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…
What’s on in Malta and Gozo this week: September 22 to 28, 2025 By Hot Malta staff Valletta’s Republic Street smells of freshly-ground coffee and ħobż biż-żejt this Monday morning, but by sunset the scent will shift to warm honey and almonds – the first trays of imqaret being fried for Notte Bianca. The capital’s…
**Gozo Deserves Leaders Who Act Not Out of Political Convenience** Gozo, Malta’s sister island, has long carried the quiet dignity of being the nation’s rural soul. While Malta races ahead with high-rise towers and sprawling developments, Gozo remains tethered to its terraced fields, baroque churches, and a rhythm of life that moves with the seasons…
Watch: ‘I do not want towers in Gozo’: Alex Borg ================================================ Gozo’s skyline—and soul—are once again at the centre of a heated national debate after Infrastructure Minister Alex Borg stared down the camera and declared, “I do not want towers in Gozo.” The 18-second clip, filmed outside the Ministry in Valletta and uploaded to TikTok…
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…
A pretend pope and a dog that never existed: the incredible stories of scams By Hot Malta Staff Valletta’s narrow alleys have seen everything from pirate raids to papal processions, but few tales rival the sheer brass-necked audacity of the two frauds that rocked Malta in 1913 and 1974. One involved a barefoot Gozitan peasant…
Fontana’s beloved parish priest, Fr. Gabriel Camilleri, has swapped Gozo’s limestone lanes for Melbourne’s tram-lined boulevards this week, touching down in Australia on a three-week pastoral pilgrimage that is already sending ripples of excitement through the Maltese diaspora. The 48-year-old priest, who has shepherded the Fontana flock since 2017, was invited by the Archdiocese of…
While Valletta’s streets sizzle and Sliema’s cafés overflow, Gozo quietly turns up the volume on something far more important than summer playlists: mental health. Between June and September, the Foundation for Social Welfare Services (FSWS) parked its colourful pop-up gazebo in village squares from Nadur to Xlendi, launching a grassroots awareness blitz that swapped bureaucratic…
Robert Abela ‘shocked’ to hear Alex Borg’s comments on towers in Gozo By Hot Malta Newsroom VALLETTA – Prime Minister Robert Abela has declared himself “genuinely shocked” after Gozo Minister Clint Camilleri read aloud, in Cabinet, a private WhatsApp voice-note in which developer Alex Borg boasts that “every crane in Gozo is mine” and jokes…
Feast of St Matthew, Pope’s Climate Plea and a New Nadur Band: How Sunday’s Religious Buzz is Re-wiring Malta Sliema’s 6 a.m. fishermen swear the sea was glass-calm on 21 September 2025, the kind of stillness locals call “ħarsa ta’ qaddis” – a saint’s own gaze. By 7 a.m. the same harbour was humming with…
A late-night joy-ride across Gozo’s silent coastal roads ended in twisted metal and handcuffs early yesterday, after a 24-year-old Birkirkara man allegedly hot-wired a Honda CBR parked outside a Xlendi guest-house, crashed into a dry-stone wall near the Ta’ Ċenċ cliffs and was arrested while trying to limp back towards the Mġarr ferry. Police said…
**New bells to ring out over Gozo’s southern coast as St Anthony’s gets long-awaited upgrade** The sleepy village of Għajnsielem is about to sound a lot livelier. St Anthony the Abbot parish church, whose squat limestone silhouette has watched over Mgarr Harbour since 1734, will welcome three new bronze bells this summer — the first…
