Tuesday Morning Briefing

Good morning,

The latest revelations from the #DaphneProject dominate the headlines in Malta. The murder of the Bulgarian journalist, almost a year after Caruana Galizia’s murder, also leads to focus on the investigative work carried by the raped and murdered journalist. We also read about the latest on the Salisbury’s case investigations and the apology of Trump to Kavanaugh.

Your morning briefing brings you a review of the latest news as reported by the news outlets and media in Malta, the Mediterranean, Europe and the globe, to help you start your day informed.

The Latest

• Malta’s Economy Minister Chris Cardona and one of the suspects in Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder, Alfred Degiorgio, had attended a small bachelor’s party in Fawwara, according to new revelations by the Daphne Project. Cardona has denied the claims. In a statement issued by the Department of Information, the minister said these “smears are highly damaging and false.” The Malta Independent 

• The EU’s anti-fraud agency last month began looking into allegations of misuse of EU funds in Bulgaria, the same issue being explored by a journalist who was killed at the weekend. (Politico) Meanwhile, Corinne Vella, sister of murdered Maltese journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, told Euronews that Europe must act together to stop the murder of journalists investigating corruption.

• President Donald Trump apologised to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh for “the terrible pain and suffering” he and his family were “forced to endure” during his confirmation process, at a ceremonial swearing-in event at the White House on Monday evening.

• Former UK Foreign Secretary William Hague expressed his concern about the various events which all led towards the Russification of Europe. The Telegraph

• Trust in Vladimir Putin and Russia’s ruling party have declined steeply over the past year with analysts pointing to the government’s controversial pension changes as the main reason. The Guardian

• Marine Le Pen of France and Italy’s Matteo Salvini met in Rome on Monday, blasting European Union chiefs as the “enemy” of Europe. During a press conference in Rome earlier today, Salvini called EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Economics Commissioner Pierre Moscovici as the “enemies” of Europe, barricading themselves in the bunkers of Brussels and refusing to leave their post. Euronews

• Ahead of the first state visit by a Dutch royal to the UK in almost 40 years, King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands has told of his regret and fears over Britain’s decision to leave the EU. The Guardian

• “When Jean-Claude Juncker did a little shimmy during a speech in Brussels, he wasn’t making fun of Theresa May, whose own dance moves were a, er, highlight of the Conservative Party conference, the European Commission’s chief spokesman said Monday.” – Politico

• Risks are building in the global economy, with growth supported by increasingly unsustainable policies and global co-operation undermined by nationalist policies, the IMF warned on Tuesday. Financial Times

• Theresa May is demanding that Brussels offer “precise” guarantees that Britain and the EU will enjoy frictionless trade after Brexit, in an attempt to unlock a withdrawal agreement covering the Irish border. Financial Times

• Venezuela’s government said on Monday that a jailed opposition lawmaker killed himself by jumping from the 10th floor of the state intelligence agency headquarters (SEBIN) where he was being held, but his party said he was murdered by the government. Reuters 

• Staff at the European Parliament will on Tuesday launch a blog on which stories of sexual harassment within the institution will be published, in order to break a “culture of silence.” Politico 

• Pakistan, the flagship country for China’s global infrastructure building initiative, said Monday that it needed a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, amid growing concerns that Beijing’s program is pushing recipient countries into financial crisis. Wall Street Journal

• The ex-wife of R&B star R Kelly has accused him of numerous incidents of domestic violence. Andrea Kelly was married to R Kelly from 1996 to 2009. Speaking on US talk show The View, she said one incident in the back of a Hummer left her fearing for her life. ABC via The Guardian

The Review 

• The Times reports that Malta’s largest ever development project, the transformation of Manoel Island into a top-end Mediterranean village, will be changing hands in the coming weeks as Tumas Group will be buying the majority of shares in the project from Midi plc. 

• It also reports that Opposition MP Jason Azzopardi, yesterday slammed Prime Minister Joseph Muscat for failing to act against Economy Minister Chris Cardona, in light of what he described as a “rapport with a figure in the criminal underworld”, who has been charged with the car bombing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. In a parliamentary speech, Dr Azzopardi pointed to findings by the Daphne Project, which highlighted a phone call to Dr Cardona made by a man once suspected of fuel smuggling.

• The Malta Independent leads with Cardona’s denial of the revelations in the Daphne Project, namely that he had met one of the accused of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s murder at a bachelor party in 2017. The revelations also include phone monitoring logs, which indicate that there were phone calls between the murdered journalist, a ship owner involved in oil trafficking, the Minister and one of the accused, and which according to the report, published by La Repubblica, were kept away from the first inquiring Magistrate.  L-Orizzont also reports about Cardona’s denial in its front page.

• L-Orizzont carries a story about the positive welcome, to the possibility of having a new psychiatric hospital in Malta. In another story we read that this summer, Valletta witnessed the biggest amount of tourists in any summer.

• In-Nazzjon leads with the story regards the court case presented by the Nationalist Party, which determined that the Electoral Commission was not the right and fairest body, to investigate a case related to the financing of the Nationalist Party.

• In another story, the newspaper says that a number of ITS students were complaining about the fact that the works at the new site, hosting the institute, were not completed in time for the scholastic year.

• The Nazzjon also reports that there were 29 reports, in Malta, of people who said that they spotted Madeline McCann, the girl who disappeared from a Portuguese resort almost a decade ago.