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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, seeking US-made Tomahawk missiles even as the US president readies for a fresh summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.Zelensky will be making his third trip to Washington since Trump returned to office, following a disastrous televised shouting match in February and a make-up meeting in August, as the US leader’s stance on the war blows hot and cold.Trump’s latest pivot came on the eve of Zelensky’s visit. He announced that he would be meeting Putin in Budapest, in a fresh bid to reach a peace deal and end Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine launched in 2022.Ukraine had hoped Zelensky’s trip would be more about adding to the pressure on Putin, especially by getting American-made long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles that can strike deep into Russia.But Trump, who once said he could end the war in Ukraine within 24 hours, appears set on pursuing a new diplomatic breakthrough to follow the Gaza ceasefire deal that he brokered last week.Trump said on Thursday he had a “very productive” call with Putin and that they would meet in the Hungarian capital within the next two weeks. He added that he hoped to have “separate but equal” meetings with both Putin and Zelensky but did not elaborate.Zelensky said as he arrived in Washington on Thursday that he hoped Trump’s success with the Gaza deal would bring results to end the war that has left swaths of his own country in ruins.”We expect that the momentum of curbing terror and war that succeeded in the Middle East will help to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media platform X.Zelensky insisted that the threat of Tomahawks had forced Moscow to negotiate.”We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” he said.The Ukrainian leader said on Friday he had met officials from US defense firm Raytheon, which produces the Tomahawk missiles and Patriot systems, to discuss cooperation and “the prospects for Ukrainian-American joint production.”Zelensky said he also held talks with Lockheed Martin, which makes F-16 fighter jets.- ‘Didn’t like it’ -However, Trump cast doubt on whether Ukraine would ever get the coveted weapons, which have a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) range.Trump told reporters on Thursday that the United States could not “deplete” its own supply. “We need them too, so I don’t know what we can do about that,” he said.The US president said the Russian leader “didn’t like it” when he raised the possibility of giving Tomahawks to Ukraine during their call.The Kremlin said on Thursday it was making immediate preparations for a Budapest summit after what it called the “extremely frank and trustful” Putin-Trump call.But Putin told Trump that giving Ukraine Tomahawks would “not change the situation on the battlefield” and would harm “prospects for peaceful resolution,” the Russian president’s top aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists.Trump’s relations with Putin — a leader for whom he has repeatedly expressed admiration over the years — and Zelensky have swung wildly since he returned to the White House in January.After an initial rapprochement, Trump has shown increasing frustration with Putin, particularly since he came away from meeting the Russian president in Alaska with no end to the war in sight.Zelensky, meanwhile, has gone the opposite way, winning back Trump’s support after the disastrous Oval Office encounter when the US president and Vice President JD Vance berated him in front of the cameras.The Ukrainian returned in August — wearing a suit after he was mocked for not wearing one in the first meeting — and accompanied by a host of Western leaders in solidarity.

