Latest news with #ElDorado
Express Tribune
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Shakira lights up Snapdragon Stadium on sold-out San Diego night
Colombian icon Shakira delivered a sold-out performance at Snapdragon Stadium in San Diego on June 26, marking a major milestone in her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran (LMYNL) world tour. The stadium, filled to capacity, pulsed with energy as fans cheered her electrifying performance. Announced earlier this year, the LMYNL tour transitioned from arenas in 2024 to stadiums in 2025 due to overwhelming demand. With Shakira's return to large-scale venues, fans across North America have been eager to experience her first global tour since 2018's El Dorado The chart-topping artist delivered a dynamic blend of her latest hits like Soltera alongside legendary tracks such as Hips Don't Lie and Whenever, Wherever. Her dynamic stage presence, expressive choreography, and bilingual vocals created an immersive experience that had the crowd on their feet. Live Nation also shared that Shakira's Latin America stadium leg sold nearly a million tickets, prompting an expanded North American schedule including San Diego, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. Snapdragon's event was one of 68 tour dates set to thrill audiences through November 2025. Fans posted excited updates on social media, with TikTok and X buzzing within hours of the show With stadium visuals, precision choreography, and Shakira's boundless energy, the Snapdragon concert set the bar high for upcoming U.S. and European dates. It proved once again why she is considered one of the world's most charismatic live performers.
Malay Mail
17-06-2025
- Business
- Malay Mail
El Dorado's residents trade gold for groceries as mining remains lifeline
EL DORADO, June 18 — In the Venezuelan mining community of El Dorado, the majority of residents carry around gold instead of cards or cash to pay for groceries. They live in a town named after the mythical City of Gold and untold riches — but most of them are poor. Merchants use scales to carefully weigh the flecks people guard in plastic pill bottles or wrapped in pieces of paper, and market goods are priced in weight of gold. For 0.02 grams, you can get a small packet of maize meal, for one gram a pre-packaged bag of groceries that includes flour, pasta, oil, margarine, ketchup and milk powder. A gram of gold can purchase between $85 and $100 worth of goods, but takes hours of back-breaking work to amass. If you're in luck. 'Gold is a blessing given to us so we can buy what we want, but you have to work hard,' 48-year-old Jose Tobias Tranquini told AFP in the town of 5,000 residents mostly employed in mining—legal and illegal. 'One day at the mine you might find nothing; there are lucky people who have gotten up to a kilo (2.2 pounds), but... I haven't had that kind of blessing. I've only gotten a little bit,' said Tranquini. El Dorado's residents have limited access to banking services. They could sell their gold at one of the dozens of dealers that dot the streets, but most prefer not to. Gold—unlike the battered Venezuelan currency that has lost 50 percent of its value this year—does not depreciate. A man pays at a store with grams of gold, which is the main means of payment in the mining town of El Dorado. — AFP pic No gold, no life El Dorado arose as a military fort as Britain and Venezuela squared off in 1895 over the mineral- and oil-rich region of Essequibo now at the center of an increasingly heated territorial dispute with Guyana, which has administered it for decades. The oldest inhabitants of the town remember that when it rained, particles of gold emerged from the town's clay streets. Nowadays, the streets are tarred, though potholed, and the population rely for transport mainly on motorcycles that zoom noisily to and fro. Hilda Carrero, a 73-year-old merchant, arrived in Eldorado 50 years go in the midst of a gold rush. The town, she recalls, was just 'jungle and snakes... It was ugly.' Carrero sells cans of water for 0.03 grams of gold apiece — about US$1.50 — but business, like mining hauls, is erratic. Some days she sells nothing. 'If I don't have gold I have no life,' Carrero sighed. It can be hard to make a living in a place where abundant reserves of gold, diamonds, iron, bauxite, quartz and coltan have attracted organized crime and guerrilla groups that mine illegally, and sow violence. Extortion of small business owners is rife, and 217 people were killed in the four years to 2020 in clashes between rival criminal gangs. Environmentalists also denounce an 'ecocide' in the heavily-exploited area, and mine collapses have claimed dozens of lives. Hazardous work Around El Dorado, there are numerous camps processing the gold-laden sand that miners dig up daily. In tall sheds with zinc roofs, mountains of sand are milled in machines that work with modified car engines, then washed in water and toxic mercury to separate the gold from other metals. Tiny particles almost imperceptible to the naked eye are trapped in a green mat which is shaken out to collect them. The granules are finally heated with a blowtorch to remove impurities before the gold can be traded or sold. It is hard work, and hazardous. 'The danger of this is the smoke' produced by the mercury burning off, a mill owner explained while smoking a cigarette. A family of five working at a mine visited by AFP spent four hours that day processing a ton of sand. For their efforts: one gram of gold. 'We'll use it to buy food and whatever is needed at the mill,' a worker who asked not to be named told AFP as he cupped a tiny grain of gold in coarse hands. It was a good day. — AFP
Yahoo
17-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Cal Fire suspends burn permits as fires break out in the Sacramento region
Cal Fire suspended residential debris burning permits within the state responsibility areas of Alpine, Amador, El Dorado, Sacramento and San Joaquin counties on Saturday. State responsibility areas are locations where Cal Fire is the primary emergency response agency responsible for fire suppression and prevention. Warming temperatures, dry winds and abundant grass growth are increasing fire danger across the region and making it unsafe for the public to perform burns, according to a press release from Cal Fire's Amador-El Dorado unit. Fires have already started popping up in the area. One was quickly contained in southeastern Sacramento County on Saturday after burning 80 acres and threatening several structures. Consumnes Community Service District Fire Department responded to a grass fire in the rural part of Elk Grove between Bradshaw Road and Bader Road, south of Calvine Road. The Bradshaw fire briefly prompted evacuations of a few ranch homes, according to Cal Fire. Forward progress of the fire was stopped Saturday afternoon and its cause is under investigation. The Consumnes CSD Fire Department reported no injuries and has begun a damage assessment. On Sunday another vegetation fire, along Sheridan Boulevard, south of the community of Sheridan, prompted Cal Fire to order evacuations. Those have since been lifted. By 2:54 p.m. the fire had burned 49 acres and was 20% contained. To protect homes and property Cal Fire suggests clearing all dead vegetation within 100 feet of structures and finding alternative ways to dispose of landscape debris.
Yahoo
09-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fears of violence revived after Colombian senator shot in head at campaign rally
Miguel Uribe Turbay, a Colombian senator and presidential hopeful, is in critical condition after being shot in the head at a campaign event in Bogotá on Saturday. Analysts describe the attack as the latest sign of Colombia's deteriorating security situation and deepening political polarization, warning of a return to the dark era of political violence in the 1980s and 90s. Uribe, the grandson of President Julio Cesar Turbay, spent his life fighting against political violence after his mother, Diana Turbay, was kidnapped by the Medellin Cartel and killed during a failed rescue operation in 1991. Uribe's state was described as being of 'maximum severity' in a statement today by the Santa Fé Foundation, where the senator is being treated. 'This is the kind of moment that feels really pivotal, and it's frankly a very dangerous moment in Colombian politics,' Elizabeth Dickinson, Senior Colombia Analyst at Crisis Group International, told The Miami Herald. It is the first assassination attempt of its kind in decades, with many observers comparing it to the murder of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán in 1989. Galán's son, current Bogotá Mayor Carlos Fernando Galan, told reporters this morning that Uribe is in 'the critical hours of recovery' following overnight surgery. The attack was carried out amid a heavy police presence and just minutes away from El Dorado International Airport. 'I think it tells us a lot about the very fragile security dynamics,' said Dickinson. Colombia has been facing a mounting internal security crisis this year, including intensified armed conflict in rural zones and a campaign of killings targeting police officers in April. The shooting was carried out by a 15-year-old sicario, or paid hitman, who was apprehended by police shortly after fleeing the scene. It remains unclear who ordered the attack. 'It's very clear that the motivation of this attack was to be incendiary, to exacerbate polarization, to increase the levels of violence in politics,' said Dickinson. Colombian politics have been marked by increasing tensions between the leftist incumbent, President Gustavo Petro, and conservative opposition. Uribe was a far-right candidate for the Democratic Center party, considered to be former-president Alvaro Uribe's protegé. The hopeful campaigned promising to be tough on crime and to improve security in the country. Many on the right blamed Petro personally for the attack. 'Petro, you are the only one responsible for whatever happens to Miguel Uribe and to all the other candidates,' wrote Vicky Dávila, the conservative favorite in next year's elections, in an X post on Saturday. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the chorus of criticism against Petro, who he has publicly clashed with on multiple occasions in the past. 'This is a direct threat to democracy and the result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government,' wrote Washington's top diplomat in a post on X on Saturday night. Petro has been criticized for his unconventional approach to statesmanship, often publishing rambling late-night posts on X criticizing his opponents. 'What the country really needs right now is a president who serves as a healer,' Sergio Guzmán, Director at Colombia Risk Analysis, a security think tank, told The Miami Herald. 'Unfortunately, it doesn't look like that's going to happen and without that we can expect more episodes of political violence,' added the analyst. Uribe's shooting is a powerful symbol in Colombia, where many remember his journalist mother's high-profile murder. 'It's really tragic, actually, to see this sort of cycle of violence within his own family,' said Dickinson. The analyst described how Uribe's experience of violence from a young age defined his politics. 'Whether you agreed with his ideals or not, he came down very clearly on that subject, which is that violence has no role in politics,' explained Dickinson. But the attack has shown violence is once again a part of Colombian politics, with many observers fearing it is just the tip of the iceberg.
BBC News
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Paul Weller's version of dad's song 'the ultimate tribute'
The family of Londonderry singer-songwriter Eamon Friel have described a Paul Weller cover as the "ultimate tribute". The song, El Dorado, features on Find El Dorado, an album of other artists' songs that Weller says he has carried with him for former frontman of The Jam has been in Derry this week to meet the Friel Friel's son Colum said he had been looking forward to meeting Weller for months, adding "it's like a dream come true". "It is the ultimate tribute. He has done a lot for our family. I always said he (Colum's dad) didn't get the credit he deserved, now he finally is. "I couldn't be any happier about it."Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's Mark Patterson Show, Paul Weller said of El Dorado, "it is just a great song".Eamon's wife Caitlín said it was a "song I always liked", adding she told Paul Weller his version is "wonderful, really lovely. You did a great job". Paul Weller said he first heard El Dorado when "a mate of mine sent it to me".The song was written for a film made in Derry in the mid 1980s called The Best mate who sent it to Weller was Mark Holden, a music manager from Derry who had managed The Touts, a local band who have supported Weller."He sent me the tune, and the clip from The Best Man, and I just thought what a great song," Weller said."I loved the song, and we did it… we got in touch with Colum first to make sure it was alright to use it," he said, adding "it is just a great song."During his visit to the north west Weller also took in a Christy Moore concert in Derry's Millennium Forum on Wednesday artists whose songs feature on the upcoming Paul Weller album include The Kinks , the Bee Gees and Bobby Charles. Eamon Friel, who was a BBC broadcaster, died in June 2019 after a short singer-songwriter recorded a number of albums, including The Streets Forget, Here is the River and The Waltz of the first took to the BBC airwaves back in the 1980s presenting Friel's Fancy on Radio Foyle, in a broadcast career that spanned over 30 former teacher quickly gained a reputation for his in-depth knowledge of music and was recognised by his industry peers with a Sony award.
