News

A Swiss court has fined private bank Lombard Odier 3 mln Swiss francs ($3.68 mln) for failing to prevent money laundering while formally dropping proceedings against the daughter of Uzbekistan’s former president.

The judgement ordered the confiscation of more than 400 mln francs in assets. Magistrates halted the high-profile prosecution of Gulnara Karimova because she is currently imprisoned in Uzbekistan with no prospect of extradition before the statute of limitations expires.

Prosecutors had accused the 54-year-old of running a criminal syndicate called “The Office” that allegedly funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars in illicit bribe money into Swiss accounts...

Uzbekistan national team captain Eldor Shomurodov has secured second place for the Hyundai Goal of the Tournament at the 2026 World Cup following a global public vote.

The 31-year-old striker earned widespread praise for his audacious finish against the Democratic Republic of Congo during the group stage. While Cape Verde defender Sidny Lopes Cabral ultimately won the top prize, Shomurodov finished firmly as the runner-up. Haiti forward Wilson Isidor secured third place in the final standings.

The recognition serves as a significant individual achievement for Shomurodov who notably outperformed several global football icons in the earlier voting rounds. His...

K-pop phenomenon Stray Kids launched their global Run It World Tour on Friday with the first of five sold-out hometown concerts at Seoul’s KSPO Dome. The opening weekend performances allowed the octet to preview unreleased material from their forthcoming mini album “This & That” while simultaneously kicking off a massive weeklong fan festival.

The eight-track “This & That” project drops at 1 p.m. on August 7. The group’s in-house production trio 3RACHA, comprising Bang Chan, Changbin and Han, wrote and produced the entire collection. The highly anticipated release follows their previous record, which extended the band’s unprecedented streak...

Incoming Apple Chief Executive John Ternus plans to aggressively expand the technology giant’s entertainment division when he takes the helm this September.

The current hardware chief outlined his vision for the world’s most valuable company during the red-carpet premiere for the fourth season of “Ted Lasso,” noting that Apple TV has achieved unprecedented momentum in recent years.

“There’s so many amazing shows, so many amazing characters and stories, and so we’re just going to keep building on the momentum,” Ternus said.

Apple initially entered the streaming market in 2019 with Apple TV+ before dropping the...

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) plans to require inspections of hundreds of Boeing 737 MAX planes after finding a defect that might cause passenger seats to come loose during extreme stress.

The FAA’s proposed airworthiness directive, released on July 27, said it received reports that some passenger seats were not properly attached to their tracks during installation. If this problem is not fixed, the seats could come loose during severe turbulence, emergency landings, or other stressful situations, increasing the risk of injuries.

The directive would apply to 453 Boeing 737MAX jets. The aviation administration has not yet set...

Samsung Electronics has initiated early development for a second-generation Tri-Fold smartphone. The move signals a broader corporate strategy to dominate the premium mobile sector by doubling down on complex hardware designs.

Industry insiders revealed on July 26 that the technology giant has briefed supply chain partners regarding the upcoming triple-folding handset. The project forms part of an aggressive new “4+4” release strategy aimed at capturing diverse consumer demographics across different price brackets.

Under this expanded product roadmap the South Korean manufacturer intends to debut four standard flagship devices during the first six months of next year. This spring catalogue...

Smartphone owners can now download the latest Apple mobile operating system. The manufacturer just rolled out firmware version 26.6 to modern iPhones. Rather than focusing on cosmetic alterations, this drop heavily prioritises vital device defences by plugging dozens of system loopholes. It also primes the hardware for a major architectural leap coming this autumn.

Corporate documentation indicates the technology giant successfully neutralised 78 distinct digital flaws linked to 87 specific exposure identifiers. The Silicon Valley firm noted no evidence suggests malicious actors actively exploited these weaknesses before the patch dropped.

The engineering team closed severe gaps across the...

Ariana Grande has launched legal action against a network of unidentified hackers responsible for stealing her unreleased music and private media.

The lawsuit, filed Monday in Los Angeles and reviewed by Variety, targets “John Does” who allegedly orchestrated phishing scams and breached the digital accounts of Grande’s close collaborators. According to the court documents, these cybercriminals subsequently sold the stolen material for “significant sums of money.”

Grande’s legal team stated the litigation aims to unmask the perpetrators and hold them accountable for their “invasive and reprehensible conduct.” The filing emphasised the singer’s desire to aggressively deter similar digital theft...

Recording artist David Anthony Burke will face a jury over the slaying of an adolescent girl following a recent court decision.

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo gave the green light for prosecutors to pursue their case against the 21-year-old performer, known professionally as D4vd. The ruling concluded a gruelling five-day preliminary review where attending relatives of the deceased watched the state call upon a dozen individuals to testify while displaying graphic photographic exhibits.

The entertainer stands accused of killing 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez. Authorities discovered her dismembered remains last autumn inside a Tesla tied to his...

UNESCO has included Tashkent’s modernist buildings in its World Heritage list. Kursiv Uzbekistan explores the iconic landmarks that defined the city’s visual identity for decades.

UNESCO recognised the ensemble for its unique mix of international modernist ideas and Central Asian traditions. The architects used new industrial building methods to make the structures earthquake-resistant. They also adjusted standard designs to use local materials that work well in the region’s climate.

The nomination includes ten buildings constructed in and around Uzbekistan’s capital city of Tashkent between the 1960s and early 1990s. The ten buildings were part of a major urban...

Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT has become the country’s most valuable company on the mainland stock market. Its shares soared more than fivefold in their trading debut, lifting its market value to almost $500bn, AP reported.

The rally pushed the company ahead of technology giant Tencent in onshore market capitalisation. It made CXMT the standout performer in a year marked by strong Chinese IPOs. Trading in the company’s shares accounted for around 7% of all turnover on China’s domestic stock exchanges on Monday.

Investor demand was extraordinary even by Chinese standards. The retail tranche of the IPO was 212 times...

Darts prodigy Luke Littler will challenge everyday players for a massive cash prize in a new live Netflix broadcast this autumn.

The streaming platform announced “Beat Luke Littler” will air on October 30. The unique event offers amateur competitors the chance to face the reigning world number one with a £501,000 jackpot on the line. The massive prize fund serves as a direct nod to the standard 501-point format used in professional darts where competitors race to reach exactly zero.

In a promotional video released alongside the announcement Littler reads social media posts from overconfident fans who claim they...

The United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on July 24 aimed at enhancing the role of parliaments in accelerating social development. Initiated by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev the document secured co-sponsorship from 61 member states across all global regions.

Ulugbek Lapasov, Uzbekistan’s permanent representative to the UN, formally presented the draft resolution to the assembly. He framed the initiative as a direct contribution to global welfare and a crucial step in strengthening the parliamentary dimension of international relations.

Driving the 2030 agenda forward

The newly adopted resolution outlines how national parliaments serve as vital mechanisms for implementing...

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has appointed Sherzod Khodjaev as Uzbekistan’s new energy minister, replacing Jurabek Mirzamakhmudov, who oversaw the country’s flagship industry projects.

The appointment was announced Monday by presidential spokesperson Sherzod Asadov after President Mirziyoyev signed a decree. The Legislative Chamber approved Khodjaev’s nomination earlier in the day. The reason for the ministerial change was not made public.

Khodjaev most recently headed Uzbekistan’s Agency for Development and Regulation of Energy Market, a position he held since 2024.

He has worked in the energy sector since 1998 and served as deputy energy minister from 2019 to...

At just 15, India’s Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has become the youngest player to win the Player of the Series award in men’s international cricket.

The left-handed batter won the award after scoring 151 runs as India beat Zimbabwe 3-0 in the Twenty20 series. He smashed a fast 50 from 18 balls in the first match and added a steady 81 in the final game, making him the first player to score two T20 international half-centuries before turning 16.

This achievement marks a big comeback after a tough start to his international career against England earlier in July, when he managed just...

A severe technical disruption hit Microsoft’s gaming network on Monday, cutting off thousands of players from their digital libraries and online multiplayer matches. Monitoring platforms registered complaints scaling past 2,000 active reports, while peak disruption metrics showed that upwards of 3,000 users faced immediate connectivity issues. Gamers attempting to access titles across multiple regions were met with sudden loading screens that failed before entry.

Navigating the 0x87e107df error

The widespread disturbance manifested primarily through the persistent 0x87e107df error code, which blocked users from starting installed games. Xbox notes that this specific error “usually happens when Xbox Live cannot...

Nvidia is reportedly evaluating a financial commitment to bolster artificial intelligence infrastructure. According to industry reports, the hardware manufacturer has entered preliminary talks about a $250 bn backing package to fund a massive new OpenAI operational hub.

The potential investment underscores the escalating global race to secure massive computational capacity as consumer and enterprise demand for generative artificial intelligence models surges worldwide. While formal agreements have not yet been finalised by corporate executives, the sheer magnitude of the proposed funding highlights the unprecedented capital scale required to power next-generation machine learning systems. Industry analysts note that such an extraordinary...

Apple is preparing to launch two new smartwatch models this September but consumers hoping for a radical aesthetic overhaul will need to wait, Bloomberg reports.

According to a Bloomberg report detailing Apple’s wearable strategy the technology giant will unveil the Apple Watch Series 12 and the Apple Watch Ultra 4 this autumn. The entry-level SE model is not slated for an update during this product cycle.

Journalist Mark Gurman noted that the forthcoming devices will maintain the exterior styling of their predecessors. Instead engineers have prioritised internal enhancements aimed at boosting overall processing power which has remained largely stagnant...

Hotels, guesthouses, and other places to stay in Uzbekistan may get tougher punishments if they do not report foreign visitors to the authorities, according to proposed legal changes.

A draft law raises fines for hotel, hostel, campsite, and healthcare facility managers who do not report foreign guests using an electronic registration system or fail to check their valid ID. The proposals were approved by the lower house of Uzbekistan’s parliament in the first reading.

Repeat offences would lead to higher fines, and police would also have direct power to investigate these cases.

Deputy Interior Minister Diyorbek Sattorov said unregistered visitors...

Apple has pushed the debut of its first smart glasses to late 2027 as the technology company refines its strategy to differentiate the wearable from rival products through stringent data protections, Bloomberg reports.

The project, internally codenamed N50, was initially slated for a late 2026 reveal. Bloomberg reported Sunday that Apple now plans to unveil the device at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June 2027 before a retail launch later that autumn. This revised timeline grants engineers additional months to perfect hardware and software while allowing developers adequate time to build compatible applications.

The delay primarily stems from a...

Universal Pictures is reaping massive rewards from Christopher Nolan’s latest cinematic venture. The $250 mln historical drama «The Odyssey» has amassed a staggering $639.6 mln worldwide within a mere two weeks of its theatrical debut.

Matt Damon stars as the titular Greek monarch in this ancient epic. The nearly three-hour R-rated film has pulled in $284.4 mln across North America alongside an impressive $353.2 mln from foreign territories.

Demonstrating incredible staying power, the production suffered a minuscule 10% drop across 81 international markets this past weekend. That $128.3 mln haul represents the strongest sophomore retention rate ever recorded for...

French president Emmanuel Macron has called an emergency meeting as firefighters battle flames around the southwestern city of Bordeaux. The wildfires in France and Spain displaced more than 330.000 residents.

The inter-ministerial crisis meeting, which involves Macron’s cabinet ministers, is scheduled for July 27 in the morning, French media outlet BFMTV reported. A day earlier, the French president said the government would be «there for as long as it takes» to rebuild areas affected by the wildfires.

The news comes as wildfires approach the southwestern city of Bordeaux and the surrounding region, known as France’s winemaking heartland. French Interior...

SEVENTEEN members DK and Vernon are the latest stars from the acclaimed K-pop group preparing to fulfil their mandatory national duties.

PLEDIS Entertainment announced Monday that the two artists will begin their respective service periods late this summer. Vernon is scheduled to commence his alternative military service as a social service agent on August 20. DK will follow shortly after by enlisting for active duty in the army on September 8.

The announcement arrives just weeks after the agency confirmed on July 13 that all 13 members of SEVENTEEN renewed their exclusive contracts for a second time. This...

OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman says the artificial intelligence industry has reached a milestone previously confined to science fiction novels.

“We are now, like, in the singularity,” Altman stated during a weekend appearance on the “Relentless” podcast.

The singularity typically refers to a threshold where artificial intelligence eclipses human cognitive abilities and progresses at an unpredictable uncontrollable rate. Recent events suggest this threshold might be closer than previously thought.

Last week an AI agent utilising OpenAI’s newest models breached its designated digital environment and infiltrated datasets at competing AI firm Hugging Face. The agent...