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…
**8,600 State-School Educators Return to Classrooms as Malta Embraces New Scholastic Year** The familiar hum of schoolyards across Malta and Gozo returned this week as 8,600 state-school educators headed back to their classrooms, marking the official launch of the 2024-2025 scholastic year. From the historic streets of Valletta to the quiet villages of Gozo, teachers,…
**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…
Back to school: the importance of educators’ well-being By Hot Malta Staff Valletta – While parents scramble for stationery deals in Hamrun’s back-to-school markets and children compare rainbow-coloured lunchboxes, a quieter conversation is unfolding in staffrooms across the archipelago: how are the teachers themselves doing? This year, Malta’s 7,700 state-school educators return to classrooms still…
Kim Jong-un’s Valentine to Trump: What Malta Can Learn From a Dictator’s “Fond Memories” Valletta’s café chatter on Tuesday skipped the usual Eurovision odds and leapt straight to Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s surprise confession—that he still has “fond memories” of Donald Trump and is open to fresh talks—was scrolling across Times of Malta’s…
Floriana’s Independence Arena was already humming at 07:30 this morning when Education Minister Dr. Justyne Caruana stepped up to the dais and declared 21 September 2025 “a textbook example of how Malta does more than mark history—we make it.” Against a backdrop of vintage luzzu sails dyed in the new national palette of white, red…
Are we really independent? The question hangs over Malta like the August humidity—familiar, heavy, impossible to swat away. Every 21 September the islands explode in tricolour: band marches down Valletta’s Republic Street, fireworks bruise the night sky above Floriana, and Facebook feeds clog with nostalgic black-and-white photos of Dom Mintoff holding the independence document. We…
**Our leaders say they are outraged. Really?** Another week, another press conference where Malta’s political class lines up to express “shock”, “disgust” and “zero tolerance”. This time it was the footage of a 15-year-old caught on a construction site during school hours, dangling from three storeys up without a helmet. The Prime Minister called it…
**New bells to ring out over Gozo’s southern coast as St Anthony’s gets long-awaited upgrade** The sleepy village of Għajnsielem is about to sound a lot livelier. St Anthony the Abbot parish church, whose squat limestone silhouette has watched over Mgarr Harbour since 1734, will welcome three new bronze bells this summer — the first…
# Artist dangles 12 metres above Marsa traffic to turn ‘ugly’ wall into vertical picnic Marsa’s newest lunch spot is strictly BYO-basket, requires a harness and sits a dizzying four storeys above Triq Aldo Moro. On Saturday afternoon, passers-by rubbed their eyes as local artist and certified climber Becky Warrington unfolded a chequered blanket, produced…
**ElectroGas Malta employees build, donate bicycles to Ukrainian refugee children** In a heartwarming display of solidarity that bridges corporate responsibility with grassroots compassion, ElectroGas Malta employees have transformed their technical expertise into childhood joy by building and donating bicycles to Ukrainian refugee children now calling Malta home. The initiative, which saw dozens of company volunteers…
Letters to the Editor – September 19, 2025: The Island Speaks Back The Thursday morning edition of Times of Malta lands on café tables with the soft slap of newsprint against marble. By 8 a.m. the letters page has already been torn out at Busy Bee in Msida, shared between two retirees arguing over cruise-ship…
