News

According to the National Statistics Committee, a total of 27,500 Spanish citizens visited Uzbekistan for tourism purposes in 2025.

This represents an increase of 3,900 visitors, or 16.6%, compared with the same period in 2024.

Breakdown of visits by purpose is as follows:

Leisure tourism accounted for the overwhelming majority of Spanish arrivals, reflecting growing interest in Uzbekistan as a travel destination.

Kursiv also reports that in 2025, the cost of museum tickets in Uzbekistan rose by 32.6%.

From...

Bad Bunny promised the world would dance in promotional material for the Apple Music Super Bowl Halftime Show, and his vibrant, elaborate, unapologetic performance lived up to expectations. Joined by Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin and other stars, he delivered a medley of hits to more than 125 mln viewers, introducing both his music and himself to a wider audience.

Celebration of Puerto Rico and Latin culture

The show paid tribute to Latin America, particularly Bad Bunny’s native Puerto Rico. The set featured a mock sugar-cane field and a Puerto Rican vecindad, complete with a barber shop, liquor store...

President Donald Trump used social media during the Super Bowl to criticise Bad Bunny’s halftime performance.

«The Super Bowl Halftime Show is absolutely terrible, one of the worst, ever!» Trump wrote on Truth Social. «It makes no sense, is an affront to the Greatness of America, and doesn’t represent our standards of Success, Creativity or Excellence. Nobody understands a word this guy is saying, and the dancing is disgusting, especially for young children watching from across the U.S.A. and around the world. This ‘Show’ is just a ‘slap in the face’ to our country, which is...

TruScreen Group Ltd., a developer of AI technologies for cervical screening, has announced its first commercial agreement to supply equipment to Uzbekistan, Reuters reports.

Under the deal, TruScreen will provide AI-powered cervical screening devices for a pilot programme aimed at the early detection of cervical abnormalities. The programme plans to screen approximately 500 patients.

The agreement is part of TruScreen’s strategy to expand its presence in Central Asian markets and strengthen cooperation with healthcare institutions in countries with developing medical infrastructure.

From economics and politics to business, technology and culture, Kursiv Uzbekistan brings you key news and...

Hong Kong media tycoon Jimmy Lai was sentenced on Monday to 20 years in prison over national security charges, including two counts of conspiracy to collude with foreign forces and one of publishing seditious material.

The sentence concludes Hong Kong’s most high-profile national security trial, a legal saga spanning nearly five years. Jimmy Lai, founder of the now-closed Apple Daily, was first arrested in August 2020 and convicted last year. His 20-year term falls within the harshest penalty range of 10 years to life and is the most severe under the city’s national security law.

Judges said Lai...

U.S. skiing icon Lindsey Vonn underwent surgery on a broken leg at an Italian hospital after her bold attempt to claim Olympic downhill gold ended in a frightening crash.

Vonn, 41, was taken by helicopter to Ca’ Foncello Hospital in Treviso following the high-speed accident on the Olimpia delle Tofane course in Cortina d’Ampezzo. The hospital said she had orthopaedic surgery later in the day to stabilise a fracture to her left leg. A source told Reuters she was being monitored in intensive care for privacy reasons and stressed her condition was not life-threatening.

How the incident unfolded

An 11-year-old Uzbek citizen, Amira Aminova, died after being struck by a school bus in New York, Uzbekistan’s Consulate General in the city said.

The fatal crash occurred on February 5 in the Bath Beach area of Brooklyn. Police said the girl was crossing Bath Avenue at 23rd Avenue in a marked pedestrian crossing when a school bus turned into her path and hit her. Surveillance footage shows Amira had the right of way at the time of the collision.

She was rushed to a local hospital, where she later died from her injuries.

Police said the 62-year-old...

Cadillac has revealed its first Formula 1 livery, using a Super Bowl advertisement to introduce the new team’s colours to a global audience.

The American marque, set to join the grid in 2026, unveiled the design during a fourth-quarter commercial in the NFL championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots. The reveal followed a pre-season shakedown in Barcelona, where the car ran in a temporary blacked-out livery ahead of the official launch.

Design details

Cadillac’s yet-to-be-named challenger will feature a distinctive split design, with a grey-white finish on the left side and black on the...

Team USA enjoyed a strong but dramatic second day at the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, securing its first gold medals of the Games as competition intensified across northern Italy.

The United States, which is sending a record 232 athletes to the 2026 Winter Games, opened its gold medal tally thanks to skier Breezy Johnson, who captured gold in the women’s downhill. American figure skaters also topped the podium in the team event, led by a standout performance from Ilia Malinin, widely known as the «Quad God» for his technically demanding jumps.

After the opening ceremony on Friday, Team...

In 2025, the cost of museum tickets in Uzbekistan rose by 32.6%, according to data from the National Statistics Committee.

Price growth was also recorded in other areas of culture: theatre services became 17.4% more expensive, while cinema services rose by 8.1%.

Uzbekistan currently has 127 state-run museums. Their collections contain more than 2.6 million exhibits and collections of precious items.

In 2025, museums across the country were visited by more than 1 million foreign tourists and 3.2 mln Uzbek citizens.

From economics and politics to business, technology and culture, Kursiv Uzbekistan brings you key news and...

A sharp fall in Bitcoin prices over the past week has reignited debate over whether the world’s largest cryptocurrency can genuinely serve as a store of value, after the digital asset dropped to less than half its October peak of $122,200.

Although Bitcoin staged a partial rebound on Friday as «buy the dip» investors returned, losses over the past 15 months mean many holders remain in the red, fuelling claims that the long-running rally has finally deflated.

Among the most outspoken critics is Richard Farr, chief market strategist at Pivotus Partners, who has publicly set a price target...

Grammy award-winning star Bad Bunny is preparing to take centre stage at one of the world’s most-watched events on Sunday, when he headlines the Super Bowl half-time show in Santa Clara, California.

The 31-year-old Puerto Rican artist, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio, made history last week by becoming the first performer to win album of the year at the Grammys with a record sung entirely in Spanish. His sixth studio album, Debí Tirar Más Fotos, blends reggaeton, pop, salsa and traditional Puerto Rican sounds in what he has described as a tribute to his homeland.

Bad Bunny first rose to...

American ski legend Lindsey Vonn was airlifted to hospital after crashing early in the women’s downhill at the Winter Olympics on the Olimpia delle Tofane piste, bringing a dramatic and painful end to her final Games appearance.

Vonn lost control moments into her run after passing the third gate, twisting and crashing heavily on the steep Italian course. The race was halted for around 30 minutes as medical staff treated the 41-year-old before she was flown off the mountain by helicopter.

The incident cast a shadow over the event, which was won by Vonn’s teammate Breezy Johnson, who...

Japan’s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi is on course for a landslide victory after exit polls indicated her ruling coalition could secure a rare supermajority in the lower house of parliament.

According to public broadcaster NHK, Takaichi’s Liberal Democratic Party is projected to win between 274 and 328 seats on its own, with the coalition total reaching as many as 366 seats in the 465-member chamber. Such a result would allow the coalition to override the upper house, strengthening Takaichi’s grip on power and marking the LDP’s strongest showing since electoral reforms in 1996.

The snap February election, only...

The Dalai Lama has denied ever meeting disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein after his name appeared repeatedly in files released by the U.S. Department of Justice.

According to the documents, Epstein mentioned the Dalai Lama dozens of times in personal emails. In a May 2015 message to Soon-Yi Previn, the wife of film director Woody Allen, Epstein wrote that he was «working on the dalai lama for dinner.» In another email to Japanese venture capitalist Joichi Ito, he suggested a «fun dinner» with the Dalai Lama, Allen and Noam Chomsky.

In a statement, the Dalai Lama’s office said the...

Team USA’s figure skaters delivered a mixed but encouraging display in the team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, with veteran ice dancers providing stability as a rising star navigated the pressure of his Olympic debut.

Three-time world champions Madison Chock and Evan Bates produced a composed and authoritative routine in ice dance, underscoring their experience on the Olympic stage. The married duo said they entered the event focused and prepared, emphasising their goal of making a meaningful contribution to the team.

In contrast, 21-year-old men’s singles skater Ilia Malinin described his opening Olympic performance as a step rather than...

Uzbekistan’s national delegation joined the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics on 6 February, as athletes from around the world gathered at San Siro Stadium for the official launch of the Games.

Short track speed skater Daniil Eibog carried the national flag during the parade of nations. Uzbekistan will be represented at the Games by Eibog in the men’s 500m short track event and by alpine skier Medet Nazarov, who will compete in slalom and giant slalom.

The ceremony was attended by senior Uzbek sports officials, including Sports Minister Adkham Ikramov, First Deputy Chairman of the National...

Team USA delivered a strong opening day at the 2026 Winter Olympics, highlighted by a historic goal from Hilary Knight, a confidence-boosting training run from Lindsey Vonn, and a dominant showing by American figure skaters.

Knight scored in the United States’ 5–0 victory over Finland in women’s hockey, tying the Olympic record for career goals with 14. The 36-year-old now shares the mark with Natalie Darwitz and Katie King, as the U.S. women posted their second straight five-goal performance of the tournament.

On the slopes, Vonn eased concerns about her fitness ahead of Sunday’s women’s downhill. The 41-year-old...

Elton John told the High Court in London that both his publicist and his official website provided «completely wrong» information about his health, as he gave evidence in a privacy case against the Daily Mail.

The singer, 78, is challenging a 2009 article that reported he cancelled tour dates after being hospitalised with E. coli and flu. Sir Elton said the account was inaccurate, insisting he did not suffer a bacterial infection and that the details attributed to his illness were incorrect.

Lawyers for Sir Elton allege journalists unlawfully obtained his private medical information through practices including voicemail...

Melania Trump’s new documentary has sparked online debate after achieving one of the widest-ever gaps between critics’ and audience ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.

The Amazon-backed film, Melania, received a critic score of just 8 per cent on the site’s Tomatometer, while audience reactions on the Popcornmeter stood at 99 per cent, prompting speculation that the unusually high viewer rating may have been artificially boosted.

Rotten Tomatoes’ parent company Versant rejected the claims, telling Variety that there had been «no manipulation» of audience reviews. The company said all ratings counted toward the Popcornmeter were verified purchases made through Fandango.

Long-running animated sitcom The Simpsons has once again been drawn into online speculation, with fans claiming the show hinted at the existence of Jeffrey Epstein’s private island years before it became widely known.

The theory centres on a season 12 episode that aired in 2000, in which Homer Simpson launches a gossip website under the alias «Mr X». In one deliberately fabricated headline, Homer claims that «some crazy creeps on an island somewhere are secretly running the world». Social media users have recently linked the line to allegations surrounding Epstein’s island and his connections to powerful figures.

The...

Health experts in the UK have warned against so-called «jab hacks» involving weight-loss injections, after new data suggested a growing number of users are taking risks to cut costs.

The warning follows comments by Nina Wadia, the EastEnders star, who has spoken publicly about the dangers of misusing weight-loss jabs. Her remarks come amid wider concern from doctors and regulators about unsafe practices linked to the drugs.

A survey by LloydsPharmacy Online Doctor found that almost half of the estimated 1.6 million people using weight-loss medication in the UK have either experimented with «microdosing», taking smaller-than-prescribed amounts, or...

China continued to add to its gold reserves in January, extending a steady accumulation streak even as global prices surged, according to official data released over the weekend.

Figures from the State Administration of Foreign Exchange show that China’s gold reserves rose to 74.19 million ounces at the end of January, up 40,000 ounces from the previous month. The increase marks the country’s 15th consecutive month of net purchases.

While the monthly addition is modest, analysts say the persistence of buying is significant. The central bank resumed gold purchases in November 2024, and holdings have risen by a...

Spiritual author and wellness advocate Deepak Chopra has publicly addressed his past association with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein following the release of newly unsealed federal records in the United States.

The documents, unsealed by the U.S. Department of Justice and the House Oversight Committee, include millions of pages of emails, contact logs and scheduling records linked to Epstein’s estate and investigations. Chopra’s name reportedly appears more than 3,000 times in records dated between 2016 and 2019.

According to the documents, Chopra met Epstein multiple times after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. The interactions...