These are the main stories from Malta’s newspaper front-pages.
The Malta Business Weekly says that Malta registered the highest rate of rejection of Schengen visas in the EU in 2018, turning down a fifth of more than 32,000 applications that its consulates abroad received.
The Malta Independent says that Minister Konrad Mizzi has decided against appealing the court decision to open an inquiry into his involvement in the Panama Papers. Magistrate Doreen Clarke decided in April that the requisites for an in genere inquiry were met.
The Times reveals that the Lands Authority has filed a judicial letter requesting that Marco Gaffarena stops construction works on a site in Sliema. The court had ordered Gaffarena in 2016 to return the land to the government.
The Malta Independent says that Malta-registered cryptocurrency exchange Binance has suffered a data breach in which hackers stole some €35 million in cryptocurrency. The company said in a statement that two percent of its bitcoin holdings were affected
The Malta Business Weekly reports on the Grand Theft Europe investigation into a Europe-wide VAT carousel racket defrauding citizen of €50 billion every year. Companies registered in Malta have been found to be moving illicit trades despite being listed as ‘inactive’.
The Times says that were more than 1.800 people were treated in hospital for heavy alcohol consumption in 2018, the highest number of cases in 10 years. The average over the decade has been 270 every year.
L-Orizzont covers a government announcement about a reduction in price of 29 medicinal products. The paper says that this brings the number of reductions to 120 during the current legislature.
In-Nazzjon leads with a story based on a Eurostat report, showing that Malta has the second-highest rate of increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the EU.
L-Orizzont says Steward Healthcare Malta inaugurated a new orthopaedics ward in the Gozo hospital. The event was attended by Health Minister Chris Fearne and Gozo Minister Justyne Caruana.
In-Nazzjon quotes a local agricultural producer who warned that the Maltese product will soon die unless there are laws to protect them. The paper says growers prefer throwing their produce away than take them to the pitkalija market for meagre profits.
