Corporate Dispatch Sunday Morning Briefing and Newspaper Review

Good morning

Your morning briefing brings you a quick round up of the main news as reported by the main news outlets and newspapers from Malta and around the world.

Malta’s Newspapers 

The Sunday Times carries an interview with whistleblower Alex Fezouine who reported a Schengen visa racket allowing to illegally migrate to mainland Europe. Fzouine, a former Air Malta sales manager, said that then-assistant Police Commissioner Lawrence Cutajar warned him that investigating the embassy headed by the prime minister’s cousin was going to be complicated.

MaltaToday repots that Air Malta registered operational profits for the first time in 16 years. The paper says the airline will publish its results from the implementation of the restructuring strategy adopted in 2017.

The Malta Independent on Sunday leads with an interview with Malta Financial Services Authority CEO Joseph Cuschieri about the newly-launched reform strategy. Cuschieri says that a new organisational structure will reinforce supervision and governance.

Malta Today reports that the judicial appointments committed blocked a move for magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace to be promoted judge. Another story in the paper says that the financial watchdog fined a Maltese company at the heart of the ‘Football Leaks’ scandal for breach of the Financial Institutions Act.

The Malta Independent on Sunday speaks to Law Faculty Dean Professor Kevin Aquilina about the system of judicial appointments. Prof. Aquilina says that meritocracy has, over the years, been overlooked to favour ‘friends-of-friends’.

The Sunday Times carries a story about a British man, 50, who said he was repeatedly abused sexually by a priest when he was a ten-year-old student in Malta. The victim said he was encouraged to speak out after the recent conviction of Cardinal George Pell.

Illum publishes the story of a 65-year-old woman who has only ‘a few weeks left’ before being forced onto the streets. The paper says the woman cannot make ends meet on her €500 a month pension.

It-Torċa speaks to factory workers who say that colleagues employed by a contractor are on full pay while they are earning just over half the hourly rate. The workers add that when the work load increases, they have to make much of the effort.

Illum reports that Malta twice refused entry to Boeing 737 MAX aircraft in the last week, both originating from Cape Verde and redirected to Tunisia. The paper says that Malta was one of the first countries to effectively close its airspace to the aircraft.

Kulħadd leads with a picture of Prime Minister Joseph Muscat taken 10 years ago when the process to reverse taxes on vehicles was started. The paper says that justice has finally been served with car owners.

Il-Mument runs a series of ‘leaked stories’ related to the Labour Party leadership which, it says, risks breaking the party. The paper says Konrad Mizzi lied about a meeting with prospective leadership candidates after a ‘scolding’ from Castille.

It-Torċa says that a public consultation on the national adoption strategy will be launched on March 25. In another story, the paper reports that Malta was given as a Class A rating S&P.

Kulħadd quotes the president of the Institute of Journalists (IĠM) that it is ‘’unacceptable for lawyers to request information about newspaper sources. The paper spoke to the IĠM president after lawyer Jason Azzopardi, appearing for PN MEP David Casa, asked in court for sources behind a story about the MEP to be revealed.

These are the main news from around the world 

It’s been two days since New Zealand’s “darkest day”. New Zealand PM comforted the crowd at mosque as nation mourns its dead. The death toll for the deadly terror attack that targeted two mosques in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand, on Friday rose to 50, Police Commissioner Mike Bush said in a press conference Sunday morning.

After weeks of declining participation, France’s “yellow vest” protest movement attempted to rebound on Saturday with a major rally in Paris.  It quickly turned violent with Police firing tear gas to disperse protesters.

Brexiteer Nigel Farage, the former leader of the right-wing UK Independence Party, joined protesters on a 270 mile march from Sunderland in the northeast of England to London over what they called a betrayal of the Brexit vote.

French investigators at the Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses (BEA) – the French Aviation Investigation and Analysis Office – in Le Bourget, outside Paris, began studying the cockpit voice recorder of an Ethiopian Airways plane that crashed last week.

There were clashes in Tirana between Albanian opposition supporters and police while trying to storm the parliament building in a protest against the government which they accuse of being corrupt and linked to organised crime.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed into law a bill that would award the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.

Russia will respond to new European Union sanctions, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without saying what action it would take.

Despite poor weather conditions, four ships began a clean-up operation on Friday afternoon. The 214-metre-long vessel sank on Tuesday, 300 kilometres west of the French town of La Rochelle, carrying 2,200 tonnes of heavy fuel.

Flash floods in Indonesia’s easternmost province of Papua have killed at least 42 people and badly injured 21 others, a local disaster agency official told Reuters on Sunday.

Valtteri Bottas powers to a stunning victory in the Australian Grand Prix, defeating team-mate Lewis Hamilton by more than 20 seconds in Melbourne. The Finn took the chequered flag and wins for Mercedes while Red Bull Verstappen finished the race third.