Blog

  • Sitaare Zameen Par Full Movie Collection: ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ Box Office Collection Day 11: Aamir Khan and Genelia D’Souza starrer inches closer to Rs 130 crore; collects over Rs 3 crore on second Monday |

    Sitaare Zameen Par Full Movie Collection: ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ Box Office Collection Day 11: Aamir Khan and Genelia D’Souza starrer inches closer to Rs 130 crore; collects over Rs 3 crore on second Monday |

    Aamir Khan and Genelia D’souza Deshmukh

    ‘Sitaare Zameen Par,’ starring Aamir Khan and Genelia D’Souza, has completed 11 days at the box office and, despite the release of new films, it is still maintaining a steady business at the box office. According to Sacnilk, the movie collected Rs. 3.75 crore on its second Monday (early estimates), taking it closer to the Rs. 130 crore mark.Sitaare Zameen Par Movie Review

    ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ Box Office Update Day 11

    After collecting almost Rs. 90 crore in its first week, the movie witnessed a significant growth in its second weekend. It minted over Rs. 30 crore, but then on the second Monday, i.e., day 11, there was a huge drop in the numbers. With a more than 70 percent drop, the movie collected Rs. 3.27 crore on its second Monday, taking the tally to Rs. 126.4 crore net in India across all languages.

    Here’s how the film performed day-wise collection:

    Day 1 (Friday): Rs 10.7 croreDay 2 (Saturday): Rs 20.2 croreDay 3 (Sunday): Rs 27.25 croreDay 4 (Monday): Rs 8.5 croreDay 5 (Tuesday): Rs 8.5 croreDay 6 (Wednesday): Rs 7.25 croreDay 7 (Thursday): Rs 6.5 crore

    Week 1 Collection: Rs 88.9 crore

    Day 8 (Friday): Rs 6.65 croreDay 9 (Saturday): Rs 12.6 croreDay 10 (Sunday): Rs 14.50 croreDay 11 (Monday): Rs 3.75 croreTotal: Rs 126.4 crore

    Poll

    Which aspect of ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ do you find most appealing?

    Sitaare Zameen Par day 11 occupancy

    The Aamir Khan starrer saw an overall occupancy of 14.36% in the Hindi language on Monday, June 30, 2025. The day began with moderate footfall, but the afternoon and evening shows saw a surge. Evening numbers were not bad as well, with a very slight dip in the percentage.Morning Shows: 10.69%Afternoon Shows: 14.08%Evening Shows: 16.76%Night Shows: 15.92%

    Sitaare Zameen Par makes more than Maa on June 30, 2025

    Kajol starrer ‘Maa’ made it to the box office on June 27, 2025. On Monday, i.e. its day 4 (June 30, 2025), the film collected only Rs 2.25 crore. ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’, despite the major drop, outperformed the horror thriller.

    Aamir Khan believes the audience should accept all kinds of films

    With ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’, Aamir Khan once again has brought the attention of the audience towards a very sensitive subject. He tugged at the hearts of the audience by presenting a story about kids with special needs. In an era where thrillers, high-octane dramas, and heist series are a rage, he brought something different to the table and believes that the audience should support all genres and different subjects with their heart open. “People love stories. All kinds of stories. If you only support action films, that’s all filmmakers will make. And then you will have to watch only action movies in theatres. If you like all types of films and want to watch all types of films, go to the theatres. Your support gives creators the freedom to tell diverse stories,” he said in an interview with Pinkvilla.He added that when audiences back unique stories, it gives the filmmaker the courage to bring stories that are closer to their hearts.


    Continue Reading

  • Microsoft’s ‘Blue Screen of Death’ Dies After 40 Years of Memes, Jokes, T-Shirts

    Microsoft’s ‘Blue Screen of Death’ Dies After 40 Years of Memes, Jokes, T-Shirts

    Like Pudding Pops and Benetton sweaters, another 1980s icon is gone. After 40 years of delivering the tragic news of a PC crash to Windows users, Microsoft’s infamous “blue screen of death” is going away. A black screen of death will be replacing it, albeit without the sad face.

