Malta's flag has a British medal, not a Maltese cross

Good morning

On 17 October 1956, Queen Elizabeth II opened Calder Hall, a power station in Sellafield, in north west England. It was the world's first nuclear power station built to supply electricity to the public in large amounts.

Today we look at the real symbol on Malta's flag, how Niagara Falls keeps shifting upstream, and why Sweden has so many more islands than Indonesia.

In today's edition

Malta's flag · Fact of the day

Malta's flag carries a British medal, not a Maltese cross

Most people assume the white symbol on Malta's flag is the eight pointed Maltese cross, since that shape is linked so closely with the island nation in the Mediterranean Sea. The flag actually carries no Maltese cross at all. The red bordered emblem in its corner is the George Cross, a British award for bravery.

King George VI gave the award to all of Malta on 15 April 1942. The island was still a British colony then, under heavy bombing in the Second World War. The cross was added to the flag in 1943. It makes Malta the only country whose flag carries another nation's honour, and the only one with English words on it: the medal reads "For Gallantry". The Maltese cross survives only on Malta's separate merchant flag.

43.09° N, 79.08° W · Place of the day

Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls sits on the border between Ontario, Canada, and New York, in the United States. It is where the Niagara River drops over a cliff called the Niagara Escarpment on its way to Lake Ontario.

The falls have not always stood where they are now. The last ice age ended about 12,500 years ago, and ever since, the rushing water has worn away the rock at the base of the falls. Bit by bit, the falls have cut their way upstream, leaving a long gorge behind them.

That gorge now stretches about 11 kilometres, roughly the distance of a brisk two hour walk, from the falls back to the original drop at Queenston and Lewiston. The river is still carving the rock today, just much more slowly than before.

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↻ Also on the map

Between issues

Fancy a different kind of puzzle today. GeoGrid gives you a 3 by 3 grid where each row and column sets a geography clue, and you fill every square with a country that fits both. It rewards a good memory for maps and a bit of lateral thinking.

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Locate the country

Today's mystery shape · 17 October 2026

Today's silhouette is waiting for your guess. Look closely at its coastline and borders, then see how close you can get before checking. We reveal the answer tomorrow, so take your time.

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Yesterday, revealed

Yesterday, 16 October 2026

62.00° N, 15.00° E · By the numbers

How many islands Sweden has

Sweden's official count, taken in 2013, lists 267,570 islands. That is about fifteen times as many as Indonesia, a country better known for its islands. Most of Sweden's islands are small rocks left behind as glaciers melted at the end of the last ice age. Only 984 of them, less than one in two hundred, have anyone living on them, since many are barely bigger than a tennis court. It shows that an island count depends on geology, not on how warm or how famous a coastline is.