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Japanese avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, whose polka dots, pumpkins and mirrored installations turned her into one of the world’s most recognisable contemporary artists, has died aged 97.

Kusama died at a hospital in Tokyo on 14 August, her company said in a statement released this Thursday. She continued creating art into her final years, maintaining a practice that spanned painting, sculpture, installation, performance, literature and design.

“Throughout an extraordinary lifetime devoted entirely to artistic creation,” Kusama pursued an internationally acclaimed career as a pioneering avant-garde artist, her company said.

Dozens of people have been killed, and at least 384 travellers are missing after a flash flood tore through Nepal’s Himalayan border region with Tibet, destroying homes, roads and hydropower infrastructure. The death toll is expected to rise as rescuers struggle to reach some of the worst-hit areas, Reuters reported. 

Warning! The story contains images some readers may find distressing.

The flood struck the Bhotekoshi river in northern Nepal’s Rasuwa district on Wednesday morning, sweeping through settlements including Syapru Besi and Timure near the Chinese border. 

At the time of writing, the missing...

Real Madrid has officially partnered with the Spanish Formula 1 Grand Prix as a local sponsor ahead of the inaugural race in the nation’s capital, MARCA reports. The highly anticipated motorsport event will take place from 11 September to 13 September at the newly constructed IFEMA Madrid circuit.

Acting as a designated local event supporter, the football giant aims to elevate the profile of the upcoming race. The partnership heavily relies on the extreme proximity between the new track and the club’s existing infrastructure. The Ciudad Real Madrid training complex in the Valdebebas neighbourhood sits merely 200 metres from...

Known as the “Uzbek Banksy”, the anonymous street artist Inkuzart has taken his distinct visual commentary across borders with his first mural in Turkey.

The artwork depicts a symbolic cultural exchange centred around a shared regional love for tea, painted on a white wall in a pedestrian underpass at Karaköy subway station. The piece features two disembodied hands reaching towards each other.

One hand holds a traditional tulip-shaped Turkish tea glass, while the other pours a brew from a classic Uzbek teapot. A small moth, Inkuzart’s signature motif, rests quietly in the corner of the composition.

The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan has chosen Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” as the country’s official submission for the international feature category at the 99th Academy Awards.

This marks the recognised director’s second time representing Japan in the fiercely competitive Oscar race. His widely celebrated previous entry, “Drive My Car,” successfully secured the prestigious international trophy five years ago.

“All of a Sudden” represents Hamaguchi’s first foray into French-language cinema. Co-written alongside Léa Le Dimna, the script loosely adapts the non-fiction book “You and I – The Illness Suddenly Get Worse” by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono...

The Bugatti Chiron has been rebuilt without factory-supplied body panels, survived a workshop scare and tested wearing one of the wildest kits ever fitted. British YouTuber Mat Armstrong claimed that a $700,000 carbon-fibre body kit is finally ready to hit the road, but the word «finished» still needs a small, expensive asterisk.

Why the Bugatti wreck could not simply be repaired

$700,000 body kit lost its biggest flourish

Five days turned...

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 is set to mark the franchise’s return to Nintendo platforms, but early impressions suggest the Switch 2 version may be making significant visual compromises to maintain performance.

When playing in docked mode, the game’s multiplayer mode typically aims for 60 frames per second, according to a few media outlets and content creators who have tested it before the public Switch 2 beta. While the picture quality has suffered, reports indicate that the frame rate may drop during more demanding moments.

Some reviewers have noted noticeable visual artefacts around buildings, weapons, and characters, as...

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev launched 163 industrial, service and social facilities nationwide on 25 August to mark the 35th anniversary of Uzbekistan’s independence.

The expansive infrastructure rollout represents nearly 50tn soums ($4.25bn) in total investment and construction spending. Officials estimate the developments will create 15,000 jobs and generate an additional 1tn soums ($84.9mn) in annual state revenue.

The 72 commercial projects and 91 social facilities encompass a broad swath of the economy, including energy generation, agriculture, metallurgy, automotive manufacturing and education. The initiatives are part of a wider national strategy that has seen the domestic economy grow 2.5 times over...

Six Chinese citizens lost their lives following a catastrophic fire at the Amur Gas Chemical Complex in Russia’s Far East. The industrial disaster has left a tight-knit community of foreign contractors reeling as rescue operations transition into a grim recovery phase, business daily RBC reports.

Search and rescue teams working through the charred remains of the sprawling site located the bodies of four Chinese contractors during their most recent sweep. This discovery brought the total confirmed death toll to seven, comprising six Chinese nationals and one Russian worker.

Read more: At least 15 babies killed in Islamabad hospital...

Chinese technology giant Xiaomi has unveiled its latest flagship mobile processor, the Xring O3, which early testing indicates outperforms current market leaders in both speed and power efficiency.

The custom 10-core chip is confirmed to make its consumer debut powering the brand’s forthcoming premium hardware portfolio, specifically the Xiaomi 18 Fold smartphone and the Pad 9 Pro Max tablet.

Initial independent evaluations conducted by Chinese technology outlet Xiaobai’s Tech Reviews reveal the silicon has achieved exceptional results on a reference platform. During Geekbench single-core testing, the Xring O3 secured 3,854 points.

This specific metric places the component in...

At least 15 newborn babies have died in a fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences in Islamabad, the Pakistani prime minister’s office confirmed on Wednesday. One baby was rescued, while early local reports placed the death toll as high as 15.

The blaze began at about 6.45am local time inside a newborn nursery in the government-run hospital’s mother-and-child wing. Dawn initially reported that casualties were feared as emergency crews responded.

Speaking to Geo News, Health Minister Mustafa Kamal said the fatal incident occurred due to a «blast in the air...

The picturesque landscapes of Jeju Island have become the backdrop for a macabre mystery. Over a harrowing 72-hour period between 22 August and 24 August, authorities unearthed four bodies across the island. The grim discoveries scattered across a dense forest, a rocky valley and coastal waters have ripped the lid off a sprawling police misconduct scandal involving fabricated missing-person reports.

While investigators have found no definitive evidence linking the deaths to a serial killer or an organised crime syndicate, the timing points to a chilling administrative failure. At least two of the deceased were victims of a rogue police...

Taylor Swift has described Dolly Parton as “true grace and true grit” after the American country music legend died at the age of 80. Her tribute also tells the story of inheritance: how Parton inspired younger women to write their songs, shape their image, and assert their worth.

Parton died in Nashville on 25 August, according to a statement published on her official website. Her family did not disclose the cause and said a small, private service would be held.

«A world without Dolly doesn’t feel possible, real, or right,» Swift acknowledged. «But because of...

Sir Billy Boston, a towering figure in the 13-man code and the first rugby league professional to be knighted, has passed away aged 92.

The Welsh Rugby Union announced the sporting icon died peacefully overnight at a hospital in Wigan, the northern town he resided in for nearly three-quarters of a century. Tragically, his passing comes less than a week after the funeral of Lady Joan, his wife of seven decades.

Originally from Cardiff, the athlete spent his formative years playing rugby union. However, his transition to Wigan in 1953 as a 19-year-old forced an exit from the amateur-only...

India’s Young Tigresses have arrived in Tashkent with a 23-player squad for friendlies against Uzbekistan on 27 and 30 August. Both matches will take place behind closed doors, providing the teams with an early test before their Asian Cup qualifying campaigns begin in October.

Head coach Joakim Alexandersson’s team reached the Uzbek capital on Tuesday after training in Bengaluru since 16 July, the All India Football Federation said.

The games will take place at the UFA National Football Centre and kick off at 10am Tashkent time or 10.30am in India. They will be India’s first international friendlies of the...

New government figures indicated that the country’s public debt increased by $1.33 billion in the second quarter to $48.32 billion at the end of June. That amounted to 27% of forecast annual GDP, but more than $41bn was still in foreign currencies, and liabilities falling due for repayment surged.

The Ministry of Economy and Finance recorded a 2.8% quarterly increase from $46.99bn at the end of March. The debt-to-GDP ratio rose from 26.3% to 27%, although the calculation uses a preliminary forecast for the size of Uzbekistan’s economy in 2026.

The country has added $1.46bn...

Stray Kids will return to Singapore in March 2027 as part of their ongoing RUN IT world tour, with two concerts scheduled at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The eight-member K-pop group will perform on 6 and 7 March, with both shows starting at 6 p.m. local time. The concerts will feature an extended full-length stage on the arena floor, bringing the members closer to the audience alongside large-scale lighting, visuals and special effects.

Read more: Stray Kids unveil Spotify-exclusive video for «After You»

The Singapore shows will feature Bang Chan, Lee Know, Changbin...

Country music singer Jelly Roll caught viewers off guard on Monday night by delivering a monologue filled with political humour, famously celebrating his recent 300-pound weight loss by comparing it directly to Donald Trump.

Filling in for Jimmy Kimmel for the second consecutive summer, the Grammy-nominated artist used his opening segment to poke fun at the president’s reported weight fluctuations. Noting recent medical reports indicating Trump had gained 14 pounds, Jelly Roll contrasted the news with his dramatic health journey.

Read more: NASA scientists make edible 3D-printed cookies from reusable plastic

Apple is preparing to launch a new Mac mini in the coming days, potentially unveiling the desktop computer ahead of its anticipated iPhone 18 Pro event in September. This launch is expected to be the final product introduced under Tim Cook‘s leadership before he steps down as chief executive on 1 September.

The upcoming desktop machine will likely serve as a kickoff for a new generation of Apple silicon. While the current Mac mini has not yet received an M5 processor, industry reports suggest the new model could be configured with either the M5 or the unannounced M6 chip. The...

Nathan Cofnas admitted that his action caused «a series of events» that led to Jason Arday‘s death but stopped short of claiming credit for it. In his first interview since the Cambridge professor died, Cofnas defended his criticism and called Arday «incidental» to his attack on university diversity policies.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Cofnas acknowledged, «I did take an action which set off a series of events that led to a tragic outcome.»

He then set out the dilemma more starkly: «If I say that I’m not responsible, then it sounds like, kind of, I...

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has hosted a delegation from the United States House of Representatives to discuss strengthening strategic partnerships and expanding bilateral trade.

The visiting delegation included representatives Jason Smith, Greg Murphy, Ronny Jackson and Edward Case. The American lawmakers opened the meeting by congratulating Mirziyoyev and the Uzbek people on the country’s 35th anniversary of independence.

Discussions centred on economic cooperation and inter-parliamentary relations. Both sides highlighted the positive trajectory of bilateral ties, noting a 20% increase in mutual trade since the beginning of the year. This growth follows a recent telephone conversation between the leaders of...

A novel technique for changing everyday refuse into 3D-printed cookies could soon feed crews on extended galactic voyages. Backed by NASA through its Deep Space Food Challenge, this initiative employs engineered yeast strains to modify standard plastics and crop leftovers into consumable fats, proteins and synthetic tastes.

Providing sustenance during multi-year interplanetary journeys presents severe logistical hurdles due to cargo constraints. A round trip to Mars takes approximately three years and demands strict resource management. Microbiologist Lahiru Jayakody from Southern Illinois University Carbondale spearheaded the research and shared these breakthroughs during an American Chemical Society gathering in Chicago.

The...

Emma Coronel has publicly criticised television portrayals of her marriage to Joaquin «El Chapo» Guzman, dismissing the dramatised versions of their wedding as completely fabricated.

During a recent Kick livestream with content creators Lonche and Willito, the former beauty queen shared rare details about her relationship with the notorious former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel. She specifically asked viewers to ignore the exaggerated scenes featured in popular streaming series and films because they routinely invent ridiculous narratives.

A quiet family gathering

Coronel married the drug lord in 2007 when she turned 18 and he was 50. Contrary...

Uzbekistan’s proposed alphabet reform is meant to replace four endemic letterforms, reduce ambiguity in digital text and bring its Latin script closer to the wider Turkophone world. Supporters see a practical fix, but after three decades of unfinished transition, even sympathetic observers want proof that the initiators can finally make it work.

Uzbekistan’s proposed update would replace ‘Sh’ with ‘Ş’, ‘Ch’ with ‘Ç’, ‘Oʻ‘ with ‘Ö’ and ‘Gʻ’ with ‘Ğ’. ‘Ng’ would no longer be listed as a separate combination in the alphabet, although the letters would still appear together wherever Uzbek spelling requires them.

The...