News

The Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE) plans to launch the country’s first exchange-traded funds linked to KASE indices, marking a milestone for Kazakhstan’s capital markets.

The move will allow retail investors to gain exposure to the domestic market using a structure similar to widely followed global benchmarks such as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq.

Two funds planned

According to KASE, the funds were developed by BCC Invest and have already been registered. The exchange said trading start dates and ticker symbols will be announced later.

The first ETF will track the main...

On Jan. 27, South Korean tech firm Samsung Electronics, a Worldwide Olympic Partner since the Olympic Winter Games Nagano 1998, unveiled an exclusive edition of its Galaxy Z Flip7 smartphone for the athletes of the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, according to the company’s release.

Around 3,800 participants in the Olympics and Paralympics from 90 countries will receive the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip7 Olympic Edition. The company aims to enhance their experiences in every moment of the event — from their stay in the Olympic...

LEGO and Crocs have teamed up to release an unconventional footwear collaboration: clogs designed to resemble oversized LEGO building blocks.

The new model debuted at Paris Fashion Week, where it was unveiled alongside rapper and performance artist Tommy Cash.

Design details

The shoes feature Crocs’ signature raised «bubble» texture with LEGO branding, a logo patch, a heel strap and a sole molded to resemble the underside of a LEGO brick.

Kazakhstan’s Energy Minister Yerlan Akkezhenov said production at the Tengiz oil field is being restored in stages, with full output expected to resume within a week.

Fields restarting after fire

Speaking on the sidelines of Parliament, Akkezhenov said production at the Korolevskoye field has already been fully restored. He added that operations at Tengiz are gradually restarting following a fire and an electrical equipment failure.

Damage to critical equipment

Akkezhenov said a total of 30 transformers, most with a capacity of 110 kV, operate at the Tengiz field. Three of them were destroyed in...

The Atyrau Regional Court in Kazakhstan has denied a request to commute the sentence of 38-year-old Arman Zhetpissov, who was convicted of the brutal murder of NCOC manager Bibigul Shpanova.

According to the court’s press service, the appeals filed by Zhetpissov and his attorney were rejected, and his life sentence remains in force.

Last year, the Specialized Interdistrict Criminal Court of the Atyrau Region found Zhetpissov guilty of multiple crimes, including fraud, rape and the murder of a pregnant woman. He was also convicted of theft and the illegal seizure of a...

Kazakhstan’s top-ranked tennis player Elena Rybakina (World No. 5) reached the Australian Open 2026 semifinals after defeating the world’s second-ranked player, Poland’s Iga Świątek, 7-5, 6-1. Three years ago, Rybakina had already reached the semifinals and finals of the Australian major.

This was the third meeting between the players in a relatively short period. In November 2025, Rybakina defeated Świątek 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 at the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In December 2025, at the World Tennis Continental Cup in Shenzhen, China, the Pole avenged the loss, winning 6-3, 6-3.

Today’s match escalated quickly. After...

Kazakhstan’s Aerospace Committee of the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development has revealed a tourism program for Baikonur, which includes establishing a visitor center to obtain permit passes, a space camp for children and weekend tours, Kazinform reported.

Baikonur will get its first official visitor center, located in the village of Toretam at the city’s entrance. Tourists, school students and international delegations will obtain passes to the space site and receive information on routes and excursions.

There are also plans to establish a space camp for kids in Baikonur. School students will be able to...

The deadline to nominate candidates for the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is Jan. 31 at midnight CET.

All living individuals and active organizations or institutions are eligible for the prize. However, only certain categories of people are authorized to submit nominations.

Who can nominate

Eligible nominators include members of national legislatures and national governments of sovereign states, current heads of state, university professors, and past recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. Nominations are preferably submitted through an online form.

Neither the names of nominators nor nominees may be disclosed for 50 years, in accordance with Nobel...

