1745- Latest News update
Times of Malta says that newly elected European Parliament president Roberta Metsola faced repeated questions about her position on abortion and women’s sexual rights during her first news conference as head of Europe’s law-making body.
MaltaToday says that a court has been told how a man allegedly raped a Maltese woman with whom he had a “long term physical relationship of sorts”, when she had called at his apartment in order to bid him a safe trip before he left to visit his dying mother in Sicily.
Newsbook says that Tax commissioner Marvin Gaerty will be replaced after submitting his resignation, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.
TVM says that a 54-year old man from Ħaż-Żabbar was remanded in custody after he was accused of his wife’s attempted murder.
Mid-Day Briefing
Roberta Metsola Is New European Parliament President: Nationalist MEP Roberta Metsola has been elected as the new President of the European Parliament with an outright majority of votes in the first round of voting. Metsola, who hails from the centre-right EPP Group, thus becomes the third woman to hold the post, after Simone Veil and Nicole Fontaine. She will succeed the late David Sassoli, who passed away earlier this month. She received 408 votes. The other candidates were Alice Bah Kuhnke for the Greens/EFA, Kosma Zlotowski for the ECR and Sira Rego for The Left. Kuhnke received 101 votes, Sira Rego 57 votes. There were 74 blank votes.
Man accused of attempting to kill his wife: A 54-year-old technical officer from Żabbar on Tuesday was accused in court of an attempt to murder his wife. The case happened early last Friday when the police were alerted that the woman had locked herself in a room as her husband was threatening to kill her using a knife. When officers went to the house, they found the man hugging his two sons. They later told the police that they saw the father attack their mother with a screwdriver.
New Tax Commissioner to be appointed: The Times of Malta reveals that tax chief Marvin Gaerty is to step down by the end of the month, with the transport ministry’s perm sec set to replace him. The report says that Gaerty would stop serving as the Commissioner for Revenue at the end of January, after nearly 10 years in office. He will be replaced by Joseph Caruana, the permanent secretary at Ian Borg’ transport ministry.
Covid-19 update: A further 379 new COVID-19 cases were recorded on Friday while 704 patients recovered. The health authorities three men, who were 60, 64 and 89 years old, died while Covid-19 positive.
Morning Briefing
Firm fined for data breaches exposing voters
IT firm C-Planet Ltd has been fined €65,000 after an investigation by the Data Protection Commissioner found it at fault for a security breach that exposed personal information on 330,000 voters. The commissioner requested the IT company to immediately erase the personal data in the database file stored on the compromised server and provide the commissioner with evidence that this request did not prejudice any ongoing judicial proceedings. The report said the IT company had violated multiple articles at law, including not notifying the commissioner of the incident. Media reports had indicated that the leak also included information on the voting intentions of the specific person, alluding that the information was collated for the Labour Party, which has in turn rejected any links to the incident. (Times of Malta/Maltatoday)
Crunch time for Metsola
Maltese MEP Roberta Metsola could be set to make history today becoming the first Maltese official to occupy a top European post, if a vote at the European Parliament goes her way. International media outlets described Metsola as firm favourite, given the wide agreement between the two major political groupings. However, a candidature put forward by the Greens, might attract support from the leftist parlamentarians, particularly those who oppose Metsola’s anti-abortion stance. On Monday, PM Robert Abela and PN leader Bernard Grech wished the Maltese MEP well for today’s election.
Follow today’s developments from Strasbourg here.
Covid-19 Update: Active Covid-19 cases dropped further as 699 persons recovered while 288 new cases were reported on Monday. 9,509 persons are currently identified as Covid-19 positive. There are 124 persons in hospital, eight of whom are in the ITU.
