Only two matches have been played at Asia Cup 2025 so far, but certain players have already displayed great skill and prowess, some with the bat, and others with the ball.
Defending champions India went up against the hosts, UAE, in the tournament’s second fixture, walking away with a statement victory. Afghanistan and Hong Kong faced each other in the opener before that, wherein the former displayed a fine run of form in both departments.
Naturally, players from these two sides currently dominate the stats charts in this edition of the ACC Asia Cup. For those interested, here’s a closer look at the top scorers, highest wicket takers, and other such fields.
Asia Cup 2025 stats after two matches
Top Run-Scorer: Sediqullah Atal (AFG) – 73 runs
Sediqullah Atal’s 73 off 52 balls played a crucial role in Afghanistan posting a challenging total of 188 against Hong Kong in the tournament opener.
In fact, he remained unbeaten during the innings, hitting six boundaries, and three sixes in the process.
The next two in this list are Afghanistan’s Azmatullah Omarzai (53) and Hong Kong’s Babar Hayat (39).
Controversies have swirled around the Salvator Mundi, attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, ever since the painting was sold for $450.3m in 2017 to the Saudi royal family. Arguments have revolved around the picture’s price tag, restoration, attribution and even its current location, but now there is a new debate.
The Christ figure in the world’s most expensive painting “is wearing women’s clothes”, according to a new study by Philipp Zitzlsperger, a professor of Medieval and Modern art history at the University of Innsbruck, Austria, whose specialities include the symbolic meaning of clothing in Renaissance art.
In “The Meaning of Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi”, an article in the latest edition of Artibus et Historiae, a semi-annual journal published by the Institute for Art Historical Research, Zitzlsperger analyses the garments in detail. He argues that the “low-cut, rectangular neckline” of Christ’s tunic is unprecedented both for a Renaissance depiction of Christ and for a male sitter “of an elevated social status”. He says that in all other paintings of Christ of the period, Christ’s tunic has a much higher collar close to the neck, and that a low-cut and embroidered neckline are typical for female portraits of the period such as Leonardo’s La Belle Ferronnière (around 1493-94) in the Musée du Louvre and Raphael’s Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga, Duchess of Urbino (1502) in the Galleria degli Uffizi.
Blue on blue
The identical blue colour of Christ’s tunic and himation (a kind of cloak) also points to a female prototype, the Austrian art historian claims. He says that in almost all other contemporary depictions of Christ of the 15th and 16th century in which the Saviour has a tunic and cloak, the tunic is painted red and the cloak blue, and that the blue-on-blue combination is a typical wardrobe choice for images of the Virgin Mary “from the 12th century onward”.
Zitzlsperger’s “working hypothesis” is “that the monochrome blue of the Leonardo Salvator’s himation and tunic signifies the union of Christ and the Virgin in the person of the Salvator Mundi… the cross-gender elements extend even to the colours of the vestments”. He even claims to observe a “slight elevation [of the tunic] suggesting the beginnings of a breast revealed by the low neckline”.
Zitzlsperger places Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi within the context of the “aesthetics of gender fluidity” in Renaissance Italy, citing Mario Equicola’s Libro di natura de amore (1525). In that book, the Italian Renaissance humanist declared: “The visage of a woman is praised if it has the features of a man; the face of a man if it has feminine features.”
“A little too sensationalist”
Other Leonardo scholars have questioned Zitzlsperger’s conclusions. Frank Zöllner, a professor of art history at Leipzig University and the author of several articles on Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi, says the paper is “an important contribution” but “a little too sensationalist”.
Zöllner adds: “To paint a dress that is similar to women’s dress does not make Christ female. Furthermore, there are Byzantine images of Christ Pancrator in which Christ is dressed entirely in blue—for example, in the Hagia Sophia mosaics in Istanbul—and Giotto painted a ‘blue Christ’ in his Stefaneschi altarpiece. Either way, dress is a key issue for our understanding of the painting.”
