Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shares insights into Trump policies with Brown University audience

Says Trump’s ‘win-lose’ approach is hurting U.S.-Canada relations

By Christopher Shea, Rhode Island Current

The last time former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in Rhode Island, he spoke to a gathering of U.S. governors to advocate for free trade amid tensions between the two North American neighbors.

Nearly a decade later, Trudeau returned to Providence where he said the relationship has moved beyond ordinary trade disputes to what he described as a threat to Canada’s sovereignty under the Trump administration

“Canadians are feeling rightly, deeply destabilized by this,” Trudeau told a crowd of more than 2,000 people inside Brown University’s Pizzitola Sports Center Tuesday. “And it seems to have no logical point.”

The former Canadian prime minister’s remarks came as part of Brown’s 106th Stephen A. Ogden Jr. ’60 Memorial Lecture on International Affairs. Much of the hour-long discussion with University President Christina Paxson focused on differences between the two countries’ healthcare systems, the value of diversity and the increasingly strained relationship between the U.S. and its northern neighbor.

Trudeau, 54, served more than nine years as Canada’s 23rd prime minister after leading the Liberal Party to a historic majority government in 2015. Amid declining support and poor polling, he announced in January 2025 that he would resign as prime minister once a successor was chosen. He was succeeded by fellow Liberal Mark Carney that March.

His time in office was marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and the global economic disruptions it caused, along with a domestic agenda that included a gender-balanced cabinet, a national $10-a-day childcare program, efforts toward reconciliation with Indigenous peoples and climate policies aimed at encouraging clean energy investment.

The Nor'easter IS coming: be prepared for high winds, power outages and lots of rain

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Medicare Costs Are Rising in 2027

Here’s What Seniors Need to Know

By Terry H. Schwadron

Seniors face higher drug costs, shrinking Medicare Advantage benefits and growing pressure to pay more for their health care in 2027.

It seems all but definite that Medicare, federally paid medical insurance for seniors, will cost more next year.

While there still are some loose ends around the rules, there is no question that providers of Medicare Advantage plans are cutting back on current benefits, that general monthly premiums are going up and that prescription drug caps are being significantly changed or dropped altogether.

Like health care offered more widely through the Affordable Care Act and through Medicaid cuts to those eligible by income and disability, the government is about to execute its broadest and deepest cuts to health insurance for seniors as well. Obviously, seniors have more medical issues than younger Americans.

Donald Trump has said on multiple occasions that he wants to protect seniors from cuts hitting other parts of the overall health system, though he is happily having Vice President JD Vance looking for fraud in billing and service claims. But reports from providers, retirement advocates like AARP and political sources say otherwise.

And, if you go to Medicare.org to learn just how it will affect you, good luck. They are not addressing the issues. We are on the cusp of annual open medical enrollment starting Oct. 15 and the details of health care do not seem to be among the top agenda items for our elections.

Indeed, despite a series of self-serving statements about cutting the price of a select number of prescription drugs, Trump has variously insisted that states should fund Medicare and Medicaid or somehow privatize payments.

Trump said in April that it’s “not possible” for the federal government to fund Medicare, Medicaid and childcare costs, arguing that it should be up to the states to “take care” of those programs while the federal government focuses on military spending.

Trump and Kennedy’s Health Industry Deals Haven’t Been Enforced and Are at Risk of Vanishing

No surprise, given who's in charge

By Stephanie Armour

In the thick of his competitive reelection race in Michigan, Republican Rep. Tom Barrett joined Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at a sprawling 400-acre apple orchard, farm, and winery. They touted Trump administration efforts to improve the American diet, including the removal of some artificial dyes from processed foods.

“We had a great discussion about healthy options for all Americans and taking back control of our healthcare,” Barrett said in a June Instagram post, after sampling the farm’s apple cider.

Like the focus on artificial dyes, however, many of the administration’s highest-profile health initiatives rely on voluntary agreements. The goals, such as lower drug prices and nutrition classes for doctors, have widespread appeal, cutting across party lines and economic divisions.

But the administration-industry deals lack the enforcement teeth of more traditional federal regulation. Their details are vague, and minimal oversight makes it hard to monitor progress. In some cases, the administration has claimed victories that have yet to materialize.

