Newspaper headlines: Strictly star ‘vindicated’ and ‘world holds breath’

The Strictly abuse report has been “revealed at last”, says Metro, with Amanda Abbington saying she has been “vindicated” by the verdict. The BBC apologised to the actress and upheld some of her complaints against her 2023 dance partner on the show, Giovanni Pernice, but cleared him of the most serious allegations.

“I’ve won”, splashes the Sun over pictures of both Abbington and Pernice. She has received a BBC apology, while he has been “cleared of violence in a fudged report”, the paper says. According to an unnamed source quoted by the title, Abbington is now considering whether to sue the BBC.

The Daily Express also leads with the Strictly report. Its second story is about a “flying visit to UK” by the Duke of Sussex. “No time for dad or brother,” it says of Prince Harry, referring to King Charles and the Prince of Wales.

For the Daily Mail the Strictly report is also a “fudge” but the paper’s front page is dominated by the news from the Middle East. “World holds breath as Israel set to invade Lebanon,” its headline declares.

According to the Guardian, which has a picture of Israeli battle tanks massing, Israel has already “begun ground attacks on Hezbollah inside Lebanon”.

“Netanyahu warns Iran: You’re in our sights”, is the Daily Telegraph take on the escalating conflict in the Middle East. It refers to new remarks made by Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Closer to home, former Home Secretary James Cleverly has said his party was wrong in office to say it could “stop the boats” in tackling undocumented migrants. Cleverly, who is running for the leadership of the Conservative Party, said it had been an “unachievable target”.

“Migrants to be stuck in hotels for three years,” the Times says. It notes a manifesto pledge by Sir Keir Starmer, the new Labour prime minister, to “end asylum hotels”. On the Tory leadership race, the paper focuses on a different contender, Kemi Badenoch, who says she knows “how Thatcher felt” after being criticised for suggesting maternity pay was placing an “excessive burden on businesses”.

A photo of weeping mourners at the funeral of a “victim of Israeli air strikes” in southern Lebanon looks out of the front page of the Financial Times, under the headline “Israel’s forces poised for imminent ground assault”. Chinese pressure on European carmakers leads the paper’s business coverage. “Stellantis and Aston Martin shares fall as strength of Chinese rivals dents sales,” it reports.

An accounting system used by Post Office sub-postmasters before the controversial Horizon software was introduced is likely to have also been faulty, an investigation has found. The i paper splashes on this, saying the “second IT scandal” is “linked to wrongful convictions”. Badenoch also gets a mention but the comparison here is not with the Tories’ first female prime minister, the late Margaret Thatcher, but rather their most recent, Liz Truss. “There is a bit of Liz about Kemi,” an unnamed “former aide” to Truss is quoted as saying.

“The Matrix is real”, if we’re to believe the Daily Star. It brings to bear its “fifth favourite boffin in the whole world” on the nature of the universe, which turns out to be “actually an advanced AI simulation” with all of us humans “just characters playing a part”.