(YUMA, Ariz.) — At least seven people were shot, two fatally, during a gathering in Yuma, Arizona, late Saturday, police said.
No suspects were in custody Sunday as investigators worked to identify the person or persons who committed the deadly act, police officials said. A $1,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of those responsible, police said.
The shooting unfolded just before 11 p.m. in a residential neighborhood southeast of downtown Yuma, said Lt. Craig Johnson of the Yuma Police Department.
Officers who responded to the scene found several people injured, Johnson said.
Several off-duty law enforcement officers were in the area when the gunfire erupted and quickly responded to assist with this incident, police officials said in a statement released Sunday.
A 19-year-old man found gravely wounded at the scene, was taken to a hospital by private car prior to police arriving, authorities said. The teenager was pronounced dead at Yuma Regional Medical Center a short time after being taken there, police said.
A 20-year-old man was found at the scene suffering from a gunshot wound and taken by the Yuma Fire Department to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
A 16-year-old boy suffered life-threatening injuries in the shooting and was taken to Yuma Regional Medical Center before being flown to a trauma center in Phoenix more than 200 miles away, officials said.
Four other teenagers, ranging in age from 15 to 19, were being treated at Yuma Regional Medical Center for non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
Despite the suspect or suspects remaining on the loose Sunday, Johnson said there was no credible ongoing threat to the community.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday the House Committee on Foreign Affairs will continue to pursue contempt charges for Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Congress subpoenaed Blinken to turn over the dissent cable regarding the withdrawal of American personnel in 2021.
“I am prepared to move forward to contempt proceedings,” McCaul, the committee’s chairman, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “This would be the first time a secretary of state has ever been held in contempt by Congress and it’s criminal contempt, so I don’t take it lightly.”
If Blinken is held in contempt, his case would be turned over to the Department of Justice, however it is unlikely the Biden DOJ would prosecute Blinken.
Karl also pressed McCaul on the recent expiration of Title 42 and its impact on border security. Officials expected a surge at the border following the end of this policy, one that called for the expulsion of illegal migrants at the border. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas told “This Week” on Sunday that encounters at the border have dropped significantly since Title 42’s expiration.
“We’ve actually seen a 50% drop in encounters at the border compared to the days before Title 42 ended,” Mayorkas said. “Why? We’ve been preparing for this and are executing.”
When asked for a response to the secretary’s statement, McCaul said this should have happened sooner.
“Why did it take him so long?” McCaul said. “I mean, I told him from day one, you can call it whatever you want, but the migrant protection protocols were working.”
McCaul also said there could be room for a bipartisan bill on border security but he recognized that the recent GOP proposal on border security will not pass in the Senate. The proposal calls for the reconstruction of Trump’s border wall and the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“I’m still hopeful that there are rational Democrats out there who will work with us on some of these provisions,” McCaul said.
House Republicans recently passed a bill that would raise the nation’s debt limit and cut spending in certain areas. Experts have warned that a national default could occur as early as June 1 if no deal is struck.
“How concerned are you that we’re heading toward a default?” Karl asked.
“I think defaulting on our full faith and credit, any financial person will tell you it’s very catastrophic,” McCaul responded. “They said [Republicans] couldn’t govern, we got a border bill passed.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Millions of people on the West Coast are facing a continuation of intense early-season heat for multiple days, forecasts show.
Washington state began seeing record-breaking temperatures at the start of the weekend. On Sunday, Seattle could reach 90 degrees for the first time this year, which would also break the daily record high of 88 degrees. Highs in Portland and Medford, Oregon, could also break records before the weekend is through.
These temperatures are coming well in advance — more than a month — ahead of when they usually start creeping up.
The region, known for its typically cool and rainy climate, has been experiencing more uncharacteristic heat waves and wildfires in recent years.
The temperatures could raise the risk of heat-related illness, especially as the majority of households in the region are not equipped with central air conditioning.
High temperatures are cranking up even more further down the coast. Fresno, California, is forecast to be approaching 100 degrees on Sunday, with high temperatures of 95 degrees to 100 degrees for at least the next five days.
About 12 million people are under heat advisories along the West Coast.
More extreme heat is an indicator of human-caused climate change, according to scientists.
Extreme heat is the deadliest natural hazard in the U.S.
