Turkish first lady meets leaders' spouses in Uzbekistan

Turkish First Lady Emine Erdogan, who is accompanying President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his visit to the Uzbek capital Tashkent for an Economic Cooperation Organization summit, has met with the spouses of leaders in attendance.

During her visit, Erdogan attended an international forum held with the theme of “Children and Youth at Work/Climate Change in Central Asia” held as part of World Children's Day, which falls on November 20.

At the forum, officials from the UN and various countries discussed promoting environmental education and the importance of the role of children and youth in combating the climate crisis.

“I explained the environmental and climate efforts carried out in Türkiye for children and young people, who are the most important target audience and also the main actors of the Zero Waste Initiative that we started six years ago,” said Erdogan.

“On the occasion of this meaningful program where the future of children is being discussed, I once again expressed the painful situation where Palestinian children are being taken away from their lives remorselessly,” she added, referring to the Israel-Palestine conflict since October 7, in which so far more than 4,400 children in Gaza have been killed in Israeli attacks.

Israel's brutal war on Gaza

The Israeli army has expanded its air and ground attacks on Gaza, which has been under relentless air strikes since a cross-border attack by Hamas on October 7.

Despite shocking totals of over 10,000 Palestinians in Gaza killed since that day, according to Health Ministry in the enclave, the number is likely to be "higher than are being cited," a US senior diplomat said.

Israel has agreed to begin daily four-hour "military pauses" in northern Gaza to allow people in the area to flee the war, the White House said today.