Saturday, 4 April 2026

🧚‍♀️ TREE HOUSE NEWS 🏡

NEWS AGGREGATOR & COMMENTS

Great Spirit bless 🙏

'Morning all! Well, at least it's a beautiful sunrise here on the Niagara Peninsula. The temps are still cool, but spring is definitely here. We're in what I call the drooping appengage effect phase right now. Ya know, the drooping jetstream effect, eh. Just north of Toronto, they could still probably have snow. They're calling for buckets of rain 🪣💦 here, but I don't see either the buckets or rain falling out there. Ya know how that is. Presently, the sun is shining through broken clouds 🌤️

And I 👩 wouldn't mind that because today is bath day. Well, I could pretend I had an imaginary bath in the imaginary tub 🛁 full of imaginary buckets of rain water 🪣💦 and ya kins "hold the towel, Ma!" 🤕 That reminds me of what they did before running hot and cold water and the bathroom indoors. It was more convenient during the warm weather months, when you could take a bath in the lake, only a few hundred yards behind the house.

During the wintertime, everything took more work and planning. Water just wasn't as plentiful; we had baths in a washtub and went out to the unheated outhouse for as brief a time as possible. We chopped and split a lot of wood for the stove, drew drinking water from the lake, and used melted snow and ice knocked down from the eaves for washing. At 8 years old, I went hunting with a .22 caliber bolt-action rifle and fished with a homemade rod and a cheap reel. We grew a garden and picked wild berries. ANOTHER WAKE-UP CALL!

TODAY'S DISCUSSION:

BREAKDOWN IN SOCIAL NORMS.

If it came to that, I believe that the best chance for survival is for folks to begin migrating back out into the countryside but remain connected. It's going to be dog-eat-dog in the larger population centers.

- Google Search -

Question: BREAKDOWN IN SOCIAL NORMS - Migrating back to country living

🔹AI Overview

The migration back to the country living is increasingly driven by a perceived breakdown in social norms and urban quality of life, including rising crime, high density, and social disorder. This trend is fueled by a desire for a slower pace of life, greater privacy, and higher social cohesion, which is often found in smaller communities.

Factors Driving the Shift:
Breakdown of Social Norms:
Remote Work Freedom:
Financial Pressures:
Social Cohesion & Health:

Migration Trends

Exodus from Core Areas:
Shift to "Small-town Canada":
Return Migration:

Rebuilding Social Norms

Rebuilding Networks:
Community Integration:
Shifting Family Dynamics:

The shift can also bring stress, particularly for children and teenagers who may face a "reverse culture shock"

Read More - Google Search -

- Google Search -

Question: Community Living

Community Living Meaning - in a nutshell 🥜-

Community living involves people or families living in one area, sharing the everyday use of property and facilities, making decisions, and attending to social matters jointly. Living together is more than mere habitation; it focuses on cooperation, complementarity, and people's well-being...

Read More - Google Search -

That will be it for the discussion today. Thank you for reading the Tree House News. Now on with the news.

BREAKING NEWS:

Downed jets puncture Trump’s and Hegseth’s claims of air invulnerability

An Iran war that was already proving quite unpopular with the American people has entered a new, more problematic phase. That comes with the news that a US fighter jet was shot down over Iran.

There remains a lot we don’t know, including the status of the two crew members. While CNN has reported one of them has been rescued and is receiving medical treatment, we don’t know the fate of the other. And that was followed by news that Iran hit a second US combat aircraft on Friday. The pilot was able to navigate the plane out of Iranian territory before ejecting from the aircraft and was subsequently rescued, a US official told CNN.

Neither of these incidents means Iran is suddenly on anything close to an equal footing militarily. And there have thus far been limited American casualties, including no known deaths in the last three weeks...

Read More:

Updated Apr 3, 2026, 5:35 PM ET - 15 hr ago

- CNN -

The global oil crisis is turning into an everything crisis

Taipei, Taiwan — One month into the war in Iran, a growing shortage of crude oil is threatening to morph into something worse: a shortage of nearly everything...

The conflict in the Middle East has crimped oil and natural gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, reducing global supply by about one-fifth. The disruption has not only sent fuel prices soaring, but has squeezed supplies of petrochemicals needed to make everyday items like shoes, clothing and plastic bags.