Nearly 80 percent of the world’s poorest, or about 900 million people, are directly exposed to climate hazards exacerbated by global warming, bearing a “double and deeply unequal burden,” the United Nations warned Friday.”No one is immune to the increasingly frequent and stronger climate change effects like droughts, floods, heat waves, and air pollution, but it’s the poorest among us who are facing the harshest impact,” Haoliang Xu, acting administrator of the United Nations Development Programme, told AFP in a statement.COP30, the UN climate summit in Brazil in November, “is the moment for world leaders to look at climate action as action against poverty,” he added.According to an annual study published by the UNDP together with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative, 1.1 billion people, or about 18 percent of the 6.3 billion in 109 countries analyzed, live in “acute multidimensional” poverty, based on factors like infant mortality and access to housing, sanitation, electricity and education.Half of those people are minors.One example of such extreme deprivation cited in the report is the case of Ricardo, a member of the Guarani Indigenous community living outside Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia’s largest city.Ricardo, who earns a meager income as a day laborer, shares his small single-family house with 18 other people, including his three children, parents and other extended family. The house has only one bathroom, a wood- and coal-fired kitchen, and none of the children are in school.”Their lives reflect the multidimensional realities of poverty,” the report said.- Prioritizing ‘people and the planet’ -Two regions particularly affected by such poverty are sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia — and they are also highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.The report highlights the connection between poverty and exposure to four environmental risks: extreme heat, drought, floods, and air pollution.”Impoverished households are especially susceptible to climate shocks as many depend on highly vulnerable sectors such as agriculture and informal labor,” the report said. “When hazards overlap or strike repeatedly, they compound existing deprivations.”As a result, 887 million people, or nearly 79 percent of these poor populations, are directly exposed to at least one of these threats, with 608 million people suffering from extreme heat, 577 million affected by pollution, 465 million by floods, and 207 million by drought.Roughly 651 million are exposed to at least two of the risks, 309 million to three or four risks, and 11 million poor people have already experienced all four in a single year.”Concurrent poverty and climate hazards are clearly a global issue,” the report said.And the increase in extreme weather events threatens development progress. While South Asia has made progress in fighting poverty, 99.1 percent of its poor population exposed to at least one climate hazard.The region “must once again chart a new path forward, one that balances determined poverty reduction with innovative climate action,” the report says.With Earth’s surface rapidly getting warmer, the situation is likely to worsen further and experts warn that today’s poorest countries will be hardest hit by rising temperatures.”Responding to overlapping risks requires prioritizing both people and the planet, and above all, moving from recognition to rapid action,” the report said.

Ace Frehley, the original lead guitarist for US glam rock group KISS, has died, his family said. He was 74.The guitar wizard died at home, surrounded by family, following a recent fall, a representative told AFP.A statement from Frehley’s family said they were “devastated and heartbroken” by their loss.”In his last moments, we were fortunate enough to have been able to surround him with loving, caring, peaceful words, thoughts, prayers and intentions as he left this earth,” the family said.”Reflecting on all of his incredible life achievements, Ace’s memory will continue to live on forever!”In 1973, Frehley was a founding member of KISS, alongside bass guitarist Gene Simmons, lead singer Paul Stanley and drummer Peter Criss.The band posted to social media Thursday night, calling Frehley “an essential and irreplaceable rock soldier.” Simmons said on his X account, “No one can touch Ace’s legacy. I know he loved the fans.””Sadder still, Ace didn’t live long enough to be honored at” the 48th Kennedy Center Honors event in December, Simmons added.  Even at a time of outrageous costumes, KISS stood out from the crowd, with full-face Kabuki-style makeup, wild hair and impossibly high platform shoes. Their distinctive look played into the success of a group whose hits included “I Was Made for Lovin’ You,” “God of Thunder” and “Strutter.”Performances were often theatrical events, involving pyrotechnics and smokebombs.The band’s artwork — lightning bolts for the SS of KISS — is indelibly linked with the makeup and Simmons’s ever-present and incredibly long tongue.Frehley left the band in 1982 amid substance misuse and as creative differences surfaced.He continued to work as a solo artist, and founded the band Frehley’s Comet, producing a number of hit albums. He reunited with KISS in the mid-1990s for a six-year stint.Frehley is survived by his wife, Jeanette, and his daughter, Monique.

At age 15, I.B. fled poverty and a father who abused her in Guatemala. She emigrated without her parents to the United States — like hundreds of children Donald Trump’s administration recently tried to deport.Between October 2024 and August 2025, 28,867 unaccompanied minors entered the United States — a 70 percent drop from the previous period, according to US Customs and Border Patrol.Hundreds are Guatemalans from impoverished indigenous communities, as shown by court documents recently obtained by AFP.I.B. entered the United States in September 2024 and was sent to live with a foster family in Connecticut by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a US government agency that handles cases of unaccompanied minors.”I had to leave Guatemala because of all my suffering there,” a court document quotes her as saying. “There were times when we had no food, and sometimes I had to eat food from dumpsters to survive.””My father was not part of my life since I was very young, and during one of the few times I saw him, he abused me,” she added.In August, immigration officers asked her if she had any family in her home country.”No one asked me if I was afraid to go back to Guatemala, which I am.”- ‘Get ready’ -I.B. is represented by the National Immigration Law Center (NILC), an NGO that blocked the deportation of 76 unaccompanied Guatemalan minors from an airport in Harlingen, Texas on August 31.Another minor referred to as F.O.Y.P. was in that group.”At about 1 o’clock in the morning, they arrived in my room and told me they were going to be transporting me out of the shelter. They gave me only about 20 to 30 minutes to get ready,” the 17-year-old said.It was not clear where he was being taken, but “finally, they told us that we were all going to be going back to Guatemala.”He was taken to an airport where a group of 76 teens waited for four hours on busses and four more in an airplane.Eventually they were taken off the plane and, according to court testimony, returned to shelters.Their deportation was blocked by a judge who issued an emergency injunction, saying it is illegal to deport unaccompanied children when an immigration judge has not ruled on their cases.In mid-September, a federal judge in Washington, Timothy Kelly, extended the block. The administration of President Donald Trump has yet to appeal. The halted deportation is a victory not only for the Guatemalan teens taken off the plane, but also for other unaccomanied minors “for whom the court also concluded that attempts to expel them without the protections of the law would likely be unlawful,” said Mary McCord of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown University in Washington.According to the US government, 327 Guatemalan children older than 14 qualify to be returned to their country of origin under a bilateral accord. Guatemala’s government says the number is more than 600.- ‘I do not want to go back’ -The US Department of Homeland Security maintains the minors should be with their families, but Judge Kelly found that was not necessarily what the families wanted.”There is no evidence before the Court that the parents of these children sought their return,” Kelly wrote. “To the contrary, the Guatemalan Attorney General reports that officials could not even track down parents for most of the children whom Defendants found eligible for their reunification.”Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo said the decision to repatriate the minors was based on fears that once they turned 18 they could be removed from shelters and placed in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers.”We will be happy to accept any unaccompanied child who is able to return voluntarily or by court order,” he said.What do the kids themselves have to say?”Here in the US, I live with my foster family who treats me well and supports me…I do not want to go back to Guatemala,” I.B. said.Another teen, identified as M.A.L.R., said that on August 29 a judge informed her that her name was on a list of Guatemalan children who wanted to return home. But she did not.When she was taken from her foster family and put on a bus, she felt sick and feverish and almost vomited. M.A.L.R. fled Guatemala at age 15 after she and her family received death threats from a man whose advances she had rebuffed. B.M.R.P., her mother, said she had never been contacted by the government in Guatemala or the United States. “I also never told anyone I wanted M. to return. I think she is in danger if she does return to Guatemala,” court documents quote her as saying.”All I ask is that you help my daughter stay safe — help her stay safe by not returning her to Guatemala.”

John Bolton, Donald Trump’s former national security advisor, was indicted on Thursday — the third foe of the US president to be hit with criminal charges in recent weeks.The 76-year-old veteran diplomat was charged by a federal grand jury in Maryland with 18 counts of transmitting and retaining classified information.The 26-page indictment accuses Bolton of sharing top secret documents by email with two “unauthorized individuals” who are not identified but are believed to be his wife and daughter.It says he shared more than 1,000 pages of “diary-life” entries about his work as national security advisor via non-government email or a messaging app.The Justice Department said the documents “revealed intelligence about future attacks, foreign adversaries, and foreign-policy relations.”Each of the counts carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. “Anyone who abuses a position of power and jeopardizes our national security will be held accountable. No one is above the law,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.In a statement to US media, Bolton refuted the charges and said he had “become the latest target in weaponizing the Justice Department… with charges that were declined before or distort the facts.”Asked for his reaction to Bolton’s indictment, Trump told reporters his former aide is a “bad guy” and “that’s the way it goes.”- Trump critics in legal jeopardy -Bolton’s indictment follows the filing of criminal charges by the Justice Department against two other prominent critics of the Republican president — New York Attorney General Letitia James and former FBI director James Comey.The 66-year-old James was indicted by a grand jury in Virginia on October 9 on charges of bank fraud and making false statements related to a property she purchased in 2020 in Norfolk, Virginia.James, who successfully prosecuted Trump for financial fraud, has rejected the charges as “baseless” and described them as “political retribution.”Comey, 64, pleaded not guilty on October 8 to charges of making false statements to Congress and obstructing a congressional proceeding.His lawyer has said he will seek to have the case thrown out on the grounds that it is a vindictive and selective prosecution.Trump recently publicly urged Bondi in a social media post to take action against James, Comey and others he sees as enemies, in an escalation of his campaign against political opponents.Trump did not specifically mention Bolton in the Truth Social post, but he has lashed out at his former advisor in the past and withdrew his security detail shortly after returning to the White House in January.- ‘Unfit to be president’ -A longtime critic of the Iranian regime, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Tehran.As part of the investigation into Bolton, FBI agents raided his Maryland suburban home and his Washington office in August.Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, “The Room Where It Happened.”He has since become a highly visible and pugnacious detractor of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called “unfit to be president.”Since January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against perceived enemies, purging government officials he deemed to be disloyal, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.After Trump left the White House in 2021, James brought a major civil fraud case against him, alleging he and his real estate company had inflated his wealth and manipulated the value of properties to obtain favorable bank loans or insurance terms.A New York state judge ordered Trump to pay $464 million, but a higher court removed the financial penalty while upholding the underlying judgment.The cases against James and Comey were filed by Trump’s handpicked US attorney, Lindsey Halligan, after the previous federal prosecutor resigned, saying there was not enough evidence to charge them.Appointed to head the Federal Bureau of Investigation by then-president Barack Obama in 2013, Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 amid the probe into whether any members of the Trump presidential campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 election.Trump was accused of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Neither case came to trial, and special counsel Jack Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.

A socialist, an accused molester and a vigilante all hoping to be New York’s next mayor clashed in a debate with “high levels of testosterone” Thursday as the unpredictable campaign enters the homestretch.Democratic candidate and frontrunner Zohran Mamdani, independent former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa pitched to voters in the first of two televised debates ahead of the November 4 election. Early voting begins on October 25.Mamdani attacked Cuomo for his alleged sexual misconduct and controversial governing record “sending seniors to their death in nursing homes” during the Covid pandemic.”Thank God I’m not a professional politician because they have created the crime crisis in this city,” Sliwa said, gesturing at his two rivals.”There’s high levels of testosterone in this room,” he said later.Mamdani pulled off a stunning upset in the Democratic Party primary, defeating political scion Cuomo who had been the favorite for weeks, becoming the party’s official nominee.Mamdani has promised free bus services, rent freezes and city-run supermarkets, which Cuomo has panned as fanciful and unaffordable government overreach.The race to govern the city’s 8.5 million people was again upended when sitting Mayor Eric Adams, who has been engulfed in corruption allegations, quit the race without endorsing another candidate.Cuomo, 67, was the state governor from 2011 until 2021, when he resigned over sexual assault allegations.Mamdani, 33, is a state lawmaker for the city borough of Queens and has run an insurgent grass-roots campaign that has motivated young New Yorkers at a high rate.- ‘Take on Trump’ -Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from Mamdani’s administration if he is elected, calling him a “communist.”But Mamdani said “I would make it clear to the president that I am willing to not only speak to him, but to work with him, if it means delivering on lowering the cost of living for New York.”Cuomo warned “Trump will take over New York City, and it will be Mayor Trump” if Mamdani won — mirroring the takeover of much of the administration of the capital Washington.Trump said Wednesday he had “terminated” the $16 billion Hudson Gateway tunnel linking New York to New Jersey, a years-long megaproject. Asked in the debate for his dream news headline, Mamdani said it would be “Mamdani continues to take on Trump.”Quinnipiac University polling suggests most voters will not have their minds changed by the TV debate with just 18 percent of Mamdani and Cuomo’s supporters “not likely” to alter their pick, compared to 24 percent of Sliwa’s backers.In the latest polling Sliwa, a 71-year-old who founded the Guardian Angels vigilante group in 1979, is trailing a distant third with 15 percent in the most recent poll, behind Cuomo’s 33 percent and Mamdani’s 46 percent.Sliwa insisted he would not bow to inducements he alleged were arranged by Cuomo — who denies the claim — to quit the race, like lucrative jobs with fat salaries and a driver.”I said, ‘Hey, this is not only unethical, it’s bribery, and it could be criminal,” Sliwa told AFP ahead of the showdown.One of the most acrimonious exchanges in the debate, held without an audience, centered on the safety of New York’s significant Jewish community.Cuomo accused Mamdani of not condemning Hamas and endorsing an epithet he claimed meant death to all Jews globally, while Sliwa accused both of being soft on hate crimes because of their endorsement of cash bail.”Why would (Mamdani) not condemn Hamas? He still won’t denounce ‘globalize the intifada,’ which means kill all Jews,” Cuomo said, drawing an instant rejection from Mamdani.Sliwa pointed to his leadership of a vigilante group saying he had “been there for all people at all times for 46 years as leader of the Guardian Angels here and around the world.”A second debate will be held on October 22.

