Bono has been named 'Person Of The Year' by Time Magazine. Well, he is one of three 'Persons Of The Year' to be precise - he shares the accolade with Mr and Mrs Bill Gates. All three have been picked out for their "charitable work and efforts to reduce global poverty and improve health"
In their latest edition, published today, Time's editors say: "For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are Time's Persons of the Year".
The Gates are specifically recognised for building the world's biggest charity - the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation - and for "giving more money away faster than anyone ever has". Of course if I was as rich as them I might have given away my money even faster, but I suppose they do deserve a bit of a mention given how many of their fellow capitalists are just sitting on their cash.
Bono was recognised, of course, for his ongoing commitment to using his celebrity status to bully politicians into doing something about global poverty. The magazine says: "Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40bn in debt owed by the poorest".
It has to be said that being named Time magazine's Person Of The Year isn't necessarily that great an accolade - given that it aims to recognise "the person or persons who most affected the news and our lives, for good or for ill". Last year they awarded it to George W Bush, while in 1938 it went to a Mr Adolf Hitler.