More than 230 locations in the U.S. have seen the annual number of minimum mortality temperature heat days — temperatures at which the health risks also start to rise — by 21 more days on average since 1970, according to an analysis by Climate Central.
While the South and Southeast tend to be the riskiest heat spots, increases in days above local minimum mortality temperature were observed in every region in the U.S., according to Climate Central.
(WASHINGTON) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Sunday defended the country’s border policies, insisting the Biden administration was taking a strong enough stance on a surge of migration while batting away claims it was being overly strict.
Mayorkas took issue with criticism from progressives who compared President Joe Biden’s policies to those of former President Donald Trump, who required migrants to apply for asylum in countries they passed through before applying for it the U.S. The secretary pointed to the 50% drop in encounters at the border before the end of Title 42, allowing for expedited deportations of undocumented migrants.
“This is not an asylum ban. We have a humanitarian obligation as well as a matter of security to cut the ruthless smugglers out. That is a responsibility of government and we are doing that, and Jon, it is not a ban at all,” Mayorkas told “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
He went on, “What our rule provides is that an individual must access those lawful pathways that we have made available to them. If they have not, then they must have sought relief in one of the countries through which they have traveled and been denied. And if they haven’t done either, it’s not a ban on asylum, but they have a higher threshold of proof that they have to meet. That is a presumption of ineligibility that can be overcome.”
Mayorkas also fended off barbs over the White House’s plan to release some migrants without mandated court dates due to overcrowding in facilities housing those who cross the border despite a judge’s recent ruling scrapping the policy.
“We have an obligation to comply with that ruling,” he said. “We respectfully disagree with the judge. We think it’s a very harmful ruling. When … our border patrol stations become overcrowded, it is a matter of the safety and security of people, including our own personnel, not just the vulnerable migrants, to be able to release them. And this is something that administration after administration has done.”
The secretary’s comments come as Biden faces a barrage of criticism and an avalanche of media coverage over the end of Title 42, a pandemic-era policy that allowed border officials to deport migrants illegally crossing the border.
The ending of the rule, which coincided with the ending of the national emergency around COVID-19, is expected to produce surges of attempted border crossings.
Meanwhile, Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill remain divided over how to address unauthorized border crossings, extending a decades long standstill over immigration policy changes in Washington.
House Republicans did pass legislation seeking to limit asylum and extend the Trump-era border wall but the bill is dead on arrival in the Senate, which is controlled by Democrats.
The administration has sought to thread the needle in blunting an expected border surge, making it harder for migrants to apply for asylum while pushing back on any comparisons to the previous administration’s more draconian policies.
Mayorkas also defended Vice President Kamala Harris, who was tasked earlier in the Biden presidency to handle immigration.
“That effort is a yearslong effort. And Vice President Harris has led the investment of more than $3 billion in the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador,” he said.
“That effort began in the Obama-Biden administration. It was terribly taken down during the Trump administration and Vice President Harris has led an extraordinary effort to address the root causes of why people flee their homes in the first instance: violence, poverty, corruption, authoritarian regimes, extreme weather events, persecution and the like.”
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper on Saturday vetoed a Republican bill that would ban most abortions after 12 weeks, though the politics of the state mean that the possibility of a veto override is imminent.
The Democratic governor would likely need just one Republican defector to prevent the GOP-led legislature from overriding his veto and allowing the current 20-week limit to remain in place — and he implored those lawmakers to exercise that option.
“Maybe it’ll be a friend or family member or even a doctor of one of these Republican legislators who convinces them to step up and do the right thing,” the governor said on Saturday as he issued the veto at a rally of hundreds of abortion rights supporters and voters in downtown Raleigh.
“If just one Republican follows his or her conscience, if just one Republican finds the courage, if just one Republican listens to doctors, if just one Republican is unafraid to stand up to the political bosses, if just one Republican keeps that promise made to the people, then we can stop this ban,” he continued.
Just a few weeks ago, Cooper’s veto pen likely would have been enough to stop a bill from becoming law. But a party-switch from one state representative has handed North Carolina Republicans a veto-proof supermajority.
State Rep. Tricia Cotham, previously a Democrat who ran on supporting abortion rights, announced she was switching to the Republican Party in early April. Cotham voted in favor of the new abortion bill banning the procedure after 12 weeks with some exceptions.