From New York to San Francisco, millions of Americans are expected to hit the streets to voice their anger over President Donald Trump’s policies at nationwide “No Kings” protests.The last day of rallies by the “No Kings” movement — which unites some 300 organizations — drew massive crowds on June 14, as Trump staged a military parade in Washington on his birthday.It was the biggest day of demonstrations since the Republican billionaire returned to the White House in January to begin his second term as president.Four months later, organizers have planned more than 2,600 demonstrations coast to coast, with millions of people expected to participate again, a movement spokesperson said.Deirdre Schifeling, chief political and advocacy officer for the American Civil Liberties Union, told reporters Thursday that protesters wanted to convey that “we are a country of equals.””We are a country of laws that apply to everyone, of due process and of democracy. We will not be silenced,” she said.Leah Greenberg, the co-founder of the Indivisible Project, slammed the Trump administration for sending the US National Guard into cities, cracking down on undocumented migrants and prosecuting political opponents.”It is the classic authoritarian playbook, threaten, smear and lie, scare people into submission. But we will not be intimidated. We will not be cowed,” Greenberg said.Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers, called it an “obligation to fight for the people in America.”She said protesters were committed to making sure that “this is a country where we see a democracy going forward, not backward.”Beyond New York and San Francisco, protests are scheduled in major cities like Washington, Boston, Chicago, Atlanta and New Orleans, as well as in smaller towns across the country.The “No Kings” movement is even organizing events in Canada, with rallies planned in Toronto, Vancouver and the capital Ottawa.

US President Donald Trump said he would meet Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Hungary after a “very productive” call Thursday, and questioned Kyiv’s push for Tomahawk missiles just a day before hosting Ukraine’s leader at the White House.In his latest abrupt pivot on Russia’s 2022 invasion, Trump said he expected to meet Putin in Budapest within the next two weeks for what would be their second summit since the American’s return to power.The Kremlin welcomed the “extremely frank and trustful” call and said it was immediately preparing for the summit. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that the threat of Tomahawks had pushed Moscow to negotiate, even as he deals with yet another Trump shift on the war.”I believe great progress was made with today’s telephone conversation,” Trump said on his Truth Social network, saying he and Putin would meet to “see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end.” The 79-year-old Republican later told reporters in the Oval Office that the call was “very productive” and that he expected to meet “within two weeks or so, pretty quick.”US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will swiftly meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to sort out summit details, Trump added.- ‘Momentum’ -Trump said the Russian leader “didn’t like it” when he raised the possibility during their call of giving Moscow’s enemy Ukraine the missiles with a 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) range.But Trump appeared to cast doubt on whether Ukraine would actually get the American-made arms it covets, saying the United States could not “deplete” its own supply. “We need them too, so I don’t know what we can do about that,” he said.Trump’s relations with Putin — a leader for whom he has repeatedly expressed admiration over the years — have blown hot and cold since he returned to the White House in January.After an initial rapprochement, Trump has shown increasing frustration, particularly since he came away from Alaska with no end to the war he once promised to solve within 24 hours.Zelensky meanwhile has gone the opposite way, winning Trump’s support after a disastrous initial meeting in February when the US president berated him in front of the cameras.But Trump’s latest swing appears to have moved the dial again, leaving Zelensky having to negotiate the situation with Ukraine’s main military backer.Zelensky said as he arrived Thursday in Washington that he hopes the “momentum” of the Middle East peace deal Trump brokered will help end the war in Ukraine.”We can already see that Moscow is rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it hears about Tomahawks,” Zelensky said, adding that he’ll also be meeting US defence companies to discuss additional supplies of air defence systems.