Corporate Dispatch Morning Briefing

Good morning,

The latest from the EU Council, the headlines in Malta’s newspapers, a review of the world’s headlines.

This is your morning briefing for Friday.

The latest about Brexit :

A unanimous agreement of the EU-27 heads of state and government was reached in Brussels, just before midnight, extending the original 29 March, 2019 deadline to April 12, 2019 – just two weeks down the road, giving the UK more time to figure out what Brexit will finally look like. If the UK parliament approves Theresa May’s deal next week, the new date will instead be May 22, 2019.

The news from Malta’s newspapers are as follow :

The Times leads with the EU’s 2019 scorecard for Malta, highlighting that no significant progress has been made in the fight against corruption since 2018. In a presentation the European Commission said that more needs to be done to strengthen governance and anti-money laundering processes.

The Malta Independent says that the government will introduce a bill in parliament to separate the functions of Prosecutor General from the office of Attorney General. The constitutional amendments are expected to come into effect this year.

The Times, too, reports on the announcement to split the powers of the Attorney General and quotes Justice Minister Owen Bonnici who said that the decision was one in a series of changes recommended by the Venice Commission.

L-Orizzont says that the introduction of the bill to create a new Prosecutor General role demonstrates the reformist approach of the current administration. The paper says the government will start a consultation process on a wide-ranging set of constitutional changes.

The Malta Independent speaks to an unidentified man who has been diagnosed with HIV since the age of 26. Interviewed on Indepth, the man said that the condition is still largely misunderstood and describes how it has impacted his relationships.

L-Orizzont reports that 58 babies are expected to be born from parents who made use of the IVF facilities during 2018, both at Mater Dei and at private clinics. The chairperson of the Authority for the Protection of Embryos presented its annual report to Health Minister Chris Fearne.

In-Nazzjon reports on the EPP Summit in Brussels ahead of an EU Leaders Summit and covers an address by PN Leader Adrian Delia who spoke about the risks of a no-deal Brexit. The paper says that Delia also sent a clear message against abortion in his address.

In other news headlines we read :

A man was killed after he drove at high-speed into a crowd of people, killing six, Zaoyang city in the central province of Hubei. The man it seems had intentionally driven into the people but the motive so far is unknown.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested in a televised interview Thursday that God may have sent President Donald Trump to Earth to protect Israel. US President Donald Trump has said it is time to recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

Sources in Italy are being quoted as saying that no evidence of radioactivity has been found in the organs of key Ruby witness Imane Fadil, after the results of testing on her first tissue samples came in. Fadil died March 1 after complaining she was poisoned.

The passwords of millions of Facebook users were accessible by employees of the same social network.Security researcher Brian Krebs broke the news about data protection failures, which saw up to 600 million passwords stored in plain text and accessible to around 20,000 Facebook employees.

A week after Cyclone Idai lashed southern Africa, flooding is continuing as torrential rains caused the Marowanyati dam to overflow in Zimbabwe, putting populations in the region at risk.

Margrethe Vestager, the European Union’s top antitrust regulator joined the list of candidates for the presidency of the next European Commission, a post up for grab after EU parliamentary elections in May 23-26.

Dutch telecoms group KPN is on the verge of signing a contract with China’s Huawei to roll out its 5G service. Dutch business broadcaster RTL Z reported that the agreement has been reached and Huawei is ready to begin building the system this month, despite sensitivities about the involvement of a Chinese company.

France 24 reports that 100 persons died after a ferry carrying families celebrating the Nowruz holiday capsized in the Tigris River near the Iraqi city of Mosul, according to officials.

A body recovered from close to Grimsby Docks in the Humber Estuary is that of missing student Libby Squire, Humberside Police has said.

The morning briefing is brought to you by CI Consulta’s media monitoring service Be Informed. Contact us if you require specific media monitoring service for your business, to make informed business decisions.