Wednesday, 7 October 2026

🧚‍♀️ TREE HOUSE NEWS 🏡

NEWS AGGREGATOR & COMMENTS

Great Spirit bless 🙏

Morning all! It's partly sunny and mild, but a little windy out there right now. I pray you're all well and have a productive, blessed day. Not much going on here in the Newsroom. It is so much more pleasant hearing birds and other denizens of nature in the woods across the driveway than all that construction racket we had through the summer.

This was my comment to yesterday's Tree House News:

"We're at a crossroads; which way do we want to go? Left or right? The right leads to insanity, confusion, chaos, and oblivion; the left leads to growth, evolution, discovery, love, care, empathy, and, most importantly, the oneness of universal consciousness."

There seems to be so little of that on the news networks lately. But every once in a while, you hear about someone selfless jumping in to save another person's life, or several people's lives. Oh wow! Isn't that great! Then we forget, and we don't hear about another one on the news networks again until much later, here and there. I could talk volumes about this topic, but I don't have enough time or room to stuff it all into this one little News Group, but those are the people I call Earth Angels. Someone who does something selflessly because they feel it in their heart, because they care and have empathy.

Thank you for visiting and reading the Tree House News 🏡

TODAY'S DISCUSSION:

Is Today's Society Trying to Kill Empathy?

- Google Search -

QUESTION: Is today's society trying to kill empathy?

🔹AI Overview

Modern society is not intentionally executing a single "war" on empathy, but a combination of digital fragmentation, hyper-individualism, and cultural shifts has created a widespread empathy deficit.

The state of empathy in today's world splits into several key dynamics:

The Drivers of the Empathy Decline

• Digital Isolation and Social Media: Algorithms on platforms like Instagram and X reward outrage, polarization, and performative posting rather than deep listening. Anonymity online also breeds keyboard warriors and desensitization.

• Capitalism and Competition: Late-stage economic pressures and hustle culture often reward self-preservation and competition, framing kindness or vulnerability as a disadvantage.

• Data Trends: Long-term studies—such as landmark research tracking American college students—showed a notable drop in self-reported empathy metrics compared to previous decades, paired with rising narcissism.

The Counter-Critique: Is Empathy Always Good?

Not everyone views the cultural shift as a simple loss of virtue. Critics and psychologists point out that empathy has distinct limitations:

To me, that suggests the stage I enter when there is too much static: I go into a hibernation state in my mind.

My conscious mind becomes like a bear /𐔌ˋ՞🐻💤՞ˋ𐦯\ in its den, sleeping and unaware of what's happening outside.

I'm a curious empath; I need to stick my head out to see what's new and what's happening. Sometimes I get the pie-in-the-face treatment for being too nosy. Nah, I just read a lot because I like to understand what makes everything in this TEMPORAL World and the QUANTA tick 🕗🕓🕕🕗🕜🕞 x˗>∞f(x) what happens as a variable grows forever.

Read More - Google Search -

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- Google Search -

QUESTION: Loss of empathy in the world

🔹AI Overview

Research shows that self-reported empathy has declined in parts of the Western world—notably tracked in studies of young adults from the late 1970s through the 2000s—while rising individualism, polarization, and digital media use have reshaped how people connect.

Key Causes of the Empathy Gap

We're not learning or evolving very fast as a species; for every step forward, man seems to stumble back two steps, going back to the 🦖🦕are we? Tree-limb swingers 🐒 🪾 ? We're like crabs in a bucket 🦀🪣 I know there is always a wind 🌬️➡️I//__ 💨 of resistance trying to hold or push us back 👉🚶‍♀️‍➡️, but that's what's happening. Perseverance, faith, and hope were made as tools to help you through that. And if you hit a rock 🪨 dig another hole elsewhere. If not, then you may as well give it up, put the shovel aside, and jump in the hole because you're a worm🪱

BREAKING NEWS RECAP:

Ottawa gives Stelco's U.S. owner 5 days to share plan to keep jobs

Impending layoffs could bring legal action, industry minister warns

Ottawa has given the U.S. owner of Stelco five business days to share a plan to maintain jobs at the Hamilton-based steelmaker or face potential legal action...

