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Thursday, August 14, 2025
Magic, music, and Filipino identity illuminate 'Into the Woods' opening night
Lea Salonga as The Witch, Mikkie Volante as the Baker's Wife, and Nyoy Volante as the Baker in Theatre Group Asia's "Into the Woods." (Photo by Mark Alvarez)
By John Legaspi
Published Aug 12, 2025 03:47 pm
Ever since the announcement of its stellar cast, Theatre Group Asia’s (TGA) production of “Into The Wood” has had Filipinos spellbound—to the point that there are barely any tickets left to purchase. This reimagining of the beloved Stephen Sondheim musical features a cast of global Filipino artists, led by Eugene Domingo, Nyoy Volante, and internationally acclaimed thespians Arielle Jacobs, Josh Dela Cruz, and Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga, among others.
Sarah Facuri, Tex Ordoñez-De Leon, and Kakki Teodoro
Sarah Facuri, Tex Ordoñez-De Leon, and Kakki Teodoro
Josh Dela Cruz
Josh Dela Cruz
Lea Salonga
Lea Salonga
Nyoy and Mikkie Volante
Nyoy and Mikkie Volante
Clint Ramos and Chari Arespacochaga
Clint Ramos and Chari Arespacochaga
Eugene Domingo
Eugene Domingo
Teetin Villanueva
Teetin Villanueva
Rody Vera
Rody Vera
On Aug. 7, 2025, the curtains rose at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati City. Leading the celebration were TGA’s overall artistic and creative director, Clint Ramos, and the musical’s director, Chari Arespacochaga. They welcomed Filipino fans eager to witness the crossroads of beloved fairy tales—infused with a distinct Filipino soul.
Through theater, TGA honors the depth and richness of Philippine history and culture, creating a space where Filipinos resonate within a global context. Its vision includes bridging gaps and fostering connections among Filipinos in the international theater community to present world-class productions by Filipinos, for Filipinos.
Christopher Mohnani and Arielle Jacobs
Christopher Mohnani and Arielle Jacobs
Mariana Zobel de Ayala and son
Mariana Zobel de Ayala and son
Nic Chien and Joyce Oreña
Nic Chien and Joyce Oreña
Fernando and Kit Zobel de Ayala with their son Alvaro and daughter Sylvia
Fernando and Kit Zobel de Ayala with their son Alvaro and daughter Sylvia
Gabbi Garcia and Khalil Ramos
Gabbi Garcia and Khalil Ramos
Carol Garcia, Alice Eduardo, and Pops Fernandez
Carol Garcia, Alice Eduardo, and Pops Fernandez
Adelbert Abrigonda, Iza Calzado, and Ricky Lee
Adelbert Abrigonda, Iza Calzado, and Ricky Lee
Morissette Amon and Joreen Bautista
Morissette Amon and Joreen Bautista
Martina Campos and Abby Binay
Martina Campos and Abby Binay
Cristina and Bea Elizalde
Cristina and Bea Elizalde
San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora and Keri Zamora
San Juan City Mayor Francis Zamora and Keri Zamora
Crickette and Donnie Tantoco
Crickette and Donnie Tantoco
As “Into The Woods” continues its run, audiences can look forward to a production that not only entertains but also uplifts the collective Filipino voice—boldly weaving tradition, innovation, and identity into every note, step, and scene.
How often must I forgive?
By Manila Bulletin
Published Aug 14, 2025 12:01 am
It was common practice among the Jews to forgive three times. So Peter is going all out to double and add one, asking if we are expected to forgive seven times. Seven is the biblical number for perfection.
But Jesus raises consciousness beyond the “seventy-seven times” mentioned all the way to Lamech (Gn 4:24), and calls us to forgive as many times as it takes to be set free from desiring vengeance.
It is not counting sins against others. It is forgiving so often that we can easily lose count. Jesus knows we will experience hurt, betrayal, deceit, and a host of other offenses—but love covers this multitude of sins.
We are able to forgive because we are forgiven. Everything starts with God. Just as we love because God loves us, the same goes for forgiveness. No one of us is without sin. And yet, God in the flesh of his crucified Son, takes on all the sin that hinders us.
