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Uzbekistan’s inflation rose to 7.5% in annual terms in November, with prices increasing 0.7% over the month, according to a report by the State Committee on Statistics. Experts estimate that the average monthly price growth was 0.6%, slightly lower than 0.8% recorded in the same month last year.

Regionally, Fergana saw the highest annual inflation at 8%, while Surkhandarya and Syrdarya reported 7.8%. In the capital city, prices rose by 7.3% year-on-year.

The report highlighted notable price changes across sectors. Utilities surged by 17% over the year, food products rose by 5.7%, alcohol and tobacco increased by 6.4%, and...

Disney’s Zootopia 2 topped the Thanksgiving box office with $156 mln domestically from 4,000 cinemas since November 26, including $96.8 mln over the weekend.

It is the second-biggest Thanksgiving opening ever behind Moana 2 and ahead of Frozen II. The sequel also earned $400 mln internationally, including a record $272 mln in China, bringing its global debut to $556 mln, the fourth-biggest opening weekend in history. Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman praised its worldwide appeal and the work of the filmmakers.

This year’s Thanksgiving weekend grossed roughly $293 mln across all films, ranking as the fourth-biggest holiday frame behind...

Helmut Marko has alleged that Kimi Antonelli deliberately allowed Lando Norris to overtake him in the final laps of the Qatar Grand Prix. Antonelli had been running fourth after Norris made his second stop on lap 44 of the 57-lap race and held the McLaren at bay until lap 56 when he slipped up at turn nine.

The error forced him into a tighter line for turn ten where he ran wide which opened the door for Norris to take fourth. The move secured two extra points for the McLaren driver at a key moment in the title...

Rescue teams in Indonesia are trying to locate at least 400 people still unaccounted for after rains of Cyclone Senyar triggered severe flooding and landslides nearly a week ago. Many of the missing are feared to be trapped beneath mud and debris, BBC reports.

The government says the death toll on Sumatra has climbed above 440. Aircraft and ships have delivered aid to several damaged areas yet some communities remain entirely cut off with no supplies reaching them. Reports have emerged of people taking food and water from shops as they struggled to survive.

Cyclone Senyar leaves widespread...

Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen will take their title fight to the final round in Abu Dhabi after a dramatic and strategy-heavy Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail, where tyre limits, a Safety Car and bold calls on the pit wall reshaped the entire race.

Piastri leads early as McLaren dominate the opening phase

Round 23 of 24 began with Oscar Piastri on pole after winning the Sprint from the same position. The Australian made another perfect launch and held the lead into Turn 1, while Max Verstappen muscled past Norris to take second. Norris...

Households across Uzbekistan poured 30.4 trillion soums into education services from January to October 2025 – a solid 6.8% jump compared with the same period last year, according to the National Statistics Committee.

Education now accounts for 3.7% of total spending on market services nationwide.

Higher education claimed the lion’s share of the budget, taking 46.6% of all education-related expenditure.

Gulshan Alimardonova claimed gold in the women’s under-50 kg category at the World Karate Championships in Cairo, delivering Uzbekistan its first-ever world title in women’s karate.

In the final, the Uzbek fighter faced Malaysia’s representative. Alimardonova dominated the bout with sharp timing, precise strikes, and complete control from start to finish, securing a clear victory.

Throughout the tournament she displayed composure, accuracy, and discipline, powering through every round to stand atop the podium.

Authorities in Namangan’s Chust district laid the foundation stone on November 29 for a major new facility that will convert household waste into electricity. China Everbright International leads the $141.5 mln project.

Once operational in 2027, the plant will process up to 1,500 tonnes of solid waste daily and generate 227.5 mln kWh of electricity annually. The development will create 150–200 permanent jobs. Under a 30-year power-purchase agreement, the government will buy all electricity produced at a guaranteed tariff.

The Namangan plant forms part of a nationwide programme to build similar waste-to-energy complexes in nine regions of Uzbekistan...

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev officially launched the landmark «Five Million AI Leaders» initiative today at the opening ceremony of the International Artificial Intelligence Forum held at Tashkent’s International Congress Centre.

In his keynote address, the President outlined Uzbekistan’s strategic vision: «We aim to transform our country from a consumer of cutting-edge technologies into a nation that actively develops and exports them.»

A cornerstone of the programme is the new annual Presidential AI Competition. Starting in 2026, authorities will identify 100 of the country’s most promising young AI specialists, beginning with grassroots selection in the remotest districts and culminating at...

Authorities in Tashkent closed or halted more than 100 facilities last week after they failed air-quality checks, driving a steep drop in dangerous PM2.5 particles from 171 µg/m³ to 97 µg/m³ in just seven days.

Between November 24 and 28, special ecology commission teams inspected factories, greenhouses, and construction sites across the capital and its suburbs. Inspectors suspended 67 greenhouses and issued fines to 403 others. Nineteen farms now have deadlines to switch to natural gas. On the construction front, teams identified 53 illegal sites, stopped work on 34 projects, and fined 188 individuals. They also installed water...

Uzbekistan will launch a national payment switch under full control of the Central Bank, turning it into the mandatory gateway for all transactions in national currency.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev signed the decree on November 27 as part of a broader fintech development package. The new infrastructure will serve both local and international payment system operators, who will be required to route every soum-denominated transaction through the Central Bank’s single switch.

Central Bank Chairman Timur Ishmetov received a tight timeline for 2025–2026. By January 2026 the regulator must complete a study of global best practices and draft technical...

Uzbekistan’s industrial sector posted robust growth in the first ten months of 2025, with total output reaching 865.8 trillion soums ($72.2 bn), according to the National Statistics Committee. This marks a solid 6.7 percent year-on-year increase and underscores the country’s continuing economic diversification drive.

On a per-capita basis, industrial production hit 22.9 mln soums ($1,910) per citizen, reflecting broader gains across the republic’s 58,600 registered industrial enterprises as of 1 November 2025.

Regionally, Tashkent city led with 167.6 trillion soums ($13.97 bn), followed by Navoi region at 155.1 trillion soums ($12.94 bn) and Tashkent region at 132.4 trillion...

Ukrainian sea drones struck one of three Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) single-point moorings in the Black Sea off Novorossiysk early on November 30.

The consortium confirmed the offshore loading terminal sustained heavy damage and has been taken out of service. Repair time remains unclear.

CPC handles roughly 80% of Kazakhstan’s oil exports, moving crude from the giant Tengiz, Kashagan, and Karachaganak fields to global markets via the 1,500 km pipeline that ends at Russia’s Novorossiysk port.

Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a sharp protest, calling the incident «the third deliberate attack on a purely civilian...

The second night of the 2025 MAMA Awards concluded in Hong Kong on Saturday, celebrating the year’s biggest achievements in K-pop against a backdrop of mourning. While the evening saw industry titans G-Dragon and Stray Kids take home top honours, the ceremony was marked by a sombre tone following the devastating fire at Wang Fuk Court which claimed over 128 lives.

Big Bang legend G-Dragon emerged as the night’s most significant victor, securing the prestigious Artist of the Year award. Receiving the trophy from screen icon Chow Yun-fat, the artist reflected on his career and teased a major...

Oscar Piastri secured pole for the Qatar Grand Prix after beating Lando Norris by 0.035s in a dominant McLaren display at Lusail. Max Verstappen and George Russell start on the second row, unable to match McLaren’s pace as the title fight tightened further.

Norris had set the early benchmark in Q3 but a small mistake on his warm-up lap meant he missed the flag for a second run, leaving Piastri free to snatch pole with a clean final effort. Verstappen briefly went purple in sector one yet faded over the lap and ended third.

Shock exits in Q...

Oscar Piastri delivered a well-executed race to win the Qatar Sprint at the Lusail International Circuit, keeping his Championship hopes alive with a controlled lights-to-flag victory. The Australian held off George Russell and Lando Norris across 19 laps, taking eight points and closing the gap at the top as Round 23 of the season heads toward its decisive finale.

Norris still leads the standings by 22 points and can win the title in Sunday’s Grand Prix, yet the Sprint belonged entirely to Piastri, who started from pole and never once looked threatened.

Piastri converts pole as rivals scrap...

