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£10million blitz to get rid of the bubble gum staining our streets: Producers back fight to curb the chewing public's 'drop it' habit and clean up our walkways

Chewing gum producers have signed up to a £10million taskforce to remove the sticky scourge from our high streets. The cash pledge by Mars Wrigley, GlaxoSmithKline and Italian-Dutch multinational Perfetti Van Melle will help tackle the gum litter that costs £7million a year to remove from pavements. Working with Keep Britain Tidy, the firms will invest the money over the next five years to encourage people to bin it instead. Chewing gum wastes millions of pounds of taxpayers' money every year, with around 87 per cent of England's streets stained with it, according to Keep Britain Tidy. Pilot tests have shown that gum litter can be reduced by up to 64 per cent when people are asked to change their behaviour. Littering is a criminal offence and offenders face on-the-spot penalties of £150, rising to up to £2,500 if convicted in court. Pilot tests have shown that gum litter can be reduced by up to 64 per cent when people are asked to change their behaviour  The Keep Britain Tidy i

mitch mcconnell refuses to criticize republicans greg abbott and ron desantis for banning school-wide mask mandates as the minority leader encourages people to get vaccinated

Mitch McConnell wouldn't say on Sunday whether he thinks Republican Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis should reverse their bans on schools and private entities implementing mask mandates. 'Do you think that Governor DeSantis and Governor Abbott are making a mistake banning individual institutions, school districts, from imposing mask mandates?' Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace asked McConnell as Texas and Florida lead in COVID-19 case spikes. 'You know, I'm kind of reluctant to give governors advice about how they ought to carry out their responsibilities during the pandemic,' the minority leader dodged. 'But I do think it's important to remember that 90 per cent of the people in the hospitals are unvaccinated,' McConnell continued. 'So the answer to this is: Get vaccinated. If we could keep saying that over and over and over again, I think that's the key to this.' 'This is a crisis among unvaccinated Americans who seem to be r

work to strengthen louisiana's levees in the wake of katrina will be tested for the first time by hurricane ida amid fears storm surges could overcome

Since Hurricane Katrina, the federal government has spent $14.5 billion on levees, pumps, seawalls, floodgates and drainage that provide enhanced protection from storm surges and flooding in New Orleans and surrounding suburbs south of Lake Pontchartrain. The system is a 350-mile network of levees, floodwalls, canals, 24 pumping stations and 99 pumps within the city of New Orleans - suburbs have their own pump systems. Levees are made from compacted soil, whereas floodwalls are erected from man-made materials, usually metal and cement.  The National Hurricane Center forecasts between 10 to 15 feet of floodwaters in the West Bank area, which lies east of the main part of the city (the area is named for its position on the Mississippi River)  - the upper range of that estimate would 'overtop' most of the southwest-facing levee walls facing the Gulf of Mexico in that area. The average height of the levee walls facing southwest, according to NOLA.com, is 14 feet. If forecasted floo

louisiana hospitals already suffering from the covid surge face having to deal with ida victims too

Louisiana hospitals already packed with patients from the latest coronavirus surge had to spend their weekends bracing for Hurricane Ida, a historic category four storm which crashed ashore on Sunday. 'Once again we find ourselves dealing with a natural disaster in the midst of a pandemic,' said Jennifer Avegno, the top health official for New Orleans. She called on residents to 'prepare for both.' Hurricane Ida hit slammed into the region around midday local time, with windspeeds of 150mph -  just 7mph short of the strongest category five hurricane - as the weather event is predicted to be one of the most severe ever to hit the southern state. It comes as hospitals and their intensive care units are already filled with patients from the fourth surge of the COVID-19 pandemic, this one sparked by the highly contagious Indian Delta variant and low vaccination rates statewide. Nursing coordinator Beth Springer looked into a patient's room in a COVID ward at the Willis-

Hurricane Ida could hit New Orleans harder than Katrina because it is approaching city from 'even worse' angle on 16th anniversary of storm that killed 1,800

Hurricane Ida may pummel New Orleans with more rain than Hurricane Katrina and target more of Louisiana's industrial corridor because of the new storm's smaller size and angle of impact. Ida's high wind speed - currently expected to land at 155 mph, just two miles off a category 5 hurricane - and threatened storm surges of up to 16 feet are drawing comparisons to 2005's Katrina, which killed 1,833 people and left damage of $176 billion in today's dollars when it hit exactly 16 years ago. The two storms' wind speeds are similar, but Ida's smaller size means it's likely to be a stronger storm that will cause more localized damage, as opposed to the larger, more spread out Katrina. Ida will hit New Orleans at an angle that will put the most dangerous part of any storm - the northeastern or top-right quadrant - right above the city. Ida's 'angle is potentially even worse,' University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy told CBS News. '

hurricane ida sparks travel chaos as all sunday flights to new orleans airport are canceled and fleeing gulf coast residents create hours-long traffic jams as the category 4 storm barrels down louisiana

With Hurricane Ida intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico Saturday and barreling towards the Gulf Coast, thousands of fleeing residents clogged highways as they raced inland, and the New Orleans airport cancelled all of Sunday's inbound and departing flights.  As of early Sunday morning, Ida was a Category 3 storm with whipping winds of 115 mph. It was about 145 miles southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to the National Hurricane Center.  Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said that the storm will be 'one of the strongest hurricanes to hit anywhere in Louisiana since at least the 1850s.' Forecasters predict it could make landfall by Sunday afternoon or Sunday evening as an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale with winds of 140 mph.  It's predicted to cause heavy downpours and a tidal surge that could plunge most of the Louisiana shoreline under several feet of water.  'We’re going to catch it head-