Republicans consider the dealmaking a winning strategy. It fits with the party’s anti-regulatory stance, they say, and enables the administration to quickly forge agreements Donald Trump and his allies can tout as accomplishments. In the run-up to the midterm elections, some, like Barrett, hope to woo voters by trumpeting the Trump administration’s efforts to shape health policy.

Following historical precedent

No cause for alarm

After the primaries, handshakes or bad blood?

Gubernatorial primary battles end with different outcomes.

By Nancy Lavin, Rhode Island Current

No love lost

Less than 24 hours after losing a bruising primary reelection battle, Gov. Dan McKee backed his rival, Helena Buonanno Foulkes for the Nov. 3 general election.

Yet endorsements have not materialized in other heated primary matchups, including the Providence Democratic mayoral race. Mayor Brett Smiley declined to endorse his progressive challenger, David Morales, as first reported by The Boston Globe Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, Elaine Pelino, who narrowly lost the Republican gubernatorial nomination to Aaron Guckian, appears unwilling to endorse her opponent, despite pleas for party unity by Guckian. 

But will any of it sway voters?

Not really, according to Adam Myers, an associate professor of political science at Providence College.

“These kinds of personal endorsements from former rivals can make a difference in the margins, but I don’t think there’s strong evidence they matter a lot,” Myers said. “Most voters don’t pay attention enough for it to make a difference.”

Unlike Foulkes and McKee, whose differences are more personal than ideological or generational, GOP nominee Aaron Guckian and his primary opponent, Elaine Pelino, represent vastly different brands of conservatism.

Guckian, 50, of East Greenwich, is a self-described compassionate conservative while Pelino, 72, of Smithfield is a strong MAGA supporter. Guckian cemented his place as the nominee by 259 votes on Tuesday, following a review by election administrators of the memory sticks for ballot-counting machines. 

Guckian said Friday he’s still waiting to hear from Pelino to concede the race. He has not asked Pelino for her endorsement. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want it.

“I would hope she would endorse me,” Guckian said in an interview. “We need to unify as a party for November.”

With just 14% of state voters registered as Republicans, the already slim path to victory for Guckian is only possible with a united base of conservative supporters, Myers said.

“Even the appearance of a divided Republican base does not look good for Guckian,” Myers said. 

Especially when matched up against former Republican-turned independent gubernatorial challenger Ken Block, 60, of Barrington, who trailed Foulkes by 20 points in August public polling. But he has nearly as much support among registered Republican voters as he does independents, according to the surveys.

“He could definitely peel off a lot of Republican voters,” Myers said of Block. 

Especially if he got the backing of Pelino.

Scientists reversed biological age in older adults in just 4 weeks

Healthy foods again may hold the key

University of Sydney

Older adults may be able to shift important markers of aging in a surprisingly short amount of time simply by changing what they eat.

New research from the University of Sydney found that Australians aged 65 to 75 who reduced either dietary fat or animal-based protein showed signs of a lower biological age after just four weeks. Biological age is an estimate of how old the body appears based on its health and physiological condition, rather than the number of years a person has been alive.

The findings were published in Aging Cell and were led by Dr. Caitlin Andrews from the University of Sydney's School of Life and Environmental Sciences.

Although the results suggest that diet may influence aging-related health markers relatively quickly, the researchers stress that the findings are preliminary. Longer studies will be needed to determine whether the changes persist, whether they translate into a lower risk of age-related disease, and whether similar effects occur in younger or different populations.

The FBI Anti-Corruption Squad Was Circling Susan Collins — Until Trump Got in the Way

Former CEO of URI-connected contractor bought Collins' support

By William Turton, Avi Asher-Schapiro, Molly Redden and Kirsten Berg for ProPublica

Then-URI President David Dooley (left) and Navatek CEO Martin Kao (right)
sign collaboration agreement in 2013 establishing Peace Dale office.
Photo by Will Collette

In the final weeks of 2019, a top fundraiser for Sen. Susan Collins walked into a perilous meeting at a Corner Bakery in Washington, D.C.

For the first time in her two-decade Senate career, the Republican lawmaker from Maine was in danger of losing her seat. President Donald Trump’s dismal approval ratings were dragging her down in the polls, and she was falling behind her likely 2020 Democratic challenger in fundraising.

Scott Reed, head of the Collins super PAC, was on a mission to close that gap. Reed was meeting that day with three executives from a Hawaiian defense contractor, Navatek. A year earlier, Collins had helped their company land a multimillion-dollar Navy research contract in Maine. Now, seated at a coffee shop not far from the U.S. Capitol, Reed asked them for a $500,000 donation.

