World

Far-right leader Giorgia Meloni took office Sunday as Italy’s first woman prime minister, calling on the fractious members of her coalition government to unite as they face looming crises on several fronts.

Four weeks after her post-fascist Brothers of Italy party won general elections, Meloni formally assumed office in a handover ceremony with outgoing premier Mario Draghi, before gathering her cabinet.

“We must be united, there are emergencies the country is facing. We have to work together,” the 45-year-old told her ministers during their first meeting, lasting half an hour.

The new government is the most far-right in Italy since World War II, and takes power at a time of soaring inflation and an energy crisis linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

It has already been rocked by tensions within Meloni’s coalition, which includes Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and former premier Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia.

Meloni was forced this week to repeat her unwavering support for Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia after Berlusconi was recorded defending President Vladimir Putin.

The prospect of a Eurosceptic, populist government taking the helm of the eurozone’s third largest economy has already sparked concern among Italy’s allies, particularly in the EU.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Saturday she had a “good first call” with Meloni, saying she looked forward to “constructive cooperation”.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany said he wanted to keep “working closely together with Italy in EU, NATO and G7” — a sentiment Meloni reflected in responses to congratulatory messages on Twitter.

A spokesman for French President Emmanuel Macron meanwhile left open Sunday the possibility that he will be the first foreign leader to meet Meloni, as he headed to Rome and the Vatican for a pre-planned visit.

– Reassuring ministers –

Meloni and her 24 ministers were sworn in on Saturday before President Sergio Mattarella and she declared her intention to get “straight to work”.

On Sunday Meloni joined outgoing prime minister Draghi, a former European Central Bank chief who took over in February 2021, for a formal handover of power.

They held private talks for almost 90 minutes before a smiling Draghi symbolically handed to Meloni a small bell used in cabinet debates, which she, grinning, rang a few times for the television cameras.

As a teenage activist, Meloni praised late dictator Benito Mussolini, but insists fascism is history and has transformed her party from a marginal group of radicals to a national force.

Brothers of Italy won just four percent of the vote in 2018 elections, but secured a 26 percent in the September 25 poll.

During 18 months as the only real opposition to Draghi’s national unity government, Meloni swept up disillusioned voters, presenting herself as a straight-talking defender of traditional values and Italy’s national interests.

But her ministerial experience is limited to three years as youth minister under Berlusconi’s 2008-2011 government, while her party has never held power.

In an attempt to reassure investors that Italy’s debt-laden economy was safe in her hands, Meloni has appointed Giancarlo Giorgetti as economy minister.

Giorgetti, who served as minister of economic development under Draghi, is considered one of the more moderate, pro-Europe members of Salvini’s League.

Draghi’s energy minister, Roberto Cingolani, will stay on as government advisor as Italy tries to wean itself off Russian gas, reports said.

– Coalition tensions –

Meloni’s party no longer wants Italy to leave the EU’s single currency but remains strongly Eurosceptic, as is the League, which won nine percent in the elections.

However, she named committed European Antonio Tajani, a former president of the European Parliament who co-founded Forza Italia with Berlusconi, as foreign minister and deputy prime minister.

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

Like Berlusconi, Salvini is a long-time fan of Putin and has criticised Western sanctions imposed on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

On Saturday Meloni again affirmed her desire to work with NATO, which she described as “more than a military alliance: a bulwark of common values we’ll never stop standing for”.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg and US President Joe Biden sent their congratulations, as did Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The tensions with her allies reinforce doubts as to how long she can keep her coalition together, in a country that has had almost 70 governments since 1946.

Pope Francis noted the start of the new government in his weekly Angelus Sunday, offering his prayers for “unity and peace in Italy”.

A suspected jihadist attack on three lorries and a motorcycle in western Niger near the border with Mali killed 11 people, local sources told AFP on Sunday.

The attack took place on a remote road in the so-called “three borders” region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso plagued by jihadist insurgents linked with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

A local government official in the Banibangou area where the attack occurred said armed men intercepted three trucks on a remote road on Saturday morning and killed their nine occupants.

Two people riding a motorcycle also died, he added.

A local lawmaker also confirmed the toll of 11 dead, saying two of the trucks were burned and the other taken away.

Attacks by militants had been less frequent in recent months in Banibangou, located in the vast and unstable Tillaberi region in western Niger.

Civilians have often been caught in the fighting between the rebels and security forces. In November 2021, authorities said at least 69 local self-defence militiamen were massacred.

Hurricane Roslyn made landfall on the west coast of Mexico on Sunday as a powerful Category 3 storm, the US National Hurricane Center said, as communities braced for damaging winds, a dangerous storm surge and flash flooding.

The storm hit the central Nayarit state around 5:30 am (1130 GMT) packing estimated maximum sustained winds of 120 miles (195 kilometers) per hour, the NHC said.

Just hours before hitting the Mexican coast, Roslyn was downgraded to a Category 3 storm on the five-tier Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, with the NHC predicting “rapid weakening” after landfall. 

“Roslyn is expected to produce a life-threatening storm surge with significant coastal flooding in areas of onshore winds” through Sunday, the NHC said, adding that near the coast “the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.”

It warned as well of damaging winds and heavy rains that could cause flash flooding and landslides.

Authorities have declared a precautionary alert in the Pacific coast states of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Sinaloa.

Victor Hugo Roldan, director of civil protection in Jalisco, told reporters on Saturday that several hundred people had been evacuated from the town of La Huerta, close to the hurricane’s expected path. 

Most went to relatives’ homes, while some went to shelters, he said.

– ‘Heed every warning’ –

Jalisco, which is slated to get up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in some spots, set up shelters in the cities of Cabo Corrientes, La Huerta and the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta.

Businesses in the resort town began to close Saturday afternoon on officials’ recommendations.

Residents rushed to make last-minute preparations, though by late Saturday afternoon some tourists were still lounging on the beach or unsuccessfully searching for open bars and restaurants. 

For 59-year-old shopping mall manager Graciano Pena, the memory of 2002’s Hurricane Kenna, which made landfall as a damaging Category 4 and left four dead, is still fresh.

“After that experience, we heed every warning and make preparations ahead of time,” he said. 

Other coastal states also prepared shelters.

Tropical cyclones hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November.

At the end of May, Agatha, the first Pacific storm of the season, hit the coast of the southern state of Oaxaca, where heavy rain in mountainous towns killed 11 people.

In October 1997, Hurricane Pauline struck Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm, leaving more than 200 dead.

British Conservative Rishi Sunak on Sunday announced he is standing to be prime minister, just weeks after failing in a first attempt and setting up a potentially bruising battle with his former boss Boris Johnson.

Ex-finance minister Sunak said he had a “track record of delivery” and would lead Britain out of “profound economic crisis”, which experts say has been worsened by the aborted policies of outgoing leader Liz Truss.

“I want to fix our economy, unite our party and deliver for our country,” he said in a short statement posted on Twitter confirming his widely expected candidacy.

The no-frills announcement contrasted with his last failed bid to be Tory leader, when he faced criticism for a slickly produced video launched just days after he had helped depose ex-prime minister Johnson by resigning in July. 

Sunak, 42, is the second Conservative MP to declare a run at the top job, after cabinet member Penny Mordaunt launched her campaign on Friday.

Johnson is anticipated to enter the likely week-long contest, after he cut short a Caribbean holiday to return to Britain Saturday and attempt an audacious political comeback less than two months after leaving office.

The 58-year-old is said to be intensely lobbying Conservative colleagues ahead of a Monday afternoon deadline to secure the 100 nominations required to face a vote of 357 Tory MPs.

– ‘Secret summit’ –

Sunak has raced ahead in that count, crossing the minimum threshold Friday and currently boasting the public backing of 139 Tory lawmakers, according to a BBC tally.

That compares to Johnson’s 56 and 23 for Mordaunt, though the ex-leader’s allies insist he has secured the 100 nominations.

“Boris’s campaign tell me that they have the numbers,” Business Secretary Jacob Rees-Mogg told the BBC. “Clearly, he is going to stand. There is a great deal of support for him.”

The Tories have been forced into a second, this time expedited, leadership contest since the summer following Truss’s resignation after only 44 disastrous days into her tenure over her calamitous tax-slashing mini-budget.

If two candidates remain after Conservative lawmakers vote Monday, the party’s approximately 170,000 members will make their choice, with the result announced Friday.

Johnson, who only relinquished power in early September following a government revolt over a slew of scandals, is still seen as the grassroots’ favourite. 

Amid growing calls for unity within the fractured ruling party, he and Sunak held talks late into the night, reports said Sunday, as the feuding political heavyweights battle behind the scenes.

Few details have emerged about what The Sun dubbed a “secret summit”. The Sunday Times said it lasted several hours “in the hope of burying the hatchet and thrashing out a deal to govern together”.

“We’re all waiting for white smoke,” an ally of one told the newspaper.

However, Sunak’s announcement Sunday suggests he is confident he can vanquish Johnson.

– ‘Guaranteed disaster’ –

Mordaunt, who missed out on the last contest’s run-off by just eight MPs’ votes, is adamant she alone is able to bring the party together.

“I’m best placed to unite our party,” the 49-year-old told the BBC, arguing she was “the halfway house” between Sunak and Truss in the summer race.

Johnson’s attempt at political resurrection has already been decried by opposition politicians, and even some in his own party.

“This isn’t the time for Boris,” Sunak-supporting Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker told Sky News, arguing another Johnson-led government “would be a guaranteed disaster” and implode within months.

“Voters out there love him and he’s a wonderful man — but he doesn’t have that meticulous compliance with tedious rules,” he added.

Sunak has also picked up several other endorsements, including from Home Secretary Grant Shapps, a former ally of Johnson, and trade minister Kemi Badenoch, an influential right-winger who finished fourth in the last leadership contest.

In a swipe at the ex-premier in The Sunday Times, she cautioned against “nostalgia for the cavalier elan of 2019” — when he won an 80-seat majority — and said the party “is not a vehicle for any one individual’s personal ambitions”.

New polling showed the Tories could benefit from a change of leader, after Truss’s missteps plunged them to unprecedented lows.

But a survey by Conservative pollster James Johnson still found all three Tory candidates had negative favourability, with Johnson on -24, Mordaunt -15 and Sunak -2. 

The main Labour opposition, which has opened up huge poll leads, is demanding a general election.

“The country needs to get rid of this chaos,” its leader Keir Starmer said.

Europe faces painful “industrial rationalisation” due to its energy crisis that risks political trouble, the head of Shell warned Sunday, as the oil giant joined a natural gas project in Qatar.

Shell chief executive Ben van Beurden agreed a deal for a 9.3 percent stake in Qatar Energy’s North Field South project, that will play a major role in the Gulf state’s effort to increase liquefied natural gas (LNG) production by 50 percent in the next five years.

At the signing ceremony in Doha, van Beurden said European industry face taking a major hit from the energy crisis, worsened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Europe has reduced consumption “quite effectively, quite significantly” following the loss of 120 million tonnes of Russian gas a year, van Beurden said, but “a lot of this reduction is achieved by switching off industry”.

Europe has desperately searched for quick alternatives to Russian gas, but van Beurden said Europe would need large amounts of LNG for decades.

“A lot of people say, turn down the thermostat, or maybe don’t switch on the air conditioning,” he said.

“But there is also ‘why don’t we switch off the fertiliser plant that we have’ or ‘let us scale down on some petro chemicals production in general’. And that rationalisation, if it goes on long enough, becomes permanent.”

– ‘Pressure’ –

Van Beurden said there have been “some victory laps” in Europe over the way it has reduced demand, but added “some of it is actually bad news for the long term, namely economic or industrial rationalisation.”

The Shell chief, who will retire at the end of the year, said industrial cuts could spark some “rejuvenation”, but also brought risks.

“To do it at this scale, this abruptness, at a time of economic challenges in general, I think will bring quite a bit of pressure on European economies, and perhaps also a lot of pressures for the political system in Europe,” he said.

British-based Shell is the second European company, after France’s TotalEnergies, to take a stake in North Field South. 

Twenty-five percent of the project has been reserved for international energy giants.

Expansion across the North Field, the world’s biggest proven gas reserves, is intended to increase Qatar’s LNG production by 50 percent to about 127 million tonnes a year by 2027.

Shell and TotalEnergies took stakes earlier this year in the North Field East zone.

“Natural gas assumes greater importance in light of recent geopolitical turmoil,” said Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi as he welcomed the Shell deal.

Formula One world champion Max Verstappen led the tributes on Sunday to Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, who turned the energy drink into a worldwide success and pumped money into a title-winning F1 team and several football clubs.

Mateschitz died on Saturday at the age of 78 after a long illness, having amassed a fortune estimated by Forbes at $27.4 billion (27.8 billion euros), making him Austria’s richest person.

He took a sweet drink that was already popular in Asia for its apparent energy-giving properties and adapted it to Western tastes.

Mateschitz was a savvy marketing man who popularised the Red Bull brand by associating it with sport, investing heavily in Formula One, football and extreme pursuits.

Red Bull now employs 13,000 people in 172 countries with an annual turnover of around eight billion euros. It sells nearly 10 billion cans of the drink a year.

Verstappen, who two weeks ago won his second consecutive world drivers’ title at the wheel of a Red Bull car, said he was determined to deliver a strong performance in Sunday’s United States Grand Prix as a tribute to Mateschitz.

“It’s been hard news for everyone, for Red Bull and for the sport and for me in general, in my career and in my life,” the Dutchman said.

“It is a very tough day. We missed out in qualifying by a little bit, but there is a race tomorrow and we’ll try to do it for him… we are going to make him proud.”

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said Mateschitz had led a “simply breathtaking life”.

“Dietrich Mateschitz built up a world-famous and successful company, and we have lost a great supporter of top-class sport and extreme sports,” the president tweeted.

– Success in football and F1 –

Apart from its substantial investment in the F1 team, Red Bull bought the football club of the Austrian city of Salzburg in 2005, then in 2009 acquired Leipzig when the German team were languishing in the fifth division.

German law bans the use of a company title in a club’s name, so the Leipzig board of directors called their club RasenBallsport Leipzig — literally “lawn ball sport” Leipzig — whose initials “RB” mirror those of Red Bull. 

From 2016, the club were promoted to the Bundesliga top flight and one season later qualified for the Champions League after finishing second in the table.

The Austrian company also captured the New York MetroStars franchise in the United States in 2006, turning them into the New York Red Bulls.

Red Bull has also branched out into extreme sports, sponsoring events such as air acrobatics and cliff diving.

When Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner jumped to earth from a helium balloon in 2012, his suit was plastered with the Red Bull logo.

But it is in Formula One that the company has really made its mark in the world of sport.

The head of the Red Bull F1 team, Christian Horner, said “thankfully” Mateschitz lived to see Verstappen clinch his second title by winning the Japanese Grand Prix earlier this month.

Horner said Mateschitz was “a great man, one of few of a kind” who had “proved you can make a difference. He was a passionate supporter and the backbone of all we do.”

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz secured pole position for the Grand Prix in Austin, Texas, but his thoughts were with his former team.

“I can’t be too happy after the loss of Dietrich Mateschitz. My condolences to his family, friends and the entire Red Bull family,” Sainz said on Twitter.

Red Bull are currently facing accusations from rival teams that they have cheated by breaching Formula One’s cost cap regulations.

The Red Bull drink was born during one of Mateschitz’s many business trips as marketing director of a German cosmetics company when he was served a sweet beverage common in Asia in a luxury bar in Hong Kong.

He was immediately fond of it and was impressed by the drink’s apparent ability to help him overcome his jet lag.

He decided to partner with the drink’s developer Thai businessman Chaleo Yoovidhya and the two men founded Red Bull in 1984.

burs-anb/gj/iwd

Here are the main contenders confirmed or expected to run to succeed UK Prime Minister Liz Truss, after she announced her resignation on Thursday:

– Rishi Sunak – 

Former chancellor of the exchequer Sunak secured the support of the 100 Conservative MPs needed to stand in the contest on Friday and formally announced his candidacy Sunday.

The 42-year-old lost convincingly to Truss in this summer’s Tory leadership vote of party members, after her promises to slash taxes and regulations without curbing government spending landed well. 

But predictions by Sunak, who had garnered greater initial support among Tory lawmakers, that this would cause economic carnage have proved prescient.

At hustings, he repeatedly warned that Truss’s plans were reckless and would worsen decades-high inflation and hurt market confidence in the UK.

Proved correct, he has now emerged as the bookmakers’ and MPs’ favourite.

A YouGov poll on Tuesday found he has the best approval ratings of the touted alternatives to Truss.

Yet he is viewed by some as divisive and out-of-touch: privately educated, wearing Prada loafers and married to an Indian billionaire’s daughter who avoided UK taxes.

Many party members, who could make the final decision, are also unwilling to forgive him for his role in ousting ex-prime minister Boris Johnson, his erstwhile close ally.

– Boris Johnson – 

The former premier cut short a Caribbean holiday to return to Britain on Saturday, as allies reported he had relayed that he was “up” for the contest. However, he is yet to formally announce his bid to be leader.

Johnson, 58, only left office early last month after a revolt among his cabinet and Tory MPs, sparked by the resignation of Sunak and others, following months of controversies.

Encouraged by several strong hints from Johnson himself, speculation has swirled ever since that he would attempt a comeback — though few expected it to happen this quickly.

The ever-ebullient Brexit figurehead remains popular with a section of Conservative MPs and the party. But his brand among the wider electorate was severely damaged by his scandal-tainted three-year tenure.

A recent YouGov poll showed that around two-thirds of respondents had an unfavourable opinion of him.

Johnson has kept a low profile since resigning, taking several holidays and giving a paid speech in the United States last week followed by his now-shortened trip to the Caribbean.

He was thought to favour Truss in the first Tory leadership contest — although his former top aide Dominic Cummings, now an arch-critic, argued that this was because he expected her tenure to be disastrous and short-lived, paving the way for his return.

– Penny Mordaunt – 

The current cabinet member was the first to formally declare she was standing, in a tweet on Friday.

She followed up Saturday with a slickly produced campaign video charting her life story, growing up in, and then representing in parliament, the south coast city of Portsmouth.

She also appeared on the BBC’s flagship Sunday political talk show, claiming she was best placed to reunite her fractured party.

An early grassroots favourite to succeed Johnson, the 49-year-old came close to beating Truss to make the final run-off against Sunak in the summer.

The former defence and trade junior minister was a strong Brexit supporter and a key figure in the 2016 “Leave” campaign.

But she faced criticism during the recent leadership race, with some MPs dismissing her as ineffective in government roles.

Mordaunt’s profile rose earlier this week after she was dispatched in place of Truss to answer an urgent question in parliament from the Labour opposition about the recent economic turmoil.

Mordaunt was seen as coping well with the febrile House of Commons session, where she was forced to confirm the absent prime minister was “not (hiding) under a desk”. 

Sergiy Miliutin was meant to be handing out competition awards to children at a nuclear bunker instead of sitting at his desk dealing with emergencies as his south Ukrainian city slowly lost its lights.

But the burly and cheerful deputy mayor of Kryvyi Rig has grown used to his phone constantly demanding his attention after eight months of war.

The Russians have been pushed back from the steel-producing city’s edges to about an hour’s drive away.

They have responded by pummelling Ukraine’s energy grid with missiles in an attempt to beat the country into submission ahead of the cold winter months.

Yet the latest news from the front is increasingly upbeat.

Ukraine’s month-long counteroffensive has forced Russian-installed officials to start evacuating the nearby regional capital Kherson that they seized in early March.

And as he navigates problems above ground, the competition continues in an adapted underground bunker, once a grimly-lit concrete basement but now a place where Ukrainians come to reaffirm their commitment to life despite the draining conflict.

Miliutin sounded philosophical as he munched on his meat wrap while tapping away at his phone to see which districts of the city needed emergency help.

“Of course, physically I am tired,” the 45-year-old, an engineer by training, admitted.

“But I’ve reached a point where I just survive on my drive. You have to stay level-headed and save your strength. No one knows how long this will all last.”

– ‘Not forgotten’ –

In the bunker — built in the 1960s to withstand the impact of a nuclear attack during the Cold war — the children’s competition continues without the deputy mayor.

Kryvyi Rig has transformed it and similar underground dwellings into arenas and performance venues that gather hundreds for weekend events, in a bid to give their children a semblance of normality.

The boys and girls proudly paraded around in white martial arts costumes for the city’s finals of the annual hand-to-hand combat competition.

Their exhausted-looking parents leaned against walls and slumped on benches, watching their progeny flip and flop around on square mats.

A host excitedly announced each bout on a loudspeaker whose echoes rang out well above ground.

In Miliutin’s absence, the event was being overseen by the national coach of Ukraine’s hand-to-hand combat team.

“Psychologically, it is important for the children to see that the grown-ups have not forgotten about them,” coach Anatoliy Voloshyn told AFP above all the noise.

“They haven’t been to school in months. They needed to feel like they matter again.”

– ‘Please, don’t relax’ –

The main bunker in Kryvyi Rig has hosted everything from pop concerts to comedy shows from the Studio Kvartal 95 TV crew that launched the career of now-President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Like other Ukrainian industrial cities, life is finely balanced between exultation and despair as the war drags on.

The approach of each missile or — with growing frequency — suicide drone is announced by the soul-crushing wails of air raid sirens that ring out day and night.

News of each downed missile is celebrated on social media by a nation that has moved a large part of its daily life online.

Some sections of big cities stand either in ruins or without lights and power.

Others are filled with shoppers or smiling couples that push prams or walk dogs and ignore the air alarms.

The deputy mayor is no longer sure how he can make people take the sirens as seriously as they did in the first days of war.

“We keep constantly reminding people — please, please, please, don’t relax,” Miliutin said.

Russia decided quickly to focus its long-range air assault on big buildings that could potentially house officials or troops.

Schools and cinemas no longer function across Ukraine because of the Russian bombing threat.

Miliutin said it took a few months for everyone to realise that something resembling normal life could resume down in the long-forgotten bunkers dotting the country since Soviet times.

“Everyone is very cheerful down here,” coach Voloshyn said. “It’s as if there were no war.”

British Conservative leadership rivals Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak held talks late into the night, reports said Sunday, as the feuding political heavyweights battle behind the scenes to lead their fractured ruling party.

Both are yet to declare they will run to replace outgoing Tory leader Liz Truss, making no public statements since she announced Thursday her imminent departure only 44 tempestuous days into her tenure.

Amid increasing acrimony within the splintered Tories, cabinet member Penny Mordaunt — the first and so far only candidate to formally declare — insisted she is the MP able to bring the party together.

“I think I’m best placed to unite our party,” the 49-year-old told the BBC, adding she was “the halfway house” between Sunak and Truss in the last leadership contest which only concluded seven weeks ago.

Mordaunt narrowly missed out on making the run-off, falling short by eight MPs’ votes.

Former prime minister Johnson and ex-finance minister Sunak are said to be intensely lobbying Conservative colleagues ahead of a Monday deadline to secure the 100 nominations required to face a vote by Tory MPs.

Sunak has raced ahead, with the 42-year-old crossing that threshold Friday and currently boasting the public backing of 129 Tory lawmakers, according to a BBC tally.

That compares to Johnson’s 53 and 23 for Mordaunt, though the ex-leader’s allies insist he has already amassed the 100 nominations.

“We’ve got the numbers,” Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris reiterated Sunday, telling Sky News the ex-premier was “keen to see what the parliamentary party thinks”.

– ‘Guaranteed disaster’ –

If two candidates remain after MPs vote Monday, the Conservatives’ approximately 170,000 members will get to make their choice next week, with Johnson still seen as the favourite of the grassroots. 

The Tories have been forced into this second, now expedited, leadership contest since the summer following Truss’s resignation after her disastrous tax-slashing mini-budget sparked economic and political turmoil.

Johnson, 58, cut short a luxury holiday in the Caribbean to return to Britain Saturday and attempt an audacious political comeback just weeks after leaving office.

The divisive Brexit architect only relinquished power in early September, two months after announcing his resignation following a government revolt over a slew of scandals.

He reportedly met Sunak, whose July resignation helped trigger his downfall, for several hours Saturday evening to discuss the contest.

Few details have emerged about what The Sun dubbed a “secret summit”. The Sunday Times said it began at 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) and was ongoing at 11:00 pm, “in the hope of burying the hatchet and thrashing out a deal to govern together”.

“We’re all waiting for white smoke,” an ally of one told the newspaper.

– ‘Chaos’ –

Johnson’s apparent attempt to return to Downing Street has already been decried by opposition politicians, and even some in his own party who are demanding stability and unity.

