Letters to the editor – September 21, 2025 By Hot Malta Staff Sliema’s dawn cafés were already humming when the Times of Malta’s weekend edition hit the doorsteps. By 7 a.m., the paper’s letters page—three crisp columns under the fold—had become the islands’ most democratic parliament. Between sips of ħobż-biż-żejt and iced coffee, Maltese from…
**Financial services in the age of AI: How Malta’s banks are quietly revolutionising the way we save, spend and scam-proof our euros** By 8 a.m. on a Tuesday in St Julian’s, the queue at the BOV branch used to snake past the pastizzi kiosk. Today, the kiosk still does brisk trade, but the bank doors…
A dream deal for CrediaBank By our Business Desk Valletta’s morning espresso had barely cooled on Wednesday when word swept through Republic Street that CrediaBank – the violet-branched lender born in a converted Sliema townhouse only eight years ago – is being snapped up by Scandinavian giant NordKredit for €1.3 billion. In Malta, where the…
# Joseph Muscat’s Superb Sponsor: The Hidden Hand That Still Shapes Malta’s Game Valletta’s golden evening light was still bouncing off the Upper Barrakka balconies when a WhatsApp forward pinged across the island last week: “Check out who’s bankrolling the former PM’s new Dubai-style think-tank.” Within minutes the same screenshot—an impeccably designed LinkedIn announcement—had reached…
Are we really independent? The question hangs over Malta like the August humidity—familiar, heavy, impossible to swat away. Every 21 September the islands explode in tricolour: band marches down Valletta’s Republic Street, fireworks bruise the night sky above Floriana, and Facebook feeds clog with nostalgic black-and-white photos of Dom Mintoff holding the independence document. We…
**Britain’s Palestine Recognition Sparks Reflection in Malta: From Refugee Routes to Republic Street Solidarity** Valletta’s evening air carried an extra charge on Saturday as news alerts flashed across phone screens outside Café Cordina: Britain will formally recognise Palestinian statehood at dawn on Sunday. By the time the cannon at the Upper Barrakka fired its sunset…
**Christian spirituality: U-turn after misguided freedom** *By a Hot Malta correspondent* On any given Friday evening, the basement of the Capuchin Friary in Floriana hums with chatter, the clink of coffee cups and the low murmur of shared confession. Among the twenty-somethings squeezed onto wooden benches is 29-year-old Luke* from Sliema, a former DJ who…
**From the Gospel: Money… not funny at all** *By a Hot Malta Correspondent* It’s Sunday morning in Birkirkara. The church bells have just finished echoing across the rooftops, and families spill out of the Baroque parish church onto the sun-bleached square. Nonna kisses the priest’s hand; teenagers scroll TikTok while sipping Kinnie; someone’s uncle complains…
Feast of St Matthew, Pope’s Climate Plea and a New Nadur Band: How Sunday’s Religious Buzz is Re-wiring Malta Sliema’s 6 a.m. fishermen swear the sea was glass-calm on 21 September 2025, the kind of stillness locals call “ħarsa ta’ qaddis” – a saint’s own gaze. By 7 a.m. the same harbour was humming with…
Artificial Stupidity Leads to Wilder Return – and Malta’s Comedy Scene Is Loving It By Hot Malta Staff Sliema’s seafront was unusually packed last Saturday night, but the crowd wasn’t queuing for gelato. They were lining up outside Eden Cinemas, phones in hand, to watch a hologram of 89-year-old Maltese comic Freddie Portelli roast an…
**Il-Beżżul Bieżel – September 21, 2025: The Day Valletta’s Narrowest Alley Went Viral** Valletta woke up on Sunday 21 September 2025 to find that its most famous pinch-point had become an overnight global celebrity. By 7 a.m. a queue already snaked from the corner of Triq il-Lvant past the old Opera House, phones raised like…
Bidnija ‘nightmare’ roadworks drag on past June deadline as residents fume By Hot Malta staff The scent of wild fennel that once drifted over Bidnija’s silent valley has been replaced by diesel fumes and the grind of heavy plant. Eight months after contractors first tore up the narrow, 1.2-kilometre spine that links the hamlet to…
