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Nvidia (NVDA 1.04%) has hit it out of the park quarter after quarter when reporting earnings, but that hasn’t made investors blasé about the artificial intelligence (AI) giant’s next update. Instead, investors wait with just as much anticipation each time around — and even wonder if, this time, they’ll see a slowdown in what’s been a whirlwind growth story.

As investors count the days until the next report — and in this case, it’s set for Nov. 19 — they look for clues about Nvidia’s AI business, one that’s generated record revenue in recent years. Nvidia, as the world’s biggest AI chip designer, delivered $130 billion in revenue in the latest fiscal year — that’s compared to $27 billion just two years earlier.

Now, one particular clue — and one investors truly can count on — comes from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSM -1.68%), a key Nvidia partner. TSMC, the world’s largest chip manufacturer, just announced big news for Nvidia stockholders. 

Image source: Getty Images.

How Nvidia and TSMC work together

Before we get to this fantastic news, though, we’ll take a quick look at Nvidia’s business and how the company works with TSMC. Nvidia for many years built its business around designing chips for the gaming market, but as AI surfaced as a growth opportunity, the company turned its attention there. And, as they say, the rest is history.

Today, Nvidia dominates this market with its high-powered chips as well as related products and services from enterprise software to networking systems. This has helped earnings and the stock price soar — Nvidia shares have climbed more than 1,100% over the past five years.

It’s important to note that though Nvidia is a chip designer, it’s not a chipmaker. Nvidia doesn’t actually manufacture its AI chips, known as graphics processing units (GPUs), and instead turns to TSMC for that job. TSMC has more than 500 customers across segments of the market, including the world’s chip leaders — from Nvidia to Broadcom and Advanced Micro Devices.

A deep look at the industry

On top of this, since the actual production of advanced chips becomes more and more complex with each chip innovation, TSMC starts work with customers two to three years prior to a new project. “Therefore, we probably get the deepest and widest look possible in the industry,” CEO C.C. Wei said during the company’s earnings call this week.

All of this means TSMC has a very clear picture of what’s happening in today’s AI market and what lies ahead. And this brings me to the news the company delivered this week — news that’s a big deal for Nvidia stockholders.

TSMC reported a 39% increase in profit and a 30% increase in revenue in the recent quarter, beating analysts’ estimates. Importantly, Wei said TSMC continues to see a “strong outlook” from customers and “received very strong signals from our customers’ customers. … Our conviction in the AI megatrend is strengthening.” Wei added that semiconductor demand “will continue to be very fundamental.”

Confirming the trend

All of this is incredible news for Nvidia’s shareholders as it confirms the trends the chip designer has spoken of in recent quarters and its prediction for growth in demand. In Nvidia’s most recent earnings report, back in August, CEO Jensen Huang predicted that AI infrastructure spending may jump to $4 trillion by 2030. TSMC’s report this past week offers us reason to be optimistic about that possibility and suggests that Nvidia is already starting to reap the rewards.

As customers seek GPUs, chip designers must turn to TSMC for production — and it’s likely that TSMC’s revenue gains reflect demand for Nvidia’s chips since Nvidia is the market leader.

All of this means there’s reason for investors to be optimistic about Nvidia’s upcoming earnings report and the messages it will deliver regarding future demand for its GPUs. That’s incredible news for Nvidia stockholders — and makes the stock a great one to buy and hold today.

As the Group of 20 leaders gather in Cape Town, clean air features on the agenda as a standalone priority for the first time in the forum’s history. The reality, however, is stark. Outdoor air pollution claims 5.7 million lives each year, and a report released last week highlights the lack of international development finance for clean air. Only $3.7bn was spent globally in 2023, representing barely 1 percent of aid, with only a fraction reaching Africa.

As the minister chairing the G20’s environment workstream this year, I am proud to have worked with member countries and international organisations to place air pollution firmly on the agenda. When Japan held the presidency in 2019, the focus was on marine plastics. Last year, under Brazil’s leadership, the G20 prioritised finance for forests. This year, we sought to treat the right to breathe clean air with the urgency it deserves.

In South Africa, our Constitution guarantees every person the right to an environment that is not harmful to their health or wellbeing. That principle guides our domestic policy and informs our leadership of the G20’s discussions.

This is the first G20 presidency on African soil, a fitting setting to confront this crisis. Africa is the fastest urbanising continent on Earth, and the choices we make today in how we power our homes, move our people, and build our cities will shape health, climate, and economic outcomes for decades to come. The burden of air pollution is already visible in hospital admissions, school absenteeism, and productivity losses across the continent. According to the World Bank, outdoor air pollution causes global economic losses equivalent to nearly 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) each year.

This reality is now reshaping the global debate. In May, governments adopted the world’s first global goal on air quality at the World Health Organization’s World Health Assembly, which aims to halve deaths caused by poor air by 2040. It was a landmark step, but without finance to match ambition, such commitments risk remaining words on paper.

Our G20 deliberations identified four barriers to cleaner air. The first is limited institutional capacity. The second is inadequate monitoring and data, leaving policymakers and citizens without reliable information. The third is weak cooperation across borders. The fourth is the shortage of finance relative to the scale of the problem.

The Clean Air Fund’s recent report makes this plain. In 2023, support for outdoor air quality in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 91 percent to only $11.8m. Globally, just 1 percent of aid was spent on clean air, and only 1 percent of that reached sub-Saharan Africa. In other words, less than one-10,000th (1/10,000) of global development funding supports clean-air efforts in one of the regions most in need.

That is not only inequitable; it is also economically short-sighted. Clean-air action reduces healthcare costs, boosts productivity, and supports the transition to more resilient economies.

South Africa’s own experience demonstrates what is possible. Through the National Air Quality Framework and the National Environmental Management Act, we have built a foundation for accountability and transparency in monitoring air quality. We have strengthened coordination between national and municipal governments, introduced targeted interventions in the Highveld and Vaal Triangle, and expanded our air-quality monitoring network so that communities can access real-time data. These measures are supported by our broader Just Energy Transition, which directs investment towards cleaner transport, renewable power, and improved waste management.

The lesson is that progress requires both political will and predictable finance. Domestic measures alone are not enough. International financial institutions and development banks must embed clean-air objectives within climate and development portfolios.

This year’s G20 discussions also underscored the importance of data. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Expanding reliable air-quality monitoring networks in low-income countries is one of the smartest investments the international community can make. It empowers local decision-makers, supports innovation in clean technologies, and strengthens accountability.

The message from Cape Town is clear: clean air belongs at the top table. That recognition must now be matched by sustained progress to deliver measurable outcomes. In practice, this means embedding clean-air objectives at the heart of development finance and prioritising regions that have been left behind, especially across Africa, where pollution levels are high but funding remains negligible.

Clean air is not a peripheral issue; it is central to achieving climate goals, health targets, and sustainable growth. The science is clear: the same pollutants that harm human health also warm the planet. Tackling them together delivers faster and more cost-effective results.

We therefore call for a collective effort among governments, development partners, and the private sector to ensure that clean air becomes a central measure of success in the global transition. The right to breathe clean air is universal. Delivering it requires fairness, commitment, and finance that match ambition.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

In 2011, Facebook and Twitter were seen as radical new tools for uprisings like the Arab Spring. Fast forward to 2025, and today’s activists operate on a whole different level. From Nepal to Madagascar, Al Jazeera’s Linh Nguyen looks at how young people, in particular Gen Z, are protesting.

Oct. 17 (UPI) — The University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California have rejected the Trump administration’s offer of priority access to federal funds in exchange for adopting government-mandated reforms.

With the rejections of Penn and USC on Thursday, four of the nine universities the Department of Education asked to sign on to its 10-part “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” have so far declined.

In a letter addressed to the Penn community on Thursday, the school’s president, Larry Jameson, informed the Department of Education that Penn “respectfully” declined to sign the compact.

“At Penn, we are committed to merit-based achievement and accountability. The long-standing partnerships between American higher education and the federal government has greatly benefited society and our nation. Shared goals and investment in talent and ideas will turn possibility into progress,” Jameson said.

Beong-Soo Kim, interim president at USC, also told his community Thursday that they had informed the Department of Education that they wouldn’t be signing the compact.

Included in the statement was the letter he sent to Education Secretary Linda McMahon, which said that while they will not sign on to the compact, it raises issues “worthy of a broader national conversation to which USC would be eager to contribute its insights and expertise.”

“We are concerned that even though the compact would be voluntary, tying research benefits to it would, over time, undermine the same values of free inquiry and academic excellence that the compact seeks to promote.”

Since returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump has targeted dozens of universities, particularly so-called elite institutions, with executive orders, lawsuits, reallocations of resources and threats over a range of allegations, from anti-Semitism to the adoption of diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Critics have accused Trump of trying to coerce schools under threat of stringent punishments — from losing their accreditation to paying hefty fines sometimes in excess of $1 billion — to adopt his far-right policies.

The compact announced Oct. 1 demands reforms to hiring practices and student grading and includes a pledge to prohibit transgender women from using women’s changing rooms.

It also requires the creation of a “vibrant marketplace of ideas,” a tuition freeze for five years and a cap on international enrollment, among other reforms.

After Penn announced its decision, the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro, commended the school for maintaining its independence “in the face of the Trump administration’s attempts to dictate what private colleges and universities teach and use the long arm of the federal government to censor ideas with which they disagree.”

“The Trump administration’s dangerous demands would limit freedom of speech, the freedom to learn and the freedom to engage in constructive debate and dialogue on campuses across the country,” he said in a statement.

“I am in full support of the university’s decision and appreciate the leadership and courage demonstrated by President Jameson and Board Chair [Ramanan] Raghavendran.”

Brown University refused to sign the compact on Wednesday and MIT late last week.

Suicide car bomber strikes in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid unconfirmed reports that Qatar has offered to host peace talks.

Tensions are mounting between Pakistan and Afghanistan amid reports of a brutal border attack on the former’s troops as a fragile truce between the neighbours, and once allies, nears its expiry.

A 48-hour ceasefire between the two sides, which came into effect this week after days of bloody cross-border attacks, is set to expire at 13:00 GMT on Friday.

As the end of the truce approached, Pakistani police official Irfan Ali said a suicide car bomber backed by Pakistan Taliban, known by the acronym TTP, attacked a military compound in Mir Ali, a city in North Waziristan district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Accounts of losses suffered during the attack varied.

The official, quoted by news agency The Associated Press, said three fighters were killed in an intense shootout and did not report any troop casualties.

News agency Reuters quoted Pakistani security officials as saying seven Pakistani soldiers were killed in an attack by a fighter who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into the wall of a Pakistani military camp in North Waziristan.

The anonymous officials said two other fighters were shot dead as they tried to get into the facility. At least 13 were left injured.

Pakistan’s Geo News reported that four assailants from TTP were killed in a suicide attack on a military camp in North Waziristan, with security sources saying security forces had suffered no losses.

Pakistan’s army did not immediately comment.

Deadly clashes

The truce, imposed on Wednesday, brought a temporary halt to the deadliest clashes between the neighbours since 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of United States and NATO forces.

The conflict, which threatens to destabilise a region where groups like ISIL (ISIS) and al-Qaeda are trying to resurface, was triggered after Islamabad demanded that Kabul rein in fighters who had stepped up attacks in Pakistan, saying they operated from havens in Afghanistan.

The Taliban denies the charge and accuses the Pakistani military of spreading misinformation about Afghanistan, provoking border tensions, and sheltering fighters to undermine its stability and sovereignty.

Media reported that Qatar has offered to host peace talks between the two countries in Doha, though neither government has confirmed the offer.

Reporting from Peshawar, Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder said there had been “some talk of a meeting in Doha … Friendly countries are trying to make efforts in order to ensure that the ceasefire is extended,” he said.

He described the situation on the border as “tense”, adding that Pakistan had stated that unless the Afghan side addressed its concerns, the situation would be “precarious and can escalate at any moment”.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government said on Thursday that Pakistan had carried out two drone attacks on Kabul the previous day, just before the ceasefire came into effect. Doctors told AP that five people were killed and dozens were injured.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said on Thursday that 37 civilians were killed and 425 were wounded in Afghanistan as a result of cross-border clashes with Pakistan this week.

Pakistan has not provided figures for civilian casualties suffered on its side of the border.

On Thursday, Dawn cited Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media wing of the military, as saying 34 “India-backed terrorists” from “Fitna-al-Khawarij” – the government’s term for TTP – had been killed during multiple operations across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa during the week.

Thousands of mourners gathered at a stadium in Kenya for a state funeral for opposition leader and former prime minister, Raila Odinga. His flag-draped coffin was carried by uniformed officers ahead of the service, which was attended by President William Ruto.

Palestinians in Gaza continue to suffer a harsh daily struggle to access food, water, and essential medical supplies one week into the ceasefire agreement as Israel heavily restricts the flow of aid into the war-devastated enclave, contravening the deal.

UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram told Al Jazeera that Palestinians in northern Gaza are in “desperate need” of food and water as thousands have returned to total destruction.

Speaking to Al Jazeera from the al-Mawasi area in the south of the Gaza Strip, Ingram said that in order to scale up humanitarian aid deliveries, multiple crossings into the enclave must be opened.

“The stakes are really high,” she said. “There are 28,000 children who were diagnosed with malnutrition in July and August alone, and thousands more since then. So, we need to make sure it’s not just food coming in, but malnutrition treatments, as well.”

While maintaining that humanitarian aid should never become political leverage, Ingram highlighted that assistance to Gaza has been severely constrained for two years, with United Nations agencies sidelined.

“This [ceasefire] is our opportunity to overcome all of that, to turn it right. That is why Israel has to open all of the border crossings now, and they have to let all of the aid into the Gaza Strip at scale alongside commercial goods,” she said.

Israel’s military aid agency COGAT on Thursday announced plans to coordinate with Egypt for reopening the Rafah crossing for civilian movement once preparations conclude. However, COGAT specified that Rafah would remain closed for aid deliveries, saying this wasn’t stipulated in the truce agreement. All humanitarian supplies must instead pass through Israeli security inspections at the Karem Abu Salem crossing, known to Israelis as Kerem Shalom.

With famine conditions already present in parts of Gaza, UN Under-Secretary-General Tom Fletcher indicated thousands of aid vehicles weekly are required to address the humanitarian crisis.

Despite some aid trucks entering Gaza on Wednesday, medical services remain severely limited and the majority of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents are now homeless. Ismail al-Thawabta, head of the Hamas-run Gaza media office, characterized recent aid deliveries as merely a “drop in the ocean”.

Israeli military operations have devastated much of the densely populated territory, with Gaza health authorities reporting nearly 68,000 Palestinian deaths.

Samer Abdeljaber, the World Food Programme’s regional director, stated the UN agency is utilising “every minute” of the ceasefire to intensify relief operations.

“We are scaling up to serve the needs of over 1.6 million people,” Abdeljaber said in a social media video, noting WFP’s plans to activate nearly 30 bakeries and 145 food distribution points.

“This is the moment to keep access open and make sure the aid keeps flowing,” he said.

Oct. 17 (UPI) — More than 20 states are suing the Trump administration for rescinding $7 billion in Congress-approved funds to equip nearly 1 million homes in low-income and disadvantaged communities with solar power.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, accuses the Environmental Protection Agency of breaching grant agreements by unilaterally terminated grants that had already been awarded.

“The administration is again targeting people struggling to get by in America, this time by gutting programs that help low-income households afford electricity, Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown said in a statement.

“Congress passed a solar energy program to help make electricity costs more affordable, but the administration is ignoring the law and focused on the conspiracy theory that climate change is a hoax.

The Solar for All program was established with the passage of the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act in 2022, which included a $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund for the EPA to administer.

Using that Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, Congress appropriated $7 billion for the EPA to make grants, loans and financial assistance available for low-income and disadvantaged communities to benefit from zero-emission technologies, including solar power.

In April 2024, the EPA announced it had selected 60 applicants to receive the grants. By August of that year, the EPA had awarded program funds to states and other grant recipients.

But in August, the EPA, under the Trump administration, ended the program and reclaimed about 90% of the funds already awarded.

The 22 states, along with the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, are accusing the Trump administration of violating the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs how administrative agencies operate, and the Constitution’s separation of powers doctrine by canceling the program.

The plaintiffs allege that the EPA is using an “erroneous interpretation” of H.R. 1, which the Trump administration calls the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, passed by Congress in July, to justify the termination of the grants.

The states on Wednesday also filed a complaint in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims to recover damages caused by the alleged breach of the grant agreements.

Earlier this month, a coalition of solar energy companies, labor unions and homeowners sued the EPA over the termination of the grants.

Getty Images

‘This represents hope’

Past visits by top leaders to Yasukuni, which honours convicted war criminals, have angered Japan’s neighbours.

The new leader of Japan’s governing party, Sanae Takaichi, has decided not to visit a controversial World War II shrine in Tokyo, as uncertainty remains over whether she will be appointed prime minister ahead of a visit by United States President Donald Trump before the end of the month.

Takaichi, 64, seen as an arch-conservative from the right of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), has previously visited the Yasukuni Shrine, including as a government minister.

However, Takaichi opted on Friday to send an offering, and reports said she was likely to refrain from visiting in order not to antagonise the country’s neighbours whom Imperial Japan had occupied and committed atrocities against in the first half of the 20th century.

Past visits by top leaders to Yasukuni, which honours convicted war criminals, have angered China and South Korea. The last visit by a Japanese premier was in 2013 by the late Shinzo Abe, Takaichi’s mentor.

Takaichi’s decision not to visit the shrine came as Japan’s former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, best known for making a statement apologising for atrocities Japan committed in Asia over the course of World War II, died aged 101.

Murayama, in office from 1994 to 1996, issued the 1995 “Murayama statement” on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s unconditional surrender.

Murayama died on Friday at a hospital in his hometown, Oita, in southwestern Japan, according to a statement from Mizuho Fukushima, head of Japan’s Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Hiroyuki Takano, secretary-general of the SDP in Oita, told the AFP news agency he had been informed that Murayama died of old age.

Political wrangling

Takaichi became LDP leader on October 4, but her aim to become Japan’s first female prime minister was derailed after the LDP’s coalition partner of 26 years, the Komeito party, pulled the plug on their alliance last week.

The LDP is now in talks about forming a different alliance, boosting Takaichi’s chances of becoming premier in a parliamentary vote that local media reports said will likely happen on Tuesday.

The clock is ticking for Takaichi to become Japan’s fifth prime minister in as many years with Trump’s impending visit.

Details of Washington and Tokyo’s trade deal remain unresolved and Trump – who had warm relations with Abe in his first term – wants Japan to stop Russian energy imports and boost defence spending.

Komeito said that the LDP has failed to tighten rules on party funding following a damaging slush fund scandal involving dodgy payments of millions of dollars.

The LDP this week began talks on forming a new coalition with the Japan Innovation Party instead.

The two parties would be two seats short of a majority but the alliance would still likely ensure that Takaichi succeeds in becoming premier.

A spanner in the works could be if opposition parties agreed on a rival candidate but talks earlier this week appeared to make little headway.

More talks were due to take place on Friday.

State of emergency to be declared in capital as protests that led to last week’s ouster of former president intensify.

Peru’s new president, Jose Jeri, is refusing to resign amid Gen Z antigovernment protests, inflamed by the death of a popular rapper, as crime grips the nation.

The government said late on Thursday that a state of emergency would be declared in the capital, Lima, as the prosecutor’s office announced it was investigating the previous day’s killing of 32-year-old protester and hip-hop singer Eduardo Ruiz in a mass demonstration.

Peru’s police chief, General Oscar Arriola, said that Luis Magallanes, a member of the force, was believed to have fired the bullet and had subsequently been detained and dismissed from his job. Arriola added that Magallanes was being treated in hospital after being physically assaulted.

Ruiz was the first person to die in the protests, which began a month ago with calls for better pensions and wages for young people and later became a lightning rod for broader frustrations with crime and corruption, culminating in the ouster of former President Dina Boluarte last week.

On Wednesday, thousands massed around the country, with hundreds clashing with police outside Congress in Lima, as they called on recently appointed Jeri, the seventh president in less than a decade, to resign.

“My responsibility is to maintain the stability of the country; that is my responsibility and my commitment,” Jeri told the local media after visiting Peru’s parliament, where he said he would request powers to combat crime.

Jeri expressed regret over Ruiz’s death in a post on X, saying the death would be “objectively” investigated. He blamed violence on “delinquents who infiltrated a peaceful demonstration to sow chaos”.

“The full force of the law will be on them,” he wrote.

Reporting from Lima, Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez said that Ruiz’s death had “added another layer to the ongoing political crisis” in the country and had “angered even more Peruvians who are frustrated with the corruption, with the insecurity in the country”.

“He was peacefully hanging out with his friends. Unfortunately, the bullet hit his chest. We want justice for him,” activist Milagros Samillan told Al Jazeera.

The prosecutor’s office wrote on X that it had ordered the removal of Ruíz’s body from a Lima hospital and the “collection of audiovisual and ballistic evidence in the area where the incident occurred, in the context of serious human rights violations”.

Newly appointed interior minister, Vicente Tiburcio, said that 89 police and 22 civilians had been injured during Wednesday’s protest and 11 people were detained.

Oct. 16 (UPI) — A federal judge in Chicago ruled Thursday that immigration agents must begin wearing body cameras to record their actions during enforcement operations.

U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis issued the order in federal court in Chicago after reports of immigration agents clashing with residents of the city’s Southeast Side, incidents that ended with officers spraying people with tear gas and other chemical agents.

Ellis’ decision comes following a temporary restraining order that she issued on Oct. 9 restricting immigration agents’ use of non-lethal weapons on civilians.

“I am profoundly disappointed about what has been happening over the last week since I entered this order,” Ellis said, the Chicago Sun Times reported. “I live in Chicago, if folks haven’t noticed, and I’m not blind, right? So, I don’t live in a cave. I have a phone. I have a TV. I have a computer and I tend to get news.”

Ellis said she believes the Trump administration is not following her orders to stand down on the clashes, which is causing her “serious concerns,” she said.

Ellis said Thursday that she will expand her restraining order to require all federal agents who are part of Operation Midway Blitz, and who wear body cameras, to have them on when encountering protesters.

She initially required all immigration agents to wear body cameras, but moderated after a Trump administration attorney said equipping all officers to wear cameras was logistically impossible and would be cost prohibitive.

The Justice Department continued in opposition, saying it would be challenging to review body camera footage of every officer in response to every allegation.

Ellis issued the restraining order after a group of local journalists and protesters sued the Trump administration, alleging that agents targeted people engaging in peaceful protests, including multiple reporters who claimed they were shot with pepper balls despite being identified as members of the media.

Ellis ordered a Homeland Security official to appear in court on Monday to discuss the matter.

According to local reports, Ellis ordered a top Homeland Security official to appear in court on Monday to address the issue.

Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt remains closed as Trump threatens Hamas over gang clashes.

Oct. 16 (UPI) — With less than three weeks before New Yorkers head to the polls to select the city’s 111th mayor, candidates Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani, Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa and independent Andrew Cuomo squared off for a heated debate Thursday night in Manhattan.

Though a trio of candidates stood before lecterns at WNBC’s 30 Rockefeller Center studios, the debate was mainly a fight between Mamdani, the New York City assemblyman leading in the polls, and Cuomo, the former governor of New York State, leaving Sliwa, founder of the nonprofit crime prevention Guardian Angels organization, trying to enter the fray.

Leadership

Cuomo, who left the New York governor’s mansion in August 2021 amid sexual harassment allegations, was quick to attack Mamdani, saying the New York assemblyman’s inexperience makes him unfit to oversee a 300,000-employee city workforce and a multi-billion-dollar budget.

“This is no job for on-the-job training,” he said. “And if you look at the failed mayors they’re ones that have no management experience. Don’t do it again.”

Mamdani, in rebuttal, attempted to frame Cuomo as an out-of-touch politician backed by wealthy donors, while pointing to his successes in the state’s assembly as proof of his own experience.

The former governor said Mamdani’s answer was proof of his lack of experience — and a lack of experience in leading New York could have deadly consequences.

“This is not a job for a first timer,” Cuomo said. “Any day you could have a hurricane, God forbid, a 9/11, a health pandemic. If you don’t know what you’re doing people will die.”

“If we have a health pandemic, then why would New Yorkers turn back to the governor who sent seniors to their deaths in nursing homes?” Mamdani replied, referring to a public scandal over how Cuomo’s administration handled COVID-19 in nursing homes and other elder-care facilities.

Sliwa, who has taken a tough-on-crime stance, attempted to interject into the conversation, at one point telling the moderators that he was being “marginalized.”

He then attempted to set himself apart from the two men who have held political seats, by emphasizing that he is not a politican, and referring to Cuomo as the “architect” and Mamdani the “apprentice.”

“Thank God I’m not a professional politician because they have helped create this crime crisis in the city that we face and I will resolve [it],” he said.

President Donald Trump

President Donald Trump’s presence and ongoing immigration crackdown have loomed large over the race and ahve put a greater spotlight on Mamdani, who was recently little known outside of the city, as the American leader has called him and his left-leaning policies out on social media.

Asked what he would say to Trump in their first phone call, Mamdani said he would tell the American leader that he is willing to work with him to help raise the living standards of New Yorkers, but if that he seeks to cut funds to the city “he’s going to have to get through me as the next mayor.”

Cuomo similarly offered that he’d like to work with Trump “but Number One, I will fight you every step of the way if you try to hurt New York.”

Sliwa criticized both candidates for trying to act “tough” when doing so would only end up hurting New Yorkers.

“They want to take on Donald Trump. Look, you can be tough, but you can’t be tough if its going to cost people desperately needed federal funds,” he said, stating he would sit down with the president and negotiate.

“But if you try to get tough with Trump, the only people who are going to suffer from that are the people of New York City.”

Israel-Hamas

With the first phase of the Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal underway, moderators called on Mamdani to clarify previous statements he has made about the Palestinian militant group specifically about whether it should disarm.

In response, Mamdani said he was “proud” to be among the first New York elected officials to call for a cease-fire, which he defined as meaning “all parties have to cease fire and put down their weapons.”

Sliwa then jumped in to chastise Cuomo and Mamdani for neither applauding Trump for securing the cease-fire deal.

Cuomo then rebutted that he did applaud Trump and his administration, using the topic to accuse Mamdani and his stance against Israel’s occupation of the West Bank as coded language meaning “Israel does not have a right to exist as a Jewish state.”

Mamdani then clapped back that “occupation” is an international legal term that “Mr. Cuomo has no regard for” as he has joined the legal defense team of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in their fight against arrest warrants at the International Criminal Court.

He was then pressed on his previous reluctance to condemn the use of the phrase “globalize the intifada,” which to some is a pro-Palestinian slogan of resistance against oppression and to others as encouragement of violence against Jews.

Sliwa also lashed out at Mamdani, stating “Jews don’t trust you’re going to be there for them when they are victims of anti-Semitic attacks.”

The second mayoral debate is scheduled for Oct. 22.

Early voting opens Oct. 25. The election is to be held Nov. 4.