Now, Cooper needs at least one Republican to decline to override his veto to defeat the bill.
Republican leadership has pushed back on Cooper’s criticism of the bill, describing it is a “mainstream abortion compromise.”
“Gov. Cooper has spent the last week actively feeding the public lies about Senate Bill 20 and bullying members of the General Assembly,” Senate Leader Phil Berger said in a statement Saturday after Cooper’s veto.
“He has been doing everything he can, including wasting taxpayer money on poorly attended events, to avoid talking about his own extreme views on abortion,” Berger said. “I look forward to promptly overriding his veto.”
The abortion bill, dubbed the “The Care for Women, Children and Families Act,” passed earlier this month along party lines.
It would ban most abortions at 12 weeks of pregnancy, and offers exceptions in cases of medical emergencies, rape and incest up to 20 weeks and for “life-threatening” fetal anomalies up to 24 weeks.
The legislation would also restrict abortion medication from being mailed.
Providers who perform abortions outside the bills’ parameters would face possible discipline from the state medical board, including possible probation, fines or revoking of licenses.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
(ALPENA, Mich.) — A teenager helped save his younger sister from an alleged kidnapper by shooting the suspect with his slingshot, Michigan authorities said.
The 8-year-old girl was mushroom-hunting in her backyard in Alpena Township on Wednesday when “an unknown male appeared from the woods,” the Michigan State Police said in a press release on Friday.
The suspect held the girl’s mouth shut but she was able to break free, police said. Her 13-year-old brother witnessed the attack and shot the assailant in the head and chest with his slingshot, police said.
The suspect fled the area but was located by state troopers hiding at a nearby gas station, police said.
“The suspect had obvious signs of injury sustained from the slingshot with wounds to his head and chest,” police said.
The suspect — identified as a 17-year-old from Alpena — was taken into custody and allegedly confessed to detectives that he “planned on severely beating the victim,” police said. He was lodged in the Alpena County Jail without incident, police said.
The suspect was arraigned on Thursday on one count of attempted kidnapping/child enticement, one count of attempted assault to do great bodily harm less than murder, and one count of assault and battery, according to police.
His bond was set at $150,000 and his next court appearance was scheduled for May 17, police said.
The suspect is being charged as an adult but his name has not been released by police.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Over 90% of Uvalde students were picked up early by their parents or guardians from school Friday after a video was discovered circulating social media referencing threats to schools in the area, according to the district.
“These threats have caused families in our school district significant discomfort,” Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District spokesperson Anne Marie Espinoza said in a statement.
The posts, which included an individual with a gun, were first discovered Friday and originated in Del Rio, Texas, a city 70 miles west of Uvalde, Texas, and targeted several school districts including Uvalde, Del Rio and Eagle Pass. Several police agencies investigated the threats throughout the day, and determined they are not credible.
“Unfortunately, as the anniversary of the Uvalde tragedy approaches, we will see more people wanting to scare and disrupt our schools,” the San Felipe Del Rio CISD said in a press release.
Gladys Gonzales, a Uvalde parent, picked up her second-grade daughter from school after hearing about the threats. She said there were only a handful of students left in class when she picked her up. Her other daughter, who was a survivor of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, was not in school Friday.
“It is nerve-racking every time there are threats,” Gonzales told ABC News. “Law enforcement need to take it serious every time. The fear is real.”
The posts also prompted the Uvalde school district to cancel their pep rally on May 12. The district did not implement an early release for the remaining 10% of students in order to prevent students from arriving at an empty home without guardian supervision.
“I think that fear is always going to be there and as much as we try to prepare ourselves, you can never be too safe,” said Gonzales.
The mass exodus from Uvalde schools Friday afternoon is indicative of a community still reeling from the mass shooting that killed 19 students and two of their teachers nearly one year ago. Uvalde Interim Superintendent Gary Patterson said in a statement that these types of situations are occurring at a high frequency rate. The district became aware of another threat on Snapchat that turned out to have originated in Florida on May 5. Patterson wrote that the post was an attempt to disrupt the school day and did not present any danger to students.
“We cannot afford to take anything for granted,” said Patterson in a statement about the most recent threat. “We expect social media threats to increase as we near our one-year date.”
The Uvalde school district has already elected to end the school year a few days early, so the buildings will be void of students and teachers on the one-year mark of the massacre.
