Newspaper headlines: Johnson 'divides' Tories and Ant's year off

Rowan Atkinson: Letter to The Times

Boris Johnson's comments about Muslim face veils have sparked a flurry of letters to the editors.

Under the headline "You're backing Boris", the Daily Mail devotes a page and a half to messages supporting the former foreign secretary.
And comedian Rowan Atkinson - best known for Blackadder and Mr Bean - has written to the Times to defend Mr Johnson's right to poke fun at religion. He says he thought comparing the veil to a letterbox was funny.
But the director general of the Islamic Foundation, Farooq Murad, uses a letter, also to the Times, to express concern about claims women wearing the full body covering, the burka, are oppressed.
He says this assertion is lacking in evidence, misogynistic and Islamaphobic prejudice.
A correspondent with the i newspaper argues that while they are a believer in free speech, Mr Johnson displayed discourtesy, disrespect and downright rudeness - for which he should be ashamed.

'At the top'

A decision by TV presenter Ant McPartlin to take a year off, makes the front page of several papers.
The Daily Express says he has the full support of his onscreen partner Declan Donnelly - who now faces presenting their popular show I'm a Celebrity on his own.

Image copyright PA

The Sun reports that the star, who has been in rehab for alcohol addiction, has vowed to fans that he will be back.
The Daily Mirror says Ant's place at the top of the ITV pantheon is secure no matter what.

Trade wars

The Guardian says a leaked document seen for the first time gives more details of a Russian offer of a gold deal made to Arron Banks - the main donor behind the Brexit campaign group, Leave.EU.
The paper says a presentation, obtained by an investigative unit funded by an exiled critic of Vladimir Putin, shows how Mr Banks was offered the chance of making potentially huge profits from a scheme to streamline Russia's gold industry.
Mr Banks has consistently denied receiving money from Russia and he tells the Guardian there was no Russian gold deal. He adds that a cabal of anti-Brexit journalists is engaged in a smear campaign against him.
The Economist concludes that the weak Chinese stockmarket is giving the US the edge, at least in confidence, in the trade war between the two countries.