Future of Donald Trump’s Supreme Court nominee hangs in the balance. Viewers across the world were gripped on Thursday as Dr Christine Blasey Ford testified before the US Senate Judiciary Committee, before judge Brett Kavanaugh rebutted her allegations of sexual assault against him. The professor of psychology had initially raised allegations anonymously with her congressional representatives – before Brett Kavanaugh had been nominated to the US Supreme Court by President Trump. She told senators she was “100%” certain that it was Judge Kavanaugh who attempted to rape her at a party when she was 15 years old. In an aggressive oral statement, Kavanaugh insisted he was innocent. The FBI is now formally investigating the claims, but only has a week to update the nominee’s background file. The Senate will then vote to confirm or reject Kavanaugh’s lifelong appointment. The White House has already been accused of interfering with the investigation by narrowing its scope.

Arlene Foster insists she is “accountable but not responsible” for her special adviser’s conduct. After another bruising week for the DUP and its leader at the RHI Inquiry, the former First Minister accepted that her special adviser had been wrong to leak details of the lucrative scheme to relatives. She also could not remember a key meeting in June 2015 when Jonathan Bell’s former adviser claims he alerted her to serious issues with the RHI scheme. “I probably didn’t think it was an important issue at that particular time,” she told the inquiry. Sir Patrick Coghlin, the inquiry’s chairman, interjected: “You didn’t think it was an important issue? You had been responsible minister for the development of the RHI and Mr Cairns had come in to say that the minister – or DETI, the department – had dropped the ball.” Other testimonies included that of Stephen Brimstone, a special adviser who failed to register a conflict of interest, despite owning an RHI boiler himself. Timothy Johnston, the DUP’s chief executive, acknowledged that the party broke the law over its appointment of special advisers, and claimed that Sinn Féin engaged in similar behaviour.

Theresa May faces difficult party conference in Birmingham. Last year the Prime Minister tried to use the Conservatives’ annual conference to regain momentum after a disastrous general election campaign that saw her lose her parliamentary majority. This time she faces an even more daunting challenge: to unite the party behind her Brexit strategy. It suffered a blow at the hands of the EU in Salzburg, rejecting key elements of her Chequers Plan as “unworkable.” She also faces a public challenge from Boris Johnson, now a backbench MP. He used his Daily Telegraph column this week to set out his “plan.” The so-called ‘Super Canada’ proposal would notably abandon current proposals for a backstop arrangement to maintain an open Irish border. A government spokesperson dismissed Mr Johnson’s latest publicity exercise: “Boris was a member of the cabinet that agreed the December joint report – and praised the PM for doing so – and was part of the committee that agreed the customs backstop.” However, Theresa May has questions to answer herself: in an interview with the BBC’s Andrew Marr she effectively admitted that a ‘no deal’ Brexit would result in a breach of the UK’s commitment to no hard border on the island of Ireland.

Mixed messages from Labour’s annual conference in Liverpool. At his fourth party conference, Jeremy Corbyn looked more comfortable than ever, with little question over his authority among party members. However, strategic divisions on Brexit were on full display. Party members overwhelmingly backed a motion to keep a second referendum on the outcome of negotiations with the EU as an option, but senior figures were divided on the legitimate terms of such a referendum. John McDonnell, the shadow Chancellor, insisted that any second vote could only be between ‘no deal’ and Theresa May’s proposed Chequers Plan. Keir Starmer, shadow Brexit Secretary, told delegates that, “nobody is ruling out Remain as an option.” In his own speech Jeremy Corbyn addressed other issues, including an acknowledgement that the party’s “tough” antisemitism crisis over the summer had caused “immense hurt and anxiety in the Jewish community and great dismay in the Labour Party.” He also promised “radical solutions” to the economy, including measures to extend workplace democracy.

World leaders address UN General Assembly, outlining very different visions. Donald Trump invited contemptuous laughter when he claimed to have “accomplished more than almost any administration in the history of our country.” In the substance of his address, he repeated themes from his ‘America First’ agenda, emphasising the need to “uphold national borders” and to “choose a future of patriotism, prosperity, and pride.” He called on the General Assembly to “reject the ideology of globalism and accept the doctrine of patriotism.” French President, Emmanuel Macron, spoke of a “deep crisis” of the international order, but warned fellow leaders against unilateralism and isolationism. “At a time where our collective system is falling apart, sadly, it is most in demand,” he argued. Jacinda Ardern echoed this theme: “Me Too must become We Too. We are all in this together,” she told the UN. The Prime Minister of New Zealand became the first world leader to bring her child to the General Assembly. “We must rediscover our shared belief in the value, rather than the harm, of connectedness,” she added.

Also published on Medium.