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November 2022

US Bat Species Devastated by Fungus Now Listed as Endangered

The Biden administration declared the northern long-eared bat endangered on Tuesday in a last-ditch effort to save a species driven to the brink of extinction by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease. “White-nose syndrome is decimating cave-dwelling bat species like the northern long-eared bat at unprecedented rates,” said Martha Williams, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The agency is “deeply committed to working with partners on a balanced approach that reduces the impacts of disease and protects the survivors to recover northern long-eared bat populations,” she said. First documented in the U.S. in 2006, the disease has infected 12

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THE NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE Performance Audit: Care for the Elderly in Gozo

The Auditor General, Charles Deguara, presented the performance audit highlighted in caption to the Speaker of the House of Representatives Anġlu Farrugia. This audit sought to determine the extent to which current practices related to residential and community care for the elderly implemented by the Ministry for Gozo (MGOZ) contributed to optimal services based on value-for-money principles, namely, quality, efficiency and reasonable prices.  During 2021, the provision of these services necessitated an expenditure that exceeded €5.9 million. ​ This performance audit elicited mixed results in the provision of community and residential care services for the elderly in Gozo. On one hand,

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THE MINISTRY FOR THE NATIONAL HERITAGE, THE ARTS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

​ The Ministry for National Heritage, the Arts, and Local Government is currently in the advanced process of making the first group of acquisitions of private properties presently leased or used by social band clubs that are under threat of eviction.   The properties shall be managed by the Arts Council Malta, which will, in turn, be setting up the Band Clubs Acquisition and Management Unit to ensure that the interests of the social band clubs, as well as those of the government, are safeguarded in the long term. The unit will be under the direction of Mr James Pearsall,

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UN: Great Barrier Reef Should Be on Heritage ‘Danger’ List

  A United Nations-backed mission is recommending that the Great Barrier Reef be added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites, warning that without “ambitious, rapid and sustained” climate action the world’s largest coral reef is in peril. The warning came in a report published Monday following a 10-day mission to the reef last March by officials from UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The reef, a living place of immense variety and beauty on the north-east coast of Australia, has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1981. Australia’s federal government and Queensland’s state authorities

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WHO Renames Monkeypox as Mpox, Citing Racism Concerns

The World Health Organization has renamed monkeypox as mpox, citing concerns the original name of the decades-old animal disease could be construed as discriminatory and racist. The U.N. health agency said in a statement Monday that mpox was its new preferred name for monkeypox, saying that both monkeypox and mpox would be used for the next year while the old name is phased out. WHO said it was concerned by the “racist and stigmatizing language” that arose after monkeypox spread to more than 100 countries. It said numerous individuals and countries asked the organization “to propose a way forward to

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THE MINISTRY FOR FOREIGN AND EUROPEAN AFFAIRS AND TRADE “We must ensure that trade relations with the United States remain robust, ambitious and mutually beneficial” – Minister Ian Borg

“We must ensure that the commercial relations of the European Union with the United States remain robust, ambitious, and mutually beneficial for both continents. Malta welcomes this renewed commitment and considers it important to continue working for stronger transatlantic cooperation”, stated the Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and Trade Ian Borg during his address at the Foreign Affairs Council meeting related to trade in Brussels.   Minister Borg claimed that it is essential to focus their work on the implementation of what was agreed upon in the Trade and Technology Council with the United States. There is a need

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