Lana Nusseibeh’s UN secretary-general campaign will draw on public and private funding. The disclosure raises questions about financial transparency, potential conflicts of interest and the independence of the UN’s next leader.

Seven candidates remain in the race to lead the United Nations. Friday’s Security Council straw poll could expose potential vetoes, test the front-runners and fuel pressure for a late entrant.

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, Guyana’s candidate for U.N. secretary-general, used her interactive dialogue to pitch practical reform, Charter discipline, and small-state realism at a moment of war, financial pressure, and doubts over the U.N.’s ability to act.

Maria Fernanda Espinosa entered the U.N. race with a practical argument: the organization does not lack purpose, it lacks delivery. In her first public test, she made the case for prevention, discipline and a more results-driven United Nations.

The first public dialogues in the race for the next U.N. Secretary-General did not settle the contest, but they did bring the field into sharper focus. Michelle Bachelet, Rafael Grossi, Rebeca Grynspan, and Macky Sall now look less like overlapping résumés and more like four distinct answers to the same institutional crisis.

Rebeca Grynspan enters the U.N. secretary-general race with economic gravitas, multilateral fluency and reform credibility, but also with a central question hanging over her candidacy: whether deep knowledge of development, debt and institutional diplomacy can translate into enough political force to lead the entire United Nations.

Macky Sall enters the U.N. secretary-general race with presidential stature and African political weight, but also under a cloud of controversy over legitimacy, sponsorship and accountability questions tied to his record in Senegal.

Public scrutiny continues Wednesday in the race for the next U.N. Secretary-General as Rebeca Grynspan and Macky Sall face the second day of General Assembly interactive dialogues, with ATN News previewing the stakes, contrasts and questions surrounding both candidacies.

Rafael Grossi enters the U.N. secretary-general race with crisis-era credibility, institutional discipline and one of the strongest operational profiles in the field, but also with a central question: whether technical mastery and management under pressure are broad enough for the U.N.’s top political office.

Michelle Bachelet enters the U.N. secretary-general race with presidential stature, global name recognition and human rights credibility, but also with a harder question hanging over her candidacy: whether moral authority can survive the veto politics that still decide the job.