“It simply looks better”
Matthew Landrus, a supernumerary fellow at Wolfson College at the University of Oxford, points out there is an occasional single-colour red-on-red choice for Christ’s apparel in 14th- and 15th-century Flemish painting. “One reason for the choice of a blue tunic and himation could be that it simply looks better emerging from a black background,” he says. “It’s stylistically a smart choice. Is there a deeper meaning for this choice of colour? I have not seen enough evidence for that claim.”
Martin Kemp, an emeritus professor of art history at the University of Oxford and a leading Leonardo scholar, says: “If it were to be true that the ex-Cook version [Leonardo’s Salvator Mundi] is unique in the colour of Christ’s garments, this would support Leonardo’s authorship.”
Zitzlsperger defends his theory. “The Salvator’s attire does not make Christ female, but it does not make him male either. That’s why I speak about androgynous depictions of Christ. The rule (two colours) is confirmed by the exceptions (one colour). From my experience as a scientist, I know that critics are very happy to falsify the rule by emphasising the exceptions.”
In a paleontology “first”, a new method has been developed to directly date dinosaur eggs by using lasers to analyze eggshell fragments.
The researchers from the Hubei Institute of Geosciences in China detailed this new method in a study published on September 11.
Interestingly, the laser-based method led to successfully dating a cluster of dinosaur eggs from the Qinglongshan site, central China, to 85 million years ago (Late Cretaceous period).
The fossilised eggs, belonging to the species Placoolithus tumiaolingensis, are the first from this site to be reliably dated.
“We provide the first robust chronological constraints for these fossils, resolving long-standing uncertainties about their age,” said Dr Bi Zhao, corresponding author and a researcher at the institute, in a press release.
Dinosaur egg fossil sampled for geochronology. Credit Dr. Bi Zhao
Reliable dating method
Dating dinosaur eggs has typically been a challenge due to dependency on indirect methods, such as dating surrounding volcanic rocks.
This approach is unreliable because the proxy materials, like volcanic rock, might have been changed by geological processes or created long after the eggs were laid, resulting in incorrect age estimates.
Notably, the new technique called carbonate uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating offers a more direct and reliable solution.
It works by firing a micro-laser at an eggshell fragment to measure the ratio of uranium to lead atoms within the carbonate minerals of the shell itself.
“We fired a micro-laser at eggshell samples, vaporizing carbonate minerals into aerosol. This is analyzed by a mass spectrometer to count uranium and lead atoms. Since uranium decays into lead at a fixed rate, we were able to calculate the age by measuring accumulated lead— it’s like an atomic clock for fossils,” Zhao explained.
The team tested this technique on dinosaur eggs found at the Qinglongshan site in the Yunyang Basin.
The site is said to be China’s first national dinosaur egg fossil reserve, holding as many as 3,000 fossilized eggs across three locations.
The majority of these fossils are believed to belong to the species Placoolithus tumiaolingensis, a type of dinosaur known for having highly porous eggshells.
The specific egg sample used for dating came from a cluster of 28 eggs found within breccia-bearing siltstone.
Cretaceous period climate change
The new dating method revealed that the dinosaur eggs are approximately 85 million years old, with a margin of error of 1.7 million years.
“It revolutionizes our ability to establish global dinosaur egg chronologies,” Zhao said.
The Cretaceous period was a time of major global change, marked by intense volcanic activity and mass extinctions.
Fossils from this era provide scientists with valuable clues about the past climate.
The dinosaur eggs were laid during the Turonian epoch of the Late Cretaceous, millions of years after a period of global cooling had already begun.
This shift to a cooler climate likely contributed to a decline in dinosaur diversity and may have affected the egg-laying habits of species at the Qinglongshan site.
“Dendroolithids’ [species group] specialized pore structures may represent evolutionary adaptations to this climatic shift, as novel egg types emerged worldwide during cooling,” Zhao said.
“P. tumiaolingensis may represent an evolutionary dead end where the egg-laying dinosaur population failed to adapt successfully to cooling climates,” Zhao explained.
