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Day: July 21, 2025
“Gotta love front desk life.”
The post Fury at How Guest Insists on Trying To Check In at Hotel: ‘Absolutely Not’ first appeared on Capitol Riot – capitol-riot.com.
Whisper Wave takes the internet ASMR craze offline — and straight to your nervous system.
The post This ASMR spa doesn’t do massages — but will scratch your head, brush you with feathers and whisper in your ear for $150 first appeared on Capitol Riot – capitol-riot.com.
“Like, when we were shooting that walk up towards the tree, it was… just a dream.”
The post ‘The Gilded Age’ Star Harry Richardson Says the Larian Proposal Scene Was Even More “Magical” In Real Life: “Like I Was In A Painting” first appeared on Capitol Riot – capitol-riot.com.
Kyrgyzstan’s Minister of Water Resources, Agriculture, and Processing Industry, Bakyt Torobaev, has called on domestic millers to produce at least 200,000 tons of wheat annually in a bid to reduce the country’s reliance on flour imports. His remarks came during a groundbreaking ceremony for a new flour mill in the northern Chui region.
Torobaev emphasized the need to boost local wheat production to cover at least four to five months of national flour demand each year. He also urged producers to work toward gradually lowering retail prices.
“If flour producers work closely with farmers, understand and address their challenges, the situation will improve. The Ministry of Agriculture is ready to support the sector from seed selection and soil analysis to mechanization,” he stated.
With coordinated efforts, the minister believes that the cost of domestically milled flour could become competitive with imports from Kazakhstan and Russia.
Tackling Price Volatility and Import Dependence
Due to limited domestic production, Kyrgyz flour is currently more expensive than imported alternatives. This price gap has left the country vulnerable: any disruption in imports has previously led to sharp increases in bread prices.
Nevertheless, the local milling industry has shown robust growth in 2025. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, 215,000 tons of grain were processed in the first five months of the year. Once the new plant in Chui becomes operational, total national milling capacity is expected to exceed 300,000 tons annually.
Expanding Capacity and Mechanization
To support expanded production, 1,500 units of harvesting equipment have been deployed across Kyrgyzstan’s wheat-growing regions. The government has also relocated machinery from the Issyk-Kul and Naryn regions to high-output areas such as the south, Talas, and Chui. Harvesting operations are ongoing without interruption.
Official statistics show that agriculture is becoming a major engine of economic growth. In the first half of 2025, GDP grew by 11.7%, surpassing 700 billion KGS ($8 billion). The food processing industry alone contributed 50 billion KGS ($500 million) to this growth.
The post Kyrgyzstan Pushes for Flour Self-Sufficiency first appeared on Capitol Riot – capitol-riot.com.
Between 2021 and 2024, Kazakhstan more than doubled its public spending on sports from KZT 153 billion (USD 289 million) to KZT 315 billion (USD 594 million). Yet, the country has not achieved a breakthrough in high-performance sports. A new report by the analytical portal Ranking.kz highlights why substantial investments have failed to deliver world-class results.
Spending More, Achieving Less
An audit by Kazakhstan’s Supreme Audit Chamber revealed declining efficiency in sports sector spending. Over three years, violations totaling KZT 17 billion (USD 32 million) were identified. KZT 13.7 billion (USD 26 million) was categorized as ineffective spending, while KZT 2.8 billion (USD 5.3 million) was lost due to poor planning.
Despite numerous strategic documents, the sector still lacks a centralized development strategy. Objectives are often recycled from one policy to the next, with no clear implementation mechanisms or performance evaluations.
Funding distribution is also inconsistent. In some cases, more resources go to non-Olympic sports, while Olympic disciplines remain underfunded. Nineteen of the 46 Olympic sports had no training programs, and Kazakhstan failed to send athletes to Olympic qualifiers in five disciplines, despite spending KZT 2 billion (USD 3.8 million) on them.
Million-Dollar Bonuses vs. Grassroots Development
While efficiency falters, some officials are awarding themselves generous bonuses. Staff at the “Sports Development Directorate” received over KZT 3.5 billion (USD 6.6 million) in bonuses over three years, averaging KZT 7.7 million (USD 14,500) per person annually, or roughly KZT 640,000 (USD 1,200) per month, often exceeding their base salaries.
In contrast, funding for grassroots sports has declined. According to the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, in 2023, KZT 121 billion (USD 228 million) was allocated to youth sports schools (DYuSSh). That figure dropped to KZT 91 billion (USD 172 million) in 2024.
Payroll funding has been reduced by nearly 25%, and National Schools of Olympic Reserve (RShVSM) experienced cuts of up to 65.9%.
Meanwhile, funding for sports boarding schools for gifted children rose by 69.3%, reaching KZT 29.7 billion (USD 56 million). Schools of higher sports mastery and Olympic preparation centers each received KZT 16.7 billion (USD 31.5 million).
The Ministry has pledged to introduce a per capita funding system for youth sports schools starting in 2026. This reform aims to improve transparency and better align funding with children’s sports preferences.
Participation in Decline
Despite rising budgets, participation in sports is falling. In 2024, the number of Kazakh citizens engaged in sports dropped by 750,000 to 8.4 million. Of these, 6.9 million attend sports clubs or sections, a 9.8% decrease from the previous year.
Olympic sports remain the most popular, with 4.3 million participants, followed by non-Olympic sports (1.8 million) and traditional national sports (667,000).
Football leads with over 1.1 million players, followed by volleyball (768,000) and basketball (656,000).
Kazakhstan has over 37,500 sports facilities, including 21,800 outdoor grounds and around 10,000 indoor gyms, two-thirds of which are operated by educational institutions.
On paper, Kazakhstan appears to be making significant investments in sports. In practice, however, the absence of a coherent strategy, inefficient spending, and misplaced priorities continue to undermine progress. While elite training centers receive increased funding, support for grassroots and Olympic sports is shrinking. Without comprehensive structural reform, even billion-tenge budgets are unlikely to turn Kazakhstan into a global sports powerhouse.
The post Why Kazakhstan Still Isn’t a Sports Power, Despite Massive Investment first appeared on Capitol Riot – capitol-riot.com.
Scottie Scheffler has been a tremendous force in men’s professional golf in recent years, but he thinks he’s nowhere near the likes of Tiger Woods.
The post Here’s 1 Word Scottie Scheffler Has for Those Who Compare Him to Tiger Woods first appeared on Capitol Riot – capitol-riot.com.