Truck driver killed in protest over fuel costs
A truck driver in southern Italy was killed in the early hours of Monday during a demonstration over the high cost of fuel, reported news agency Adnkronos.
The 55-year-old was hit by a car on a section of the A1 motorway near Caserta while taking part in the protest and died instantly.
Fuel prices in Italy and elsewhere in Europe have soared in recent weeks as a result of supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz following the US and Israel's attacks on Iran.
TrasportoUnito, the road haulage union behind the strike, said the industry was facing an "unprecedented" crisis as costs continued to rise despite a government cut to fuel duty.
The union cancelled a planned six-day strike after the accident, general secretary Maurizio Longo said.
Italy's data watchdog fines post office €12.5 million over apps
Italy's data protection authority fined Poste Italiane and its subsidiary Postepay a combined €12.5 million on Monday for unlawfully processing the personal data of millions of app users, Ansa reported.
Poste Italiane was fined €6.6 million and Postepay €5.9 million.
The investigation, launched after complaints received from April 2024, focused on the BancoPosta and Postepay apps, which required users to authorise monitoring of data on their mobile devices — including installed and running applications — as a mandatory condition of use.
The authority said the apps involved "an excessively invasive interference in the private sphere of users" that went beyond what was strictly necessary for fraud prevention.
The authority ordered both companies to stop the contested data processing and bring their data retention practices into line with its requirements.
Italy 'may reactivate coal plants' if gas prices soar
The government said it may reactivate Italy's four coal-fired plants if the price of gas reaches €70 per megawatt hour, Environment and Energy Security Minister Gilberto Pichetto Fratin said on Monday, Ansa reported.
"If gas prices exceed 70 euros per megawatt hour, it may be necessary to reactivate the coal-fired power plants," Pichetto Fratin told reporters on the sidelines of an energy conference in Milan. "That's a high figure — it is currently around €40."
"We are talking about an emergency scenario," he said. "Coal remains a residual solution, but we must be ready if necessary."
He also ruled out a return to Russian gas, saying that was a decision to be made at the European level, not by Italy alone.
The government last month postponed the permanent shutdown of Italy's coal plants by 13 years to 2038.
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