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The Hindu
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Sicyon, Mahler, Promiseofthefuture, Art Collector and Aces Up excel
Sicyon, Mahler, Promiseofthefuture, Art Collector and Aces Up excelled when the horses were exercised here on Thursday morning (July 3). Inner sand: 1000m: Fortis (Shreyas) 1-8.5, 600/40. Moved well. Outer sand: 600m: Gold Bar (rb) 44.5. Moved freely. The Strikingly (-) 44. Moved on the bit. Steely Challenge (Arul), Detective Conan (-) 44. Former finished eight lengths ahead. Shubankar (Laxman S) 44. Shaped well. Hanumanmahabala (Neeraj), Dubai Touch (A. Prakash) 45.5. They moved freely. Gusto's Baby (Likith) 43. In fine condition. Uchchaihshravas (Neeraj) 44.5. Moved well. 1000m: True Faith (Arul) 1-16.5, 600/42. Pleased. Elysium (Shreyas) 1-15.5, 600/46. Easy. December Caspian (Qureshi) 1-16, 600/43.5. in fine trim. Meadow Springs (Ritesh G) 1-15, 600/42. Strode out well. Art Collector (P. Trevor) 1-10.5, 600/42.5. Moved attractively. 1200m: Sicyon (Shreyas) 1-23.5, 1,000/1-9.5, 600/42. Moved fluently. All Attraction (G. Vivek), Victoriaraya (Vaibhav) 1-31, 1,000/1-15.5, 600/43.5. They finished together. Aces Up (R. Pradeep), Magnetic Persona (Chetan K) 1-30, 1,000/1-10, 600/42.5. Former put up a fine display. Power Pilot (Chetan K), Hushed (R. Pradeep) 1-29.5, 1,000/1-12, 600/43. Former finished six lengths ahead. 1400m: Verrazzano (rb) 1-46, (1,400-600) 56.5. Eased up. Promiseofthefuture (Pavan), Sapparo (Arvind) 1-39, 1,200/1-24.5, 1,000/1-11.5, 600/44.5. Former started three lengths behind and fished two lengths in front. Mahler (P. Trevor) 1-38.5, 1,200/1-24, 1,000/1-10.5, 600/43. A good display. 1600m: Dyf (P. Trevor) 1-58.5, 1,400/1-42.5, 1,200/1-27.5, 1,000/1-13.5, 600/43.5. Moved nicely. Gate practice — inner sand: 1400m: Ange Raphael (C. Umesh), Waitara (P. Vikram) 1-40.5, (1,400-600) 49.5. Former finished four lengths ahead. Truth (Mark), Pursuit Of Wealth (R. Pradeep) 1-34.5, (1,400-600) 53. Former finished distance ahead.
Boston Globe
01-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
An offhand remark about gold bars, secretly recorded, upended his life
'It was a boring date,' Efron, 29, recalled. 'He just wanted to talk about work.' Brady took a particular interest in the fate of billions of dollars that Congress had ordered the EPA to spend on tackling climate change. Trump had promised on the campaign trail to repeal climate programs, so the Biden administration was 'trying to get the money out as fast as possible,' Efron told his date. Advertisement Efron, a passionate believer in the EPA's mission 'to protect human health and the environment,' came up with an analogy to describe what was happening: The agency was a cruise ship that had hit an iceberg. It needed to launch its lifeboats — climate and clean energy projects — right away. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'It truly feels we're on the Titanic and we're throwing gold bars off the edge,' he told Brady. Brady left after about an hour, and Efron said he barely thought about the date again — until a video of him appeared on the website of Project Veritas, a right-wing group known for using covert recordings to embarrass political opponents. Brady, who had posed as a politically liberal commercial real estate agent and recent transplant to the capital, was actually a Project Veritas operative with a hidden camera. Advertisement The conversation — particularly the phrase 'gold bars' — has come to haunt Efron. Conservative media and Republicans immediately trumpeted those words as supposed evidence that the Biden administration had mishandled funds. Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, repeatedly cited the video as he worked to cancel $20 billion that the Biden administration had granted to finance projects like electric vehicle charging stations in low-income communities and installing geothermal systems to heat and cool subsidized housing. Zeldin has blasted out media releases with headlines like 'Administrator Zeldin Terminates Biden-Harris $20B 'Gold Bar' Grants' and 'EPA Formally Refers Financial Mismanagement of $20B 'Gold Bars' to Inspector General.' 'The entire scheme, in my opinion, is criminal,' Zeldin said on Fox News in February, adding, 'We found the gold bars. We want them back.' Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin at a meeting in the White House in Washington, on April 30. Zeldin posted the video of Efron to his official X account in February, just two weeks after he was confirmed to lead the EPA PETE MAROVICH/NYT It would not matter that a Justice Department investigation found no evidence of criminal conduct by Biden officials or grant recipients, and that a federal judge ruled that Zeldin's team failed to prove allegations of misconduct. The administration's own lawyers acknowledged internally that the claims are misguided. The unfortunate truth, for Efron, was that he had handed the EPA's critics a powerful political weapon, and he is still paying a personal price. Since the Project Veritas video aired — but especially since Zeldin posted it to his X account two days in a row in February, receiving almost 3 million views — he has been publicly shamed by Elon Musk, obscenely berated by anonymous callers and hauled into an interview with the FBI. All because of an online date. Advertisement On a recent Thursday, Efron described his ordeal over green tea at Three Fifty Bakery & Coffee Bar in Dupont Circle. It had been months since the video came out, yet he still seemed hurt and bewildered that he could have gotten into such a mess. 'I spend every day thinking about this,' he said, his voice shaking. 'I go to bed thinking about it. I wake up thinking about it.' He said that the excerpt Project Veritas posted made it seem as if he had some authority over the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the program that funded the clean energy projects. But he had nothing to do with grant-making decisions. His job simply involved tracking EPA-funded projects to make sure they conformed to wage requirements and other labor laws. Efron also said he was expressing what everyone in Washington knew: that Trump intended to kill climate programs and the Biden administration was trying to save them. 'It's been used to justify actions that I view as terrible, in terms of trying to cancel grants and claw back funding, and I want to set the record straight,' Efron said. 'I want people to understand what I meant. I'd like Lee Zeldin to understand what I meant.' Gold Bars and Lifeboats Efron was feeling depressed about the presidential election when Brady swiped right on his Tinder profile, and he was looking forward to meeting someone who shared his politics. His profile didn't identify him as an EPA employee. But it did say that he worked on climate policy, lived in Washington and recently earned a master's degree from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs. In retrospect, Efron said, anyone could have learned the nature of his midlevel federal job with a simple Google search. But when he matched with Brady, the idea that he could be targeted never crossed his mind. Advertisement Their conversation went from Tinder to text, and they agreed to meet for a drink at Licht Cafe on Nov. 20. Earlier that evening, Efron had been out at a happy hour with colleagues where they talked about how proud they were of EPA's record on addressing climate change and how they worried the Trump administration would reverse any gains. The Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters in Washington. MORIAH RATNER/NYT That was when Efron first thought of the Titanic analogy. He told his colleagues that the funding for clean energy projects going to states, cities, tribes and nonprofit groups were like gold bars being tossed into lifeboats to protect some of the Biden administration's work. 'What I meant was, we were giving money to protect rural Washington from wildfire smoke, and fund a health clinic in Georgia and a community farm in Missouri and help tribal communities that are falling into the ocean in Alaska,' he said. 'Those were lifeboats.' Efron had a drink, but Brady did not consume any alcohol. After discussing climate change, Brady asked some questions about Vice President Kamala Harris, but Efron didn't have much to say. Brady abruptly declared he had to leave. Two weeks later, at 3:07 p.m. on Dec. 2, an email landed in Efron's inbox. 'Project Veritas intends to release a video that contains comments made by you to a Project Veritas journalist,' it read. 'Below are some of those quotes. We appreciate any consideration for comment by 8 p.m.' He knew about Project Veritas. He felt panic, then humiliation. The EPA press office received an identical email and request for comment. Within minutes, Efron received a call from his boss. He realized he had been set up. Advertisement His boss at the EPA was mostly concerned for Efron but sent the video to the agency's ethics department for review. It cleared Efron of any wrongdoing or violations. 'Instead, this situation appears to be an unfortunate reminder about the social media bubble we live in now,' Justina Fugh, director of EPA's ethics office, wrote in an email to Efron. 'Remember that my team and I are here to provide you with ethics advice when you need it. Until then, hang in there, Brent.' He tried to hang in there. He called some close friends and then his parents in Massachusetts to tell them what happened and get their support. He strengthened the privacy settings on his social media. But Musk posted the video on X to his 221 million followers, and the onslaught came. Strangers found his cell number, though he still doesn't know how. Their voicemail messages, teeming with obscenities, called him 'scumbag' and 'American traitor.' 'We want our stolen tax dollars back, you disgusting criminal,' someone on Instagram messaged him. 'By the way, Trump is your president again.' A month later, Efron left the EPA in January, hoping the worst was behind him. An Interview With the Feds 'Huge news! Our awesome team @EPA just located BILLIONS of dollars worth of 'gold bars' that the Biden Admin threw 'off the titanic.'' The post on Advertisement 🚨🚨🚨Huge news! Our awesome team Big update coming tomorrow… — Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) That brought a fresh torrent of abuse, Efron said. By that point, he had loosened the privacy settings on his LinkedIn account to look for a new job. People found him there — some not even bothering to hide their identities. Most of the attackers took aim at Efron's sexual identity. 'Any hope you had of infiltrating the government with your tyrannical and sick LGBTQ agenda is now FINISHED,' one person wrote. 'Time to ramp up that rainbow résumé.' Then came the knocks on his door. Efron was still in bed the morning of Feb. 21 when two people from the EPA's office of the inspector general asked if they could come in to ask some questions. 'I asked them, do I have to answer them?' Efron recalled. They said he did not and left their business cards. He spent the rest of the day finding a lawyer. Mark Zaid, who specializes in representing people who work in national security and is suing the founder of Project Veritas in connection with a different undercover video, is representing Efron pro bono. On Feb. 24, Efron came back from a run to find more business cards in his door. This time, an FBI agent had written, 'please give me a call I would like to speak to you,' on the back. A few days later, at Zaid's office, Efron sat for questioning. Two FBI agents were in the room. So was a prosecutor with the U.S. attorney's office. Two investigators from the EPA's inspector general's office were on speakerphone. 'On the one hand, I had nothing to hide, and I just told them the truth, but it was really scary,' he said. 'I mean, this whole thing was stemming from me saying something that's been taken of context and twisted,' he said. 'I also was scared of the exact same thing happening again.' Feigning Amazement The Project Veritas video of Efron fits a pattern. During the Biden administration, the outfit released a string of surreptitiously recorded videos of young, mostly male federal workers, breezily complaining about dysfunction in their departments or about policies with which they disagreed. Most appear to be filmed in bars or restaurants. In many of the videos, a male voice can be heard behind the hidden camera, alternately gushing ('Amazing!' fawned Brady when Efron said he worked on climate change) or asking probing questions. 'Mr. Efron openly described his experience 'throwing gold bars off the Titanic' at Biden's EPA to our journalist in his own words,' Project Veritas said in a written statement. 'If he disagrees with Project Veritas' reporting, he should reflect on his own statements, as we published his words as the story.' Zeldin's office, meanwhile, continues to maintain that Efron's 'gold bars' comment was an admission of government wrongdoing. 'This video started a public discourse about very real issues with the way the Biden administration lit tens of billions of tax dollars on fire,' his spokesperson, Molly Vaseliou, said in a statement. The administrator continues to maintain his zero tolerance policy for waste and abuse." Seeking a New Start Efron's D.C. apartment lease expired recently, and he is staying with friends until he figures out his next steps. He still has not found work and thinks employers fear they could become a target of the Trump administration if they hire him. Zaid said Efron has few concrete ways to hold Project Veritas accountable for the disruption in his life. In Washington, D.C., it is legal for a person to record their own conversation with someone else without consent. Efron has tentatively returned to dating apps. But background searches are now a must, and he tends to stick to meeting people with whom he has friends in common. He said he regrets his choice of words in the Project Veritas video but will not apologize for sharing his personal political opinions during what he thought was a private moment. 'I have so much regret that my words have been twisted to be used to go after all these programs as a sort of justification,' he said. 'I regret that I was not careful enough in vetting who I was talking to, and shouldn't have been talking about work. But I also think that what I said was something I should have been allowed to say.' This article originally appeared in .
