The BBC, Reuters and the Times report on the Israeli moon mission. The BBC reports that Israel’s first moon mission has launched on a Falcon rocket from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The Beresheet robot is a privately funded venture that aims to land and hop across the lunar surface. Only government space agencies from the US, Russia and China have previously managed soft touchdowns. SpaceIL, the non-profit behind the project, hopes Beresheet (“In the beginning” in Hebrew) will prove an inspiration to all those who follow its progress. If the $100m Beresheet craft can get land safely, it will take photos to send back to Earth and engage in some magnetic investigations. The targeted landing site is in a northern-hemisphere lava plain called Mare Serenitatis, where magnetic anomalies are known to exist. The success of the mission will depend in large part on the spacecraft’s UK-sourced Leros engine.

The BBC’s Chief International Correspondent Lyse Doucet and the UN’s Regional Coordinator for the Syria Crisis Panos Moumtzis appeared on the Today programme this morning to talk about the final assault on Baghouz, ISIS’s last remaining territory. The negotiated evacuation of civilians from Baghouz will take as long as two weeks, according to Doucet. Panos Moumtzis described the protection of civilians as “our highest concern”.

The Guardian reports on the family of Shamima Begum, the ISIS bride who has had her British citizenship removed. It reports that the family are exploring legal and practical options to bring her baby son to the UK without her while she embarks on the potentially lengthy appeal against the removal of her British citizenship. The lawyer representing the 19-year-old’s family is planning to travel to the refugee camp in Syria where she is living as soon as possible, to set in motion the legal appeal process and to ask for her consent to bring her newborn son back to Britain while she awaits a resolution of her legally tangled case.

The FT, BBC and Telegraph report on the merger between Yesh Atid and the Resilience Party in Israel. The Telegraph reports that Israel’s primary centrist challengers to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Thursday they were joining forces, a dramatic move that rocked the country’s political system and created the first credible alternative to Netanyahu’s decade-long rule. Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, head of the Yesh Atid party, said they would present a joint list for the upcoming Israeli elections that “will constitute the new Israeli ruling party”. In a joint statement, the two said they were “motivated by national responsibility. The new ruling party will bring forth a cadre of security and social leaders to ensure Israel’s security and to reconnect its people and heal the divide within Israeli society,” they said. Recent polls suggest that together, the two could surpass Netanyahu’s ruling Likud to become Israel’s largest faction after the April 9 vote.

The Independent reports that only one in ten jihadists returning from Syria to the UK have been prosecuted. Amid calls for the Government to repatriate Shamima Begum for criminal investigation rather than remove her British citizenship, police have warned it is “no easy task” to convict a suspect’s activities abroad. Ben Wallace, the security minister, said around 40 people “have been successfully prosecuted so far – either because of direct action they have carried out in Syria or, subsequent to coming back, linked to that foreign fighting”. But more than 400 people “of national security concern” are believed to have returned from conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

The Times reports on Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to China. It reports that Saudi Arabia’s crown prince is set to sign multi billion-dollar deals in China today to cement a relationship between the two powers at the end of an extravagant Asian tour that signals a significant strategic shift by the Gulf kingdom. Five months after the murder of the dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi damaged relations with some traditional Western allies, the crown prince is looking east, where Asian governments have signalled their willingness to overlook the murder in return for investment and financial support. He is expected to meet Chinese President Xi today and agree deals that could allow Saudi Arabia to supplant Russia as its biggest oil supplier.

In its analysis on Mohammed bin Salman’s tour of Asia, Michael Binyon writes in the Times that “the glittering reception given to Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler during his tour of Pakistan, India and China underlines two main messages sent out by Prince Mohammed bin Salman: Saudi Arabia is now seen in Asia as a key Arab power in the Middle East; and whatever the anguish caused by the Khashoggi murder in Western capitals, the crown prince remains firmly in control of his country and can brush aside western criticism”.

Reuters reports that two sisters from Saudi Arabia were intercepted at Hong Kong airport by the Kingdom’s diplomats en route to Australia, their lawyer said, in what is the year’s second high-profile case of Saudi women trying to flee what they call repression at home.

The Times publishes an op-ed by actress Carey Mulligan on the fate of the Yazidis. Mulligan has been visiting camps where four and a half years ago Yazidi families were taken after being rescued from Mount Sinjar, where they were facing possible genocide by ISIS. Mulligan writes that visiting these camps “proves a disturbing lesson in the short shelf life of the international effort”. She added: “It is clear to the Yazidi families that the world has lost interest. Many people I spoke to had seen their homes destroyed by Isis, others said they simply didn’t feel safe to return. We learnt that no one had been offered any assistance to rebuild their home.” She concluded: “The situation is desperate. Donors must renew their commitment to this beleaguered community and provide funding that focuses on rehabilitation and reconstruction. The rest of the world must prove its commitment to protecting vulnerable populations from the terror of radical groups.”

The Daily Mail reports that the ISIS terrorist who became known as ‘the Voice of Paris attacks’ after he claimed responsibility for killing 129 people, has been killed in Syria. Fabien Clain, thought to be in his early 40s, was killed in ISIS’s last Syrian hideout of Baghouz, sources said. He is believed to have left France 2015, after converting to Islam, to join the self-proclaimed caliphate.

Reuters reports that the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said they will try to evacuate the remaining civilians from ISIS’s last enclave in eastern Syria on Friday, a necessary step before attacking or forcing surrender on the last jihadists inside. Baghouz in the Euphrates valley region has become ISIS’s final populated stronghold in Iraq and Syria after it lost its major cities of Mosul and Raqqa in 2017.

Reuters reports that Turkey ordered the arrest of 295 serving military personnel on Friday, the prosecutor’s office said, accusing them of links to the network of US-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen. Ankara says Gueln was behind the orchestrated 2016 attempted coup. Those facing detention included three colonels, eight majors and 10 lieutenants, with around half of the suspects being in the army and the remainder in other military forces including the navy and air force, the statement said.

The BBC reports that some 100 volunteers and family members from the Syria White Helmets civil defence group have been resettled in the UK, the Home Office has confirmed. One former member told the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme his life “had changed completely”.

The Economist publishes a piece in its print edition titled “the decline of the Israeli left”. It says: “The Palestinian issue was once the dividing line between left and right in Israeli politics. But as hope for a solution has waned, so too have the fortunes of left-wing parties. Most prominent among them is Labour, which sought peace with the Palestinians under leaders such as Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak (all former prime ministers). In April it will be lucky to win a dozen seats (out of 120). To its left is Meretz, which may not win enough votes to be represented in the Knesset.”

The Israeli media is dominated by election news and all the newspapers report the latest polls conducted after creation of the Blue and White party. In Yediot Ahronot, the Blue and White party is predicted to win 36 seats, Likud 30 seats, Labour Party 8 seats, United Torah Judaism 6 seats, New Right 6 seats, Hadash, Balad and Islamic Movement 6 seats, Arab Movement for Renewal 6 seats, Shas 5 seats, Unified Right Wing Party 5 seats, Yisrael Beiteinu 4 seats, Kulanu 4 seats and Meretz 4 seats. They calculate the breakdown by blocs is as follows: Right 49 seats; Centre-left 48 seats; Arabs 12 seats; and ultra-Orthodox 11 seats. The paper also asked: “Who would you prefer as Prime Minister?” Benjamin Netanyahu received 38 per cent support and Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid (alternating) got 36 per cent. In a Maariv poll the Blue and White party are predicted to win 35 seats, Likud 29 seats, New Right 8 seats, Labour Party 7 seats, United Torah Judaism 7 seats, Jewish Home 6 seats, Arab Movement for Renewal 6 seats, Shas 5 seats, Joint List 5 seats, Meretz 4 seats, Kulanu 4 seats, Yisrael Beiteinu 4 seats.  They also ask who do you think is more suitable to be Prime Minister? Netanyahu is supported by 48 per cent of voters and Benny Gantz 36 per cent. Kan News showed that if the elections had been held yesterday, the Blue and White party headed by Gantz and Lapid would have received 35 seats, with the Likud 32 seats. However, according to the poll, the right wing bloc would win 62 seats, versus only 47 seats for the centre-left bloc. Kan news reports that Gantz said the government he would form would not be detached from the people, but would rather be a government of the people. Prime Minister Netanyahu said in response that the choice was now clearer than ever: “A strong right-wing government headed by him, or a left-wing government headed by Gantz and Lapid, which would rely on a blocking majority of Arab parties.”

