More redundancies in the gaming industry

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2018-02-01T23:27:24+01:00Thu, 1st Feb '18, 23:27|

We need to keep a closer eye on the gaming industry in Malta. It's looking ever more ominous. Seven traders were given the sack today by their employer Offsidegaming. In simplistic numeric terms this is smaller than Betsson's recent cull of a 130 employees. But one event may be a fluke. A second one should [...]

The shady on the sunny side of the street

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2018-02-01T22:47:09+01:00Thu, 1st Feb '18, 22:47|

Konrad Mizzi is smarter than I am in many respects. He's certainly better at keeping himself fit. Here he is walking down the San Ġiljan waterfront with his regular walking buddy. I cannot DNA-test his mate but it looks to me he's walking around with Darren Casha, apparently back from his jaunt abroad hiding from [...]

Migrants ahead

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2018-02-01T20:29:28+01:00Thu, 1st Feb '18, 20:29|

The European Union’s border agency Frontex launched a new Mediterranean operation called Themis on Thursday, removing the obligation of the previous mission to bring rescued migrants only to Italy. Reuters quoted Izabella Cooper, a spokeswoman for Frontex saying “Triton (the old migration rescue program) said that whomever rescued would be taken to Italy. Themis leaves the [...]

The biggest lie in Maltese political history

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2018-02-02T18:56:20+01:00Thu, 1st Feb '18, 18:32|

A few days ago I was working with an Italian anti-mafia journalist who was in Malta to look into some suspected activities in Malta of criminals from his own country. I saw his report and rather impertinently reminded him that some of the allegations he was reporting were denied by the suspected people even though [...]

G Farrugia Calleja: Slap down SLAPPs

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2018-01-31T21:19:22+01:00Wed, 31st Jan '18, 21:13|

By George Farrugia Calleja So it seems that the squeaky clean (bite me) gentlemen behind Pilatus Bank, perceived by so many as ‘The Gang’s personal money box and laundromat, had filed suit against Daphne Caruana Galizia in some God-forsaken legal backwater in America. Friends of mine who practise law (they’ll get it right with enough [...]

The Chilling Effect

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2018-01-31T17:47:23+01:00Wed, 31st Jan '18, 14:16|

Malta Today carried today details of the law suit Pilatus Bank filed against Daphne Caruana Galizia in the thick of the 2017 campaign only to withdraw it within a few hours of her death. On their online version they publish the fully copy of the law suit itself. I was trying to get hold of [...]

The crooks of Europe

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2018-01-31T11:57:59+01:00Wed, 31st Jan '18, 11:57|

Here's a glimpse of how the world sees us. This honourable mention is from Episode 1 of the Netflix series 'Dirty Money'. There's no audio on the tape but you can read the subtitles. Then you can use your Netflix subscription to see the whole thing. https://youtu.be/_LTmF86UEmc

Maltese people the USA is considering for sanctions

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2018-01-30T16:25:43+01:00Tue, 30th Jan '18, 16:25|

Lovin' Malta spots three Maltese citizens on a US Treasury list of Putinite oligarchs. They are Russian born. Their business interests are in Russia. To all intends and purposes the adjective Russian would not be inaccurate to describe them. But Arkady Volozh, Boris Mints, Alexander Natanovich Nesis are Maltese. Read some background about them on Tim [...]

Maltese people the USA is considering for sanctions

By
2018-01-30T16:25:43+01:00Tue, 30th Jan '18, 16:25|

Lovin' Malta spots three Maltese citizens on a US Treasury list of Putinite oligarchs. They are Russian born. Their business interests are in Russia. To all intends and purposes the adjective Russian would not be inaccurate to describe them. But Arkady Volozh, Boris Mints, Alexander Natanovich Nesis are Maltese. Read some background about them on Tim [...]

MAM doctors take care of your health

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2018-01-30T09:53:44+01:00Tue, 30th Jan '18, 09:53|

The doctors’ union’s decision to take some form of action in protest at the transfer of three of our hospitals to an American for-profit business we do not know, is as justified as they come. Obviously they will get more than their fair share of venom from the Labour controlled media and from a big [...]

Illogical neutrality

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2018-01-29T23:15:47+01:00Mon, 29th Jan '18, 23:15|

Logic is truly optional in the running of this country. Jose’ Herrera thinks he’s being nice and caring when he says his office is paying some spare cash for the good of the Majjistral Park so NGOs who run it can stop moaning about extended hunting hours in the reserve that is supposed to protect [...]

The discouraging investment argument

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2018-01-29T17:31:57+01:00Mon, 29th Jan '18, 17:31|

For a so called democracy we sure have plenty of sacred cows we are warned not to step on. Today we're reminded of that cow named "discouraging investment". This is the mortal sin the opposition was accused of today for daring to remind the government that Vitals Health Group had made a pile of commitments [...]

Time for another quick coffee at the Betsson canteen

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2018-01-29T16:23:54+01:00Mon, 29th Jan '18, 16:23|

It was only the third day in the life of this blog. The prime minister, newly confirmed after the July election, had not yet even formed a Cabinet. He rushed to Ta' Xbiex in a publicity stunt aimed at stunting the PN's pre-electoral argument that his re-election was a threat to the financial services and [...]

Silvio Valletta agrees he’s a Politically Exposed Person investigating Politically Exposed Persons

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2018-01-29T11:07:29+01:00Mon, 29th Jan '18, 11:07|

Deputy Police Commissioner Silvio Valletta in court today confirmed the investigations into the killing of Daphne Caruana Galizia are still underway. He agreed with lawyer Jason Azzopardi, appearing for the Caruana Galizia family, that the three persons accused of homicide are the executors of the crime but the search for those who commissioned it is [...]

Uncomfortably numb

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2018-01-28T12:17:56+01:00Sun, 28th Jan '18, 12:17|

I walked down through the crowd at the feast of St Paul yesterday in Valletta. I struck up a few conversations. As conversations in festas go, none of them where about pauline theology. We talked politics and the current state of play. And the hopeless state of the PN right now when it should be [...]

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