Letters to the editor – September 20, 2025 By Hot Malta Staff Valletta’s morning light had barely dried the overnight drizzle when the first bundle of Friday’s Times of Malta landed on the counter of Serafino’s kiosk at the Upper Barrakka. By 06:15, the fold-out page opposite the sports headlines was already dotted with coffee…
**Ferry Captain Testifies Boatman Bit Him After Filming Row: A Very Maltese Maritime Drama Unfolds** In a courtroom scene that could rival any festa fireworks display for drama, a Gozo Channel ferry captain took the stand this week to recount how a local boatman allegedly bit him during a heated confrontation over smartphone filming –…
# Watch: The Fortina deal explained – how a Sliema landmark is being reborn and why every Maltese pensioner is talking about it Sliema’s skyline has always been a scrapbook of Malta’s last 150 years: Victorian townhouses, 1970s holiday flats, the odd glass shard from the 2000s. This week the Fortina Hotel – that terraced,…
**UHM Escalates Dispute with G4S as Staff Threatened Over Industrial Action** Tensions reached boiling point this week as the Union of United Workers (UHM) formally escalated its dispute with security giant G4S, accusing management of threatening workers who dared to exercise their fundamental right to industrial action. The confrontation, unfolding in Malta’s tightly-knit employment landscape,…
Sabine Agius Cabourdin will clock in this Monday as the Nationalist Party’s first-ever female CEO, but her monthly payslip will read a neat €0.00. The PN’s announcement late last night that the former central bank director has accepted a voluntary, unpaid role has set the island’s political WhatsApp groups alight and added a fresh twist…
**Game-Changers of the Heart: New Mental Wellbeing Programme Launches for Special Olympics Malta Athletes** Valletta – In a sun-splashed courtyard overlooking the Grand Harbour, Special Olympics Malta athletes, coaches and families gathered yesterday to launch the island’s first mental wellbeing programme tailored specifically for athletes with intellectual disabilities. Dubbed “Qalbna, Qalbna” (“Our Hearts, Our Hearts”),…
Court questions constitutionality of €6.7m fines in cigarette theft case A Valletta courtroom became the stage for a constitutional drama this week as defence lawyers argued that €6.7 million in collective fines slapped on seven warehouse workers accused of pilfering cigarettes verged on “cruel and unusual punishment” by Maltese standards. The figure—roughly equivalent to the…
# Malta Travel Documentary Premieres in New York Ahead of US, Worldwide Broadcast **Valletta’s historic streets, Gozo’s rugged coastlines, and Malta’s azure waters lit up the silver screen in New York last night as “Malta: The Hidden Gem of the Mediterranean” premiered before an audience of travel influencers, diplomats, and media executives—a moment that could…
Europe adopts cross-border criminal justice cooperation with Valletta Protocol By Hot Malta Staff | Sunday, 09:17 Valletta’s 16th-century limestone walls have witnessed everything from the Knights’ galley battles to NATO ships on Libya patrol, but few moments feel as quietly historic as the one that unfolded inside the Auberge de Castille last Friday. As 27…
**Malta’s Stone Shield: UNESCO Bid Puts Island’s Fortifications on World Stage** Valletta – For the first time in two decades, Malta is knocking on UNESCO’s door with a single, thunderous heartbeat: the entire ring of historic fortifications that have guarded these islands since the Knights of St John. Culture Minister Owen Bonnici announced this morning…
# Record low early school leavers as government reaffirms child-focused approach Malta has hit a historic milestone in its education journey, with early school leaving rates plummeting to an all-time low of 8.2%—well below the EU target of 10% and a dramatic drop from the 21% recorded just a decade ago. The achievement, announced by…
Valletta’s Upper Barrakka Gardens were unusually busy at dawn this morning, but no-one was queuing for a pastizz. Instead, joggers wove between rows of rainbow-coloured yoga mats while Health Minister Jo Etienne Abela unveiled “Saħħa 2035”, a sweeping ten-year national strategy designed to stop noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) from quietly killing more Maltese people than traffic,…