Researchers are already planning to expand their sampling, looking at eggs from different rock layers to build an even more detailed regional timeline.
The team highlights that this dating method is important for understanding dinosaur evolution, extinction events, and environmental changes during the Late Cretaceous period.
The findings were reported in the journal Frontiers in Earth Science.
Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunication, Shaza Fatima Khawaja, said telecom recovery teams have restored 90% of towers that went down during the floods. She said PTA USF and NTC teams were working on the ground to stabilise networks and to support emergency repairs.
The minister reported that submarine cable damage in the Red Sea also affected internet speeds. She said five cables were damaged in two waves on September 6 and 7 and one cable was hit earlier. The cumulative impact was about 1.3 terabytes of capacity. Redundancy systems and traffic re routing kept the net effect to roughly 400 gigabytes.
Shaza Fatima said restoration work focused on power water and access to tower sites. She added that emergency power solutions and fuel supply chains helped bring sites back online quickly. The minister confirmed coordination with telecom operators and international cable managers to speed repairs.
Internet monitoring shows most regions have returned to normal performance levels. Mobile voice services and SMS capacity are operating at near normal. Fixed broadband customers saw limited slowdowns while traffic was rerouted.
The government also added that contingency plans and redundancy investments reduced the overall damage and helped restore services faster.
Press freedoms worldwide have declined significantly over the past five years to hit their lowest level in 50 years, a report by a democracy think tank showed Thursday.
Afghanistan, Burkina Faso and Myanmar — already among the poorest performers in press freedoms — posted the biggest falls, the report by the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) said.
The fourth-biggest drop was in South Korea, it added, citing “a spike in defamation cases initiated by the government and its political allies against journalists, and raids on journalists’ residences”.
“The current state of democracy in the world is concerning,” IDEA secretary general Kevin Casas-Zamora, secretary general told AFP.
More than half of countries in the world (54 percent), registered a drop in one of the five key democracy indicators between 2019 and 2024, the report said.
“The most important finding in our report is the very acute deterioration in press freedom around the world,” Casas-Zamora said.
Between 2019 and 2024, it saw “the biggest drop over the past 50 years”.
“We’ve never seen such an acute deterioration in a key indicator of democratic health,” he said.
Press freedoms declined in 43 countries across all continents, including 15 in Africa and 15 in Europe.
“There’s a toxic brew that is coming together, which involves, on the one hand, heavy-handed interventions on the part of governments,” some of them “legacies of what happened during the pandemic”.
On the other hand, “you have the very negative impact of disinformation, some of which is real disinformation and some of which is used as a pretext by governments to clamp down on press freedoms”.
The think tank is concerned about the consolidation of traditional media worldwide, as well as the “disappearance in many countries of local media which plays a very important role in supporting a democratic debate”, Casas-Zamora said.
The report only covers the period 2019 to 2024 and does not include the first effects of US President Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.
But “some of the things that we saw during the election at the end of last year and in the first few months of 2025 are fairly disturbing”, Casas-Zamora said.
“Since what happens in the US has this ability to go global, this does not bode well for democracy globally,” he added.
Adam Feuerstein is a senior writer and biotech columnist, reporting on the crossroads of drug development, business, Wall Street, and biotechnology. He is also a co-host of the weekly biotech podcast The Readout Loud and author of the newsletter Adam’s Biotech Scorecard. You can reach Adam on Signal at stataf.54.
This is the online version of Adam’s Biotech Scorecard, a subscriber-only newsletter. STAT+ subscribers can sign up here to get it delivered to their inbox.
Clinical trial results presented earlier this week do not support the claim made by billionaire physician Patrick Soon-Shiong that a drug sold by his company, ImmunityBio, prolonged the lives of patients with advanced lung cancer.
The drug, Anktiva, is marketed as a treatment for a type of bladder cancer. Commercial sales are modest, and a competing, potentially superior drug from Johnson & Johnson was approved this week.
