The US administration is following a strategy based on an increase of customs duties over a wide spread of products imported from practically across the world. In the forefront one finds neighbouring and/or allied countries being subjected to this treatment, but not only - Canada, Mexico, the EU, the UK, Japan, as well as China among others. The claim is that all these countries have succeeded to penetrate the US where they sell their products on the cheap and destroy US factories and jobs.
Meanwhile, the Trump admmnistration will need to fulfill its promise to contain price rises. It's difficult to understand how this will be done.
Whether one agrees or disagrees with the US tariff hike, there can be little doubt that in its wake, it will bring price rises, at least in the short to medium term. Protection of high priced goods made in the US will mean that American consumers will have to pay more for them. They could even decide not to buy at all and wait for prices to go back down, which could spin the US economy as a whole into a recession.
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FREEDOM DAY
The hoop-la with which Freedom Day used to be celebrated many moons ago has long been forgotten. Life always goes on, today's events always serve to rub off yesterday's memories and those of the day before. Today Freedom Day is considered as a public holiday that has to be commemorated by following a state sponsored liturgy which the younger generations hardly understand or care about. The same happened though at a slower pace to Independence Day.
No doubt Freedom Day will continue to mark an essential date in the island's modern history: beyond the ideological and partisan disputes it gave rise to in the past, it should stay as a day that commemorates a national achievement. However it might deserve as well being updated and celebrated for the choice it entailed to endow this country with the status of neutrality, a choice grounded on the reality of Independence.
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HOME COOKING
Given what is being said and published about the delivery of meals via the Bolt/Wolt services to homes, a picture of radical change emerges in how families come to prepare their meals. A major conclusion seems to be that the practice of home cooking has greatly declined. Instead, many are consuming food brought to them by motorcycle from restaurants and snack bars. I imagine that the same process has developed elsewhere as well. Even so, one can hardly suppress the idea that it is more widespread here than in other places. Why should this be?
The reasons I've been given include the following: The Maltese people have greatly appreciated the idea of getting others to prepare their food. Families have gotten fed up with home cooking. The trend towards fast foods has become dominant. Women are increasingly working away from home and do not have enough time to cook at home. Men have continued to show they're less than interested in cooking. Home cooking is not so good as what you bring from outside the home. The less one spends time at work in the kitchen, the more the quality of life improves.
Other reasons also get mentioned. Frankly I don't know which could be correct.