Politics
Local authorities have been told to prepare three-year plans for improving local roads. The practical questions for drivers are how repairs will be accepted and who pays when defects appear during the contractor’s warranty period.
Politics
Kazakhstan’s deputy foreign minister met a special representative of the OSCE chairperson. They discussed the December ministerial council in Lugano and ways to build trust. This was a diplomatic exchange, not a newly agreed peace deal.
Politics
A modular post for four border guards has been installed in Kazakhstan’s Katon-Karagay district. Regional officials say it will operate seasonally from June to September. We explain its purpose and the limits of the announcement for travellers.
Politics
The European Commission has presented a plan for sudden mass irregular arrivals. It combines early warning, a stronger Frontex, action against smugglers, digital monitoring and faster returns.
Politics
The UN General Assembly closed its High-Level Week with a meeting on the total elimination of nuclear weapons. Against wars and strikes on nuclear infrastructure, states returned to safeguards, arms control and the principle that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought.
Politics
The UN General Assembly is holding a high-level meeting in New York for the 25th anniversary of the Durban Declaration. The central question is how to turn promises of racial equality into working measures against discrimination, xenophobia and hate speech.
Politics
Kazakhstan’s foreign minister held talks with counterparts from Cyprus, Georgia, and Romania during the 81st UN General Assembly. Energy, investment, transport, logistics, and the Middle Corridor were on the agenda. Here is what the official record confirms and which practical steps are still needed before the meetings produce measurable results.
Politics
The Caspian search operation has ended: of the 17 service members swept out to sea during a training mission, three were rescued and 14 died. Five officials have been placed in temporary detention as suspects while the investigation continues. We separate confirmed facts about the case and family support from questions that remain unanswered.
Politics
On 23 August Kazakhstan elects its Kurultai for the first time — a single-chamber parliament under a new constitution in which some 84% of the text was rewritten. The argument is about the reset of presidential terms, but that is a consequence. No system has solved how a ruler stops ruling and survives.
Politics
In a famous painting people raise their hands and swear not to disperse until they have come to an agreement. Nothing heroic at first glance — just an argument, just voices. But the moment when people chose to argue rather than kill one another is one of humanity's greatest achievements, paid for in blood.
Politics
Those who were never in a war speak of it handsomely; those who were speak quietly or not at all. In textbooks a war is arrows on a map and dates, but its real unit of measure is one son who did not come home. Where the line runs between defending peace and loving war. A strong army exists so that it never has to be used.
Politics
Wars rarely end the way they begin. Historians identify a few standard endings: decisive victory, which happens less often than people think; exhaustion, when both sides sit down at the table out of tiredness rather than generosity; and a freeze, as in Korea after 1953 — a border exists, a peace treaty does not.
Politics
No parliament ever passed a law creating a corruption tax, yet everyone pays it: in the price of bread, in the queue at the clinic, in the permit that gets speeded up. A builder writes the bribe into the estimate and the flat buyer pays it. One difference from an ordinary tax: it builds neither roads nor schools.
Politics
Seven hundred years ago Lorenzetti was commissioned to paint on the wall of a city council what separates good government from bad. He painted neither thrones nor battles but ordinary life: where rule is good, people work, trade and dance; where it is bad, there is fear and emptiness. Power is examined in an ordinary kitchen.
Politics
On 16 July Trump announced the declassification of intelligence on election security and said China had illegally obtained 220 million files on American voters. Three separate claims that must not be blurred together: a vulnerability, an attempt to interfere, and a vote actually rewritten are not the same thing.
Politics
A society where everyone thinks alike is not peace but either a graveyard or a barracks. Where not a single person disagrees, it usually means not that everyone is content but that the dissenters are afraid to open their mouths. The wall that gags your opponent today will stand in front of you tomorrow.
Politics
The rule of law sounds like dry legal language, but a simple idea stands behind it: rules must sit above people, including the most powerful. Where a person rules, the law shifts with the mood of power and nobody knows what tomorrow holds. Where law rules, the ruler obeys the same rules and people can plan.
Politics
In one week, strikes hit a desalination plant in Kuwait, a grain ship off Odesa and tankers at Novorossiysk, through which about 80% of Kazakhstan's oil exports pass. Transit through the Strait of Hormuz fell by 62%. Four warring sides, one method: strike the infrastructure rather than the army.
Politics
It is easy to be disappointed by elections: it can seem that nothing changes anyway. Their point is not only who wins on a particular day. Their main function is quiet and constant — they make power dependent on people. A peaceful button marked replace is one of humanity's underrated inventions.
