**Watch: Lands minister backs CEO amid Fortina land valuation controversy** Lands Minister Stefan Zrinzo Azzopardi has thrown his weight behind the Lands Authority CEO Robert Vella, insisting Vella “enjoys my full confidence” despite a mushrooming public outcry over the €1.9 million valuation placed on a prime 3,000-square-metre tract of seabed opposite the Fortina Hotel in…
**52-Year-Old Pedestrian Fighting for Life After Żabbar Crash: A Wake-Up Call for Malta’s Road Safety** A 52-year-old man is fighting for his life after being struck by a car in Żabbar on Monday evening, in an incident that has shaken the tight-knit southern community and reignited calls for safer streets across Malta. The accident occurred…
**At Home with Dementia: October Course Brings Hope to Maltese Families** As autumn’s golden light bathes Malta’s honey-coloured limestone buildings, hundreds of local families are preparing for a different kind of seasonal transition. This October, the Malta Dementia Society launches its pioneering “At Home with Dementia” course—a four-week programme that promises to transform how Maltese…
ALPA: Union offered to suspend directives ‘several’ occasions, but talks with Malta International Airport remain grid-locked The tarmac at Malta International Airport (MIA) has been quieter than usual, and not because of off-season schedules. For the third week running, Air Malta pilots—members of the Airline Pilots’ Association (ALPA)—have stuck to a work-to-rule that is rippling…
**Cats get dementia too – here are the eight signs to look out for** Valletta retiree Maria Camilleri first noticed something was off when 17-year-old Tigger strolled onto her Sliema balcony and forgot how to use the cat-flap he’d flown through for a decade. “He just sat there, meowing at the glass, as if the…
Letters to the editor – September 17, 2025 By Hot Malta Staff Valletta’s morning sun had barely hit the honey-coloured stones of Republic Street when the first email landed in our inbox. By 09:30, the digital pile numbered 47; by deadline, 123. In a country where the population could fit inside a medium-sized Italian stadium,…
**Domestic Violence Cases Need Management, Not Mayhem: Malta’s Urgent Call for Systemic Change** The echo of breaking glass at 3 AM on a narrow Valletta street. A neighbour’s whispered phone call to 179. The blue flashing lights that follow. These scenes have become tragically familiar across Malta’s townhouse-lined villages, where behind centuries-old limestone façades, domestic…
Valletta’s morning light catches the honey-stone of the bastions and, for a second, the capital looks unchanged since 1565. Look closer, though, and you’ll spot rooftop solar panels glinting beside baroque statues, delivery drones skimming the Grand Harbour where galleys once moored, and a start-up crew live-streaming their pitch from a 17th-century palazzo. That contrast—antique…
# Announcements – September 17, 2025: A Maltese Mosaic of Change, Celebration, and Community Spirit Valletta’s morning sun glinted off the baroque balconies as Prime Minister Robert Abela stepped up to the microphone in St George’s Square, flanked by the scarlet-coated Malta Philharmonic Orchestra brass section. The date—17 September 2025—will be etched into parish logbooks…
**Architects warn Malta’s construction frenzy is ‘eating the future’ – and the past** Valletta – Walk down any village street at 6 a.m. and the soundtrack is identical: pneumatic hammers, steel cutters and the low rumble of trucks dumping limestone dust into the dawn. To many Maltese, the noise has become the heartbeat of a…
‘In bad taste’: Joseph Muscat defends dead judge in Fortina report scandal By Hot Malta Staff Sliema’s seafront was still buzzing with Tuesday-afternoon ice-cream queues when former prime minister Joseph Muscat took to Facebook to slam a parliamentary report that blamed the late Judge Antonio Mizzi for the 1990s Fortina hotel concession. Within minutes, the…
A new chapter in Maltese justice opened this morning as President Myriam Spiteri Debono cut the ribbon on the long-awaited Court Building for Inquiring Magistrates in Floriana, a €14 million project that fuses 19th-century limestone grandeur with solar-panelled roofs and AI-ready courtrooms. For the first time since the 1830s, Malta’s examining magistrates—once relegated to cramped…
