Gozitan MP calls for more security resources due to resources

Jan 26 2023

Taking to social media, Gozitan Nationalist Party MP Alex Borg appealed for the authorities to invest in more resources to keep Gozo safe following reports of theft and robberies in various localities.

In a video uploaded to social media and filmed in front of Xewkija’s police station, Borg wanted that the locality and Għajnsielem were subject to a number of robberies in recent weeks.

Due to Gozo being cut off from the Maltese mainland, Borg said that police should treat the island as a distinct district and thus empower the resources there.

Borg said that the police corp needs to work to make Gozitans feel safe both at home as well as out on the road. He also went on to thank the Gozitan police force for all the effort they put into their work despite the lack of resources.

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Four Maltese minors sex trafficked between 2017 & 2020 say UN

Jan 26 2023

According to a new United Nations report, four Maltese girls were trafficked in the country for sexual exploitation between 2017 and 2020.

UN researcher Fabrizio Sarrica said that the minors were likely trafficked for prostitution, telling Times of Malta that while sexual exploitation can refer to prostitution or sexual slavery, the former is more common in Europe.

The details were retrieved from the seventh edition of the Global Report on Trafficking of Persons 2022, published on Tuesday by the United Nations.

50 victims of human trafficking were detected by Malta between 2017 and 2020, 45 of whom have been confirmed.

38% were Ukrainian nationals and 30% hailed from East Asia. The remaining were persons from a multitude of other regions. The main purpose of people trafficking in Malta is, according to UN data, forced labour.

The lack of reported victims from 2012 to 2015 could indicate that more efforts had since been made to detect cases, Sarrica told Times of Malta. He also revealed how 3.5 people per 100,000 fall prey to trafficking in the EU each year. The number of detected victims in Malta is considered to be in line with the European average.

The pandemic may have contributed to the detecting of less victims in 2020. EU authorities suggested that lockdown measures may have pushed exploitation further underground and thus made it less easy to detect.

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Pizza Hut just broke the world record for largest pizza ever

Jan 26 2023

Pizza Hut has just set a new world record for cooking up the largest pizza ever as it takes up a whopping 14,000 square feet.

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The pizza had to be absolutely massive to beat the previous Guinness World Record holders for making the largest pizza ever. That one was cooked up by a team of five people in Rome back in 2012, and it spanned 13,580 square metres.

The glute free pizza, called Ottavia, required the chefs to bake the dough in 5,000 separate batches over the course of 48 hours. It required specialist equipment and beat the previous record holder which was set in 1990 by food company Dr Schar’s 122ft diameter pizza.

The new one was made in Pizza Hut by YouTuber Airrack, real name Eric Decker. It is so massive it had to be spread out over the floor of the Los Angeles Convention Center.

To bring this pizza together took 13,653 pounds of dough, over 8,800 pounds of cheese and 4,948 pounds of marinara source.

Over 630,000 of pepperoni were also scattered over the pizza’s almost 14,000 square feet top. Due to there being no oven large enough to cook this pizza, it had to be cooked in pieces and assembled on site.

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If you wonder what happened to the pizza after it was assembled and had photos taken of it, don’t worry as it was not left to rot. It is being donated to local charities, and quite a lot of them at that due to the pizza being cut up over 68,000 slices.

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‘Homosexuality not a crime’, Pope Francis hits out at anti-LGBT laws

Jan 26 2023

In a recent exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Pope Francis hit out at countries which still criminalise homosexuality and urged bishops and other Catholics to be more accepting of the LGBTIQ+ community.

He told the interviewer how being gay ‘is not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin. Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime’

He went on to highlight how a lack of kindness or discrimination also goes against God. ‘It’s also a sin to lack charity with one another’ he said.

The Pope acknowledged that Catholic bishops in some parts of the world support laws which criminalise homosexuality or discriminate against it. However, he attributed such attitudes to cultural backgrounds and said that these bishops need to undergo a process of conversion wherein they apply tenderness and acknowledge the dignity of everyone.

Around 67 countries or jurisdictions worldwide criminalise consensual same-sex activity. According to the Human Dignity Trust, 11 of these can or do impose death penalties in regards to this issue.

The comments were met with a mixed bag of reactions. Some acknowledged that this was big coming from the head of the Vatican, saying that despite the rhetoric of sinfulness, it is still a big step in the right direction.

Others however still called this lip-service, as calling homosexuality a sin is still discriminatory, even if denouncing homosexuality being a crime.

Francis did to mention transgender or non-binary people, but some advocates LGBTIQ+ inclusion in the Catholic Church still hailed the Pope’s comments as a momentous advance.

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