Malta signs Grant Agreement for Europride 2023 after ranking first in Europe for LGBTI rights

May 17 2021

After having challenged Belfast and Rotterdam for a bid to host Europe’s largest gay pride celebration, Malta’s ‘Equality from the Heart’, together with the Allied Rainbow Communities (ARC), was chosen by the European Pride Organisers Association (EPOA) to host the event. Euro Pride 2023 will bring thousands of international participants for a 10-day event which will include conferences, gathering and parties as well as support meetings for the LGBTIQ community.

This comes after Malta was ranked first in Europe’s LGBTI Rights Rainbow Map with a score of 94%, continually reinforcing Malta’s leading position in the LGBTIQ Community and prime example of promoters for Equality.

Minister for Justice, Equality and Governance Edward Zammit Lewis stated that while Malta has made a lot of progress, there is much more work to do, going on to praise the government’s sustainable financial aid to welcome the event. The event will tackle human rights, LGBTIQ and many other topics, while also featuring avenues for artistic creation and cultivation while welcoming various NGOs to promote their programmes over the 10-day event.

MP Rosianne Cutajar took to Facebook to express her pride in the fact that under her responsibility as Parliamentary Secretary, Malta not only remained first in ILGA-Europe’s index but increased its score up to 94%, which goes to show the country’s commitment to protecting social rights.

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: BBC / Edward Zammit Lewis

Mobility Company Ryde Technologies with ground-breaking “Zero Commission” recovery initiative for drivers

May 17 2021

Mobility Company Ryde Technologies makes boldest move ever to encourage post-COVID recovery by direct financial assistance to drivers.

The tech-mobility market in Malta experienced a rapid boom up until early 2020, followed by a steep decline as the economy was hit by Covid. Couple with this, many mobility-app companies are no strangers to driver related issues such as working hours, accountability for VAT and wage related problems. Now, the current feeling in the market is of a good, steady growth in usage as people emerge from restrictive conditions.

Seeing increased usage, Ryde Technologies has decided to take a bold leap to improve both worker conditions and incomes to help them get back to their feet in the shortest time possible with full transparency. This is being done by applying a ZERO COMMISSION rate to a number of drivers who are on-boarded now, for the next three months – arguably the busiest months as the beginning of a post-Covid tourist season starts emerging. This means Ryde drivers will take the full value of the Ryde mobility platform at no cost and applies to drivers with all vehicle types working from any location in Malta and Gozo.

Commenting on the Zero Commission initiative, Kevin Vella, Director of Ryde Technologies said: “We believe that the company is there to protect our people, and we have proven our resilience in doing so. Now it’s time to go the extra mile in putting the driver first and help them and the industry recover. We call these early on boarders our A-Team! Only when our drivers are happy can we then ensure our passengers will be satisfied.”

The company also mentioned that after the partner-driver initiative, there will be a campaign to support passengers in a drive to speed up economic recovery and get people back to normal employment, their work commute or leisure activities.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ryde Malta (@ryde.mt)

From its very inception, Ryde was built around state-of-the-art technology that has huge value and impressive capability. The company has always maintained that the value of this high-tech without great humans is exactly zero, with the founders always believed that Ryde should embody a ‘well-being’ business concept over a purely financial one.

Ryde’s combination of technology and humans is what makes it a winning brand that can offer this service at the highest efficiency and lowest cost to passengers. Users will find an easy, seamless booking process that will encourage them to use Ryde over any other form of transport.

Find out more at https://rydemalta.com/zerocommission/

#MaltaDaily

Maltese Jewellery brand featured in British Vogue Magazine

May 17 2021

More often than not, we take Malta’s creative capabilities for granted and fail to appreciate the creative minds our islands have to offer and Yana Azzopardi is definitely one of them.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Yana’s Jewellery (@yanasjewellery)

The local jeweller took to Instagram to share that her works were featured on the June edition of British Vogue magazine alongside multiple international jewel designers, welcoming a flood of supportive and encouraging comments from her followers.

The magazine highlighted the family history inspiring Yana’s Jewellery and praised the ‘stand-out bold and vibrant bespoke pieces’ and we can’t say we disagree.

#MaltaDaily

WATCH: President George Vella willing to resign if abortion is allowed

May 17 2021

In response to a question made by Net News regarding the recently-proposed abortion decriminalisation bill, President George Vella has stated that he is willing to resign if Maltese law allows abortion to happen in Malta.

The President stated that he never signed off on any laws authorising murder and to this day, he stands by his position, going on to state that if the bill passes, he is at liberty to ‘resign and head home’.

The president concluded his statement by saying there is no middle-ground when it comes to this issue, “if you are killing you are killing, if you don’t you don’t, no ifs, ands or buts.”

#MaltaDaily