Nathan Eovaldi has himself in rare air so far this season.
Day: August 6, 2025
Italy’s Prisons Struggle with Overcrowding Amid Rising Suicide Rates
As of April, Italy’s prisons held over 62,000 inmates, far exceeding the 51,000 capacity for which they were designed, according to a report by Antigone, an NGO monitoring prison conditions. The situation is exacerbating, with 45 inmates having committed suicide as of July 24, 2025. This alarming rise is reflected in a record 91 suicides recorded among prisoners in 2024, surpassing the previous high of 2022, highlighting a critical need for reform.
The conditions within Italian prisons have been thrust into the spotlight by the plight of individual inmates. Alemanno, a notable former mayor, illustrates these issues through the story of Roberto, a 77-year-old inmate who suffers from significant health challenges yet remains incarcerated for three years. “What is Roberto doing in jail? What social revenge still needs to be carried out on this person, who is struggling to walk, who cannot see or hear, who is in danger of dying in jail, and who has already served almost half of his sentence?” Alemanno questions. He argues for alternatives like house arrest for vulnerable inmates like Roberto.
Alemanno’s correspondence advocating for prisoners’ rights is co-signed by Fabio Balbo, dubbed “the Scribe of Rebibbia.” Balbo is known for assisting his fellow inmates with applications for prison benefits and for his activism on behalf of prisoners. The partnership has formed what Alemanno describes as a “strange alliance” focused on advocating for their rights from within the prison system.
Alemanno himself was sentenced in 2022 to one year and 10 months in prison for illegal party funding and influence peddling, part of a larger corruption investigation known as “Mafia Capitale.” This probe uncovered extensive corruption in Rome’s public contracts. Initially placed on community service probation, Alemanno returned to prison when judges found he violated the terms of his release.
Despite his incarceration, Alemanno continues to engage in politics, leading a hard-right micro-party named “Independence!” that aims to withdraw Italy from the EU while challenging “cosmopolitan elites” in defense of national interests. His dual role as a politician and inmate underscores the complexities within the Italian prison system, where political ideologies persist even behind bars, raising questions about the intersection of justice and governance.
With ongoing concerns about overcrowding and mental health in prisons, the Italian government faces mounting pressure to reform penal policies and address the alarming rise in inmate suicides, ensuring the dignity and human rights of all individuals, irrespective of their circumstances, reports 24brussels.
Myunggu Han/Getty Images for Airbnb
- CEO Brian Chesky said Airbnb is undergoing a transformation to an AI-first app.
- Airbnb has rolled out AI for customer service and said its expanding on what agents can do.
- Chesky predicted that all top apps will be AI apps.
Not only does Airbnb want to be the “everything app” — where users can book literally everything, from accommodations to experiences and services — it also wants to do the booking for you.
Brian Chesky, cofounder and CEO of Airbnb, laid out his vision for the travel app’s AI-powered future during the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday. Airbnb beat revenue expectations for quarter two and announced a $6 billion stock buyback, but said it expected slower growth in Q3. The stock was down more than 6% after-hours.
“Over the next couple of years, I think what you’re going to see is Airbnb becoming an AI-first application,” Chesky said on the call with analysts.
He added that currently “almost none” of the top 50 apps in the App Store are AI apps, with the notable exception of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. But he predicted that soon every one of them will be AI apps, either AI startups or pre-generative AI apps that successfully transform into “native AI” apps. That’s the transformation that he says is underway at Airbnb.
Chesky said Airbnb’s approach to utilizing AI has differed from some other travel companies in that they have not focused on using AI to offer travel planning and inspiration. Instead, the company has rolled out AI in customer service, with a custom agent built on 13 different models and trained on tens of thousands of conversations.
As a result of the AI customer service chatbot, he said Airbnb has reduced the number of hosts and guests who need to contact a human agent by 15%.
Chesky said the AI agent is going to become more personalized throughout the next year and that it will be able to take more actions on behalf of the user.
“It will not only tell you how to cancel your reservation, it will know which reservation you want to cancel. It can cancel it for you and it can be agentic as in it can start to search and help you plan and book your next trip,” he added.
Airbnb declined to provide additional comment when reached by Business Insider.
In February, Chesky said on Airbnb’s quarter four earnings call that he thought it was still too early to use AI for trip planning, but that he believed AI would eventually have a “profound impact on travel.”
Chesky also said in February that he wants to make Airbnb the Amazon of travel, or a one-stop shop for “all of your traveling and living needs.”
Airbnb in May announced it was relaunching its Experiences business and launching Services, which allows users to book on-site professionals like photographers or massage therapists.
On the call Wednesday, Chesky said he was “very bullish” on Experiences and that the feedback so far has been positive.
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