US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Wednesday said he was working to rally the private sector around a new $20 billion “facility” to support Argentina’s embattled economy.”We are working on a $20 billion facility that would be adjacent to our swap line, of private banks and sovereign wealth funds that I think would be more aimed at the debt market,” he told reporters in Washington.Bessent added that he had spent weeks working on the private-sector solution to Argentina’s upcoming debt payments, which would come on top of the $20 billion US swap line the US Treasury recently set up.”So that would be a total of $40 billion for Argentina,” he said, in remarks that triggered a rebound in Argentine stocks with some shares on the Merval index rising by almost 10 percent.Bessent’s comments mark the latest round of support from the administration of Donald Trump for Argentina’s right-wing populist leader Javier Milei, who faces an uphill battle in crucial midterm elections later this month.Milei enacted sweeping budget cuts after taking office in 2023 in a bid to quell inflation and turn the Argentine economy around, drawing fierce opposition and widespread protests.Last week, Bessent confirmed the Treasury had set up the $20 billion swap line with Buenos Aires, adding that it had already begun purchasing Argentine pesos to help support the currency on global markets. And on Tuesday, President Donald Trump hosted Milei at the White House, and threw his support behind him ahead of the elections.”If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” he warned.The strong US showing of support for Argentina this week has unfolded on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Washington.The IMF, which has its own multi-billion dollar loan program with Buenos Aires, has supported America’s bilateral assistance for Argentina’s economy.In a broadcast interview on Wednesday, Milei said he was confident of US financial support so long as he remains in office, and vowed to maintain his libertarian agenda.”We continue to advance the ideas of freedom, so at least until 2027 we have that support assured,” he said, according to the dubbed-over voiceover of an English interpreter.Milei, an economist, voiced hope that the legislative elections would increase his base to allow him to pursue his policies.”I have no intention of changing course until the end of my term,” he said. “I am committed to the agenda of lowering taxes, deregulating and keeping the economy growing.”Bessent said Milei would continue to enjoy US support for as long as he had a veto on legislation in parliament. “It is not election-specific, it is policy-specific,” he said. “So as long as Argentina continues enacting good policy, they will have US support.”

A federal judge on Wednesday tossed a youth-led lawsuit accusing US President Donald Trump’s fossil-fuel agenda of trampling their inalienable rights, ruling that he lacked jurisdiction to intervene.In his written order, Judge Dana Christensen of Missoula, Montana, said that while the youth plaintiffs in Lighthiser v. Trump had presented “overwhelming” evidence showing the administration’s actions would further destabilize the climate and harm them, their case “must be made to the political branches or to the electorate.””With this understanding in mind, the Court reluctantly concludes…that it cannot grant Plaintiffs the relief they seek,” wrote Christensen.The 22 plaintiffs, including several minors and represented by the nonprofit Our Children’s Trust, had sought a stay against three executive orders they said violated their constitutional rights to life and liberty by seeking to “unleash” fossil fuel development while sidelining renewable energy.They also accused the administration of eroding federal climate science, leaving the public less informed about mounting dangers.During a two-day hearing held in Christensen’s courtroom last month, the youth were given the opportunity to testify about the ways global warming had impacted their lives. The witnesses included Joseph Lee, an undergraduate from California who suffered a life-threatening heat stroke, and Jorja McCormick of Livingston, Montana, who said she was traumatized by wildfires that forced her family to evacuate.Christensen, who has issued favorable environmental rulings in the past, listened intently as the plaintiffs called experts in climate science, energy economics, politics, and children’s health.Government lawyers, on the other hand, did not call their own witnesses and did not spend significant time disputing the reality of climate change.Instead, they argued that the lawsuit was fundamentally undemocratic and echoed Juliana v. United States — a similar youth-led case that featured some of the same plaintiffs and wound through the courts for nearly a decade before the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal last year, closing it out.While lawyers for the youths contended the case differed from Juliana in key ways, Christensen ultimately disagreed.”Plaintiffs have presented overwhelming evidence that the climate is changing at a staggering pace, and that this change stems from the rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide, caused by the production and burning of fossil fuels,” Christensen wrote.He added that they had also shown “overwhelming evidence that implementation of the Challenged EOs will increase the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide, thereby exacerbating the harms Plaintiffs experience from an already-warming climate.”But he maintained the injuries were not redressable by a court, saying he was troubled by being asked to reset national energy policy to the way it was before Trump took office a second time, and by the fact that his court would be required to monitor all of the administration’s actions if he sided with the youths.”The Court reads Juliana to mandate this outcome,” he said, but added that he would gladly hear the case on its merits if an appeals court, the Ninth Circuit, disagreed.