Rotor blades sliced the early-morning haze above Valletta’s Grand Harbour yesterday as Malta’s only home-grown helicopter operator, IslandRotors, unveiled plans to double its fleet and launch the islands’ first scheduled ‘hop-on’ aerial shuttle. Locals sipping kafè fit-tazza at the Upper Barrakka Gardens watched two sleek H145s swoop in formation over the Saluting Battery, a manoeuvre…
**Boom Times: 2.2 Million Visitors Choose Malta, Injecting €2 Billion into Island Life** Valletta’s cruise-liner horns haven’t stopped blushing. From January to July, 2.2 million travellers stepped onto Maltese tarmac, gangways and ferry decks—enough to fill the Granaries in Floriana five times over—and left behind €2.02 billion in their sun-baked wake. The figures, released yesterday…
**Man jailed for working illegally as cab driver for six months** A 34-year-old Egyptian national has been sentenced to six months imprisonment after being convicted of operating as an unlicensed taxi driver in Malta for over half a year, highlighting ongoing concerns about the underground transport economy that has flourished in the shadows of the…
# Russia-Belarus War Games Send Shivers Through Valletta Cafés: “It’s 1979 All Over Again,” Say Veterans Valletta’s morning espresso ritual felt different today. Outside Café Cordina, pensioners who once huddled through the 1979 Soviet arms-ship crisis glanced at their phones and saw the same two flags—Russia’s white-blue-red and Belarus’s red-green—snaking across European newsfeeds. Moscow and…
Gorillaz’ 2026 World Tour Lands in Malta: Virtual Band, Real Impact on the Rock Sliema’s sunrise was still smearing peach across the cranes yesterday when Damon Albarn’s unmistakable drawl crackled through every wireless speaker on the promenade. “Malta, we’re coming,” the Gorillaz front-man declared in a 30-second video dropped at 7 a.m., confirming that the…
# 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,…
**Watch: Two Black Mondays, 90 years of chronicling Malta’s history** In the heart of Valletta, where limestone facades bear witness to centuries of Mediterranean drama, a remarkable cinematic journey is unfolding. “Two Black Mondays,” a documentary that premiered this week at the historic Embassy Cinema, doesn’t just recount Malta’s past—it resurrects it through the lens…
Bank of Valletta’s new correspondent tie-up with America’s oldest bank is being hailed in Malta as more than a routine boardroom handshake: it is a vote of confidence in the island’s post-grey-list financial system and, indirectly, in every family-run export firm, iGaming start-up and pensioner who wires university fees to a child in London. The…
Economic force: Why Malta has become a global hub for the gaming industry By Hot Malta Staff | 9 min read Walk along Sliema’s seafront at 17:30 on a weekday and you’ll spot the giveaway: clusters of twenty-somethings in branded hoodies debating RTP algorithms over ħobż biż-żejt, their MacBooks glowing amber in the sunset. Since…
**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…
# A Financial Flex Too Far: When Maltese Opulence Bites Back The Balzan villa was supposed to be the crown jewel—three floors of imported Carrara marble, a subterranean cinema that seats 20, and a rooftop infinity pool that spills toward the twinkling lights of Valletta. Instead, it has become a cautionary tale whispered over pastizzi…
Virtual Assets and Fintech: The Mediterranean Wave Malta Can Still Ride By Ariadne Micallef, Valletta On a sun-drenched Monday in May, the usual chatter at Nenu the Artisan Baker is no longer about ftira toppings but about Bitcoin. “My nephew just sold an NFT of a Maltese fishing boat for €4,000,” beams 68-year-old Ġanni from…
