News headlines in June 2023, page 23

LONDON, Jun 01 (IPS) - Turkey’s election hasn’t produced the change many thought was on the cards. Now women’s groups, LGBTQI+ people and independent journalists are among those fearing the worse.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has led the country for two decades, first as prime minister and then as president, prevailed in the 28 May runoff poll, taking around 52.2 per cent of the vote, with his opponent, Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu, on 47.8 per cent.

UNITED NATIONS, Jun 01 (IPS) - The US has some of the strictest laws against smoking in public, including a 1997 executive order which bans smoking in all government federal buildings.

But still, the tobacco industry and its allies do not rest, says Dr. Jarbas Barbosa, Director of the Washington-based Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

The world must combat the “toxic tidal wave” of plastic pollution that threatens human rights, two UN independent experts said on Thursday.

As the world comes together to celebrate the beginning of Pride Month on Thursday, the UN agency dedicated to ending the AIDS epidemic, UNAIDS, issued a declaration of solidarity with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) communities around the globe.

The UN in Bangladesh on Thursday condemned a second cut in food rations for Rohingya refugees who are sheltering in the country, after a funding shortfall of $56 million compelled the World Food Programme (WFP) to enforce the cuts.

A veteran diplomat from Trinidad and Tobago was appointed President of the 78th session of the UN General Assembly on Thursday.

With Ukraine’s Children’s Day celebrations on Thursday marred by the death of a girl alongside other civilians in a Russian missile attack in the capital Kyiv, the UN’s top humanitarian official in the country, Denise Brown, said she was “shocked and saddened” by the incident.

The head of the UN refugee agency UNHCR, is calling on the international community to urgently increase support for new arrivals crossing the border from Sudan.