Germany and France said they and other EU countries have nominated Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus of Ethiopia for a second term as director-general of the WHO.
This marks the first time that a candidate for the top job at the UN health agency has not been nominated by their home country.
Tedros has been in the global spotlight over the organization’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic over the past 19 months — an epochal crisis that eclipsed all else throughout his term, which began in 2017.
Photo: AFP
The election for the next WHO director-general, which carries a five-year term, takes place at the agency’s next annual assembly meeting in May next year.
Tedros has run afoul of the Ethiopian government of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over his outspokenness about killings and other human rights abuses in his home region of Tigray.
Tedros was formerly a top official in the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, once a dominant member of a coalition running Ethiopia, but now designated by the national government as a terrorist group.
Tedros also served as health and foreign minister in the previous Ethiopian government.
The diplomatic missions of France and Germany to UN institutions in Geneva, Switzerland, announced their support for Tedros on their Twitter feeds after a deadline for candidacies for the director-general post expired on Thursday.
On its Web site, the WHO has said it does not plan to announce the full list of candidates until November, but some diplomatic officials have suggested that he might not have any competition.
A diplomatic official in Geneva, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 15 other EU members joined in nominating Tedros.
Macharia Kamau, principal secretary for the foreign affairs ministry in Ethiopia’s neighbor Kenya, said on Twitter that his country backs Tedros — the first African to head the WHO.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique