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Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni was named Italian prime minister on Friday, becoming the first woman to head a government in Italy.

Her post-fascist Brothers of Italy party — Eurosceptic and anti-immigration — won the September 25 legislative polls but needed outside support to form a government.

Meloni’s appointment is an historic event for the eurozone’s third largest economy and for Brothers of Italy, which has never been in government.

Shortly after she was named, the 45-year-old from Rome named her ministers, who will be sworn in on Saturday in front of President Sergio Mattarella.

Her Brothers of Italy party won 26 percent of the vote last month, compared to eight and nine percent respectively for her allies Forza Italia and the far-right League.

Her list of 24 ministers, including six women, revealed a desire to reassure Italy’s partners. She named Giancarlo Giorgetti as economy minister, who served under the previous government of Mario Draghi.

Giorgetti, a former minister of economic development, is considered one of the more moderate, pro-Europe members of Matteo Salvini’s League.

Meloni also named ex-European Parliament president Antonio Tajani, of Forza Italia, as foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

Salvini will serve as deputy prime minister and minister of infrastructure and transport.

That appointment is likely to disappoint Salvini, who wanted Meloni to give him the role of interior minister, a position that went to a technocrat, Rome prefect Matteo Piantedosi.

– Unity concerns –

The consultations to cobble together a government had been overshadowed by disagreements with her two would-be coalition partners over Meloni’s ardent support for Ukraine since the Russian invasion. The leaders of Forza Italia and the League are both considered close to Moscow.

A recording was leaked during the week in which Italy’s former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi — who heads Forza Italia — talks about his warm ties with Moscow and appeared to blame the war in Ukraine on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Her other coalition partner, Salvini, is a long-time fan of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has criticised Western sanctions on Russia.

Despite her Eurosceptic stance, Meloni has been firm about her support for Ukraine, in line with the rest of the European Union and the United States.

“I intend to lead a government with a clear and unequivocal foreign policy line,” she has said. “Italy is fully, and with its head held high, part of Europe and the Atlantic Alliance (NATO).”

“Anyone who does not agree with this cornerstone will not be able to be part of the government, even at the cost of not forming a government,” Meloni has warned.

Berlusconi, 86, has said his personal and political positions “do not deviate from that of the Italian government (and) the European Union” on Ukraine.

But the tensions add to concerns that Meloni’s coalition, held together by the need for a parliamentary majority, will struggle to maintain unity.

Berlusconi’s allies insist his comments in the recording, from a meeting with lawmakers earlier this week, were taken out of context.

The billionaire media mogul described a rekindling of relations with long-time friend Putin, who he said sent him 20 bottles of vodka and a “very sweet letter” for his birthday.

– Challenges ahead –

Meloni’s coalition wants to renegotiate Italy’s portion of the EU’s post-Covid recovery fund. 

It argues the almost 200 billion euros ($193 billion) it expects to receive should take into account the current energy crisis, exacerbated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, which has hit the supplies of Russian gas to Europe.

But the funds are tied to a series of reforms only just begun by Draghi’s government, and analysts say Meloni has limited room for manoeuvre.

Meloni had campaigned on a platform of “God, country and family”, sparking fears of a regression on rights in the Catholic-majority country.

She has distanced herself from her party’s neo-fascist past — and her own, after praising dictator Benito Mussolini as a teenager — and likes to present herself as a straight-talking but unthreatening leader.

Inflation in Italy rose to 8.9 percent in September over the previous year, threatening to put the country in recession next year. 

The margin for manoeuvre is limited given that Italy’s colossal debt represents 150 percent of gross domestic product, the highest in the eurozone after Greece.

Draghi used his last day on the European stage on Friday to warn both his fellow leaders and Meloni that a united Europe should remain their “guiding star”.

Draghi said everyone looked at “the EU as a source of security, stability and peace”, adding: “We have to keep this in mind as a guiding star for the future, especially in troubled times like these.”

Documents seized from former president Donald Trump’s Florida home in August included highly sensitive intelligence on Iran and China that risked exposure of US spying methods, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Among the documents retrieved by Justice Department investigators included one that described Iran’s missile program, and another that “described highly sensitive intelligence work aimed at China,” the Post said, citing people familiar with the case.

Investigators seized some 11,000 documents in the raid to recover what the government says should be in the US archives but that Trump illegally took with him when he left the White House in January 2021.

Among those were just over 100 classified documents, some of them classified as top secret and normally kept tightly under seal with only a few people permitted to access them.

However, at Mar-a-Lago they were kept in places that included Trump’s personal office, with little security, according to the Justice Department.

The Justice Department justified the raid on grounds of national security, indicating that Trump was suspected of violating the Espionage Act, which forbids the retention and sharing of highly sensitive documents pertaining to national defense.

He was also suspected of obstruction, after his attorneys had told the department in June that there were no more government documents held at Mar-a-Lago.

But Trump has not been charged. After Trump sued, that court appointed an independent “special master” to review the documents to see which ones could be covered by his claims of privilege over them.

Many of the documents, which mixed government records with personal legal and financial documents of Trump as well as press clippings and keepsakes, will be returned to the former president.

In a filing on Thursday to the special master, the Justice Department said that among the official government records there were only 15 documents on which privilege is disputed by the two sides.

Russia’s defence minister held rare telephone talks with his US counterpart Friday after Kremlin proxy officials said they were turning Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson into a “fortress” as Kyiv’s forces advance.

Details of the conversation — including its duration — between Russia’s Sergei Shoigu and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were scant from official read outs but both sides said the senior officials had discussed Ukraine.

“Topical issues of international security — including the situation in Ukraine — were discussed,” Moscow said, with Washington saying: “Secretary Austin emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amid the ongoing war against Ukraine”.

It was only the second call between the ministers since Moscow invaded Ukraine on February 24 and during the first — in May — Austin had urged Moscow to implement an “immediate ceasefire” in Ukraine.

At the time, Russia’s invading force had been beaten back from the capital Kyiv but were making steady gains in the eastern Donbas and Kharkiv regions and had solidified a hold in the south.

Six months on however Ukraine’s forces are pushing back — particularly in the south.

Kyiv’s forces in recent weeks — aided by Western weapons — have been advancing along the west bank of the Dnieper river towards the region’s main city, also called Kherson.

Kherson was the first major city to fall to Moscow’s troops after the invasion began and retaking it would be a crucial prize in Ukraine’s counter-offensive.

Kyiv said Friday it had retaken a total of 88 towns and villages in the region since launching its offensive to retake Kherson in the late summer. 

On Friday, Moscow-installed authorities there accused Kyiv’s forces of carrying out a fatal attack on a bridge being used by civilians.

“Four people were killed,” pro-Moscow official Kirill Stremousov said on Telegram. “The city of Kherson, like a fortress, is preparing for its defence.”

Russian investigators said later two of the dead were journalists and 13 people had been injured.

A Ukrainian military spokeswoman Nataliya Gumenyuk earlier denied Kyiv’s forces were responsible, saying they do not target local populations.

Russian state-run media in recent days aired footage showing civilians with bags taking ferries across the river from Kherson.

– Risks of disasters –

Kyiv has branded the organised movement of Kherson residents to Russia and other Moscow-controlled regions as “deportations” of Ukrainian citizens.

Zelensky said late Thursday that Russian forces had mined the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant with the intent of blowing it up.

Hundreds of thousands of people around the lower Dnieper river would be in danger of flash flooding if the dam was destroyed, Zelensky warned in a speech Thursday to European leaders.

On Friday, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal called for an international monitoring mission to deploy at the dam.

“International specialists need to arrive immediately at the station along with Ukrainian personnel,” Shmygal said during a government meeting. 

He also said cutting water supplies to the south could also impact the cooling systems of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.

The nuclear facility is a key concern of Russia’s eight-month invasion with both sides regularly accusing the other of shelling near it and endangering operations.

Ukraine’s push in the south comes after a sweeping counter-offensive in the northeast Kharkiv region that has badly impaired Russia’s supply routes and logistics corridors in the eastern Donbas region.

But Russian forces have continued shelling the region’s largest city, Kharkiv, and the presidency said Friday “industrial infrastructure” was hit in the city, wounding six.

The attack is the latest in a weeks-long barrage that has targeted infrastructure and particularly energy facilities.

Energy-saving measures were put in place across Ukraine after Russian missile and drone strikes destroyed what Zelensky said was more than 30 percent of the country’s power stations in a week.

– ‘We can hold out’ –

A 64-year-old Ukrainian, Vyacheslav, told AFP in Kyiv the nation would make do, despite the restrictions.

“There are books to read. There are battery-powered lights. I think we can hold out for a few hours. There are gas stoves so it will still be possible to cook,” he said, declining to give his full name.

Kyrylo, a 27-year-old shop salesman, said there had been a rush on power banks after Russian attacks began on the energy facilities in the capital.

“We don’t sell flashlights but regarding power banks, I can say that on the 10th, when the attack on Kyiv began, almost all available power banks were sold, and in general, the demand for power banks increased by 70 or 80 percent,” he added.

The Ukraine presidency said Friday Russian forces were shelling sections along the entire front line of Donbas and that two were killed in the Donetsk region.

Chad’s military ruler Mahamat Idriss Deby on Friday visited a hospital and a protest-hit district of N’Djamena, his office said, after a day of unprecedented violence that left around 50 people dead in the capital and elsewhere.

Tensions eased on Friday after Chad’s ruling junta announced an overnight curfew on Thursday, following fatal clashes eariler in the day between police and demonstrators protesting against the military’s grip on power.

The violence came on the heels of a national forum organised by Deby that extended his military government’s grip on power beyond Thursday’s deadline.

Deby, a 38-year-old five-star general, has been in power since his father — longtime military president Idriss Deby Itno — was killed in an operation against rebels in April 2021. He took no journalists with him on his city tour on Friday.

Escorted by a dozen vehicles, Mahamat Deby visited the capital’s southern seventh district, where there were violent clashes on Thursday, according to photos posted on the presidential palace’s Facebook page.

Some photos showed him at the hospital bedside of people hurt in the clashes.

Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo put the official toll from the violence at around 50 dead and more than 300 injured. He said most fatalities had occurred in N’Djamena and the cities of Moundou and Koumra.

Kebzabo also announced the suspension of “all public activity” by major opposition groups, including the Transformers party and civil society coalition Wakit Tamma.

In southern districts of the capital, where most of the clashes took place, there was relative calm on Friday morning, although debris from burnt tyres and the remains of makeshift street barricades littered the streets.

Law enforcement officers, some of them hooded, were seen sitting in vehicles to deter further protests.

– ‘Killing our people’ –

In the southern Chagoua district of the capital, women wearing high-viz jackets and carrying brooms and pickaxes cleaned the streets, while bus services gradually resumed. 

Local resident Suzanne Chamnone, 50, who lives next to the headquarters of Kebzabo’s party, the National Union for Development and Renewal (UNDR), said she saw people gathered outside the party building on Thursday.

“They threw stones and set fire to the premises,” she said. “I went home out of fear, with my children.” 

The violence came on the heels of a national forum organised by Deby that extended his stay in power.

Deby took over in April 2021 after his iron-fisted father, in power for three decades, was killed during an operation against rebels.

The younger Deby has since angered many at home and embarrassed backers abroad by staying in power beyond his initially promised deadline, which would have expired on Thursday.

“They’re firing on us. They are killing our people,” Succes Masra, whose Transformers party was among groups that had called the protest, said on Twitter on Thursday.

The United Nations said it “deplored the lethal use of force” and called for an investigation into reports of human rights violations.

The African Union and the European Union have also condemned the repression of the protests.

“This was a declaration of war against our party. A group of about 100 people came with tyres and petrol. We were in the minority,” argued UNDR activist Nestor Nahor, 40, who witnessed the looting at the party HQ. 

Access to the internet was disrupted in the south of the city on Friday.

Deby’s junta had originally declared it would restore civilian rule after 18 months in power and he initially promised not to take part in elections that would follow.

But as the 18-month deadline neared, the nationwide forum staged by Deby reset the clock. On October 1, it approved a new 24-month timeframe for holding elections.

It named Deby “transitional president” and declared he could be a candidate in the poll.

France’s foreign minister said Friday it was vital to keep lines of communication open with Russia, warning that President Vladimir Putin is trapped in a “strange vision” of the world.

President Emmanuel Macron has spoken to Putin since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine, drawing some criticism from Russia’s historic foes in eastern Europe, although the United States has also maintained lower-level contact including through talks between defense chiefs on Friday.

“We absolutely think it is crucial to keep a channel of communication with those making the decisions in Russia, including President Putin,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said on a visit to Washington.

“Putin is probably isolated in his very strange vision of the world and the way it could be run. Reinforcing this isolation of his would not be a good option,” she said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“We need him to hear when we mention our analysis and our assessment of the mistakes he made and what he could do to move on in a different direction,” she said.

Macron held marathon talks with Putin as part of a failed Western effort to dissuade him from invading the neighboring country.

While US President Joe Biden has shunned contact with his Russian counterpart, Macron has spoken to Putin in recent months and succeeded in allowing a mission by the UN nuclear watchdog to travel to the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine.

Colonna said she still hoped that the effort would lead to a demilitarized zone around the plant, the largest in Europe.

“This is too dangerous for the world to use as a zone of military confrontation,” she said.