Gozo Minister stands ground on promise to hunters despite EU rules breach

Apr 10 2022

With today being the first official day of the spring hunting season, Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri took to Facebook to share a couple of points regarding hunting in Malta.

Camilleri highlighted that quail hunting season opens today and is possible until the end of April while turtle dove hunting will be allowed in Malta from the 17th to the 30th of April. The Minister held that the spring season is limited to a number of afternoons, with a number of derogations respecting the 2015 referendum and the European Court sentence stating that Autumn is not an alternative to Spring.

The Minister stood by his promise to support hunters, stating that they will act as promised and claim “what is rightfully [theirs]”.

Meanwhile, BirdLife Malta have filed a judicial protest with regards to turtle dove hunting, stating that it is incompatible with EU directives on wildlife conservation and thus, cannot be used for the issuing of a derogation.

In March, The Malta Ornis Committee, responsible for advisory with regards to wildlife conservation, voted to lift the turtle dove hunting moratorium, which was enforced in 2017 after the European Commission threatened with legal action if the process was to continue.

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Twistees rebrands with puzzle-piece packets for Autism Month Awareness

Apr 10 2022

With April being Autism Awareness month and April 2nd being World Autism Awareness Day as recognised by the United Nations in 2008, you will probably see a lot of brands and individual promoting awareness and local snack brand Twistees is one of those brands.

The cheesy snack’s packaging now features a number of colourful puzzle pieces in red, yellow, blue, light blue and their classic maroon colour. Many have praised the brand for taking such an initiative during Autism Awareness month, with the post garnering thousands of likes and comments.

Meanwhile, others have expressed their concern with the use of the puzzle pieces, stating that such a symbol has been phased out due to it being representative of stigma or the community “missing a piece”, which is not the case. A comment suggested that the gold or rainbow infinity symbol be used.

Twistees have responded by stating “Our intention was not to upset anyone but to bring awareness. After several research we never came across the infinite symbol. We did not choose the puzzle pieces as a sign that autistic people have a missing piece but to show that they are not different and that everyone is the same.”

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Local musician starts fundraiser after studio burns down in Gżira house fire

Apr 10 2022

After a shocking house fire in their Gżira apartment earlier this week, 18-year-old producer and rapper Alex Micallef took to social media to call on the help of his friends and followers.

After getting a 3am call from his mother, Micallef was informed that his studio suffered immense damages as a result of the fire. The young musician lost all of his equipment, including audio interface, microphone, PC, chair and more; equipment which he is reported to have been saving up seven years for.

With regards to the fundraiser, Micallef stated that it is intended for those who may have spare change, urging them not to donate money they need for themselves.

He has since gathered €690 in donations, saying “I sweat on my life never in a million years would I have expected this”, repeatedly expressing his gratitude to those donating some of their wealth to help the young musician get his dream back on its feet.

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Charles Leclerc wins Australian Grand Prix as Ferrari increase lead over unreliable Red Bull

Apr 10 2022

Ferrari star driver Charles Leclerc has won the Australian Grand Prix making it his second win of the season so far. He drove incredibly the whole weekend, becoming the first Ferrari driver since Fernando Alonso in 2010 to have a Grand Slam which means winning from pole position, leading every lap, and setting the fastest lap in a Grand Prix.

This was the first Australian Grand Prix in two years, since it couldn’t be held because of Covid-19 restrictions. The excitement for the sport’s comeback showed as an unbelievable amount of people showed up, with many reports saying that approximately 420,000 people were present throughout the weekend making it one of the most popular sporting weekends in Australian history.

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Leclerc’s teammate Carlos Sainz didn’t have the best of weekends. The Spanish driver was very unlucky in qualifying as due to a mistake in his final lap and implications from red flags he only managed to qualify in 9th place whilst his teammate was in pole position. It only got worse for Carlos, as on Sunday he dropped down from 9th to 14th and was forced to retire from the race due to him losing traction.

Disaster also struck for current World Champion Max Verstappen. The Dutchman was in second place for most of the race trying to catchup to the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc when in the 39th lap he had to stop the engine, telling race engineers on the team radio “I smell some weird fluid.”

The big winners of the weekend had to be Mercedes and McLaren. The two teams have endured a difficult start to the season but had a very pleasant Australian Grand Prix with Mercedes duo George Russel and Lewis Hamilton finishing in 3rd and 4th whilst McLaren’s Lando Norris and Daniel Ricciardo finished the race in 5th and 6th. This was the first time in the season that McLaren had both drivers in the points.

Surprisingly Williams driver Alex Albon also managed to get a point despite the fact he started the race from 20th place due to not showing enough fuel after qualifying. The driver and engineers played the risky game of not pitting until the last lap but to the surprise of many the strategy worked with Albon crossing the line in 10th place.

This now means that Charles Leclerc is still first in the standings with 71 points over second place George Russel who has 37. On the constructor side of things Ferrari also have a big lead with them having 104 points compared to the 64 of Mercedes and the 55 of Red Bull who due to their unreliable cars have missed out on crucial points.

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