Nahum Barnea writes in Yediot Ahronot on the launch event of the Blue and White Party, which saw Gantz, Lapid, Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi share the stage for the first time. He says: “There was also something confusing about the body language of the four. Displays of chumminess are foreign to them. Each of them is used to being at the centre. Now they have to share, relying on a hierarchy to which they are unaccustomed. There is no such thing as a collective leadership in an election campaign, not even a dual leadership. It will have to be Gantz or nothing. Each speech had its own character. Gantz gave the cheerleader speech …. he also had a story to tell that the listeners at home liked to hear, a story that combined family, Holocaust, rebirth and unity. His mother and Lapid’s father lived in the same apartment building in the Budapest ghetto during the war.” Laid said: “And now, Tommy’s son and Malka’s son are standing before you on the same stage. Because the State of Israel is a miracle! I would not be standing here today if I did not believe that Gantz could be an outstanding prime minister. I believe in him.” Yaalon addressed himself to right-wing voters. He mentioned the fact that during Yitzhak Shamir’s term, the Kahane movement had been outlawed. “I was ashamed to see Netanyahu working to bring Kahanists into the Knesset,” he said. “He is willing to obliterate Shamir’s historic decision.” “You know my positions,” he added. “I am a security hawk, a man of the right wing. From here I call on all members of the right wing who are fed up with the law being trampled—this is your home. The stately right wing must wake up.”

Kan News reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next Wednesday. The meeting had been scheduled for yesterday, but Netanyahu postponed it in order to secure a political union between the Jewish Home, the National Union and Jewish Power.

Haaretz includes an interview with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. He acknowledges that among the Poles there were “individual criminals, as in any nation,” but will not accept any generalisations about Poland’s involvement as a nation and Poles’ involvement as a people in the Nazis’s war crimes.  Morawiecki says he was profoundly hurt by the comments of Foreign Minister Israel Katz, who quoted former Prime Minister Shamir when he said: “The Poles imbibed anti-Semitism with their mothers’ milk.” This sentence, says Morawiecki, is the reason he cancelled his participation in the Visegrad Summit, which was meant to be held this week in Israel. “I have no problem with someone mentioning the fact that during the cruel, evil, dehumanising war there were individual criminals in my nation – obviously there were, just as in every other nation,” says Morawiecki. “But when you use these stereotypes that ‘every Pole suckled anti-Semitism out of their mother’s breast’ it’s nothing short of racism.” Morawiecki described further his reaction to Katz’s insult. “When I first heard of this it seemed totally unbelievable. Such words could be used by a radical extremist, but not by a foreign minister,” he said, adding: “I understand that in the course of an electoral campaign some politicians want to make headlines.”

“We also have to cope with some anti-Semitism in Poland, but fortunately it is marginal,” Morawiecki said, citing the recent report of the European Fundamental Rights Agency. “Poland is one of the few countries in the EU where the number of anti-Semitic incidents is decreasing, while in many others we are witnessing worrying developments,” he said, noting that antisemitism appears to be on the rise in countries like France, Germany, Sweden and Britain.

Ynet reports that US ambassador to Israel David Friedman spoke at an event in Jerusalem to encourage business links between Israeli settlements and Palestinians. He said: “There are many, many Palestinians that would like to be freed up to engage in business ventures with Israelis, and they’re entitled to that opportunity.” His remarks were immediately attacked by Palestinian officials as encouraging settlement activity in the West Bank. “This constitutes a stab in the back of the Palestinian people,” said Wasel Abu Youssef, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee. “We warn against any involvement or participation of any Palestinian in projects with settlers, or meetings called by the American ambassador.”