- ‘Peace summit’ -The Kremlin hailed the “highly substantive” Putin-Trump call, which Putin’s top aide Yuri Ushakov told journalists was at Russia’s initiative.But Putin told Trump that giving Ukraine Tomahawks would “not change the situation on the battlefield” and would harm “prospects for peaceful resolution,” added Ushakov.Budapest had been discussed as a possible venue for the previous Trump-Putin meeting before they settled on Alaska.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained friendly relations with both men, said later that he had spoken to Trump. “Preparations for the USA-Russia peace summit are underway,” he said on X.The choice of Budapest also sidesteps an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for Putin for alleged war crimes.Hungary has announced its withdrawal from the ICC yet is still theoretically a member until June 2026. But Orban gave Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a promise that he would not carry out the warrant when Netanyahu visited Hungary in April.In Ukraine the war ground on with Moscow renewing its attacks on Kyiv’s energy grid.Russian strikes forced Ukraine to introduce nationwide rolling power cuts, for the second day in a row, in the cold season when temperatures can fall to zero at night.

A socialist, an accused molester and a vigilante all hoping to be New York’s next mayor go head-to-head for a TV debate Thursday as the unpredictable campaign enters the homestretch.Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani, independent former New York governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa will make their pitch to voters in the first of two televised debates from 7 pm local time (2300 GMT) ahead of the November 4 vote. Early voting begins on October 25.New York’s astronomical cost of living, public safety and policing, and the candidates’ different approaches to relations with President Donald Trump if elected will be front and center.Mamdani pulled off a stunning upset in the Democratic party primary, defeating political scion Cuomo who had been the favorite for weeks, becoming the party’s official nominee.Mamdani has promised free bus services, rent freezes and city-run supermarkets, which Cuomo has panned as fanciful and unaffordable government overreach.The race to govern the city’s 8.5 million people was again upended when sitting mayor Eric Adams, who has been engulfed in corruption allegations, quit the race without endorsing another candidate.Cuomo, 67, was the governor of New York state from 2011 until 2021 when he resigned over sexual assault allegations, previously serving as a cabinet secretary under former president Bill Clinton.Mamdani, 33, is a state lawmaker for the Queens borough of New York and has faced criticism for his relative youth in the face of a typically older political establishment.- ‘Making a change’ -“I know some of you have expressed concerns about my age…That’s why this weekend I’ll be making a change. I’m turning 34,” he said in an Instagram video that was liked 134,000 in the first six hours.”The best gift is to beat Andrew Cuomo a second time.”Trump has threatened to withhold federal funds from Mamdani’s administration if he’s elected, calling him a “communist.”But in an interview on Fox News, Mamdani addressed Trump directly and after criticizing his rivals said “I will, however, be a mayor who is ready to speak at any time to lower the cost of living.”Quinnipiac University polling suggests most voters will not have their minds changed by the TV debate with just 18 percent of Mamdani and Cuomo’s voters “not likely” to change their minds, compared to 24 percent of Sliwa’s backers.In the latest polling Sliwa, a 71-year-old who founded the Guardian Angels vigilante group in 1979, is trailing a distant third with 15 percent in the most recent poll, behind Cuomo’s 33 percent and Mamdani’s 46 percent.Sliwa, 71, insisted he would not bow to inducements he alleged were arranged by Cuomo — who denies the claim — to quit the race, like lucrative jobs with fat salaries and a driver.”I said, ‘Hey, this is not only unethical, it’s bribery, and it could be criminal,” Sliwa told AFP.Viewing parties were planned in bars across the city with several offering debate bingo drinking games.”I have very little optimism that they’re going to do anything with the cost of living to match what we have to pay,” said voter Steven Looez, a 41-year-old bartender, ahead of the debate.”Besides, it feels like they’re all bought anyway.”The second televised debate will be held on October 22.