Robert Lewandowski has hinted he could finish his career at Bayern Munich as the Bundesliga leaders prepare for Friday’s away match at bottom side Greuther Fuerth. Lewandowski won Europe’s “Golden Shoe” on Tuesday as top scorer in European football after he scored a Bundesliga record 41 goals in 29 games last season. The Poland forward is already the German league’s joint top-scorer this season alongside Dortmund star striker Erling Braut Haaland with seven goals in five league games. The 33-year-old Lewandowski has a Bayern contract until June 2023 and despite having often been linked to a move to Real Madrid in the past, he told reporters that he “doesn’t need to prove myself in another league”. Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

The government’s consolidated fund reported a deficit of €753.2 million at the end of August, €333 million lower compared to the previous year, according to the National Statistics Office. The NSO said recurrent revenue in the first eight months of 2021 amounted to €3,221.5 million, 27.6% more than the €2,524.8 million reported a year earlier. The largest increase was recorded under income tax (€331.4 million). By the end of August, total expenditure stood at €3,974.7 million, 10.1% more than the previous year. Recurrent Expenditure totalled €3,474.3 million, a rise of €509.2 million over the €2,965.1 million reported by the end of August 2020. The main contributor to this increase was a €433.2 million rise reported under programmes and initiatives.  The largest development in this category was related to the COVID-19 pandemic assistance scheme (€257.4 million), which includes the COVID-19 business assistance programme.  The interest component of the public debt servicing costs totalled €123.1 million, an increase of €1.8 million when compared to the previous year. Government’s capital spending amounted to €377.3 million, €147.3 million lower than in 2020. The drop largely...

The Maltese government and the European Commission remain at loggerheads on the sale of passports to non-EU nationals. The government argues that “citizenship is a national competence”. The commission considers that granting EU citizenship for pre-determined payments or investments without a genuine link with the member state undermines the essence of EU citizenship. Last June, the commission sent a “formal notice” to the Maltese government requesting citizenship sales to stop under the new programme. The Brussels executive said it would proceed with the reasoned opinion in the case of Malta and Cyprus should the government’s response be unsatisfactory. Commission president Ursula von der Leyen did not mince her words when she was in Malta last week. Putting a stop to the sale of Malta’s golden passports scheme, she said, is of “utmost importance”. From the response given by the parliamentary secretary for citizenship, Alex Muscat, it looks likely that the government will ignore this advice and that the passports conundrum will eventually have to be resolved in the European Court of Justice. In July, a survey commissioned by Times of Malta found the Maltese to be split on...

When the European Court of Auditors set out to gauge the effectiveness and efficiency of the EU’s return policy, it was effectively auditing, for the first time, the weakest point of European migration policy. Every year since 2008, about half a million non-EU citizens have been ordered to leave the EU because they had entered it, or were staying in it, without any authorisation. However, fewer than one in five actually return to their own countries outside Europe. In an earlier special report on migration management, we had identified eight reasons and factors for poor returns within the context of an audit of the arrangements for asylum and relocation of migrants. In this particular audit, we decided to probe one particular area deeply: the level of cooperation with non-EU countries in the return of irregular migrants. Since figures could fluctuate between one year and another and between one member state and another, we decided to approach the whole problem holistically. We set out to assess whether the suite of measures that the European Commission took after the 2015 migration crisis has improved cooperation with priority third countries or not. We distinguished between...

Around 300 wild finches, possibly smuggled from Italy, were confiscated from a property in Gozo. The raid was carried out by the police assisted by the Wild Birds Regulation Unit (WBRU). Birdlife said the birds were possibly smuggled into Malta from Italy and intended as live decoys for illegal bird trapping. They were destined to be sold among local trappers and from different pet shops. The confiscated birds included European serins, European goldfinches, European greenfinches, common linnets and common chaffinches. Most were juvenile birds, kept in very poor conditions and crammed in tiny cages, Birdlife said. It said all birds were handed over to it for rehabilitation, ringing and released following clearance and treatment by vets.  The organisation noted that the bust followed an invitation to trappers from the WBRU itself to apply for another season under the so-called “research derogation” on finches. This, Birdlife said, had already proven to be a smokescreen to the continued illegal trapping of wild finches, and is the subject of an infringement procedure initiated by the European Commission against Malta. The ORNIS committee is expected to formally decide on this...

Maltese singers led by the coach of Voice Lab Malta, Claudia Magrin, had a taste of success at the 'Next Generation' festival in Gardaland, Italy. Thirteen-year-old Kylie Micallef won the contest, scooping a contract with the Sonohra label, which operates under Sony. In the adult category, Aiden Aquilina Cohen placed second. As a prize, he will be singing, together with Bradley Debono, during a prestigious evening in aid of the charity Premio Beatrice of Verona, Italy. Italian musical legends, among which Matia Bazar, will also be performing. Gail Attard will be part of a project launched in 240 countries around the world, while 15-year-old Elisa Andrea Muscat won a scholarship with Disney International. During this same festival, Christina Magrin launched and performed her new song, which she also penned. Be Someone was received with great applause by many prominent people in the audience, among which a director from Warner Italy. This is the link to the winning song by Kylie Micallef: https://fb.watch/8cglIp7btK/

The European Commission has formally launched infringement procedures against Malta over its "incorrect transposition" of the Deposit Guarantee Scheme Directive.  The procedures were kicked off through letters of formal notice sent to Malta on Thursday. Similar letters, which signal the first step in infringement procedures, were also sent to Croatia and Hungary.  According to a statement by the Commission, the directive is part of the regulatory framework that was put in place to create "a safer and sounder financial sector in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis". Under EU rules, deposit guarantee schemes protect depositors' savings by guaranteeing deposits of up to €100,000 and help prevent the mass withdrawal of deposits in the case of bank failure, which can create financial instability. The deadline for the transposition of these rules into national law was July 3, 2015, the Commission said.  Despite the three countries claiming to have completely transposed the directive, the Commission has found that some provisions are "not correctly transposed into national law".  In Malta's case, the incorrect transposition concerns the provisions related to the payment commitments...

Brussels has taken the first step in a possible infringement case against Malta over the country's failure to implement EU-wide rules meant to stop the black-market trade of weapons.    In an announcement on Thursday, the European Commission said it had recently formally requested Malta and Belgium, to report how 2019 EU rules on so-called alarm and signal weapons have been integrated into their national laws. The rules aim to prevent the possibility of converting weapons which only discharge blank ammunition or irritants, into lethal firearms.  EU states agreed on technical specifications for these alarm and signal weapons, including the procedure for checking compliance and the need to exchange information between authorities. Countries across the bloc had to transpose these rules into their national laws by January 2020.  Maltese authorities had communicated their transposing measures, but following an assessment of the texts received, the Commission found that some elements are missing. It has, therefore, decided to open an infringement procedure by sending a letter of formal notice. Malta now has two months to notify the Commission about the measures taken to ensure full...

The automotive industry has been experiencing major supply chain disruptions in semiconductors, which nowadays are an essential part of automotive electronics, with the shortage expected to persist for the foreseeable future. This situation translates into a large number of unsold vehicles and eventually a reduction in the top line of car producers worldwide. According to AlixPartners, a US consulting firm, the crisis in the car industry will cost £80 billion (€93.6 billion) in revenue in 2021. In volume terms that’s 3.9 million unfinished cars globally. The crisis, in many aspects, is to a certain extent self-induced by the industry. Last year the pandemic brought car sales to a sudden halt. In Q2 of 2020, auto sales plummeted by as much as 80 per cent in Europe, 70 per cent in China, and almost 50 per cent in the United States. As a consequence, carmakers opted for prudence, and have cut back on their semiconductor orders worldwide, with semiconductor manufacturers being forced to find other avenues of sales from other sectors. Indeed, the shift to remote working drove up the demand for personal computers, servers, and equipment for remote communications significantly and the...

The Nationalist Party has set up a legal team to explore possible legal recourse that can be taken to reverse "the serious imbalance" on the national television station, deputy leader David Agius said on Friday. Agius said the TVM news was favouring the government and Labour Party exponents to the detriment of the PN.   An exercise carried out by the PN between August and September 20 revealed that cabinet members appeared on TVM news 195 times when compared to the 66 times that opposition exponents appeared on the news. The government had 109 soundbites and interviews while the PN had none. Prime Minister Robert Abela appeared 24 times, seven of which included soundbites while Opposition leader Bernard Grech appeared 15 times with no soundbites. Agius said the Broadcasting Authority was abdicating its responsibility to ensure impartiality in public broadcasting and ensure that the PN is given equal treatment to the government. He said the BA did not have the required resources to monitor what was going on but was in the process of recruiting more people. He said that after the Prime Minister, most airtime was given to Energy Minister Miriam Dalli followed by Transport Minister...

All properties including commercial buildings in a number of streets where traffic is considerably higher than the norm are now eligible to benefit from the Planning Authority’s Irrestawra l-Faċċata scheme after the authority decided to extend the scheme by another two months. The €2 million scheme was launched by the PA in July in collaboration with the Planning Ministry.  To date, the authority received 145 submissions with the take up of funds being close to €1.5 million. Falling within the framework of the popular Irrestawra Darek Scheme, this grant scheme is seeking to regenerate a number of streets within town centres that are subjected to a high volume of traffic. The facades in these streets experience accelerated deterioration as a result of traffic pollution and require considerably more maintenance and restoration. This extended scheme is open to owners of any property within the same areas defined in the original scheme. These consist of the parts of the following streets lying within urban conservation areas: Triq d'Argens in Msida, Triq il-Kbira San Ġużepp in Ħamrun/Sta Venera, Triq il-Wied in Birkirkara, Triq Stiefnu Zerafa, Triq is-Salib tal-Marsa, Triq Patri...

A 94-year-old woman died overnight while being positive to COVID-19, the health authorities said on Friday. Another 15 patients are in hospital, including four who are receiving intensive care. In their daily update on Facebook, the authorities said 13 new cases and 29 recoveries were registered overnight. This means there are currently 471 active cases in Malta. Malta has been registering a decline in new cases for the past few weeks.  Vaccination So far, health authorities have administered 814,957 COVID vaccine doses. Of these, 6,141 were booster doses. The health authorities will start administering the influenza vaccine to the vulnerable from the third week of October, with no gap necessary between the flu jab and the COVID-19 booster dose.  

Brussels has initiated infringement proceedings against Malta for failing to propose protection for reefs or sea caves in its offshore marine area. Neither has the island provided sufficient scientific evidence to justify not proposing any sites, the European Commission said.  In an announcement on Thursday, Brussels said it had sent a reasoned opinion to Malta.  Malta now has two months to reply and take the necessary measures, otherwise, the Commission may decide to refer the case to the Court of Justice of the European Union. Brussels called on Malta to carry out scientific studies on its marine protected habitats that are located more than 25 nautical miles offshore.  This, the Commission said, should lead the government to identify sites of so-called “community importance” to be included in the EU’s Natura 2000 network.   Made up mostly of rare breeding sites, the Natura 2000 network is a collection of protected areas across the EU.  The Commission called on Malta to respect its obligations under the EU’s Habitats Directive to establish and manage “a complete and coherent Natura 2000 network”.  This, it said, is key to protect biodiversity across the EU.  Brussels also...

French high-end fashion brand Saint Laurent will stop using fur in its collections from next year, its parent company Kering said on Friday, joining a growing list of global companies. Kering brand Brioni will also forsake fur, the company said, making all the fashion group's houses fur-free. Animal rights groups have long lobbied the global fashion industry to give up fur and several, including Versace, Chanel and Michael Kors, had already stopped using it. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) took the lead in protesting against Saint Laurent, demonstrating outside its store in the fashionable Avenue Montaigne in Paris this year after supermodel Kate Moss appeared in an advertising campaign for the brand wearing a fox coat.  "There is nothing glamorous about fur," PETA told Saint Laurent. Within the Kering group, Gucci was the first to drop fur in 2017, followed by Balenciaga, Bottega Veneta et Alexander McQueen. "The world has changed, along with our clients, and luxury naturally needs to adapt to that," Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault said in a statement. Kering would be entirely fur-free from the Fall 2022 collections. On Friday, among the fur items still...

The Maltese Diabetes Association has again urged the government to seriously consider the introduction of continuous glucose monitoring devices (CGMs) for all persons living with type 1 diabetes, irrespective of age. This, it said on Friday, should be seen as a long-term investment since patients would be ultimately managing and controlling their condition more effectively. It said that the successful six-month pilot project for children and adolescents aged 16 years and under was testimony to this. The association said that while it appreciated that the project may have financial implications, it can be introduced in a staggered way, starting from adults aged between 16 and 40, and eventually reaching out to all persons living with type 1 diabetes within a stipulated timeframe. “With the upcoming budget being presented by the government next month, we hope that our heartfelt appeal on behalf of all those living with type 1 diabetes is heard and given due consideration. "We sincerely hope that the Budget will outline a clear road map when such devices would be introduced thus providing such persons with reassurance and ensuring that they have 24/7 monitoring of their condition...

European Central Bank chief Christine Lagarde said on Friday that the potential collapse of the troubled Chinese real-estate giant Evergrande would have a “limited” impact on the eurozone. Markets plunged at the beginning of the week by fears that Evergrande – one of China’s biggest developers in the crucial property sector – would collapse under debts worth over $300 billion (€256bn), taking other companies with it and serving a blow to the world economy. “I have very vivid memories of the latest stock market developments in China that had a bearing across the world,” Lagarde told news channel CNBC. “But in Europe and in the euro area in particular, direct exposure would be limited,” she said. The struggles at Evergrande would have a “China-centric impact”, Lagarde said, while officials at the ECB, wary of the interconnected nature of markets, were following developments closely. The president of Evergrande Xu Jiayin was reported by Chinese state-owned media to have told group managers on Wednesday to “make every effort to fulfil” its payment obligations. But market observers are keeping close tabs on the battered real estate firm, with no sign that it had paid interest to...

A 15-year-old girl whose father suspected she was being groomed through an online relationship was one of the 20,000 people the Foundation for Social Welfare Services was able to help last year.  In its annual report that was launched on Friday, the FSWS said it had worked 20,020 cases last year, an increase of just under 2,000 cases from 2019. One of the agencies' success stories, saw that timely guidance and intervention from staff members manning the 179 Appoġġ hotline saved a 15-year-old girl whose father called the helpline because he believed that his child was being manipulated through an online relationship. The client reported that his daughter told him she had fallen in love with an unknown person that she had met online and wished to travel to the UK to meet him.  The father was concerned that his daughter may be communicating with someone much older than she was and did not have genuine feelings for her.  After meeting with the girl and her parents, a safer internet administrator determined that the child was being groomed and made contact with Facebook, the platform on which their communication was being exchanged, with the Facebook security team discovering that...

Valtteri Bottas emerged from Friday’s Russian Grand Prix opening practice 0.211 seconds quicker than Lewis Hamilton for a Mercedes 1-2 at the Sochi circuit in the former Olympic Park. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who leads Hamilton by five points in the world championship, came in third, just 0.16 sec behind his title rival. With a penalty after being deemed “predominately” to blame for his Monza crash with Hamilton, the best Verstappen can hope for on Sunday’s grid is fourth. Sochi has proved a fertile hunting ground for Hamilton, who is targeting a fifth win in Russia to seal an unprecedented century of wins. Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta

A report by the European Anti-Fraud Office OLAF about former EU commissioner John Dalli now forms part of the records of the money laundering case against his daughters.  A copy of that OLAF report was presented during proceedings when Louisa Dalli and Claire Gauci Borda returned to court on Friday for another hearing in the ongoing compilation of evidence that kicked off in 2018.  The two were originally charged alongside foreign nationals Eloise Corbin Klein, Charles Ray Jackson, Elizabeth Jean Jackson and Robert Mitchell McIvor, all pleading not guilty to misappropriation of funds, fraud, making a false declaration to a public authority and falsification of documents.  Allegations against the Dalli sisters concern an alleged $600,000 Ponzi scheme, which saw elderly American investors lose all their funds, with the monies wired to a company registered at John Dalli’s Portomaso address.  As proceedings dragged on, occasionally hampered by procedural difficulties, the case was re-assigned to magistrate Caroline Farrugia Frendo after the original magistrate, Aaron Bugeja, was promoted to judge.  More recently, Inspector Hubert Cini took over the prosecution from former lead...

The European Club Association has said it is willing to “engage” with FIFA over potential changes to the international calendar but has hit out at world football’s governing body for its attempts to introduce a biennial World Cup. The ECA, which has nearly 250 members from across Europe with Paris Saint-Germain’s Nasser al-Khelaifi its chairman, complained in a statement released on Friday that there had been “a lack of genuine (or indeed any) consultation” from FIFA about its proposals for a more regular World Cup. It said it believes changes are needed to the calendar to make it “modernised and simpler”, with fewer windows in which players have to be released by clubs for international duty, “better player protection and health and a balanced approach to club and international football”. Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of the Times of Malta