LONDON (AP) — Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan, said Friday she was “deeply distressed” by allegations that a collection of child sexual abuse images had been found at her father’s former home. She also revealed that a letter containing “troubling allegations” about him had been sent to London police in 2018.
Meghan, also known as the Duchess of Sussex, issued the statement after The Sun, a British tabloid newspaper, reported that her brother found the images while clearing out the home of their father, Thomas Markle Sr., in the Philippines.
“I am deeply distressed at the news that has come to light in the last 24 hours, and my thoughts are with any children who may have been harmed,’’ Meghan said in a statement.
She also addressed the letter sent to the Metropolitan Police Service’s Royal and Specialist Protection unit, which later shared its contents with her.
“It made troubling and disturbing allegations against my father and I was given assurances that these were being investigated. I hope it can now be understood that, despite certain media publications’ distortion over the years, any distance from my father and my choice to not allow him to have contact with our children was for one reason: to protect them.”
Meghan, an American citizen who starred in the U.S. television drama “Suits,” married Harry at Windsor Castle in 2018. They have two children, Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
Thomas Markle Sr., a retired television lighting and photography director, did not attend the wedding, prompting extensive coverage in the British media of Meghan’s estrangement from her father. While some reports suggested she had shunned him in favor of her new royal status, Meghan said her decision to distance herself was intended to protect her children.
“Although the breadth of what has now been uncovered is more sickening than one could ever imagine, my sincerest hope is that justice will be fully served and that the priority remains the safety and protection of innocent children,” Meghan said in her statement.
Thomas Markle Sr. was living in the Philippines earlier this year when he suffered a stroke and had his left leg amputated. That forced him to return to the U.S.
The Sun reported that Thomas Markle Jr. recently found “hundreds, if not thousands” of child sex abuse images in boxes at his father’s former home in the Philippine city of Cebu when he was clearing out the property.
Markle Jr. told the newspaper that he reported the images to police in the Philippines and contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the U.S.
“I have supported, cared for him and helped him for years — but that stops now,” Markle Jr. told The Sun. “I won’t speak to my father ever again unless I’m called to give evidence against him.”
In comments to the Daily Mail, the 82-year-old Markle denied the allegations.
“I’m shocked, I’m hurt and I’m very upset that my son is making these accusations against me,'' he was quoted by the Daily Mail as saying. "I could never do what I’m being accused of. It’s the worst thing anyone could accuse me of.”
Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, attends the inauguration of "The Lost Screen Memorial" exhibition for the unveiling of a temporary memorial to protect children from online abuse, in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 17, 2026. (Cyril Zingaro/Keystone via AP, File)
FILE- Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex, meets volunteer first responders from the Bondi Surf Bathers' Life Saving Club during a visit to Bondi Beach, Australia, on April 17, 2026. (Jonathan Brady/Pool Photo via AP, File)
Britain's Prince Harry and Meghan, Duke and Duchess of Sussex visit Epic Partners in Nottingham, England, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026. (Joe Giddens/Pool Photo via AP)
First lady Melania Trump has brokered an upcoming ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the Russian-occupied city of Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, the White House announced on Friday. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian or the Russian governments.
The White House said that the first lady had initiated the discussions and that she and a representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the localized ceasefire. People who remain in the city along Ukraine’s southeastern front are facing death from hunger or disease as another harsh winter looms.
Here’s the latest:
First lady Melania Trump has brokered an upcoming ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine in the war-ravaged city of Oleshky to allow for humanitarian aid and the evacuation of civilians, the White House announced on Friday.
The localized ceasefire is set to begin Oct. 29.
The White House said that the first lady had initiated the discussions and that she and a representative worked directly with Russian and Ukrainian leadership to define the terms of the ceasefire. There was no immediate comment from the Ukrainian or the Russian governments.
The first lady has made helping children in conflict one of her signature issues, hosting a U.N. Security Council meeting on the issue earlier this year. She also has personally written to Russian President Vladimir Putin to work to reunite children displaced by the war with their families.
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In an op-ed Friday, Warren Norman wrote that he is supporting the Republican gubernatorial nominee but not Republican Sen. Darline Graham, the sister of the late Lindsey Graham.
Norman’s father lost the special GOP Senate primary to Graham earlier this year. The developer and lifelong Republican writes “there is no true conservative to vote for in this election,” adding that backing Annie Andrews “will be the first time in my life I’ve voted for a Democrat in a partisan election.”
Norman adds there hasn’t been enough said in the race to replace the late senator about what “Graham will actually do for South Carolina, or whether she’ll stand up to the people funding her campaign when it counts.”
Some of Rep. Ralph Norman’s supporters have mounted a write-in campaign, and the congressman has said he wouldn’t campaign with Graham.
Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro is appearing in two new ads for state Senate candidates in Pennsylvania, where he’s running for reelection and pushing for his party to win control of the Legislature.
The ads are part of an overall $10 million campaign as Shapiro tries to flip control of the state Senate from Republicans for the first time in over three decades.
