Bill Gates plans to drop off Forbes rich list while still alive

Jul 14 2022

Microsoft owner and founder Bill Gates has revealed his intentions to drop off the list ranking the richest people alive while he is still around. He intends to do this with the help of the Gates Foundation by donating billions of dollars from his own pocket.

The latest donation of $20 billion to the Gates Foundation has already helped him drop down one place on the list, with him now being placed 5th on the Forbes richest people alive catalogue. He has an estimated net worth of $102 billion outside the Gates Foundation.

He revealed all this in an interview with Forbes where he admitted to following the ‘give while you live’ philosophy, popularized by American businessman and philanthropist Chuck Feeney. The latter co-founded airport retailer Duty Free Shoppers with Robert Miller all the way back in 1960.

He went on to say: “I’ll get myself out of the highly visible part of the list with just say two more gifts of this magnitude. I would get myself off the top part of the list. ”

“Getting all the way off the list, that’s going to take me a while, but my direction of travel is clear.”

According to Forbes, the latest donation from divorced couple Bill and Melinda Gates brings their total amount donated to $55 billion which makes them the ‘biggest philanthropists of all time’, moving ahead of close friend Warren Buffet, who has given away $48 billion, most of it also to the foundation.

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Malta Airport traffic in June reaches 84% of pre-pandemic levels

Jul 14 2022

Traffic through the Malta International Airport continued to exhibit an upward trend, with June passenger numbers further narrowing the gap created by the pandemic. With 603,532 passengers welcomed, marking a recovery of 83.6% of pre-pandemic traffic, June has so far been the airport’s busiest month since October 2019.

The result was achieved on the back of a recovery of 80.8% in aircraft movements and a recovery of 82.3% in seat capacity. The seat load factor (SLF) for the month of June increased by 1.4% over pre-pandemic levels to stand at a healthy 85.5%.

A similar increase in SLF had also been resisted in May 2022. Having resisted a slight increase in market share over May 2022, Italy tightened it grip on the top spot of the MIA’s market leaderboard. The United Kingdom, France and Germany also retained their positions from the previous month.

On the other hand, June saw the return of Spain among the airport’s top five markets following an absence of seven months, as Poland dropped to sixth place. In June, Malta International Airport welcomed the first Vueling flight from Bilbao in Northern Spain, bringing the number of Spanish destinations served up to five.

Year-to-date traffic was roughly equivalent to full-year traffic for 2021, which year was brought to a close with 2.5 million passenger movements. Between January and June 2022, 2.3 million passengers travelled through MIA, translating to a recovery of 72.1% of the traffic handled during the first half of 2019.

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Photo source: Rene Rossignaud (MIA)

Maltese travellers stranded as Italian airport workers strike

Jul 14 2022

Many travellers, including Maltese persons, are getting stranded abroad as limited strikes by unions hit Italian airports.

Faced with a cabin crew walk-out, multiple budget airlines cancelled flights to and from Italy. A four hour national strike is scheduled for Sunday July 17th between 2pm and 6pm, and will involve air traffic controllers, pilots and attendants from EasyJet, RyanAir, Volotea, and Crewlink.

The upcoming strike is the latest in a series of protests in Italy in recent weeks over pay and conditions. It also comes at the height of the busy summer holiday season.

The unions claimed that air traffic controllers were suffering from Enav’s (an Italian group) ‘inability to communicate and manage personnel’, threatening further protests if demands were not met.

Earlier this month, EasyJet cancelled 20 Gatwick flights, as well as departures to Bologna, Milan, Naples, Rome and Venice. Ryanair cancelled 14 flights between London and Milan. Both airlines promised to do all they can but said the strikes are outside of their control.

The striking staff are members of Filt (Italian Federation of Transport Workers) and Uiltrasporti (Italian Union of Transport Workers, or UILT).

“Among the issues are… arbitrary reductions of pay-checks, the non-payment of sick days, the company’s refusal to grant leave during the summer season, and the lack of water and meals for the crew,” a statement read.

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Shaun Farrugia’s song with Garrix played by Nicky Romero in Romania

Jul 14 2022

Local artist Shaun Farrugia’s collaborative song with international DJ Martin Garrix was recently played by one of the world’s other top DJs Nicky Romero.

And the professional musician didn’t play ‘Starlight (Keep Me Afloat)’ just anywhere, but during his set at the Neversea festival in Romania. This is practically one of the biggest EDM festivals in Europe.

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The global recognition for Farrugia continues to grow as he is set to release a brand new single on the 15th of July (that’s tomorrow!) as well as he prepares to perform at this year’s Isle of MTV in less than a week.

His Isle of MTV performance will be the culmination of intense hard work and creative output which the singer and songwriter has been intensely focused on. There’s just no stopping him!

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Credit: botirlamarius