The Bank of Valletta is exposed to the tune of 360 million euro to fund the Electrogas power station. Temporarily the exposure is backed up by a guarantee provided by the government. But the government is impatient to withdraw that guarantee because that letter is a pain point for the government’s accountants seeking to balance [...]

The Times used just the right verb this morning: bafflement at the PN's decision to organise Christmas Drinks at one of the Silvio Debono db Group facilities. The PN and Silvio Debono fell out when the PN criticised the allocation of public land in St George's Bay to the db Group to develop a massively [...]

The Mainichi Shimbun, Japan's oldest newspaper and its newspaper of record, is covering the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia and the political context in Malta. It's so far that the stories have to start by explaining to readers where Malta is. Doing like the prime minister and stubbornly complaining of "bias" in the face of [...]

Deep down in everyone of us is the intuitive welcoming host. All of us shudder reading The Guardian's headline "MEPS disturbed by trip to Malta". We have thought of many adjectives to describe these islands. I have seen no glossy posters saying 'Visit Disturbing Malta'. This is where Joseph Muscat has brought us to. And [...]

Here is a report from iNews (an offshoot of the UK's The Independent) on the situation in Malta. It is significant that the assassination of Daphne Caruana Galizia is described as a "scandal". In everyone's but Joseph Muscat's mind, this is a political killing that carries political responsibilities. But Joseph Muscat calls the rest of [...]

I can understand where Carmelo Abela is coming from. Sort of. Take his point of view. A colleague of his was caught with a secret bank account in Panama. He did not resign. Another was caught inebriated during office hours a dozen times and was alleged to have visited a brothel while on business. He [...]

By resident guest George Farrugia Calleja: The EP Delegation has wrapped up its work and returned to Brussels more worried about the state of the Rule of Law in Malta than it was when it arrived. Even as a stand-alone, this is a damning indictment of Joseph Muscat and his cronies’ governance of the country. [...]

Instead of answering questions to a delegation that flew to meet him from the European Parliament, Brian Tonna of Nexia BT, accountant to the prime minister, former front-man for Mossack Fonseca, self-confessed debtor to his clients, proud owner of Egrant Inc in Panama, and one of the protagonists of the Panama Gang, treated Joe Cuschieri [...]

Here's a preview of the report the European Parliament is going to receive from the delegation it sent to Malta to check whether there is rule of law here. This is Green Sven Giegold on twitter earlier today: #Malta needs change! Results from our fact finding mission: We came seriously concerned and left even more [...]

Index on Censorship today condemned the Police Minister Michael Farrugia for indulging in a public political battle with the grieving relatives of Daphne Caruana Galizia. “This is a deeply discouraging development, said Joy Hyvarinen, head of advocacy at Index on Censorship. The Maltese authorities should be focusing on investigating the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia, [...]

Here are photos from today's protest in St Paul Street, Valletta.

I received an email today from a Michael Joy whose signature says he is Executive Manager at Nexia International. He was referring to my post of yesterday about Nexia International liking my tweet saying Nexia BT should answer questions from the European Parliament. Here's the text of his email. Do notice the title: RE: Urgent [...]

Some time ago I had asked anyone wanting to contribute to this blog to send in their writings for guest-posting. Lizzie Eldridge went one better. This website will be featuring audio podcasts by Lizzie Eldridge in a series called Tales from the Land of Serenity. The podcasts are read and produced by Pia Zammit. The [...]

This statement was sent by Daphne Caruana Galizia's family to all media today: We were dismayed to see that the Minister of Home Affairs and National Security, Michael Farrugia, published our letter to him accompanied by a media statement. This was a private letter from the widower and sons of an assassination victim to their [...]

They had the pleasure of meeting Lawrence Cutajar yesterday. Their expectations were not high. Some of them had seen the video of his so called crime conference 4 days after Daphne Caruana Galizia's assassination. The others had heard descriptions of it. They visited Lawrence Cutajar yesterday and the engagement was so bad it was easier [...]

The Chief Justice received today the EP delegation who are on a fact-finding mission whether rule of law works in Malta. They just got their answer. It doesn't. Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri is reported to have told the Parliamentarians that in his view the police have, like the rest of us, seen enough evidence to [...]

When still Leader of the Opposition, Joseph Muscat asked Lawrence Gonzi to fire his chief of staff, Edgar Galea Curmi, for making a phone call to then Commissioner of Police John Rizzo. The story was around Cyrus Engerer who had recently switched parties from PN to Labour. He had made the switch in the context [...]

In 1995, the PN administration set up the Ombudsman. This would be an official with security of tenure appointed by cross-party consensus and reporting directly to Parliament. The Ombudsman would hear complaints of wrongful administration, unfairness in government decisions, injustices and discrimination. Without fear of retribution the Ombudsman would have the power to speak publicly [...]

I'm rarely distracted by the likes of Cyrus Engerer. Although to be fair there aren't many like Cyrus Engerer. He posted today his elaborate treatise on the secret agenda of the civil society activists invited by a cross-party European Parliament delegation headed by a Socialist to speak about rule of law in Malta. Here's his [...]

The eerie silence of Chris Cardona for weeks after the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia was unmistakably conspicuous. But his name came up in many conversations he was not part of in all this time. That was because, of all the measures of suppression Daphne Caruana Galizia suffered in her life, few were starker than Chris [...]