Economy needed €100 vouchers to recover from COVID says Abela

Mar 18 2022

Prime Minister Robert Abela insisted that Malta’s economy needed the €100 stimulus cheques to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The cheques were being delivered to people’s households as the election campaign continues, with workers and students receiving a €100 cheque and pensioners and people on social benefits receiving a €200 cheque.

With people also receiving a tex refund cheque amounting between €60 and €140, Abela told his supporters that it was important for the cheques to be sent at this time as the country needed them.

This came in reaction to criticism by the Nationalist Party, who labelled the cheque move as a vote-catching exercise. Abela responded by saying that this was not this case as the cheques were necessary to stimulate the economy.

‘Unlike the Opposition, we don’t postpone and we want to help people now’ said Abela, going on to reiterate how voters were faced with the decision of choosing whether or not these cheques were the last Maltese families received.

Abela highlighted on ONE TV programme AWLA the challenges faced by the tourism industry during the pandemic. He said how as the government was faced with some of the hardest decisions, it did not remain idle. ‘We didn’t need the pandemic to issue the vouchers’ said the Prime Minister.

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Ukrainian theatre with children written outside bombed by Russian forces

Mar 18 2022

A warning stating ‘CHILDREN’ was painted outside a theatre in Ukraine and made large and bold enough to be seen by a satellite in space.

The theatre was offering shelter for hundreds of young and old Ukrainians, but it was bombed along with its city of Mariupol by a devastating 1000-kilogram Russian bomb.

MP Dmytro Gurin accused the Russians of knowingly bombing the building whilst women and children sheltered inside. The statement accused Russia of mass murder being carried out by the forces in Mariupol.

The building was destroyed, revealed MP Gurin, who said that the Russians knew what they were doing. Satellite imagery firm Maxar Technologies said image snapped from space showed the word children written in Cyrillic, the alphabet used in Russia.

There was no immediate word on deaths or injuries in what the Mariupol city council called a deliberate and targeted strike. With conflicted reports on whether anyone emerged from the rubble, Russia’s military denied bombing the theatre or anyplace else in Mariupol on Wednesday.

This comes as Russia and Ukraine report some progress in negotiations and millions of Ukrainians flee their home country to ensure their safety from the bombing.

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Protestor ties himself to goal post during Premiere League match

Mar 18 2022

Right at the start of the second half of the match between Everton and Newcastle United on Thursday evening, a protestor ran onto the pitch to demonstrate in the most bizarre way.

The man zip-tied himself to one of the goal posts, forcing security to cut him loose with a pair of bolt cutters.

A truly bizarre scene to see at Goodison Park during a Premier League match, the game ended up delayed for around eight minutes. The protestor had ‘Just Stop Oil’ written on his orange shirt.

It also took a number of people to get him off the pitch when he was cut free, to the reception of a chorus of boos from among the crowd.

The campaign group ‘Just Stop Oil’ have since claimed responsibility for the stunt. Writing to Twitter, they revealed that the 21-year-old supporter named Louis had a couple of statements to make as to why he protested.

‘It’s 2022 and it’s time to look up, time to step up and not stand by. It’s time to act like it’s an emergency’ he said. ‘Report after report is telling me that my future is going to be dire, and my government is telling me not to worry and pay into a pension.’

‘But we have a choice. We can choose to highlight that our climate is breaking down, we can choose to resist this government that is betraying us, we can choose to step up and not stand by.’

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Netflix adds Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s ‘Servant of the People’ for streaming

Mar 18 2022

As many know, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a previous career as a successful actor and performer.

Now, to show their support with the Ukrainian people and their leader as Putin’s Russia invades, Netflix has made ‘Servant of the People’, which stars Zelenskyy, available for streaming.

The series was previously available on the streaming giant between 2017 and 2021, and has now been placed in the library once again.

The series follows a teacher (played by Zelenskyy), who unexpectedly becomes president after he goes on a rant against corruption on video and it goes viral. Running for three seasons, the series ended when Zelenskyy actually ran for president in 2019.

Zelenskyy has acquired some major attention following the start of the invasion, with many world leaders opposing the Russian attack hailing him a hero.

The president has been posting videos around Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv, rallying support among the citizens as well as visiting injured soldiers. Despite the series being a comedy, it shows exactly where Zelenskyy comes from and how he became the leader he is today.

The series is officially available for streaming in the EU and Malta as well.

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