On the occasion of 78th United Nations Day, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday reaffirmed India’s commitment to the UN and its charter. He stressed that a “more purposeful” UN will deliver on the aspirations and expectations of the Global South.

Taking to X, Mr Jaishankar stated, “On 78th UN Day, reaffirm India’s commitment to UN and its charter. Emphasize the significance of reformed multilateralism which fosters fairness, inclusivity and multipolarity. A more purposeful United Nations will deliver on the Global South’s expectations and aspirations.”

On 78th UN Day, reaffirm India’s commitment to UN and its charter.

Emphasize the significance of reformed multilateralism which fosters fairness, inclusivity and multipolarity.

A more purposeful United Nations will deliver on the Global South’s expectations and aspirations.…

— Dr. S. Jaishankar (@DrSJaishankar) October 24, 2023

On October 24, United Nations Day marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. With the ratification of this founding document by the majority of its signatories, including the five permanent members of the Security Council, the United Nations officially came into being, according to the statement released by UN.

UN Day offers the opportunity to amplify our common agenda and reaffirm the purposes and principles of the UN Charter that have guided us for the past 78 years.

To commemorate United Nations Day, a concert featuring the Environmental Symphony: The Movement and world-renowned cellist Michael Fitzpatrick will be held in the General Assembly Hall on October 24.

This year’s UN Day Concert, on the theme of The Frontlines of Climate Action, is sponsored by Tonga’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations with support from PVBLIC Foundation’s Family Offices for Sustainable Development (FOSD).

According to the statement released by the UN, the theme of the UN Day Concert reinforces Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for “faster, bolder climate action.” In addition, the UN Day concert intends to galvanize world leaders ahead of the COP28 climate conference and next year’s International Conference on Small Island Developing States in Antigua and Barbuda.

In a statement shared on United Nations Day on X, Guterres stated, “The @UN Charter – which entered into force 78 years ago today – is rooted in a spirit of determination to heal divisions, repair relations & build peace. We are a divided world. We can and must be united nations.”

Britney Spears, the dewy-eyed child star who became a global pop phenomenon and then melted down in full view of the world, tells her story Tuesday with the release of her already bestselling memoir.

“The Woman In Me” is the pop princess in her own, unvarnished words, shot through with the anguish of a family she believes has failed her at every step of the way, in an industry that mercilessly devours its talent.

From sharing daiquiris with her mother as a young teenager — two years after she became a regular on “The Mickey Mouse Club” — to the 13 years she spent as an adult in a conservatorship, the memoir details how she struggled to escape the influence of her controlling father.

Until two years ago, when she got out from under the conservatorship legal relationship that she says dictated everything from her birth control choices to the set list at lucrative Las Vegas gigs.

In the intervening months, Spears has married a former dancer, announced then lost a pregnancy, and is now on the road to her third divorce.

The book, whose pre-orders catapulted it to the top of the Amazon best-seller list, was produced too early to include that coda with husband Sam Asghari.

But readers will still have plenty to chew on.

‘Harlot’

Tidbits that have leaked ahead of publication include news of an abortion Spears says fellow Mickey Mouse Club alum Justin Timberlake urged her to have after she became pregnant while the couple was together.

When the pair split, and his hit “Cry Me A River” appeared to be about the way he felt she had betrayed him, Spears was painted as the “harlot who’d broken the heart of America’s golden boy,” she writes.

In reality, he was “happily running around Hollywood” while she was “comatose in Louisiana.”

Readers have also learned of a brief but intense affair with Irish actor and Oscar nominee Colin Farrell, what she calls “a two-week brawl.”

“Brawl is the only word for it — we were all over each other, grappling so passionately it was like we were in a street fight.”

The noughties brought fame and notoriety to Spears in equal measure, with a passionate fan base eager for every last scrap of news about her.

That collided with an aggressive paparazzi culture that delighted in capturing her partying alongside hell-raisers like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan.

Spears insists there were never hard drugs and that she did not have a drinking problem, but admits that she was taking Adderall, the ADHD medication.

A publicly played out bust-up with second husband Kevin Federline, and an ensuing custody fight over their two children, presaged the emotional low watermark: shaving her head and attacking a photographer’s car.

“Flailing those weeks without my children, I lost it, over and over again,” she writes. “I didn’t even really know how to take care of myself.

“I’d begin to think in some ways like a child.”

A year later, courts appointed her father Jamie Spears to control her money and her personal life.

Over the next 13 years, she was told who she could see, how much she could spend, and even ordered not to have more children.

Yet under Jamie Spears, she would still perform as a pop icon. 

“Too sick to choose my own boyfriend and yet somehow healthy enough to appear on sitcoms and morning shows, and to perform for thousands of people in a different part of the world every week.”

“From that point on, I began to think that (my father) saw me as put on the earth for no other reason than to help their cash flow.”

Jamie Spears has always insisted that he had the best interests of his daughter at heart and was seeking to protect her from exploitation.

The conservatorship was dissolved in 2021, but — aside from collaborations with Elton John and will.i.am — it has not heralded a return to creativity for Spears.

“Pushing forward in my music career is not my focus at the moment,” the now-41-year-old Britney writes.

“It’s time for me not to be someone who other people want; it’s time to actually find myself.”

Cyclonic storm ‘Hamoon’ has intensified into a severe cyclone, but no major impact is expected in Odisha, as it crosses the state’s coast from a distance of about 200 km, the Met Department said.

“It is likely to intensify further into a very severe cyclonic storm in a few hours as the system moves in the Bay of Bengal at a speed of 21 kmph,” the IMD had said earlier in a bulletin.

Thereafter, it is likely to weaken gradually while moving northeastwards and cross Bangladesh coast between Khepupara and Chittagong around Tuesday evening as a cyclonic storm with wind speed of 65-75 kmph gusting to 85 kmph, the weather office said.

‘Hamoon’ lay centered at 5:30 am at about 230 km east-southeast of Paradip (Odisha), 240 km south-southeast of Digha (West Bengal), 280 km south-southwest of Khepupara (Bangladesh) and 410 km southwest of Chittagong (Bangladesh), it said.

“The cyclone, which passes in the sea, will remain about 200 km from Odisha coast and therefore, no major impact is expected in the state other than light to moderate rainfall in the coastal areas,” a Met Department official said.