**Isolated Showers Expected to Begin on Wednesday: A Maltese Spring Awakening** As the Maltese archipelago prepares to welcome its first spring showers this Wednesday, locals are experiencing that familiar mix of relief and resignation that comes with the island’s transitional weather. After weeks of unseasonably dry conditions that have left farmers anxiously scanning cloudless skies,…
**Inflation rate creeps up, pushed by food prices** The aroma of freshly-baked ftira that once drifted cheaply from Ħamrun’s corner bakeries is becoming a luxury. Malta’s inflation rate ticked up to 3.2 % in May, driven almost single-handedly by what we put on our plates. National Statistics Office figures show food prices rising 7.4 %…
From a pretend Pope to an invisible puppy: Online fraud costing Malta millions By Hot Malta staff Ħamrun grandmother Rita Camilleri still keeps the WhatsApp voice-note on her phone. A warm, fatherly voice—complete with Italian accent—thanks her for her “generous tithe to the Holy See” and promises a private blessing once the €3,000 “processing fee”…
**Financial services in the age of AI: How Malta’s banks are quietly revolutionising the way we save, spend and scam-proof our euros** By 8 a.m. on a Tuesday in St Julian’s, the queue at the BOV branch used to snake past the pastizzi kiosk. Today, the kiosk still does brisk trade, but the bank doors…
**Endling and Flash: Malta’s Quiet Gaming Revolution Signals a New Era of Quality** Valletta’s Republic Street was still yawning itself awake last Saturday when a queue began to curl outside the new GO outlet. Teenagers in hoodies clutched hand-painted cardboard foxes; grandparents asked if “this was the one about the last tiger on Earth?” They…
**HSBC Malta: The Saga Continues – A Local Institution Hanging in the Balance** For generations of Maltese, HSBC hasn’t just been a bank—it’s been part of the furniture. From the dusty passbooks our nannas kept under the mattress to the first contactless tap we used on the Sliema ferry, the red-and-white hexagon has been stitched…
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…
**Glitter and Soviet nostalgia: Russia revives Eurovision rival contest** While Valletta’s Eurovision village was still buzzing from this year’s Liverpool spectacular, Moscow quietly dropped a glitter bomb of its own: the Intervision Song Contest is back, baby – and Malta’s vintage euro-philes are feeling all the feels. For anyone under 40, Intervision sounds like a…
**”I used to think endurance was healing. Then life taught me otherwise” – The Maltese wake-up call that’s gone viral from Valletta to Gozo** By *Hot Malta* Staff Writer The sentence started as a whisper on a Tuesday morning Facebook post by 34-year-old Żebbuġ baker Ramona Pace: *“I used to think endurance was healing. Then…
**This is Not a Chihuahua: How Malta’s Dog Obsession Sparked a Viral Sensation** Valletta’s Republic Street was buzzing louder than a chihuahua’s bark last Saturday afternoon. Outside the new pet-friendly café “Paw-lazzo,” a crowd of twenty-somethings held up hand-painted signs reading “This is NOT a chihuahua!” while their own pocket-sized pooches—dressed in hand-knitted Malta-flag sweaters—yapped…
**5,481 Departures: The Human Story Behind Malta’s Migrant Returns** The figure lands like a slap: 5,481 people escorted off the island since 2021. Enough to fill the City Theatre in Valletta twice over, enough to populate a village the size of Żebbuġ. Yet behind every number is a name someone once whispered on a Sliema…
Simon once cycled to help kidney patients. Now his son is cycling for him By Hot Malta staff Valletta’s Grand Harbour shimmered like beaten copper as the first riders pushed off from the Barakka Lift on Sunday morning, but 24-year-old Luke Galea’s mind was on a smaller, quieter scene: his father Simon’s dialysis chair at…