Airbus announced on Friday November 28 that it had identified a software problem affecting some A320 family aircraft caused by solar interference. Kursiv Uzbekistan examined how the issue has affected local airlines.

Uzbekistan Airways said it is updating the software on its entire Airbus A320 and A321 ceo and neo fleet in line with an Airbus directive. The carrier expects all work to be completed by 23:00 Tashkent time on November 29. The airline stressed that all flights are operated only on aircraft that meet current international safety standards.

Centrum Air told Kursiv Uzbekistan that its A320 aircraft are...

A storm has broken out on Threads after Jassmine Takha posted that she had moved from Odesa to Minsk and planned to open a headwear shop for Muslim women. Her message went viral within hours. More than 1.6K users reacted to it the post drew over 3.4K comments and close to 1K reposts.

Takha shared a photo of herself in a hijab and said she wanted to build her own modest fashion brand in Belarus. What looked like an ordinary business idea quickly escalated into a dispute between Belarusians and Kazakhs.

Some Belarusian users took the announcement sharply. Others...

Uzbekistan has drawn almost $2 bn in investments into its artificial intelligence and digital technology sectors, while IT services exports have increased 4.5 times, nearing $1 bn, officials said during an AI forum attended by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

The number of universities training IT specialists has nearly tripled to 145, with 80,000 students enrolled. Through the Bir Million Dasturchi project, over 2 mln young people have upgraded their technical skills. More than 20,000 computer science teachers nationwide are completing intensive courses at the New Uzbekistan University, conducted in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In healthcare, digital...

Uzbekistan will establish a National Transfer Office in the United States’ Silicon Valley, while a supercomputing and AI cluster will be launched in the country with the support of Nvidia, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced.

The initiatives are aimed at advancing artificial intelligence across Uzbekistan. «Centres of the Future» will teach schoolchildren AI technologies, and an annual competition will select the best student startup ideas in AI, with winners receiving state-of-the-art laboratories.

President Mirziyoyev also revealed a presidential AI competition, which will send 100 talented young people each year for internships at leading tech companies in the United States, the...

India’s Adani Group plans to invest up to $5 bn in Alphabet-owned Google’s artificial intelligence data centre in Andhra Pradesh, an executive said on Friday. The project, Google’s largest investment in India, is part of a $15 bn five-year plan to build AI-focused data infrastructure in the southern state.

Adani Connex, a joint venture between Adani Enterprises and private data centre operator EdgeConneX, could provide significant backing for the campus, which will initially have a 1-gigawatt power capacity in Visakhapatnam. Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh said other partners are also interested as the demand for high-capacity data centres...

Google’s Gemini chatbot has added support for the Uzbek language, the Ministry of Digital Technologies announced. The AI assistant now supports about 40 languages, including English, Russian and Ukrainian.

Officials said the update marks a significant step for Uzbekistan’s digital development and AI ecosystem, giving specialists, entrepreneurs and everyday users access to advanced tools in their native language.

Google’s AI Plus subscription also became available in Uzbekistan this autumn at a price of $5 per month. Gemini Google’s family of multimodal large language models (LLMs) or the Gemini AI assistant powered by these models. It is capable of producing...

The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda are set to travel to Washington next week to sign a peace agreement and meet US President Donald Trump, sources told Reuters. The meeting is scheduled for December 4, according to Congolese presidential spokesperson Tina Salama. Representatives for Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and the White House did not immediately comment.

The visit aims to reinforce a US-brokered peace deal reached in June and a Regional Economic Integration Framework agreed earlier this month. The two leaders are expected to ratify both agreements, with Congo emphasising that respect for national sovereignty is...

The 2025 MAMA Awards opened in Hong Kong with a quieter tone than usual yet still delivered headline moments as ROSÉ, ENHYPEN and IVE emerged as early winners.

Actor-singer Park Bo Gum hosted night one where two of the grand Daesang prizes were revealed. ROSÉ and Bruno Mars won Song of the Year for «APT.» while ENHYPEN claimed Fans’ Choice of the Year. New SM Entertainment girl group Hearts2Hearts was named Best New Artist and also placed in the Fans’ Choice Female Top 10 alongside Irene of Red Velvet and aespa, signalling strong early support.

Other notable winners included: