PN defends David Thake as the MP reports himself to Standards Commissioner

Dec 30 2021

Nationalist MP David Thake reported himself to the Standards Commissioner after reports emerged out of unpaid VAT owed by his telecoms company.

Thake formally wrote to the Commissioner for Standards and requested an investigation into the reports to identify whether he breached ethical standards at any point.

Times of Malta reported that Thake’s company Vanilla Telecoms Ltd must pay €270,440 in pending VAT, interest and penalties. The PN posted a statement arguing that the current Labour government has long allowed for deferred tax payments so as to hand out breathing room to struggling companies recovering from the pandemic.

Referring to MP Ian Castaldi Paris, the statement said that prime minister Robert Abela wants his Labour MP to evade any consequences of investigation after the tax authorities found €1 million in unexplained wealth.

‘Here we have a case of another Nationalist MP who is being mistakenly accused by the police. He was accused of not paying tax when in fact he paid it, so much so that the charges against him were dropped.’

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: David Thake FB, Bernard Grech FB

More than 100 people getting the COVID jab for the first time everyday

Dec 30 2021

The Vaccination Centre at the University of Malta has reported over 100 persons daily wishing to receive their first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine.

With the attendance of around 800 under the age of 12 as well, Head Nurse Jorgen Souness told TVAM that those who have not been vaccinated may visit nine vaccination centres without having an appointment.

Urging everyone to get their booster shot as is strengthens immunity agains the pandemic, he also said that all those holding an appointment time should keep to it but all those totally unvaccinated are also receiving the jab.

Due to the Christmas seasonal vacations, attendance of kids for vaccines has also increased. Souness pointed out that 800 kids aged 11 and less are getting their boosters daily. Those over the age of 12 are placed in the adult section.

Those aged over 12 and unvaccinated yet may visit the UOM Gateway daily without an appointment. Those aged under 11 will receive notification letters. Charge Nurse Emily Farrugia highlighted that the greatest public concern is the physical impact caused by vaccination.

She however reminded everyone that side-effects by vaccines are very low and mild, especially when compared to what COVID infection does. Vaccination, along with the booster shot, has reduced hospitalisation due to COVID.

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: DW, TopUniversities

Malta registers over 10,000 active cases in yet another record

Dec 30 2021

The COVID cases continue to spike in Malta as the island registers a whopping 10,137 active cases.

After registering 1353 new cases in the last 24 hours, Malta went over the 10,000 active case mark as it continuously broke both daily and active cases records in the past few days.

All around the world, the Omicron variant is leading the spike as it is far more transmissible. However, it is allegedly less impactful than the other variants when it comes to severity of infection.

In terms of hospitalisations however, Malta has 94 patients infected with COVID-19 in hospital, 6 of which are in the ITU.

Malta also managed to rollout 1,060,424 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, 213,816 of which were booster shots. No deaths were registered in the past 24 hours.

#MaltaDaily

Elon Musk sets the date for when humans will land on Mars

Dec 30 2021

Tesla CEO and billionaire Elon Musk has expressed his opinion on when he expects humans to land on Mars.

The red planet has been the recipient of many rovers over the years as scientists sought to explore its terrain. A rover also recently discovered a significant amount of water on the planet, providing a potential landing spot for when human exploration begins.

Musk’s prediction is surprisingly early, as he took to the Lex Friedman Podcast to outline when humans will take to the Red Planet.

‘The best case is about five years, worst case 10 years’ he said in terms of when such missions will take place. There may be setbacks in terms of ‘fundamentally engineering the vehicle’ however he said.

Despite Starship being ‘the most complex and advanced rocket that’s ever been made’ according to Musk, he expressed how optimising the Starship is quite problematic.

Costs are also a major barrier, as ‘there is a certain cost per ton to the surface of Mars where we can afford to establish a self-sustaining city.’

‘Right now you couldn’t fly to Mars for a trillion dollars. No amount of money could get you a ticket to Mars. So we need to get that above, you know, to get that something that is actually possible at all.’

#MaltaDaily

Photo Source: Reuters