Luxury Tourism & Heritage: Uzbekistan and Italy’s Arsenale signed a trilateral framework to launch the Samarkand Express, Central Asia’s first luxury tourist train, linking Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara and Khiva as a premium Silk Road experience. Reading Culture: Kazakhstan’s Kazakh National Digital Library reported 295,116 remote users and 891,551 downloads, adding 2,506 e-copies and scanning 127,555 pages—free access in 70 languages. SCO Media & AI: At the SCO Media Forum in Issyk-Kul, Uzbekistan’s media officials stressed building a modern information space, countering misinformation, and tackling AI-driven reliability and “algorithm ethics,” with proposals for a common media bank. Turkology Summer School: A June 29–July 3 international school for history, Turkology and Altaic studies will run in Barnaul with 30+ students from Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Uzbekistan. Music & Education: Sahib Pashazade chaired state exams at the Uzbekistan State Conservatory for folk instrument performance, with Azerbaijani composers featured in students’ repertoires. Rural Development: The World Bank approved $150m for phase two of Uzbekistan’s Rural Infrastructure Development Program, targeting 296 districts and 1.2m residents with roads, water, electricity and business development centers.