ABC News’ MaryEllen Schwisow and Brian Mezerski contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — After a week of blame-shifting, name-calling and protests, New York politicians are coming to terms with the reality of housing and caring for thousands of new migrants.
A new bus of migrants arrived at New York City’s Port Authority Bus Terminal Saturday morning around 6 a.m. as officials remained committed to caring for New York’s newest immigrants, albeit without a clear action plan.
Following the lifting of Title 42 — a pandemic-era rule that allowed the easier expulsion of migrants — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has continued to bus migrants to major cities like New York. Local, state and city officials have voiced concerns about a lack of planning to accommodate the migrants as New York operates a shelter system above capacity and vows to send migrants to counties that have already declared state of emergencies.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul sent a letter to President Joe Biden Friday requesting assistance from federal agencies to house migrants on federal land in New York, including military facilities.
“I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the State and the affected local government and that supplementary federal assistance is necessary,” Hochul wrote.
As of Friday, New York City is beyond capacity for its shelter system with over 36,700 migrants housed across 120 locations, according to Hochul. She added that with no more shelter space, 40% of “mid-level hotel stock” in New York City is used for short-term respite centers.
In her letter, Hochul specifically called for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to direct the Department of Defense and National Park Service to assist in building and operating temporary housing on military installations and other government sites.
Hochul told county executives that she expects the federal government to soon step in to provide aid, according to Steve Neuhaus, the executive of Orange County, New York.
Roughly 60 miles from New York City, Orange County became a center for controversy on Thursday when 82 migrants were bused from New York City to the Crossroads Hotel in Newburgh, New York.
Neuhaus told ABC News that New York Mayor Eric Adams did not provide any notice about the migrants to either himself, state police, the local sheriff or Hochul.
“So, it really is an unprofessional way of doing this; this could have gone a lot smoother,” said Neuhaus. “If they said, ‘Look, they’re coming, here’s their names, we’ll work out everything later,’ but it hasn’t gone that way.”
Neuhaus said last week that Adams initially told him 60 male migrants would arrive but a few days later recanted that statement and assured him no buses would arrive, according to Neuhaus. But on Thursday, he claims he received a call that a bus was 15 minutes away from the hotel.
Neuhaus also said he expects more buses to arrive at the Crossroads Hotel and Ramada Inn in Newburgh over the weekend. He said he heard that from county partners — not the city of New York — adding that Governor Hochul is trying her best, but the city “has gone rogue.”
On Friday, Orange County sued New York City and the Crossroads Hotel to stop the housing of migrants. The town of Newburgh, New York, also filed a lawsuit and temporary restraining order against the owner of the Crossroads Hotel Friday, requesting an immediately halt to the “deliberate, hazardous and unlawful conversion” of the hotel as a selected housing site for New York City’s migrant program.
Neuhaus told ABC News that he is not opposed to the arrival of migrants in Orange County but wants them to be vetted, adding that migrant workers arrive each year to work on farms.
New York City Councilmember Ari Kagan expressed a similar frustration about a lack of communication from Eric Adams after he learned that the standalone gym for a public school in Coney Island, New York, would be used to house migrants.
“First time I learned about it was a social media post on Facebook by the principal of that school,” Councilmember Ari Kagan told ABC affiliate WABC.
Nearby residents expressed frustration about the surprise move, citing crime and public health concerns.
“Take them to Gracie Mansion,” one resident told WABC. “Mayor Adams is taking this thing a little too far.”
As New York struggles to house migrants, Adams has moved to relax rules that previously protected homeless families from seeking shelter. Signing emergency executive orders on Wednesday, Adams suspended sections of New York’s administrative code related to right-to-shelter rules, including requiring families to be placed in private rooms with bathrooms and kitchens.
Eric Adams alluded to New York’s challenges in an address to graduates of the City University of New York School of Law on Friday morning.
“These are exciting times, and we know we can move this city forward as we deal with the issues around immigration, the issues around public safety, the issues around how do we build a better city for all,” Adams said.
During the address, students turned so that their backs faced the mayor, with boos and heckles tossed by the crowd — a rough conclusion to a challenging week as New York City faces a crisis with no end in sight.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — With the end of its spring semester last week, North Carolina State University concluded a tragic school year that saw the deaths of 14 students.
