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England’s unlikely World Cup mascot will be watching the Lionesses from his forever home as Dave the cat settles into his new surroundings. While football might not have come home from Qatar, stray cat Dave did after the friendly feline became a firm favourite of the squad as he roamed freely around England’s Al Wakrah training base. Manchester City duo John Stones and Kyle Walker were pictured with Dave on most evenings and the latter said the team would adopt the cat if Gareth Southgate’s men won the World Cup. Despite their quarter-final exit at the hands of France, Dave was still given the chance to travel to the UK and was eventually rehomed by the Football Association’s media operations manager Anna Bush and her family. “There was a discussion around wanting Dave to end up with a family with young children, so I put my hand up and volunteered and my children are absolutely delighted,” she told the PA news agency. “They’ve never had a pet before and what a first pet to have! They (the players) are aware and delighted. He’s got a new home and a family to look after him.” He left Al Wakrah in December, just two hours after the squad had departed for home, and headed to a veterinary clinic where he had blood tests and vaccinations. After being in quarantine for months he was welcomed by his new family, instantly taking to his surroundings and showing he picked up a keen eye for football after his stint as England’s top cat. While Dave lived the life of a stray during the men’s World Cup, he can watch the women attempt to follow up their Euros success from last summer in the comfort of his new home. The Bush family even have a way of making sure Dave – who now has his own Instagram page – is part of any success Down Under as he offers up his match predictions, with a little incentive to back Sarina Wiegman and her team. “He has settled in so well,” added Bush. “He loves the surrounding area and loves it in the sun – he is finding his feet and absolutely loves watching my two boys play football in the garden. “One of them actually coloured in both of the crests ahead of the Champions League and wanted Manchester City to win so he put a few treats down (on the City crest) and so Dave predicted that Man City were going to win the Champions League final and they did! “Now we have to start doing that for the Women’s World Cup I suppose – bring on England on Saturday.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Natalie Grinczer hopes to take advantage after late switch to Lifeplus-Wahoo Early starters battle overcast conditions as Tommy Fleetwood shares Open lead Football rumours: Harry Kane will not sign new Tottenham deal

Lando Norris believes McLaren’s strong driver pairing can be a big advantage as the team celebrated an “important milestone” with a double podium at the Japanese Grand Prix. British driver Norris finished second for a second consecutive race, albeit well behind dominant race-winner Max Verstappen, while team-mate Oscar Piastri secured his first podium in his debut Formula One season. After a tough start to the year, McLaren have impressed since their first big upgrade began at July’s Austrian Grand Prix. Norris finished fourth at Spielberg before picking up back-to-back second-places at Silverstone and in Hungary. Piastri, 22, has exceeded expectations this season, with a number of strong displays earning the Australian an extended contract earlier this week – none more so than at Suzuka given he had never even been to Japan before. Norris feels their combined strength is a major plus for McLaren as they chase down Aston Martin in the constructors’ championship. “I think our advantage at the minute comparing to almost every team, bar a couple, is we have two drivers who are up there fighting for these positions and fighting for these points,” Norris said after the race at Suzuka. “And not every team has that at the minute. So I think that’s helping us. We can help one another, we can use one another, and I think that’s a good advantage we have over a lot of other teams at the minute. “So we’re on an upward trend. We’re making good progress and days like today prove exactly that. “The progress we’ve made this season has been pretty incredible from my eyes, and from where we were to finishing 19 seconds behind the lead is, I think, evidence of exactly that. “So I’m proud of everyone and we’ll keep pushing.” Team principal Andrea Stella described the result at Suzuka as “an important milestone in our journey at McLaren”, while Piastri celebrated a significant day. “You never forget your first podium, regardless of whether it’s been a strong performance or not,” he said. “So yeah, it will be a special day and I won’t forget it and also ticking the first podium off the list is always a nice achievement to have.” There are six races remaining in the 2023 season, including three sprint weekends, with a trip to Qatar next on the agenda in two weeks’ time. McLaren have closed to 49 points of Aston Martin in the standings and CEO Zak Brown is confident they have a well-rounded car to be strong for the rest of the campaign. “The team is just doing such a fantastic job, executing week in, week out,” Brown told Sky Sports F1. “We are trying to catch Red Bull. All we can do is chip a tenth at a time but Max was pretty dominant. I think we will be strong at the next race, so will keep pushing. “I feel as confident as I can we will be pretty strong everywhere, but we know there will be some tracks that favour your car more than others and we are good in the high speed, which Qatar is, so we will be strong there and not be weak anywhere.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Max Verstappen pips Oscar Piastri to pole after tense qualifying for Japanese GP Lando Norris narrows gap on Max Verstappen at final practice in Japan Max Verstappen returns to form in Japanese Grand Prix practice

ARLINGTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 12, 2023--

A McDonald’s employee has claimed that the fast food chain’s sweet tea is made with an entire bag of sugar. The woman named Gia, who goes by the username @gia2bad, shared a video to TikTok last month about the apparent making of McDonald’s sweet tea. In the footage, an employee appeared to be mixing the tea, as hot water was being added to it. Along with the two liquids, the employee went on to pour an entire four-pound bag of granulated sugar into the bucket. Gia also poked fun at the large amounts of sugar being used, as the text over the video read: “If y’all were wondering why the sweet tea is so sweet at McDonald’s.” She also claimed that it can take more than one bag of sugar to make the tea, writing: “Yes we use a whole bag, sometimes two.” The video went viral, with more than 1.3m views. In the comments, many people shared their shocked reactions, while poking fun at the amount of sugar filmed in the video. “Diabetes in a cup,” one quipped, while another added: “Is no one gonna talk about the bucket.” “That explains why it’s way too sweet. I always order half sweet and half unsweetened,” another wrote. Despite what was shown in the video, other people claimed that they’ve worked at McDonald’s before, and they had never seen the sweet tea made in that way. “I work there and we don’t do that…,” one wrote, while another added: “We don’t hand make sweet tea at our store it’s made with a commercial tea machine.” “We have a machine for this… I never done this when I worked at McDonald’s,” a third agreed. According to McDonald’s official website, the sweet tea is made from an “orange pekoe and pekoe cut black tea”. Some of the other ingredients in the cup include ice, and invert sugar, which “is an aqueous solution of inverted or partly inverted, refined or partly refined sucrose,” according to the Food and Drug Administration. McDonald’s also notes that in a large cup of the sweet tea, there are 40 grams of sugar. According to the FDA, its Dietary Guidelines for Americans “recommends limiting calories from added sugars to less than 10 percent of total calories per day”. For example, if you eat 2,000 calories a day, you’d only have “50 grams of added sugars per day”. @gia2bad Yes we use a whole bag sometimess 2 ?♀️?♀️ #fyp ♬ original sound - DJ Veinz The Independent has contacted Gia and a representative for McDonald’s for comment. Gia isn’t the first McDonald’s employee to make claims about how the chain’s sweet tea is allegedly made. In a viral TikTok video made by former McDonald’s worker, Nicole, she also claimed that there was a lot of sugar used to make the tea. “For every four gallons of the red jug, the sweet tea, there was a full four-pound bag of sugar emptied into it,” the woman, who said she was a manager at McDonald’s, explained in the since-deleted video, which has been shared on YouTube. “One pound per gallon of tea. I stopped drinking the tea after I realised that. Because that’s nasty.” Read More McDonald’s to investigate allegations worker was taunted over rape Mark Zuckerberg reveals his 4,000 calorie diet and large McDonald’s order Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and PepsiCo named as worst packaging polluters in UK Mark Zuckerberg reveals his 4,000 calorie diet and large McDonald’s order Budget Bites: Three recipes to keep food bills down before pay day I was an air fryer sceptic – now I can’t stop using it

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Japan has announced plans to release wastewater from the stricken Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant into the...