**Caught in the Crossfire: How ARTE’s New Iraq Documentary Resonates in Malta’s Own Backyard** *From Valletta’s historic battlements to Baghdad’s bullet-scarred boulevards, a new ARTE documentary is forcing Maltese viewers to confront the human cost of war—and to see our own island’s refugee stories with fresh eyes.* When the German-French channel ARTE dropped *Iraq in…
**Malta Watches as UK Jets Head East: A Small Island’s Big NATO Moment** Valletta’s Grand Harbour café terraces were buzzing this week with more than the usual clink of Cisk and chatter about festa fireworks. Over tiny cups of *kafè* and *pastizzi*, the talk turned eastward: British Typhoon fighters are deploying to Poland to police…
# Eurozone Rate Cut Sparks Festa-Fire Spending Surge as Malta Braces for ‘Il-Ħana’ Harvest Valletta’s cafés were buzzing louder than the brass bands of this weekend’s Żejtun festa after the European Central Bank (ECB) trimmed its deposit rate by 25 basis points to 3.5 %—the second cut in three months. For Maltese households juggling €3.20…
**Alex Borg Demands Public Inquiry into Fortina Land Transfer Scandal** Nationalist Party MP Alex Borg has thrown a political grenade into the summer lull, demanding a full public inquiry into the controversial transfer of prime Fortina seafront land to a private developer. The call comes after fresh revelations that the 2019 deal, which handed over…
**Parliament’s health chair cites role clash for calling no meetings in two years** For 24 straight months, while Maltese families debated COVID boosters, queued for cancer-screening delays and watched medical-staff strikes unfold on TV, the parliamentary committee that is supposed to scrutinise all things health has not met once. The reason, according to its own…
**A Drop of Relief: Malta’s Rainfall Shows Modest Recovery, But Farmers and Families Still Counting Every Cloud** The skies above Malta have been stingy, but not quite as cruel as last year. According to fresh data from the Meteorological Office, the islands received 486 mm of rain over the past 12 months—about 14 % below…
TV stars shine bright on Emmys red carpet – and Malta’s living-room critics are here for it By Hot Malta Newsroom Sliema’s skyline wasn’t the only thing glittering on Monday night. While most Maltese households were still washing up after the traditional rabbit-stew dinner, televisions flickered to life for the 75th Primetime Emmy Awards, beamed…
Shopping centre at db’s St George’s Bay project set to open in 2026 The cranes towering over St George’s Bay have become as familiar to locals as the limestone façades of nearby Spinola Palace, but yesterday’s announcement gave the skyline a new deadline: db Group’s long-debated mixed-use complex will welcome its first shoppers in the…
**Borg takes Opposition leader’s seat, demands debate on Fortina land transfer** In a dramatic parliamentary move that has set tongues wagging across the islands, newly-elected Opposition leader Bernard Grech found himself upstaged yesterday when independent MP Marlene Farrugia vacated her customary seat to make way for a surprise contender: Arnold Borg, the self-styled “voice of…
Top Lands official ‘suppressed’ valuation report, saving Fortina over €10m – and Sliema residents are furious By Hot Malta Staff Sliema’s skyline has always been a battleground between developers’ dreams and residents’ nightmares, but a fresh court filing suggests the latest round was decided in a back room, not a boardroom. According to a sworn…
**TikTok Deal: How a US-China Framework Could Reshape Malta’s FYP** Sliema influencer Martina Pace woke up yesterday to 300 fewer followers on TikTok. “At first I panicked—did I shadow-ban myself with too many pastizzi mukbangs?” she laughs, adjusting her ring-light outside Balluta Bay. Then she read the push-alert: Washington and Beijing had sketched a preliminary…
**Watch: Cannabis driving limits to be considered instead of zero tolerance** A landmark shift is quietly gaining traction in Malta’s national conversation: the possibility of introducing measurable cannabis driving limits to replace the current zero-tolerance policy. For a country that became the first EU member state to legalise personal-use cannabis in 2021, the debate is…