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Prepare for stiff upper lips to wobble. Clutch monogrammed hankies for period-appropriate eye-dabbing. After 15 years on our screens, the Downton Abbey saga is about to hop in its vintage Rolls and drive off into the soft-focus sunset. The third and final film spin-off, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale, is released this Friday, accompanied by a forelock-tugging farewell ITV documentary.
For six series, Downton bestrode the Sunday night schedules like a Grade II-listed colossus. Writer Julian Fellowes’s upstairs-downstairs creation followed entitled aristos and their salt-of-the-earth servants at a fictional country pile. Sure, the dialogue was clumsy, the plots soapy and the historical exposition clunked like a stately home’s antique radiators. Yet somehow, it didn’t matter.
Downton was watched by an estimated 120 million people worldwide. It won three Golden Globes, four Baftas and a whopping 15 Emmys, becoming one of British TV’s most successful exports of all time. Film sequels soon swept into cinemas, knocking over popcorn buckets with their bustles and grossing almost $300m (£222m) at the global box office.
Now, like the crumbling dream of aristocratic England it portrayed, it’s coming to an end. But what were the haw-hawing highlights? And what were the tweed-clad low points? Come with us as we ask our underpaid but grateful butler to pass the best claret and press rewind …
The five best
Matthew Crawley’s smashing Christmas
Across three series of sherry-sipping, pearl-clutching and low-stakes plotting, Downton had established itself as one of the cosiest treats on TV. So it came as a sucker punch at Christmas 2012 when Fellowes made the nation choke on its Quality Street. Mere hours after wife, Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery), had given birth to a son and heir, Matthew and his floppy fringe were devastatingly killed off in a car crash. As his vintage motor lay upside down in a ditch, the camera festively lingered on his lifeless eyes and pooling blood. Roll credits. Actor Dan Stevens went on to big things in Hollywood, but the Scrooge-like plot twist became known as “How Downton Ruined Christmas”.
Everything the Dowager Countess ever said
“Don’t be defeatist, dear, it’s very middle class.” Downton’s defining character was tart-tongued diva Violet Crawley, brought to owl-like life by the late Maggie Smith. Her innocent inquiry of “What is a weekend?” will go down in toff TV history. The pampered posho’s haughty face-pulling and delicious line delivery were a weekly highlight. Her pince-nez would pop off at a cutlery-based crime. Her nostrils flared in horror at some ghastly commoner’s etiquette error. Even her last words were positively Wildean, telling a blubbing lady’s maid at her bedside: “Stop that noise, I can’t hear myself die.”
Lady Mary’s Turkish delight
You’d think actor Theo James – him of White Lotus douchebag pedigree – could handle himself in a sex scene, but 15 years ago, the virgin Mary quite literally shagged him to death. James popped up in series one as Turkish diplomat Kemal Pamuk, who stopped off at Downton after a peace conference. During a scandalous night of passion with the Earl of Grantham’s eldest daughter, Pamuk dropped dead from a heart attack. A spot of nocturnal corpse removal helped hush it up. Fellowes has admitted that the plotline was pilfered from real life. “That was completely true,” he said. “A guest had smuggled in a man who then had a heart attack. They carried this dead body the length of one of England’s great houses, got him into his right bed and the story never got out.” What a way to go. Downton legend has it that the ghost of Mr Pamuk still haunts the back passage.
Romance below stairs Those toffs upstairs are all very well, but it’s the plucky plebs who provided the show’s heart and soul. Downton devotees grinned ear to ear when romance blossomed between honourable valet Mr Bates (Brendan Coyle) and loyal lady’s maid Anna (Joanne Froggatt). The couple had all manner of black-clad misery heaped upon them – murder trials, rapes, miscarriages, gratuitous limps – but lower-class love conquered all. Their cockle-warming arc was surpassed only by the Remains of the Day-style slow-burn courtship between butler Carson (Jim Carter) and housekeeper Mrs Hughes (Phyllis Logan). This was further improved by a comical prenuptial subplot where Mrs Hughes roped in cook Mrs Patmore (Lesley Nicol) to find out if Carson expected their union to be consummated. Cue a barrage of ye olde euphemisms: “Have you fully considered every aspect of marriage? Will she be expected to perform all wifely duties? Do you wish her to share your, er, way of life?” Carson’s eyebrows raised so far they hovered near the chandeliers.
Brendan Coyle and Joanne Froggatt film a romantic encounter as John Bates and Anna Smith. Photograph: Photograph Nick Briggs. +44(0)20/film company handout
When Sybil made us snivel When he wrote the script where the youngest Crawley sister died in childbirth, Fellowes confessed that he was “absolutely streaming with tears’’. You and us both, babes. Having boldly crossed the class divide to marry Irish chauffeur Tom “no relation to Richard” Branson (Allen Leech), husky-voiced, gold-hearted Lady Sybil (Jessica Brown Findlay) gave birth to a baby girl. However, her bumptious father and his fancy London doctor ignored the warnings of village physician Dr Clarkson, refusing to take her to hospital. Sybil promptly died from the complications of pre-eclampsia. Her heartbroken husband named their daughter Sybbie in tribute. Stop it, you’ll set me off again.
The five worst
Walk, don’t walk
Shot in the spine and sent home wounded from the first world war, that nice Matthew Crawley was told that he’d be paralysed for life from the waist down and unable to father children. Gasp! What did this mean for dear old Downton’s uncertain future? Fear not, ye of little faith. It was a mere two episodes before Matthew miraculously regained feeling in his legs and instinctively leapt from his wheelchair to help Lavinia Swire (Zoe Boyle) when she tripped over and dropped a tea tray, gallantly catching her as she fell. They should turn it into a NHS treatment.
That dog’s derriere on the opening titles Poor Isis the labrador. Not only did her name become deeply awkward during the rise of the Islamic State terrorist organisation. She was also subjected to the doggy indignity of a lingering shot of her backside on the opening credits. As the Earl of Grantham strode across the rolling grounds towards his stately home, his hound trotted alongside, bum oscillating in and out of view as her tail wagged. Isis was eventually killed off and replaced by an Andrex puppy called Teo, but out of respect, her fluffy derriere remained on the credits. It’s what she would have wanted.
Spratt’s entertainment Lady Edith’s main function was to be unlucky in love and live in the flapper girl-shaped shadow of elder sister Mary. By series five, however, she’d become a career woman. Kind of. As Edith edited a new-fangled magazine in “that” London, society was abuzz with speculation about the identity of its anonymous agony aunt Cassandra – a sort of proto-Lady Whistledown from Bridgerton. Who lay behind this mysterious nom de plume? In a camply implausible development, step forward the Dowager Countess’s bumbling butler Septimus Spratt (Jeremy Swift) – a sort of male Mrs Overall with a face like a wet weekend in Whitby. Who else? It’s a wonder Spratt found time for moonlighting, what with his interminable feud with lippy lady’s maid Mrs Denker (Sue Johnston).
O’Brien gets her ladyship in a lather
Along with scheming footman Thomas Barrow, evil lady’s maid Miss O’Brien (Siobhan Finneran) was the hiss-boo panto villain of the early series. Her most dastardly trick was the literal stuff of soap opera. Under the misapprehension that she was about to be sacked, O’Brien slyly planted a wet bar of carbolic soap on the floor beside her mistress’s bath. Pregnant Cora Crawley (Elizabeth McGovern) slipped on it and miscarried. O’Brien, in her defence, did appear full of remorse for a scene or two, before normal devious service was resumed. Sadly, it’s also the last mildly interesting storyline that Cora got.
Spew Bonneville
Dinnertime gore-fests are more traditionally associated with Game of Thrones. But anything Westeros can do, the landed gentry can do more ludicrously. There had been clumsy foreshadowing of Lord Grantham (Hugh Bonneville) having stomach problems, with the peaky patriarch grumbling about “a bit of indigestion”. Nobody expected a scene worthy of The Exorcist. During a dinner for visiting health minister (and future PM) Neville Chamberlain, the Earl’s ulcer burst and he projectile-vomited blood all over the dinner table and assembled guests. While the Earl was carted off for emergency surgery, diners daintily wiped scarlet spatter off their pearls and tiaras, before sending for another pot of Mrs Patmore’s coffee. Has Vanish stain remover been invented yet, my lordship?
It might seem like a harmless habit to linger on the loo with your phone while “taking care of business”, but research shows that prolonged toilet time can increase the risk of several health problems. Here are the main ones.
1. Haemorrhoids
A recent study found that smartphone use while doing a number two is linked to a 46% increased risk of developing haemorrhoids. A healthy toilet trip should only last two to three minutes, yet the study found that 37% of participants who used their phones while on the can spent more than five minutes there.
Haemorrhoids are enlarged blood vessels occurring in or around the anal opening. They develop due to increased pressure in the anal cushions – a part of the spongy tissue that surrounds your anus. These cushions allow the anus to expand as faeces is expelled.
Smartphone use on the toilet has been linked to a 46 per cent increased risk of developing haemorrhoids (Getty/iStock)
Sitting too long on the toilet places extra pressure on these cushions, leading to haemorrhoids, as does straining to force faeces out.
It’s estimated that between 50-85% of people worldwide suffer from haemorrhoids. Symptoms include painless bleeding, irritation, itching and discomfort. However, haemorrhoids aren’t always symptomatic. Some people have them without knowing.
Haemorrhoids can also lead to complications such as anaemia from prolonged bleeding, and strangulation or clotting within the haemorrhoid – both of which cause severe pain.
2. Anal fissures or tears
Sitting on the toilet too long can cause anal fissures or tears. They are small cuts in the anal lining. Anal fissures are often accompanied by significant pain – likened to passing broken glass when having a bowel movement, alongside bright red blood.
The anal lining is thin and sitting on the toilet for too long causes pooling of the blood, which stretches the lining, making it more prone to damage as faeces passes out.
3. Prolapse
Faeces may not be the only thing that passes out the body after sitting on the toilet. Extended loo time can increase your risk of having your rectum fall out of your body – a condition known as a rectal prolapse.
This uncommon condition occurred in one man who would often spend up to 30 minutes on the toilet playing smartphone games. One day, he found nearly 14cm of his rectum protruding out of his body while attempting a bowel movement.
About the author
Adam Taylor is a Professor of Anatomy at Lancaster University.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Prolonged sitting on the toilet increases pressure in the abdomen, which subsequently increases pressure on the pelvic floor muscles. These muscles help hold our internal organs, including our rectum, inside. But prolonged pressure can weaken these muscles.
In women, this could also result in other pelvic organs – such as a uterus – prolapsing out of the body.
Rectal prolapse is often painful, and you’ll need to visit the hospital if you have one so it can be re-inserted. If it happens repeatedly or if the case is particularly extreme, it will require surgery.
4. Pressure sores and ulcers
Prolonged sitting on the loo, particularly in the elderly, may increase the risk of pressure sores occurring on the skin that comes in contact with the toilet seat.
Prolonged sitting compresses the tissues, reducing blood flow to them. This then results in toxic substances building up in the blood which damage the tissues and cause them to breakdown. Pressure sores are painful.
5. Hiatal hernia
Prolonged sitting on the toilet and straining to defecate may contribute to hiatal hernia, particularly in susceptible people (including those who are obese or over the age of 50).
This is where part of the stomach and other abdominal organs slide through the opening in your diaphragm (a dome-shaped muscle that helps us breathe), ending up in the chest cavity.
Hiatal hernias are common, affecting 20% of people. They typically result in indigestion, stomach pains and discomfort around the ribs and chest. They can be treated with medication to reduce the amount of acid produced by the stomach or in more severe cases, require surgery.
6. Toilet seat neuropathy
Sitting too long on the toilet compresses the major nerves and blood vessels, reducing blood supply to the legs. This can cause your legs to go numb as a result – a phenomenon known as toilet seat or toilet bowl neuropathy. It usually goes away after a few minutes.
Sitting too long on the toilet compresses the major nerves and blood vessels (Getty/iStock)
But there have been some case studies where patients who passed out on the toilet after a night of drinking – subsequently spending the night there – found themselves entirely numb and unable to move. In one extreme case, a man developed gangrene, sepsis and sadly died after falling asleep on the toilet.
7. Fainting
Prolonged toilet time combined with straining may also result in fainting.
This condition, called vasovagal syncope, occurs when prolonged straining on the toilet irritates the vagus nerves. These nerves control many of the body’s automatic functions – including heart rate and blood pressure.
In the case of defecation syncope, blood pressure can drop suddenly when we stand up from the toilet. Heart rate also drops causing dizziness, light-headedness and fainting.
The healthy way to poo
To reduce your risk of suffering any of these conditions, spend as short a time seated on the loo as possible.
You could also potentially modify your position when using the loo. Some evidence suggests squatting is better for defecation, as it reduces the stress and straining needed to poo. However, other studies have shown this position could potentially increase risk of other health problems – such as risk of stroke and damage to the Achilles tendon.
Other advice includes eating more fibre and drinking water if you’re someone who regularly takes longer than five minutes to do your business as both can help you have healthier poos. They will also prevent straining while having your bowel movement.
Westlife, the popular Irish boy band, have sold more than 55 million records worldwide
An iconic Irish boyband is putting its stamp on letters and parcels.
Limited edition Westlife stamps to mark the Irish pop group’s 25th anniversary have been issued by Irish postal service An Post.
Westlife has sold more than 55 million records worldwide, and had 14 UK number one hits.
An Post said the stamps were a tribute to the band’s global success and role as “wonderful ambassadors for Ireland and its music” and the group said the recognition “means the world” to them.
But Brian McFadden – who left Westlife in 2004 – has not been featured on the stamps.
Matt Holyoak
The stamps feature band members Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan
The collection from An Post features booklets of four National Rate “N” stamps – currently €1.35 (£1.17) each, alongside 12,000 copies of a souvenir “band” stamp sheet.
Each of the stamps is dedicated to current band members Kian Egan, Mark Feehily, Nicky Byrne and Shane Filan.
“It is such an honour and privilege to be featured on Irish stamps and it is a very special way to commemorate our 25 years of Westlife touring together,” Westlife said.
“We are so grateful to the fans who’ve supported us right from the very beginning and also a special mention and thank you to An Post too. See you on the envelopes! Love Kian, Mark, Nicky and Shane.”
The stamps were designed by Shaughn McGrath Creative, who worked closely with the band.
Exclusive Westlife photography and a special commemorative ‘Sligo’ stamps are included in a ‘First Day Cover envelope’.
All of the current band members are from Sligo except Byrne who is from Dublin.
Westlife was set up by boy band manager Louis Walsh in 1998.
The band disbanded in 2012 before reuniting six years later.
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Original member Brian McFadden is not featured on any of the stamps
The lads are due to celebrate the 25th anniversary with gigs in the Royal Albert Hall in October.
Mark Feehily announced he was taking some time off in 2024, due to ill health and the remaining three members have performed without him.
Getty Images
The lads are set to mark their 25 years with special concerts in the Royal Albert Hall
Fellow Irish boyband, Boyzone, have also been featured on stamps – but in the central Asian nation of Kyrgyzstan instead of Ireland.
In the year 2000 the postal service of the central Asian nation issued stamps featuring members of Boyzone on them, as part of a series on famous faces.
A spokesperson for An Post said music, musicians and bands are popular topics for the Irish stamp programme, and rhymed off Hozier, Christy Moore, Thin Lizzy & Phil Lynott, U2, The Dubliners, Sinead O’Connor, Christy Dignam and Shane MacGowan.