Speaking directly to the camera, Shapiro says he needs Democrats to help him pass a higher minimum wage and control data center development. The ads are for candidates in the Philadelphia suburbs and northeastern Pennsylvania.
Shapiro is running for reelection against Republican Stacy Garrity this year and is considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate.
In addition to legislative candidates, he’s been campaigning around the state for swing seat House candidates challenging Republican incumbents.
Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins is out with a new ad capitalizing on her opponent Troy Jackson’s debate comment telling her to “shut up.”
“Troy has something to say to Maine women. Shut up,” the ad’s narrator says.
The ad references a comment Jackson made during a debate Oct. 15, when Collins said a person disrupting the event was “obviously one of Troy’s supporters.”
Jackson responded: “Oh, shut up. I don’t even know that kid.”
He added later that he didn’t regret the statement and that he had no idea who the person interrupting the debate was.
Jackson campaign spokesperson Maggie Amjad called the new ad part of a series of personal attacks. “Maine women know which candidate is fighting for them, and it’s Troy Jackson,” Amjad said in an emailed statement.
Collins, the only Republican running this year in a state Kamala Harris carried in 2024, is seeking a 6th term. Jackson, a Democrat, is a former state Senate president and lumberjack.
The U.S. Treasury Department proposed a rule Thursday to crack down on American high-tech investments such as supercomputing and artificial intelligence in China, Russia, North Korea and other “countries of concern.”
The U.S. government has been working for years to deny China and other adversaries investments that could help them boost their military power.
That program began in 2023 when then-President Joe Biden signed an executive order putting restrictions on outbound U.S. investments in sectors such as semiconductors, quantum computing and artificial intelligence going into China. Treasury later established the Outbound Investment Security Program.
In December 2025, Congress passed a law that codified and expanded the program to target more technologies and more foreign countries, including Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Russia.
The inclusion of Russia in the proposed rule has come days after Trump waived sanctions on Russia following a diesel deal with President Vladimir Putin.
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The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for New Hampshire to fully ban the use of student IDs for voting during the midterm elections.
The justices granted a Republican-backed emergency appeal and blocked the use of student IDs as a backup method of identification. The Supreme Court cited a longstanding legal principle that judges shouldn’t change voting rules too close to Election Day.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only justice to publicly dissent.
New Hampshire passed a law this year that said student IDs would no longer be an expressly accepted form of identification for obtaining a ballot. The secretary of state then issued guidance barring them as a backup way to prove a voter’s identity.
A judge left the law in place but blocked the guidance in early October, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court. The Republican National Committee weighed in to support the state.
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A federal judge on Thursday ordered Trump to sit for a deposition in his $10 billion defamation lawsuit against the BBC by Dec. 11.
The order from U.S. Magistrate Judge Enjoliqué Lett came as lawyers for the British broadcaster complained that Trump had delayed his appearance in his own lawsuit. Charles Tobin, attorney for the BBC, said that with two months left in the discovery period, “we still haven’t been able to depose the plaintiff.”
Meanwhile, it remained uncertain whether former special counsel Jack Smith would be allowed to sit for a deposition. Federal rules require current and former employees to receive permission from agency heads before testifying in court cases. Smith has requested permission but has not received an answer, and the judge ruled that the department must respond to him by Nov. 2.
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Trump told reporters that he had “heard something about” the Department of Justice investigating allegations that Corey Lewandowski profited off his past role as an adviser at the Department of Homeland Security, after media reports of an investigation surfaced Thursday.
Lewandowski, who worked at the agency as a special government employee during Kristi Noem’s tenure as Homeland Security secretary, was a longtime ally of Trump. The details of the allegations against Lewandowski aren’t yet clear, though the president said Thursday after a report in The Wall Street Journal that he had heard of the probe.
The president notably didn’t defend Lewandowski, who was his first campaign manager in 2016.
“I don’t know exactly what it is,” Trump told reporters. “All I know is, I want my people to be honest. And if they’re not going to be honest, they have to be prosecuted.” He added, “I’ll have my DOJ go and do whatever they have to do.”
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The backlash over an Ohio campaign advertisement attacking Amy Acton, the Democratic nominee for governor, spread beyond the state’s borders Thursday, causing fresh headaches for Republicans with less than two weeks until the midterm elections.
The latest episode began when Gov. Mike DeWine criticized Vivek Ramaswamy, a fellow Republican that he endorsed as his successor, for running an ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother criticizing her. Acton’s mother lost custody of her children decades ago after her husband was indicted for raping Acton as a child.
But Trump took the opposite approach hours later, posting on social media that Ramaswamy’s ad was “hitting pay dirt” and questioning DeWine’s loyalty to the party.
Trump’s stance only hardened throughout the day. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said, “Amy Acton’s mother said horrible things about Amy Acton” and “she’s fair game.”
Trump’s aggressive defense of Ramaswamy practically guarantees that more of his party’s candidates will face questions about the issue at a moment when they already risk being dragged down by the president’s low popularity.
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People arrive before President Donald Trump at a campaign rally at the Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
President Donald Trump gestures after speaking at a campaign rally at Sioux Gateway Airport, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2026, in Sioux City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump listens a gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)