Ohio-based Cleveland-Cliffs said last week it plans to lay off as many as 500 workers as it idles certain steel production at Stelco, which the federal government says violates "binding commitments" made when it bought the company in 2024.

In a letter to Stelco president Paul Simon on Monday, Industry Minister Mélanie Joly said Ottawa is prepared to seek a court ruling to enforce the agreement under the Investment Canada Act.

"The Government of Canada takes compliance with undertakings seriously," Joly wrote in the letter, obtained by CBC News on Tuesday...

WATCH | Ottawa wants Stelco's U.S. owner to present plan to keep jobs:

'It's devastating': Hundreds of Stelco workers face uncertain future:

What could happen next?:

WATCH | Carney's *comments on Stelco last week: Funding from Ontario

WATCH | Goncalves' 2024 pledge:

Read More:

Posted: Oct 06, 2026 10:56 AM EDT | Last Updated: 10 hours ago

- CBC -

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How the Canada-U.S. trade war might change your shopping habits

Latest trade war escalation could lead to higher prices, fewer choices and longer waits for some products

The Canada-U.S. trade war has reshaped Canadians' view of their country, somewhat rekindled coast-to-coast-to-coast unity and dominated federal and provincial elections.

For more than a year it has been steeped in the national psyche, and just when we thought a deal was near with our friend-to-foe southern neighbour, we instead face a new — steeper — round of tariffs, bans and counter-tariffs.

Canada began imposing a new round of retaliatory levies on U.S. goods on Sept. 8, after the United States imposed new 50 per cent tariffs on $27.6 billion worth of Canadian goods. The U.S. then responded late last month with a set of bans on Canadian imports on some alcoholic drinks, dairy byproducts, molasses and motorcycles, among others...

WATCH | Economists foresee stagnant growth:

'Prices are going up,' business prof says:
Appliances and electronics:
What about shortages?:
Is there a 'silver lining' in food prices?:

Read More:

Posted: Oct 07, 2026 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

- CBC -

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Detroit — Abdul El-Sayed predicts that he will win the Michigan Senate race by 7 points.

That attitude, as he expressed to CNN last Friday, and the approach stemming from it is why leading state Democrats privately worry he won’t win at all. “Michiganders understand the stakes of this election,” said one prominent state Democrat who’s been trying to help. “They want to vote for Democrats and just need to be given a reason to — and not a reason not to.”

Ahead of Thursday night’s sole debate, the Michigan Senate race has remained a nail-biter even as President Donald Trump is deeply unpopular due to the war in Iran and the impact of his tariffs in this northern border state.

STREAMING NOW

Democrats face a must-win Senate race in Michigan. How do voters feel?:

‘I am the Democrat that Democrats have’:
‘I have to live with this decision’:
A narrow opening for a Republican:
‘I see folk who are sick and tired’:

Read More:

PUBLISHED Oct 7, 2026, 5:00 AM ET - 6 hr ago

- CNN -

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The letters accompanying Trump’s gimmicky ACA refund checks makes them even more cynical

Trump’s $500 refund checks are hitting mailboxes. The letters they come with are brazen disinformation.

NEWS VIDEO Included:

President Donald Trump’s gimmicky $500 Affordable Care Act refund checks have started arriving in the homes of nearly a million Americans. The letters that accompany them act as textbook Trumpian disinformation and underscore how the check campaign is a cheap trick masquerading as populism.

The letters, as reported by USA Today, tell recipients, “For years, the Biden Administration overcharged you to fund the operation of HealthCare.gov. That money belongs to hard-working Americans, not the Government, and now, I am returning it to you!” It notes that the refund is for Americans who do not receive subsidies to help pay for their coverage, and states, “You have paid into this flawed System, and now you are finally getting something back.” ...