Kidney donor MP delighted

Nationalist MP Ivan Bartolo on Wednesday donated one of his kidneys to a complete stranger in what has been described as a “noble and altruistic” gesture. “When the surgery was done, and I was told that the kidney is functioning well, it felt like they had told me I had just had a baby. I cannot describe the sense of happiness that I felt at that moment. It was too beautiful to describe,” he told the Times of Malta.

What made the headlines

14 overdoses in prison in seven weeks: There were 14 overdoses at the Corradino Correctional Facility over the past seven weeks, the Times of Malta revealed on Monday. In all cases, the inmates were treated at the prison clinic while others were taken to hospital. This sudden spike comes as the prison is flooded with what sources describe as an unprecedented amount of drugs, especially synthetic ones.

New PA website irks lobby group: A new Planning Authority website sparked controversy as environmental lobbyists labelled it “a step backwards”. The Front Ħarsien ODZ, a lobby group focused on protecting virgin land from development, said the website did away with vital search functions. It called on the PA to imme­diately reinstate the facility to search for all pending ODZ applications and pending planning enforcements by locality.

Film traces Dalli saga: Former European Commissioner John Dalli unsuccessfully tried to obtain information about an alleged conspiracy against him that led to his sacking, accor­ding to a documentary by two Danish journalists. The 92-minute investigative feature was produced by Mads Brügger and Mikael Bertelsenand and the BBC. It was made over two years and includes interviews in Malta, the Bahamas and Brussels.

Cabinet to discuss sex offenders’ law: The Cabi­net is set to discuss an overhaul of the way sexual offenders are stopped from working with children, the Times of Malta revealed. Government sources said the overhaul could include the setting up of a new authority to administer a comprehensive list of people barred from working with children or vulnerable adults. It would be different from the protection afforded by the present sex offenders’ register, which bars a person from working with children once there is a criminal conviction.

EU Advocate General says trapping breaches EU law: The Advocate General at the European Court of Justice accused Malta of breaching EU law by continuing to open a finch trapping season. In her 26-page opinion, Eleanor Sharpston said she was “entirely convinced that the present arrangements do not respect Malta’s obligations” under the Wild Birds Directive. The court is expected to decide on the matter in the coming months.

Court upholds PN request for probe on PM, top officials: Magistrate Ian Farrugia upheld a request by Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil to conduct a criminal investigation involving the Prime Minister, his chief of staff Keith Schembri, Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi, former managing director of Allied Newspapers Adrian Hillman, Kasco Group head Malcolm Scerri and Nexia BT’s Brian Tonna and Karl Cini. Dr Busuttil had submitted copies of e-mails found in the Panama Papers and also referred to a 128-page investigation report by the government’s anti-money-laundering agency (the FIAU) completed in March. The seven individuals have appealed against the court decree.

Smart City hospital in default: The building of a state-of-the-art hospital at Smart City, announced by Prime Minster Joseph Muscat in 2015, has hit a brick wall as the investors involved have not managed to come up with the money to buy the land, the Times of Malta revealed. According to a promise of sale agreement signed in 2015 and extended several times, Synesis Ltd was given until the end of last January to conclude the deed to acquire some 16,000 square metres of land and pay Smart City €5.9 million. However, the private company has still not paid its first instalment of €522,000.

PN outlines parliamentary reform proposals: The Nationalist Party once again called for the introduction of a prime minister’s question time on the same lines as the House of Commons, as part of a seven-point parliamentary reform plan. Other proposals include the immediate appointment of a Commissioner for Standards in Public Life, the grilling in Parliament of senior appointees like the Police Commissioner and AFM Commander, better research resources for MPs, and exploring the option of full-time MPs.

What they said

“The situation we are living in today is like George Orwell’s famous book 1984, where the truth is a lie and lies are the truth.”

Nationalist Party leader Simon Busuttil reacting to the criminal complaint filed against him by Keith Schembri after he had demanded a magisterial inquiry to investigate money laundering allegations stemming from the Panama Papers.

“Until the recent general election, not since the violence of the mid-1980s has Maltese poli­tics been conducted in such a hostile, bilious, hyper-partisan and poisonous manner.”

Columnist Martin Scicluna writing in the Times of Malta.

“A day after accusing the Opposition of misinterpreting the decree, they decided to file an appeal.”

Shadow justice minister Jason Azzopardi reacting to the decision by seven people, including Joseph Muscat, Keith Schembri and Konrad Mizzi, to appeal against a court decree that upheld the Opposition’s request to place them under a criminal inquest.

“If the aim of this transfer was to silence me from criticising the government, particularly on environment issues, they have failed.”

Nationalist Party councillor, environmental campaigner and PN election candidate Charlot Cassar speaking after being transferred from Transport Malta, where he was a senior manager, to the Ministry for European Affairs and Equality and then to the Fisheries Department in the space of a few days.

What trended

Good news or bad?

Working in the media very quickly teaches you that people will always find something to complain about, no matter how positive the story, writes Bertrand Borg.

And so it was last week, when news that half the Kappara Junction would be opened to traffic ahead of schedule was met with a chorus of moaning.

“Surely it will just move the traffic jam further up the road?” asked one, reflecting the thoughts of a slightly more sarcastic reader: “Yay,” she wrote. “Another bottle­neck in the making. How thrilling.”

Another critic offered a bit more depth to their reasoning: “More road capacity simply generates more traffic. This has been experienced by nearly every other European country decades ago,” he wrote, predicting a brief ‘honey­moon’ period for the new road after which “traffic chaos will return to the same levels”.

Not that everyone was so scep­tical about the project. Many con­­gratulated the government on a job well done, while others said they hoped the momentum would be carried forward to the up­com­ing Marsa project. And when some people tried to drag party politics into it, others quickly shouted them down. Small mercies.

One group of voters who might have celebrated smoother-flowing traffic through Kappara are Malta’s caravan owners – provided they haven’t all decamped to a seaside location for the summer months.

This newspaper reported that authorities appeared unwilling to clamp down on caravans lining the road by Mistra Bay, with Trans­port Malta, the PA and police all passing the buck.

“You do not need a bloody caravan in Malta,” fumed one reader. “Stop spoiling the natural beauty of the island.”

“It’s a free-for-all,” wrote another in disgust. “Malta has become a Third World country where laws are not enforced.”

While some accused critics of being killjoys – “let them enjoy summer in the way they can afford” – others focused on caravan owners’ lack of options, asking why Malta didn’t have a proper camping site “like in other countries”.

“Not everyone can afford a seaside apartment,” another wrote in agreement. “So how about the government providing more areas for caravans and campers?”