The police department is apparently setting up a court martial (for the pedants, that's a literary exaggeration) for the constable who danced (perhaps another literary exaggeration) to something my daughter informs me is a tune called Conkarah. The classic missing wood for trees. The issue is not that this police constable made a silly TikTok. [...]

No Robert. You can forget it. Forget summer and your tan. Forget a holiday on some sandy beach with slow waves lapping the white sand in some exotic bay surrounded with tall palm trees. Your ‘extraordinary good success’ in eliminating the dreaded COVID-19 is done, though that should be attributed to the health professionals not [...]

This website is informed that the magistrate inquiring into the deaths of 12 people at sea during the Easter weekend sent two notes referring to his report to all his colleagues in the judiciary yesterday with the comments ‘You have much to read.' and 'I sent you a copy.' The two notes, it seems, were [...]

The Labour Party had made a mantra of meritocracy provoking a reaction in those who felt they were entitled to greater recognition. What they really meant was mediocrity. Consider yesterday’s announcement that an MBA graduate without a day of experience in the foreign service is now our chief diplomat. His academic training is in nursing, [...]

The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs Luigi di Maio confirmed to the Italian Parliament reports appearing days ago on Avvenire and The Guardian that included photos and videos showing the Maltese army pushing migrants out of Maltese territorial waters within sight of Malta’s coastline. In his statement to the Italian Parliament, Luigi di Maio said [...]

Italian Foreign Minister Luigi di Maio informed the Italian Parliament that "Malta has come round and now accepts it needs to cooperate in a shared effort to help stabilise Libya." After several postponements Malta has now withdrawn its reservations on the appointment of a commander for the EUNAVFORMED IRINI naval mission, the Italian government has [...]

A fourth boat has been despatched to imprison migrants out at sea. European countries have stuck to the argument that if Malta expects solidarity it should first comply with its legal obligations. The migrants out on 3 Captain Morgan boats and the rather grandly and equally unhelpfully named Supreme Cruises boat are on Maltese territory. [...]

Photo: Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation NOYB, the Vienna-based NGO that campaigns for digital rights, announced today it will be backing the Daphne Caruana Galizia Foundation and Repubblika, in their efforts to secure justice for the victims of the CT-Planet data leak of political preferences and personal details of voters. The leak showed the [...]

Thirty-two MEPS from across the political spectrum asked European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova to introduce a new directive against SLAPP lawsuits filed by corporate bullies against journalists and activists in order to shut them up. “A new directive needs to include safeguards to easily dismiss SLAPP cases in an early stage of legal proceedings.” MEPs [...]

Some things will need adjusting and that includes changing the way we make money and earn our keep. It feels like tourism operators fully expect to be checking in tourists in the same numbers they did last year by the time this year’s out. That may just be a front they’re putting up. It’s not [...]

Photo: Malta Today It’s great that we can ease Covid-19 restrictions. It’s great that at least for now the worst is over and though we’re not out of the woods quite yet some of the restrictions can be relaxed. It’s also good that we’re warned not to take this thing for granted. Yes [...]

This article continues where article number 3 left off, facing the question ‘Who owns Egrant?’ I will continue to show how Brian Tonna and Karl Cini subverted a magisterial inquiry with half-truths, and outright lies. They served a prime minister who would go on to be selected as the International 2019 Person of the Year [...]

People got angry yesterday watching Floriana FC fans celebrating in their main square like there’s no virus. Understandably the angriest of all are Valletta FC fans. They don’t like seeing their neighbours in green having a good time and that’s without needing a pandemic to fuel their moans. But people who are indifferent to football [...]

Byron Camilleri said yesterday the reports of hunger strikes and attempted suicides aboard the Captain Morgan boats out on Hurd’s Bank did not get to him. He’s under the impression migrants are perfectly happy to be held on the boats just beyond sight of Malta without any prospect or plan for what’s happening next to [...]

Yesterday’s The Malta Independent had the right headline. “The knives are out: How police chief appointment risks turning into a farce.” The process isn’t inspiring confidence, is it? And this country desperately needs an improved and strong police department. Edward Zammit Lewis seems to think that Malta’s reputation in the eyes of the rest of [...]

Italian home minister Luciana Lamorgese said she sent a video of migrants in distress at sea 6 miles from Malta’s coast as an AFM boat piloted through them, to Malta’s Byron Camilleri and told him she thought Malta’s behaviour was “absurd”. Minister Lamorgese was speaking on Rai Due’s Che tempo che fa: “I forwarded the [...]

From my article in The Sunday Times today: "Our relationship with power is a slightly more sophisticated version of the native islanders who show the colonists the way to the gold mines in exchange for mirrors, combs and trinkets. We ignore the rights of others as we cash in on the government’s generosity with our [...]

In case you haven’t come across it, read this report in The Guardian about the unlikely prospects of the New Zealand Opposition. “The leader of New Zealand’s opposition has been removed by his party in a desperate bid to install a figurehead who can match Jacinda Ardern’s star power in the upcoming September general election. [...]

I don’t know what Edward Zammit Lewis’s PR office is drinking but taking out paid adverts in the newspaper to congratulate one-self is hardly a recommendation of his work. In an advert Edward Zammit Lewis ticks off a series of headlines saying that “in less than 4 months this Government managed to move forward historic [...]

International NGO Human Rights Watch joined the chorus of pressure on Malta to allow migrants penned on Captain Morgan coastal cruises outside Maltese territorial waters to disembark in Malta and seek asylum if they choose. The organisation accused Malta’s government of having no legal basis or legitimate purpose for keeping people on these ferries, making [...]