Valletta’s Grand Harbour usually greets cruise-ship horns and summer fireworks, but last Tuesday the harbour-front bar TVs were tuned to a different spectacle: ARTE Europe Weekly’s sobering report “Is Russia’s hybrid war entering a new phase?” Patrons who expected the usual Euro-drama found themselves watching analysts trace disinformation arcs from the Baltic to the Mediterranean….
**Keith Schembri’s Assistant Messaged Yorgen Fenech Hours Before His Arrest: A Nation Left Reeling** In the early hours of November 20th, 2019, as Maltese families prepared for another Wednesday morning, a WhatsApp message pinged on Yorgen Fenech’s phone. The sender: Kathleen Bezzina, personal assistant to then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of staff Keith Schembri. The…
MUT makes tax, pension proposals in suggestions on the Budget ————————————————————— By Hot Malta Newsroom | Tuesday, 14 May 2024, 7:45 am The Malta Union of Teachers has lobbed a fresh set of demands into Castille’s letterbox ahead of this October’s Budget, and—true to form—they’re not asking for flashy gimmicks. Instead, the 8,000-member union wants…
Valletta advocate Jason Azzopardi’s warning to the police last August that a multi-million-euro valuation had been “hidden” from the courts is now reverberating through every village bar and Facebook forum on the islands. The document – a 2018 assessment that put the value of a prime St Julian’s development site at €110 million, not the…
**Keith Schembri’s Assistant Messaged Yorgen Fenech Hours Before His Arrest: A Nation Left Reeling** In the early hours of November 20, 2019, as Malta slept fitfully under the weight of its own political turmoil, a WhatsApp message pinged on Yorgen Fenech’s phone. The sender: Karl Cini, right-hand man to then-Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s chief of…
Valletta’s Grand Harbour was still cloaked in dawn haze when Foreign Minister Ian Borg stepped up to the UN rostrum in New York and declared, “Malta recognises the State of Palestine.” The sentence, delivered at yesterday’s General Assembly summit, lasted four seconds—but it has been echoing across the archipelago ever since, from the pigeon-flecked balconies…
# President Emmanuel Macron Recognises Palestinian State at Landmark UN Summit: Maltese Leaders Hail “Courageous Step” as Valletta Prepares to Host Mediterranean Peace Dialogue Valletta’s Republic Street buzzed with more than the usual Friday-evening chatter last night as word spread that French President Emmanuel Macron had used the podium of the United Nations General Assembly…
Rosianne Cutajar is back on Parliament’s health committee, and the whispers from Valletta cafés to village band clubs are already louder than the noon cannon. Prime Minister Robert Abela’s decision to re-instate the Labour MP from Qormi in the health portfolio—while shuffling a handful of other backbench roles—has reignited a very Maltese cocktail of political…
**Solidarity in Silk: What French Mayors’ Palestinian Flag Gesture Means for Malta’s Own Crossroads** By [Author Name] | Hot Malta When the mairies of Lyon, Montpellier, and a dozen other French cities raised the red-green-black-white of Palestine above their 19th-century balconies last week, they weren’t just defying Parisian circulars—they were writing a footnote that Maltese…
**Gozo Deserves Leaders Who Act Not Out of Political Convenience** Gozo, Malta’s sister island, has long carried the quiet dignity of being the nation’s rural soul. While Malta races ahead with high-rise towers and sprawling developments, Gozo remains tethered to its terraced fields, baroque churches, and a rhythm of life that moves with the seasons…
Russian jets off Sicily? Valletta cafés buzz after Moscow blasts NATO “air-space lies” Valletta’s lunchtime crowd usually debates last night’s derby or the price of pastizzi, but on Wednesday the terrace talk turned to MiG-31s and missile shields. Russia’s embassy in Malta issued a terse statement accusing NATO of “manufacturing tension” by claiming Russian aircraft…
Clyde Caruana warns EU risks social unrest if defence spending cuts into welfare ================================================================================ Valletta – Finance Minister Clyde Caruana has fired a blunt warning shot across the bows of Europe: if the Union plugs its new defence ambitions by raiding the same pot that pays for pensions, health and social housing, “the streets will…
