A UN Women's Valentine’s Day illustration on social media has been removed after it was criticised for featuring a range of couples and a single black woman standing alone.
The cartoon, which drew backlash and has since been deleted, showed three couples of various backgrounds holding hands and hugging, as well as a lone black woman hugging herself.
Social media users were quick to point out the problematic nature of the drawing:
On Monday, UN Women, the United Nations entity working for the empowerment of women, responded.
“We posted an illustration on Valentine’s Day, depicting love in all its diversity,” they tweeted. “We listened to what you said in the comments [and] decided to take it down. UN Women works for gender equality [and] empowerment of all women [and] girls regardless of age, race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.”
Instead, they uploaded a new gif with multicoloured hearts and the phrase “love is love".
However, not everyone was happy with the response, claiming a better apology was needed.
At the time of writing, UN Women has yet to issue any further statements about the illustration.
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- 2013: "Financial and logistical support from Germany for Hezbollah in Lebanon supports the armed struggle against Israel ... Hezbollah supporters in Germany hold back from actions that would gain publicity." Supporters in Germany: 950
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Source: Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
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