Planned Mġarr solar farm rejected
The Planning Authority board unanimously rejected a proposed solar farm in Mġarr.
The massive project would have taken up 38 acres of arable ODZ land – the size of six football pitches.
Joseph Schembri, the managing director of Electrofix Group, proposed the construction of 90 greenhouses with 5,700 PV panels.
The application received strong objections because of intrusive visual impact, archaeological features on site, and worries over increased flooding.
Moviment Graffiti congratulated the farmers and residents of Mġarr for joining NGOs to explain why this project should not go ahead.
PL pledges to scrap pupils’ homework
The Labour Party has committed to working towards an education system where students don’t have to worry about homework.
Prime Minister Robert Abela made this promise during a meeting with the teachers’ unions MUT and UPE.
Labour also promises a “significant” increase in teachers’ wages in the next five years, more investment in training and less administration work.
Kindergarten and learning support educators will receive pay during their teaching practice.
Robert Abela promised “strong” investments in schools’ infrastructure, modern classrooms, and the installation of air conditioning in every school.
PN: 500 new social housing units per year
A PN government would build 500 new social housing units every year, the party said on Thursday.
Such steep increase in housing units would be achieved through public-private partnerships.
The Nationalist Party also pledges to incentivise owners to lower residential rent through tax breaks.
Rental income of under €300 a month or from social accommodation would be tax-exempt.
Those renting out properties for less than €600 would have their tax on rental income halved to 7.5%.
Russian shelling and fire at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant
All eyes were on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine last night, where a fire broke out amid heavy shelling by Russian forces.
Ukrainian authorities said about 2.30am local time that a fire had broken out at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power complex.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged European leaders to “wake up now” and stop Russian forces “before this becomes a nuclear disaster”.
He said ”No country besides Russia has ever fired upon an atomic power plant’s reactors”.
A spokesperson for the power plant said that the complex hasnot sustained any “critical” damage.
Radiation levels appeared to be normal, nuclear regulators in- and outside Ukraine confirmed.
According to the country’s State Emergency Services (SES), the fire started in a training building outside the main reactor complex.
UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who spoke to Zelensky when the news broke, has called for an emergency UN Security Council meeting within hours.
At 6.20 am local time, Ukraine’s state emergency service said that the fire has been put out and that “there are no victims”.
Two hours later, Ukrainian officials reported that the plant was “captured by military forces of the Russian Federation”.
