Sunday Morning Briefing

Good morning,

Your morning briefing brings you an analysis of what is reported on Malta’s front pages for today and a round up of the latest headlines from Europe and around the world in a 5 minute read.

We at Corporate Dispatch, wish you a good Sunday.

• The Sunday Times’ front page is dominated by a photo showing the effects of a tsunami and an earthquake that left hundreds of people dead on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. This photo is flanked by three main local stories.

• The first one concerns the intention by eight NGO’s to appeal the DB project. These NGOs, together with the local councils of Pembroke, Swieqi and St Julian’s met last week and established that there were “solid legal grounds” to appeal the PA’s decision but funding the appeal remains an issue.

• The second story concerns a decision by the data tribunal take last week which decided that call logs of a midnight chat between MaltaToday co-owner Saviour Balzan and the Prime Minister’s top aide Keith Schembri published by assassinated journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia linked to the Egrant story, are to be allowed to remain online.

• The third story reports how soil tests, commissioned by the Environment and Resources Authority following the massive blaze at the Wasteserv plant in Magħtab on August 31 have come back all clear and stating that soil has not been polluted. The authorities remain baffled since toxic residues were found unexpectedly in an area not thought to have been affected by the plume.

• The main story on The Malta Independent on Sunday reports that the 14,216 people registered as organ donors constitute only 3% of the population. The story reports how Michael Camilleri has launched a petition to the Ministry of Health to introduce an opt-out organ donation scheme.

• The other story reports how in an interview with Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, the minister pledged that the authorities are putting all their effort to accommodate the 800 students who to date remain without free school transport.

• Illum reports that President Marie Louise Coleiro Preca will not be contesting the MEP elections and her ‘canvassers’ are supporting various candidates. The report says that it is not excluded that the President will retain her role for another term.

• The main story on Maltatoday shows how Maltese wealth management firm Portmann Capital Management has been fined €370,000 by the FIAU over lack of due diligence on its politically exposed clients.

• The other main story states how the police our holding off from prosecuting people implicated in the Egrant story because they want to first conclude all their investigation, given that the report also contains details of banking transactions by private individuals who used Pilatus Bank’s services.

• It-Torca leads with a follow-through story based on an interview with the GWU’s Josef Bugeja, who speaks about the changes and renewal process that the Trade Union is working on.

• In another story, we read that there is an evaluation going on, for the use of tablets in the secondary schools. It-Torca also writes that the Nationalist Party will not be revealing who will be donating to the party, through its ‘cedoli’ scheme.

• Il-Kulħadd will be hosting over 5,000 innovators in Malta during the coming days, in view of important summits being held in Malta, all linked with technologies.

• Il-Mument lead story is based on the latest about the Planning Authority, where the report focuses on the weaknesses of the authority through its structure.

• UN Council: North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho praised the “tangible trend of peace and development” seen in the Korea Peninsula since diplomatic ties between North and South Korea were rekindled. Frequently re emphasising the need for trust, Ri said there was “no way” North Korea would unilaterally disarm themselves before “coercive” sanctions were lifted, adding that the idea that sanctions would bring North Korea to its knees is a “pipe dream” of those who don’t understand the country.

• UN Council: Syrian Deputy Prime Minister decried international interference in domestic Syrian affairs, framing the country’s brutal seven-year-long civil war as a battle against “terrorism”. In a damming speech, al-Moallem accused the US coalition of war crimes, including massacres of civilians and said that countries which had not supported Bashar al-Assad’s government would not be welcome to take part in rebuilding Syria.

• UN Council: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov denounced what he said are “baseless accusations” of Russian interference in foreign affairs and lashed out at US policies in Iran, Syria and Venezuela. Al Jazeera / AFP

• Palestine files complaint with UN’s International Court of Justice on US decision to move embassy to Jerusalem – CD

• German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosted Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a working breakfast in Berlin on Saturday morning, ahead of the Turkish president’s visit to the western city of Cologne. A spokesperson for the chancellery said the two leaders explored ways of enhancing “economic cooperation,” before discussing the EU-Turkey migration pact and the conflict in Syria. DW/CD

• Rescuers in Indonesia were scrambling Sunday to reach trapped victims screaming for help from collapsed buildings, while looters risked entering an unstable shopping mall to grab whatever they could find after a massive earthquake spawned a tsunami that left more than 400 dead. CBC

• Catalan separatists clashed with police on Saturday in downtown Barcelona, with two arrests being made, as tensions increase before the anniversary of the Spanish region’s referendum on secession that ended in violent raids by security forces. CD

• Pope Francis has defrocked a once-prominent priest whose case has been at the center of public outrage about clerical sexual abuse and its concealment in Chile, in a rare move that Vatican officials said showed his determination to tackle a scandal that has roiled the Catholic Church here and around the world. CD

• A major flaw in the Conservative party’s official conference phone application made the private data of senior party members including cabinet ministers accessible to anyone that logged in as a conference attendee. CD

• British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party began gathering for its annual conference on Saturday with bitter divisions over her Brexit plans rising to the fore, raising doubts about her own future. Reuters

• This Sunday’s referendum in Macedonia on the “name” agreement with Greece is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for the country to overcome the long-standing Greek blockade on its path to EU and NATO membership, observers say. CD

• Terrorists attacked a police station in Jammu and Kashmir’s Shopian, leaving one policeman injured. Times of India. 

• Thousands of people took to the streets and marched in cities across Brazil on Saturday as part of a women-led protest against far-right, frontrunner presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro.

• Speaking in a rally in West Virginia, US President Donald Trump, said that America is winning again, and America is respected again. ‘We are putting America first again’. He claimed that his win in 2016 a revolution thanks to the people. Fox News.

• Elon Musk, under pressure from his lawyers and investors of Tesla, reached a deal with the Securities and exchange Commission on Saturday to resolve securities and fraud charges, through which he will step aside as chairman for three years and pay a $20 million fine. New York Times. 

• The eastern Mediterranean witnessed a rare and powerful hurricane-like storm across Greece triggering flooding as it made its way to Turkey. CNN

• The Spanish government on Saturday unveiled the assets of more than a thousand high-level officials including 38 current and former ministers as part of a drive to increase transparency in the government. DW