These are the leading stories in local newspapers this Friday.

Times of Malta leads with an article on how restaurants and cafes are weathering a
new storm before the start of the tourist season, as the pandemic exodus of foreign
workers leaves them understaffed and vulnerable to poaching. 

The newspaper also gives prominence to an assessment by Moneyval which found that Malta has demonstrated “significant progress” in fighting money-laundering and terrorism financing.

The Malta Independent also gives prominence to the Moneyval report, while in a separate frontpage story it reports on the discovery of a 2,000-year-old tomb in Zabbar.

L-Orizzont covers the Moneyval result on its frontpage as well. In a separate piece, it reports that the number of new cars on Maltese roads dropped by 27 per cent in 2020.

In-Nazzjon meanwhile focuses on the ARMS billing issue, after a draft report by the National Audit Office found that consumers could have paid “extra charges” totalling €6.5 million on their electricity and water bills. The newspaper says that a PN government would refund the money.