Afternoon Briefing Wednesday 14th October

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1:22This is your Times Radio news briefing for the afternoon of Wednesday the 14th of October. Ukraine has said that the American company SpaceX has disrupted combat missions against Russia by limiting the capabilities of their Starlink satellites, which are used on the Ukraine front line. The satellites help the Ukrainian military to communicate. Security analyst and special correspondent at the Kiev Independent, Jimmy Rushton, told Times Radio the accusation is that Donald Trump would have ordered the restrictions. That would be the assumption. Obviously, there's no confirmation as yet. SpaceX haven't commented, neither have the Trump administration, but it can't be a coincidence.

2:00And we have people in the Ukrainian government, including Zelensky's advisor, Sohei Reznov, who has confirmed this. He said that these restrictions have been in place, and if anything, the restrictions seem to be getting worse. Russian missile strikes overnight have led to the loss of power for 600 ,000 Ukrainians. Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Andy Burnham in Downing Street later. Iran's navy has said that a ship has sunk in the Strait of Hormuz. They said it was carrying more than 2 ,500 containers and had attempted to transit what the Revolutionary Guard described as an unauthorised and dangerous route.

2:38Russell Brand's court case has begun in London, in which he faces three charges of rape, three of sexual assault and one of indecent assault. Our reporter Olly Cole is there with the details of the charges. In our opening for the prosecution, Ms. Carmi-Jones KC took the jurors through the allegations against Russell Brand, the first alleged to have been raping a woman in a hotel room during a Labour Party conference in Bournemouth in 1999. She reflected comments from a then-associate of Brand, saying that he was desperate to have sex before they left the conference in Bournemouth. The prosecutor added, as you will hear, the defendant did achieve his objective.

3:16He found a victim, engaged with her, told her exactly what she needed to hear and then manipulated the situation so as to have sex with her. The former comedian is on trial for seven offences against six women between 1999 and 2009. He denies all the allegations against him. Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey has called for party unity following a gathering last night where he appears to have seen off concerns about his leadership for now. Some in the party worry that they're not preparing enough for who they might lose votes to in the next election and that they're being too focused on the South. But 21 Lib Dem MPs have come out in support of Sir Ed.

3:52One of them is Lisa Spart, who spoke to Times Radio this morning. There was a good discussion and we agreed as a team last night not to share. What I will say is there was overwhelming support for Ed Davies' leadership. I'm really proud to serve as part of his team and I want him to lead us into the next general election and beyond. But we've gone from having 11 MPs elected in 2019 to 72 at the last general election. And with that, I've heard a colleague describe that as going from a start-up to a scale-up. For more stories like this, listen throughout the day to Times Radio.

4:29If you're looking for something predictable and low friction over the long term, public markets may be a suitable option. But the moment you want different investment characteristics, it may be time to consider the private markets. See how your wealth can work smarter at creativeplanning.com slash access. Russell Brand is currently standing trial on charges of rape and other sexual offenses he has pleaded not guilty to them. Reporters from The Times and The Sunday Times will be in the courtroom every single day to watch what happens. then they'll join me Luke Jones in the podcast studio to unpack everything they have heard search for the trial of Russell Brand wherever you get your podcasts