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I had the pleasure today to speak at the yearly peace summit called by the Community of Sant'Egidio, that is meeting this year in Madrid and discussing "Peace With No Borders". I spoke today in a session focusing on "Media and Social Media vis-a-vis the Conflicts". Twenty-three months ago today Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed in a [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Consider some of Michael Farrugia’s decisions. He retains Lawrence Cutajar as police chief in spite of the fact that the Inter fan who has diagnosed Joseph Muscat as having metal testicles is clearly clueless. "He also retains Silvio Valletta as lead sleuth in spite of court orders [...]

This series started out as a commentary on the American University of Malta based on an interview with an ex- staff member who was part of the mass firings. See 'When Is a University Not a University'. However, it soon opened out on to the wider landscape of corruption-saturated Malta. Part 1 ‘Belief in freedom of conscience [...]

Filed by someone known to me. That the EU has nominated Helena Dalli as EU commissioner for equality is testament to the EU’s naiveté of zooming in on one tiny feature in the larger unfavourable picture. Malta’s Labour Party’s governance is all about discrimination and double standards. While the government welcomes wealthy foreigners of dubious [...]

The Moneyval report is out. Read a summary here. There are some choice quotes in there that will allow the government to spin this and give itself some comfort pills. It says our laws are great for example. Which of course is easy because we lift them off European laws and put them on our [...]

I am very proud that Caroline Muscat is in the list of nominees for tonight’s award for independence in journalism at the Reporters Without Borders’ annual awards event in Berlin. It’s a vicarious pride, the sort I would feel when a Maltese athlete wins a medal in a tournament or -- all right I confess [...]

Someone had to go and get me the 'making of' video of Ian Castaldi Paris's "interview" with The Sunday Circle. Some questions Ian Castaldi Paris could have been asked. Can you give us the addresses where the Saudi oil sheikhs you gave passports too are living? What action did you take about the consultants who [...]

Remember the woman to the left of the moderately hirsute specimen in the middle ? She once met another woman and we wondered what they spoke about. Maybe 'who does your makeup?' Here's a series of recent pictures of both ladies. This may get me into trouble.

That's how Euronews described Frans Timmermans' explanation of the European Commission's plans on a new rule of law mechanism. He was speaking at the European Parliament and he reminded his audience that just because it's legal, doesn't mean it's right. Discrimination against the Jews in Nazi Germany was based on laws. It was indeed an [...]

The good news is the last passengers stranded on the Alan Kurdi are being allowed to come ashore. They will be relocated "immediately", the Maltese government said, though that could mean several months locked up in a hot and wet cage ostensibly for medical tests while the immediate takes its time to materialise. The way [...]

With some relief, we learn Helena Dalli will not be made Commissioner for Justice. She is being proposed instead as Commissioner for Equality. As Politico put it this morning, she’ll “hopefully be less trouble than the last person called Dalli to be a commissioner”.

Reuters’ Darrin Zammit Lupi is out at sea on the Alan Kurdi. He tweeted yesterday that Malta’s armed forces are only evacuating passengers from the rescue boat if they become suicidal. Three more minors, all suicidal, were evacuated by AFM from the #AlanKurdi in the early hours of this morning. According to #Seaeye doctor, the [...]

Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, owner of the defunct Maltese bank Pilatus, charged with money laundering and violating US sanctions, wants to be allowed out on the street in the evenings and his GPS anklet removed. Ali Sadr has asked a US court to let him stay out of his house till midnight while he awaits [...]

That was quite a cringe-fest on the Sunday Circle yesterday. It’s the magazine that came out with The Sunday Times and that showed 5 pictures of Ian Castaldi Paris beaming like he’s just lost his virginity. Five times. Ostensibly this cover story of the Sunday Circle is an interview with “the man behind the professional”. [...]

(Father) David Muscat is becoming the lead spokesman of Malta’s neo-Nazi party, the Imperium Europa. For the 8th September holiday, he led a delegation of the party founded by Norman Lowell at the Great Siege Memorial and “addressed” his audience, such as it was, wearing his off-duty priestly Sunday best and folding a rosary in [...]

As it turns out the PN had more planned for yesterday than just a conference to discuss the Sette Giugno riots to try to deflect attention from the protest that Moviment Graffitti led. Adrian Delia and the handful of students that will be taking over the MŻPN, replacing an older guard that was unwilling to [...]

This flight is like any other flight. Due to the frequent travel required by my employer, flying is an experience nearly as normal as riding in a car. The routines are the same. The speeches given by crew differ little between airlines, whether domestic or international. Yes, this flight is like any other, until it [...]

Reports that Helena Dalli is lined up to be Europe’s commissioner for justice are a black joke, to borrow a phrase. You could take it for granted that Joseph Muscat would nominate an ally to the commission. As he prepares for his exit from Castille, he needs as many friends in high places as could [...]

Where would you rather have been? One of these events attracted 23 people to think about a protest march in Valletta a century ago. The other wanted people to think about what will happen a hundred years from now.