The editor of the Sun, Britain's best-selling daily newspaper, became embroiled in controversy on Thursday after being arrested on suspicion of assaulting her soap star husband.
Rebekah Wade, 37, who recently launched a campaign in her newspaper, the Sun, to stamp out domestic violence, found herself in a police cell in Wandsworth, south London, being subjected to fingerprinting and DNA testing.
Her husband, Ross Kemp, 41, who plays the hard man Grant Mitchell in the BBC's television soap opera EastEnders, called police at 4am yesterday after a row at the couple's south London home and she was arrested.
In a bizarre twist worthy of a scriptwriter for EastEnders, it emerged later that Kemp's onscreen brother, Phil Mitchell, played by Steve McFadden, was also the subject of an alleged assault by his former partner on Thursday.
The story of the soap star and the newspaper editor began on Wednesday evening and involved a cast including David Blunkett, the recently departed Cabinet minister, Rupert Murdoch, the media tycoon, his daughter Elisabeth and the PR gurtthew Freud. Amid febrile rumors -- many promoted by rival tabloid newspapers -- the details of Wade's journey from behind the desk in her office to today's front pages emerged.
Wade, who became the first woman editor of the Sun early in 2003, had spent the day at work overseeing the story of the resignation of Blunkett as work and pensions secretary. Within hours of Blunkett standing down, he was at the Wapping, east London, headquarters of the Sun, being treated to a consolatory drink with Wade, whom he counts as a friend.
Later in the evening she moved on with Kemp to a 20-strong birthday party for Matthew Freud, who is married to Rupert Murdoch's daughter, Elisabeth.
Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of the Sun's parent company, News Corporation, in London for the annual general meeting at BSkyB today, was also said to have attended the party. Insiders said Kemp and Wade, who met 10 years ago, were "in good form." But some time between the end of the birthday party and their arrival home, a row started.
According to sources close to the couple it developed quickly and Kemp rang 999 in a fit of anger -- a call which brought police swiftly to their Battersea home.
When officers arrived they found Kemp with a thick lip and arrested his wife. She had her fingerprints taken and submitted a DNA sample before being locked in a cell to catch up on her sleep.
At the headquarters of News International in Wapping, Murdoch waited in vain for Wade at 8am on Thursday for a scheduled breakfast meeting.
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS