Government cuts diesel duty ahead of peak travel weekend

Diesel will cost 17 cents a litre less from Tuesday after the cabinet approved an emergency excise cut, Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti told a press conference on Monday, in response to continued prices rises amid the crisis in the Middle East.

The cut, which applies to diesel only and will cost the state around €125 million, runs until August 6th, covering the early-August getaway when millions of drivers take to the roads.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the government had "decided to act immediately" after fuel prices climbed again through July, news agency Adnkronos reported. Her cabinet had already cut fuel duty earlier this year, but that reduction lapsed in early July.

Consumer group Codacons said the discount was too small to make a meaningful difference to drivers hit by price rises this summer, with ministers due to review the measure on August 4th.

**Meloni visits site of high-speed train clashes
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Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni travelled to Piedmont's Susa Valley on Monday to stand alongside police, after a weekend protest against the high-speed Lyon-Turin railway erupted into violent clashes that reportedly left more than 120 officers injured.

Investigators identified some 436 people involved in Saturday's confrontation at the construction site, which caused an estimated one million euros in damage, the Ansa news agency reported.

The line, intended to cut freight and passenger journeys through the Alps, has drawn opposition since work began more than 30 years ago. Backers say it will take polluting trucks off the roads, while 'No TAV' campaigners warn it will scar a pristine Alpine valley and release toxic chemicals buried in the mountainside.

"This is not dissent. This is organised, premeditated violence, and it must be treated as such," Meloni said in a video recorded during her visit.

**Prison guards seek investigation into sweltering jail conditions **

A prison guard union in Italy's southern Puglia region will ask prosecutors to investigate widespread workplace safety abuses inside overcrowded prisons, where temperatures have risen above 50C, AFP reported on Monday.

Alleging a "structural and persistent situation", the formal complaint accuses prison department officials of negligence in failing to fix entrenched problems: overcrowding, heat, second-hand smoke and inmates suffering psychiatric problems.

The SAPPE union said the case, which it plans to file at the court of Taranto on Tuesday, was the first of its kind and hopes it can be copied across the country to improve Italy's chronically dysfunctional prisons.

The complaint, known in Italy as an esposto, asks judicial authorities to open a fact-finding investigation into alleged breaches of the law, without seeking damages.