First cabinet meeting after election held by Prime Minister

Apr 4 2022

The Prime Minister has officially convened the very first cabinet meeting at the Auberge de Castille this morning following Labour’s general election victory.

The new cabinet, which consists of 18 Ministers and 4 Parliamentary Secretaries, were accompanied by chief of staff Mario Cutajar and the Head of the Secretariat of the Office of the Prime Minister Glen Micallef.

The Prime Minister also revealed that he will hit for the end of the casual elections and the gender balance mechanism to take effect before appointing two more members to cabinet.

Posting to social media, Abela said that the cabinet is enthusiastic and determined to bring to fruition the work which the Maltese and Gozitan people trusted them with.

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Man seriously injured after being hit by car in Marsa

Apr 4 2022

A 31-year-old man has been deemed to be in critical condition after being hit a by a car. The victim is a resident of Hal Far, and was hit bay a vehicle driven by a 32-year-old Zejtun resident.

The police were informed at 3:15 am about the incident, after it took place on December 13th Street, Marsa.

The victim required urgent medical assistance from a team on site, and was subsequently rushed to the hospital due to life-threatening injuries. An inquiry has been opened by Magistrate Lara Lanfranco as investigations carry on.

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Nurses union disapproves of COVID self-testing made legal

Apr 4 2022

The Malta Union of Midwives and Nurses (MUMN) said on Monday that Mater Dei Hospital is in crisis as COVID patients are being spread all across the wards.

The union released a press statement saying that it received over 20 calls from nursing staff working at the hospital claiming that there has been a huge uptick of cases into the hospital.

‘Mater Dei Hospital has more than 150 COVID patients spread in all arts, posing a high risk of cross infection among the whole hospital’ said the statement, just after Health Minister Chris Fearne announced that the government will be relaxing more restrictions.

The nursing shortage was made worse by the amount of nurses who had to undergo a period of quarantine, the statement revealed. It also said that some wards were left with two or three nurses instead of six.

With three wards now fully dedicated to treating COVID patients, the MUMN said that it had to issue directives during the weekend. Due to burnt-out nurses, many more had to be added as others even refused to work overtime even when requested by hospital management.

The union also said that the health ministry refuses to reduce elective surgeries to reallocate resources to the huge influx of COVID cases. The MUMN also disapproved of Chris Fearne’s announcement that self-testing will be made legal. It said that the measure was not effective in other countries like the UK because some people were able to fake their result.

‘We should be learning from mistakes of others and not repeating them’ said the union.

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President Zelenskyy delivers powerful speech at Grammys

Apr 4 2022

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a touching appearance during the 64th annual Grammy Awards to give a pre-taped speech during the Russian invasion of his country.

The president had allegedly shot the video within the last 48 hours in a bunker in Kyiv, with the clip introducing John Legend’s performance two hours into the show.

‘The war. What is more opposite of music’ asked the President. ‘The silence of ruined cities and killed people. Our children draw swooping rockets, not shooting stars. Over 400 children have been injured and 153 children died, and we will never see them drawing.’

‘Our musicians wear body armour instead of tuxedos. They sing to the wounded in hospitals. Even to those who can’t hear them. But the music will break through anyway. We defend our freedom. To live. To love. To sound. On our land, we are fighting Russia which brings horrible silence with its bombs.’

Prior to the casting of the 2022 Grammys, it was unclear whether or not Zelenskyy would appear via satellite or pre-taped video segment. His appearance during the Oscars was rumoured but did not come to fruition.

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