**Maltese Collectors Hold Breath After €600,000 Paris Gold Heist Shakes Global Heritage Scene** Valletta’s narrow limestone streets may feel worlds away from the grand boulevards of Paris, but news that three masked thieves smashed display cases at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs on Monday and escaped with 60 kilos of priceless gold artefacts has sent…
**Roberta Metsola’s Kyiv Office: How Malta’s President of the European Parliament is Putting the Island on Ukraine’s Front Line** Valletta’s morning café chatter has a new topic: Roberta Metsola just told the world that the European Parliament will keep a permanent liaison office in Kyiv, and she did it with the same straight-talking energy she…
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…
**Reconstruction of derelict Mellieħa hotel recommended for refusal** A controversial plan to rebuild the long-abandoned Hotel San Remo on Mellieħa’s prominent seafront has been dealt a significant blow after planning officers recommended its refusal, citing “serious negative impacts” on the protected coastline and the village’s historic character. The proposed development, which would have seen the…
**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…
**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,…
**Cassola Questions Borg’s Denial: The Fortina Land Deal That Has Malta Talking** In the bustling heart of Sliema, where tourists sip cocktails overlooking the glittering Mediterranean and locals navigate narrow streets lined with traditional townhouses and modern developments, a land controversy has reignited debates about transparency in Malta’s rapid urban transformation. Arnold Cassola, the veteran…
**Madeleine McCann Suspect Walks Free: How a German Rapist’s Release Reopens Old Wounds in Malta** By [Author Name] | Hot Malta VALLETTA – When Christian Brückner stepped out of a German prison on Tuesday, his shadow stretched across the Mediterranean and settled on Malta’s own unresolved mysteries. The 47-year-old convicted rapist—named the prime suspect in…