Aileen Mooney, An Post’s Irish Stamps Manager, said the organisation was proud “to celebrate Westlife’s incredible journey” .
“These stamps are more than postage – they are a celebration of Irish culture, a keepsake for fans, and a lasting tribute to 25 years of Westlife,” she said.
BOGOTA, Colombia — Wind and solar power generated more than a third of Brazil’s electricity in August, the first month on record the two renewable sources have crossed that threshold, according to government data made public on Thursday and analyzed by energy think tank Ember.
The clean energy sources accounted for 34% of the country’s electricity generation last month, producing a monthly record of 19 terawatt-hours (TWh), enough to power about 119 million average Brazilian homes for a month, Ember told The Associated Press.
That surpassed the previous high of 18.6 TWh set in September 2024. The milestone came as hydroelectric output, Brazil’s dominant power source, fell to a four-year low.
“Brazil shows how a rapidly growing economy can meet its rising need for electricity with solar and wind,” said Raul Miranda, Ember’s global program director based in Rio de Janeiro.
“Solar and wind are a perfect match for Brazil’s hydropower resources, taking the pressure off in drought years. A diversified mix is a fundamental strategy for tackling risks related to climate change,” he said.
Hydropower provided 48% of electricity in August, only the second month on record it has supplied less than half of Brazil’s power. Despite the weak hydro output, fossil fuel plants, mainly powered by natural gas, coal and oil, accounted for just 14% of generation, or 7.8 TWh. In past drought years, fossil fuel use has spiked to cover shortfalls, reaching 26% in August 2021.
Ember said the rapid growth of wind and solar helped Brazil avoid similar surges this year.
Wind and solar power are also reshaping the country’s energy mix. In 2024, they generated 24% of Brazil’s electricity, more than double their share from five years earlier. Solar power grew from just over 1% of generation in 2019 to 9.6% in 2024, while wind climbed from 8.8% to 15% over the same period.
Brazil’s power sector emissions peaked in 2014 and by 2024 had fallen 31% even as electricity demand rose 22%, Ember said. The think tank credited a fifteenfold increase in wind and solar generation with outpacing demand growth and cutting fossil generation by 45%.
Ricardo Baitelo, project coordinator at Brazil’s Institute for Energy and the Environment, said the record reflects more than a decade of steady growth in wind and solar capacity, with solar expanding rapidly in recent years.
“This is a number that was expected, because the installed capacity of these sources has been built over at least 15 years and, more recently, with solar energy,” he said. “But it is undoubtedly symbolic, and you see these sources contributing a significant fraction of electricity at a given moment and showing that they are important. They are not alternative sources, they are already a well-represented part of Brazil’s electricity mix.”
He said the milestone highlights Brazil’s shift from an almost entirely hydro-based power system to one built on three main pillars: hydro, solar and wind. He added that Brazil is the only G20 country currently on track to meet the goal of sharply increasing renewable energy within the next five years — a target set at the U.N. COP28 climate summit in Dubai in 2023.
“This is the big warning and a yellow light that could turn red,” Baitelo said. “And Brazil needs to take urgent measures to avoid losing this condition and this good example of wind and solar deployment.”
Paulo Pedrosa, president of Abrace Energia, which represents large energy consumers, said Brazil’s heavy reliance on subsidies to expand renewables, particularly residential solar, has created distortions in the power market.
“The excess of renewable energy subsidy models has increased the cost of energy and, ironically, promoted the contracting of expensive thermal energy, which is necessary to keep the system balanced when there is no wind and no sun,” Pedrosa said.
He argued Brazil should focus on using its abundant clean, low-cost energy to boost industrial output and competitiveness while contributing to global decarbonization.
Baitelo warned that without reforms, fossil fuel interests could seize the opportunity to expand thermal generation in upcoming auctions, increasing greenhouse gas emissions even as renewables grow.
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