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The two countries have begun exchanging parcels of land under a milestone border agreement that ended one of Central Asia’s longest-running territorial disputes. Uzbekistan has greenlighted the handover of two villages to Kyrgyzstan, with Bishkek reciprocating later.

Officials from both sides have on Tuesday started to work through a range of property-related, legal and administrative issues ahead of the land transfer. The first stage of the process covers Chongara and Tash-Tobo, the villages with a Kyrgyz-majority population of roughly 2,500. Both locations were previously part of Uzbekistan’s Ferghana region.

Bishkek confirmed that the villages are currently registered under the new...

BP profits have more than doubled to reach their highest level since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022 as the ongoing conflict in the Middle East severely disrupts global energy supplies.

The oil and gas giant reported second-quarter earnings of $5.73bn (£4.26 bbn) between April and June. This is a steep increase from the $2.35bn generated during the same period last year. A major disruption to supply routes through the Strait of Hormuz linked to the war in Iran caused Brent crude to average $103.85 a barrel during the quarter, compared with just $67.88 a year earlier...

Russia’s crude oil refining reportedly fell to its lowest level in more than twenty years in July, largely due to increasing damage to the country’s energy infrastructure from Ukrainian drone strikes.

Refineries across the world’s third-largest oil producer have processed an estimated 3.6 million barrels of crude a day last month, Bloomberg reported, citing data from Energy Aspects, a UK-based energy and crude market consultancy.

That is the weakest monthly level since May 2002. Refinery throughput in Russia averaged 5.3 million to 5.6 million barrels a day during the same period of...

Streaming giant Amazon is working on a new animated show based on the tabletop game “Warhammer 40,000”. The company is teaming up with Games Workshop and Blur Studios for the project. Henry Cavill will help guide the show as an executive producer. The British actor is also attached to star in a separate live-action version of the sci-fi franchise.

This new programme branches directly off from “Secret Level”. That animated anthology series premiered on Prime Video in late 2024 and included a standalone story set in the Warhammer universe. Dave Wilson directed that specific episode and will now run the...

With more flights coming into and out of Central Asia, Uzbekistan will start sourcing fuel from Georgia and Iraq to help the country’s airlines seize on the growing passenger traffic.

Demand for aviation kerosene is expected to reach 375,000 tonnes in the second half of 2026, up 27% from the same period last year, according to figures presented on Monday to President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

A twin-engine passenger jet like the Boeing 787 Dreamliner can take up to 127 tonnes of fuel, meaning this volume could power more than 2,900 long-haul flights.

Industry officials said domestic refineries will cover most of...

Stalin gets arrested, but not in Moscow and not for what you think. Tamil Nadu Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin was detained at his Chennai residence on Tuesday morning following allegations that he made derogatory comments about actor Trisha Krishnan.

The core issue stems from a recent political rally. During a gathering concerning a regional water dispute, the crowd began chanting the actor’s name. The politician paused his speech and reportedly responded with an offensive double entendre.

The ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam party immediately condemned the speech, stating that such rhetoric from a prominent platform normalises the verbal...

Romania detonated a river rock on the Danube to divert water and prevent overheating at its main nuclear power plant. It comes as the region struggles with severe drought and intense heat.

The emergency operation was to direct enough water to the Cernavoda nuclear facility, which was severely short on water because of the river’s historically low levels. To allow water to reach the plant’s cooling systems, military engineers used explosives to breach the dam upstream.

The authorities said the move was crucial to preventing possible blackouts in Romania and neighbouring Hungary, which depend on Romanian energy exports...

Three female lions at the Tama Zoological Park in western Tokyo have died within a single week from dehydration caused by an intense heatwave gripping Japan.

The fatalities began when three-year-old Mugi exhibited a loss of appetite on 19 July before losing the ability to stand the following day. Despite emergency interventions from zoo staff, she died on 28 July. Eleven-year-old Ichigo followed on 31 July, and 15-year-old Luena died on the subsequent Sunday.

Three more lions, two males and one female, remain unwell and unable to stand. Staff are actively administering continuous fluids, medication and nutritional supplements...

