Latest news with #Esmeralda
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The Office gets a new chapter with spinoff ‘The Paper'; here's all you need to know
The long-awaited spinoff of The Office, titled The Paper, has unveiled its first trailer. The series adopts the mockumentary style of its predecessor but shifts the focus to the Toledo Truth Teller, a struggling local newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. The storyline follows the publication's efforts to revive itself with the help of new volunteer reporters. The comedy series is scheduled to premiere on September 4 on Peacock, which also streams both the U.K. and U.S. versions of The Office. The Paper features Domhnall Gleeson , known for his role as Bill Weasley in the Harry Potter film series, and Sabrina Impacciatore, recognized for portraying Valentina in The White Lotus. Other cast members include Gbemisola Ikumelo, Ramona Young, Tim Key, and Chelsea Frei. The trailer opens with Tim Key's character listing paper-based products: 'Toilet tissue, toilet seat protectors and local newspapers — and that is in order of quality.' It then introduces Esmeralda (Impacciatore), who presents an article she wrote titled 'You Won't Believe How Much Ben Affleck Tipped His Limo Driver.' Ned (Gleeson) enters the newsroom as the newly appointed editor-in-chief. In an exchange with Chelsea Frei's character, he acknowledges reading the paper and remarks that while it 'sucks,' the team is going to make it better. Later, Ned tells Esmeralda he hopes his arrival will not be 'too disruptive' as he works to 'shake everything up.' Esmeralda responds, 'Oh, no, no, no. Don't be so self-defecating.'
BBC News
31-07-2025
- General
- BBC News
Zoo in Birmingham announces death of three capybaras
A city zoo has announced the death of its three capybaras due to "age-related challenges".On Wednesday, Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park shared the news of the death of Katherine, Gertrude, and zoo said "all three girls" had been under close observation and care from their dedicated veterinary team due to ongoing health concerns."Now in their later years — at 13 years old — they had begun to face age-related challenges, and after thorough assessments, it was determined that the kindest and most compassionate course of action was to say goodbye," the zoo said. "This decision was made with deep care and compassion, with their wellbeing at the heart of every process."Capybaras are native to South America and are the largest living rodents in the the wild, their life expectancy is around seven to 10 Wildlife Conservation Park said: "Katherine, Gertrude, and Esmeralda were truly special members of our community. "Gentle, curious, and full of character, they were adored by visitors and held a very special place in the hearts of our staff and volunteers. "Whether you were lucky enough to see them lounging by the water or sharing quiet moments with each other, it was clear how much joy they brought to so many."They added: "We'll miss them greatly — as individuals and as a trio — and we know many of you will too." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
San Francisco Chronicle
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- San Francisco Chronicle
Ballet22 proves gender norms have no place in dance with electrifying S.F. show
A note inside the program for Ballet22's 2025 season encourages the audience to 'please clap and cheer for the dancers.' But the raucously adoring crowd at Cowell Theater for opening night hardly needed the reminder. Founded in Oakland in 2020, Ballet22 is a small but ambitious pick-up troupe with a mission that, in these politically vicious times, presents a bold and joyful resistance. This is a company of men, trans and non-binary dancers who perform in pointe shoes, and not — as with the long-famous drag troupe Les Ballets Trockadero — for the sake of farce. Put more simply: in a world where gender norms are all too often tools of oppression, Ballet22 celebrates the freedom of being fully and unapologetically yourself. These summer shows, which kicked off Saturday, July 19, mark the group's ninth in-person program. But as attacks on gender non-conformity intensify, Ballet22's vision keeps becoming more urgent — just as the dancers' pointe technique grows more impressive. Zsilas Michael Hughes, a corps member with Seattle's Pacific Northwest Ballet, was iconic on Saturday, their broad shoulders and muscled bare legs offset by the delicate white feathers of a 'Swan Lake' costume. Hughes had a lovely rubato quality, lowering that high développé leg to fifth on pointe oh so slowly. And if they struggled a bit with the balance-testing arm movements on the step up to an attitude, such honesty of effort is part of what Ballet22 offers. Daniel R. Durrett, a Boston Ballet soloist who is also one of Ballet22's three co-directors, was happy to admit in a mid-show curtain