🧚‍♀️ TREE HOUSE NEWS 🏡

NEWS AGGREGATOR & COMMENTS

May Great Spirit bless 🙏

It appears to be a damp, cloudy, and chilly day, with rain in the forecast, possibly changing to snow in the late afternoon. It's not very nice to be out. I'm glad I got my going-out stuff done yesterday. I'll stay home today, thank you. To add to that, my dumdum stomach is giving me a hard time; that just sucks the energy out of me when it does, I feel like I want to crawl into a hole and pull the hole in after me when it does that. So I pause and pray for the wrongs I've done, and I'm beginning to run out of those to pray for, so I pray for others who are in need.

What else can I do? I wish I could step out of my body and take a rest from this nausea. I would if I could, but it's like an effing busted record player, drives me nuts after a while. I wish they made some kind of pill for GERD that would make it stop; it just persists until I'm nearly doubled over with nausea. There's only one way I know of to get rid of it. If everything else fails, do the finger-in-the-throat treatment. I feel much more human now, not a sick cockroach anymore 🪳 Thank you again for reading the Tree House News.

BREAKING NEWS:

Well, boys and girls, it would seem that our Prime Minister, Mark Carney, has held true to his promise regarding the CANADIAN MILITARY 🍁 I am grateful that I am retired, it gives me a lot of time to spend on: - Google Search - 🔹AI Overview and SNOPES. The three most reliable major newspapers are CNN, MS-Now, and CBC.

- Google Search -

🔹AI Overview

Question: CBC Connors: Funding for armed forces

• Based on recent reports from CBC News

The Canadian government under Prime Minister Mark Carney has initiated a significant, "generational" increase in funding for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) to accelerate military modernization and meet NATO targets.

• Key 2025-2026 Funding Details:

Based on recent reports and 2025 budgetary announcements, Canada is undertaking a major, accelerated restructuring of its military funding to modernize the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) and reach NATO spending targets.

• Key 2025 Defence Funding Highlights:
• Generational Investment: Budget 2025 proposes to provide $81.8 billion over five years on a cash basis to rebuild, rearm, and reinvest in the CAF.
• Reaching NATO Targets: The plan includes an extra $8.7 billion to reach NATO's target of 2% of GDP on defence spending within the 2025-26 fiscal year.
• Long-Term Goal: Canada has committed to aiming for 5% of GDP spent on defense by 2035 in a new pact with NATO leaders.
• Operational Spending: The total federal government defence spending is set to rise from an estimated $53.4 billion to $62.7 billion.

Key Investment Areas:

• Arctic Sovereignty: $2.67 billion is committed to increasing northern military presence, including new hubs in Iqaluit, Yellowknife, and Inuvik.
• Equipment and Modernization: $17.9 billion over five years is allocated for new logistics, light utility, and armoured vehicles, along with counter-drone capabilities and domestic ammunition production.
• Personnel Pay Raise: A 20% pay increase for Regular Force members (and 13% for Reserves) in lower ranks was announced, effective retroactively to April 1, 2025.
• Recruitment Bonuses: A $10,000 bonus for recruits upon completion of basic training, with additional $20,000 bonuses for completing training and after six years of service.
• Defence Industrial Strategy: $6.6 billion over five years is dedicated to strengthening the Canadian defence industry.

• Context and Challenges:
• Urgency: The rapid increase in funding follows pressure from allies and concerns regarding geopolitical shifts.
• Procurement Concerns: Despite the funding, experts have highlighted a long-standing culture of risk aversion, deferred decisions, and potential for $150 million to $260 million shortfalls in maintaining current equipment serviceability.
• Internal Restructuring: The government is focusing on creating a Defence Investment Agency to streamline procurement.

- Google Search -

🔹AI Overview

As of mid-February 2026, there is actually significant, fast-moving action regarding U.S. and Canadian fighter jets, largely centered on major deployments, the modernization of existing fleets, and intense geopolitical negotiations over future purchases.

Here is what is happening with fighter jets right now:

1. Major U.S. Middle East Deployment (Feb 2026)

• Show of Force: In a rapid deployment occurring around Feb 17-18, 2026, the U.S. moved over 50 fighter jets—including F-35s, F-22s, and F-16s—to the Middle East.

Context: This buildup is occurring amid high-stakes nuclear talks with Iran and rising regional tensions.

