On October 12, a hearing against two prominent activists began in Atyrau, the oil capital of Kazakhstan. Max Bokaev and Talgat Ayan were arrested just after the first major rally against an unpopular land reform on April 24.

Ever since a series of bankruptcies left banks unwilling to lend to him, Donald Trump has been on the lookout for partners willing to fund the buildings that bear his name.

A Financial Times investigation picks through the murky path from the former mayor of Almaty to Trump Soho.

“Almost 90 percent of the leaders of Kazakhstan youth consider themselves believers, with 86 percent of them professing Islam,” according to a survey conducted by sociologist Madina Nurgaliyeva and leading her to warn that “religiosity among young Kazakhstanis is at a critically high level.”

On June 28, three suicide bombers entered the Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, where they killed 45 people and injured 229. Although only one of the terrorist was from Russia (the other two were Uzbek and Kyrgyz), it is almost certain that that their last words to one another were in Russian. It is estimated that between 5,000 to 7,000 Russian-speaking jihadists have made Russian the second most popular language of ISIL, after Arabic.

The latest meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Algeria, on September 28, brought some relief to producers, with the price of oil finally trading above $50 per barrel for the first time in months.