speech that he'd just had a small slip in his 'Esmeralda' variation, because 'I made it work.' (Indeed he did, improvising a cover for skipping that third round of tambourine-to-toe taps because that working foot pushing into relevé said, 'No sorry, not today.') As is customary at Ballet22 shows, every dancer got to show off a classical variation. Victor Maguad, who usually dances with Sacramento Ballet, pulled off a spectacular series of attitude hops on pointe in Leonid Lavrovsky's delicate choreography for 'Walpurgistnacht.' Trevor Williams was wonderfully playful in the famously devilish variation by Marius Petipa for 'Le Talisman.' Jake Speakman rocked the Italian fouettés in Medora's Act 2 variation from 'Le Corsaire.' But my favorite was Kobe Courtney, who trained at the San Francisco Ballet School, ravishingly fluid in her backbends as she portrayed the temple dancer Nikiya's death from 'La Bayadere.' It was Courtney who shone brightest, too, in 'City of Humans,' a sometimes serene, sometimes sassy trio to Schubert by American Ballet Theatre principal James Whiteside. Originally choreographed for three female dancers, it was previously titled 'City of Women.' In this iteration, Maguad moved with a beautiful legato smoothness. But it was Courtney who commanded the space with huge jumps and a gorgeously stretched échappé. The crowning accomplishment of the night was 'You Can Have Me!' a world premiere by former Forsythe Company member and now kNoname Artist director Roderick George, created in just two weeks. The sextet — dressed in brown tunics, sans pointe shoes — launched with a disco ball and a hip-shimmying romp through Donna Summer's 'I Feel Love.' It was something of a gut-punch when the next section brought voiceovers of newscasters discussing the AIDS epidemic, as the dancers moved in slow motion. Maguad had a beseeching solo to a clip from writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon's 2024 Ford Foundation talk: 'The reason that people are seeking to oppress you is not because you are weak or fragile. It's precisely because you're powerful and tremendous.' In the final section, to music by Pittsburgh performance collective Slowdanger, Hughes and Durrett shared an intense and often subtly virtuosic duet, Hughes curled on the floor as Durrett danced on above. The work was an ensemble statement of committed higher purpose. As co-founder Theresa Knudson announced from the stage, Ballet22 will be back at the Cowell next July, and tickets are already on sale.
The Guardian
29-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
‘We'll keep fighting': search persists for priest thought to be murdered on Pinochet torture ship
In the weak winter sunshine forensic investigators in white suits cast long shadows as they stepped between gravestones at Playa Ancha cemetery in the Chilean coastal city of Valparaíso. But as the rhythmic click of spades and the throb of an excavator faded, a third search for the remains of Michael Woodward reached a frustrating conclusion. No trace has ever been found of Woodward, an Anglo-Chilean priest who is thought to have been murdered on the Esmeralda, a Chilean navy corvette which Gen Augusto Pinochet's bloody regime used as a floating torture centre after its coup d'état on 11 September 1973. But almost two years since the Chilean state assumed responsibility for finding the missing victims of Pinochet's regime for the first time, cautious, methodical progress is being made. 'The fact that they managed to carve out a space for a permanent, ongoing public policy commitment is no mean feat,' said Dr Cath Collins, director of the transitional justice observatory at Diego Portales University in Santiago. In August 2023, the National Search Plan for Truth and Justice became an official state policy, with the aiming of centralizing information, finding the remains – or trace the final movements – of 1,469 disappeared people, and seeking reparations for their families. In the harrowing, uncertain days after Pinochet's coup, Miguel Woodward, as the tall, cheerful priest was known to his Chilean friends, laid low in the valleys around the city. Born to an English father and Chilean mother in Valparaíso and educated in the UK, he had returned to Chile to become a priest, joining a leftist political movement under the banner of socialist president Salvador Allende's Unidad Popular coalition. Early on 22 September 1973, Woodward was kidnapped from his home by a navy patrol and taken to the Universidad Santa María, which had become a makeshift detention centre. He was beaten and submerged in the campus swimming pool, before being transferred to a naval academy and then on to the Esmeralda, where he is thought to have died of the injuries sustained under torture. 