Latest news with #toxic
The Sun
8 hours ago
- Sport
- The Sun
‘It can be quite toxic… not healthy' – Shaw gives brutal verdict on Man Utd's failings but backs Amorim's tough stance
LUKE Shaw has backed Ruben Amorim's hardline stance - after branding the United dressing room 'toxic' and full of 'stragglers' in recent seasons. England defender Shaw insisted he had no regrets after slamming the efforts of last season following United's Europa League Final defeat by Spurs. 4 Since then, Amorim has banished the five-man 'Bomb Squad' of Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Alejandro Garnacho, Antony and Tyrrell Malacia, although last week offered an olive branch if any of the remaining quartet are not sold by the end of the window. And in a brutal and honest indictment of United's failings, Shaw, the longest serving player at the club and entering his 12th Old Trafford season, laid it on the line. He said: 'It's not hard to see from the outside what it's been like. 'A lot of the time I've been here over the last few years it's been extremely negative. 'It can be quite toxic, the environment, it's not healthy at all.' Shaw, 30, added: 'As players, especially the more experienced ones, we need to be demanding more on a day-in, day-out basis. 'The levels in training, keeping the times of when we're doing this and doing that, making sure no one's coming late or anything - we need to just all up the level of demands. 'That's what Ruben definitely brings in, those demands, especially the mentality. 4 'The mentality is a big thing on his lips, really. He talks a lot about it. 'In training. Ruben demands 100 per cent. That's it and he doesn't want anything less. Man Utd make £55m Watkins vs Sesko decision 'If someone's doing 85-90 per cent, it's not enough for him. 'So, especially this year, if you're not doing the right things, I feel like you won't play. 'And he's not bothered. You've seen what he's done in the past eight months with different players and things like that. 'He doesn't care who the player is. If he's not following what he wants, then that's how it should be, and rightly so. 'Whatever the manager wants, us as players we have to be delivering that. So, yes, we're fully behind that.' Shaw insisted it was time for every United player to be 'open and honest' about last season's shortcomings. He said: 'None of us were good enough. I just don't really know what more to say about that. 'Losing the final especially after the season that we went through was even harder to take and my head was a bit more hot than usual. 'I'd had such an awful year as well and I was just fully angry about everything. That's why I said what I said. 'But there are no stragglers in this group any more. 4 'That's down to Ruben's mentality, his demands. He's extremely tough on the group. He leaves no stone unturned. 'Everyone has to put the team first. He's made that very clear and he's picking players on who he feels will be best for the team and that's his choice. 'The manager has to do that because at the end of the day, he's going to be the one whose job is always on the line. "He wants to come in and do things his own way and stamp his own authority on the club. 'That's the only way you can do it, especially at Manchester United. 'As players we're fully behind him and fully behind on his ideas and what he wants to implement in the team. 'We feel like a real team. The group is so together and that's something that we need to keep, to make us more of a family and to keep everyone together, driving in the right direction.'
The Independent
18 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Independent
‘Childish' Gwynnie's ‘chaotic… toxic' workplace: Goop has lost 140 staff in two years, new bio claims
Gwyneth Paltrow ran a workplace that was allegedly 'chaotic and sometimes toxic,' resulting in mass resignations in recent years, a new book has claimed. The Oscar-winning actor's Goop healthcare and wellness brand has reportedly suffered from an inability to be sustainably profitable, with executives struggling to navigate Paltrow's 'impatience and perfectionism.' The claims come as part of a new biography by Amy Odell, who also penned the 2021 biography Anna, about the life of Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. In Gwyneth, which was released Tuesday, Odell describes how those that worked at Goop 'seemed cagier than many of Wintour's former employees,' noting that 'many had signed NDAs.' 'The company she founded in 2008 hasn't experienced sustained profitability, has allegedly suffered from a chaotic and sometimes toxic office culture, and has lacked a clear business strategy as it ping-pongs from one of Gwyneth's ideas to the next,' Odell writes, in an excerpt from the book. 'As the main narrator of her own public story, Gwyneth has masterfully shaped our perception of her. She knows all her best angles.' The star of Shakespeare in Love, Sliding Doors and The Talented Mr Ripley – who took a break from Hollywood in 2027 to launch her brand – is also portrayed as somewhat ignorant of the machinations of a business and was described as 'erratic' and 'childish' in the way she dealt with employees, according to the book. Within the past two years, Odell states, Goop lost at least 140 employees, including its chief financial officer, chief technology officer, chief revenue officer, general counsel and chief content officer 'Many were terrified to talk about Gwyneth,' Odell writes. 