Government contractors are banned from making political contributions. More consequentially, for the company to offer donations to Collins in exchange for an official action, or for Collins to accept, would constitute criminal bribery.

But the company did have such a proposal: Navatek was hungry for more government contracts in Maine. If they cut a big check, the CEO told Reed, Navatek wanted Collins to guarantee tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding.

To skirt campaign finance laws and conceal the source of the funds, Navatek planned to funnel the donation through a shell company. The CEO wanted assurance that Collins would know where the money came from. Reed confirmed that she would, the executive said — and that Navatek would get its government contracts.

After the Corner Bakery meeting, Navatek’s CEO, Martin Kao, sent an initial $150,000 to the Collins super PAC using the shell company. Two months later, he told Navatek executives that Collins committed to getting the company $32 million in naval contracts, according to an internal company email reviewed by ProPublica.

Three years later, Kao holed up in a conference room to recount the Corner Bakery meeting to a group of four FBI agents and federal prosecutors. The FBI had seen through his shell company ruse, and in 2022 a grand jury indicted him for making illegal campaign contributions. No one working for Collins was charged.

Facing years in prison, Kao hoped to do less time by revealing the entire scheme.

What he told them has never before become public. The Corner Bakery meeting, he asserted, was just one episode in a sprawling pay-to-play operation that embroiled some of the most powerful figures in Congress.

Over three days at the U.S. attorney’s office in Honolulu, Kao laid out in devastating detail how his operation worked. He gave agents a 50-page document naming dozens of lobbyists, congressional staffers and members of Congress who he said helped him trade cash for contracts. Kao and his close associates had donated nearly $900,000 to dozens of politicians, allowing Navatek to establish operations in half a dozen states with over $40 million a year in government funding.

Most damningly, Kao told FBI agents and prosecutors, the company’s work for the government was of no real value. Navatek’s research under his stewardship never resulted in products the military wanted to buy, ProPublica found.

Kao’s tell-all interviews with the FBI lasted into late 2024. His confessions opened up an entirely new phase of the investigation. Agents sifted through hundreds of thousands of records seized during Kao’s arrest and found that many were consistent with his account of widespread influence peddling.

Kao had credibility issues. He was now a felon trying to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. And there were other challenges. Building a corruption case against elected officials requires extraordinary proof of a quid pro quo arrangement, in part because the Supreme Court has narrowed what counts as bribery.

DISCLOSURE: I first wrote about Navatek in 2013 when it opened its first university-partnered branch in Peace Dale. My nephew, a newly minted Ph.D. in ocean engineering was among their first hires and has worked for the company ever since. Their model of teaming up with engineering schools was, and still is, very promising despite Martin Kao's many flaws revealed in ProPublica's investigation.  - Will Collette

Desperate to appear strong, Trump shows pathetic weakness

Surprisingly, providing more evidence that he is crazy doesn't help Trump to regain public support

Paul Waldman

Remember “Sharpiegate,” a relatively inconsequential but uncommonly stupid episode from Trump’s first term?

The Sharpie is back.

In the surrealist performance hall that is the Oval Office, Trump grabbed his pen, took out a map of the Great Lakes, crossed out “Lake Ontario” and wrote in “Lake America,” part of a pointless new trade war he has started with Canada.

“Lake Ontario, that’s gone. Lake America,” he said. “So now we have a lake and now we have a Gulf because we have the Gulf of America and now we have Lake America.”

Stirring words.

Like so much of what Trump does, this was meant to be a show of strength. Yet it actually demonstrated just the opposite: Trump is weak and getting weaker.

He can instruct the federal government to change its maps, as he did with an executive order late last week, and will even find that many people will submit to his desires.

As of this writing, Google Maps has changed Lake Ontario to Lake America for those searching in the US, while Apple Maps has yet to do so — though since Apple Maps did change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America on Trump’s instruction, it may fall in line soon. (MapQuest loudly refused to make the change, in what may be a bid to inform people that it still exists.)

But if there are any voters in America who are impressed by Trump’s lacustrine nomenclature revisionism, they will surely be hard to find.

Instead, the “Lake America” inanity will be slotted alongside Trump’s ballroom, his quest to keep his name on the Kennedy Center, his helipad, and his Reflecting Pool faceplant. These are the things a failing, frustrated president does in a desperate bid to look strong, because he hasn’t been able to accomplish much of anything that might improve Americans’ lives.

