News

Rafael Benítez, the 65-year-old Spanish football manager, arrived in Athens to head Panathinaikos F.C. The Greek club announced his appointment as head coach on Oct. 24, and on Oct. 26 Benítez will make his debut in a home Super League game against Asteras.

The contract is signed for two years. According to De Telegraaf, the Spanish specialist will receive a record salary for the Greek league of €4 million (approximately $4.6 million) per year.

Panathinaikos had the coaching vacancy open after firing Rui Vitória in mid-September. The team currently sits in seventh place with nine points from six...

A new report by the Basel Action Network finds that large amounts of electronic waste from the U.S. are ending up in Southeast Asia, where many countries lack the infrastructure to handle hazardous materials safely and have never wanted to become dump sites for wealthier nations, the Associated Press reported.

The Seattle-based group said several American recyclers have been sending used electronics overseas under trade codes that may disguise their contents, describing the trade as an «invisible tsunami of e-waste.» The report estimates that thousands of shipping containers — totaling about 36,000 tons of discarded devices — leave...

The excitement surrounding this year’s Nobel Prize winners has faded. So, shall we now consider nominating Dimash Qudaibergen for the next Nobel Peace Prize?

Though his name is rarely linked to the prize, which often goes to politicians and international organizations, Dimash’s artistry and its harmony with the Nobel’s mission make his nomination worth considering.

The spirit of Nobel’s vision

To illustrate, consider those who continue to believe U.S. President Donald Trump could one day receive the prize for his peace efforts and remark, “There’s always next year.” Yet it is crucial to distinguish between...

French tennis player Corentin Moutet — finalist of the recent ATP 250 Almaty Open — amused his fans by sharing a video on his Instagram Stories showing him walking in Vienna wearing a traditional Kazakh hat, while his teammate wore a shapan — a traditional Kazakh coat.

«Time for dinner,» he said in the video.

Social media users from Kazakhstan considered the gesture a sign of appreciation for the warm welcome in Almaty. Two weeks ago, the 25-year-old Parisian reached the final of the Almaty Open, where he yielded victory to Daniil Medvedev.

U.S. President Donald Trump has granted a full pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the founder of Binance. The administration stated this action is part of its initiatives to engage with the cryptocurrency industry, according to Reuters.

Zhao, also known as «CZ,» stepped down as Binance’s CEO in 2023 after pleading guilty to failing to maintain adequate anti-money laundering controls. He paid a $50 million fine and served nearly four months in prison, while Binance paid $4.3 billion in penalties.

Following the announcement, Zhao expressed appreciation on social media, stating his intention to support the U.S. as a leader in...

Alaska Airlines flights were grounded Thursday due to a systemwide IT outage, CNN reported, citing the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The airline, which serves about 44 million passengers annually across 120 destinations in five countries, confirmed the disruption on X shortly after flights were halted, stating that the outage was affecting operations and advising passengers to check flight statuses before heading to the airport. Alaska Airlines later said it was working to restore normal service.

At the airline’s request, the FAA issued a ground stop shortly before 7 p.m. ET, suspending all flights operated by Alaska Airlines and...

On Oct. 23, U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social the immediate termination of trade negotiations with Canada after the nation displayed an ad featuring former President Ronald Reagan speaking negatively about tariffs, the BBC reported.

In a social media post, Trump claimed that the advertisement shown was fake, citing the Ronald Reagan Foundation, and that it aimed to «interfere with the decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and other courts.»

«Based on their egregious behavior, ALL TRADE NEGOTIATIONS WITH CANADA ARE HEREBY TERMINATED,» the post read.

The minute-long advert, which...

Men experience faster brain shrinkage as they age compared with women, according to Euronews, citing research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers examined over 12,000 brain scans from almost 5,000 healthy people aged 17 to 95. They found that men’s brains declined more quickly in areas related to memory, movement and visual processing. For example, the postcentral cortex, which helps process touch and pain, shrank by about 2% per year in men but only 1.2% in women. Compared with women, men also showed greater cortical thinning and more pronounced loss in regions linked...