New York Post
14-05-2025
- Business
- New York Post
Costco restricts purchases of this hot seller after insane demand
Is the 'bar' closed? Costco's Gilded Age may be coming to an end. The Big Box retailer is restricting purchases of its iconic gold bars after savvy buyers clamored to cash in on the precious metal amid market turmoil. Now, customers will be limited to buying only just one of the store's 1 oz bars — which are available in PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna Veriscan and the Rand Refinery's South African bullion — per transaction, compared to two before, Business Insider reported. Advertisement Gold hoarders could still earn a pretty penny even with a one-bar limit, however. Gold and silver bars on display at a Costco Wholesale Corp. in Bayonne, New Jersey, Bloomberg via Getty Images The store's 1 oz Gold Bar PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna Veriscan sells for an eye-popping $3,389.99 on the website including shipping and handling, meaning those who purchased them last year would've raked in a healthy profit given their then pricetag of $2,779.99, Quartz reported. Advertisement Since the items' launch in 2023, the chain has seen a veritable gold rush as Costco prospectors flocked from far and wide to gobble up their gilded treasure trove. According to a Bloomberg survey from October 2024, approximately 77% of Costco branches across 46 states had sold out of gold bars within a week, even after receiving fresh stock, the Daily Hodl reported. The store's 1 oz Gold Bar PAMP Suisse Lady Fortuna Veriscan. Costco In April 2024, Wells Fargo estimated that the commerce giant was earning $200 million per month in gold bar revenue, Quarts reported. Advertisement 'Our work suggests there has been significant interest given COST's aggressive pricing and high level of customer trust,' Wells Fargo equity analyst Edward Kelly said in a note to clients. 'The accelerating frequency of Reddit posts, quick online sell-outs of product, and COST's robust monthly eComm sales suggest a sharp uptick in momentum since the launch.' The gold fever quickly spread via social media as well. Finance influencer Humphrey Yang went viral earlier this month after purchasing the PAMP Suisse gold bar for $2,359 in April 2024, and then selling it to a gold dealer for just under $3,000, netting himself around $600 in profit. Advertisement Since Yang sold his bar, the price of gold has skyrocketed to a staggering $3,300 per ounce with Goldman Sachs upping its year-end forecast for gold from $3,300 to $3,700, Yahoo Finance reported. The precious metal's skyrocketing valuation comes as spooked investors stockpiled gold to safeguard themselves against economic uncertainty spurred by President Trump's tariff offensive. In February, the president's tariff plans even prompted some of the largest banks in the US and Britain to fly gold bars from London to New York City on commercial flights as a hedge against inflation.
The Guardian
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Inside the world of ‘skimpies': the barmaids in bras who pour pints in Australia's mining towns
Not long after M Ellen Burns arrived in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, the state's borders closed to the rest of Australia and the world for the first time in history. The photographer had been on a road trip from the Blue Mountains to visit her partner's parents in WA when Covid-19 first began to spread; now she was well and truly stuck. She found work shooting for the town's tourist board, but a chance meeting with a local barmaid introduced her to the other jewels in Kalgoorlie's crown: skimpy bars. Burns photographed several skimpies at work between 2021 and 2023 with their full consent. A 'skimpy' is a barmaid who pours pints in lingerie in WA's mining towns. Usually it's a fly-in fly-out job, attracting women from all over Australia and beyond. They sign up to agencies, which send them out on a circuit, moving towns every few weeks. The hi-vis of miners, downing schooners at the bars, compete with the electric makeup of the skimpies who dance atop them. Burns was fascinated: 'The rest of the world was in lockdown, but here the party was still going on, so it was kind of surreal.' She started shooting for the socials of Gold Bar and wound up self-publishing a photography book, Skimpies. Known professionally as 'Mellen', Burns is a retiring type. 'I don't really go out much,' she says. But she gamely got in the thick of things, navigating slippery bar-room floors and boisterous games of 'beer pong', played with a middy glass wedged between a skimpy's buttocks. It was a world away from her career in Sydney, where she studied photography at the National Art School and worked for portrait photographer Sally Flegg. Many of the women are Fifo – fly-in fly-out – workers, travelling around some of the most geographically isolated communities in Australia. 'Being here made me think about photography in a new way. These candid photos were gold – they're the essence of what actually happens,' Burns says. The women Burns immortalised are students, travellers, single mums and young professionals on a lucrative version of spring break. Their interviews, some of which Burns uploaded to SoundCloud, reveal them to have a broad range of views about the demands of the job. Introverted Scarlett describes creating a split personality, with 'work Scarlett' graciously accepting roses made out of paper napkins and 'home Scarlett' preferring to be alone. Zoe recalls one punter trying to kiss her, 'but he doesn't know that I'm a trained Muay Thai fighter'. Cleo's interview is sadder, listing awful things that men wearing wedding rings have said to her, 'while I serve them yet another drink and cop further and worse verbal, physical, and sexual abuse while the night continues'. Burns captures the women while they're on duty; a gloriously chaotic and colourful spillage of limbs, liquids and lingerie. But the first half of the book is dedicated to more sombre portraits of the women, who are dressed in whatever they'd wear on a ciggie break: perhaps an oversized hoodie or man's shirt. Their faces are still made up, but Burns asked them to look straight down the barrel of the camera, 'so that when people read their stories they're really looking at them'. Behind the pseudonyms and sequins there's often an entrepreneurial spirit. A skimpy can earn up to $5,000 on tips on a really good weekend, and there's often an overlap with fetish modelling and OnlyFans. Many have an online tip jar or are a 'party starter' for hire. Some work as life models for local art classes; during the pandemic, one former skimpy even founded Boober Eats, a takeaway delivery service where out-of-work skimpies delivered food in lingerie. Burns' individual portraits of (clockwise) Tilly, Scarlett, Poppy and Cleo. Burns gave the women their own voices in the book and is cautious about speaking on their behalf. She defers to another photographer, Georgie Mattingley, who writes a fascinating essay from the perspective of an artist and former skimpy herself. 'This is not just hospitality or customer service; this is an elaborate, emotive and intimate performance,' Mattingley writes. 'A highly skilled art form that interweaves gruelling bar work with fantasy and fiction to create a fleeting social world where everyone belongs.' Has the scene changed much since its genesis in the 1970s? In 2023, feminist activist movement Collective Shout argued 'there is no justification for this industry'. Rather than play critic herself, Burns inserted newspaper articles into the book, from the 70s onwards ('they are not naked, they wear shoes,' one publican protests in 1986). But the debate rages on. In 2018, Perth Now reported that the #MeToo movement seemed to have caught up with skimpying, with big corporations eschewing the skimpy pubs where they would usually hold expo functions. 'So, are skimpies an anachronism, a relic that demeans women, or are the big city-based companies showing once again the huge and multi-level divide between city and bush?' the journalist asked – to which Mattingley answers in the book: 'Only skimpies can make such judgement calls on the industry.' Some skimpies can earn $5,000 on tips on a good weekend. As Cleo sees it, skimpies 'take great care of all the lonely sad men we come across in the pubs'. 