Pre-budget reflections: fixing the basics, building the future By Hot Malta staff Valletta’s baroque balconies are glowing amber in the late-October sunset, but inside the Auberge de Castille the mood is spreadsheet-grey. Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has spent the week “listening” to unions, hunters, hoteliers and TikTok-ing teens who want cheaper bus fares. In cafés…
# No Fun Being a Saudi Aramco Investor – And Why Malta Should Care **Valletta** – When the world’s most profitable company posts record profits of US $161 billion in a single year, you’d expect champagne corks to pop from Sliema boardrooms to Gozo farmhouses. Yet for the handful of Maltese who bought into Saudi…
Liberty at life’s end: how Malta is re-writing the final chapter By Ariadne Spiteri, Hot Malta correspondent The late-afternoon sun glints off the limestone walls of Sir Paul Boffa Hospital in Ħal Far, but inside Ward 4 the light is softened by muslin curtains the colour of honey. A 78-year-old woman from Żejtun—let’s call her…
France’s Manufactured Drama: How Parisian Protests Echo in Valletta’s Cafés By Luke Caruana, Hot Malta correspondent Valletta – When French President Emmanuel Macron rammed through his pension reform without a parliamentary vote last month, Maltese commuters scrolling their phones on the 8-a.m. ferry from Sliema to the capital saw the same looping footage: burning barricades…
**Don’t have children unless you want them: The growing Maltese conversation no one asked for—until now** By the time the *festa* fireworks fade over Mosta, another sound echoes through Maltese terraces: the cluck of tongues followed by *“U iva, when are you giving your parents grandchildren?”* It’s a question hurled like a confetti bomb at…
Realms of Colour: How Elaine Mifsud’s Latest Exhibition is Painting Valletta Back to Life By Hot Malta Staff Valletta’s narrow limestone streets have always echoed with footsteps, but this month they’re humming with colour. Inside the vaulted halls of the National Museum of Fine Arts—freshly rebranded as MUŻA—Elaine Mifsud’s solo show “Realms of Colour” has…
Robert Abela’s “Attack Dog”: How a Nickname Became a Political Flashpoint in Malta When Prime Minister Robert Abela strode into Parliament last month, he was flanked not by security, but by a four-legged celebrity: his exuberant French bulldog, “Tyson.” Within minutes, footage of Tyson sniffing opposition benches and cocking a leg near a ministerial briefcase…
**Breaking Through Boundaries: The Art Detained by Customs** When local artist Sarah Mallia opened her package at MaltaPost’s Qormi sorting office last month, she expected to find the vibrant ceramic sculptures she’d commissioned from a Tunisian artisan. Instead, she was greeted by customs officials who confiscated the pieces, claiming they “didn’t align with import regulations”…
**What Your Neck Size Reveals About Your Health: A Maltese Wake-Up Call** As Maltese men proudly button up their Sunday shirts and women fasten delicate necklaces passed down through generations, few realize that a simple measurement could reveal crucial health insights. Your neck size, that seemingly innocuous number, has become Malta’s latest health conversation starter—and…
Six decades after his death on 18 May 1965, Mgr Mikiel Azzopardi’s name still rings out across Valletta’s tight-knit alleys and rural village squares alike. To many Maltese he is simply “il-Monk”, the priest who swapped liturgical vestments for workers’ overalls and convinced a sceptical colonial administration that charity alone would never lift Malta’s poor….
AI and Malta’s future – how the islands can surf the silicon wave without wiping out By [Hot Malta Staff] Smart traffic lights that speak Maltese, ferry timetables that rewrite themselves when the sirocco whips up the waves, a digital twin of Valletta that lets planners test pedestrian schemes before a single limestone block is…
**A Law Older Than the Republic: Malta’s 19th-Century Weapon Against the Homeless** Valletta’s sun-drenched bastions mask a quieter battle. At 5 a.m., while tourists queue for pastizzi and commuters elbow onto bendy-buses, a handful of rough-sleepers are woken by wardens and told to “move on”. If they refuse, they risk arrest—not under any modern social-policy…
