On Wednesday, Minister of Internal Affairs Muhammet Khydyrov reported at a meeting of the State Security Council of Turkmenistan on operational measures to combat illicit trafficking in tobacco products, smoking mixtures for hookah and electronic cigarettes.

Uzbekistan will increase the amount of penalties for damage caused to the animal world as a result of illegal hunting of animals listed in the Red Book of Uzbekistan by 10 times. Fines for damage to plants will increase by 5 times to the extent of stopping their growth or destruction.

The ninth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions began its work on June 6 at UNESCO headquarters in Paris. Turkmenistan is represented at the forum by Maksat Charyev, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Turkmenistan to UNESCO.

President Serdar Berdimuhamedov announced a severe reprimand to the chairman of the State Customs Service Maksat Hudaykulyyev for improper performance of official duties, shortcomings in the work.

Experts from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in partnership with the country office of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Turkmenistan have completed a six-month pilot family counseling program. More than 200 young couples from Ashgabat, Mary and Turkmenabad were trained at trainings organized within the framework of the project.

The winners of the French Language Olympiad will be honored in Ashgabat on June 8. The award ceremony will take place at the Institute of International Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan.

Representative of the Society for the Protection of Nature of Turkmenistan, Mikhail Minenkov, became a participant in the interregional training program "CAYLA - Academy of Youth Leadership of Central Asia". The training was held in the Kazakh city of Almaty from May 28 to June 4 and brought together experts in the field of ecology and environmental protection from Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

The center for teaching the Russian language and open education in Russian in Turkmenistan, operated by the Naberezhnye Chelny State Pedagogical University (NSPU), will open this autumn in the Turkmen capital. Since 2009, this university has been a forge of teaching staff for the Turkmen educational system - more than 1,000 university graduates have confirmed their diplomas, successfully working in educational institutions of Turkmenistan.

At the International University of Oil and Gas named after Yagshigeldy Kakayev, on the eve of the Science Day, a conference entitled "The role of Turkmen science in the international oil and gas industry" was held.

The European Commission and the World Health Organization have announced the launch of the largest initiative in the field of digital health, according to the WHO website.