SportsPro, a British magazine, has released its latest ranking of the 50 most marketable athletes in the world. Formula 1 driver and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton tops the list.

Hamilton previously led the ranking in 2014, marking his second stint at the top. Among athletes, only three have achieved the feat twice: American gymnast Simone Biles (2021, 2024), and footballers Lionel Messi (2020, 2023) and Neymar (2012, 2013). Now at 40, Hamilton is also the oldest athlete to ever top the list. SportsPro has published the rankings annually since 2010.

Top 10 most marketable athletes of 2025

Bon Jovi is returning to the stage — the band’s first tour in four years has been announced for 2026. This will also be the first tour since Jon Bon Jovi’s recovery from vocal cord problems.

The tour will kick off on July 7 with a series of concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York, where four shows are planned in a row. The group will then head to Europe to perform in Edinburgh, Dublin and London.

Bon Jovi’s last full concert took place in April 2022. Later, the frontman revealed he had been struggling with serious voice...

European Union leaders have reached an in-principle decision to support Ukraine financially over the next two years using frozen Russian assets, Reuters reported.

As EU Council President Antonio Costa revealed on Thursday, the bloc will announce its decision on Ukraine before formalizing details of the deal.

Meanwhile, Belgium, the country where Euroclear Bank, the central securities depository holding Russian assets in question, is based, wants the EU to agree upon several measures before going any further with the initiative. As Prime Minister of Belgium Bart De Wever emphasized, EU states must agree to share the legal and financial...

Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane has already scored 20 goals for the Bundesliga club since the start of the season. It took him just 12 matches to reach this milestone, outperforming Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in this regard, OptaJoe reported on X.

UEFA Champions League

Matchday 3, Oct. 22

Bayern vs. Club Brugge

Goals: Lennart Karl 5’, Harry Kane 14’, Luis Díaz 34’, Nicolas Jackson 79’

On Oct. 22, Bayern thrashed Club Brugge in the UEFA Champions League Matchday Three. The second goal was scored by Kane — the 32-year-old English striker...

Alana Hadid, 40, the older sister of supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, has officially married British producer Ross Williams. The ceremony took place Oct. 18 in Los Angeles, in the garden of her father Mohamed Hadid’s home. He is a well-known real estate developer and entrepreneur.

Alana wore a vintage Vivienne Westwood gown, which she purchased from a boutique specializing in rare designer pieces. A veil with delicate floral embroidery completed her look, adding a touch of romance and sophistication. The groom presented her with an amethyst ring — a family heirloom that once belonged to his...

MyPappy, a new dating service launched in Japan, targets adults seeking secure, high-quality encounters. The platform emphasizes strict income verification and personalized customer support, according to PR Times.

The service is aimed at affluent men with verified annual incomes of at least 10 million yen (about $55,000). Users can post specific date offers — such as invitations to restaurants or other outings — to help move online interactions into real-life meetings more quickly. All female users are screened, and each male member is assigned a personal concierge to assist with profile creation and communication.

The app’s advertising spokesperson...

SpaceX has disabled over 2,500 Starlink devices used by cyber scam compounds along Myanmar’s border with Thailand, the company confirmed Wednesday, CNN reported.

Lauren Dreyer, SpaceX’s vice president of business operations for Starlink, said the company «proactively identified and disabled» terminals near suspected scam centers and worked with law enforcement as needed.

This action follows reports that criminal groups in Myanmar used Starlink to run large-scale fraud schemes. International organizations report that many sites trap workers and force them to conduct online scams worldwide.

Myanmar’s military said this week it seized dozens of Starlink receivers in a...

Kazakh singer Dimash Qudaibergen visited the new Almaty Museum of Arts, which opened in September. He received a personal tour from entrepreneur, philanthropist and museum founder Nurlan Smagulov.

During his visit, Dimash toured the main halls and viewed the museum’s permanent collection, which features works by prominent Kazakh and international artists, including Yayoi Kusama, Richard Serra and Anselm Kiefer.

The visit was part of Dimash’s cultural...