• Operations: Several U.S. units already in the region have had their deployments extended to maintain this increased readiness.

The Sunday Guardian

2. The Canadian F-35/Gripen Drama

• Ongoing Review:

• Payments Continue: Despite this review, Canada has continued to make payments for 14 additional F-35s to secure their spot in the delivery queue, with the first 16 jets still expected to arrive starting this year.

In My Opinion:

DROP THEM LIKE THEY WERE A HOT POTATO NO IFS OR BUTS, TAKE THE LOSS, DROP THEM NO GOOD FOR NOTHING NAZIS!

expressing my sentiment only, thank you.

• Alternatives Considered: The NDP is urging the government to switch to the Swedish-made Saab Gripen, aiming for domestic manufacturing, while the U.S. has warned that walking away from the F-35 could alter NORAD and force the U.S. to cover Canadian airspace.

3. F-35 Readiness and Maintenance Issues

• Watchdog Report:
• Support Issues:

- vetromebel-com -

4. Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD/F-47)

F-22 Replacement: The U.S. Air Force is moving forward with the next-generation stealth fighter, designated the F-47, which is planned to replace the F-22 Raptor. "F THEM!"

• Development:
• Upgrading the F-22:
• 5. Air Force One and VIP Upgrade:

C'MON, Mark, you're brighter than that to waste time and money on the enemy than to let them build your pitchforks and torches for you.

Liberal government pledges over $6 billion in defence budget

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptrGywFaOWo

ALSO BREAKING IN CANADA:

She wanted a safer social-media platform for her kids — so she made her own

Launch of Tribela comes amid growing global push for Aussie-style social ban for kids

Natalie Boll was well-versed in social media due to her career in film and television, yet the Vancouver parent was still shocked at what kids face when her teen daughter experienced cyberbullying after getting her first phone.

"My first reaction was just 'Let's go offline... And I deleted everything for me and my daughter at the time," recalled the mom of three. Boll vowed to find a middle ground, however, after she discovered the decision isolating for herself — losing contacts she'd built over 15 years, she noted — and for her eldest child, who felt unable to connect with friends the way she wanted to...

• Prioritizing user safety, well-being:
• Age restrictions still necessary: advocate:

WATCH | Meta calls for age-verification by app stores:

• Designing a different space:
• Current platforms 'not a healthy environment':

Posted: Feb 18, 2026 4:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

- CBC -

BREAKING CNN NEWS:

I’ve covered Venezuela for a decade. But this US visit was like nothing I’ve seen before

Caracas, Venezuela:

—

It is less than two months since US special forces captured Venezuela’s longtime authoritarian leader Nicolas Maduro, during a nighttime raid in Caracas, yet it is hard to overstate how different the South American country now feels. There’s a new buzz, an optimism that, to be frank, I have never seen before.

I moved to Caracas in 2016.

In the decade that followed, Venezuela saw it all: a quarter of the population fled a catastrophic economic collapse; crime rates exploded before gradually yielding in the aftermath of COVID-19; anti-Maduro demonstrators took to the streets year after year only to be overpowered by tear gas and rubber bullets...

• Hugs and shakes at the oil rig:
• Daring the government one step at a time:
• Did Trump get this right?:

Read More:

Updated Feb 17, 2026, 4:32 PM ET - 16 hr ago

- CNN -

FDA reverses course and will review Moderna’s mRNA flu shot, company says

The US Food and Drug Administration has reversed course and will review a new mRNA flu vaccine from Moderna, the pharmaceutical company said Wednesday. About two weeks ago, the FDA sent Moderna a letter in which it refused to accept the application to review its first mRNA seasonal flu vaccine — a rare move by the federal agency that raised concern about another setback for the technology that’s been a target of some Trump administration health officials.

The FDA told Moderna that its application didn’t contain an “adequate and well-controlled” trial because the control arm didn’t reflect the “best-available standard of care in the United States at the time of the study,” according to the letter, that Moderna posted online. It didn’t identify any safety or efficacy concerns, the company said. But Moderna has since met with the FDA and “proposed a revised regulatory approach” with different pathways by age, according to a news release from the company...

Read More:

Updated Feb 18, 2026, 9:10 AM ET - 7 min ago

- CNN -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptrGywFaOWo