**Trump’s NATO Bombast Echoes Across the Grand Harbour: Could Malta Be Caught in the Crossfire?** Valletta’s cafés were still buzzing with Monday-morning espresso steam when Donald Trump’s latest foreign-policy grenade landed on Maltese phones: the former U.S. president wants NATO states to shoot down Russian jets that breach their airspace. In a country where every…
**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…
Valletta’s Grand Harbour has seen every empire come and go—Phoenicians, Knights, French, British—each claiming “legitimate interests” while the islanders quietly kept fishing. So when Russian diplomats insist their invasion of Ukraine is merely the protection of historic rights, Maltese ears prick up with a familiar mix of scepticism and survival instinct. In cafés from Sliema…
**Israel vows to strike foes anywhere after Qatar attack: How Malta’s neutrality offers a Mediterranean haven amid rising tensions** A stone’s throw from the world’s most volatile region, Malta woke up yesterday to news that Israel had promised “to strike its enemies anywhere” after a drone launched from Qatar targeted Tel Aviv. While the blast…
