Kursiv Uzbekistan (Eng)

🏛 Osh mayor Zhanarbek Akayev has proposed removing the sacred Sulaiman-Too mountain from the UNESCO World Heritage List, arguing that preservation rules are making it difficult to develop tourism and recreation around the landmark.

🚧 Akayev said projects in the protected area require approval from Kyrgyzstan’s Ministry of Culture and UNESCO, a process that can take months and often ends with proposals being rejected.

🚡 He pointed to a proposed cable car between the Sulaiman Park shopping centre and the mountain as an example. UNESCO reportedly rejected the project because it would involve construction in the protected buffer zone.

🌳 The mayor said he wants to develop the area with walking paths, benches and modern recreational infrastructure while preserving the mountain itself and keeping cafes and fast-food outlets out of the site.

🇨🇭 Akayev compared his vision to mountain resorts in Switzerland, arguing that controlled development could make Sulaiman-Too more attractive to tourists.

📜 Sulaiman-Too became Kyrgyzstan’s first UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2009. Its protected buffer zone covers almost 4,800 hectares, although a government commission has been working to revise its boundaries.

📋 Akayev said he has already discussed the proposal informally with the Culture Ministry and plans to submit an official request to remove the site from the UNESCO registry.

🤝 Azerbaijan’s largest state-owned bank, ABB, has completed the acquisition of a controlling 51% stake in Uzbekistan’s Davr Bank, marking a major expansion of the Azerbaijani lender into the Uzbek market.

💰 The deal was previously valued at around $100 million, while ABB has also discussed the possibility of acquiring a further 23% stake in the Uzbek bank.

🏦 Davr Bank, established in 2001, has around $1 billion in assets, more than 1.4 million customers and 43 branches. ABB plans to use its expertise in SME financing, microfinance, digital banking and AI to expand the bank.

⛽️ Azerbaijan’s state oil company SOCAR is also expanding in Uzbekistan, starting construction of five petrol stations as it prepares to enter the country’s retail fuel market.

🛢 SOCAR is already involved in Uzbekistan’s energy sector through the development of the North Ustyurt gas project with Uzbekneftegaz and BP, where it holds a 30% stake.

🏗 The August 23 ceremony also marked the launch of several other Azerbaijani-backed projects, including a gypsum plant, STEAM schools, residential developments, a silver processing facility and fruit orchards.

📈 Tashkent and Baku are seeking to deepen economic ties, with both countries targeting bilateral trade of $1 billion annually by 2030.

⚛️ Uzbekistan’s new nuclear safety rules, which took effect on August 20, set radiation thresholds for triggering emergency readiness and full emergency procedures at the country’s future nuclear facilities.

📡 A rise of just 0.1 microsievert per hour above the natural background level outside the plant would trigger an emergency readiness response. A reading of 20 microsieverts per hour would lead to a full emergency declaration.

🏭 Inside the plant and its protected zone, the thresholds are higher: 2.5 microsieverts per hour for emergency readiness and 200 microsieverts per hour for an emergency state. For permanently occupied worker areas, the corresponding levels are 10 and 600 microsieverts per hour.

🚨 Emergency readiness can also be activated following serious external events such as earthquakes, explosions, fires or flooding at the facility.

☢️ The rules set particularly high thresholds for the most severe emergency classification. During the Fukushima disaster, radiation levels of 16-59 microsieverts per hour were recorded 30-32 kilometres from the plant, while a reading of 115 microsieverts was measured about 21 kilometres away.

🏗 The new regulations come as Uzbekistan builds its first nuclear power plant in Jizzakh. The 2.1 GW facility, being developed with Rosatom, will combine two VVER-1000 reactors with two 55 MW small modular units.

⚛️ Uzbekistan is preparing to develop a second nuclear power station even before its first plant begins generating electricity, President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has confirmed.

🏭 Mirziyoyev said preparations would begin soon, linking the expansion of nuclear power to growing electricity demand and the needs of investors, factories and data centres.

📍 The government has not yet disclosed the location, capacity, cost or construction timeline of the second plant. It is also unclear whether it would be built at a new site or expand the existing Jizzakh project.

🏗 Uzbekistan began construction of its first nuclear complex in Jizzakh earlier this year. The Rosatom-designed facility will combine two VVER-1000 reactors with two 55 MW small modular reactors, giving it a total capacity of 2.11 GW.

💰 The first plant is estimated to cost $9.5 billion and is expected to be completed in 2034-2035. Its first small reactor could begin operating around 2029 and the facility may eventually supply about 15% of Uzbekistan’s electricity demand.

🔌 Uzatom officials have previously said the existing Farish site could potentially accommodate two additional large reactors, leaving open the possibility that the second project could be linked to the same location.

🌕 NASA has invited the Indian Space Research Organisation to participate in its planned lunar outpost at the Moon’s South Pole, potentially expanding US-India cooperation into human spaceflight and lunar exploration.

🤝 The proposal was discussed during the ninth India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group meeting at ISRO headquarters on August 5-6, where officials also covered technology development, commercial partnerships and scientific data sharing under the Artemis Accords.

🏗 NASA plans to build the lunar base in stages, starting with robotic missions and technology demonstrations before moving towards crewed operations. The outpost is intended to support future missions to Mars.

🛰 The US agency is already bringing commercial companies into the programme, with nearly $600 million in contracts awarded to Astrobotic, Firefly Aerospace and Intuitive Machines for four lunar payload deliveries by late 2028.

🇮🇳 India joined the Artemis Accords in 2023 and has already demonstrated its lunar capabilities. Chandrayaan-3 successfully landed near the Moon’s South Pole that year, making India the fourth country to achieve a soft lunar landing.

👨‍🚀 New Delhi is also pursuing its own crewed lunar mission by 2040 and plans to begin deploying the Bharatiya Antariksh Station in 2028, with the orbital station targeted for completion by 2035.

🌍 A partnership on the lunar outpost could deepen cooperation between the two countries while giving both sides an opportunity to develop technologies and experience needed for sustained human missions beyond Earth.

💰 Investment in Uzbekistan’s economy reached 338.9 trillion soums ($28.4 billion) in the first six months of 2026, up 17.5% year on year.

🏭 Manufacturing attracted the largest share at 100.5 trillion soums ($8.4 billion), followed by agriculture, forestry and fishing with $2.76 billion and construction with $2.72 billion.

⚡️ Energy projects received around $2.51 billion, while housing attracted $2.29 billion. Mining and transport and storage accounted for $1.83 billion and $1.37 billion respectively.

📊 Investment in finance and insurance was much smaller at $201 million, while arts, entertainment and recreation received about $168 million.

🚀 The latest figures follow a strong first quarter, when fixed-capital investment rose 29.6% year on year to 156.3 trillion soums.

🌍 Uzbekistan recorded 591.1 trillion soums in fixed-capital investment in 2025, as the government continues efforts to attract foreign capital into manufacturing, infrastructure and other major projects.

⚖️ Recent measures aimed at improving the investment climate include the introduction of Islamic banking and plans to transition towards an English common law framework.

💥 Spider-Man: Brand New Day has made a huge debut across Central Asia, earning more than $1 million on its opening day in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

🇺🇿 Uzbekistan recorded $90,202 in ticket sales from 15,838 admissions, making it the second-highest earning CIS market for the film’s debut.

🇰🇿 Kazakhstan led the region by a wide margin with $789,370 in opening-day revenue, while Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan added $59,711, $55,921 and $19,657 respectively.

🗣 Uzbek-language screenings accounted for 11.5% of Uzbekistan’s first-day box office, highlighting growing demand for major Hollywood releases dubbed into Uzbek.

😂 The Kazakh dub also attracted attention online for keeping some Russian dialogue unchanged, creating a joke that resonated with local audiences.

🍿 Across the five markets, 199,838 people went to cinemas on opening day, generating a combined $1.014 million in revenue.

🌍 Worldwide, the film has earned more than $1.67 billion, with its return to a more independent, street-level Spider-Man story helping attract audiences and longtime fans.

🕯 Seven Uzbek citizens have been killed in a drone strike in Nizhnekamsk, Tatarstan, Uzbekistan’s Consulate General in Kazan has confirmed.

🇷🇺 Local authorities said at least 13 people were killed and 75 injured in the attack, with 21 people reportedly hospitalised. A child was among those killed.

💔 The Uzbek Consulate expressed condolences to the victims’ families and said it was working with Russian authorities to arrange the repatriation of the bodies.

💥 The attack caused a major explosion in Nizhnekamsk, with Russian and Ukrainian sources giving different accounts of the target.

🏭 Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces struck the TANECO oil refinery, operated by Russian oil producer Tatneft. Russian independent media, meanwhile, suggested the target may have been Nizhnekamskneftekhim, a major petrochemical facility owned by Sibur.

⚠️ Tatarstan authorities said citizens of both Uzbekistan and Tajikistan were among those killed in the strike.

⚠️ WhatsApp users in several countries are reporting problems sending photos, videos, GIFs, stickers and other media, while text messages continue to work for many users.

🌎 Reports have emerged from India, the UK, France, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Spain and Colombia, with some users saying media uploads are getting stuck or taking unusually long.

📊 Downdetector data shows 41% of reports related to messaging, 40% to the app itself and 13% to notifications, although the figures reflect user reports rather than the actual number of affected users.

🔧 Restarting phones, switching between Wi-Fi and mobile data and reinstalling the app have reportedly failed to resolve the issue for some users.

🗓 The disruption comes less than a week after another WhatsApp outage affected media sharing, while an earlier issue this month mistakenly placed some accounts under review.

🏢 WhatsApp has yet to publicly explain the latest problem. The Meta-owned platform has also experienced wider outages in the past, including a major disruption in December 2024 that affected Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Threads and WhatsApp.

📈 Insurance company Uzbekinvest has retained the highest national-scale solvency rating of "uzA++" from Ahbor-Reyting, with a "Stable" outlook, following its 2025 results.

💰 The agency highlighted Uzbekinvest’s leading market position, strong capitalisation, growing insurance business, investment portfolio and risk management system as key factors behind the rating.

📊 In 2025, the company’s insurance premiums rose 27.9% to 1.61 trillion soums, while assets reached 2.57 trillion soums and net profit increased to 55.1 billion soums.

🌍 Uzbekinvest also holds strong international ratings. Moody’s upgraded its financial strength rating to "Ba1" with a "Stable" outlook in July 2026, making it the only financial institution in Uzbekistan with this rating.

⭐️ A.M. Best rates Uzbekinvest’s financial strength at "B" and its long-term issuer credit rating at 'bb', both with a stable outlook.

📜 Uzbekistan’s National Agency for Prospective Projects has licensed NAQD-EX to operate as a crypto shop, bringing the number of authorised retail digital asset brokers in the country to 14.

🏢 The regulator currently oversees four types of digital asset providers — crypto exchanges, mining pools, crypto depositories and crypto shops. There are now 22 active platforms across three of these sectors, including two major exchanges and six depositories.

📈 The crypto retail market has grown steadily since the first crypto shop licence was issued in November 2022, with Crypto Magnat, Asterium and Unex Payments among the platforms approved in 2026.

💰 The sector remains tightly regulated and costly to enter. Licensed crypto shops must pay a one-off state fee of around 1.52bn soums, followed by a monthly operating tariff of about 76.22mn soums.

🪪 Customers must also complete mandatory KYC checks and provide government-issued identification, a social security number and verified contact details before carrying out transactions.

⚠️ The regulator has also suspended several operators for violating requirements, including Crypto Market, Cryptocorp, C-Cash, T-Firm and Crypto Express, while Paynet Crypto has resumed operations after a 10-day restriction.

🛰 Uzbekistan's Samarkand-2028 Earth observation satellite has launched aboard a Chinese rocket from an offshore platform in the Yellow Sea, alongside Indonesia's Lampung 1 satellite.

🌍 Equipped with hyperspectral imaging technology and an AI module developed by Uzcosmos, the satellite will support agriculture, water management, environmental monitoring, emergency response and urban planning.

🔬 Unlike conventional Earth observation satellites, Samarkand-2028 can analyse hundreds of light wavelengths, allowing it to detect crop stress, monitor water quality, track pollution and improve natural resource management.

🇺🇿 The mission marks one of Uzbekistan's largest international space projects and strengthens the country's independent satellite capabilities ahead of the International Astronautical Congress, which will be held in Samarkand in 2028.

📈 Uzbekistan's foreign trade turnover reached $41 billion in the first half of 2026, rising 7.4% year-on-year, driven by a 28.7% increase in non-gold exports and strong growth in international services.

🏗 Imports climbed 21% as businesses increased purchases of machinery, transport equipment, vehicles and chemical products to support industrial expansion and infrastructure projects, widening the trade deficit.

🌍 China and Russia remained Uzbekistan's largest trading partners, accounting for more than 40% of total trade, while exports to Afghanistan, Central Asian neighbours and European markets also expanded.

✈️ Services became the country's largest export category, generating $6.2 billion, with tourism, transport and IT leading growth. Textile exports, chemical products and agricultural goods also posted strong gains during the six-month period.

📈 Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have agreed to increase annual trade to $2 billion after bilateral turnover reached $1.5 billion in 2025, a tenfold rise in recent years.

🏭 The two countries plan to boost mutual exports through import substitution, open trading houses and expand cooperation in energy, geology and critical minerals. More than 450 joint ventures have already been established.

⚡️ Presidents Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Sadyr Japarov also pledged to accelerate work on the Kambarata-1 hydropower plant, with final agreements expected to be signed before construction begins.

🚆 The leaders agreed to strengthen transport and border infrastructure, digitise permit procedures for freight transport and hold a joint regional forum later this year, building on the recent resolution of long-standing border issues.

🎬 Action star Jean-Claude Van Damme is expected to attend the inaugural UIM F1H2O Grand Prix of Kyrgyzstan, with organisers saying a private jet has been placed on standby in Madrid pending his final confirmation.

🚤 The championship will take place from 31 July to 2 August on Lake Issyk-Kul, marking the first time the world's premier powerboat racing series has been held in Central Asia. The venue will also become the highest-altitude circuit in F1H2O history.

🌍 Organisers expect the event to reach an audience of more than 250 million viewers across over 40 countries, with boats capable of speeds exceeding 220 km/h competing on the lake.

🎉 Alongside the racing, visitors can enjoy concerts, JetSurf demonstrations and cultural events, while organisers have also invited other global stars, including Jackie Chan and Cristiano Ronaldo, although their attendance has not been confirmed.

💳 Apple Pay and Google Pay could soon become available in Uzbekistan after recent legal changes paved the way for negotiations between the Central Bank, commercial banks, Humo, Uzcard, Apple and Google.

🏦 According to the Central Bank, banks are now working on technical integration that will allow customers to add Visa, Mastercard, Humo and Uzcard cards issued in Uzbekistan to Apple Wallet and Google Wallet.

⏳ Officials say positive news could come in the coming months, although no launch date or list of participating banks has been announced yet.

🔓 The rollout was delayed for years by Uzbekistan's data localisation rules. Amendments adopted earlier this year now allow most personal data to be processed abroad if it meets the country's information security requirements, clearing the way for global payment platforms to enter the market.

🔗 Beeline Business offers companies a single technology partner by combining connectivity, Microsoft 365, Azure cloud services and technical support, helping businesses avoid managing multiple IT vendors.

🖥 As a certified Microsoft partner, the company provides end-to-end migration to licensed software, covering infrastructure assessment, licence selection, data migration and security configuration with minimal disruption to operations.

🛡 The transition also strengthens cybersecurity through features such as multi-factor authentication, access management, backup and email filtering, while helping businesses reduce the legal and operational risks associated with unlicensed software.

📈 Beeline Business says its subscription-based Microsoft solutions allow companies to scale licences as their workforce changes, without major upfront infrastructure investments, while local specialists in Uzbekistan provide ongoing support throughout the process.

🏛 A German appellate court has ruled in favour of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), finding that Reuters could not substantiate its claim that an open letter criticising the federation was signed by "almost 3,000 athletes and coaches."

📝 The court said the online petition was open to anyone, contained many anonymous entries and lacked verification of whether signatories were athletes or coaches, making the reported figure unreliable.

🚫 Reuters has been ordered to stop repeating the disputed claim, with potential fines of up to €250,000 for violations. The news agency has since corrected its article, removing the figure and stating it had not independently verified the signatures.

🤺 The FIE welcomed the ruling, arguing that an independent review found only a small share of the names belonged to licensed athletes or coaches, while the list also included duplicate, anonymous and allegedly fictitious entries.

🚨 Emergency crews are searching for survivors after a 7.1-magnitude earthquake struck southern Japan, killing at least 13 people and triggering a suspected gas explosion at an Aeon shopping mall.

🏢 The blast occurred around an hour after the quake, trapping people inside the damaged building. Eight victims were rescued, but three later died, while several employees remain missing.

🚑 Thousands of troops and emergency responders have been deployed as hospitals struggle with a surge of casualties, widespread power outages and damaged infrastructure. Around 260,000 residents have also been ordered to evacuate.

⚠️ Authorities have warned of possible aftershocks and landslides, while major manufacturers, including Toyota, Sony and Honda, have suspended operations to assess damage and protect workers.

🏆 Team USA defeated Uzbekistan 14-10 at the inaugural WR Chess Masters in Miami after two days of Rapid and Blitz matches featuring some of the world's top grandmasters.

🇺🇸 The American team, led by Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian, edged ahead with a 5-3 lead in the Rapid section before sealing victory in the Blitz games.

🇺🇿 Uzbekistan's young stars, including Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Javokhir Sindarov, impressed throughout the event, with Sindarov claiming notable Rapid victories over Nakamura and Leinier Dominguez.

💬 Despite the defeat, Uzbekistan earned praise from their opponents, with Abdusattorov highlighting the team's strong spirit and Aronian describing beating Uzbekistan as a long-held ambition.