Can Uzbekistan turn its grapes into a global brand?
Uzbekistan’s grape exports have grown rapidly. In January-August 2025, the country exported 86,200 tonnes of fresh grapes worth $78.3 million...
Ye will perform in Tbilisi on 12 June as part of a Georgian government-funded programme, despite being barred from entering the U.K. and facing mounting concert cancellations across Europe.
He cannot enter the United Kingdom. His European dates are falling like dominoes. And yet, on 12 June, Kanye West - performing under his legal name, Ye - will take the stage at Tbilisi’s Dinamo Arena, backed by the Georgian state budget.
The concert forms part of Starring Georgia, a government-funded cultural programme. Ticket prices have not yet been announced.
The booking comes at a particularly sensitive moment. Britain recently barred Ye from entering the country ahead of his planned headline appearance at London’s Wireless Festival, citing public interest concerns linked to his well-documented history of antisemitic remarks and behaviour.
The festival was subsequently cancelled altogether. Concerts in Poland and Switzerland have since reportedly followed suit.
Georgia, however, appears unwilling to follow that lead.
The decision to spend public funds on one of the world’s most controversial artists has already sparked criticism within Georgia. The country faces significant social pressures - from healthcare demands to support for people displaced by Russia’s occupation of Abkhazia and South Ossetia - and many critics argue that directing state money towards Ye is difficult to justify.
There is also a political dimension to the controversy. Georgian Dream, the ruling party, has spent years portraying Western pressure as foreign interference. Hosting an artist recently barred by a key Western ally sits awkwardly alongside Georgia’s stated European ambitions — a contradiction critics have been quick to highlight.
Ye’s next scheduled performance before Tbilisi is in New Delhi on 23 May, with a wider European and Turkish tour expected to follow. Whether further cancellations are imminent remains an open question across the continent.
In Tbilisi, for now, the show is still going ahead.
The co-pilot of Israel bound flydubai flight attempted to carry out a “terrorist attack” with an axe during the flight, the United Arab Emirates prosecutor general said on Saturday.
Hammam al-Hammami, the Flydubai co-pilot accused of stabbing the captain of an Israel-bound flight on Wednesday in a suspected terrorist attack, was banned from flying by Oman over concerns about his radical views, U.S. media reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.
Two Iranian nationals have been charged in Britain with preparing a suspected terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community in northern England, police said on Friday (2 October).
A major bridge across the Dnipro river in Kyiv was hit in a Russian air attack on Saturday, the city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko said, as strikes on the capital's infrastructure continue.
Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev warned against interference from outside actors in remarks at the 8th Congress of the New Azerbaijan Party in Baku on Friday 2 October.
Exiled Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev confronts conscription and moral compromise in wartime Russia in Minotaur, a drama released nearly five years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
As Ethiopia's rainy season retreats and the landscape turns green beneath clearer skies, millions of Oromo people gather to celebrate Irreecha, a festival of thanksgiving, renewal and community.
A 13-month-old Chihuahua named Comando is helping Mexico’s National Guard connect with the public, becoming its smallest canine member and an unusual addition to the country’s K9 force.
In a workshop in Margilan, in eastern Uzbekistan's Fergana Region, silk threads are still being transformed into brightly coloured atlas and adras fabrics using techniques passed down through generations.
An online petition is calling for singer Pink to be removed from her UNICEF role following criticism of Macklemore over his pro-Palestinian remarks during Ed Sheeran’s U.S. tour.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment