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Curtis Sliwa, the Republican running to be New York mayor, has no chance of winning in the avowedly Democrat megacity. But he is refusing to step aside despite fierce pressure to do so and make it a two-man race that could hurt the chances of the frontrunner, a Democratic socialist.Sliwa, whose star rose from the end of the 1970s when he formed the Guardian Angels subway patrol group which still sees him sport a red beret, says he has received seven different job offers, including a $10 million post, to step aside.In a recent interview with AFP, Sliwa accused his second-placed rival, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, of being behind that effort.”There were about seven different offers on behalf of Andrew Cuomo, not by him personally, but people representing him… With a driver — a no-show job,” Sliwa said.”It probably would have kept going up and up and up and up until I said, ‘Hey, this is not only unethical, it’s bribery, and it could be criminal,” he added. “The next person who meets me or calls me and makes an offer like this, I’m going to go to the authorities.’ And it stopped at that.”Cuomo’s office denied the accusation, calling Sliwa “a liar and a fraudster, who has admitted to faking crimes for publicity.”Sliwa, a 71-year-old Brooklyn native, is trailing a distant third with 15 percent in the most recent poll behind Cuomo on 33 percent and Mamdani on 46 percent.Mamdani’s critics argue that Sliwa’s exit from the race would benefit everyone fearful of a self-proclaimed socialist winning the mayor’s chair as it would galvanize opposition behind Cuomo.Sitting mayor Eric Adams’s withdrawal from the race has helped Cuomo’s numbers even though the scandal-tainted Mamdani critic has not formally endorsed a candidate.Sliwa has defiantly insisted he will not withdraw because of inducements or threats which have caused him to ramp up his security.- ‘Prime time’? -Mockery of his run by Donald Trump has also failed to dislodge him, with the president saying “he’s not exactly prime time” and ridiculing his fondness for cats that he rescues alongside his wife.”I’ve had a love-hate relationship with Donald Trump going back 30 years… I am not running because of Donald Trump. I’m running to save the city,” Sliwa told AFP.He added that Trump did “help me by criticizing the work that my wife does with me to rescue animals, especially cats who would be euthanized. Animal lovers came out in droves to support me.”Sliwa, who describes himself as a populist Republican defender of “workers, not billionaires” founded the Guardian Angels in 1979 — a volunteer group slammed as a “militia” by his critics that patrolled the notoriously dangerous New York subway of the 1980s. The former manager of a Bronx McDonald’s is no stranger to controversy, previously admitting to lying to burnish his group’s credentials. In 1992, he nearly died in an apparent mob hit that has never been fully solved. He has worked as a radio host since the 1990s, interrupted when he ran for mayor for the first time in 2021, drawing nearly 28 percent against Adams.Sliwa is hoping for “a shake-up in the race… that catapults his candidacy to the forefront — or at least positions him as a power broker or kingmaker,” said Costas Panagopoulos, political science professor at Northeastern University.That would allow Sliwa “to extract concessions from his opponents” — and possibly a City Hall job, he added.Sliwa, known for speaking his mind, has starkly different views on his opponents.”Nobody really knew who Zohran Mamdani was, but he went out there with his followers, and they aggressively got their votes,” he said.”Andrew Cuomo was out in the Hamptons with his billionaire friends… It’s hard to like the guy.”

China said Thursday that its purchases of Russian oil were “legitimate” and decried recent “unilateral bullying” measures by the United States as the trade row between the two countries continues to intensify.The rebuke came after President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised to stop buying Russian oil, and that he would get China to follow suit.Trump has accused both China and India of funding the three-year Ukraine war through the purchases, and has also demanded that European allies immediately stop buying oil from Russia.India neither confirmed or denied it was shifting its policy.Asked on Thursday about Trump’s intention to pressure China further, Beijing’s foreign ministry defended its “normal, legitimate economic, trade, and energy cooperation with countries around the world, including Russia”.”The actions of the United States are a typical example of unilateral bullying and economic coercion,” ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a press briefing.If China’s interests are harmed, it will “take firm countermeasures and resolutely safeguard its sovereignty”, he warned.Beijing and Moscow are key trading partners, and China has never denounced Russia’s war, nor called for it to withdraw its troops.Kyiv and Western governments have long accused Beijing of providing political and economic support for Moscow.- ‘Profoundly detrimental’ -Beijing on Thursday also criticised recent US moves to expand export controls and impose new port fees on Chinese ships, saying the measures had a “profoundly detrimental” impact on trade talks between the two superpowers.While tensions between Washington and Beijing have de-escalated from their peak, the truce remains shaky.After Beijing imposed fresh controls on the export of rare earth technologies and items, Trump said he would roll out an additional 100-percent tariff on the country’s goods from November 1.The United States announced in April it would begin applying fees to all arriving Chinese-built and operated ships after a “Section 301” investigation found Beijing’s dominance in the industry was unreasonable.Section 301 of the US Trade Act of 1974 enables Washington to impose trade penalties on countries whose practices are deemed unfair or harmful to American commerce.Beijing responded last week by announcing “special port fees” on American ships arriving at Chinese ports. Both sets of fees took effect Tuesday.Commerce ministry spokeswoman He Yongqian said Thursday the US moved ahead with the measures while “disregarding China’s sincerity in consultations”, causing “severe damage to China’s interests… (and) a profoundly detrimental impact”.”The Chinese side expresses strong dissatisfaction with and resolutely opposes the series of actions taken by the US side,” He Yongqian said.She urged Washington to “immediately rectify its erroneous practices” and respect the outcomes of recent trade talks.China’s commerce minister Wang Wentao accused the US of sparking the latest trade row during a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook in Beijing.”Maintaining the overall stability of China-US trade ties requires both sides to meet halfway,” Wang told the visiting American CEO according to a ministry readout.”Maintaining the overall stability of China-US trade ties requires both sides to meet halfway,” Wang said, adding that China welcomed deeper investment from Apple and remained open to foreign firms.

Donald Trump held a crucial phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin Thursday, a day before Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky meets the US president to push for Tomahawk missiles.”I am speaking to President Putin now,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The conversation is ongoing, a lengthy one, and I will report the contents, as will President Putin, at its conclusion.”The call comes as Trump shows mounting frustration over the Kremlin leader’s refusal to end the 2022 invasion of Ukraine despite their recent summit in Alaska.Trump is now considering a request from Ukraine for American-made Tomahawk cruise missiles, which have range of around 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) and could strike deep into Russia.During Zelensky’s meeting with Trump at the White House on Friday “the main topic of discussion is Tomahawks,” a senior Ukrainian official told AFP on Thursday.Trump had warned at the weekend that he would likely raise the issue first with Putin, who has warned that the supply of Tomahawks would be a “whole new level of escalation.””I might talk to him, I might say, ‘Look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks.’ I may say that,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to the Middle East. “The Tomahawk is a incredible weapon, very offensive weapon, and honestly, Russia does not need that.”- ‘Go offensive’ -Trump added on Wednesday that the Ukrainians “want to go offensive” and that they would discuss Kyiv’s request for the cruise missiles.The US leader has said he wants to up the pressure on Moscow for a peace deal following the ceasefire agreement he brokered in Gaza between Israel and Hamas last week.Relations between Trump and Zelensky have meanwhile warmed since February, when they sparred during a now infamous televised meeting at the White House in which the US leader told his Ukrainian counterpart: “You don’t have the cards.”The senior Ukrainian source said the tone of rhetoric between the White House and Kyiv was now “very businesslike” and that Washington understood pressure on Russia “will work to end it all.”Tomahawks would be a major addition to Ukraine’s arsenal, consolidating Kyiv’s long-range strike abilities with a missile that can fly just above the ground at near supersonic speed to avoid radar. The United States has used Tomahawks for more than 40 years and in some of the country’s most high-profile conflicts, from the 1991 Gulf War to this year’s US strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.Previously Tomahawks have primarily been fired from sea-based launchers, like warships or submarines, but the Ukrainian source told AFP that: “There is a technical solution in place for the launch platform.” – ‘Bullying’ -Senior Ukrainian officials visiting  Washington this week met with representatives of US weapon manufacturers, including Raytheon, which produces Tomahawk missiles.Zelensky will also meet with arms makers to discuss when deliveries could begin “but they need a political signal,” the Ukrainian source added.With the war now in its fourth year, Russia launched fresh attacks on energy facilities in eastern Ukraine, repeating the pattern of focusing on Kyiv’s power network that it has followed every winter.Energy has been a core factor throughout the war, with Trump saying on Wednesday that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised him New Delhi would stop buying Russian oil.But Putin said Thursday that his country was still among the world’s top oil producers, despite what he called “unfair” anti-competitive practices used against it.China, a major purchaser of Russian oil, meanwhile rejected “unilateral bullying” by Washington.

A top contender to run the US Federal Reserve threw his support Thursday behind a quarter-point rate cut later this month, claiming he believed inflation would soon cool.Speaking in New York, US Fed Governor Christopher Waller said economic conditions were such that policymakers should focus their attention on the softening labor market instead.President Donald Trump, who is mulling who to nominate to replace outgoing Fed chair Jerome Powell, has criticized the bank for moving too slowly to cut rates and boost growth.The Fed has a dual mandate from Congress to act independently to tackle both inflation and employment, and seeks to balance the two by either hiking or cutting its benchmark lending rate.”Tariffs have modest effects on inflation, but with underlying inflation close to our goal and expectations of future inflation well anchored, I believe we are on track toward the FOMC’s 2 percent goal,” Waller said, referring to the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC). “As a result, my focus is on the labor market, where payroll gains have weakened this year and employment may well be shrinking already,” he added. “Based on all of the data we have on the labor market, I believe that the FOMC should reduce the policy rate another 25 basis points at our meeting that concludes October 29.”At the last rate decision in September, Fed policymakers voted overwhelmingly to cut the bank’s rate by a quarter percentage-point to between 4.00 and 4.25 percent, and penciled in an average of two additional rate cuts of the same size in the last two meetings this year, in both October and December. Waller’s comments Thursday indicate his support for at least one additional cut this year. But he also insisted that he would look to see if strong economic growth cools to match the softer labor market, or whether the labor market picks up to match strong growth instead, before deciding on another rate cut.Cooling growth would support another cut, while doing so if the labor market strengthens could would risk reigniting inflation. “What I would want to avoid is rekindling inflationary pressure by moving too quickly and squandering the significant progress we have made taming inflation,” he said.Trump’s Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been tasked with finding a replacement for Powell, with Waller emerging as a top contender, alongside several other current and former Fed officials, a top White House economic advisor, and a BlackRock C-suite executive, according to US media reports.Also Thursday, Fed Governor Stephen Miran who — like Waller — was nominated by Trump, said he still backed a larger half-point cut later this month.Speaking in Washington on the sidelines of International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings, Miran said moving by just 25 basis points at a time, as markets expect, would be moving “more slowly than it needs to be.”Futures traders see a roughly 92 percent chance of another 50 basis points of cuts before the end of the year, according to CME Group data.

A US judge ordered President Donald Trump on Wednesday to pause the planned mass layoffs of federal workers during the government shutdown after the White House said it expected to fire 10,000 workers.The shutdown has ground into its third week, with Congress deadlocked in a clash over spending and Trump following through on his threats to take a hatchet to the workforce in response.District Judge Susan Illston issued the temporary restraining order in San Francisco in response to a suit filed by labor unions claiming the layoffs are illegal and “not ordinary.”Some employees also did not know they were being laid off because notices were sent to government email accounts which cannot be accessed during a shutdown, according to the seven-page order seen by AFP.Illston said unions had been hearing from pregnant members or other workers who “worry their health insurance will be impacted,” but there is no one in the office to answer questions.”Those who have received reductions in force notices cannot prepare for their upcoming terminations because the human resources staff who would typically assist them are also furloughed,” she added.Trump’s budget chief Russ Vought had been asked in an interview earlier how many layoffs there would be.”I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000,” he said. “We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy.”Court documents filed by the Department of Justice showed that more than 4,000 employees were fired on Friday, with the US Treasury and health, education and housing departments hardest hit.Vought said that was a “snapshot” and that there would be more.The court drama came as the Senate failed for the ninth time to approve a House-passed funding bill championed by Republicans — ensuring that an estimated 1.4 million federal employees remain at their posts unpaid or on enforced leave, also without pay.- ‘Playing politics’ -Trump has warned that continued refusal by Democrats to support the resolution would result in mass layoffs targeting workers deemed to be aligned with the opposition party.But with lawmakers bracing for a historically long standoff, Trump has also sought to deflect blame from Republicans by diverting funds to popular causes such as the military and young mothers.House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters on Monday that Congress was “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.” Johnson has kept the House floor shuttered since mid-September, and is holding firm in refusing to move a standalone bill to pay troops throughout the shutdown.But Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use any funds available to avoid 1.3 million military personnel missing their first paychecks on Wednesday.Many Democrats consider the move illegal, although most have balked at embarking on what would be a politically unpopular lawsuit to block it.While the military are guaranteed to get their paychecks on time, the Capitol Police — the force charged with securing Congress — missed their full paycheck for the first time on Tuesday.At least 688,000 federal employees are working without pay, according to the latest estimate provided to AFP by the independent Bipartisan Policy Center think tank.A further 706,000-plus employees are furloughed — meaning on enforced leave with no pay — while 832,000 employees are showing up for work and still getting their checks.The White House has not announced how it is going to handle the next military payday, due on October 31.”The administration should reverse every single firing from last week and should stop playing politics with people’s livelihoods,” top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer said in a floor speech. “They should instead get serious about negotiation with Congress to end this shutdown at once.”

Britain’s Prince Andrew behaved as if having sex with the then 17-year-old Virginia Giuffre was his “birthright”, according to allegations in her posthumous memoir.In “Nobody’s Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice”, Giuffre — the woman at the centre of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal — said she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions including when she was under 18.Giuffre rose to public prominence after alleging that the disgraced US financier Epstein used her as a sex slave and that Andrew had assaulted her.Andrew, 65, has repeatedly denied Giuffre’s accusations and avoided trial by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.In extracts published by The Guardian, Giuffre describes meeting the prince, a younger brother of King Charles III, in London in March 2001.Andrew was allegedly challenged to guess her age which he did correctly adding by way of explanation: “My daughters are just a little younger than you.”Giuffre and Andrew later went to the Tramp nightclub in central London where she said he was “sort of a bumbling dancer, and I remember he sweated profusely”.They later returned to the London house of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s associate and former girlfriend, where they had sex, Giuffre alleged in the book due out next week.”He was friendly enough, but still entitled -– as if he believed having sex with me was his birthright,” she wrote.The following morning Maxwell allegedly told her: “You did well. The prince had fun.”She said Epstein paid her $15,000 dollars for “servicing the man the tabloids called Randy Andy”.Epstein took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for trafficking underage girls for sex.Maxwell, 63, was sentenced in the US in 2022 to 20 years in prison for recruiting underage girls for Epstein.Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, died at her farm in Western Australia on April 25.Andrew’s association with Epstein has left his reputation in tatters and made him a source of embarrassment to the king.In a devastating 2019 TV interview Andrew — once feted as a handsome war hero who served as a helicopter pilot in the Falklands War — denied ever meeting Giuffre and defended his friendship with Epstein.He now makes increasingly rare appearances and his popularity rating has plummeted to an all-time low, an ignominious fall for the prince, thought to have been the late Queen Elizabeth II’s favourite child.The book is due to be published by Knopf on October 21.

Randy Baxter holds on for dear life as a simulator shows him just how powerful a magnitude 7 earthquake can be.”It was much stronger than I thought,” the 62-year-old academic tells AFP as he steps out of the machine on the campus of the University of California, Fullerton.Once a year, this specially designed trailer goes on a week-long tour to educate Californians about what to do when the earth begins to move in one of the most seismically active parts of the world.The state lives with the constant knowledge that it could be struck at any minute by “The Big One” — a powerful quake projected to kill 1,800 people, injure 53,000 and cause $200 billion of damage.There are more than 500 active faults in California, which together generate thousands of tremors every year.The majority are small — barely noticed by the 40 million people who live here.But others can be big enough to cause real damage, and California’s Office of Emergency Services (CAL OES) wants people to know what to do.”When you do feel that shaking, we want everybody to drop, cover and hold on,” says Jon Gudel of CAL OES.”It’s exactly what it sounds like: you try to find something sturdy, preferably a table, drop underneath it, cover your head and neck area, and then hold on to that table until the shaking ends.”- Disaster guaranteed – The walls of the quake simulator are covered with photos showing the aftermaths of some of the worst geological disasters to hit California.They include the Great San Francisco earthquake, which destroyed 80 percent of the city in 1906, and the Northridge earthquake in 1994, which killed 72 people around Los Angeles, pancaking elevated highways. Andrea Okoh, who lives along the San Andreas Fault, a scar stretching 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) across the state, admits to being “extremely worried.”The 36-year-old human resources director has bolted her furniture to the wall since an earthquake woke her in the middle of the night in January.”Since I was a child, we’ve had earthquakes, but lately, when we have them, they’re more intense and they’re closer together,” she says. “That is scary.”Geologist Ashleigh Kuiroz says an apparent recent rash of quakes is not an indicator that The Big One is imminent.But in some ways, they are helpful.”They are a great reminder to maybe think about getting an earthquake kit ready for your house,” she says.”Make sure that you have pet food, make sure you have the medication that you need, first aid supplies, things like that.”Organizers also recommend that residents and tourists install the “MyShake” app, which can give a vital few seconds warning of a tremor.Despite decades of study and a global array of sensors, seismologists say it’s impossible to predict when a destructive quake will strike.But the one thing they can say with absolute certainty is that it will definitely happen.”It’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’,” says Gudel. “That’s why it’s important to be prepared.”

US President Donald Trump indicated Wednesday he had authorized covert CIA action against Venezuela and said he was considering strikes against alleged drug cartels on land in the South American country.Trump’s comments triggered outrage from leftist Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who decried “coups d’etat orchestrated by the CIA” and ordered military exercises following a fresh US strike on an alleged drug boat in the Caribbean.Republican Trump declined to comment in detail about a New York Times report that he had secretly approved the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela against Maduro.”But I authorized for two reasons really,” he said, before listing familiar talking points accusing Maduro of leading a “narco-terrorist” regime and of releasing prisoners from jails and sending them to the United States.Asked if he had given the CIA authority to “take out” Maduro, Trump replied: “That’s a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”Trump added that he was weighing up whether to expand US military actions against alleged Venezuelan drug cartels to the land after a series of deadly naval strikes on boats.”We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.At least 27 people have been killed in recent US attacks on boats in the Caribbean.Trinidad and Tobago, which is located off the coast of Venezuela, is investigating whether two of those killed were its citizens, officials said Wednesday.Colombia’s president Gustavo Petro recently called on the United Nations to open a “criminal process” against Trump for the strikes, which he believes have also killed Colombians.Experts have questioned the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.- ‘No to regime change’ -Trump’s comments come amid a major US naval build-up in the Caribbean that Washington says is part of an anti-drug operation.But the moves have been widely condemned in Latin America and fears are mounting in Caracas that Trump is seeking regime change.”No to war in the Caribbean… No to regime change… No to coups d’etat orchestrated by the CIA,” Maduro said in an address Wednesday to a committee set up after Washington deployed warships in the region.Maduro earlier ordered military exercises in the country’s biggest shantytowns after the latest alleged drug-boat strike on Tuesday, which Trump said had killed six “narcoterrorists.”Under Maduro’s direction, exercises were conducted across the entire Atlantic Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and other military activities are planned in the states on the border with Colombia.In a message on the social network Telegram, Maduro said he was mobilizing the military, police and a civilian militia to defend Venezuela’s “mountains, coasts, schools, hospitals, factories and markets.”Trump accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel — charges Maduro denies.Ahead of ramping up military actions, the US Justice Department in August doubled a bounty for information leading to Maduro’s capture to $50 million.Trump has previously said that he is not looking at regime change in Venezuela, while at the same time accusing Maduro of stealing last year’s presidential election and being “illegitimate.”The pressure on Maduro inched higher last week when US-backed opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for leading peaceful resistance to his 12-year rule.Machado dedicated the award to Trump, who had campaigned for the award for himself.

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday he was considering strikes targeting Venezuelan cartels on land, after a series of deadly strikes at sea against alleged drug-carrying boats.”We are certainly looking at land now, because we’ve got the sea very well under control,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked if he was weighing strikes on land. But Trump declined to confirm a New York Times report that he had secretly authorized the CIA to conduct covert action in Venezuela against the administration of President Nicolas Maduro.Asked if he had given the CIA authority to “take out” Maduro, Trump replied: “That’s a ridiculous question for me to be given. Not really a ridiculous question, but wouldn’t it be a ridiculous question for me to answer?”Venezuela is taking the threats — open or clandestine — seriously.On Tuesday, under Maduro’s direction, exercises were conducted across the entire Atlantic Caribbean coast of Venezuela, and other military activities are planned in the states on the border with Colombia.In a message on the social network Telegram, Maduro said he was mobilizing the military, police and a civilian militia to defend Venezuela’s “mountains, coasts, schools, hospitals, factories and markets.”Trump said on Tuesday that another strike on boats allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela had killed six “narcoterrorists.”At least 27 people have been killed so far in the US attacks. Experts question the legality of using lethal force in foreign or international waters against suspects who have not been intercepted or questioned.Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro has said he believes some of those killed were Colombian.Trump accuses Maduro of heading a drug cartel — charges Maduro denies.Ahead of ramping up military actions, the US Justice Department in August doubled a bounty for information leading to Maduro’s capture to $50 million.

Argentine stocks surged Wednesday on a new US promise of aid for embattled President Javier Milei, despite Donald Trump conditioning the assistance on his ally winning upcoming midterm elections.Some stocks on the benchmark Merval index rose by almost 10 percent on the announcement by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent that his department was working on the second $20 billion “facility” for Argentina in as many months.The new program brings the total promised US assistance for the South American country to a whopping $40 billion.Bessent told reporters in Washington that the new aid “would be adjacent to our swap line” announced in September, which already totaled $20 billion.He said the new bailout would come from “private banks and sovereign wealth funds” and would be “more aimed at the debt market,” amid growing concerns over Argentina’s ability to meet its looming debt repayments.Bessent made the announcement a day after Trump hosted the right-wing Milei at the White House, in a bid to boost the Argentine leader ahead of midterm elections on October 26.Milei, once a global poster boy for budget-slashing libertarian politics, is heading into the polls diminished by his failure to stabilize Argentina’s ailing peso, despite spending nearly all the Central Bank’s dollar reserves to prop it up.Bessent last week said that the US Treasury had begun purchasing pesos to help support the currency.Milei has also faced a growing rebellion in Congress over his austerity measures and is still reeling from a corruption scandal engulfing his sister and right-hand woman, Karina Milei.Last month, he suffered a stunning defeat in Buenos Aires provincial polls seen as a key bellwether of his support.Opinion polls show his bloc running neck-and-neck with the center-left opposition in the midterms, but Milei’s La Libertad Avanza coalition is expected to fall far short of winning an outright majority.Political scientist Gustavo Marangoni, head of the M&R polling firm, told AFP that Milei’s party had “no chance of winning a majority,” predicting he would win around one-third of the seats up for grabs.Trump threatened Argentine voters with withdrawing aid if his ally was defeated.”If he loses, we are not going to be generous with Argentina,” he warned.- ‘Quasi-colonial’ attitude -Economist Carlos Melconian, former president of the state-owned Banco Nacion, reacted angrily to Trump’s remarks, calling it “a quasi-colonial incursion” into Argentina’s affairs.”Trump doesn’t want to save the country, he only wants to save Milei,” centrist Senator Martin Lousteau said.On Wednesday, Bessent assured that Milei would continue to enjoy US support as long as he could continue to veto legislation passed by parliament that did not fit his agenda. “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,” he said.Milei enacted sweeping budget cuts after taking office in December 2023 on a promise to quell chronically high inflation and revive the sputtering economy.But his reforms left tens of thousands of public servants out of a job, caused consumer spending to nosedive and left many of Argentina’s most vulnerable citizens living on the breadline.In an interview with CNBC broadcast Wednesday, the 54-year-old president said he had “no intention of changing course until the end of my term.””I am committed to the agenda of lowering taxes, deregulating and keeping the economy growing,” he said.burs-cb/jgc