Valletta’s morning sun had barely cleared the bastions when the first carnations appeared at the foot of the Great Siege Monument. By 9 a.m. the bronze figures of Faith, Fortitude and Civilisation were swimming in a tide of red and white—some blooms still dewy from florists in Hamrun, others wrapped in the plastic sleeves that…
Maltese Hearts Go Out to East Jerusalem as Gunmen Kill Five in Dawn Market Rampage By Maria Pace, Hot Malta Correspondent The bells of the Carmelite Church in Mdina had barely finished their 7 a.m. chime on Friday when news flashed across Maltese smartphones: five Israelis—four women and one man—lay dead in an east Jerusalem…
At dawn last Tuesday, veteran Marsaxlokk fisherman Ġorġ Briffa hauled up his lampuki net and stared in disbelief. Nestled among the silver flashes of dorado was a fish straight out of a sci-fi comic—electric blue stripes, venomous spines, and the unmistakable scowl of a lionfish. Briffa’s catch is only the latest confirmation of what marine…
The Sweet Trap: How Maltese Babies Are Losing Their First Teeth to Night-Time Bottles By Hot Malta Staff | 6 min read Every evening, as the last ferry leaves Valletta’s Grand Harbour and the church bells of Mosta fall silent, thousands of Maltese parents settle their babies with what feels like an innocent comfort: a…
Rick Davies, the British keyboardist who co-founded the progressive-rock band Supertramp and co-wrote the global anthems “The Logical Song” and “Breakfast in America,” has died at 81. While the news broke on the band’s official website late Tuesday, it was felt keenly across the Mediterranean—especially in Malta, where Davies spent stretches of downtime and where…
New Book Unveils the Hidden Malta Chapter of Pope Pius V’s Legacy Valletta’s narrow cobblestones once echoed with the footsteps of a pope who never set foot on the island, yet whose shadow still drapes across our skyline, our feasts, and even the honey-coloured limestone of the Grand Harbour bastions. Historian Dr. Maria Micallef’s freshly…
Valletta waterfront fell silent on Sunday morning as bunting for the traditional Festa season was lowered to half-mast in memory of 34-year-old sailor Karl Micallef, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a fall aboard the Maltese-flagged merchant vessel MV Aurora on Saturday evening. The accident occurred just beyond Grand Harbour’s breakwater, a stretch of water…
A quiet revolution is unfolding across Malta, one that has nothing to do with politics, property prices, or party colours. It is happening in the paella-scented courtyard of a Valletta community centre where Syrian grandmothers swap cumin-laden recipes with Maltese nannas, in the football cages of Gżira where kids of 15 nationalities cheer each other…
# Hope on the Horizon: Maltese Companies Line Up to Offer Carlo Gavazzi Workers New Beginnings The closure of Carlo Gavazzi’s Malta operations may have sent shockwaves through the local manufacturing sector, but Minister for Enterprise Miriam Dalli has brought a glimmer of hope to the 120 workers facing redundancy. Speaking from her Valletta office,…
‘Not trained for this’: Inside Malta’s classrooms where teachers feel lost supporting children with autism Ms Lara Briffa, a Year 4 teacher at a government primary school in Żabbar, still remembers the first time eight-year-old Luke* had a meltdown in class. “He started screaming, flapping his hands and knocking over chairs. Twenty-eight other kids stared…
**Eurozone jitters, cruise-ship cash and festa fireworks: How one turbulent week shook Malta’s wallets and hearts** By Friday evening, the narrow streets of Żabbar were already echoing with brass-band marches and the sweet smell of *mqaret* frying for the village festa, but beneath the bunting the talk at the band club bar was less about…
“Ħelow? Ħelow? Mela, qed tismeni?” The only reply is the hollow buzz of an unanswered call. Across Malta, from the narrow limestone alleys of Valletta to the sea-sprayed balconies of Marsaxlokk, parents are discovering the same phenomenon: their teenagers have simply stopped picking up the phone. It’s 19:35 on a humid June evening and Marisa…
