Trump Admin’s $20 Billion ‘Bail Out’ for Argentina’s Milei Raises Eyebrows

 https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admins-20-billion-bail-out-for-argentinas-milei-raises-eyebrows-10780604

Some critics, as well as allies such as former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, have expressed confusion and concern over the move, with Bannon writing on Gettr on Thursday, "Wat."

Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a Thursday X post: "Farmers VERY upset abt Argentina selling soybeans to China right after USA bail out Still ZERO USA soybeans sold to China Meanwhile China is still hitting USA w 20% retaliatory tariff NEED CHINA TRADE DEAL NOW farmers need markets 2boost farm economy."

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, said on X: "Donald Trump wants to lend $20 billion of our money to bail out a political ally and his global investors before an election. Oh, and Argentina just struck a major deal with China that crushes American soybean farmers already suffering from Trump's tariffs. 'America First.'"

America’s Zombie Democracy

 https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/09/america-authoritarian-regime-ai-suicide/684350/

We are living in an authoritarian state.

These are the features of the modern authoritarian state. Every one of them exists today in this country. Checks on President Donald Trump’s power, whether in the framework of law and constitutional government or in the broader society, have grown so weak that he can do pretty much what he wants. He sends masked police to pick people off the streets without probable cause for arrest, disappear them into secret prisons, and ship them off to random countries. He fires experienced, patriotic civil servants and replaces them with unqualified toadies. He takes open bribes from foreign countries and American business interests in the form of a luxury jet or a meme coin. He tells media companies to stop criticizing him, or else—and many of them do.

Yet the Founding Fathers warned over and over about the arrival of an authoritarian demagogue. They wrote a Constitution that they thought would be the best defense against one. In 1838, a young Abraham Lincoln said that the republic would never be overthrown from abroad: “If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” How did it come to this? How have we let it come to this? Because it’s not just being done to us. We are doing it to ourselves.

NATO Is At War with Russia Says Kremlin, As Drone Incursions Continue in Europe

 https://www.newsweek.com/russia-ukraine-war-nato-eu-kremlin-live-updates-10779156

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday, per a Public Telegram Board, that NATO and the European Union are waging war against Russia “using Ukraine as a proxy” and are “directly participating” in the conflict. Lavrov’s comments follow repeated Kremlin claims that Western military and financial support for Ukraine amounts to direct hostility toward Russia.

Are We Obligated to Forgive?

 https://aish.com/are-we-obligated-to-forgive

The truth is, although you feel you must forgive everyone who has hurt you, that is really not the case. Jewish law advises that we be forgiving to our fellow, but that is referring specifically to if the person truly regrets what he did and comes to beg our forgiveness. If (and only if) that occurs, we are told to open our hearts and accepts his apology.

If, however, a person hurt you and does not even care, you most certainly do not have to magically erase all your hurt and forgive him. Forgiveness comes after the apology and resolution, not before.

The Jewish Ethicist Granting Forgiveness

 https://aish.com/48879852

A careful study of Jewish sources reveals that forgiveness fulfills two distinct roles - one religious, and one personal.

The religious role of forgiveness is that it enables the wrongdoer to achieve atonement for his act. It is a firm doctrine of Jewish belief that God doesn't grant full forgiveness for our sins against our fellow man until we obtain forgiveness directly from the wronged individual.

The Art of Forgiveness

 https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/1619314/jewish/The-Art-of-Forgiveness.htm

Why should one forgive?

Basically, because it is a mitzvah, a divine command. The Torah explicitly forbids us to take revenge or to bear grudges (Leviticus 19:18). It also commands us, “Do not hate your brother in your heart” (ibid. 19:17).

Forgiveness

 It has become common to hear that we have to be forgiving of those that wronged us. But what are the sources for this? There clearly is the idea of punishing and giving retribution?

Trump gets his Comey indictment

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/09/25/james-comey-grand-jury-indictment-trump

It is telling that the acting U.S. attorney with jurisdiction over the Comey matter, Erik S. Siebert, reportedly believed the evidence was insufficient. Trump forced him out last week and installed an inexperienced White House aide, Lindsey Halligan, to take his place. Career prosecutors presented Halligan with a memo laying out the concerns that dissuaded Siebert.

During the president’s first term, Attorney General William P. Barr appointed a special counsel, John Durham, to investigate the origins of the Russia probe. Two people Durham charged with making false statements to investigators were acquitted at trial.

Barr and Durham were the A-team. Those failed cases demonstrate the difficulty of proving lies in court, especially on politically charged subjects. Given Trump’s confessions of political motive and his firing of Siebert, the case might be hard to get to trial — much less yield a unanimous conviction.

Measles outbreak in Jerusalem: three toddlers die in less than a week

 https://www.ynetnews.com/health_science/article/rkunprg3gx

Doctors at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem on Thursday confirmed the death of an 18-month-old boy who contracted measles last month and was not vaccinated, marking the third toddler to die of the disease in less than a week. His death raised the total toll from the outbreak to five.

Over the holiday, a 1-year-old girl died from measles complications after two months in intensive care, where she was placed on an ECMO heart-lung machine. Last weekend, another 16-month-old boy from Jerusalem also died of the illness. An 11-month-old baby remains in intensive care on a ventilator.

‘It’s not going to happen’: Trump says he won’t allow Israel to annex West Bank

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/its-not-going-to-happen-trump-says-he-wont-allow-israel-to-annex-west-bank

In his first public comments on the matter, US President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank.

“I will not allow Israel to annex the West Bank. It’s not going to happen,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked to confirm reports that he assured Arab and Muslim leaders of that stance during a multilateral meeting held Tuesday on the UN General Assembly sidelines.

Trump Leaks Exposed

Vance says Trump was ‘joking’ about hating enemies during memorial for Charlie Kirk

 https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5520184-vance-trump-charlie-kirk-service-hating-enemies/?tbref=hp

Trump told a packed audience at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona Sunday that he remembered Charlie Kirk as someone who “did not hate his opponents.”

“He wanted the best for them,” Trump said. “That’s where I disagreed with Charlie. I hate my opponents, and I don’t want the best for them. I’m sorry.”

The president’s words on Sunday were notably different in tone from those of other speakers, including Erika Kirk, Charlie Kirk’s widow, who forgave the shooter who took her husband’s life, saying, “I forgive him because it was what Christ did and it is what Charlie would do.” Video from the memorial showed audience members, some visibly emotional, stand and applaud.

Trump and RFK’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Autism Press Conference

 https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-and-rfks-terrible-horrible-autism-press-conference-health

The autism community has its factions and disputes, but yesterday most of them agreed on one thing: The press conference held Monday by President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS)—in which they claimed that autism was linked to Tylenol use by pregnant women—was an abomination.

Paul Offit, head of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a board member of the Autism Science Foundation, called it “arguably the most irresponsible public health press conference in history.”

Trump’s touting of an unproven autism drug surprised many, including the doctor who proposed it

 https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-business/ap-trumps-touting-of-an-unproven-autism-drug-surprised-many-including-the-doctor-who-proposed-it-2/?tbref=hp

When President Donald Trump’s administration announced it would repurpose an old, generic drug as a new treatment for autism, it came as a surprise to many experts — including the physician who suggested the idea to the nation’s top health officials.

Dr. Richard Frye told The Associated Press that he’d been talking with federal regulators about developing his own customized version of the drug for children with autism, assuming more research would be required.

“So we were kinda surprised that they were just approving it right out of the gate without more studies or anything,” said Frye, an Arizona-based child neurologist who has a book and online education business focused on the experimental treatment.

It’s another example of the haphazard rollout of the Trump administration’s Monday announcement on autism, which critics say has elevated an unproven drug that needs far more study before being approved as a credible treatment for the complex brain disease.