Phil Foden commits future to Manchester city with new four-year contract

The United Nations Security Council will begin its first round of informal voting on Thursday to measure support for candidates seeking to become the next UN secretary general. The confidential ballots mark the start of a selection process that will eventually determine who succeeds Antonio Guterres when his second five year term ends later this year. Seven candidates from different regions are currently competing for the position. They include Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, who heads the UN nuclear watchdog, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, former Costa Rican Vice President Rebeca Grynspan, former Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Maria Fernanda Espinosa, former Guyanese Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, former Senegalese President Macky Sall and Ugandan diplomat Olara Otunnu. Additional candidates are still allowed to enter the race before the selection process concludes. The next secretary general will take charge of the United Nations at a time when the organization faces mounting criticism over its effectiveness and structure. Calls for reform have increased as member states push for a more efficient institution, arguing that the UN must reduce bureaucracy, eliminate overlapping responsibilities among its agencies and improve its ability to respond to global crises. The first stage of the selection process involves informal straw polls conducted behind closed doors among the Security Council’s 15 members. During these secret ballots, council members indicate whether they encourage, discourage or have no opinion on each candidate. The votes are non binding but provide an early indication of which candidates have the strongest support and which face significant opposition. At this stage, all Security Council members use identical ballots, meaning diplomats can see the overall level of support for each candidate without knowing whether opposition comes from one of the council’s five permanent members. Those permanent members are China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, each of which holds veto power over the final recommendation. As the selection process moves forward, the permanent members will use ballots in a different color during later rounds of voting. This allows diplomats to determine whether any candidate has received a negative vote from a veto holding country, information that often plays a decisive role in narrowing the field. There is currently no clear favorite to replace Guterres. Previous UN leadership contests have required several rounds of voting over many weeks before a consensus candidate emerged. Diplomats expect this year’s process could continue throughout the summer and possibly into late September or early October if no candidate gains broad enough support. If the Security Council remains divided, the process could take even longer. Once the council agrees on a single candidate, it will formally recommend that person to the 193 member UN General Assembly. The recommendation requires at least nine votes in favor and no veto from any of the five permanent members. The General Assembly then votes to confirm the appointment, a step that has traditionally been considered a formality after the Security Council reaches agreement. The current president of the Security Council is the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its ambassador to the United Nations, Zenon Mukongo Ngay, confirmed that the first round of straw polls will take place on Thursday morning. He also said that Ugandan candidate Olara Otunnu will participate in the voting despite not taking part in the informal public hearings completed by the other candidates. According to his biography, Otunnu played an important role in shaping the current selection process. He states that he introduced the system of informal straw polls while serving as president of the Security Council in 1981. That method has since become a key part of the process used to identify the candidate most likely to secure broad international support before the final appointment is made.

The United States walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting on Monday during remarks by France’s ambassador, escalating a diplomatic dispute between the two allies over human rights and the leadership of the UN’s top human rights office. The disagreement began after a recent vote on extending the term of Volker Turk as the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The United States joined Russia and North Korea in opposing his reappointment, placing Washington on the same side as two countries it has frequently criticized over human rights issues. Following the vote, France’s mission to the United Nations strongly criticized the US position on social media, saying Washington had once been a global symbol of human rights but no longer deserved that reputation. The statement drew a sharp response from American officials and set the stage for the diplomatic confrontation that followed. The latest tension unfolded during an emergency Security Council meeting on Russia’s war in Ukraine. As France’s UN Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont began speaking, members of the US delegation left the chamber in protest. US Ambassador Dan Negrea later said the walkout was a direct response to what he described as France’s disrespectful and condescending language toward the United States. He warned that similar protests would continue unless France changed its approach and withdrew its criticism. Earlier, US Ambassador Mike Waltz defended Washington’s opposition to Turk’s second term. He argued that the human rights chief had unfairly criticized democratic countries while failing to take a strong enough stance against governments with poor human rights records. Waltz did not identify specific examples to support his criticism. During his time in office, Turk has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has also raised concerns about Israel’s military operations in Gaza. Despite US objections, his second term was approved by a large majority of UN member states, with 144 countries voting in favor, 10 voting against and 13 abstaining. The dispute reflects broader tensions between the United States and the United Nations under President Donald Trump’s administration. In recent years, Washington has reduced financial support for several UN agencies and withdrawn from a number of UN bodies as part of a wider review of its international commitments. After the vote on Turk’s reappointment, US Ambassador Jeff Bartos warned that the United States would reconsider its participation, engagement and funding for UN institutions. He accused the organization of allowing procedural abuses and political deals to influence key appointments. France, however, strongly defended Turk’s leadership. Ambassador Bonnafont described him as a principled and impartial official who had carried out his responsibilities with integrity during his first term. France argued that his reappointment reflected the confidence of the overwhelming majority of UN member states. A spokesperson for the United Nations declined to comment directly on the American walkout but said the organization expects all member countries to respect decisions made through its established voting process. The incident has added to growing friction between Washington and the UN at a time when international cooperation is already under pressure from several global conflicts.

Russian forces executed a coordinated overnight barrage of ballistic missiles targeting several Ukrainian urban centres, resulting in multiple civilian casualties and extensive structural damage shortly after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a national safety alert. A direct hit from an Iskander-M ballistic missile destroyed a family home on the outskirts of Kryvyi Rih, killing six people, including two young girls aged five and twelve, and leaving at least eight others wounded. In the capital city of Kyiv, emergency services confirmed one death alongside widespread fires across several municipal districts, whilst residential buildings in the western city of Lviv also sustained damage during the bombardment. The severe escalation prompted neighbouring Poland to scramble fighter jets and activate ground-based air defence systems to secure its own national airspace. In response to the wave of destruction, President Zelenskyy renewed his urgent appeal to international allies for additional air defence missiles to replenish depleted stockpiles and protect civilian infrastructure. Meanwhile, in Russia’s western Penza region, a Ukrainian retaliatory drone strike set fire to a large commercial warehouse, injuring one individual and forcing the emergency evacuation of approximately two hundred workers.