Migrants kicked out of the Ħal Far Tent Village immediately upon the relaxation of the Covid-19 lockdown are sleeping rough and have no money for food and basic needs. A number of Eritreans were seen in the square outside City Gate this morning huddled together as the day broke. This website is informed the problem [...]

Manuel Mallia last Monday, contributing to the well being of business in Valletta. Manuel Mallia was drinking at the Queen Victoria City Pub in South Street on Monday afternoon while a protest gathered outside parliament. It didn’t seem like the protest was stopping him from indulging though it may have made it harder [...]

I wrote this piece yesterday about how the junior minister for IT set up a ‘think tank’ to advise him on information technology policy. The committee includes Brian Tonna’s daughter and Consuelo Scerri Herrera’s daughter whose only apparent qualification is that they’re lawyers, a profession that is at best tangentially relevant. The committee is set [...]

Or ‘Daphne’s crowd’, or ‘Ta’ Simon’, or ‘Ta’ kontra Delia’, or ‘Erba’ anarkiċi’, or ‘Nazzjonalisti indannati’ or ‘Erba’ qtates m’għandhomx x’jagħmlu’. Yep. Doesn’t mean we were wrong though. I will not dignify the insults Daphne Caruana Galizia got in her life, but for all that she was right. The Labour Party will not bring itself [...]

Evarist Bartolo continued his Dantesque lament about the corruption of his own party but said he would take no lessons from the PN about mafia infiltration. Why? Have there been many state-sponsored murders when the PN was running the country? Evarist Bartolo said only Alfred Sant was serious about fighting the mafia before Robert Abela. [...]

This website is informed that the police have asked a magistrate to conduct an inquiry into allegations that Yorgen Fenech, charged with the murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia, offered or paid Adrian Delia money to help diminish the chances of David Casa's re-election to the European Parliament. The inquiry is being conducted by Magistrate Doreen [...]

Earlier I wrote about Inspector Keith Arnaud’s final line of questioning yesterday while he had Keith Schembri as a witness in the compilation of evidence against Yorgen Fenech. This was a line of questions which I said I felt were more intended to be heard for themselves rather than in expectation of any revelation in [...]

There was a brief flutter of excitement yesterday when news sites reported that Adrian Delia had asked for an urgent meeting with President George Vella. The Leader of the Opposition had just been named by Keith Schembri that morning and, if my experience is anything to go by, people were hanging on to every update [...]

Kenneth Camilleri walked into court yesterday suspected of being a messenger. His name came up late last year when Melvyn Theuma said Kenneth Camilleri visited him at home around the time that he was feeling overwhelmed by the pressure from the Degiorgios to get them out of prison. Melvyn Theuma had been pushing on Yorgen [...]

Alfred Sant always had a way with words. Not in the cheesy chat up lines in a bar sort of way. But in the succinct slogan that sticks. He had this phrase “ħbieb tal-ħbieb” which in its simplicity, and the daring rip off from the English commonplace ‘friends of friends’ came to mean much more [...]

This set is by Jon Borg.  

This set is by Robert Agius.

https://youtu.be/O3xvu4AQcgM

https://youtu.be/0cB28rhJyG4

Through all the contradictions, the lame excuses, the artificial smoke, and the hollow categorical declarations, we learnt some new things from Keith Schembri’s testimony yesterday. The night before Yorgen Fenech tried to make a run for it on his plush yacht, Keith Schembri says he spent 24 minutes on the phone with him trying to [...]

"Corruption is much more likely to flourish where democratic foundations are weak and, as we have seen in many countries, where undemocratic and populist politicians can use it to their advantage." – Delia Ferreira Rubio, Transparency International. A few months back, late in 2019, a relative of mine came from Canada to visit. He took [...]

Photo: Jon Borg I was already in Valletta as protesters gathered outside parliament when I saw headlines reporting on the Ombudsman’s annual report. “Ombudsman: galvanised civil society brought about downfall of disgraced Muscat,” said the MaltaToday. “An organised civil society brought down an administration – Ombudsman,” wrote the Times of Malta. “Organised civil [...]

This is yesterday's Facebook Live broadcast by Repubblika that went on air minutes after that crook Keith Schembri ended his testimony in court yesterday saying he's not a crook.

October is almost here. Many have a blank 4 to 6 weeks in the heat of summer between now and then when they don’t plan to do much. Distraction will be easy. Here’s something to worry about while basking in the sun. October ends the extended grace period within which we had to implement the [...]

In an earlier post I wrote that Judge Toni Abela heads the Association of Judges and Magistrates that is resisting calls by the Venice Commission to remove the Labour Party's power to protect judges and magistrates who commit serious wrongdoing. The Venice Commission, along with NGO Repubblika, insists that judges and magistrates should be independent [...]