“This isn’t the time for Boris,” Sunak-supporting Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker told Sky News, arguing another Johnson-led government “would be a guaranteed disaster” and implode within months.

“Voters out there love him and he’s a wonderful man — but he doesn’t have that meticulous compliance with tedious rules,” he added.

Sunak also picked up the key endorsement of trade minister Kemi Badenoch, an influential right-winger and prominent Brexiteer who finished fourth in the last leadership contest.

In a clear swipe at Johnson in The Sunday Times, she cautioned against “nostalgia for the cavalier elan of 2019” — when he won an 80-seat majority — and said the Conservative party “is not a vehicle for any one individual’s personal ambitions”.

Other senior Tories are pressing for unity.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, who said Friday he was “leaning towards” backing Johnson, implored the three contenders to form a ruling trio, telling the same paper it is “not the time for political infighting”.

Meanwhile, Heaton-Harris welcomed Saturday night’s talks between Johnson and Sunak.

“It’s really important that the party unifies… I want those talks between Rishi and Boris to continue,” he said.

New polling released Sunday showed the Tories could benefit from a change of leader, after Truss’s missteps plunged them to unprecedented lows.

But the survey by Conservative pollster James Johnson still found all three Tory candidates had negative favourability, with Johnson on -24, Mordaunt -15 and Sunak -2. 

The main Labour opposition, which has opened up huge poll leads, is demanding a general election.

“The country needs to get rid of this chaos,” its leader Keir Starmer told the BBC.

Communities along the west coast of Mexico prepared for Hurricane Roslyn, a Category 3 storm, to make landfall Sunday as the US National Hurricane Center warned of potentially damaging winds, a dangerous storm surge and flash flooding.

The major storm was about 80 miles (130 kilometers) southwest of the city of Tepic, with maximum sustained winds of 125 miles per hour and moving north at about 16 mph, the NHC said in its 0900 GMT update.

It is forecast to slam into the coast of Nayarit state on Sunday morning at or near major hurricane strength, the NHC said.

“Little change in strength is anticipated before landfall later this morning, and rapid weakening is expected after landfall,” the NHC said.

“On the forecast track, the center of Roslyn will approach the coast of west-central Mexico, likely making landfall along the coast of the Mexican state of Nayarit Sunday morning.”

Both the NHC and the Meteorological Service of Mexico warned of flash flooding and landslides caused by the storm. 

“Roslyn is expected to produce a life-threatening storm surge with significant coastal flooding near and to the east of where the center makes landfall,” the NHC said.

“Near the coast, the surge will be accompanied by large and destructive waves.”

Authorities have declared a precautionary alert in the Pacific coast states of Jalisco, Colima, Nayarit and Sinaloa.

Victor Hugo Roldan, director of civil protection in Jalisco state, told reporters on Saturday that several hundred people had been evacuated from the town of La Huerta, close to the hurricane’s expected path. 

Most went to relatives’ homes, while some went to shelters, he said.

– ‘Heed every warning’ –

Jalisco, which is slated to get up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain in some spots, has set up shelters in the cities of Cabo Corrientes, La Huerta and the tourist resort of Puerto Vallarta. 

Businesses in the resort town began to close Saturday afternoon on officials’ recommendations.

Residents rushed to make last-minute preparations, though by late Saturday afternoon some tourists were still lounging on the beach or unsuccessfully searching for open bars and restaurants. 

For 59-year-old shopping mall manager Graciano Pena, the memory of 2002’s Hurricane Kenna, which made landfall as a damaging Category 4 and left four dead, is still fresh.

“After that experience, we heed every warning and make preparations ahead of time,” he said. 

Other coastal states were also preparing shelters.

Forecasts suggest Roslyn could make landfall near San Blas, a town of about 40,000 with several fishing communities.

Tropical cyclones hit Mexico every year on both its Pacific and Atlantic coasts, usually between May and November.

At the end of May, Agatha, the first Pacific storm of the season, hit the coast of the state of Oaxaca (south), where heavy rain in mountainous towns killed 11 people.

In October 1997, Hurricane Pauline struck Mexico’s Pacific coast as a Category 4 storm, leaving more than 200 dead.