France plans to roll out Visio, its own video conferencing platform, across all government departments by 2027, replacing Microsoft Teams and Zoom. The move is part of a broader effort to reduce reliance on foreign software, especially from the U.S., Euronews reported.

The French government said the decision aims to strengthen control over critical digital infrastructure and improve the security and confidentiality of official communications. According to Minister for the Civil Service and State Reform David Amiel, the goal is to end the use of non-European solutions and rely on a sovereign technology platform. The government also said that...

Kazakhstani startup GoFish has reinvented fishing. Its concept allows users to fish without leaving home — a smartphone and an internet connection are enough.

The idea is that a user launches the app, connects to a camera, and controls an actual fishing rod located on the shore of a real body of water. The bobber, water and fish bites are streamed to the user’s screen.

The project currently covers one location — a lake near Almaty — where an intelligent rod equipped with cameras and remote control has been installed. In the future, the team plans...

On March 20, 2026, Kazakhstan’s international excursion train, Jibek Joly (Silk Way), is set to embark on a new tour, this time covering Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and, for the first time, Tajikistan.

The tour will run from March 20 to 25 and pass through key cities of the Great Silk Road — Turkestan, Samarkand, Dushanbe and Tashkent — starting and ending in Almaty. The package includes a train ticket, guided excursions, site entry tickets and transfers. The tour costs around $618 for adults and $500 for children under 15.

The project is timed to coincide with the Nauryz holiday, the traditional...

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said WhatsApp is not secure, making the claim in a post on the social media platform X.

According to Durov, the Meta-owned messaging service contains numerous vulnerabilities that could be exploited by attackers. He said his team identified several potential weaknesses while analyzing WhatsApp’s encryption system.

In his post, Durov used harsh language to describe people («braindead») who believe WhatsApp remains secure in 2026.

Lawsuit against Meta adds context

Durov’s comments followed a lawsuit filed against Meta by an international group of plaintiffs, who accuse the company of misleading...

Energia Semirechya, a company with predominantly Chinese ownership that operates the Shelek-1 wind farm in the Almaty region, southern Kazakhstan, reported a net loss of 3.28 billion tenge ($7 million) in 2024.

Losses widen despite growing revenue

The wind farm was launched in 2022, but the company has failed to turn a profit in the three years since operations began. Losses widened sharply year-on-year, rising 3.6 times from 899 million tenge in 2023 to 3.28 billion tenge in 2024. In its first year of operation, the company recorded a total loss of 6.8 billion tenge.

At the...

A café with an intriguing concept has been established in Astana. Instead of a typical childrens’ play area, the venue features a large sandbox with RC construction equipment, including excavators, bulldozers and dump trucks, as well as a separate race circuit with RC cars.

Users on social media describe the concept as a good mixture of café and entertainment. Technically, the facility is meant for kids, but commenters joke that the activity brings more joy to their fathers. Grown-ups grab the remote controls with no less enthusiasm and build small «projects» or dig pits.

The resumption of operations at the CPC Black Sea terminal and the expected restart of oil production at Tengiz have pushed oil prices lower. Positive news about the recovery of Kazakh oil supplies was strong enough to overshadow concerns over the winter storm that hit a large swath of the U.S., Bloomberg reported.

What’s happening to prices

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped after a 2.9% jump on Friday — its largest gain in two weeks — settling below $61 per barrel.

The decline was driven by the reopening of a key Black Sea export terminal that handles...

One of the most disturbing crimes in Kazakhstan’s modern history — as unsettling as the plot of «True Detective» — came to light earlier this year. The unexplained disappearance of four members of the same family in Zhangeldin village of the Atyrau region for several months raised alarm and drew nationwide attention.

Bodies found, others still missing

In early January, the bodies of an elderly couple, Maksot Karabalin and Nassip Uteshkaliyeva, were discovered buried about three feet underground in an outbuilding on their property. Their adult children, daughter Meiramgul and son Nauryz, who lived with their parents...

According to Bloomberg, shareholders of the Karachaganak oil and gas project have lost an international arbitration dispute with the Kazakh government, meaning they may be obliged to pay $2 to $4 billion in compensation to the country.

The court sided with the Kazakh government, which argued that the Karachaganak project partners had been reimbursed part of the expenses that were not subject to compensation under the production sharing agreement (PSA).

Even though the final settlement amount has yet to be determined, independent lawyers estimate it could reach up to $4 billion. The decision may still be appealed.

In December...

On Jan. 26, U.S. President Donald Trump announced an increase in import tariffs from 15% to 25% on South Korean products, including cars, lumber and pharmaceuticals, in a post on Truth Social.

In the post, the president said the move was due to delays by the country’s legislative authorities in enacting the agreement reached on July 30, 2025, under which South Korea agreed to invest $350 billion in the U.S. in return for cutting tariffs on its exports.

According to Yonhap, the presidential office called for a joint...

You don’t need to leave Kazakhstan to see real North American bison. The rare animals live in Buiratau National Park, about a three-hour drive from Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital.

The bison were brought to the park from Canada in 2020. Just 10 animals were introduced at first, but they quickly adapted to the local climate and began to reproduce. Today, the herd has grown to 24 bison roaming freely across more than 1,000 acres of protected land.

American rock climber Alex Honnold climbed to the very top of the 101-story skyscraper — Taipei 101 in Taiwan — without a harness.

It took Honnold 91 minutes to ascend from the ground to the peak of the building. According to the BBC, the only other person to climb the tower before Honnold was Frenchman Alain Robert, who did so in 2004 using safety gear.

The ascent was broadcast live on Netflix. On his way up, Honnold greeted people inside, who in turn took photos of him. The tower houses offices of international companies as well...

Stephen King is an active presence on the social media platform Threads, where he frequently shares sharp criticism of U.S. President Donald Trump. In multiple posts, the bestselling author has taken aim at Trump’s leadership and rhetoric.

When Trump began his second term, King wrote,

«Trump voters: You elected a blithering idiot. What happens now is on you.»

King vs. Trump

More recently, King delivered another pointed rebuke.

«Trump has lost his mind,» he wrote. He went on to describe Trump’s speeches as «insane, misspelled ravings about the...

A greenhouse in the village of Yntymak in the Turkestan region is growing Cavendish bananas. Moreover, work is underway to adapt papaya, lemon, orange, mandarin and coffee, according to the regional governor’s office.

In 2019, local entrepreneur Shams Tursynbayev brought Cavendish banana plantlets from Turkey and adapted them to the specific conditions of the Saryagash district. The greenhouse, which produces exotic fruits for Kazakhstan, covers an area of 1,000 square meters.

At the initial stage, the bananas struggled to adapt to the new conditions; however, the entrepreneur managed to acclimate them. As of now, the plants...

Gold prices rose above $5,000 an ounce for the first time, continuing a historic rally that has pushed the metal up more than 60% in 2025, according to the BBC.

This surge is occurring amid growing geopolitical and financial uncertainty, driven by tensions over Greenland and concerns about U.S. trade policy, fueled by President Donald Trump’s threats to impose a 100% tariff on Canada if it makes a trade deal with China.

In such an environment, for thousands of investors worldwide, buying gold and other precious metals is one of the most popular ways to weather the global...

Australian authorities have issued heatwave warnings across most of the country as millions celebrate Australia Day, which marks the arrival of Britain’s First Fleet on Jan. 26, 1788, an event that began the era of colonization, the BBC reported.

According to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, temperatures in Victoria and South Australia could surpass 40 degrees Celsius. Authorities have urged people to stay cool indoors when possible and to keep heat out of homes by closing windows and curtains. South Australia recorded a high of 48.5 degrees Celsius on Sunday, prompting fire danger warnings.

Some Australia Day events, including a...