**Gozo’s Stone Saints Go Postal: New MaltaPost Festa Stamps Celebrate Island’s Living Tradition** Victor Camilleri’s garage in Xagħra smells of paraffin and sawdust. For 35 years the 68-year-old has carved, sanded and painted the statues that will be hoisted on shoulders in August for the feast of the Assumption. This summer, however, his workshop has…
# 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…
**Magnitude 5.2 tremor felt across Malta: ‘The ground moved like a boat deck’** Malta jolted awake at 06:04 this morning as a magnitude 5.2 earthquake centred 80 km south-west of Żurrieq sent chandeliers swinging, dogs barking and a wave of WhatsApp voice notes ricocheting across the islands. The quake, the strongest felt here since the…
**When magical thinking meets reality: How Malta’s village festas confront the age of Instagram** The brass band strikes up a triumphal march, confetti cannons explode over the church steps, and fifteen-year-old Mireille from Sliema lifts her iPhone to capture the moment. What she sees through her screen—an explosion of gold leaf, pyrotechnics and centuries-old statues—looks…
**Watch: Fireworks start blaze that destroys buses but enthusiasts blame owner** A spectacular fireworks display turned into a nightmare on Sunday evening when stray pyrotechnics ignited a fire that destroyed three vintage buses parked near the Qormi feast celebrations, sending shockwaves through Malta’s tight-knit community of festa enthusiasts and vintage vehicle collectors. The incident, captured…
**Inferno in Naxxar: Three Buses Torched as Fireworks Suspected in Early-Morning Blaze** Naxxar woke to the acrid smell of burning rubber and twisted metal this morning after three public buses were reduced to smouldering shells in a fierce blaze that erupted just metres from the town’s parish church. Firefighters battled the flames for over an…
**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 legacy of care and progress: how Malta’s tight-knit communities are rewriting the future —————————————————————– The bells of the Rotunda of Mosta have just finished tolling seven when the side door of the parish hall swings open. Inside, under the soft glow of a 1970s chandelier, volunteers from three generations are already folding blankets, labelling…
Żepp’s Last Stand – How One Man’s 7 September 2025 Send-Off Became a National Love-Letter to Malta By 09:00 on Sunday 7 September 2025, the narrow lanes of Siġġiewi were already humming like a festa loud-speaker. Elderly men in flat caps polished brass bands’ instruments outside the parish church; children in hand-me-down Ġorġ tal-Fjur costumes…
Sant’Antnin car park, park-and-ride set to be completed by mid-2026 By Hot Malta • 14 May 2024 The dusty expanse behind the old Sant’Antnin waste-to-energy plant in Marsascala is about to swap the clang of bulldozers for the soft thud of car doors. Transport Malta has confirmed that the long-heralded park-and-ride facility will open its…
Paschalino Cefai and Mario Mifsud, two names that have dominated Maltese headlines for weeks, stepped out of the shadows of Valletta’s law courts yesterday and into an unexpected embrace that left onlookers whispering like extras on a film set. Moments earlier, both men had formally withdrawn their respective charges—Cefai’s accusation of assault and Mifsud’s counter-claim…
Festa Fireworks and Fixed Deposits: How Money Markets Shaped Malta’s Final August Weekend Valletta’s Grand Harbour may have crackled with the last major festa petard of summer 2025, but inside the newly air-conditioned Malta Stock Exchange boardroom the loudest bang came from Governor Edward Scicluna’s one-line statement on Thursday morning: “The European Central Bank will…
