The Justin Baldoni vs. Blake Lively legal battle just got even weirder … Baldoni testified he told Lively he was circumcised, even though she didn’t ask about his phallic status. In a deposition transcript, obtained by TMZ, Justin describes a…
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LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-Chief Resident Magistrate Austin Banda has granted bail to former Secretary to the Cabinet, Colleen Zamba.
One of the conditions of her bail is that she pledges her house property in Area 43 as bond and provides sureties.
Zamba appeared in court to face charges of abusing her office between 2022 and 2023.
According to the charge sheet, she allegedly misused her position by recruiting 300 individuals without following proper procedures.
In addition to pledging her property, Zamba has been ordered to report to the National Headquarters in Area 30 once every fortnight, starting from December 15.
She is also required to surrender her travel documents to ensure she does not leave the country without court authorization.
Zamba was arrested on Wednesday at Kamuzu International Airport while preparing to travel to Switzerland to attend her daughter’s graduation.
The case remains ongoing as investigations continue, and Zamba is expected to comply fully with all bail conditions while awaiting further proceedings in court.
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Heading to the HSBC SVNS Cape Town this weekend? You may want to take note of the road closures in the city to plan your trip accordingly.
The HSBC SVNS, also known as the Cape Town 7s, is back from 6–7 December! Don’t miss the world champion Blitzboks in action on their home turf, as two days of fast-paced rugby sevens light up DHL Stadium.
Between matches, soak up the gees with live entertainment, delicious food, and drinks all weekend long.
If you are travelling, here are the road closures:
The HSBC SVNS in Cape Town delivers fast-paced, action-packed rugby sevens matches over two days. Top men’s and women’s teams from around the world compete in pool matches in hopes of making it into the finals on Sunday.
View matches and times here.
There are still some tickets left. Get yours here.
The post All The HSBC SVNS Cape Town Road Closures appeared first on Cape Town Tourism.
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The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Demi Engemann is addressing the fallout from Jessi Ngatikaura’s Fruity Pebbles revelation.
Jessi, 33, dropped a bomb on her former friend just before Thanksgiving when she made public a sex act that Demi, 31, engaged in with her husband, Bret Engemann, which was teased during season 1 of the hit Hulu reality show.
“Since she wants to be petty and be an a**hole, I think I am just going to go ahead and say that grandpa Bret likes to drink her piss like it is dirty soda,” Jessi said in an Instagram Story video on November 25. “He gulps it down like water. And that is what ‘Fruity Pebbles’ means.”
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight published on Thursday, December 4, Demi confessed that Jessi outing her and Bret made things a little awkward around the dinner table at Thanksgiving.
Biggest Claims About Demi’s Alleged Affair From the ‘Mormon Wives’ Reunion
“It’s an awkward topic, not gonna lie,” Demi told the outlet. “I had to go to Thanksgiving the next day. It was not ideal.”
Despite her initial shock at Jessi going public with the couple’s sex act, Demi said she and Bret decided to lean into the controversy.
“Fruity Pebbles has been a topic that we’ve all teased and talked about for so long and as much as it was a private moment, and we never planned on sharing this ourselves, we have nothing else left to do other than just own it and have fun with it,” Demi said.
She continued, “I think I just thought that it’s out there and it’s going to be talked about … I was able to handle the comments and everything with just more levity, which was nice.”
Demi and Jessi fell out during season 2 of Mormon Wives, with their relationship only deteriorating further in season 3, which saw Jessi reveal her affair with Vanderpump Villa’s Marciano Brunette. Marciano also claimed he kissed Demi, which she has denied.
“There are things that people have seen on camera, there’s things that people haven’t seen, and I’m kind of at peace with it,” Demi said of her feud with Jessi. “Whereas, I do feel like Jessi does take a lot of time out of her life to make it a point to dislike me.”
The influencer said she hasn’t closed the door completely on her friendship with Jessi.
“On my end, 100 percent,” Demi responded when asked if there’s a chance of the two reconciling. “If Whitney [Leavitt] and Mikayla [Matthews] can become friends again, there’s hope for Demi and Jessi.”
‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Cast’s Dating History Before the Show
“And at the end of the day, like, I never wish anyone ill will and I don’t want to ever see anyone fail or suffer. I want to see her do well and I hope she is doing well,” she added.
At the time of Jessi’s Fruity Pebbles revelation, Demi issued a statement via Instagram, writing, “What my husband and I did one time behind closed doors was a consensual and private experience in our marriage.”
“I won’t let a private act between my husband and I be a distraction from a serious act that I did not consent to,” she added, referring to her allegations that Marciano touched her without consent.
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A Pentagon watchdog report and video of a deadly boat strike in the Caribbean deepen scrutiny of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s actions.
Federal agents arrested a Virginia man accused of planting the Jan. 6 pipe bombs after a years-long investigation that uncovered new forensic leads.
And the Supreme Court cleared Texas to use a Republican-drawn congressional map that could shift multiple House seats and reshape the 2026 midterms.
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Civil Society, Global, Global Governance, Headlines, International Justice, IPS UN: Inside the Glasshouse, TerraViva United Nations
The UN General Assembly in session. Credit: UN Photo/Manuel Elias
– From its inception, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has been engaged in improving its working methods, mindful of, as early as in 1949, “… the increasing length of General Assembly sessions, and of the growing tendency towards protracted debates”.
