The contradictions in Lawrence Cutajar’s answers to Ivan Martin in the Times of Malta interview are damning. He insists he only knew “il-Ġojja”, Edgar Brincat, superficially. He had not spoken to him in a long time, he said. He knew him from when he was a police inspector. He would be at the race course [...]

Please wear a mask or a visor and keep a 2 metre distance from people who do not live in your household. If you're vulnerable or live with someone who is, join the vigil on Facebook. But if you can, join us in Valletta. The criminals who have spoken out said they feared our protests. [...]

This statement was issued by #occupyjustice this evening: Thirty-two months ago, Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated. More recently, like many other countries, Malta lived through the COVID19 pandemic, and today, the country is gearing up to get back to ‘’normality’’. But is this the same “normality” that was promoted by the disgraced Prime Minister Joseph [...]

I remember One TV broadcasting a report showing us throw paper planes through the shuttered gate of police headquarters and describing the scene as if we were armed with man-portable anti-aircraft missiles. There were cruel cartoons shared by Laburisti sal-Mewt. And the sort of hysterical shock at the audacity of criticising the boys in blue. [...]

In April 2018, six months after Daphne Caruana Galizia was killed, Europol was changing bosses. The outgoing director Rob Wainwright needed to reply to a letter from then MEP Ana Gomes who asked for information about progress in the investigation on who killed Daphne Caruana Galizia. Though Rob Wainwright kept to diplomatic decorum, the fact [...]

One of the survivors pushed back to Libya on a fishing trawler hired by the Maltese government has spoken in a detailed exchange seen by this website about the experience of the illegal push-back to Tripoli on 15 April. The survivor, from Eritrea, whose name is not being revealed to protect his safety and that [...]

You have to hand it to him. Since January, Robert Abela has been quite busy. You know, fighting the war against COVID-19 which he conquered easily. He had to address the nation from One TV and give press conferences which lasted hours. Then there were a number of photo opportunities like touching elbows with an [...]

I was quite baffled as I was reading the inquiry report into the Easter incidents in Malta's search and rescue area, seeing how Magistrate Joe Mifsud showed complete disregard to the evidence that he collected when delivering his conclusion. In other instances, he went to great lengths to understand the complexities of SAR (Search And [...]

Photo: TED ALJIBE / AFP The conviction of Maria Ressa in the Philippines on charges of cyber-crime shows how tyrants in weak democracies will use the law to clamp down on criticism. Maria Ressa’s online news service has repeatedly exposed the true cost of strongman Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs”, thousands of people [...]

It was moderately amusing to see Chris Cardona ignore the public pressure laid on him by his party leader Robert Abela and saying he still does not intend to resign the deputy leadership of the Labour Party. That’s in spite of Robert Abela saying that he was sure Chris Cardona would do the right thing [...]

In a letter sent to MEPs, mostly from the liberal Renew Europe, Evarist Bartolo sought to block a parliamentary question in the European Parliament before it was even submitted. The news comes from a report by Nello Scavo in Italy’s l’Avvenire. In the letter, seen by this website, Evarist Bartolo quotes the Joe Mifsud inquiry [...]

Like modern democracy, the reckoning with the race-based caste system came first out of America. The depth of the present crisis is shown by the fact that the debate is not simply about addressing existing inequalities. It is instead searching for their roots in history. It is seeking a reinterpretation of the totems handed down [...]

This is our education minister showing off his cooking skills. Zalzett mir-roża u fixxfinkers. Out of the packet, on to a barbecue big enough to cook him and on to the plate. There’s nothing wrong with a quick meal of overcooked ultra-processed food out of shiny packets once in a while. But to show it [...]

Someone I know sent this to the prime minister earlier today: Prime Minister: I refer to the article Lovin’ Malta just published regarding the use of vouchers in strip clubs. I already had my reservations as to whether this blanket approach of giving vouchers to people, regardless of their income, was an effective way of [...]

George Santayana in 1905 wrote that ‘those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ The quote was slightly changed in a speech by Winston Churchill to the House of Commons in 1948 when he said that ‘those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it.’ History is not written [...]

I’m afraid she’s right. Mandy Mallia, Daphne Caruana Galizia’s sister, says what many of us where thinking at the sight of over-cooked pasta beads with tinned cocktail sausages. Well, one of the things we were thinking anyway. Mandy Mallia had the elegance not to comment about the food. I don’t. Whatever that was, it looked [...]

Edward Scicluna is being grossly disingenuous in his interview with Times of Malta today. He says the fact that there is an inquiry into his conduct and the conduct of all government ministers using public funds to fund propaganda on social media on their personal Facebook page is a “farce”. He resorts first to the [...]

Opposition MPs are boycotting the parliamentary grilling of the nominee for the police chief job. You can see where they’re coming from. At least I can, because they’ve been getting some flak for the decision they took. As I see it, if you know you’re in a setup, the best you can do is walk [...]

By the end of 11 June 1940, World War II claimed the lives of the first 18 victims gunned down by enemy fire. Some of them were children. Just after sunrise an attack on St Elmo crushed the first lives. The air raid warning would sound seven times that harrowing, confusing day. The island’s poorly [...]

The judge who presided on Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad’s trial has warned prosecutors they could face disciplinary action for botching the trial of the Iranian man with a St Kitts and Nevis passport. In a ruling in response to the US government’s request to drop the case against Ali Sadr, Judge Alison Nathan ordered prosecutors [...]