A 34-year-old man from Żebbuġ is facing arraignment after police seized more than €10,000 worth of suspected cocaine and cannabis in a dawn raid on a Ta’ Qali garage used by weekend farmers and motocross enthusiasts. The arrest, carried out by the Drug Squad on Tuesday, marks the third high-profile bust in the central-western district…
**Cutting university funds is a cost too high** *By [Author Name], Hot Malta* Walk down Republic Street on a weekday afternoon and you’ll see them: clusters of students in hoodies emblazoned with the University of Malta crest, arguing over espressos about AI ethics, Baroque apses, or whether the latest EU directive will sink the family…
**Elephant & Cross: Making education work for real life** On a quiet street in Valletta, just a stone’s throw from the bustling Merchant’s Street, a small but ambitious educational initiative is quietly reshaping how Maltese students relate to the world beyond textbooks. Elephant & Cross, a non-formal learning hub founded in 2021 by educators Rebecca…
**16-Year-Old E-Scooter Passenger in ‘Critical’ Condition After Late-Night Valletta Crash** Valletta’s silent cobblestones were shattered at 01:47 this morning when a privately-owned e-scooter carrying two teenagers collided with a concrete bollard on Triq il-Lanca, the narrow slip-road that hugs the Grand Harbour bastions. The 16-year-old pillion passenger—identified by friends as Żejtun secondary-school student Luca*—was catapulted…
**Academic Demands Answers After Child Mental Health Unit ‘Fails Malta’s Most Vulnerable’** A leading Maltese psychologist has broken ranks to demand a full public inquiry into “systemic failures” at the country’s only in-patient child and adolescent mental health unit, warning that children as young as nine are being restrained, sedated and discharged prematurely because beds…
**Valletta’s Streets to Become Open-Air Counselling Room in First-Ever Youth Mental Health Festival** A kaleidoscope of pop-up art installations, dawn-to-dusk sports sessions and silent disco therapy nights will take over the capital next month as Malta stages its first festival dedicated entirely to young minds. “Well-Being October”, unveiled yesterday by the parliamentary secretariat for youth…
**Young Voices, Big Dreams: Gozo’s Next Generation Takes the Mic** *A new public-speaking course on Malta’s sister island is turning shy schoolchildren into confident storytellers—and giving Gozo’s dialect a proud new stage.* XAGĦRA, GOZO—On a breezy Thursday afternoon, the usually quiet parish hall in Xagħra echoes with applause. A 10-year-old wearing her brother’s oversized blazer…
Suicide: proactive prevention How Malta is swapping silence for solidarity By Laura Vella | 09 June 2024 The limestone walls of Valletta glow amber at sunset, but behind the honey-coloured facades many Maltese families carry a private shadow: suicide. For decades the subject was wrapped in a lace curtain of hushed whispers, Our-Lady-of-Sorrows novenas and…
Catholic teen set to become first millennial saint: How Carlo Acutis is already inspiring Maltese youth The pews of the Oratory of St Francis in Birkirkara were unusually packed last Sunday—not for a wedding or First Communion, but for a special Mass celebrated by Maltese teenagers who had just returned from a week-long pilgrimage to…
# Malta’s Millennials Wake Up to a New Kind of Saint While most of us were still rubbing the sleep from our eyes this morning, a 29-year-old Italian web-designer-turned-monk was preparing to step into eternity—and straight onto every millennial’s Instagram feed. On Sunday, Pope Francis will canonise Carlo Acutis, the tech-savvy teenager already nicknamed “God’s…
ChatGPT to Get Parental Controls After Teen’s Death – What Malta Needs to Know Valletta, Malta – The news that OpenAI will roll out stricter parental controls for ChatGPT, following the suicide of a 14-year-old in Florida, has landed on our islands with the force of a summer sirocco. In a nation where 92 %…
