News

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...

There are few female ministers in Kazakhstan’s government. The public is accustomed to seeing them deliver official speeches from the rostrum. But what about their clothing choices and public image? Do they work with stylists?

Kursiv.media, together with professional stylist Nurly Okas, analyzed the archetypes and personal style of female ministers in Kazakhstan.

An unspoken rule: Don’t stand out

In Kazakhstani politics, women operate under an unwritten rule: don’t stand out too much. This norm dates back to the post-Soviet era and is reinforced by strict protocol. After one or two instances in which a public...

Two years remain until the release of the four films about the legendary music group The Beatles, directed by Sam Mendes, but the project has already sparked widespread excitement. The reason lies in its all-star cast and an unusual first announcement.

The photos from the upcoming biopics about the group’s members have begun circulating online. The films are scheduled for release in the spring of 2028.

Fans got their...

Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney said he expects U.S. President Donald Trump to «respect Canadian sovereignty» after the Financial Times reported that U.S. State Department officials met with leaders of a group seeking Alberta’s separation from Canada on several occasions, CNN reported.

The group, called the Alberta Prosperity Project, has been advocating for a referendum on Alberta’s independence and has reportedly discussed requesting a $500 billion credit line from the U.S. to «support the transition to a free and independent Alberta.»

Although the White House said that «administration officials meet with a number of civil society groups and...

Following its macro review, Kursiv Research presents its first overview of Armenia’s financial sector. While banks continue to expand on the back of a housing-driven credit boom, other market participants — pension funds, insurance companies and credit institutions — largely adhere to conservative business models. Investment companies stand out against this backdrop, using digital platforms to give local investors direct access to global capital markets.

Total assets of Armenia’s financial sector reached 14.5 trillion drams (about $37 billion, or roughly 140% of GDP) in September 2025. Banks continue to dominate the system: according to Kursiv Research estimates, they...

South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics has announced the global launch of its new commercial display, which the company calls the first device of its kind to feature a frame partially made from bio-resin derived from phytoplankton, according to a press release.

The Samsung Color E-Paper EM13DX is a 13-inch digital signage display featuring advanced digital ink technology and ultra‑low power consumption, using no power when the image is static. The device is thin — 17.9 millimeters — and lightweight, weighing 0.9 kilograms. The screen resolution is 1,600 × 1,200 pixels.

The company highlighted that sustainability...

At Tesla’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, Elon Musk said the company would stop producing the Model S and Model X. The move will allow Tesla to use its Fremont factory to manufacture up to 1 million Optimus robots per year, CNBC reported.

«It’s time to basically bring the Model S and X programs to an end with an honorable discharge. If you’re interested in buying a Model S and X, now would be the time to order it,» Musk said.

The Model S and Model X are Tesla’s oldest vehicles after...

Elena Rybakina (world No. 5) defeated Jessica Pegula (No. 6) to advance to the Australian Open final for the second time in her career.

In the post-match interview, the Kazakhstani tennis player thanked her fans and noted that the match was tense.

«It [being in another Australian Open final] means a lot. Thank you so much for coming and watching us play — it was such a battle. It was an epic second set, and I’m really glad I managed to win it. Jessica played so well in...

Kursiv Research continues its series of macro market reviews for Central Asia and the Caucasus. This installment focuses on Armenia, one of the region’s fastest-growing economies. The key conclusion of this country review: after a period of rapid growth in 2022-2024, Armenia’s economy achieved a soft landing in 2025.

According to the World Bank, Armenia’s economy grew by 5.2% in 2025. That pace is well below the average of 8.9% recorded in 2022-2024. Among Commonwealth of Independent States countries, only Kyrgyzstan — like Armenia, a member of the five-nation Eurasian Economic Union (EEU...