'Some people I interviewed had seen her take action against people she felt had crossed her. 'Gwyneth has had a habit throughout her life of bringing people close to her, then cooling on them. Some simply move on, while others become dismayed and desperate to get back into her inner circle.' The Independent has reached out to Paltrow and Goop about the claims made in Gwyneth via the company. According to further excerpts of Gwyneth, seen by The Times, the actress was reportedly childish, or even outright rude, to other high-profile individuals she had in her life. After breaking up with Brad Pitt in 1997, she reportedly told an interviewer that she had to explain the difference between separate types of caviar, and described him as being 'dumber than a sack of shit.' The Times reports that, per the book, Paltrow also gossiped about another former fling, Ben Affleck, as well as distancing herself from long-time friend Madonna because her ex-husband Chris Martin had reportedly taken a dislike to her. Paltrow recently harked back to the time when she and Martin were together, prior to their 'conscious uncoupling' in 2014, after appearing in a commercial for software company Astronomer. It came after Astronomer CEO Andy Byron was caught being intimate with his head of HR Kristin Cabot at a Coldplay concert – and was called out by frontman Martin live at the show.
Indian Express
5 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Chandigarh: AAP boycotts mayor's ‘hollow' Swachh Survekshan tea, slams 12% power tariff hike
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Friday hit out at the city administration on two fronts: boycotting a mayor-hosted tea gathering to celebrate Chandigarh's second place in the national Swachh Survekshan (cleanliness survey) rankings, and lodging strong objections to the 12 per cent power tariff hike approved by the Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC). The AAP said the BJP mayoral candidate was wrongfully claiming credit for the Swachh Survekshan rankings, achieved under former AAP mayor Kuldeep Kumar, and that the celebrations are being done 'amid broken roads, waterlogging, unsafe drinking water, and toxic leachate from Dadumajra entering residential areas is an insult to public pain'. 'We stand with citizens struggling with roads, water and toxic waste, not with those holding hollow celebrations,' the party said in a statement issued by state media incharge Vikrant A Tanwar. Separately, AAP leaders led by the party's city president Vijaypal Singh protested the JERC-approved 12 per cent power tariff hike during a public hearing in Sector 10, submitting a memorandum to the commission's chairperson. They called the hike 'a direct assault on public interest' and said privatisation of the profitable electricity department had turned into 'a blunder.' The AAP pointed out that the erstwhile government-run department posted Rs 258.85-crore profit in 2020–2021, but its private operator, Chandigarh Power Distribution Ltd (CPDL), has now projected Rs 158.0-crore revenue gap for 2025–26 and losses of Rs 982 crore over the next five years, all without an independent audit. The party also alleged a decline in service quality since privatisation, citing more outages, inflated bills, arbitrary disconnections and poor grievance redressal. 'People are paying more for worse services — this is robbery, not reform,' Singh said, demanding an immediate rollback of the hike, an independent audit of CPDL, a public performance review, and at least 200 free units for domestic users.
New Indian Express
5 days ago
- Science
- New Indian Express
NIT-R bags patent for bacterial biofilm tech to treat toxic industrial wastewater
ROURKELA: A research team of the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela (NIT-R) has secured patent for its novel bacterial biofilm technology that degrades phenanthrene, a toxic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) found in industrial chemical waste. Contrary to the conventional methods for wastewater treatment, this technology offers environment friendly, effective and cost-efficient solution. Informing about the grant of patent on Thursday, the NIT-R said PAHs are hazardous organic compounds capable of contaminating soil and water through fossil fuel combustion, industrial discharge and oil spills. The traditional methods used to address this challenge with chemical oxidation or soil excavation are expensive and often generate secondary pollution. But the new technology provides a cheaper alternate to the global challenge of wastewater treatment. The developed biofilm comprises cells attached to the substratum within an extracellular polymeric matrix. The research team grew the biofilm using Luria Bertani broth, a nutrient-rich medium. Lead researcher Prof Surajit Das of the department of Life Science said, 'The biofilm is well-compatible for integration in existing reactors used at municipal and industrial wastewater treatment facilities, especially those dealing with hydrocarbon-based pollutants. Our patented technology also opens opportunities for potential collaboration with the petrochemical industry to promote more sustainable pollution control practices.'