National Geographic has traditionally presented a list of the 25 best destinations to visit in the coming year. Best of the World 2026 brings together both well-known tourist sites and lesser-known but atmospheric locations.

The list includes Turkey’s Black Sea coast, which experts described as «a scenic and culturally rich alternative to the crowded Aegean and Mediterranean coasts.»

The only location from Central Asia recognized by National Geographic is the ancient Uzbek city of Khiva. The authors noted that the city is an open-air museum that shines brighter than its more famous neighbors along the Silk Road.

The list...

SOCAR, the state oil company of Azerbaijan, may join the Dunga oil and gas project in Kazakhstan, Energy Minister Yerlan Akkenzhenov told Interfax-Kazakhstan. Akkenzhenov said commercial negotiations are underway with KazMunayGas (KMG), Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company, which holds a 60% stake in the project.

The Dunga oil and gas field is located in the Tupkaragan district of the Mangystau region. Its geological reserves are estimated at 106 million tons of oil and more than 6 billion cubic meters of gas.

The project is being developed under a production sharing agreement signed on...

Iceland has reported mosquitoes within its borders for the first time. This month, three Culiseta annulata mosquitoes — two females and one male — were found on a farm in Kjós, north of Reykjavík, NPR reported, citing the Natural Science Institute of Iceland.

The institute confirmed that the insects, which are common in other Nordic countries, likely arrived via freight and appear capable of surviving Iceland’s increasingly milder climate. Previously, mosquitoes in Iceland had only been found on arriving aircraft.

Experts say the finding reflects broader environmental changes as rising temperatures driven by climate change, along with...

North Korea’s only international film festival — the Pyongyang International Film Festival (PIFF) — made a comeback on Oct. 22, 2025, after last being held in 2019, ChosunBiz reported.

This marks the 18th edition of the festival, one of the few legal channels for watching foreign films in the country’s capital since its inception in 1987. The event was revived following the 17th edition held in the fall of 2019, which had been suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the media outlet, 92 entries were submitted this year, with 11 selected as nominees. The participating countries included Indonesia...

The Trump administration is negotiating for the American company Cove Capital to gain access to one of the world’s largest undiscovered tungsten deposits in Kazakhstan, Bloomberg reported. The metal is used by the Pentagon to produce ammunition, shells and other weapons.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has helped arrange negotiations between Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC, part of the Cove Capital investment group, and Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund. They are discussing a bid to develop two major tungsten deposits in Central Asia, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Sources said Cove Kaz Capital has been...

LOT Polish Airlines, the country’s national carrier, announced direct flights between Almaty and Warsaw, with the first flight scheduled for May 31, 2026, Almaty International Airport reported.

During the summer season, four flights are planned weekly — on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays. In the winter season, flights will operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The route will be serviced with Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft.

The flight duration will be around six and half hours from Warsaw, and the return flight is expected to take an hour longer. Carry-on luggage is limited to 8 kilograms and checked baggage up...

Kazakhstani drama film «Spark,» directed by Aqtolgai Rakhmatulla, earned two awards at the Pigeon International Film Festival, which took place in the Icelandic town of Ísafjörður.

Judges awarded Best Support Acting to Aigerim Sharipbek in the Features category, and Best Directing to Aqtolgai Rakhmatulla in the same category.

The film tells the story of a boy named Akan, a talented musician whose life changes after the tragic death of his father. His mother, afraid that her husband’s fate will repeat, forbids her son from playing the dombra or even going to school. Deprived of his main calling, the hero...

OpenAI has launched ChatGPT Atlas, an AI-powered web browser seen by many as a direct challenge to Google Chrome. With this launch, OpenAI is expanding its ecosystem beyond its main chatbot and hopes to bring AI into daily browsing, Reuters reported.

Technically, Atlas is capable of summarizing webpages, comparing products and analyzing data using a ChatGPT sidebar. The premium “agent mode” enables ChatGPT to interact with websites independently, so it can search for required information on its own and present a summary of any request.

During a live demonstration on Tuesday, for example, OpenAI showed the browser automatically finding...