英语学习 BBC UK News(2022.03.29)

Partygate: Met Police to issue first fines, sources say

The first fines for breaches of Covid-19 lockdown rules as part of a police inquiry into government parties will be issued soon, the BBC has been told.

The Metropolitan Police will issue at least 15 fixed-penalty fines initially and could start on Tuesday, Westminster sources suggest.

The investigation of 12 events held across government began in January.

It came after an internal inquiry passed information to the force. The Guardian said fines were “imminent”.

Downing Street and the Met have not commented, but government sources told the BBC officers could be about to begin issuing the fines.

For months, Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government were dogged by reports of staff parties in Downing Street when Covid restrictions were in place.

Prince Philip memorial to honour a ‘long life lived fully’

Senior members of the Royal Family are to attend a service of thanksgiving for the Duke of Edinburgh later.

The memorial at Westminster Abbey for Prince Philip, who died last year aged 99, will celebrate his public service and a “long life lived fully”.

Representatives of his charities, including the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, will be in the congregation.

Buckingham Palace has indicated a last-minute decision will be taken as to whether the Queen will attend.

It would be the first public event, outside of her own residences, attended by the 95-year-old monarch this year.

The Queen has had problems with her mobility and had to pull out of the Commonwealth Service earlier this month.

‘Spur to service’

The thanksgiving service for Prince Philip will hear the Dean of Westminster, David Hoyle, offering prayers for a “man of rare ability and distinction” who “put privilege to work and understood his rank as a spur to service”.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will attend the service.

And the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will be there, having returned from their controversy-hit tour of the Caribbean.

It is also expected to be the first public appearance of Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, since the settlement of a civil sex assault case in the US.

But Prince Harry, who has been in a legal dispute over the provision of security, has not travelled from California, where he lives.

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Prince Philip died last April, during Covid regulations that restricted gatherings including funerals and memorials.

Keeping to the rules meant that Prince Philip’s funeral had to be limited, producing a memorable image of the Queen sitting alone.

So this service will include elements that had been planned for Prince Philip’s funeral, such as the entry to Westminster Abbey being lined by Duke of Edinburgh gold award winners.

The hymn ‘Guide me, O thou great redeemer’, also intended for the Duke’s funeral, will be sung, along with music by Beethoven, JS Bach, Wagner, Vaughan Williams and William Byrd.

P&O: Second ferry detained over safety concerns

A second P&O ferry has failed a safety inspection and is in the process of being detained, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) has said.

The Pride of Kent is one of eight ships to need inspections before re-entering service, after 800 staff were sacked.

The firm replaced staff with agency workers paid less than the minimum wage, but the government says it has prepared measures to block P&O’s plans.

On Friday, another P&O ferry was held after being declared “unfit to sail”.

The MCA was inspecting the Pride of Kent to make sure it was safe to go to sea without passengers or cargo.

A spokesperson for the agency said: “Our surveyors are in the process of detaining the Pride of Kent. We are awaiting confirmation of all the detainable items.”

P&O Ferries did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Another P&O Ferries vessel, the European Causeway, failed an MCA Port State Control inspection last week.

The ferry was detained in Larne over “failures on crew familiarisation, vessel documentation and crew training”.

Port State Control is the inspection of foreign ships in national ports, to check that the condition of the ship and its equipment comply with the requirements of international rules - including emergency procedures such as firefighting and evacuating the ship.

The RMT union said: “It’s rare enough for the MCA to impound a ferry but P&O have now had two in a week after the jobs carve-up which speaks volumes about the dire state of their operation”.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tweeted that “safety would not be compromised”.

Amazon union election: Will this former worker make history?

When former Amazon worker Chris Smalls organised a small protest outside a massive Amazon warehouse in New York two years ago, he didn’t intend to pick a years-long fight with one of the world’s largest companies. He just wanted his team to be able to do their jobs safely.

“When the pandemic came, employees underneath me were getting sick,” he says. “I realised that something was wrong.”

Amazon fired him, citing quarantine violations. But his concerns caught the world’s attention - an early sign of a much bigger labour battle brewing at the e-commerce giant.

In the following months, as its business surged thanks to the pandemic, Amazon faced accusations around the world that it neglected staff welfare - claims it denied.

In the US, the company now faces its most serious labour unrest in decades.

After walkouts and protests across the country, workers at three warehouses in New York and Alabama are deciding whether to join a labour union - which would be a first for Amazon in the US.

Mr Smalls is one of the leaders in the fight.

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He says he’s embracing a role the shopping giant set out in a leaked memo from 2020, which described Mr Smalls as “not smart or articulate” and argued that if he became “the face of the entire union/organising movement” it would help to undermine it.

Mr Smalls, who worked at Amazon for more than four years, starting as an entry-level worker before getting promoted, said he was blindsided by the memo, which some saw as racist, though Amazon told reporters at the time the author wasn’t aware Mr Smalls was black.

“My whole life changed in one minute,” the father-of-two says. “From there, I started to pretty much try to make them eat their words.”

For 11 months, the 33-year-old and his team have staked out a spot opposite his former workplace, the JFK8 warehouse on Staten Island, intercepting staff on their way home to make the case that they need a union to fight for them in negotiations with the e-commerce giant.

His team are seeking higher pay, longer breaks, more paid time off and paid medical leave, among other changes. They want to convince workers that a union will be a more effective way to raise complaints over rules like one that requires staff to work unscheduled overtime shifts.

Voting on the question began 25 March and the result will be announced in coming days. Amazon faces a second election at a smaller warehouse in the same industrial park next month.

Organisers say the stakes are nothing short of the future of the American worker, pointing to Amazon’s rank as the second largest employer in the US.

“We need to take down Amazon. We need these workers to organise,” says Derrick Palmer, who helped Mr Smalls organise his 2020 protest and was also disciplined (but not fired) by Amazon, which cited social distancing violations. “We need them to know they have the power.”