**Momentum challenges Alex Borg to lead protest against Xlendi high-rise** The battle for Gozo’s soul has a new protagonist. Environmental NGO Momentum has thrown down the gauntlet to Alex Borg—developer-turned-viral-activist—demanding he swap blueprints for banners and march with them against the 10-storey hotel looming over Xlendi Bay. “Mr Borg loves to tweet about ‘protecting the…
**Watch: Promotional video released ahead of planning reform protest** A slick, 90-second promotional video dropped on Tuesday night and has already ricocheted through Maltese WhatsApp groups, Facebook feeds and the pigeon-loft gossip circuits of every village band club. Shot in the honeyed light of a recent golden-hour at Valletta’s Triton Fountain, the clip cuts between…
Pietà’s Hidden Gem Re-Opens: Marina Garden Reborn After €1.2 Million Make-Over By Hot Malta Staff Pietà’s waterfront has a new heartbeat. On Saturday morning, the iron gates of Marina Garden—shut since 2019—swung open to reveal a sun-splashed promenade, native salt-resistant planting and a children’s splash-pad that had toddlers shrieking before the ribbon was even cut….
**PL MPs Walk Out of PAC, Blocking Parallel Debate on Fortina Controversy** Labour MPs on Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) refused yesterday to entertain a parallel discussion on the Fortina development debacle, effectively slamming the door on opposition demands for immediate scrutiny of the €500 million St George’s Bay project. The walk-out, described by government…
Traffic flowing smoothly as children head back to school By Hot Malta Staff Valletta’s narrow streets were unusually calm at 07:30 this morning as the island’s 42,000 primary and secondary pupils returned to classrooms after the summer lull. Instead of the customary horn-symphony of September, drivers found themselves gliding through Marsa’s traffic lights in under…
# Announcements – September 24, 2025: A Day of New Beginnings for Malta As the first hints of autumn cool the limestone walls of Valletta, September 24, 2025, dawns with a series of announcements that promise to reshape Malta’s cultural and social landscape. From the bustling streets of Sliema to the quiet fishing villages of…
Watch: Objectors in uproar after Xlendi developers fail to show up for meeting By our staff reporter Gozitans packed the Xlendi parish hall last night expecting a long-promised explanation of how a boutique hotel could legally sprout nine storeys above the village’s skyline. Instead they found an empty table, two folded placards bearing the project’s…
Watch: Objectors in uproar over Xlendi high-rise case deferral ================================================================ **“We’re being strung along while the valley dies,”** one Gozitan pensioner shouted from the back of the chambers on Thursday afternoon, seconds after the Planning Authority (PA) board voted to defer its decision on the 12-storey Xlendi hotel tower for a third time. Mobile phones…
By 2050, Malta’s youngest citizens will be pushing 40, its pensioners will out-number under-15s two-to-one, and the sea lapping Valletta’s bastions could be 65 cm higher than it is today. “Vision 2050: goals for better lives”, adopted quietly by Parliament last month, is the island’s first long-term national strategy that dares to look beyond electoral…
Valletta advocate Jason Azzopardi’s warning to the police last August that a multi-million-euro valuation had been “hidden” from the courts is now reverberating through every village bar and Facebook forum on the islands. The document – a 2018 assessment that put the value of a prime St Julian’s development site at €110 million, not the…
Gozitan NGOs have declared open season on developer Alex Borg and the Planning Authority after Borg’s weekend boast that “high-rise will come to Gozo whether people like it or not.” In a joint statement released on Tuesday morning, 18 civic and environmental groups accused Borg of “treating the sister island like a Monopoly board” and…
Revealed: The ‘suppressed’ report at the heart of the Fortina deal By Hot Malta Staff Sliema’s iconic seafront promenade has always been a stage where Malta’s ambitions and contradictions collide: sun-bronzed joggers weave past 19th-century townhouses, while cranes swing over new glass towers that promise “five-star luxury” to buyers who may never live here. This…
