Evening Briefing Friday 23rd October

0:01Welcome to the Times Radio Evening Briefing on Friday 23rd October. The Duchess of Sussex has released a lengthy statement describing allegations that her father had a collection of child sex abuse images as deeply disturbing. An investigation has begun in the Philippines after Meghan's stepbrother reported their father. Meghan says the Metropolitan Police told her about troubling accusations in 2018. Matt Wilkinson is Royal Editor of The Sun. She has not spoken out for the last six or eight years since 2018. Thomas Markle Sr. has. He's carried out lots and lots of interviews saying that he has been abandoned by Meghan.

0:41This is the first time that she has given a reason why she didn't want to see her father anymore. And if you look at the statement, it's quite stark when she says, I hope it can be understood that I didn't want to see him or let him have any contact with our children, was for one reason, was to protect them. Thomas Markle has described the allegations as sick lies. The White House says the First Lady, Melania Trump, has secured a ceasefire in Oleschke in southern Ukraine. Residents of the city, which has been occupied by Russian forces since 2022, have reported a deepening humanitarian crisis.

1:18The Times' Washington correspondent George Grylls says Melania represents a different viewpoint in Washington. She was born in Yugoslavia behind the Iron Curtain. She's talked about her admiration for Ronald Reagan in the past. And I do think she provides an ulterior view of the Ukraine war within the White House to that of, for example, Janie Vance, who is a sceptic of giving military aid to Ukraine, or Elon Musk, who seems to have shut off his own military grade styling for the Ukrainians. 31 ,000 homes are without power after Storm Austin barrelled through the south of England and Wales. Gusts of up to 84 miles an hour have ripped through the Channel Islands.

1:58Trains in the south-west have been cancelled, roads and schools have been closed, flights have been cancelled, and in Brighton, parts of the abandoned West Pier have broken off and floated away. Headteacher Jilly Pridsmore's primary school just outside Falmouth was closed today. Most of the roads into the village were blocked with fallen trees, lots of debris on the road. Because of our location, it really wasn't safe to open, so the school is creaking and it's really noisy there, So I definitely think we've made the right decision. And a terror investigation is underway after one person was shot dead and four others injured not far from Paris.

2:37The shootings happened at three separate locations about 15 miles southwest of the French capital. Interior Minister Laurent Nunes says the attacker used a military-grade weapon, or at least an automatic weapon. He says the shooting was clearly a terrorist crime. You can follow The Times' radio news briefing on Spotify and listen live to Times Radio Online.