    The blue screen of death has been around since Windows 1.0 came out in 1985. Named for its bright blue color, it’s a critical error screen that pops up on computers using the Microsoft Windows operating system when the system crashes. The text on the screen varies, but it’s sometimes accompanied by a frowning face made up of a colon and a left parenthesis. 🙁

    Microsoft says the new black screen of death, which it calls a “simplified UI for unexpected restarts,” will appear in its place starting later this summer on all Windows 11, version 24H2 devices.

    black-screen-of-death.png

    Meet the new black screen of death.

    Microsoft

    The black screen of death will show the stop code and faulty system driver, allowing IT admins to more quickly identify the issue that caused the crash, rather than having to use debugging software.

    It’s not just a cosmetic change, it’s part of Microsoft’s Windows Resiliency Initiative, which is designed to increase resiliency and security in Windows systems. In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft said that the new black screen of death is part of “streamlining the unexpected restart experience” and aiding in “quick machine recovery.” The aim is to reduce recovery time to 2 seconds following a PC crash.

    The Windows Resiliency Initiative was launched following 2024’s CrowdStrike outage, which caused systems to go offline for numerous businesses, airports and governmental services. More than 8 million devices were affected.

    A pop-culture icon

    Over 40 years, the blue screen of death worked its way into pop culture, with plenty of memes, a subreddit devoted to it, and T-shirts and other items bearing its image. 

    When Microsoft suffered a massive global IT outage due to a CrowdStrike security update in July 2024, one X user dubbed the day International BlueScreen Day, sharing a photo of a conference room full of laptops all showing the blue screen of death.

    Something about the unmistakable blue color of the error screen mixed with the frowny emoticon — and the reminder that everyone’s computer crashed once in a while — made it an icon.

    “I bought my husband a blue screen of death T-shirt and he wore it to work at Microsoft corporate headquarters back in the day,” CNET editor Gael Fashingbauer Cooper said. “I wondered for a minute if anyone would be offended, but the first day he wore it, multiple people came up to him in the cafeteria to compliment it and ask where they could buy one for themselves.”


    Continue Reading

  • Japan business mood improves despite tariff risks, BOJ tankan shows – Reuters

    1. Japan business mood improves despite tariff risks, BOJ tankan shows  Reuters
    2. Japan big makers’ confidence improves to 13 in June from 12: BOJ  毎日新聞
    3. Japan’s Large Manufacturing Index rises to 13.0 in the second quarter (Q2) of 2025 – Tankan survey  FXStreet
    4. BOJ Tankan survey, Dalai Lama speech, BRICS summit  Nikkei Asia
    5. The Bank of Japan Tankan report is due soon, here are the Reuters results as a preview  Forexlive | Forex News, Technical Analysis & Trading Tools

    Continue Reading

  • G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program – Reuters

    1. G7 urges talks to resume for deal on Iran nuclear program  Reuters
    2. G7 FMs call for resumption of talks on Iran nuclear deal  The Times of Israel
    3. Secretary Rubio’s Meeting with G7 Foreign Ministers  U.S. Department of State (.gov)
    4. G7 backs Israel-Iran ceasefire, urges fresh talks on Tehran nuclear program  India Today
    5. G7 seeks resumption of talks for agreement on Iran’s nuclear program  Hindustan Times

    Continue Reading

  • ‘Huge Demand:’ BMW Is Increasing M2 CS Production Just to Keep Up

    ‘Huge Demand:’ BMW Is Increasing M2 CS Production Just to Keep Up

    BMW’s latest M cars are hot commodities. Demand for the M5 is surpassing the automaker’s expectations, and now we have word that buyers are placing orders for the new M2 CS in greater numbers than initially predicted. This is forcing BMW to increase the number of build slots in certain markets, including in the United States.

    Sylvia Neubauer, BMW M’s Vice President of Customer, Brand, and Sales, told BMW Blog there’s “huge demand” for the new M2 variant. We don’t know how many CSs BMW plans to produce or how many each market will receive, but Neubauer said that it has had to increase allotment by “quite some units.” Demand is also up in Germany and China.



    Photo by: BMW

    The 2026 M2 CS is one of BMW’s hottest M cars ever. Under the hood is the brand’s twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter straight-six engine producing 523 horsepower and 479 pound-feet of torque. That’s 50 more hp and an extra 36 lb-ft of torque over the standard M2 with the eight-speed automatic, which is the only gearbox available in the CS. However, it is rear-wheel drive, unlike BMW’s other CS models.

    The M2 CS is also lighter than the regular M2, primarily due to its carbon-fiber body, with BMW claiming it weighs 97 pounds less. However, it still weighs in at nearly 3,800 pounds. It can reach 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds and hit a top speed of up to 188 mph, but all that performance commands a steep price.

    The 2026 M2 CS starts at $99,775 before any options, and people are lining up to pay six figures for BMW’s chunky coupe. If you want one, be prepared to stave off some competition.

    Continue Reading

  • Shingles and RSV vaccines with AS01 adjuvant reduce dementia risk

    Shingles and RSV vaccines with AS01 adjuvant reduce dementia risk

    New research reveals that vaccines enhanced with the AS01 adjuvant may help shield the aging brain from dementia, potentially redefining vaccine benefits beyond infectious disease protection.

    Study: Lower risk of dementia with AS01-adjuvanted vaccination against shingles and respiratory syncytial virus infections. Image Credit: ahmetmapush / Shutterstock

    In a recent study in npj Vaccines, researchers demonstrated the short-term (18-month) protective effects of the AS01 adjuvant against the risk of subsequent dementia. This retrospective research leveraged electronic health record data (EHR) from the TriNetX US Collaborative Network, comprising more than 436,000 US adults, approximately half of whom were administered an AS01-adjuvanted vaccine, while the rest received a comparable non-AS01-adjuvanted flu vaccine.

    Study findings revealed that participants administered AS01-adjuvanted vaccines (Shingrix or Arexvy) were at a significantly lower risk of dementia over the following 18 months than participants who received the flu vaccine. This result remained robust, irrespective of vaccine type or participant sex, suggesting that the protective effects may be attributed mainly to the adjuvant (AS01) and its potential neuroprotective immune responses. These findings open a new frontier in preventive neurology, potentially positioning AS01-adjuvanted vaccines as promising candidates for delaying or preventing dementia.

    Background

    Dementia is an umbrella term for several age-associated progressive cognitive declines that can severely hamper daily activities. Dementia represents a global public health concern, estimated to impact more than 57 million people (2021), most of whom are women. In today’s aging world, dementia prevalence continues to rise, with projections suggesting that 139 million adults will have dementia by 2050.

    Unfortunately, dementia remains without a cure, with current research efforts focused on identifying its risk factors and developing effective preventive interventions. In light of this, the current research group made an intriguing discovery in their previous work: Shingrix, a shingles vaccine, was associated with a lower risk of dementia compared to live anti-varicella-zoster virus vaccines.

    Researchers hypothesized that this either meant that shingles was linked to dementia, or AS01, an adjuvant added to Shingrix to improve its efficacy (no AS01 in live vaccines), was contributing to the observed reduced dementia risk. However, these findings were observational, which raises questions about whether this benefit was derived from better viral protection (against shingles or the varicella-zoster virus) or from interactions between the immune-boosting agents.

    About the study

    In the present study, researchers sought to isolate the effects of potential shingles-dementia associations by explicitly investigating if AS01 can alter the short-term risk of dementia diagnosis. To do this, they compared individuals who received AS01-adjuvanted vaccines with controls who received a flu vaccine devoid of AS01.

    The study compared the relative risk of dementia diagnosis among members of each cohort over the subsequent 18 months. Participant data was obtained from the United States (US) TriNetX Collaborative Network. The electronic health record (EHR) dataset comprised 436,788 US adults (60+ yrs; majority between 70-73) who were administered Shingrix (n = 103,798), Arexvy (another AS01-adjuvanted RSV vaccine; n = 35,938), or a non-AS01-adjuvanted vaccine against the common flu.

    Notably, the controls were sociodemographically and medically matched (66 variables) to cases via propensity score matching. Outcomes of interest included positive dementia diagnoses (International Classification of Diseases [ICD-10] codes) within the 18 months following study enrolment/vaccine administration.

    Statistical analyses included the Kaplan-Meier estimator for calculating incidences of outcomes, the generalised Schoenfeld approach for assumption testing, and clinically meaningful estimations using a restricted mean time lost (RMTL) model. The primary statistical comparisons were between these vaccine-defined cohorts, and analyses were also stratified by sex.

    Study findings

    The study demonstrated several compelling findings. First, AS01-adjuvanted vaccines showed impressive short-term (18 months) protective effects against the risk of dementia. Participants who received Arexvy showed a 29% lower risk of dementia compared to controls, while those who received Shingrix showed an 18% reduction. Those who received both vaccines saw a 37% lower risk.

