The UN is to try to prevent the collapse of the ceasefire agreement in Yemenby endorsing a fresh security council resolution urgently increasing the number of monitors overseeing the deal in Hodeidah, the strategic port that lies at the heart of the three-year civil war. The resolution, drafted by the UK, would extend the UN monitoring role for a further six months and increase the number of monitors to as many as 75 people. UN personnel were likely to be transferred from Djibouti to Hodeida.

Both the Houthi rebels and the UN-backed government of Yemen’s president, Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, have accused each other of multiple breaches of the ceasefire. The terms of that ceasefire – agreed in haste at UN-brokered talks in Stockholm in December – were seen as flawed due to a lack of precision and the country’s geographical limits. The absence of an adequate number of UN monitors has also made it more difficult for the UN to ascribe responsibility for breaches, and so prevent their repetition.(theguardian)…[+]

One day in early 2017, Chris Christie was in his kitchen in New Jersey, eating dinner with his wife Mary Pat. The phone rang. It was the president.According to Christie, Donald Trump tried, not for the first time, to persuade the governor to become his labor secretary. Then talk turned to Christie’s firing as Trump’s transition chairman in November 2016.

“Chris,” Trump said, “you didn’t get fired. You got made part of a larger team.” Christie gives his side of the conversation in his new book, Let Me Finish, a copy of which was obtained by the Guardian two weeks before publication. He says he bristled at Trump’s claim, then rebuked the president.“I’m a big boy who understands how the way this business works,” he said. “But please, sir, don’t ever, ever tell me again that I wasn’t fired.”

Christie was fired, by then senior aide Steve Bannon in his office at Trump Tower. Christie depicts the scene in withering detail, saying Bannon blamed the move on Jared Kushner, “the kid”, Trump’s son-in law and adviser who is portrayed as the chief villain of the piece, driven by a decade-old family feud. But the remark Christie reports Trump making brought back to attention a frequently observed feature of the billionaire’s presidency: the man whose TV catchphrase, “You’re fired!”, did much to propel him to power does not like firing people himself.(theguardian)…[+]

According to several international media sources Rihanna is suing her father Ronald Fenty for exploiting the Fenty name.  Media site TMZ claims to have obtained court documents which claims her father, started a talent development company in 2017 called Fenty Entertainment.

However Rihanna has already trademarked “Fenty” for a number of business ventures, including her well-known Fenty Beauty line. She claims he’s profiting off the reputation she’s created with Fenty.  The England’s Daily Mail also reported Despite having no authority to act on his daughter’s behalf, Ronald is said to have booked her on a $15million tour in Latin America and two concerts, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles and the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas for $400,000.

Rihanna has asked for damages from her father, and an injunction on his business, set up in 2017.  A Page Six Report claims, the superstar said her dad claims he got approval from her label, Roc Nation, before booking, but that the singer argues that no one from Roc Nation knew about the endeavors. (Barbados Nation)…[+]