The Hill
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
US signs MOU with Mexico on Tijuana River sewage crisis
The U.S. and Mexico on Thursday took collaborative steps toward curbing a longstanding cross-border environmental crisis: the unfettered sewage flow from Tijuana into Southern California. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Lee Zeldin and his Mexican counterpart Alicia Bárcena Ibarra signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) that addressed the 'environmental, public health and national security consequences' of transboundary wastewater contamination. The officials expressed their intentions to 'permanently stop untreated wastewater from polluting coastal communities,' while reaffirming previous commitments and endorsing new strategic projects. 'What the residents of Southern California need and deserve, what they've been waiting for, for too long, isn't just a solution that is a band-aid for that moment, but a permanent, 100 percent solution,' Zeldin told reporters from Mexico City, prior to the signing. The crisis at the heart of the MOU involves the passage of polluted wastewater from Mexico into southern San Diego County via ocean plumes and the Tijuana River. This fetid flow — rife with both pathogens and toxic chemicals — stems from inadequate treatment near Tijuana. For years, these circumstances have closed down beaches and sickened Navy SEALs. Following demands from California Democrats in March that the EPA chief visit the region, Zeldin did so in April — and demanded that Mexico put a stop to the situation. Recalling his previous visit to reporters on Thursday, Zeldin described smelling 'that foul smell that so many residents of Southern California have been complaining about for so long.' He said that upon leaving the area, there was a 'burning desire at the Trump administration to dedicate a tremendous amount of energy, of time, to make sure that the residents of Southern California would be receiving this good news as quickly as possible.' The administration, he explained, prioritized three major milestones — all of which gained Mexico's approval in Thursday's MOU. The first, he explained, revolved around Mexico's outstanding commitment to allocate $93 million toward completing water infrastructure projects specified in a previous treaty, called Minute 328. In the MOU, Mexico expressed its intention to spend $46 million in 2026 and $47 million in 2027 on these initiatives, which include major rehabilitations of wastewater treatment channels, pumps, backup power supplies and other equipment. The second key pillar, according to Zeldin, focused on expediting the timelines for getting projects done faster. As such, the MOU contains construction schedules for calendar year 2026 and 2027, adhering to a 'project priority schedule.' The third goal of the MOU, Zeldin said, was the stipulation that the US and Mexico would seek to engage in a new agreement — a new 'minute' — on new initiatives necessary 'to get over the finish line.' The parties, according to the MOU, intend to secure that minute by Dec. 31 and execute its actions immediately, through existing or new binational workgroups. 'This isn't just an agreement for 2025,' Zeldin said. 'It was a product of a conversation of where do we need to be in 2030 and 2035, and beyond.' The MOU does, however, include some immediate action for 2025, such as Mexico's pledge to divert 10 million gallons per day of treated sewage from the Arturo Herrera and La Marita wastewater treatment plants to a site further upstream of the Rodríguez Dam — at an internal cost of $13.3 million. Mexico also agreed to rehabilitate a wastewater collector known as the 'Parallel Gravity Line' for about $8.42 million. The EPA chief also emphasized President Trump's personal passion about solving this crisis, noting that 'none of this would have been possible' without his participation. Zeldin recalled that after Trump heard a story about the environmental and national security impacts on Navy SEALs, the president concluded 'that he wanted to get this done.' In response to the MOU announcement, Tom Kiernan, president and CEO of American Rivers, described the partnership in a statement as 'a massive step forward for the Tijuana River.' 'We appreciate the Trump administration's dedicated effort to restore this river back to the vibrant resource it once was,' Kiernan added. Kristan Culbert, the organization's associate director of California River Conservation, added that 'communities along the Tijuana River have suffered this public health crisis for far too long.' 'We are hopeful and optimistic that the Trump administration will be the catalyst for a major turnaround for this river,' Culbert said.