    Notably, the protective impacts of these vaccines were statistically indistinguishable, strengthening support that the AS01 adjuvant, the only commonality between the vaccines, is a plausible explanation for the observed protective effect. Independent laboratory studies bolster this idea, though the paper’s authors note that the exact mechanisms remain speculative. They highlight that AS01 activates innate immune cells, such as microglia, thereby enhancing pathogen clearance and reducing inflammation processes implicated in Alzheimer’s disease and the risk and progression of dementia.

    Interestingly, the authors report a key limitation that may mean the protective effect is even stronger than observed. The RSV vaccine group likely included some patients who received a non-AS01 vaccine, suggesting the true impact of the AS01-adjuvanted vaccine (Arexvy) may be underestimated.

    In contrast, the hypothesized anti-viral benefits of these vaccines on dementia risk (and by extension, the potential associations between the diseases and dementia) remain unlikely. These results remained robust following sensitivity testing and adjustments for vaccine type and sex. However, the authors stress that, because the study is observational, it reveals that unmeasured confounding factors may influence an association rather than a proven causal link, and the findings.

    A. Association between AS01-adjuvanted vaccines and risk of dementia, negative control outcome, and zoster infection. Each dot and bold number represent the ratio of restricted mean time lost (RMTL) for the comparison between two cohorts, while horizontal lines and numbers in brackets are 95% confidence intervals. RMTL ratios below 1 indicate that the risk is lower in the first cohort (e.g., recipients of the RSV vaccine on the first line) than in the second (e.g., recipients of the flu vaccine). B. Associations between AS01-adjuvanted vaccines (compared to flu vaccine) and risk of dementia in females, males, and in the cohorts including people who developed dementia within the first 3 months post-vaccination.

    Conclusions

    This real-world study contributes to the growing body of evidence that AS01-adjuvanted vaccines may protect brain health beyond their intended viral targets. With both RSV and shingles vaccines showing significant dementia risk reduction (29% for RSV and 18% for shingles), their shared efficacy, rather than specific disease prevention, appears key to their holistic dementia-preventive effects.

    The findings strongly support the need for future randomized clinical trials to confirm these effects and test AS01 boosters for the prevention of dementia. If confirmed, we may be able to harness vaccine platforms not just for infectious disease control, but as tools to delay or prevent cognitive decline, thereby representing a significant paradigm shift in preventive geriatrics.

    Journal reference:

    • Taquet, M., Todd, J.A. & Harrison, P.J. Lower risk of dementia with AS01-adjuvanted vaccination against shingles and respiratory syncytial virus infections. npj Vaccines 10, 130 (2025), DOI — 10.1038/s41541-025-01172-3, https://www.nature.com/articles/s41541-025-01172-3

    Continue Reading

  • Gender Alert: Gendered Needs and Challenges of Afghans Returning from Iran and Pakistan (June 2025) – ReliefWeb

    1. Gender Alert: Gendered Needs and Challenges of Afghans Returning from Iran and Pakistan (June 2025)  ReliefWeb
    2. Over 230,000 Afghans left Iran in June ahead of return deadline: UN agency  Dawn
    3. Nowhere to run: The Afghan refugees caught in Israel’s war on Iran  Al Jazeera
    4. No Safe Return: The Case Against Deporting Afghan Refugees  The Diplomat – Asia-Pacific Current Affairs Magazine
    5. TAWDIKHABARI – Deportation of Afghan Refugees from Iran, Pakistan Discussed  TOLOnews

    Continue Reading

  • Meet Zohran Kwame Mamdani – World

    Meet Zohran Kwame Mamdani – World

    HIS rise has been swift and vertical. Donald Trump, among others, is struggling to figure out who exactly Zohran Kwame Mamdani is. They know that the newly elected Democratic mayoral candidate for New York in the Nov 4 elections stands for the liberation of Palestine.

    They probably also know that he accuses Narendra Modi of mass murder in Gujarat, even if India’s supreme court has given him the proverbial clean chit for the 2002 carnage of Muslims.

    In a pre-election interview, mayoral candidates were asked if they would help the Indian prime minister hold another rally in the city. All said no, but Mamdani went on to emphasise that he would never wish to meet Modi if elected mayor of New York.