Who does Daddy love moe?

Two year's later, it's still Biden's fault

South County man confirmed with case of life-threatening tick-borne Powassan disease

Tick bites can happen at almost any time of year

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) is reporting a confirmed case of the tick-borne Powassan virus disease (Powassan) detected in a Rhode Island resident. This resident is a male in his 60s who lives in Washington County. He began experiencing symptoms of Powassan in late August.   

“We all need to be thinking about tick prevention measures when outdoors,” said Director of Health Jerry Larkin, MD. “Repel and reduce your exposure to ticks, check your body for ticks, and be sure to remove ticks if you find one on yourself, a family member, or a pet. Ticks are tiny. You may not be able to feel them or spot them right away. The sooner you find and remove them, the better your chances are at preventing the serious health issues caused by illnesses like Powassan and Lyme Disease.”    

This is Rhode Island’s third case of Powassan in 2026 and the eleventh case overall since it was first reported in Rhode Island in 2016. Powassan is a tick-borne disease that is found mostly in the Northeast and the Great Lakes region of the United States and in eastern Canada. Over 397 cases of Powassan have been reported in the US in the past 10 years (2016-2025). Powassan cases are rare, but the reported number of cases has increased in recent years. In 2025, there were 76 cases reported nationwide, which represented the most Powassan cases ever in a year. That year, there were 27 cases of Powassan reported in New England: 12 cases in Massachusetts, 6 cases in Maine, 5 cases in Connecticut, and 4 cases in New Hampshire.   

Initial symptoms of Powassan include fever, headache, vomiting, and generalized weakness. The disease usually progresses to meningoencephalitis, which may include meningeal signs, altered mental status, seizures, aphasia (difficulty understanding or speaking), paresis (muscular weakness or paralysis), movement disorders, or cranial nerve palsies. People with severe Powassan disease often need to be hospitalized. There is no vaccine or treatment for Powassan, so preventing exposure to ticks is the best strategy to avoid this disease.   

Love by the numbers

Scientists say love follows hidden mathematical rules

Taylor & Francis Group

Could lasting love have a mathematical formula? Researchers who have studied romantic relationships for decades say that the way feelings change over time may follow patterns that can be modeled with surprising precision.

Professor Laurent Pujo-Menjouet of the University of Lyon I and other researchers around the world have been developing mathematical models that treat romantic relationships as dynamical systems. In other words, they study how feelings evolve, respond to outside pressures, and either recover or decline over time.

In his book Love! Valour! Equations!, which brings together mathematics, psychology, literature, cinema and everyday life, Pujo-Menjouet writes: "There is no mysterious enchantment or magic potion. By now, that would be known. Is all hope lost then? Certainly not. That is precisely where everything becomes interesting."

Iran war pushes diesel – the economy’s lifeblood – to record high prices, with no relief on the horizon

Ditto on home heating oil

Morgan Bazilian, Colorado School of Mines and Jamie Webster, Colorado School of Mines

Diesel fuel prices in the U.S. continue to break all-time records, hitting $6.28 a gallon as a national average on Sept. 14, 2026, and they aren’t likely to come down anytime soon. Because diesel is the fuel for freight transportation, farming and construction – and is related to a key heating fuel – the effects are set to spread across the entire U.S. economy.

The inflation-adjusted price of diesel in late August was about as high as it was in 2022 and has likely risen further. There are still three factors that we, scholars of U.S. and global energy markets and supply chains, see that set the stage for prices to remain high and potentially climb even further.

Two of these elements – environmental protection regulations on oil refineries and Russia’s war with Ukraine – have been building tension for years. But the situation has been pushed into a crisis by the U.S. war against Iran, which has closed the Strait of Hormuz to a large percentage of oil and refined products shipments for more than six months.

Amid that crisis, U.S. oil refineries are making lots of money.

In mid-September 2026, diesel prices were up 67% over September 2025’s monthly national average of $3.75 a gallon, and they have risen sharply since. In January 2026, before the U.S. and Israel first attacked Iran in late February, the average diesel price in the U.S. was lower, at $3.52 a gallon – meaning that diesel prices have jumped more than 78% since the war began.

In part, that’s because the country, and the world, have been losing diesel refining capacity for many years and can’t just ramp up production to fill the shortages.