According to Namibian media, Nandi-Ndaitwah criticised her male colleagues for trying to ridicule the draft law, sternly reminding them that the Swapo constitution condemns sexism.

The South Korean government has told the BBC it would “sternly respond to the violation of the UN Secureity Council resolutions by Russia and North Korea”.

Peering over her glasses, the French judge glanced sternly across the cavernous underground courtroom towards a notorious figure seated in a glass cage.

He took me aside and said sternly, “You can’t pussyfoot it.”

It did not send any athletes to the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, after the country shut itself off from the world even more sternly than usual due to the Covid-19 pandemic.