    Zohran should not perhaps worry about that possibility if reports are true about the possible resignation of Modi in September, when he attains the retirement age of 75 that he set for all BJP office bearers.

    But Mamdani’s critics (and many supporters) don’t quite seem to know how or why he succeeded in toppling the Democratic Party’s applecart by upstaging its poster boy Andrew Cuomo in the race. Cuomo’s elitist supporters include Zionist Jews from Brooklyn, who reportedly helped mobilise a whopping $25 million to defeat Mamdani.

    They are naturally worried by the turn of events. Mamdani’s reply to them was reassuring, even disarming. Hate crimes trouble him equally, including the current antisemitic uptick across the US. His pledge to them was his proposal for an 800 per cent increase in the city’s mayoral budget to arrest hate-crimes.

    Trump, nevertheless, has called him a communist lunatic, and reports are coming in of assassination threats to the 33-year-old Ugandan migrant with a winsome smile.

    To appreciate Zohran’s secular and progressive Hindu and Muslim lineage, it might help to look for a clue in his middle name, Kwame. The one Kwame his parents possibly named him after, and who best fits the sketchy political profile we have of the Mamdanis, is Kwame Nkrumah.

    The radical left politician led Ghana to independence from Britain but was overthrown after a short tenure as president by a Western-backed military coup while he was visiting China in 1966. Nkrumah, together with Patrice Lumumba, Kenneth Kaunda and Julius Nyerere, was an idol for post-colonial masses in Africa and beyond. South Asians saw him as a genuine friend, and Jawaharlal Nehru courted him as a comrade. Some say he was the inspiration for Martin Luther King’s doctrine of peaceful resistance.

    To appreciate Zohran’s secular and progressive Hindu and Muslim lineage, it might help to look for a clue in his middle name.

    We also know that Zohran was born in Kampala, where his father of Gujarati Shia Muslim origins, began his journey as a scholar with a focus on colonialism, ethnic strife and migration. Mahmood Mamdani has written outstanding books on colonialism and society, a more widely lauded being Good Muslim, Bad Muslim. To get a handle on the phenomenon, his son is, we may benefit from discussing his father’s scholarly quest.

    In Good Muslim, Bad Muslim, Mamdani discusses the rise of political Islam, and answers questions that Americans have struggled with since Osama bin Laden, the former American protégé, staged a spectacular attack on the US. Mamdani dispels the easy description of ‘good’ Muslims being secular or Westernised and the ‘bad’ being slotted as pre-modern and fanatical. In his view, political Islam emerged from a modern encounter with the West. The terrorist movement at the centre of political Islam is an even more recent phenomenon, one “that followed America’s embrace of proxy war after its defeat in Vietnam”.

    The book seems relevant to today’s perceptions of the Israel-Iran contest. Amid the megaphoned Western vilification of ‘mullahs’ ruling Iran, a 5,000-year-old civilisation is condemned by its parvenue rivals who were largely created from the British-French division of spoils following Turkey’s defeat in 1919. Look carefully, and all the post-Cold War Western targets were utterly secular states — from Iraq to Libya, from Algeria to Syria, and from Lebanon to Yemen. Damned if you are secular, damned if you are not.

    Mamdani’s other acclaimed works include a signal point of departure in analysing the ethnic violence in Rwanda. Another work, Neither Settler nor Native: The Making and Unmaking of Permanent Minorities posits that the modern state didn’t begin with the 1648 Treaty of Westphalia, but sprang into being in 1492: the year of the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain following the ‘Reconquista’, which coincided with the European colonisation of the Americas.

    Zohran’s mother, Mira Nair, is a progressive filmmaker. Some of her acclaimed movies are seen in their approach as a facet of parallel cinema. Monsoon Wedding, Mississippi Masala, The Namesake are more widely applauded, though her cinematic work on life in the slums of Uganda is a class apart.

    Nair’s films are known for their vibrant storytelling, rich cultural textures and exploration of identity, displacement and human connections. The parents’ imprint is palpable in the son’s politics.

    What makes his win even more remarkable is that Zohran “has refused to back down from his vocal support for Palestinian liberation, a position that has long been a death knell for candidates within a party whose establishment is unabashedly pro-Israel,” said The Guardian.