Seven students died by suicide, two fatally overdosed, four passed away from natural causes, and one student was killed in a car accident, according to Mick Kulikowski, NC State’s director of strategic communications and media relations. Over a dozen students and mental health experts described the loss of life at NC State to ABC News as staggering and tragic, as well as a concerning example of national trends in student mental health.
“I really started feeling it once it got to the fourth student death, because it really started to feel like it was an epidemic on campus at that point,” said Mariana Fabian, a fourth-year student and opinion editor for NC State’s student newspaper, The Technician.
The deaths have cast an outsized shadow on the Raleigh campus, where classes continued through the year as the number of deaths gradually increased. NC State convened a task force devoted to mental health in November, releasing an 89-page report in late February that recommended a flurry of proposals to improve student life. The report’s sobering conclusion: while NC State is “dedicated” to improving student mental health, “there is not only room for, but also a need for, additional efforts.”
Apart from occasional wellness days and outreach following student deaths, the humdrum of college life continued at NC State, leaving little time for grieving according to some students.
“We’re having to say goodbye to the students, but also focus on turning in an assignment,” junior Angelina Cordone told ABC News.
Some communities on campus have faced a larger toll of the tragedies — as at least seven students, including three who died by suicide, have been part of NC State’s School of Engineering, according to Kulikowski. With over 36,000 students, NC State has averaged eight student deaths, including three by suicide, annually since 2018, according to the task force’s report.
“I think a lot of people really want to honor the lives that were lost, but there was also a big feeling of enough is enough,” said Eleanor Lott, a sophomore and a member of NC State’s mental health task force.
In late March, Vice Chancellor and Dean Doneka Scott described the year to ABC News as a tragic “outlier,” pointing to the nationwide challenge of educating students amid a rise in depression and suicide among young people.
“Institutions across the country are grappling with this,” Scott said. “This is not an NC State-only issue. It’s an issue in higher education writ large.”
The rate of suicide has roughly increased in the United States over the last two decades. Despite a two-year decline in 2019 and 2020, the rate rose again in 2021, with one of the most significant year-over-year jumps for those aged 15-24, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For that age group, suicide remains the third-leading cause of death.
Across ten student interviews with ABC News, some students at NC State pointed to the stresses of being a student there – including its demanding STEM classes – and stress stemming from grades and social pressures in an isolated campus community following years of coronavirus-related restrictions. Others described broader concerns about the weight of being young in a seemingly broken world, including the intensity of politics, debt, fleeting job opportunities, and the general fear of facing fewer opportunities and success than prior generations.
“We feel like we have the weight of the world on our shoulders,” junior Ezekiel Snyder said.
Tragedy Struck Early
Early in the school year, students expressed concern with the vagueness of communications from the school following two student deaths, leaving students open to interpret the cause of death based on information from friends and social media.
On Oct. 24, NC State’s student newspaper The Technician ran an editorial titled “NC State’s lack of transparency surrounding campus tragedies harms us all.” Tragically, another student passed away the day after it was published.
“Oh, my gosh, it’s not stopping,” said Technician’s news editor Abigail Ali told ABC News, describing what she and other editors saw as the tipping point in the crisis. “As soon as we think it’s over, there’s another one.”
Vice Chancellor Scott explained the communication delay as an intentional effort to reduce harm, codified in the school’s complex postvention plan for crisis situations.
Deaths of any kind could expose a community to the risk of a suicide cluster, where vulnerable community members begin to think more about or act on suicidal thoughts, according to UNC professor and American Psychological Association chief science officer Mitch Prinstein.
By the start of the school’s spring term, five students had passed away. Students reported that communications from NC State improved about the deaths and causes. However, the sheer number of deaths began to take a toll, according to students.
“To be completely honest with you, I’ve lost track with many students have died on campus,” said Technician’s managing editor Sam Overton, who spoke to ABC News following the 11th student death.
NC State’s spring semester also concluded with two additional student suicides in late April, when two students died within 24 hours.
“This is heartbreaking, and I know there’s little I can say to console the deep hurt or heal the immense grief felt by the family and friends of these young people and others we’ve lost this year,” Chancellor Randy Woodson wrote in a statement on April 27.
