Italy’s top story on Monday

G7 ministers were to meet for environment and climate talks in Turin on Monday, with experts urging the highly industrialised countries to use their political clout, wealth and technologies to end fossil fuel use.

The Group of Seven meeting in the northern Italian city is the first big political session since the world pledged at the UN’s COP28 climate summit in December to transition away from coal, oil and gas, AFP reported.

It comes as a new report by a global climate institute showed the G7 was falling far short of its targets.

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Turin on Sunday, some burning photos of the G7 leaders as they accused them of failing future generations over the climate crisis.

PD’s Schlein says Meloni has ‘lost touch with reality’

Democratic Party leader Elly Schlein criticised Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni for “burying Italy’s problems under a river of rhetoric” after Meloni spoke for an hour on Sunday without mentioning public health, lengthy waiting lists, low wages or job security.

“Italy has changed.. for the worse,” the social democrat said.

“The problem is that the prime minister is divided between Palazzo Chigi [the seat of the Council of Ministers and the PM’s office] and ‘TeleMeloni’ propaganda, she has lost contact with reality,” she added.

Schlein was referring to political divides within the coalition government and an ongoing row over Meloni’s influence at state broacaster Rai.

Woman injured by stray bullet in Latina

A 20-year-old Italian woman was hurt after she was accidentally hit by a stray gunshot during a riot near the Ferro di Cavallo area in Latina on Saturday night, Italian news agency Ansa reported.

It remains unclear what prompted the fight, which broke out shortly after midnight, but investigators said two groups of “intoxicated” people of Albanian and Romanian nationality were involved.

The woman was taken to hospital where she had surgery to remove the bullet that was lodged between her foot and ankle.

This came in the wake of another incident in Sezze earlier in the week – police were investigating a hooded man who fired a gunshot into the air on Thursday night.

Coffee and chocolate could cost more in Italy as raw material prices surge

The cost of coffee and coffee beans has reached worrying new price records on international markets, which could soon lead to sharp increases in retail prices for many products sold in Italy, Ansa reported, citing consumer protection NGO Codacons.

At the beginning of January, the price of cocoa was around 4,250 dollars per tonne, while on Wednesday April 24th, market prices had reached 10,800 dollars, an increase of 154 percent since the start of the year.

It’s a similar picture for coffee, with Robusta coffee beans jumping from 2,800 dollars a tonne in January to 4,250 dollars at the end of April, a 51.8 increase.

Retail prices have already been affected – cocoa and coffee-based products cost significantly more than they did last year, Codacons said.