**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…
# Mediterranean on the Frontline: How 16,500 European Heat Deaths Sound Alarm for Malta The Mediterranean’s record-breaking summer claimed 16,500 lives across Europe, with new research revealing the deadly human cost of climate change that hits dangerously close to Malta’s shores. Published Monday in Nature Medicine, the Barcelona Institute for Global Health study examined mortality…
A patch of scrubland opposite Gozo’s most beloved pilgrimage site is being transformed into a fragrant, climate-resilient garden, signalling a quiet revolution in how the sister island protects its sacred landscapes. The Ta’ Pinu greening project—launched last month by the Ministry for Gozo, the local council of Għarb and nature NGO Żibel—will see 3,000 indigenous…
**Man Accused of Injuring and Robbing Partner in Domestic Violence Case That Shocks Sliema Community** A 34-year-old man from Sliema has been charged with grievously injuring his partner and stealing from her, in a case that has sent shockwaves through Malta’s traditionally tight-knit coastal community. The accused, whose name cannot be published due to ongoing…
Malta’s Quiet Role in a Northern Ireland Rape Extradition Drama By Hot Malta Staff Valletta – When 34-year-old Belfast-born construction worker Darren McKenna was arrested last Tuesday outside a Paceville gym, few of the sunburnt revellers around him realised that Malta had just become the latest stage in a five-year trans-national manhunt. McKenna, wanted by…
# Insurers back PN call for broader measures against all forms of reckless driving Malta’s insurance industry has thrown its weight behind a Nationalist Party proposal to expand the definition of reckless driving, arguing that current laws are too narrow to tackle the island’s growing culture of traffic impunity. The Malta Insurance Association (MIA) told…
Sarah Bajada’s very Maltese apology – “sorry, I didn’t know” – has become the island’s latest cautionary tale after the influencer-turned-entrepreneur was pulled over in her pastel-pink Fiat 500 on the Sliema front, only to discover her road licence had expired in January and her insurance policy had lapsed two weeks earlier. The incident, captured…
**First Maltese-language autism toolkit lands in teachers’ hands – and classrooms may never be the same** Valletta – For years, Maltese educators who wanted to support autistic students had to wade through English manuals peppered with references to British SENCOs or American IEP forms. That changed this week when the National Literacy Agency and the…
**Poison on the Mediterranean Wind: Navalny’s Widow Points to Kremlin as Malta’s Russian Community Reels** Valletta’s Grand Harbour fell silent for a heartbeat on Monday afternoon when Yulia Navalnaya’s voice crackled through car radios and café loud-speakers: “They killed my husband with poison, then they hid his body from us.” Within minutes, Maltese commuters pulled…
**St Julian’s man handed suspended sentence for assault in Għargħur field** A 34-year-old man from St Julian’s has been handed a two-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting another man in a rural field in Għargħur, in a case that has stirred quiet conversations across Malta’s tight-knit villages and sparked renewed debate over rural…
A 34-year-old man from Żabbar has walked out of Malta’s Courts of Justice with a two-year suspended sentence after admitting he fractured another man’s cheekbone during a late-night argument in Marsa’s Taċ-Ċawsli district—an area long synonymous with spontaneous street gatherings, cheap pastizzi and, occasionally, fists that fly faster than the proverbial Maltese bus. Inspector Sarah…
**New Barrier and Gate Planned for Mount Carmel Back Entrance: Residents Divided Over Access vs Security** The back entrance to Malta’s historic Mount Carmel Hospital is set for a controversial makeover, with plans to install a new barrier and gate system that has sparked heated debate among Attard residents and mental-health advocates. The proposed structure,…
