Starmer 'in control' and 'Al Fayed rape scandal'
· BBC News"Middle East steps closer to regional war" is the headline on the front of the i. It says Iran has joined Hezbollah in threatening retaliation against Israel - which they blame for the waves of explosions that rocked Lebanon. The Guardian says the Lebanese foreign minister has called the bombings a dangerous development that could "signal a wider war", external. Analysis by the Financial Times says the attacks suggest Israel's strategy is to force Hezbollah to rethink its military support for Gaza.
Several papers focus on the rape and sexual assault allegations against the former owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed. The Daily Mirror says there are fears there could be "at least 100 victims", external. The Daily Telegraph says the accusations raise questions about why Mr Al Fayad was not charged when Sir Keir Starmer was the director of public prosecutions, external. Downing Street has said Sir Keir had no involvement in the decision not to bring charges against the businessman, who had been questioned by police in 2008.
The Daily Mail headlines an article by the Conservative leadership contender, Robert Jenrick, and his warning that "English identity is under threat", external. In the paper he writes that "unprecedented migration" and the "dismantling of our national culture" have presented what he calls "huge problems".
The Times says the Treasury could be handed a budget boost of 10 billion pounds due to a slowdown in the rate that the Bank of England sells off bonds. The paper says some Labour MPs want the extra money to be used to delay the scrapping of winter fuel payments for millions of pensioners. But the Treasury says the "overall gains and losses" from the changes made by the Bank of England are "highly uncertain".
The Daily Express uses its front page to highlight the plight of pensioners due to lose winter fuel support. An RAF veteran is pictured alongside the headline: "I survived atomic bomb tests and cancer but will I survive this winter?". The government has insisted the change is necessary to help address a £22 bn "black hole" in the public finances.
Several papers are highly critical of government's defence of the prime minister for accepting more than a hundred thousand pounds in "freebies" since 2019. The Daily Star seizes on comments by the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds. It quotes him as saying that receiving hospitality is not "a perk of the job" as "people want to engage with decision-makers". The paper pictures him and Sir Keir Starmer floating above the Earth in spacesuits alongside the headline: "what planet are they on?" The Sun's columnist, Julia Hartley-Brewer, calls Sir Keir a "hypocrite, external".
Pictures of the world's oldest topiary garden feature in i, Times and Daily Express - as the two month-long job of trimming its dozens of sculpted plants begins. The Daily Express says the 330-year-old garden at Levens Hall in Cumbria has hedges in abstract and traditional designs - but also in the shape of Homer Simpson and Darth Vader. It quotes the head gardener as saying "topiary is a journey. You're never finished, they're always developing".
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