News

The U.S. has granted a 30-day waiver allowing countries to purchase Russian crude oil and petroleum products currently stranded at sea. Officials say the move is intended to stabilize global energy markets, which have been shaken by the conflict with Iran, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Treasury Department said the temporary license applies to Russian oil loaded onto tankers as of March 12. The authorization will remain valid until midnight Washington time on April 11.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the measure is temporary and targeted, aimed at addressing rising oil prices following recent U.S. and Israeli strikes on...

There is currently no direct risk of missile strikes on Kazakhstan amid the escalating tensions in the Middle East. However, Central Asia could face another serious challenge — the potential spread of radicalization and terrorism.

This warning was delivered by Ali Akbar Jowkar, ambassador of Iran to Kazakhstan, during a recent briefing in Astana.

Read also: Caspian Sea security: Iran’s ambassador vows safe trade routes.

According to the diplomat, as long as Iran’s legitimate government maintains control of the situation in the country, Kazakhstan faces no direct military threat. At the...

U.S.-based Cove Capital and Kazakhstan’s Tau-Ken Samruk are set to develop tungsten deposits in Kazakhstan. Investors from the U.S. plan to establish two processing plants and a metallurgical plant worth $1.1 billion.

Kazakhstan’s Minister of Industry and Construction Yersayin Nagaspayev held talks with Cove Kaz Capital Group LLC CEO Dominic Heaton. Tau-Ken Samruk CEO Nariman Absametov also took part in the meeting.

The discussion focused on the implementation of joint investment projects in the mining sector. Following the meeting, the minister confirmed Kazakhstan’s interest in expanding cooperation with American partners.

In November...

Anatoliy Visselskiy, PE teacher from Petropavlovsk, Kazakhstan, made it into the Guinness World Records after breaking the record previously held by an Italian athlete.

He managed to achieve the longest duration in the dead hang position using only two fingers — two minutes and seven seconds — surpassing the previous record held by Marcello Ferri of two minutes and one second.

Visselskiy was born in the small village of Makashevka, in...

The conflict in the Middle East does not threaten shipping in the Caspian Sea, according to Ali Akbar Jowkar, ambassador of Iran to Kazakhstan.

He also emphasized that all five Caspian littoral states have reached a unanimous agreement on security in the sea.

«Everyone believes that non-Caspian states should not be present in the sea’s waters,» Jowkar said during a briefing in Astana. «This is what distinguishes the region from the Persian Gulf, where the U.S. maintains a military presence.»

Earlier, Yerlan Nyssanbayev, Kazakhstan’s ecology minister, dismissed as «nonsense...

On Feb. 4, a cargo ship carrying automobiles from Southampton, England, to New York, U.S., picked up an unexpected passenger: a 2-year-old male red fox, the Associated Press reported.

The day after the ship’s arrival at the Port of New York and New Jersey on Feb. 18, the fox was taken to the Bronx Zoo, where it has been receiving care at the veterinary facility. According to the zoo, the animal appears healthy.

It remains unclear how the fox got onto the ship or when it was discovered. Its permanent home will be determined after several...

Freedom Telecom International (FTI), a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp. (FRHC), has signed a Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Nokia. As a first step, Freedom Telecom International and Freedom Lifestyle Group will inaugurate an Innovation Lab at Nokia’s Sunnyvale, California campus in the coming months.

What is the lab’s focus?

The newly established Innovation Lab will serve as a venue to test and evaluate AI architectures, cloud technologies and advanced networking solutions. The initial focus will be on designing next-generation AI data center blueprints, conducting feasibility studies in Kazakhstan and neighboring markets, and leveraging Nokia’s global ecosystem to scale cloud...

A court in Kazakhstan has delivered a verdict in a case involving illegal cryptocurrency mining in the city of Temirtau. A resident had been mining without a license since August 2021. He purchased 156 graphics cards and installed them at his own facility.

«The value of assets mined totaled 11.2 BTC and 90.2 LTC, equivalent to 185 million tenge ($375,282),» the Financial Monitoring Agency’s press service said in a statement.

The man converted the digital assets into tenge using the mining pools Binance Pool and Litecoinpool.org.

The...

