Floriana’s Independence Arena was already humming at 07:30 this morning as Prime Minister Robert Abela stepped up to the microphone for the first of three surprise “Announcements – September 9, 2025” that will echo through every village square by nightfall. Flanked by the scarlet standards of the Malta Philharmonic Band and framed by the Triton…
Letters to the editor – September 9, 2025: Valletta post-box overflows with summer’s hopes and island frustrations By Sarah Micallef | Hot Malta The wrought-iron post-box outside the Times of Malta building in Valletta was so stuffed this morning that a postal worker had to prop the lid open with a half-eaten pastizz. Inside, 187…
Alex Borg says he plans small changes to the shadow cabinet Valletta – The Nationalist Party’s newly-appointed deputy leader for parliamentary affairs, Alex Borg, has told Hot Malta he is preparing “targeted, surgical tweaks rather than a grand reshuffle” to the opposition’s shadow cabinet, a move that could ripple across village band clubs, parish youth…
Three-Year Minimum for Drunk Drivers Who Kill: A Maltese Wake-Up Call Sliema’s seafront promenade was unusually hushed this morning as café owners scrolled through their phones, digesting the news Attorney General Victoria Buttigieg delivered last night: anyone who causes death while driving drunk or high will now face a mandatory minimum of three years behind…
PN leadership vote stands, commission rules, as Delia’s last-ditch letter fizzles Ħamrun’s narrow side-streets were buzzing yesterday afternoon, not with the usual clatter of pastizzi trays and football talk, but with the latest twist in the Nationalist Party’s marathon leadership saga. After a week of claim and counter-claim, the party’s electoral commission has declared that…
Mid-September in Malta has always felt like the hinge of the year: the sea is still warm enough for a sunset dip at Għajn Tuffieħa, the vineyards of Gozo are heavy with the season’s first Ġellewża grapes, and village band clubs are polishing their brass for the last festa of the summer. Between 8 and…
Delia campaign questions eligibility of more than 100 PN leadership voters In a move that is already being dubbed “the carnival before the storm”, the campaign team backing veteran Nationalist Party stalwart Adrian Delia has formally challenged the voting eligibility of more than 100 delegates due to cast ballots in the upcoming PN leadership election….
Watch: Towering eucalyptus bursts into flames again in the dead of night – Mellieħa’s skyline briefly turned into a living fireball as embers from Saturday’s controlled burn re-ignited, sending tongues of orange 15 metres up the trunk and sparking a frantic call-out for the Malta Fire and Rescue Service. The drama began around 1:30 a.m….
Malta’s low birth rate risks ‘ethnic extinction’, Archbishop warns By Hot Malta Newsroom Archbishop Charles Scicluna set the island talking this week after he warned that Malta’s plunging birth rate could lead to “ethnic extinction”. Speaking during Sunday’s homily at St John’s Co-Cathedral in Valletta, the Archbishop told a packed baroque nave that the country…
St Julian’s waterfront shimmered under a setting sun last Sunday, but the real glow came from the long wooden tables set up outside the Love Bites community kitchen. There, Maltese octopus stew simmered next to Nigerian jollof rice, while a pot of Sri Lankan kottu roti sizzled beside a tray of qassatat. For the third…
Podium or Prejudice? Paceville Nightspot Accused of Gender Bias After Man’s Phone Smashed in Row Over Stage Access St Julian’s – A quiet Monday morning at the St Julian’s police station turned into the latest flashpoint in Malta’s ongoing debate over gender equality when 27-year-old software developer Luke Briffa filed a criminal complaint alleging discrimination,…
Valletta’s morning sun had barely cleared the bastions when the first carnations appeared at the foot of the Great Siege Monument. By 9 a.m. the bronze figures of Faith, Fortitude and Civilisation were swimming in a tide of red and white—some blooms still dewy from florists in Hamrun, others wrapped in the plastic sleeves that…