NC State celebrated its spring commencement for the Class of 2023 on Saturday, seemingly concluding the tragic chapter of the school’s recent history. However, the deaths amid reforms provide further evidence of the severity of the mental health crisis confronting institutions of higher education.
A National Crisis
Struggles with mental health often begin in high school or earlier for many students.
The proportion of high school students with persistent feelings of hopelessness or suicide increased by 40% between 2009 and 2019, according to a 2020 CDC survey. A 2021 survey from the CDC later found that nearly 60% of teen girls have said they feel “persistency sad or hopeless,” and 30% have seriously considered suicide. More than 6,600 people between the age of 10 and 24 died by suicide in 2020, based on estimates from the National Center of Health Statistics.
“Those are the students who are coming to campus,” Scott said.
The loss of traditional support systems further these concerns as students transition into college, according to Brandon Johnson, the acting branch chief of suicide prevention at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Students added that factors like social media and isolation stemming from the pandemic have made adjusting to college harder than what previous generations have faced.
“I will say it’s devastating,” said junior Ony Otiocha, describing the stress of finding a friend group at NC State. “I’m not going to sit here and say that I’ve never sat in my room and cried about that.”
Students additionally described stress stemming from competitive classes, particularly in science and engineering, and difficulties finding internships and employment. One student, who spoke with ABC News anonymously, described the challenge of reaching out to professors for help and struggling to complete coursework while dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“When I have to reach out to my professors and ask for these things because I just want to get any amount of sleep or like I just physically can’t make myself do work because I’m so burnt out,” she said. “It’s a bit humiliating, honestly, and it’s scary because they can just say no.”
As students seek help to improve their mental health, many schools struggle to adequately staff their counseling departments to accommodate the demand for services, according to Prinstein, of the American Psychological Association.
“What we have is a remarkable crisis with kids desperately needing mental health services. They’re not able to get what they need from the college staff or personnel,” he said.
NC State has more than doubled its counselors over the last decade to 47 clinical professionals, according to Scott. However, even if they had “100 or 1,000 counselors,” she said they could not fully address the crisis. Students also added that locating these resources can be inherently challenging during a crisis.
“When we feel lost or confused and hopeless, and asking for help, or just finding the resource can be difficult,” first-year student Ashley Clemmer added.
In spite of the tragedies, mental health experts pointed to some positives that have grown out of the mental health crisis, including that young people are more in tune with their mental health, are more likely to seek help, and can become leaders who help others approach struggles with empathy.
“There is a hyper-awareness and an empathy that young people have that I think previous generations were lacking,” said Tia Dole, clinical psychologist and officer for suicide-prevention hotline 988. “That is something that will be really helpful when we become adults and start running [things].”
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
(ROME) — Italy’s government is on full alert following a national problem: skyrocketing Pasta prices.
Italy’s Minister of Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, chaired an emergency meeting on Thursday, convening government officials, trade and consumer association representatives and distributors, for crisis talks to discuss soaring pasta costs, which have seen the Italian staple rise by more than double the rate of inflation, according to data from the European Central Bank.
The Rapid Price Alert Commission met for the first time since its establishment in March in Rome’s Palazzo Piacentini on Thursday, according to Italian outlet ANSA.
The price of pasta rose for two consecutive months, by 17.5% in March followed by a 16.5% rise in April – when compared to the same periods a year earlier, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics.
This is despite the falling price of durum wheat, which has dropped by 30%, according to officials.
The crisis committee aimed to examine trends in pasta prices, monitor the dynamics that have contributed to the rising costs of pasta goods, as well as examine expectations for the coming months of the year.
“The meeting was particularly fruitful,” said the President of Coldiretti, Italy’s National Farmers Union, Ettore Prandini, following the crisis meeting. Coldiretti had said the situation was “an anomaly on which it is good to clarify,” arguing that the commission on expensive pasta underlines the “importance of having activated a control system on the supply chains linked to price trends.”
Italy’s government too, although refraining from capping prices, expressed similar hope that the market will correct itself.
“The latest price surveys are already showing the fist, albeit weak, signs of a price decrease, a sign that the cost of pasta may fall significantly in the coming months,” the government said in a statement.
Statistics show the average Italian eats about 23 kilos of pasta per year, according to consumer group Assoutenti. The southern European nation is also the world’s No. 1 pasta exporter, with statistics showing 2.4 million tons of pasta were exported in 2022.
