely stopped.

Iranian authorities said yesterday that they had attacked three oil vessels, while President Trump said that U.S.

forces sank nine Iranian naval ships.

At their monthly meeting, OPEC Plus agreed to increase oil production by 206,000 barrels per day, only slightly higher than the pace that they had agreed at the previous meeting.

Travel chaos has extended through the Middle East and beyond, causing major disruptions at some of the world's busiest airports.

Carriers across the Persian Gulf are extending an unprecedented blanket flight suspension after Iran targeted airports in this weekend's offensive.

Bloomberg's aviation and transport reporter Danny Lee says it's not clear when the disruption might end.

Danny Lee adds that the disruption also extends to flights which would normally pass through the airspace.