Italian authorities investigating mafia use of Maltese gaming websites

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2021-11-18T13:17:42+01:00Thu, 18th Nov '21, 13:17|

Photo: Ansa Italian news agencies report authorities have identified 12 suspects for participating in illegal gambling operations using websites owned by Maltese companies. The suspects are believed to be involved in delinquency, illegal online betting, and false ownership claims. The investigation brings together agents from Palermo, Ragusa, Messina, Agrigento and Trapani. According to [...]

What does 94% tell you?

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2021-11-19T05:10:53+01:00Thu, 18th Nov '21, 11:26|

The General Workers’ Union – and I will say more later about the fact that a theoretically socialist labour union could do such a thing – yesterday announced that 94% of people working inside the prison signed a petition praising Alex Dalli and asking for him to be brought back to run the show. By [...]

GUEST POST: The Serene Siren and the Ominous Octopus

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2021-11-21T20:26:22+01:00Thu, 18th Nov '21, 10:22|

I live and work in Brussels and I draw satirical cartoons on a range of subjects which I post on Facebook. Following the cyberbullying attack sparked by my cartoon depicting Michelle Muscat as a siren and Joseph Muscat as an octopus, posted on Facebook last week, a lot of people came to speak to me [...]

A timely comparison

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2021-11-17T10:03:36+01:00Wed, 17th Nov '21, 10:03|

The Opposition MPs on the committee for standards recommended yesterday that since both sides had already agreed to endorse the standards commissioner’s conclusion that Rosianne Cutajar breached Parliamentary ethics she should be suspended for a month. MPs for the government disagreed and the Speaker threw in his casting vote against the motion. He supported a [...]

The unlikely Khan

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2021-11-17T13:00:00+01:00Wed, 17th Nov '21, 09:59|

Owen Bonnici is going to teach us about how to avoid hate speech at an upcoming conference. We knew he was all for a tolerant society built on mutual respect, particularly respect for people you disagree with, every one of those over 500 bloody times, that he ordered the removal of our protest in front [...]

WATCH: Day of the Imprisoned Writer

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2021-11-17T09:54:50+01:00Wed, 17th Nov '21, 09:54|

Here is a video of an event organised by Scottish PEN to mark the Day of the Imprisoned Writer (15th November). The speakers are Rebecca Vincent (Reporters Without Borders), Cat Lucas (English PEN), Leela Soma (Scottish PEN), Ricky Monahan Brown (Scottish PEN), and Lizzie Eldridge (Scottish PEN), who read from the work of Daphne Caruana Galizia. [...]

What’s the State Advocate for then?

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2021-11-16T11:09:03+01:00Tue, 16th Nov '21, 11:09|

The press is reporting the response filed by the Malta Security Service to a claim by one of Daphne Caruana Galizia’s alleged assassins that his phone had been tapped illegally. The MSS is saying it wasn’t. That’s not what this is about. The MSS is being represented in court by a lawyer with a private [...]

Digital lynch mobs

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2021-11-16T10:36:25+01:00Tue, 16th Nov '21, 09:51|

Man, it’s Lord of the Flies out there. I barely look at Facebook anymore and I found it’s better for my health. I use an app attached to my blog to post stuff on Facebook because too many people still have the habit of only considering as news what comes up on their Facebook feed. [...]

Stockholm syndrome

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2021-11-15T10:14:53+01:00Mon, 15th Nov '21, 10:14|

Simon Mercieca probably thinks I avoid commenting on the more outrageous things he writes because the campaign of harassment headlined “Stop writing about Simon Mercieca (and Yorgen Fenech)” has convinced me not to. I avoid writing about the madness in his writing out of compassion, for him mostly. Sometimes though, I have to make an [...]

Stop wriggling

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2021-11-13T11:55:41+01:00Sat, 13th Nov '21, 11:55|

It turns out the EU Commission already clarified that someone in John Dalli’s situation does not enjoy immunity from prosecution for crimes he committed while serving as an employee of an EU institution. It did this 16 years ago when €60 million from the manufacturer of chewing tobacco wasn’t even a twinkle in Peppi tal-Imqaret’s [...]

Immunity from common sense

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2021-11-12T10:23:14+01:00Fri, 12th Nov '21, 10:23|

What the fuck just happened in the court that should have heard charges against John Dalli? First, the disclaimer. The esoteric priestlike capabilities of warranted professionals are rightly respected by amateurs like me. If I’m going to ask for a doctor’s opinion about some ailment, I have no right to weigh years of medical training [...]

GUEST POST: What a namby-pamby

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2021-11-12T09:23:06+01:00Fri, 12th Nov '21, 09:23|

Weakness in attitude becomes weakness of character. - Albert Einstein That Robert Abela is a weakling is a known fact. He’s been prime minister for nearly two years now and his actions or rather his inactions and his preference for sitting on the fence prove just how puny he is. Our premier thinks that ignoring [...]

GUEST POST: Shopping List

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2021-11-11T14:56:40+01:00Thu, 11th Nov '21, 14:56|

Some Practical suggestions for the Prime Minister about how to spend some of the National Budget: Maltese citizens do not need to travel free on buses. What we need are more buses – so that we do not have to wait twenty minutes or more for a bus to pass, usually ‘full up’. Get out [...]

GUEST POST: The Ghost of the American University of Malta Still Lingers on (Part 2)

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2021-11-11T10:24:21+01:00Thu, 11th Nov '21, 10:24|

There’s been a ghostly silence since the publication of the first part of this investigation on 23 September, the same month in which the AUM was supposed to have its license renewed. There’s been no further response from Clemson University, supposedly in charge of Quality Assurance services for the AUM as set out in the [...]

Byron Camilleri in survival mode

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2021-11-11T11:33:52+01:00Wed, 10th Nov '21, 17:16|

So, Alex Dalli “suspended himself” from the post of director of prisons. Funny this auto-suspension thing. It must be a uniquely Maltese concept. Not enough for us the textbook options of being fired (which Alex Dalli should have been) or suspended pending an investigation (which doesn’t seem to be the case here), or resigning, leaving [...]

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