That strain is now spreading into every corner of the consumer market as prices rise for materials like plastic, rubber and polyester. The impact is so far most evident in Asia, which accounts for more than half of the world’s manufacturing and is heavily reliant on imports for oil and other commodities.

In South Korea, where people have been panic-buying trash bags, the government has encouraged event organizers to minimize use of disposable items. The conflict in the Middle East has crimped oil and natural gas flows through the Strait of Hormuz, reducing global supply by about one-fifth. The disruption has not only sent fuel prices soaring, but has squeezed supplies of petrochemicals needed to make everyday items like shoes, clothing and plastic bags.

In South Korea, where people have been panic-buying trash bags, the government has encouraged event organizers to minimize use of disposable items. Taiwan has started a hotline for manufacturers that have run out of plastic, while its rice farmers told local media they may hike prices because they can’t get vacuum-sealed bags...

No recourse:
Moving westward:

“I’m anxious,” Qiu said. “The whole industry feels the same. No one knows how the war will play out.”

Others are trying to cut costs by minimizing the amount of plastic used in packaging.

Read More:

Updated Apr 4, 2026, 12:19 AM ET - 9 hr ago

- CNN -

Trump’s new budget proposal is historic — in one of the worst ways possible

The proposal would double down on last summer’s “big beautiful bill” and its legacy of cutting programs that struggling Americans rely on.

On Friday, the Trump administration submitted its annual budget request to Congress. The document called for dramatically reducing what the United States government does for Americans. The budget called for steep cuts to funding for education, housing and health, funneling resources toward the military as the war in Iran reaches its fifth week. This shift would leave the portion of the budget known as “nondefense discretionary,” or NDD funding, which accounts for most domestic activities aside from Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and SNAP, at its lowest level since at least Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency.

These NDD programs have already suffered more than 15 years of disinvestment, including particularly sharp cuts over the last three years. In total, the president called to cut NDD funding (excluding Veterans Affairs medical care) by $83 billion below last year’s levels.

The Trump budget calls for historic cuts to domestic funding:

Base nondefense discretionary budget authority as a percentage of GDP

Read More:

Apr. 4, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

- MS NOW -

CANADIAN NEWS:

Burdett 'Burd' Sisler, war veteran and oldest known living Canadian, has died at 110

One of the last Second World War veterans 'will be missed by so many'

SALUTE! 🙋‍♀️ and may G-d Bless 🙏

How the Middle East war is already impacting mortgage rates in Canada

War, Strait of Hormuz closure impacting Canadians in ways we may not have expected

The Middle East war is impacting something most Canadians may not have expected: the cost of some mortgages. Last month, three- and five-year fixed mortgages increased by 0.5 per cent in just three weeks, said Marshall Tully, a Toronto-based mortgage broker.

"Unfortunately, it's possible that trend could continue," Tully said. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), 1.4 million mortgages will be renewed by the end of the year...

The 'uncertainty premium':

WATCH | How the war is affecting B.C.'s housing market:

Longer-lasting impacts:

WATCH | Trump's Wednesday update on the war:

Read More:

Posted: Apr 04, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

- CBC -

Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen talks about 'incredible' views of Earth in live video call from deep space

It was the first in a series of planned space-to-Earth communications during the Artemis II mission

Canadian Astronaut Jeremy Hansen connected with Earth from deep space early Saturday in a historic first for the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), as part of a live question-and-answer session during the Artemis II mission.

Hansen shared his impressions of the journey so far and provided insight into daily life aboard the spacecraft as it travels beyond low Earth orbit...

WATCH | Astronaut Jeremy Hansen shares what it was like seeing Earth from space:

WATCH | Hansen says 1st time in space 'makes me feel like a little kid':

Read More:

Posted: Apr 04, 2026 8:23 AM EDT | Last Updated: 25 minutes ago

- CBC -

- Google Search -

April 2026 what is Carney up to with the fuel problem?

🔹AI Overview

As of early April 2026, Prime Minister Mark Carney is facing intense pressure regarding high fuel prices driven by international volatility (specifically, disruptions due to the war in Iran). Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the government to remove the fuel excise tax and Clean Fuel Regulations (referred to by critics as "Carbon Tax 2.0") to provide relief, a move the Carney government has so far resisted.

Key Fuel and Energy Issues - April 2026: