09/20/18

This is the BBC News. Hello, I'm Jonathan Izard. A man named as witness to an alleged sexual assault by the US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh

has said he does not remember the incident and does not wish to speak publicly. In a letter to the US Senate Judiciary Committee, Mark Judge says he never saw his high school friend act in the manner described.

Mr. Kavanaugh is accused by Christine Blasey Ford of pinning her to a bed and trying to undress her. Peter Bowes reports. Christine Blasey Ford who is a university professor in California

says Mr. Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed and tried to undress her when they were both teenagers. Mark Judge, Mr. Kavanaugh's friend has been named as a witness, but he says he has no memory of the alleged incident.

He adds that he never saw Brett act in the manner described by professor Ford. Donald Trump says Mr. Kavanagh doesn't deserve what is going through and he feels badly for him.

The European Union's Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier has said the EU is ready to improve his proposal to Britain on how to manage the Irish border after Brexit.

Mr. Barnier described the summit meeting in October as a moment of truth at which the group will see whether an agreement on Brexit is within reach. Gavin Lee reports.

Michel Barnier spent the evening briefing EU ministers on the latest developments in Brexit negotiations ahead of a summit in Salzburg where Theresa May will stress that her Chequers Plan is the only way to avoid a no-deal.

Mr. Barnier told reporters that EU leaders were now ready to offer an improved proposal to prevent the need for a hard border in Ireland

and come up with locations where technical checks of goods coming from the UK to Northern Ireland could take place. But that proposal would mean Britain agreeing to the EU's so-called backstop plan