Forgiveness is supernatural, and we need God’s grace daily to have the ability to forgive as we should. But until we humble ourselves, and admit we have been forgiven, we will not be able to forgive from our own reserves. We need God to show us how to forgive.
First Reading • Jos 3:7-10a, 11, 13-17
The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know I am with you, as I was with Moses. Now command the priests carrying the ark of the covenant to come to a halt in the Jordan when you reach the edge of the waters.” … The people struck their tents to cross the Jordan, with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant ahead of them.
No sooner had these priestly bearers of the ark waded into the waters at the edge of the Jordan, which overflows all its banks during the entire season of the harvest, than the waters flowing from upstream halted, backing up in a solid mass for a very great distance indeed, from Adam, a city in the direction of Zarethan; while those flowing downstream toward the Salt Sea of the Arabah disappeared entirely.
Thus the people crossed over opposite Jericho. While all Israel crossed over on dry ground, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant of the Lord remained motionless on dry ground in the bed of the Jordan until the whole nation had completed the passage.
Gospel • Matthew 18:21—19:1
Peter approached Jesus and asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times. That is why the Kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who decided to settle accounts with his servants. When he began the accounting, a debtor was brought before him who owed him a huge amount.
Since he had no way of paying it back, his master ordered him to be sold, along with his wife, his children, and all his property, in payment of the debt.
At that, the servant fell down, did him homage, and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.’ Moved with compassion the master of that servant let him go and forgave him the loan.
When that servant had left, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a much smaller amount. He seized him and started to choke him, demanding, ‘Pay back what you owe.’
Falling to his knees, his fellow servant begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he refused.
Instead, he had the fellow servant put in prison until he paid back the debt. Now when his fellow servants saw what had happened, they were deeply disturbed, and went to their master and reported the whole affair.
His master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?’ Then in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay back the whole debt.
So will my heavenly Father do to you, unless each of you forgives his brother from his heart.” When Jesus finished these words, he left Galilee and went to the district of Judea across the Jordan.
Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2025,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: publishing@stpauls.ph; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.
Taylor Swift announces 12th studio album, 'The Life of a Showgirl'
Taylor Swift performs at Wembley Stadium as part of her Eras Tour June 21, 2024, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)
By The Associated Press
Published Aug 12, 2025 01:39 pm
NEW YORK (AP) — Look what you made her do — Taylor Swift has announced her 12th studio album, “The Life of a Showgirl.”
Swift announced the album on her website shortly after a countdown timer expired at 12:12 a.m. Tuesday. No release date was announced, but her site said vinyl editions of the album would ship before Oct. 13.
Fans have long theorized that Swift's 12th album would soon arrive. On Monday, Taylor Nation — an official branch of the pop superstar’s marketing team — posted a TikTok slide show of 12 images with the caption “Thinking about when she said 'See you next era…'” Swift is seen wearing orange in every image.
A special limited vinyl edition of the album will be released in “Portofino orange glitter," according to a pre-order page on her site. A special cassette edition is also available for pre-order.
Sensing a pattern, eagle-eyed fans noticed that 12 minutes earlier, the popular “New Heights” podcast posted a tease for Wednesday. The show, hosted by Swift's boyfriend and Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce alongside his brother, former Eagles center Jason Kelce, posted an orange image on social media with a mysterious silhouette, many believing to be Swift.
The podcast announced early early Tuesday that Swift would would appear on “New Heights” and a teaser video posted about her appearance showed her pulling the album from a briefcase. The actual album artwork, just as it is on her website, is blurred.
“The Life of a Showgirl” follows last year’s “The Tortured Poets Department,” announced during the 2024 Grammys and released during her record-breaking tour, which raked in over $2.2 billion across two years and five continents, making it the highest-grossing tour of all time.
The album is also her first release since Swift regained control over her entire body of work. In May, that pop star said she purchased her catalog of recordings — originally released through Big Machine Records — from their most recent owner, the private equity firm Shamrock Capital. She did not disclose the amount.
In recent years, Swift has been rerecording and releasing her first six albums in an attempt to regain control of her music. The project was instigated by Hybe America CEO Scooter Braun’s purchase and sale of her early catalog and represents Swift’s effort to control her own songs and how they’re used. Previous “Taylor’s Version” releases have been more than conventional re-recordings, arriving with new “from the vault” music, Easter eggs and visuals that deepen understanding of her work.
So far, there have been four rerecorded albums, beginning with “Fearless (Taylor’s Version)” and “Red (Taylor’s Version)” in 2021. All four have been massive commercial and cultural successes, each one debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200.
Swift’s last rerecording, “1989 (Taylor’s Version),” arrived in October 2023, just four months after the release of “Speak Now (Taylor’s Version).” That was the same year Swift claimed the record for the woman with the most No. 1 albums in history.
LIFE CHANGES DRAMATICALLY
Being in online classes while teaching but in the daily home office, I experienced a total change when it comes to the digital body language: cues you send – or don't send. Writer David Robson gets to the point in a nutshell: "Online, as in real-life, it's not just what you say – but how you say it".
Think about the last work email that you sent. Did its sentences end with full stops or exclamation marks, or did you forgo punctuation altogether? Was it peppered with emoji – or plain text? And was your response prompt, or did you have to apologise for the time it had taken to reply?
Now, consider your last Zoom call. Did you check your phone or email at least once during the meeting? And did you pause to be sure that the other speaker had finished? Or did you find yourself frequently interrupting their sentences, as you failed to take into account the slight delays in the connection?
According to the leadership expert Erica Dhawan, these are all examples of our “digital body language” – a concept that serves as the title of her new book. Like our in-person physical body language, digital body language concerns the subtle cues that signal things like our mood or engagement, and change the meaning of the words we say – be it in text, on the phone or in a video call.
Following David Robson, it is needless to say, the rise of remote working has only made these issues more urgent, but psychologists have long known that digital communication is ripe for misunderstanding.
So, what can be done? It’s indeed a question of mindfulness, so that we can be sure that our digital body language is intentional and appropriate to the situation at hand.
Do you like emojis?!? Well, first consider written communication, starting with the use of emoji and punctuation marks, like the exclamation point. Stylists may sneer, but many people (and include me in!) argue that they often help to clarify the meanings of the words themselves, much in the same way as a nodding head or a smirk in person. Whether you’re signalling urgency or excitement with ALL CAPS, impatience and irritation with an “?!?” or mutual appreciation with a fist-bump emoji, you are helping your text to convey the feelings you would have embodied in person.
It took me almost a whole year, but right now allow me to tell you: don’t feel shy about adopting these more informal digital cues, where appropriate – and be aware that others may well be expecting them.
Broadly, your use of punctuation and emojis are part of a bigger set of cues that will establish the tone of your exchanges – whether they feel formal or informal, enthusiastic or bored. Other signals will include your greetings (whether you include a friendly “Hello” at the start of the message or simply dive straight in), and your sign off (an emotionally distant “Regards” versus an enthusiastic “Thanks!”).
Honestly, sometimes I'm really getting tired of video calls and zoom meetings. They present their own unique problems. Your body language, manners and level of engagement on video-chat platforms can influence how colleagues see you and interpret your message. Even during my online teaching, I observed some students being absent-minded or even not being dressed well.
Whatever medium you use, you should remain conscious of two factors – trust and power – in all your interactions. These ratings will be subjective, of course, but if you sense there is a clear gap on either of these dimensions, you need to be more cautious.
In the past, the handshake, the smile and the smile gave us many well trusted signals,– but in online communication, our gratitude is often less apparent, or may not be expressed at all. Measures to remedy this could be as simple as sending a follow-up email, after a virtual meeting, to make it clear that you valued someone’s input, or cc’ing a junior colleague on an email to a client, acknowledging the role they played in a project. We can’t just assume that our colleagues will know how much we value them.
Erica Dhawan’s book Digital Body Language, is out now from St Martin’s Press. I learned a lot from her, especially perfecting our digital body language will take practice – but a few moments of thought each day may save hours of anxiety and confusion in the days and weeks ahead.
Earlier in this writeup, I mentioned David Robson. He is the author of The Intelligence Trap: Revolutionise Your Thinking and Make Wiser Decisions (Hodder & Stoughton/WW Norton) – out now in paperback. He is @d_a_robson on Twitter.
Since the pandemic, employees are leaving the workforce or switching jobs in droves. For many, employers have played a big part in why they're walking away. It's another big change in our business world. Read more about my thoughts in my next column here at this corner.