'That's when our search began,' said Javier Rodríguez, 58, an affable, wild-haired construction worker with an unbreakable will to find the priest he remembers vividly as a family friend. Rodríguez founded the Friends of Miguel Woodward organisation, and has set up a cultural centre in Woodward's name, a narrow room a few doors down from where the priest was abducted, where a faded poster promoting the National Search Plan is stuck in the window. 'If Miguel were alive now, he would be marching for Palestine, for the Mapuche [Indigenous people], for all injustices,' he said. 'They murdered him because they were afraid of him.' Since democracy returned to Chile in 1990, human rights cases have made halting progress through the Chilean courts. Woodward's sister, Patricia, was able to file a case in 2002, but it was soon closed for lack of evidence. Eventually, when it was reopened on appeal, 10 low-ranking officers were implicated in his torture. Two were convicted, but neither ever served jail time. Michael Woodward's final moments have been pieced together from eyewitness accounts and testimonies, but those of many others have not – and activists fear that time is running out. 'The easy cases are all done,' said Dr Collins, 'Some of the people who might have been going to talk have died.' In Chile, the armed forces have long tried to obstruct progress, either by remaining silent or handing over partial or misleading information. Progress has been achingly slow. 'The state never did enough to find any of the disappeared, but now the resources are there,' said Rodríguez. 'Maybe the [search] plan came late, but it represents the state coming to settle its debts.' Searches are being carried out at 20 sites up and down the country, but as yet, no finds have been made – and some fear that progress could soon be checked. 'Of course there is going to be disappointment that there haven't been any big discoveries yet, but if the plan survives the next administration, that's almost an achievement in itself,' said Dr Collins. In November , Chileans will vote in a presidential election in which three of the four current leading candidates offer rightwing agendas to replace leftist president Gabriel Boric, who ratified the national search plan. Woodward's last home, painted bright blue, still stands on a Valparaíso street corner; neighbours still use 'Miguel's house' as a reference when giving directions. And despite its dark history, the Esmeralda is still in service in the Chilean navy. It is frequently picketed by protestors at ports around the world, returning periodically to haunt its victims from Valparaíso's wide bay. Chile's forensic medical service says that further searches for Woodward's body will be carried out in the cemetery in Playa Ancha imminently. 'If we find Miguel, the fight doesn't end there,' said Rodríguez. 'He lived with us and we have a history with him, but he's just one of those we are missing – there will still be hundreds more to find.' 'We'll keep fighting until we have justice, whatever that may look like.'
Yahoo
04-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Esmeralda Cruz Espino, Youngstown, Ohio
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (MyValleyTributes) – Dr. Esmeralda Cruz Espino, a respected Geriatric physician, Major in the U.S. Army Reserve and lifelong resident of Youngstown, Ohio, passed away peacefully on Monday, June 2, 2025, at the age of 83. Born on January 16, 1942, in San Miguel, Bulacan, Philippines, Esmeralda was the beloved daughter of Vicente and Angelina Espino. Find obituaries from your high school She earned her Doctor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the University of Santo Tomas in 1973 at just 21 years old. She was fluent in three languages and dedicated her life to the care of others. Esmeralda is survived by her loving son, Joseph Cruz Espino and his wife, Destiny Espino. She is preceded in death by her parents, Vicente and Angelina Espino and her grandchild, Baby Espino. A devoted mother, physician and woman of deep faith, Esmeralda was a member of the Franciscan Third Order and active in her church community. She was instrumental in forming several Filipino social and religious groups in Michigan and Northeast Ohio, including helping to establish the Michigan Santo Niño devotion and the early Youngstown Filipino-American Organization of Northeast Ohio. Esmeralda's kindness, spiritual devotion and commitment to community will be deeply missed by her family, friends, patients and all who knew her. Calling hours will be held on Friday, June 6, 2025, from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., in Schiavone Funeral Home, 1842 Belmont Avenue, Youngstown, OH 44504 and on Saturday, June 7, 2025, from 12:00 – 12:45 p.m., in Saint Edward Catholic Church, 238 Tod Lane, Youngstown, OH 44504, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 1:00 p.m. and Military Honors. A Franciscan Wake Service will be held at the church at 11:45 a.m., Saturday morning, June 7. Please visit to share 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
