After the UN yesterday reported that global hunger had hit a 40-year high, it’s with pretty apt timing that Microsoft mogul Bill Gates today said his charitable foundation is to focus on food security.
It’s another sign of the momentum building at the highest levels to tackle the issue.
"Helping the poorest smallholder farmers grow more crops and get them to market is the world's single most powerful lever for reducing hunger," Gates said. The Financial Times reports.
In the latest move to beat binge drinking (you’d think global starvation would be a bigger issue, but there you go), suggestions are afoot for a tax on cider. More surprising, perhaps, is the source of the suggestion – the good folks at Sainsbury’s. The Daily Telegraph has the story, while the Daily Express has its own inimitable take on alcohol consumption.
Talking of Sainsbury’s… the papers inevitably are, in the wake of the takeover gossip doing the rounds yesterday. The Times and Independent both take a look, although the smart money seems to be on a bid failing to materialise.
The Daily Mail reckons the FSA (the financial services watchdog, not the food red-tape merchants) will have a closer look at how those rumours got started about a possible renewed bid by the Qatar Investment Authority.
Meanwhile, PepsiCo has apologised over a supposedly sexist iPhone app promoting its Amp energy drink that encourages users to “score” on a date. It’s not immediately clear why that’s sexist, as women have also been known to go on dates. But it just shows there’s no room for a major corporate with a sense of humour.
The Guardian has the story.
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