By Stephanie Kanowitz
May 17, 2021
New government economic recovery programs jumpstarted during the COVID-19 pandemic also rapidly increased opportunities for fraud.
One reason is that to get benefits to people quickly, legislators eliminated the usual methods for confirming identities with employers before cutting checks, said Brian Grech, vice president of sales at Deep Labs, an AI platform company providing solutions for fraud.
Traditionally, when someone applies for unemployment insurance (UI), the providing agency confirms the layoff with an employer. In the rush to push out relief funds, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act and Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) instructed agencies to deliver stimulus payments to self-employed and contract workers who don’t have employers to confirm a layoff.
A year into the pandemic, the show is most certainly going on with Toi Toi, Teatru Manoel’s education programme. The members of this year’s Teatru Manoel Youth Theatre (TMYT) cohort continued their training throughout this difficult year and are now ready to tread the boards with Pjazza Pastizzi, a commedia that promises to cheer up even the gloomiest of spectators.
Pjazza Pastizzi is a devised comedy, created entirely by the young actors following TMYT’s training programme that falls under the Teatru Manoel education programme, Toi Toi.
A devised comedy script is created collectively by a group of actors who improvise and keep the parts they like, developing them further until a script is created. A year into a pandemic that has upended everyone’s life, TMYT’s actors felt that comedy would be an apt antidote to the stress of living through a prolonged crisis.
Design practice Mizzi Studio paired pink terrazzo with emerald-green velvet and timber to form the bold interior of restaurant Barbajean in Malta.
Serving a menu of modern Meditteranean dishes, Barbajean occupies a prominent corner property in the village of Dingli.
The quiet village sits at the highest point of Malta, and has uninterrupted views out across the ocean towards the uninhabited isle of Filfla.
Barbajean has a pink and green facade
Mizzi Studio s founder, Jonathan Mizzi – who is from Malta – designed the restaurant so that it pays tribute to Dingli and its scenic landscape, but also injects [the village] with new life .