Rentner drohen hohe Nachzahlungen: Warum sie die Steuererklärung nicht vergessen sollten
Berlin – Rentnerinnen und Rentner haben im Juli wieder eine Erhöhung ihrer Bezüge bekommen. Doch dadurch kann es sein, dass einige über den Grundfreibetrag kommen und eine Steuererklärung abgeben müssen. Wer das vergisst, dem können Nachzahlungen, Zinsen, Strafen und sogar ein Verfahren drohen, schreibt Bild.de.
Verspätungszuschläge: „Das darf das Finanzamt“
Steuerprofi Juliane Kutzke von Taxfix erklärt gegenüber der Zeitung, dass für Rentner unter bestimmten Umständen eine Pflicht für eine Steuererklärung besteht. Sie empfiehlt, dass man, sobald man weiß, dass man betroffen ist, eine Steuererklärung einreicht. Denn sonst könne das Finanzamt Verspätungszuschläge erheben. „Das darf das Finanzamt“, betonte sie, „aber das muss auch nicht passieren.“
Die Beamten seien durchaus rücksichtsvoll, wenn man es das erste Mal nicht mitbekommen habe. Falls man vergessen hat, seine Erklärung abzugeben, empfiehlt Kutzke, sich mit dem Finanzamt in Verbindung zu setzen und die Steuererklärung so schnell wie möglich nachzureichen.
Der Verspätungszuschlag beträgt mindestens 25 Euro pro Monat und ist auf einen Betrag von 25.000 Euro beschränkt. Rentner müssen dabei selbst aktiv werden, wenn sie steuerpflichtig sind – sie bekommen keinen Hinweis der Behörden. Hier ist eine kleine Übersicht darüber, wann Rentner eine Steuererklärung abgeben müssen:
Rente: Wer muss überhaupt eine Steuererklärung abgeben?
Betroffen sind die Rentner, deren gesamte Einkünfte den Grundfreibetrag überschreiten. Dieser liegt für das Jahr 2025 bei 12.096 Euro. Zwar ist ein Teil der Altersrente steuerfrei, allerdings zählen zu dem Gesamtbetrag auch noch Einkünfte wie Mieteinnahmen, Witwenrente oder betriebliche Altersversorgung.
Wer mit allem zusammen also auf zum Beispiel 13.000 Euro kommt, liegt über dem Grundfreibetrag und muss eine Steuererklärung abgeben. Wer sich nicht sicher ist, kann sich das online mit dem Rentenbesteuerungsrechner der Vereinigten Lohnsteuerhilfe ausrechnen lassen.
Muss die gesamte Rente versteuert werden?
Noch nicht. Es fällt nämlich je nach Renteneintrittsjahr eine unterschiedliche Besteuerung der Rente an, die bis 2058 auf 100 Prozent ansteigen soll. Wer beispielsweise 2022 in den Ruhestand gegangen ist, muss 82 Prozent seines Renteneinkommens versteuern. 2025 sind es 83,5 Prozent. Dieser Wert bleibt nach Renteneintritt bestehen.
Grund ist die Neuregelung der Besteuerung im Alterseinkünftegesetz von 2005, das den Übergang von einer vorgelagerten zu einer nachgelagerten Besteuerung regelte. Das bedeutet, dass Rentenbeiträge während der Ansparphase schrittweise steuerfrei gestellt und erst die Auszahlungen besteuert werden.
Muss man dann als Rentner auch Steuern zahlen?
Steuererklärung abgeben, heißt aber nicht automatisch auf Steuern zahlen, erklärt die Vereinigte Lohnsteuerhilfe. Denn auch Rentner können in ihrer Steuererklärung Ausgaben geltend machen, die die Steuerlast drücken. Liegt das steuerpflichtige Einkommen nach diesen Abzügen dann wieder unter dem Grundfreibetrag, fallen trotz Steuererklärung keine Steuern an.
Absetzen kann man etwa Beiträge zur gesetzlichen Kranken- und Pflegeversicherung, außergewöhnliche Belastungen, haushaltsnahe Dienstleistungen und Handwerkerkosten sowie Werbungskosten. Wer keine Werbungskosten benennt, für den zieht das Finanzamt 102 Euro pauschal ab. (lma mit dpa)
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