A childcare centre for parliament by end of 2022 Speaker confirms

Jun 13 2022

The Office of the Speaker has confirmed that a childcare centre for MPs and parliament staff should be made operational by the end of 2022.

The Speaker informed Times of Malta that the facility will be located in Belt is-Sebh, with works and recruitment for staff set to be coordinated and managed by the Education Ministry.

The Speaker said that this will be one of the measures set to make parliamentary work more family-friendly. ‘By giving the necessary attention to the family as the fundamental basis of our society, we are helping our MPs contribute even more to the people they were elected to represent.’

The first plans to address such concerns started in 2018 after parliament rescheduled their Wednesday sessions to two hours earlier, thus allowing MPs to go back home to their families at a decent time.

The childcare opening hours and which age range and number of kids it will be able to accommodate are all still unclear. The Speaker however did say that it is time to consider full-time MPs, the revising of parliament’s meeting times and shorter speech times.

Ministers Julia Farrugia, Miriam Dalli, PN MP Julie Zahra and even the Prime Minister brought their children to parliament at some point. It is also something many MPs, notably newcomer Eve Borg Bonello, have pushed for.

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Malta beat San Marino again to keep hopes for promotion alive

Jun 12 2022

The Maltese national team have beaten San Marino for the second time in a space of a week, to keep their promotion dreams alive. The game was held in Ta’ Qali national stadium, with the loud fans seeing only one goal in the whole 90 minutes.

Before the game started a tribute by the players and staff was held towards Mark ‘il-Lullu’ Piscopo. The former national team kit manager sadly passed away last Friday. During the tribute various players such as captain Steve Borg were seen with tears in their eyes.

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The first half was very close with both teams having chances to score. In the beginning of the match Malta seemed nervous with the ball, making various mistakes, but come the end of the first half the Maltese players looked more than comfortable. San Marino were yet again playing a very defensive game resting their goals coring hopes on counter attacks.

The second half started in a much better way for Malta, as in the 50th minute defender Zach Muscat managed to head in a beautiful Ryan Camenzuli cross. The game seemed to go even better for Malta as in the 63rd minute, striker Luke Montebello managed to put the ball in the back of the net again. Unfortunately for him the goal was disallowed for offside. The game ended with Malta beating San Marino yet again, this time with a reduced score of 1-0.

Devis Mangia’s team will now be hoping for a good result against Estonia in Talinn if their promotion dreams are to be achieved. That game will be held on the 23rd of September.

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Rural environment fires part of Mediterranean natural cycle says professor

Jun 12 2022

Speaking with TVMNews, the University’s Biology head professor Sandro Lanfranco said that fires in the rural environment are part of the Mediterranean natural cycle.

Due to a lack of rainfall for months on end as well as the soil surface heat which contributes to heatwaves, such fires can only be expected.

Lanfranco said that dry grass serves as a fuel to fire, with human activity sometimes increasing the risks. Despite not damaging the soil, fires do however destroy what lies beneath.

Whereas some naturally occurring plants adapt and even use the fire to their advantage to free themselves from competitive plants, many farmers lose much of their agricultural product.

Also speaking with TVM, the Civil Protection Department revealed that it received 174 calls since the start of the year to control fires in rural areas. The two biggest fire-fighting operations occurred during the past two weeks.

In these cases, fire-fighters only use water to control the fire. Up to around 120,000 and 65,000 litres of water were used in the fires in the two latest cases of rural fires.

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Photo Source: Civil Protection Department, Steve Zammit Lupi FB

Ukrainian chemical plant hit during Russian shelling

Jun 12 2022

Russian shelling has caused a massive fire at a chemical plant in Ukrainian city Severodonetsk as non-stop fighting continues between the two military forces.

Ukrainian TV stations were informed that Saturday’s blaze started after a leak of tens of tonnes of oil from damage radiators at the Azot plant. Hundreds of civilians are allegedly sheltering at this same infrastructure.

The city has become the focus of Russian shelling efforts as it advances into Eastern Ukraine. With fighting lasting more than three months, Russia’s attempt to capture larger cities like Kyiv failed.

They are now instead trying to capture the Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which is collectively known as the Donbas region. Most of the city is already occupied by Russian forces, with the chemical plant sustaining shelling for hours on end.

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