'In the Perth Museum, you'll find a section dedicated to the FIFO men who committed suicide due to loneliness,' she adds, 'but because of skimpy women, I wonder how many men's lives have literally been saved.' Burns, who gave each skimpy her own promo shoot as thanks, now counts many as her friends and Kalgoorlie as her home. 'The rhythm is different here, because we've got night shift and day shift, on-swing and off-swing. It feels like it's always grinding away.' Many of the skimpies Burns interviewed say they love the support they feel from other women in the industry, and the financial freedom the work gave them. It's hard to imagine skimpying ever being lost in the mists of time. Each year brings a batch of fresh faces and, for some women, Kalgoorlie is like the Hotel California: you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 'I've only been here for about six months but the place has definitely won my heart really quickly. I can see why people come here and then never leave,' says Poppy, pictured wearing an emerald green robe over a red lace teddy. 'I also love being in my undies and so that's an extra bonus too.' Skimpies is available to buy from M Ellen Burns' website In Australia, support is available at Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636, Lifeline on 13 11 14, and at MensLine on 1300 789 978. In the UK, the charity Mind is available on 0300 123 3393 and Childline on 0800 1111. In the US, call or text Mental Health America at 988 or chat
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
US senator blasts president of Mexico, says toxic sewage dump threatens ‘national security'
FIRST ON FOX: United States Senator Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, called out Mexican president Claudia Sheinbaum in a scathing letter addressing the large amount of raw sewage and waste the neighboring country has dumped in the Tijuana River. The letter outlines Sheehy's concern not only for the health and safety of local residents, but also points out that the toxic leak could potentially be jeopardizing U.S. national security. "This continuous discharge is sickening thousands of Americans annually, including U.S. Navy SEALs and Marine special forces who train in the affected waters," the letter to the president of Mexico reads. "In February 2025, the Department of Defense Office of Inspector General concluded that, absent action, Navy Special Warfare Command would be advised to cancel or relocate up to 75 percent of water training exercises at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado due to elevated bacterial contamination levels." Epa Chief Takes On Mexican 'Sewage Crisis' Flowing Into Us Waters Where Navy Seals Train Last week, the International Boundary and Water Commission stated that Mexico is dumping 5 million gallons of sewage a day into the Tijuana rRver. The toxic waste then flows up into the United States, and can even make its way into the Pacific Ocean. "For decades, Mexico has been dumping toxic waste into the water where our most elite servicemen train, causing serious health issues and harming our readiness," Sheehy told Fox News Digital. "The problem is only getting worse, and their failure to do anything about it is harming our troops and our national security. Mexico needs to put a stop to this toxic tide immediately." Read On The Fox News App While Sheehy is sounding the alarm from Congress, local leaders have also confirmed that the Mexican government's intentional waste dump has left residents with dangerous and harmful environmental conditions. Scoop: Biden-era Grant Program Described As 'Gold Bar' Scheme By Trump Epa Administrator Under Scrutiny Army Takes Control Of Federal Land Along New Mexico Border To Increase Security, Protect The Environment "This sewage isn't just disgusting — it's dangerous. It contains E. coli, antibiotic-resistant bacteria, arsenic and other toxic chemicals," San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond explained in a recent Fox News op-ed. "Our water is contaminated. Our air is polluted with aerosolized waste. Residents are reporting everything from skin infections to viral pharyngitis — and even family pets have gotten sick after exposure." Next Tuesday, Fox News Digital reported that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin is very aware of the issue, and intends to visit a local treatment facility in San Diego to assess the harmful flow of poisonous waste entering the U.S. from Mexico. A source close to Zeldin told Fox that this is a top priority for President Donald Trump's environmental leader. "We have heard far too many horror stories of Navy SEALs – some of the bravest and brightest service members in the military – falling ill from training in waters that have been contaminated by Mexican sewage that has flown into our nation," Zeldin told Fox on Friday. "This has been a human health crisis that has lingered for decades."Original article source: US senator blasts president of Mexico, says toxic sewage dump threatens 'national security'
