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Malta officially removed from FATF grey-list

Malta officially removed from FATF grey-list
Jun 15 2022 Share

Malta has just been voted off the Financial Action Task Force grey list on Wednesday, one year after being put on it by the global watchdog.

The island had been deemed an untrustworthy financial jurisdiction, with the FATF vote being secret and set to be officially announced at the end of a plenary on Friday. 

Times of Malta confirmed that Malta’s financial regime was given an all-clear in a high plenary vote in Berlin. This removes Malta from a position of increased scrutiny by international assessors. 

The decision for Malta’s removal came four months after the watchdog announced that initial indications that Malta had ‘substantially completed the necessary reforms’ and addressed shortcomings. 

Told to implement a long list of changes to combat tax evasion and share information with authorities, among other things, Malta had to implement the FATF action plan before being given a clean slate by the global body. 

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€60 million less for Malta in EU recovery funds due to economic growth

€60 million less for Malta in EU recovery funds due to economic growth
Jun 15 2022 Share

Malta will be receiving around €60 million less from European funds which are set to help member states recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Parliamentary Secretary for EU Funds Chris Bonett told a press conference on Wednesday that this is because the country achieved positive economic growth during the last year. 

This follows an economic assessment by the European Commission in June, leading to the amount of funds allocated to Malta to be revised. Malta was initially set to receive a whopping €316 million through the ‘Next Generation EU Funding Program.’ 

Bonett explained how Malta had the third largest economic growth in the EU, and in the first quarter of this year, we achieved the exceptional growth rate of 7.6%. 

Following the announcement, he went on to assure that none of the projects drawn up in Malta’s recovery plan will be discarded and that the government was current looking into alternative means of funding for these projects. 

With the government not intending of setting aside any of the projects, they will be implemented through the €2.2 billion which will be set in motion through the new funding framework, he explained. 

The recovery and resilience plan by Malta was approved by the EU Council of Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs in October last year. 17 investment projects and 30 reforms make up the plan and concern everything from setting up a carbon-neutral school and a new ITS campus. 

€41 million in pre-financing is going towards 17 reform and two investment milestones achieved last year. Malta’s government is allegedly currently preparing to submit a first payment request of around €60 million in the coming weeks. 

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Malta in second place for top health and life expectancy in EU

Malta in second place for top health and life expectancy in EU
Jun 15 2022 Share

Malta has ranked in second place in an index which ranks countries by the number of years people are expected to live without a disability or activity limitation. 

The Eurostar ranking placed Malta right behind Sweden, taking into consideration a person’s healthy life years. The data, shared by Health Minister Chris Fearne, was collected in 2020 and gave the island an average score of 70.45. 

Malta managed to outrank Italy, Bulgaria and Ireland respectively, with these countries not managing to hit the 70s, instead settling for 60s. 

The Deputy Prime Minister took to social media to share the news, captioning it: ‘The facts that count: Malta at the top end for Healthy Life Expectancy in Europe. Well done to our healthcare professionals.’ 

The bottom of the list was filled by Switzerland at 60.7, followed by Norway and Latvia. On EU average, women had a 64.5 year average (70.7 in Malta) whereas men had 63.5 (70.2 in Malta). 

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Netflix confirms a second season of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ is coming

Netflix confirms a second season of ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ is coming
Jun 15 2022 Share

Netflix has confirmed that popular show ‘The Lincoln Lawyer’ will be back for an exciting second season. 

The streaming giant confirmed the news on Twitter on Tuesday 14th June, tweeting out: ‘LA’s finest lawyer is back. The Lincoln Lawyer will return for Season 2 on Netflix.’ 

The show’s first season only hit Netflix last month, but it did not take long for Twitter to start receiving praising reviews. With an impressive score of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes, it has been watched for over 260 million hours worldwide. 

Based on Michael Connelly’s 2008 novel ‘The Brass Verdict’, the synopsis reads: ‘Sidelined after an accident, hotshot Los Angeles lawyer Mickey Haller restarts his career — and his trademark Lincoln — when he takes on a murder case.’

Starring Manuel Garcia-Rulfo and Maggie McPherson, fans of this show were yearning for information about the second season. While the release date is yet to be confirmed, it is likely we’ll be able to watch it next year. 

Season 2 will focus on book four in the series, ‘The Fifth Witness’. Season one focused on the second book, whereas 2011 film piloted by Matthew McConaughey took inspiration from the first. 

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