Leaked images have offered the clearest look yet at Lenovo’s first devices built for Google’s upcoming Googlebook platform, including a traditional laptop and a detachable 2-in-1 that could become among the first products in a new generation of AI-first computers.

The renders, published by multiple outlets, suggest Lenovo is preparing at least three Googlebook devices ahead of the platform’s expected launch later this year. Google unveiled Googlebook in May as a premium laptop category built around Gemini artificial intelligence, combining elements of Android and ChromeOS while placing AI features at the centre of the user experience.

The leaked...

Russian singer Monetochka has defended her decision to release an artificial intelligence-generated music video after it sparked widespread criticism from fans, arguing that AI should be viewed as another artistic tool rather than a replacement for creativity.

The video accompanies Monopoly (Монополия), a track from her 2024 album Molitvy. Anekdoty. Tosty, which recently gained international attention after being featured in Marvel’s latest Spider-Man film. The inclusion marked a rare appearance of a contemporary Russian-language song in a major Hollywood blockbuster.

Released on YouTube shortly after the film’s premiere, the clip presents a stylised vision of Russia inspired by VHS-era...

In the latest reshuffle of senior security officials, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has on Monday appointed Ukraine’s chief peace negotiator, Rustem Umerov, as head of the country’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

Umerov moves to the new job from his previous role as head of the National Security and Defence Council. As the new chief of intelligence, he succeeds Oleh Luhovskyy, a career spy operative who led the service since February 2026.

Zelenskyy said on 3 August that Umerov’s new position would allow him to continue “streamlining diplomatic and defence-related issues, while also managing Ukraine’s international security partnerships and...

Mary Rivera, who charmed audiences worldwide as Ned’s grandmother in the Marvel blockbuster “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” has died at the age of 82.

Born to Vicente and Felicia Egida on June 2, 1943, in the Philippine city of Iloilo, Rivera died on April 15 in Honolulu. A family member confirmed that she suffered a severe stroke. After medical staff advised that she would not experience a meaningful recovery even if she woke from her coma, her relatives made the difficult decision to remove life support prior to her cremation.

Long before stepping onto a Hollywood set, Rivera enjoyed...

A supply chain insider has revealed new details regarding Apple’s upcoming smartphone lineup, including the 20th-anniversary iPhone 20 and the company’s first foldable device.

According to posts on the Chinese social media platform Weibo by the tipster Fixed Focus Digital, the iPhone 20 will feature a comprehensive glass construction. Expected to launch in 2027, the anniversary model will reportedly utilise a continuous glass rear panel instead of the segmented design seen on the current iPhone 17 Pro.

The tipster claims the new handset will match the ultra-thin profile of the recently released iPhone Air. It remains unclear whether this...

Chinese company will launch an Uzbek satellite Samarqand-2028 into orbit on 5 August. The national space agency Uzbekcosmos announced that the launch window will operate between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. (GMT+5).

Chinese private aerospace manufacturer Star.Vision will execute the mission from a marine platform located off the coast of Shandong province. The rocket is currently aboard a staging vessel navigating toward the designated offshore launch site. It will simultaneously deploy the Indonesian satellite Lampung-1 into low Earth orbit.

The Samarqand-2028 project features an artificial intelligence module co-developed by Uzbekcosmos engineers and Star.Vision specialists. This integrated system utilises a...

An online leak has revealed costs and technical specifications for Google’s Pixel 11 lineup ahead of its 12 August unveiling. Data shows price hikes for all four handsets alongside revised storage tiers.

In North America, the entry-level Pixel 11 opens at $899, while European buyers face a €999 price tag. The manufacturer dropped the 128GB option, making 256GB the minimum capacity. Powered by the Tensor G6 processor and Titan M3 security unit, the device comes with 12GB or 16GB of RAM. Power comes from a 4,985mAh cell that supports 30W wired speeds and Qi2 wireless charging. For photography...

An Uzbek economic research group has recommended introducing an excise tax on palm oil imports to counter public health costs and address market distortions.

The proposal, published by the Institute for Fiscal Analyses within its 2027 tax policy framework, seeks to establish a corrective levy on commodity code 1511 to reflect the true societal toll of saturated fat consumption.

Projected financial impact in Uzbekistan

Under the institute’s blueprint, palm oil would face a specific excise tax rate of $139 per ton, matching roughly 10% of its projected 2026 import price of $1,388 per ton...

The presidential chief of staff, Saida Mirziyoyeva, threw her weight behind tougher penalties for animal abuse, saying that respect for life has to be a shared value. To make the case for pet protection, she uploaded footage of two stray cats now living safely in the administration office.

Called Yalpiz and Darkhan, the feline administration “staffers” — as Mirziyoyeva has ironically referred to them — are seen wandering around the office and exploring their surroundings.

“We love them very much,” Mirziyoyeva wrote on social media. Striking a more serious tone, the senior...

The United States has deported 18 Uzbek nationals for violating US immigration laws, according to Uzbekistan’s Dunyo news agency.

A flight carrying the deportees arrived in Tashkent on the evening of August 1 after Uzbek and US authorities coordinated their return. Officials confirmed the identities of the individuals, completed the required documentation and arranged their transfer to Uzbekistan.

The latest deportation follows two similar operations earlier this year. In March, 72 Uzbek nationals were returned from the United States, followed by another 26 in May. The three operations bring the total number of Uzbek citizens deported from...

The French president’s team is reportedly discussing the construction of a large manga-themed amusement park outside Paris with Saudi Arabian counterparts. The billion-euro concept is based on one of the best-selling manga series in history.

President Emmanuel Macron‘s team has been working for several months to secure investment for this venture from the Qiddiya Investment Company, a Saudi Public Investment Fund subsidiary. No final agreement has been reached yet, but if approved, the project could be worth more than €1 billion, Politico reported.

One source described the project as being “highly confidential”, and the Elysee Palace...

A company operating a shop inside a shopping centre in Japan’s Kumamoto Prefecture has acknowledged that two employees who later died in a gas explosion had returned to the building after initially evacuating following a powerful earthquake.

The admission came days after the blast at AEON Mall Kumamoto, where an explosion believed to have been caused by leaking gas killed two workers and injured several others. The incident occurred after a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck the region, prompting customers and staff to leave the complex.

According to the company Habita, the employees had been instructed to return to the...

Apple is experiencing supply constraints for its popular M5 MacBook Air, with retail shipments facing delivery delays that stretch into late August and September.

According to a report by Bloomberg analyst Mark Gurman, the Cupertino-based technology firm is struggling to maintain inventory levels across its global retail network, leaving customers facing extended wait times for custom hardware configurations.

The inventory bottleneck stems directly from an industry-wide memory chip shortage. Semiconductor manufacturers have redirected massive amounts of silicon production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory required for enterprise artificial intelligence data centres.

Consequently, market prices for dynamic random-access memory and solid-state...

-Alibaba Group has released Qwen 3.8-Max, a multimodal artificial intelligence model built on 2.4trln parameters with 95bn active parameters. The system is designed to compete directly with Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and OpenAI’s GPT Sol.

According to company disclosures, the model matches or outperforms US competitors on several benchmarks while utilising an open-source framework.

Priced at $2 per one mn input tokens and $6 per one mn output tokens, the model provides a commercial alternative to Western offerings. Subscription options are also available through Alibaba’s Token Plan starting at $6 per month. The company confirmed that the model weights will...

Tom Holland’s fourth solo adventure as the Marvel web-slinger secured the second-largest worldwide opening in cinema history. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” generated $927mn globally during its debut. This total places the feature directly behind the $1.22bn all-time benchmark established by “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.

The Sony Pictures co-production drew the majority of its revenue from international markets. The sequel pulled in $572mn across 66 overseas territories, compared to a $355mn North American opening. Playing across approximately 90,000 screens globally, the film doubled its original worldwide projection of $425mn.

China led the foreign box office with...

The US Department of State has made its temporary visa security scheme permanent starting 3 August.

The regulation mandates that certain business and tourist visa applicants must post a financial guarantee of up to $20,000 before travelling to the United States. The Visa Bond Program applies to B-1/B-2 visa applicants from 50 designated countries with high overstay rates, deficient information-sharing and inadequate screening procedures.

The updated list directly impacts travellers from three Central Asian nations:

Under the permanent framework, consular officers will evaluate whether an applicant poses a risk...