News

U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that the U.S. will lower tariffs on Indian goods to 18%. This decision comes after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi agreed to stop buying Russian oil and work on improving trade relations with the U.S., according to Euronews.

Trump also said that India agreed to buy $500 billion in American goods and will reduce import taxes on U.S. products to zero. He shared the news about the tariff cut on Truth Social, calling the agreement a potential step toward ending the war in Ukraine.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, India...

Xinhua, a prominent Chinese news agency, reported that on Feb. 5, the Olympic Council of Asia and Kazakhstan will sign an agreement to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games in Almaty.

In 2022, Saudi Arabia was designated to host the Games; however, the ambitious project to run a winter sports event in the desert was abandoned in January. The reason lies in a significant construction delay of the planned modern city of Neom, which was meant to host the Games. In particular, the Trojena ski resort will definitely not be commissioned by 2029.

Almaty has already...

Kazakhstan’s Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market and the National Bank have approved new rules allowing banks with universal licenses, as well as Islamic banks, to operate with digital financial assets.

Three categories of digital assets

Under the regulations, banks may conduct transactions involving three types of digital financial assets:

Limits for Islamic banks

Islamic banks and...

Amid growing global anticipation surrounding the return of the globally recognized K-pop group BTS with a world tour and upcoming album “Arirang,” Netflix announced it will livestream the group’s first concert in three years and nine months.

BTS X NETFLIX

BTS THE COMEBACK LIVE | ARIRANG @ March 21 8pm KST / 4am PST ? BTS will perform at historic Gwanghwamun Square in Seoul. LIVE worldwide exclusively on Netflix.

BTS: THE RETURN, DOCUMENTARY FILM @ March 27 ? BTS: THE RETURN, a documentary film showcasing the… pic.twitter.com/x36DC1KSZ9

— Netflix (@netflix) February 3, 2026

In January, shares of Kazatomprom traded on Kazakhstan’s KASE and AIX exchanges rose 49.5%. The uranium giant led all Kazakhstani firms in both share price growth and trading volume, economist Arman Batayev said on his Telegram channel.

Policy shifts boost nuclear outlook

Batayev attributed the rally to foreign policy and economic factors, including simplified U.S. licensing rules for nuclear fuel production and increased investment in the nuclear sector as Western countries seek alternatives to Russian fuel. The European Union has also announced plans to stop purchasing uranium from Russia starting...

Kazakhstan is set to restrict access to surrogacy services to its own citizens. Deputy Prime Minister Kanat Bozumbayev said an initiative to bar foreigners from using Kazakhstani surrogacy programs will soon be submitted to parliament for consideration.

«There is a pressing need to amend legislation to establish a provision under which surrogacy services in Kazakhstan would be available exclusively to citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan,» Bozumbayev said.

Legal amendments under review

According to Bozumbayev, the proposed changes to the Code on Marriage and Family were drafted by the Ministry...

Travelers who enjoy spotting rare and striking bird species may want to add Kazakhstan to their list of destinations. The country’s diverse landscapes, from urban green spaces to mountain gorges, make it an unexpected draw for birdwatchers.

Beauty hidden in plain sight

Online, it is easy to find the work of local photographers who document birds often overlooked in city environments. Their images reveal a side of urban wildlife that rarely captures public attention.

The bird shown in the first image, captured by photographer Galym Baitimbetov, is one of the most endearing species found in the...

Kazakhstan’s second nuclear power plant (NPP), to be built by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), will also be located in the Zhambyl district of the Almaty region, according to a government decree dated Jan. 26.

Russia awarded first nuclear project

Kazakhstan’s first NPP will be built by Russia’s state-owned nuclear company, Rosatom, which won the consortium tender on June 2025. That project is designed to have a total capacity of 2.4 gigawatts, consisting of two VVER-1200 reactors rated at 1.2 gigawatts each.

China leads additional projects

Following that decision, the...

Kazakhstan’s flagship air carrier Air Astana launched sales for its direct seasonal flights to Larnaca, Cyprus, scheduled for summer 2026, operating from June to September from Astana and Almaty, the airline’s press service reported.

From Astana, flights will operate from June 2 to Sept. 5 on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Departures are planned for mornings and daytime, with returns from Larnaca in the afternoon. The flight to Larnaca takes around 5 hours 40 minutes, and the return flight takes 5 hours 5 minutes.

Flights from Almaty are scheduled from June 4 to Sept...

India has introduced a visa-free regime for citizens of Kazakhstan, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan. The new policy, which has already come into effect, allows Kazakhstani citizens to enter India without a visa for up to 30 days.

The visa-free regime applies to tourist visas, medical visas and visas for medical attendants. The decision aims to strengthen bilateral relations and promote tourism between the two countries.

Indian citizens were already able to stay in Kazakhstan without a visa for up to 14 days. With this change, Kazakhstani citizens now enjoy more favorable travel conditions when visiting...

We never get tired of pointing out that Kazakhstan is also a true paradise for birdwatching enthusiasts.

Online, you can find the work of a local photographer Galym Baitimbetov, who captures striking images of birds often overlooked in urban settings.

One such example is the red-mantled rosefinch — known in Kazakh as «juniper beauty.»

It is a rare and remarkably elegant bird for Almaty.

The males, with their vivid pink plumage, look almost surreal, yet they are the hardest to photograph due to their cautious nature.

The females are far less wary: they tend to approach...

Kazakhstan’s top-ranked tennis player, Alexander Bublik, retained his position in the top 10 in the updated ATP ranking after his run at the Australian Open 2026 stopped at the fourth round. Currently, Bublik is training for the Davis Cup match with the national team.

Australia’s Alex de Minaur, who ended the Kazakhstani player’s AO 2026 run, was then defeated by the eventual champion Carlos Alcaraz and retained the sixth position in the rankings.

The tournament’s finalist, Novak Djokovic, who was beaten by the world No. 1, climbed from fourth place to third. The result is not...

A group of amateur researchers found a possible planet similar to Earth in both size and orbit while reviewing old space telescope data. This discovery, called HD 137010 b, was featured in a recent study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, according to Euronews.

The possible planet was found through Planet Hunters, a citizen science project where volunteers look for missed signals in data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. In 2017, Kepler recorded a small, brief drop in the star’s brightness, hinting that a planet had passed in front of it. Even though only one event was seen...

Sports journalist Ariel Helwani commented on the trauma of Kazakhstani UFC fighter Shavkat Rakhmonov. He believes that Nomad still has a chance to win the championship belt, despite another forced pause and a lengthy recovery period.

Helwani also noted that the next contender for the title in the welterweight division should be Irish fighter Ian Garry.

«Shavkat news is a gut punch. Feel awful for him. Remember, though, Dom Cruz went through a similar chain of events and eventually came back and won back the belt. It’s not over (hopefully). But the...

January’s increase in value-added tax (VAT) led to a marked intensification of inflationary pressures in Kazakhstan’s manufacturing sector. Input costs rose sharply, prompting firms to raise selling prices at the fastest pace since the survey began in March 2019.

What the index shows

The Freedom Holding Corp. Kazakhstan Manufacturing PMI (Purchasing Managers’ Index) slipped just below the 50.0 no-change threshold in January, indicating a marginal deterioration in business conditions across the sector. The index registered 49.8, down from 51.0 in December, and indicated worsening operating conditions for the seventh time in the past eight months.

Inflationary impact

The VAT increase...

The large-scale return of Russian veterans from the war in Ukraine to civilian life has become one of the most serious anxieties inside Russia, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe. The concern is not abstract. It is already showing measurable and disturbing consequences.

A surge in violence after the front

As soldiers come home, crime rates are rising. Veterans celebrated by the state as heroes of the so-called «special military operation» have been implicated in murders, sexual assaults, robberies, fraud schemes, deadly traffic incidents, and drug trafficking. Journalists Daria Talanova, Sonya Richter, and Ksenia Storozheva examined every...

A wave of Arctic air from the polar vortex has turned Niagara Falls into a dramatic winter scene. Thick ice has formed along the cliffs, creating frozen waterfalls that continue to attract tourists, according to USA Today.

Despite its appearance, the falls never fully stop flowing. Ice forms along the river and surrounding rocks, making it look as though the water has frozen solid. Niagara Falls last froze completely in 1848 on both the American and Canadian sides, and again in 1936 on the American side. Today, modern river management systems prevent a full freeze.

The extreme cold...

A court in Astana sentenced a man who posed as a magic healer on TikTok, persuading people that he possessed psychic abilities and «healed» them for a fee. When no recovery occurred, the plaintiffs reported him to law enforcement, and the case proceeded to trial, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office press service.

The defendant sought potential customers through social media posts. After discovering that a woman was experiencing health issues, he convinced her that he could help through «magic» for a fee. He used the same method...

Attempts to decode Trumpism through standard political frameworks often miss the mark. They presume calculation where instinct dominates. As writer Aron Solomon argues, the damage Donald Trump has inflicted on the rule of law and on global relationships cannot be sufficiently explained by ideology, or even by corruption alone. A clearer lens, Solomon suggests, is narcissism elevated into a governing principle.

Narcissism as a governing logic

From this perspective, Trump’s behavior is not erratic but internally consistent. Solomon has proposed an unsettling metaphor to capture this logic: Patrick Bateman, the fictional antihero of «American Psycho.» Bateman...

In the latest WTA rankings released today, Australian Open 2026 champion Elena Rybakina climbed from fifth to third place, back in the top three after two and a half years.

Rybakina first reached this milestone in June 2023, with the same rankings, trailing only Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka and Poland’s Iga Świątek. In her recent run at the Australian Open 2026, the 26-year-old Moscow-born player, representing Kazakhstan since 2018, defeated both of them.

Another Moscow-born Kazakhstani representative, Yulia Putintseva, who had almost reached the quarterfinals in Melbourne, climbed...

Uzbekistan has introduced new restrictions on older vehicles, banning the operation and re-registration of cars more than 50 years old, according to local outlet Daryo.

The measure is part of a government resolution on additional measures to digitalize road safety, which took effect Feb. 1, 2026.

What has changed for car owners

The new rules apply not only to passenger vehicles but also to special-purpose and commercial transport. All vehicles older than 50 years will be subject to mandatory deregistration.

The resolution also introduces separate license plate series for several categories of vehicles, including:

Kazakhstan is accelerating the development of satellite internet and preparing for the entry of new operators, officials said at a meeting on telecommunications infrastructure and the implementation of the national «Affordable Internet» project held last week in Astana.

The meeting was chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev.

Satellite internet is seen as a key tool for expanding connectivity in hard-to-reach and rural areas. New operators are expected to enter the market in 2026, alongside the rollout of Direct-to-Cell technology, which allows mobile devices...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has added a new Oscar category for the first time in more than two decades, introducing an award recognizing casting directors.

The announcement came last week alongside the release of nominations for the 98th Academy Awards, scheduled to take place in March. The new category, Best Casting, marks the first expansion of the Oscars since the introduction of Best Animated Feature in 2001, when «Shrek» became the category’s first winner in 2002.

Why the academy expanded the awards

In 2024, the Academy confirmed that a separate competitive...

Kazakhstan’s top-ranked player Elena Rybakina defeated world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus in a dramatic final at the Australian Open with 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.

Rybakina started the final without hesitation and secured a break in the opening game. Sabalenka got on the scoreboard only when she was trailing 0-2. In powerful, fast-paced rallies, the Kazakhstani player started off as the most accurate. The Belarusian struggled for a long time to find an answer to her opponent’s near-flawless shots from the baseline. No matter how hard Sabalenka tried to earn a break back, Rybakina did not...