Since the leadership of legendary Ambassador Samir Shihabi of Saudi Arabia as President of the General Assembly (PGA) during the 46th session in 1991 and thereafter, the Assembly’s agenda has included a dedicated item on the revitalization of the work of the Assembly and its Main Committees.
Since the 60th session in 2005, under the guidance of its articulate and forward-looking President, Ambassador Jan Eliasson of Sweden, the Assembly has established the Ad Hoc Working Group on the revitalization of the work of the General Assembly. Its mandate was to “to identify ways to further enhance the role, authority, effectiveness and efficiency of the General Assembly”.
Till now, more than 200 outcomes have been recorded in 30 different areas. The incumbent President of the landmark 80th session, Annalena Baerbock of Germany has now taken the initiative to move forward substantively on this perennial exercise of the world’s most universal multilateral body.
Election of a Woman as the Next Secretary-General
I would strongly suggest that her forward-looking leadership would restore the operational credibility of the United Nations by including in its revitalization exercise the role of the Secretary-General, facilitating the election of a woman as the next Secretary-General, transparency of the UN’s budgetary processes, addressing the current and future liquidity crises, and meaningful inclusivity of civil society in the Assembly’s work.
The role, functions and leadership of the Secretary-General need special attention of the Assembly as the appointing authority. The 75th PGA in 2020 Volkan Bozkir has rightly identified that “the Secretary-General is the engine and the transmission system”.
It is unfortunate that questions have been raised about the reticence of the Secretary-General in getting his hands dirty and in getting more proactively involved in and in mobilizing his senior management team towards ending the ongoing global conflicts and wars and promoting peace and reconciliation.
In a recent op-ed, a former UNICEF Deputy Executive Director and a longtime UN watcher Kul Chandra Gautam even exhorted the SG “not to hide behind the glasshouse at Turtle Bay and go beyond invisible subtle diplomacy to more visible shuttle diplomacy.”
After choosing nine men successively to be the world’s topmost diplomat, I strongly believe that the United Nations should have the sanity and sagacity of electing a woman as its next Secretary-General.
In its resolution A/79/372 adopted as recently as on 5 September this year, the Assembly in its paragraph 42(c) says that “ Noting with regret that no woman has ever held the position of Secretary-General, encourages Member States to strongly consider nominating women as candidates” and it also asserted in its paragraph 42(k) that “The Secretary General shall be appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, in accordance with Article 97 of the Charter”.
The same resolution (79/327) committed the UNGA “ … to the continued implementation of … its resolution 76/262 of 26 April 2022 on the veto initiative, to enhance the work of the General Assembly, taking into account its role on matters related to the maintenance of international peace and security …”. In the current exercise, this area, of course, needs further attention and elaboration.
Transparency and accountability are essential in the budget processes of the UN.
Two other areas which need more scrutiny are extra budgetary resources received from Member States and consultancy practices including budgetary allocations for that by the Organization. Special attention in these areas is needed to restore the UN’s credibility and thereby effectiveness and efficiency for the benefit of the humanity as a whole.
Future financial and Liquidity crises
Tough decisions needed to avoid future financial and liquidity crises needed genuine engagement by all sides, yes, ALL sides, in particular the major “assessed” contributors.
Peacekeeping operations also face increasing liquidity pressure as the outstanding contributions for that area are reported to be $3.16 billion. These accumulations have been building up for some years. Why was no extra effort made by all sides well ahead of time to avoid the recurrent panic about the Organization’s liquidity crises?
Today’s financial and liquidity crisis is not caused by recent withholding of payments by a few major contributors for political reasons. Outstanding contributions for UN’s regular budget reached $2.27 billion last month.
At the UN, though the “process is an intergovernmental one and thereby Member States-driven”, absence of civil society involvement would seriously undermine the role and contribution of “We the Peoples …”. PGA Bozkir asserted that “civil society is the pillar of democracy, and we must, after some time, find a way that civil society is (re)presented here”.
Enhancing the UN’s credibility
Also, I am of the opinion that a formalized and mandated involvement of and genuine consultation with the civil society would enhance the UN’s credibility. The UN leadership and Member States should work diligently on that without fail for a decision by the on-going 80th session of the General Assembly.
Under the bold, upbeat and clear-sighted leadership of the incumbent PGA Annalena Baerbock whose proactive and forward-looking role has already drawn wide appreciative attention, the international community needs to wish her best of luck in this very important endeavor to revitalize the apex body of most universal multilateral entity – the UN General Assembly – in a positive way.
For that, now is the time to discuss and to decide on the urgent, focused and meaningful areas of action. The UN’s long-drawn revitalization efforts in reality should not end again in the repetitive regularity of an omnibus of redundancy.
Ambassador Anwarul K. Chowdhury is former Under-Secretary-General and High Representative of the United Nations; Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN; Initiator of the UNSCR 1325 as the President of the UN Security Council in March 2000; Chairman of the UN General Assembly’s Main Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Matters and Founder of the Global Movement for The Cultural of Peace (GMCoP
IPS UN Bureau