On March 31 last year, two police officers, Erin Perrotta and Yoon Heo, chased 39-year-old Dyshan Best, a Black man, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. During the chase, Heo shot Best, saying Best had pointed a gun at him. However, the most controversial development is that the first ambulance to arrive at the scene was used to transport Perrotta rather than Best, the Associated Press reported.

A state investigation found that after Best was shot, he had to wait about 10 additional minutes for a second ambulance. The first ambulance at the scene was used to take Perrotta. The report said...

Dimash Qudaibergen has released a new song, “Samal” (“A Fresh Breeze”), recently performed by singer and musical theater actor Nurzhas Sadyrbai, a participant in Dimash’s «Voice Beyond Horizon» show.

The music was composed and produced by Dimash, with lyrics by Oral Baisengir.

Performance video

In the premiere video, Nurzhas performs the song onstage while Dimash accompanies him on the grand piano.

English translation of the lyrics

Below is a poetic English interpretation of the song’s lyrics, translated from Kazakh.

A love enough to hold us both,
As golden dawn begins to break.
I’ll trust you...

Laylat al-Qadr — also known as the Night of Power — will fall on the night of March 16-17, according to the 2026 Ramadan calendar.

Read also: Where Ramadan fasts last the longest in Kazakhstan.

In Islamic tradition, the night is described in the Quran as being «better than a thousand months,» and it is widely regarded as a time for spiritual renewal, prayer and seeking forgiveness.

The Spiritual Administration of Kazakhstan’s Muslims (SAKM) has shared guidance on how believers can observe the night and highlighted a...

Editors at Wikipedia are stepping up efforts to prevent generative artificial intelligence from undermining the accuracy of the world’s largest online knowledge repository.

According to reporting by 404 Media, volunteer editors recently adopted new rules and restricted several contributors who were paid to translate existing Wikipedia articles into other languages using AI tools. The changes came after editors discovered that some of those translations introduced factual mistakes, often described as AI «hallucinations.»

AI translations raise concerns

The translators were associated with the Open Knowledge Association (OKA), a nonprofit that supports contributions to Wikipedia and other...

As tensions rise amid a U.S.- and Israeli-led war with Iran, understanding the perspectives and everyday realities of Iranians can feel increasingly difficult from the outside. Several recent documentaries and feature films (as compiled by NPR) by Iranian journalists and filmmakers — both inside the country and in the diaspora — offer a closer look at Iran’s culture, society and political history.

Revisiting a pivotal moment in Iran’s history

The 2019 documentary “Coup 53”, directed by Taghi Amirani and co-written with Walter Murch, examines the covert operation known as Operation Ajax. The film...

Onychomycosis, commonly known as nail fungus, is a widespread infection that affects the nail plate and the nail bed. The condition develops gradually and often requires months of treatment before the nail fully recovers.

What causes nail fungus?

Nail fungus develops when microscopic fungi infect the nail. These organisms thrive in warm, moist environments.

People most often contract the infection in public places such as swimming pools, saunas and gyms. Wearing tight shoes with poor ventilation can also create conditions that allow fungi to grow.

Read also: Why using AI for...

During the second Nuclear Energy Summit in Paris, Emmanuel Macron called on Kazakhstan to increase uranium exports to the European Union.

The French president said additional supplies would help Europe meet its goal of expanding nuclear fuel production as part of its long-term energy strategy.

Read also: Kazakhstan holds enough uranium for 60 years of nuclear power.

Kazakhstan is the world’s largest uranium producer. In 2025, the country produced about 26,000 tons of uranium, roughly 40% of global supply.

Kazakh-French joint venture to boost production

Production is expected to increase...

Mark Zuckerberg-owned Meta has acquired Moltbook — an unusual social media platform where AI agents communicate instead of people, according to Axios.

The project was launched in late January. Its concept differs from traditional social media platforms. Moltbook resembles Reddit, but posts and comments are created by AI agents, while humans can only observe the conversations.

Bots discuss different topics, ranging from platform operations to memes and philosophical questions. At the same time, each AI agent belongs to a specific user or company, which creates and adjusts it.

Meta acquired the platform as part of its...

