News

The Muslim Board of Uzbekistan, the country’s central Islamic authority, has warned against using ChatGPT to seek answers to religious questions, according to the Gazeta.uz news outlet.

Controversial counselor

«ChatGPT can benefit people in some areas,» the board said in a statement. «But it is not capable of providing proper answers to religious questions, as it is a product created by human beings.»

The board raised concerns that the chatbot may occasionally offer presumptive or inaccurate answers, sometimes citing religious texts or Arabic phrases that cannot be found in the referenced sources.

«The quotes...

According to Kazakhstan’s Minister of National Economy Serik Zhumangarin, the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) has become a tool that foreign companies use to evade taxes, turning it into something like an offshore zone within the country. The official made this claim during a discussion of the new Tax Code in the Senate, the upper house of the country’s parliament, as the government proposes banning the simultaneous use of two preferential regimes: the AIFC and the Entrepreneurial Code. If a company wants to receive benefits under an investment agreement, it should not be a resident of the AIFC, the ministry...

Kashagan, the largest oil field in Kazakhstan’s part of the Caspian Sea, is set to produce 18 million tons of oil in 2025, according to KazMunayGas (KMG, a subsidiary of Samruk-Kazyna), a slight increase over the previous production forecast of 17.8 million tons.

«The Kashagan output reached approximately 7.7 million tons of oil in the first five months of the year. The plan for 2025 is set at 18 million tons,» the company said in a statement.

In addition, KMG has also updated its forecast for another oil field, Karachaganak, increasing expected production from...

Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom is set to build two large power units and two smaller ones in Uzbekistan, according to an announcement made during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), held from June 18 to June 21 in Russia. The agreement outlines the basic terms for the construction of a large-capacity nuclear power plant (NPP), as reported by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Novak stated that both sides had already discussed the project’s economic parameters. Rosatom is expected to construct two 1,000-megawatt power units and two smaller units of...

Air Astana, Kazakhstan’s flag carrier, has canceled several flights to Dubai and Doha scheduled for June 23, citing escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The following routes have been suspended:

Passengers affected by the cancellations can either rebook their tickets for a later date without penalties or receive a full refund. However, non-resident passengers will not be provided with temporary accommodation.

Kazakhstan’s citizens currently in the United Arab Emirates are advised to monitor updates through their accounts on the airline’s website. Information on return flights will be posted there.

Air...

A plant for recycling plastic waste and producing PET (polyethylene terephthalate) preforms is set to be built in Almaty. The announcement came from Darkhan Satybaldy, the city’s mayor, following a recent meeting with Murat Kökoğlu, CEO of Turkish firm Köksan Holding.

The facility will be constructed on a 15-hectare site in the Alatau district and will involve an investment of nearly $84 million. Once operational, the plant is expected to employ 138 people and produce up to 80,000 tons of PET preforms, semi-finished products used in manufacturing plastic bottles and containers, as well as 24,000 tons of recycled plastic...

Freedom Insurance has conducted a study on how drivers’ zodiac signs affect their driving style, increasing the risk of accidents. Geminis turned out to be anti-leaders in terms of accident rate.

How zodiac signs affect driving style

To determine the most aggressive zodiac signs, experts analyzed the three-year statistics for insured vehicles. Despite astrology’s popularity, underwriters noted that a driver’s zodiac sign doesn’t directly affect their road behavior. However, the findings are quite interesting.  

Over a million drivers insured their vehicles with Freedom Insurance from January 2021 to December 2023. The highest number of drivers were Geminis (164,100 people...

Dimash Qudaibergen, a prominent Kazakh singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, gave an interview to Renmin Ribao, one of China’s most influential newspapers. In the short video interview, he shared his thoughts on the friendship between Central Asia and China, as well as the power of music.

«I was born in Kazakhstan into a musical family and grew up surrounded by songs. However, I could never have imagined that one day my voice would pass through snowy mountains and vast steppes to reach China,» Dimash said, as reported on his official website.

Dimash has learned Chinese songs...

For the fifth time this year, an unidentified drone has crashed in western Kazakhstan. On June 19, residents of the Mangystau region discovered a remotely controlled aircraft.

The gray drone-like object was found in the Karakiya district, near the Bolashak railway station. Local police released minimal information, confirming only that no injuries were reported. An investigation into the incident is underway.

Previous drone crashes have all been recorded in the West Kazakhstan region:

The installation of the most powerful supercomputer in Central Asia is set to begin shortly at Kazakhtelecom’s data center in Almaty. The machine is expected to be ready for operation in 10 days. Based on NVIDIA H200 graphics processing units (GPUs), its technical specifications include 6.7 million CUDA cores, a performance of 1,600 petaFLOPS and tens of terabytes of video memory. Notably, according to the TOP500 global rankings, the current highest-performance machine — El Capitan in the U.S. — delivers a measured performance (Rmax) of 1,742 petaFLOPS.

Kazakhtelecom CEO Bagdat Mussin visited the warehouse storing parts of Kazakhstan’s first...

The Astana Department of Economic Investigations (DEI) has closed the criminal case against Temirlan Bekov, a former employee of Freedom Finance JSC, who was accused of fraud. The pretrial investigation was initiated at the request of one of the broker’s clients. Investigators ultimately found no elements of a crime in Bekov’s actions, a conclusion later confirmed by Astana prosecutors. This case had become a key element in the information campaign launched against Freedom Finance JSC. The company has stated that it is preparing legal materials to defend its business reputation.

The investigation against Bekov began in October 2024, following a...

KazMunayGas (KMG), the national oil company of Kazakhstan, has become the largest company in Kazakhstan by market capitalization, surpassing fintech giant Kaspi.kz, which has moved to second place, according to the Qazaq Association of Minority Shareholders (QAMS), which first noted this shift.

Since the beginning of the year, KMG’s market capitalization has surged by 15%, reaching $19.7 billion, according to the Kazakhstan Stock Exchange (KASE). Over the same period, shares of the previous leader, Kaspi.kz, have declined by 16.7%, with its current market capitalization standing at approximately $16.7 billion, about $3 billion behind KMG.

Furthermore, the country’s top four...

In the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, a growing sense of comfort with solitude is reshaping how people travel and socialize. While consumers are stepping out of their homes and moving beyond so-called «hermit spending» patterns, they’re increasingly doing so alone.

As The Economist notes, global online searches for «solo travel» have surged in recent years. Airbnb reports that searches for solo trips jumped 80% this spring compared with the same period last year. In the U.K., official data shows that travelers are more frequently opting for private transport, such as cars and taxis, over public transportation, which offers less privacy.

The Hongqi Golden Sunflower Guoli Lanting Yayun has become the most expensive Chinese nominally used car ever sold abroad. According to CarNewsChina.com, the deal totaled $1.5 million.

The premium sedan went to its new owner, Russian businessman Stanislav Semenov, founder of Quantitative Trading Equal Fund, who currently lives in the United Arab Emirates. Semenov reportedly made a pre-order for the luxury car at the Shanghai Auto Show earlier this year.

Luxurious interior and ancient traditions

The main highlight of the Golden Sunflower is its interior, decorated with unique landscape patterns in traditional Chinese style. Surfaces are manually coated with...

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Energy announced that plans to build a gas processing plant (GPP) at the Karachaganak field have been shelved after talks with foreign investors collapsed over financial terms. The government declined conditions proposed by the consortium, led by Eni and Shell, which included a demand for an additional $1 billion on top of construction costs, according to Kazinform.

«Extensive negotiations have been held for two years on the Karachaganak GPP project, which was designed with a capacity of 4 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Kazakhstan provided comprehensive support for the...

Wizz Air, a Hungarian low-cost airline, has suspended flights between Astana and Abu Dhabi since June 19, due to the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran. However, flights from Almaty and back are still being operated.

Passengers planning to return from Abu Dhabi to Astana are offered a flight via Almaty. They can also claim refunds by contacting the Wizz Air call center or through the website wizzair.com, if this option is not suitable.

The last flight from Astana departed on June 19 at 3:45 p.m. The nearest available tickets on this route are for July 17. However...

Almaty locals spotted unusual filming activities. Movie makers from India, carrying South Korean flags, gathered near the Kazakh-British Technical University.

It seems Bollywood is embracing new locations — the streets of Almaty. The filming location was massive, with crowd extras and Indian actors. One can only guess what the final product will be — a new blockbuster, action movie, melodrama or simply a music video.

A blunt guess would be that part of the plot takes place in South Korea, as the actors were holding the country’s flags.

Among the odd scene participants, one Indian actor covered in fake blood...

A video capturing men helping a bear get rid of a milk can stuck on its head has gone viral in the Kazakh segment of the internet.

The incident happened in Ridder, a city where people apparently don’t fear bears the way one might expect. The star of the viral video — a bear cub, judging by its size — couldn’t get out of the trap on its own.

Several men managed to free the animal, although the bear resisted, likely out of fear. The video of the rescue operation is available here.

The mission was successful, though the...

Driverless taxis are quickly becoming a fixture in some major cities, but not without unexpected consequences. Tigran Khudaverdyan, a former top executive at Russian tech giant Yandex, claims the U.S. is already facing a surprising side effect: passengers are increasingly using autonomous taxis for sex, according to the RBC.ru news agency.

«Fake taxi»

Speaking at a session during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Khudaverdyan cited San Francisco as a prime example of how autonomous vehicles are being repurposed in ways no one anticipated. Previously, taxi drivers could stop passengers from doing all sorts of things. Now that the...

Vakisasai Ramany, senior vice president of Électricité de France (EDF) met with top managers of Kazakhstan’s Agency for Atomic Energy (AAE) to discuss the possibility of French participation in the nuclear power plant (NPP) project in Kazakhstan.

«The two sides discussed the possibility for EDF to participate in the nuclear power plant construction project in Kazakhstan as part of an international consortium,» the AAE said in a statement.

The primary focus of the discussions was on the issues of scientific and technical cooperation, as well as possibilities for collaboration in the area of low...

Magnum Cash & Carry, a well-known retail chain headquartered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, has shut down four of its supermarkets in Tashkent, Uzbekistan’s capital. While the company still operates three stores in the city, their product assortments are reportedly shrinking, according to Frank.uz.

The first closure occurred in February 2024. This was followed by two more stores closing in May 2025, allegedly due to relocation plans. Most recently, in early June, social media users noted that Magnum had shuttered its branch at the Samarqand Darvoza shopping center. Meanwhile, the remaining outlets have been seeing a gradual reduction in inventory.

This...

The finals of Miss Qazaqstan 2025, the 27th national beauty pageant in Kazakhstan, will take place in the Almaty Metro. According to the Regional Communications Service, the station chosen to host the event is Auezov Theatre. However, the exact date of the event remains unknown.

That said, the very idea of hosting the final stage of Kazakhstan’s most prominent beauty pageant in a metro station is astonishing. According to Aizhan Ruzayeva, the contest director, Miss Qazaqstan simply wants to be closer to the people.

«The Almaty Metro is not just a means of transport. It is...

A criminal network involving local residents, Altynalmas employees and the company’s security service has been uncovered at Kazakhstan’s Akbakai gold deposit. The group illegally mined, processed and exported gold from the site, according to the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The scheme caused more than $770,000 in damages to the enterprise, Kuandyk Alpys, a spokesperson for the ministry’s department for combating organized crime, said in a statement.

Authorities detained the alleged organizer and his accomplices in coordinated operations across four regions. Overall, more than 50 people were taken into custody. Police also seized approximately six kilograms of gold and shut...

China State Construction Engineering Corporation (CSCEC), which was involved in the construction of the light rail transit (LRT) system in Astana, is now considering launching a modular housing plant in Kazakhstan’s capital, renovating dilapidated housing across the country and participating in the development of the city of Alatau in the Almaty region, according to Samruk-Kazyna Construction.

«JSC Samruk-Kazyna Construction and China State Construction Engineering Corporation International (CSCEC International) signed a memorandum of cooperation. This strategic document, signed during the second meeting of the Central Asia–China Business Council in Astana, paves the way for the joint implementation...