Plus, how bad will winter really be?
| | | | "Buy one, get one free" deals on unhealthy food will be banned and there'll be no more displays of sweets at store checkouts, as part of a wide-ranging plan to tackle obesity in England. Almost two thirds of adults in England are overweight or obese, along with one in three primary school children. It's not a new problem, but coronavirus has made tackling it even more important. Nearly 8% of critically ill patients in intensive care units have been morbidly obese, compared with 2.9% of the general population. Restaurants will also have to display calorie counts on menus and there'll be a UK-wide ban on TV adverts for unhealthy food before 9pm. Long-term, fast food adverts online could be stopped altogether. The government is also promising to provide "healthy weight coaches" and to encourage GPs to prescribe exercise, such as cycling. Boris Johnson has previously resisted calls for greater government intervention in the nation's diet, but his own experience of becoming very ill with Covid-19 is thought to have prompted an epiphany. The plans have been broadly welcomed by organisations such as the British Medical Association and Cancer Research UK, but some experts feel they don't address the underlying causes of obesity, such as inequality. The Food and Drink Federation called the proposals a "slap in the face" for an industry already struggling. A lot of these measures have been proposed before but eventually dropped, and it's not yet clear if any new money will be provided to deliver them. | |
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| | | | | If you have ever doubted whether solar power can be a transformative technology, read on. This is a story about how it has proved its worth in the toughest environment possible. The market I'm talking about is perhaps the purest example of capitalism on the planet. Nobody is thinking about climate change - or any other ethical consideration, for that matter. It is the story of how Afghan opium growers have switched to solar power, and significantly increased the world supply of heroin. | |
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| | Justin Rowlatt | Chief environment correspondent BBC News | |
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| | | | The consequences of the Spain quarantine measures are widely covered. The Daily Mirror sums up the situation facing holidaymakers with the headline: "Summer in tatters". The i says the changing plans will be another kick in the teeth after months of hardship. But the papers are divided over whether the government was right to introduce the shift. The Daily Telegraph thinks the decision was taken hastily and shows an inflexible approach to assessing different levels of risk in different regions. The Sun worries about the travel industry, warning "you don't need a crystal ball" to see that imposing quarantines at short notice will destroy confidence. For the Times, however, ministers have done the right thing, having faced criticism throughout the crisis for reacting too slowly to changing events. The Daily Express says the challenges facing tourism are nothing compared with the problems we'll all face if travellers bring the virus home with them. Elsewhere on Monday, according to the Guardian, everyone over 40 will be asked to pay more tax to help cover the cost of care in later life, under plans being studied by ministers. | |
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| | | | | No 10 Speaker concerned about White House-style briefings |
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