Around 20 tons of saiga antelope horns — for which poachers killed the animals — have accumulated in the warehouses of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources. Minister Yerlan Nyssanbayev told journalists that the horns are planned for export in 2026.

«During population regulation, the horns are cut off and registered in the information system at carcass collection points and local akimats. They are then transported under security to Almaty, where special refrigeration facilities have been built. These facilities maintain specific temperature and air-humidity conditions. Each horn is numbered, labeled and...

Australia’s High Court has ruled in favor of fashion designer Katie Perry in a prolonged trademark dispute with American pop star Katy Perry, the BBC reported.

In a decision delivered on Wednesday, the court determined that the designer’s clothing label did not damage the singer’s reputation or create confusion among consumers. The ruling allows the designer to keep the trademark registered.

Perry launched her fashion brand under the name «Katie Perry» in 2007. In 2014, when Katy Perry was on tour in Australia and merchandise bearing her name appeared across the country, the designer took legal action against the...

Yerlan Akkenzhenov, Kazakhstan’s energy minister, said he expects global oil prices to remain around $80 per barrel but noted that a significant increase could bring major additional revenue to the country.

Speaking about possible market scenarios, Akkenzhenov said that if oil prices reach $100 per barrel, Kazakhstan could receive about $20 billion in extra revenue for its national budget and the National Fund of Kazakhstan. If prices reach $120 per barrel, the additional revenue could rise to approximately $37 billion.

Read also: In major policy pivot, Kazakh oil fund shifts...

Organizers of a financial pyramid scheme allegedly posed as representatives of a company called Sirius Energy, which they claimed was involved in solar power generation projects in Chile. The suspects persuaded residents of Kazakhstan to invest in what they described as high-return renewable energy ventures.

Read also: How Kazakhstanis lost fortune in an African diamond mining scam.

According to the Financial Monitoring Agency (FMA) of Kazakhstan, the scheme required investors to transfer funds exclusively in the cryptocurrency Tether (USDT). After the transfers were made, supposed bonuses and profits were displayed in...

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Education has received 100,000 ChatGPT Edu licenses for teachers, which will be distributed among preschools (5,000 licenses), schools (85,000) and colleges (10,000). Through 2026, another 100,000 teachers are expected to be granted licenses.

ChatGPT to be available to 200,000 teachers

Kazakhstan is preparing to launch a pilot of ChatGPT Edu. The project is expected to involve 200,000 teachers in 2026, who will be able to use AI to reduce their workload.

ChatGPT integration into the education system is expected to enhance the quality of training, make teachers’ workflow more efficient and develop...

Islamic mortgage products could be introduced in Kazakhstan as early as this year, according to Lyazzat Ibragimova, CEO of Otbasy Bank, the sole bank implementing housing construction savings system.

Read also: Islamic finance booms in Kazakhstan, but a key piece is missing: mortgages.

Ibragimova announced the plan during a briefing following a recent government meeting, saying the bank expects strong demand for Islamic-compliant home financing in the country.

Cooperation with Pakistan’s Meezan Bank

As part of its preparations, representatives of Otbasy Bank recently traveled to Pakistan, where they signed a memorandum of cooperation...

An unusual blog has unexpectedly gained popularity on Russian-speaking Instagram. The account @spoon_vs_the_wall posts short daily videos of a man trying to drill a hole in a concrete wall with a spoon.

The videos are extremely simple: a gloved hand, a spoon and a round indentation in the wall that the blogger methodically deepens. Each video includes a counter such as «Day 21,» «Day 26» or «9,000 blows.»

The account has already amassed more than 250,000 followers. In the comment section, users discuss how thick the wall might be and when the «light at the end of the tunnel» will...

Italy has purchased a rare painting attributed to the Baroque master Caravaggio for $35 million, marking one of the country’s largest state expenditures on a single artwork, the Associated Press reported.

The portrait, titled «Portrait of Monsignor Maffeo Barberini,» was painted around 1598 and depicts Pope Urban VIII as a young cleric. The Italian Culture Ministry said the work was acquired from a private collection after more than a year of negotiations and will be added to Palazzo Barberini‘s permanent collection.

According to Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli, the painting has major historical importance and the purchase reflects...