The following are the top stories in Malta's newspapers on Wednesday.
Times of Malta leads its front page with an article quoting Central Bank governor Edward Scicluna as saying that people at the bottom of the income ladder should get more financial aid.
It also separately reports how almost €120 million have been pumped into Enemalta by the government during the first seven months of the year to make up for the rising energy costs, rather than raise prices and then offer vouchers to consumers.
The Malta Independent leads with a report that Malta’s at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion rate rose to above 20 per cent, a rise over last year. In a second piece, the newspaper reports on a statement by the Church’s Justice and Peace Commission saying that Maltese authorities should prioritise saving lives after the death of a four-year-old girl while crossing the Mediterranean.
In-Nazzjon reports on the testimony of former Finance Minister Edward Scicluna before the Data Protection Appeals Tribunal on Tuesday in which he refused to explain his 2014 decision to appoint disgraced former policeman Silvio Valletta to the FIAU board.
In other stories, it says that the Maltese are not making ends meet and cannot cope with rising prices as well as a story about the launch of the Nationalist Party’s new political training programme.
L-orizzont refers to comments by the General Workers’ Union about the need for better safety practices on construction sites following the umpteenth fatality on a site in Qormi on Monday.
In another story it quotes Health Minister Chris Fearne as saying that Malta will continue providing the best oncology services to cancer patients.
Malta Today reports on how Prime Minister Robert Abela and his wife applied to demolish and re-develop the Żejtun villa they bought in 2017 just three months after irregularities were sanctioned by the Planning Authority.
In other stories, it reports on how the EU wants Malta to introduce fiscal mechanisms to curb landfilling as well as a report about the rise in people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.