Each week, Ben Hopkinson looks back at a serious, crazy, and happy news story from the past week.
Serious News
(Andy Rain)
P&O Ferries have been given a deadline to reemploy the workers that were sacked two weeks ago. This comes from Transport Secretary Grant Shapps who has urged the CEO, Peter Hebblethwaite to reverse his decision of sacking 800 seafarers. If this reversal doesn’t happen then, the government will plan to make it illegal for ferry firms to pay less than the minimum wage which may force the change back. However, a spokesperson says that the sacking of workers was just not on saving wages stating: “The predicted savings we announced are not solely coming from the reduction in wages, but from removing job duplication and the benefits we will see from increased flexibility”. Grant Shapps replied: “A reversal at this point may also go some way in starting to repair your firm’s reputation.”
My letter to P&O boss makes clear that this government will not stand by while the requirement to treat seafarers with due respect and fairness is brazenly ignored. pic.twitter.com/4ozBsydJPC
(Reuters)
Last Sunday, the 2022 Oscars took place, and Will Smith walked onto the stage and hit presenter Chris Rock after Rock made a joke at Smith’s wife Jada Pinkett Smith. She suffers with alopecia and decided to shave it off, which instigated a GI Jane joke from the host. Jada didn’t look impressed and Will took it upon himself to storm the stage and slap Chris Rock round the face telling him to “keep my wife’s name out of your mouth”. It was extremely awkward as you could hear a pin drop, and then later on Will won best actor for his role in King Richard where he spoke about his anger and how it was justified.
Happy News
(Joseph De Leo)
In news that will delight vegans, animal lovers and those wanting to save money alike, plant-based meats will be dropping in price to those that conventional animal-based products are at by 2023. This comes from a report published by Blue Horizon and BCG. This is due to reductions in plant-based meat production costs, labour issues at meat-packer plants and supply chain interruptions just to name a few variables. Hopefully if this forecast is set to be true, more people may go off from eating conventional meat and switch to the still tasty but animal free beyond meat alternatives.
