Letters to the editor – September 24, 2025 By Hot Malta staff Valletta’s morning sun had barely gilded the limestone balconies when the first email landed in the Times of Malta inbox: “Whose pavement is it anyway?” By lunchtime, the digital postbag held 43 more, and the newsroom coffee machine was working overtime. Welcome to…
**Living but at what cost?** *From €900-a-month rabbit-warren bedsits to €1,200 “luxury” car-ports with a fold-out sofa, Malta’s rental market has become a national blood-pressure spike. We talk to the families, students and pensioners who are “making it work” – and the economists who warn the island is pricing its own soul out of existence.*…
**From the Gospel: Money… not funny at all** *By a Hot Malta Correspondent* It’s Sunday morning in Birkirkara. The church bells have just finished echoing across the rooftops, and families spill out of the Baroque parish church onto the sun-bleached square. Nonna kisses the priest’s hand; teenagers scroll TikTok while sipping Kinnie; someone’s uncle complains…
Valletta among least affordable EU cities for locals to dine out, study finds For generations of Maltese, the ritual was sacred: knock off work, meet friends at a kerb-side table, and nurse a €2 espresso while the city’s limestone walls turned honey-gold at dusk. That everyday pleasure is slipping out of reach, according to a…
**Inflation Bites: Maltese Families Feel the Squeeze as Prices Outpace EU Average** The aroma of fresh pastizzi wafting through Valletta’s morning air now comes with a side of sticker shock. What once cost 30 cents now demands 50, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg, according to the Nationalist Party, which warns that Malta’s…
# Malta’s Place in a Turbulent World: How Global Shocks Ripple Through Our Tiny Island Valletta’s morning traffic still hums along Republic Street, café terraces are full of tourists sipping €3 cappuccinos, and the 8 a.m. Gozo Channel ferry leaves Ċirkewwa on the dot. From a distance, Malta looks unchanged. Yet behind the pastel façades,…
“Pastizzi may be the death of us” – the WhatsApp voice note that ricocheted through Maltese group chats last week wasn’t warning about a new cholesterol study. It was the visceral reaction of a Marsa dockworker who had just watched the price of his two-bite breakfast jump from 40 to 60 cents. Within hours the…
Valletta – It’s 05:45 on a humid August morning and 27-year-old Mandy* is already cycling from her shared flat in Gżira to the ferry terminal, laptop in backpack, gig-economy insulated bag strapped to the handlebars. By 06:30 she is steaming lattes for early commuters at a café kiosk in Valletta. At 10:00 she switches aprons…