    There are other compelling factors driving Mamdani’s success. His approach to New York differs from Frank Sinatra’s individualistic quest to arrive at “the top of the heap”. Zohran takes a leaf, instead, from Sahir Ludhianvi’s angst for Bombay. “Cheen o Arab hamara, Hindosta’n hamara/ Rehne ko ghar nahi hai, saara jahaa’n hamara.” (The far corners of the world belong to me, and I am its homeless citizen.)

    Like Sahir, Mamdani identifies with “those who toil in the nights, so they can enjoy the fruits of their labour in the day. Where eight hours on the factory floor or behind the wheels of a cab is enough to pay the mortgage, enough to keep the lights on, enough to send your kids to school”.

    The writer is Dawn’s correspondent in Delhi.

    jawednaqvi@gmail.com

    Published in Dawn, July 1st, 2025

    Continue Reading

  • Study Evaluates Pregnancy and Breast Milk for Clues to Childhood Obesity

    Study Evaluates Pregnancy and Breast Milk for Clues to Childhood Obesity

    Newswise — Childhood obesity may be caused by more than poor diet and insufficient physical activity. The latest research suggests that at least some of the risk for obesity may originate in the womb, where the fetus is exposed to the mother’s metabolic state, including her blood sugar levels.

    This is called “metabolic programming.” When maternal blood sugar is high during pregnancy, children tend to have higher rates of obesity and disordered glucose metabolism. They may have higher body fat in infancy, then childhood and eventually in adulthood. But could this trajectory be altered?

    Researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and colleagues are now turning their attention to breastfeeding as the next critical stage of metabolic programming. They are investigating how blood sugar levels in pregnancy affect nutrient composition of breast milk, focusing on fatty acids known to regulate offspring body fat. They also are trying to determine the impact on the child’s weight and body fat, accounting for the child’s diet.

    “We are studying the influence of maternal metabolism during pregnancy on both breast milk composition and the child’s metabolism,” said Co-Principal Investigator Jami Josefson, MD, pediatric endocrinologist and scientist at Lurie Children’s, the lead site for the study. “We are considering the entire range of blood sugar levels during pregnancy, from normal to gestational diabetes.”

    Since October 2023, the study enrolled 180 mother/baby pairs, with the goal of enrolling 400. All the mothers in this study were participants in another study that collected detailed metabolic data throughout their pregnancy. These data will be linked to their breast milk composition profiles, as well as body fat measurements of the mother and baby at 1 month, 2 months, 6 months and 2 years of age.

    “We hope to advance understanding of how in utero exposures modify lactational programming,” said Dr. Josefson. “Ultimately, our goal is to identify interventions to mitigate adverse developmental programming and prevent childhood obesity.”

    The Glycemia Range and Offspring Weight and adiposity in response To Human milk (GROWTH) study is funded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

    Dr. Josefson is the Children’s Research Fund Junior Board Research Scholar at Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Lurie Children’s. She also is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

    Daniel Robinson, MD, neonatologist and scientist at Lurie Children’s, is the Co-Principal Investigator on the GROWTH study. He is the Founders’ Board Neonatology Young Research Scholar at Manne Research Institute and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.


    Continue Reading

  • Men’s T20 World Cup: Picture clearer ahead of 2026 tournament

    Men’s T20 World Cup: Picture clearer ahead of 2026 tournament

    Asia/East Asia-Pacific

    Regional Final: October 1 to October 17Qualification Spots Available: 3Teams: Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Nepal, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Samoa, UAE

    The event with perhaps the most intrigue, budding qualifiers across two regions will combine in a nine-team Asia/East Asia-Pacific tournament, with three tournament available.

    Almost 16,000 kilometres stretch between Eastern-most Samoa and Western-most Kuwait at the tournament, and the unknowns of opposition and styles of play make this Qualifier arguably the most open.

    By virtue of their 2024 T20 World Cup participation, Nepal, Oman and Papua New Guinea were automatic entrants for the hybrid Qualifier, with the other six coming from two Sub-Regional events across each region.

    Over in East Asia-Pacific, Samoa shocked the field to win their spot through Sub-Regional Qualifier A, beating out Cook Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji on home soil in Apia.

    Caleb Jasmat’s side qualified in a final-over thriller on the last day of the competition, beating Vanuatu in a tense defence of 145, breaking the hearts of Cook Islands players watching on having been overtaken by the Samoan victory.

    Continue Reading