From my article in Sunday's Times: "I did a quick survey of newspapers and found that the last time the prime minister was anywhere in the presence of the media actually saying something was 63 days ago... "This is not an extended holi­day. Abela has gone underground." Read the full article here.

Joseph Muscat complained the institutions are acting against his cronies under pressure from “the usual people”. By that he means the police are only prosecuting Frederick Azzopardi to make it look like they’re doing something and get people calling for justice off their back. But they don’t really mean to have Frederick Azzopardi convicted. There’s [...]

Erba’ qtates they called the thousands in the streets that brought Joseph Muscat down in 2019. You’d have to wonder what they’d call the Manwel Cuschieri fan boys (and some girls) who showed up to cheer Frederick Azzopardi this morning when Manwel Cuschieri helpfully pointed him out so they could distinguish him from all the [...]

Joseph Muscat promised thousands screaming in indignation. He threatened to flood the streets of Valletta with a mass of furious anger flowing like hot lava. How dare anyone prosecute an official he had handpicked for breaking the law and tarmacking a valley? Joseph Muscat's promise fizzled into nothing. In place of a massive [...]

Read this report of a comment by Joseph Muscat in May 2018. He was facing calls to have a public independent inquiry opened to look into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia. He was rejecting the calls saying an inquiry would undermine the criminal investigations and eventual prosecutions. He was facing protests against his protection [...]

Just so it’s clear where this started. Frederick Azzopardi is being prosecuted for ignoring legitimate orders from the environment protection agency to stop building a road in Siġġiewi's Wied Qirda. The road was being built to replace an illegal passage way to a house in the valley. To make way for the new road, protected [...]

In the 7 years he was prime minister Joseph Muscat never showed up at a marċ ta’ San Gejtanu. He’s now a people’s man again because he needs those crowds at his back to scare public officials from doing their duty and prosecute him and his cronies. He showed up at San Gejtanu yesterday and [...]

Joseph Muscat is no longer prime minister. He no longer has access to the basic hire and fire power over public officials that he had when he was in office. When he was prime minister he headed a criminal organisation that captured the institutions of the state to pursue its profiteering program. That program and [...]

Joseph Muscat’s crony, mouthpiece, 1984 propagandist, and lynch-mobster Emmanuel Cuschieri put a face to his boss’s reference to “the usual people” under whose pressure institutions act. He put up a picture of Repubblika’s Robert Aquilina as a target of hate, a blood red cape waved in front of the mob they are whipping up to [...]

Joseph Muscat’s guns have been blazing for some time now. Having had his house searched by the police as part of a magistrate’s inquiry, having his suspicious receipts from the people he gave three public hospitals to exposed by a newspaper and investigated by the police, he knows it is only a matter of time [...]

An expert report filed to a UK House of Commons committee says Malta must choose sides between alignment with democratic countries or with tyrannies like Russia and China. The report, filed last March with the UK parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, was authored by Shanker Singham, an adviser on international trade and regulation. The author of [...]

The real test of a good current affairs analyst is when circumstances require them to demonstrate their ability to react in a timely manner to unexpected or unforeseen events and to have the skill and the foresight to say the right thing based on the facts that are known without losing tact and empathy and [...]

Let’s just stop pretending that AUM is a university. Newly leaked documents shed further light on its dirty dealings if any more proof was needed that AUM is not and has never been an educational institution. Most of the leaked information has emerged alongside the government’s announcement that public land stolen by the government will [...]

The song is called Mhux biċ-Ċajt! and performed by Rita Pace and Tikka Banda. It was performed at the L-Għanja tal-Poplu Festival. It didn't do well. So? If you want to know more this is the band's take on their record.

If you can please help The Shift News fund their response to the appeals being filed by the government against tribunal and administrative decisions confirming you, the reader, had a right to answers to questions reporters were asking on your behalf. With some exceptions the government’s business should be conducted openly and transparently. When they [...]

I’m in no mood to be defending Bernard Grech. He doesn’t seem willing or able to do it himself in any case. The more time passes the less effective he seems to be. By now he should really be showing some signs of a possible turnaround and I’m either blind or there aren’t any. I’m [...]

Alfred Degiorgio pleaded through his lawyer on his and his brother George’s behalf yesterday that he cannot get a fair trial because they’ve already been tried by the media since their arrest. Degiorgio complained Joseph Muscat, then prime minister, spoke at a press conference at the time of his arrest and said he, along with [...]

This is an image published by the Central Bank with a press release announcing Edward Scicluna signed a European charter "to foster an inclusive, non-discriminatory organizational culture that embraces diversity of thought and celebrates each employee's distinct and unique selves." The irony must escape them.  That set looks anything but diverse. Those stiff suits behind [...]

Read this report of a particular battle The Malta Independent chose to fight on principle more than anything else. If they were ever to force the government to give a proper response to their detailed questions about how much the movie awards night held before the election cost, few will care by then. We all [...]