As the world said goodbye to His Holiness Pope Francis at his funeral in Rome today (Saturday), machinations are already underway in the background to decide who will become his successor. Several key players are emerging as potential candidates who could be voted for during the secretive Conclave ceremony due to take place next month. Only cardinals under the age of 80 are eligible to vote.

During the ancient ritual more than 130 Catholic cardinals will cast their votes for who they think should become the next head of the Holy See. According to betting firm William Hill, cardinal Pietro Parolin is the early favourite with odds of 9/4.

Next among the religious runners and riders is Luis Antonio Tagle priced at 3/1, if successful he would also become the first pontiff of Asian heritage.

Scroll down for the full list of cardinals and odds…

Spokesperson for William Hill, Lee Phelps, said: “There’s already plenty of speculation on who the Vatican will announce as the next Pope to follow Pope Francis, and currently we make the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, our favourite at 9/4.

“Luis Antonio Tagle is second in our market at 3/1 and would become the first Asian Pope in history, while Matteo Zuppi and Peter Turkson are both priced at 6/1.”

There are just a handful of Catholic cardinals across the UK and Ireland, some of whom are expected to cast a vote for the next pope. Technically, any baptised Catholic man is eligible to become the next pontiff, but for centuries only cardinals have been chosen.

Both cardinal Timothy Radcliffe, 79, who is from London, and Archbishop of Westminster cardinal Vincent Nichols, 79, appeared to rule themselves out of the papal election contest.

This week cardinal Nichols told reporters he was “too old, not capable”, while cardinal Radcliffe said he believed the Holy Spirit was “far too wise to even think of me (as pope) for the shortest moment”.

Cardinal Arthur Roche, 75, from West Yorkshire, is the youngest of the UK and Ireland’s cardinals. He is based in Rome and has been a key adviser to Pope Francis in recent years.

Cardinal Michael Fitzgerald, from Birmingham, will turn 88 in August, meaning he will be unable to vote for a new pope, and cardinal Sean Brady, Ireland’s only Catholic cardinal, will turn 86 this summer and so is also unable to vote due to his age.

Scotland currently has no Catholic cardinals. It is not thought that any of the UK or Irish cardinals are among the favourites expected to succeed Pope Francis.

At the time of writing, William Hill had odds on the following cardinals to be the next Pope.

Pietro Parolin – 9/4

Luis Antonio Tagle – 3/1

Peter Turkson – 6/1

Matteo Zuppi – 6/1

Robert Sarah – 8/1

Pierbattista Pizzaballa – 8/1

Peter Erdo – 10/1

Bar – 16/1

More than 500 people are reported injured after huge explosion at an Iranian oil facility in Bandar Abbas, on the south coast. The site, which is one of Iran’s main oil facilities, could be seen in video footage engulfed in large plumes of smoke.

Iranian state media outlet Tasnim reports that local emergency services have described large amounts of scattered glass and debris being sprayed across a wide area. Emergency services working on the area have said “the port remains in a state of chaos” as precise casualty numbers and any fatalities remain unknown. The cause of the explosion remains unclear at this stage, but local media site Tasnim reports a fuel tank had “exploded for an unknown reason”.

A local crisis management official told state TV: “The source of this incident was the explosion of several containers stored in the Shahid Rajaee Port wharf area.

“We are currently evacuating and transferring the injured to medical centres.”

State TV has blamed “negligence in handling flammable materials” for the explosion.

Local media footage shows confused scenes in the aftermath, with men lying on the ground and the uninjured attempting to provide first aid to those in need.

A spokesperson for the country’s emergency services said that 516 people are known to have been injured.

Mehrdad Hasanzadeh, a provincial disaster management official, told Iranian state TV that emergency services were attempting to make their way to the site of the explosion, while others are attempting to safely evacuate it.

Efforts are still ongoing to extinguish fires on the site with the explosion believed to have been heard as far away as Qeshm, an island 26 kilometres (16 miles) south of Bandar Abbas.

Rajaei port is around 650 miles southeast of Iran’s capital, Tehran, on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil traded passes.

The blast comes as Iran prepares to open talks on a potential nuclear deal with the United States, for the third round of negotiations over Tehran’s rapidly advancing nuclear program

US President Donald Trump, who is in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis has warned that Iran “cannot be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”

Donald Trump, one of the most prominent attendees at Pope Francis‘s funeral, was pictured inside St Peter’s Basilica as he paid tribute to Pope Francis ahead of the funeral. The US President, accompanied by his wife Melania Trump, travelled to Italy and the Vatican on Friday, hours before the televised funeral was due to begin.

Ahead of his departure from the White House, Mr Trump praised the late pontiff, describing him as a “very good man”. He added: “He loved the world, and he was just a good man. I met him twice, I thought he was a fantastic kind of a guy”.

On arrival, the US President and First Lady could be seen paying their respects at the foot of the casket, pausing silently for a few moments.

Also present in Rome was Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, a practising Catholic and vocal admirer of the late pontiff.

Mr Biden has described the Pope as one of the “most consequential” Popes in modern times, with the pontiff instigating a range of reforms which modernised the Roman Catholic Church.

Such progressive ideas made Pope Francis unpopular in some quarters, especially amongst ultra-conservative Christians, many of whom are vocal supporters of Donald Trump.

In the wake of the death, MAGA acolyte and congresswoman Majorie Taylor Greene posted that “Evil is being defeated by the hand of God,” in an apparent reference to the pontiff’s death.

Others within the MAGA world have expressed support for the election of a more conservative Cardinal to become the next Pope, such as Cardinal Robert Sarah of Guinea, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and gender ideology.

Nick Sortor, a popular MAGA podcast host with 953,000 followers posted on X: “Wow! One of the frontrunners for Pope, Cardinal Robert Sarah, is a hardliner against mass migration.”

Fellow MAGA influencer Joey Mannarino, with 613,000 followers, quoted the Cardinal and said: “Make him the next Pope!”

European leaders are keen for Trump to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the margins of the funeral in order to discuss a potential peace plan in Ukraine.

A tight deadline between the service and Trump’s scheduled departure could prevent the two from getting the opportunity to discuss the conflict, with the Italian government warning that any diplomatic meeting would be viewed as disrespectful.