Giovanni Castellucci among 32 people convicted over the 2018 Morandi Bridge collapse, which killed 43

Thirty-two people, including the former chief executive of Italy’s motorway operator, have been convicted over the 2018 collapse of a Genoa bridge in which 43 people died.

In a hushed courtroom on Thursday in the north-western Italian city, Giovanni Castellucci, a former boss of Autostrade per l’Italia, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, the highest in the case.

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Buxton festival
Francesca Caccini’s 1625 work – the earliest surviving opera by a woman – is wildly imaginative, even without the original horse ballet

There is magic in the air at this year’s Buxton festival – and it’s not just the hops from the local brewery. Wizards, sorceresses and fairies curse and charm their way through a trio of operas from three different centuries. Handel and Pauline Viardot take care of the 18th and 19th respectively, but setting the cauldron bubbling is Francesca Caccini’s 1625 La Liberazione di Ruggiero – the earliest surviving opera by a woman.

Premiered at the Medici court – then under the rule of regent Maria Maddalena of Austria – it is no coincidence that the work’s take on Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso is more girl-power than most. Warrior Ruggiero has been reduced to a lovesick captive, while sorceresses Alcina (wicked) and Melissa (good) do battle over him. Add in a chorus of Alcina’s former lovers (now transformed into plants and shrubs) and you have a deliciously semi-serious, mythical romp whose premiere apparently ended with a horse ballet.

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Forrester warns that customers should brace for bigger software bills next year as software and AI vendors raise prices and pile on usage charges. Working from a survey of more than 2,600 business and technology decision-makers, the tech research company said software budgets were expected to rise "as vendors increase prices or add usage charges to pass their AI costs to customers." In the last six months, Anthropic, OpenAI, and GitHub have shifted some services away from flat-rate subscriptions toward usage-based billing, prompting cost concerns among users. Forrester added Microsoft to the list, citing its recent launch of the premium E7 license, which bolts M365 Copilot, Agent 365, and security tools onto E5. Last year, consultants Bain & Company estimated that the build cost for AI datacenters would hit $2 trillion by 2030. Forrester said that AI would drive increases in data and software spending, with 80 percent of decision-makers expecting those budgets to rise. Sharyn Leaver, chief research officer at Forrester, said: "The organizations that outperform in 2027 won't be those that spend the most on AI. They'll be the ones that invest in the foundations that make AI effective: trusted data, strong governance, organizational readiness, and the ability to continuously adapt as technology and customer behavior evolve." Forrester also found that personnel costs have yet to fall, despite the "AI washing of layoffs" in the tech industry. "While several tech giants, including Oracle, Microsoft, and Meta, have announced significant layoffs in recent months, IT staffing spend has not declined in recent years," the report said. Staffing accounted for 35 percent of IT budgets in 2025. For 2027, 67 percent of tech decision-makers expected to increase their staffing budget, while 23 percent said it would stay flat, and 10 percent expected it to decline. "The AI washing of layoffs will continue as vendors trim for financial and restructuring reasons. Guard against inflated promises that AI can replace employees across the board. Staffing for data/analytics-specific roles is expected to rise, with 68 percent of data technology decision-makers expecting this budget item to increase," the report said. Forrester said that organizations should adapt their FinOps practices to help manage the unpredictable costs associated with AI. "Traditional FinOps wasn't built for token-based, usage-driven AI costs, but that team is certainly best positioned to build these new capabilities and must make this leap in 2027. Fund runtime cost controls such as model routing, semantic caching, and usage guardrails to prevent runaway spend," the report recommended. In July, KPMG research found that nearly a third of corporate leaders reported difficulty understanding and controlling operating costs when implementing business AI at scale. "As usage-based pricing models become more common, many organizations are still building the capabilities required to forecast, monitor, and manage AI spending effectively," the consultancy said. ®

If you were to rip open a tattered matchbox, what might you find hidden in its confines? And what’s lurking behind biological renderings and advertisements? Jason Limon imagines a playful world in which vintage illustrations are the colorful veneer concealing a vast, three-dimensional universe populated by skeletons.

The San Antonio-based artist has long painted otherworldly scenes dominated by life after death, when bony figures are stripped of their identities and instead function as anonymous entities. Tapping into emotion and personal experience, Limon continues to conjure the uncanny through a cheeky approach to one of the most universal symbols.

In his most recent works blending acrylic and oil paints, the artist homes in on illusion, opting for a trompe-l’œil technique. Many feature a torn element, as if paper has been ripped away to reveal an otherwise invisible world beneath. While Limon incorporated this effect in previous works, it’s propelled his practice as of late because it offers more space for experimentation.

“It took a bit to press the brakes on how I work, but I intentionally decided to slow the pace of how I create the art while also trying to keep a little bit of playfulness,” he says. “As I play with painting in the background, it has taught me to loosen up in a variety of ways. At some point in the future, the two identities will creatively and visually merge as one.”

Originals and prints are available in Limon’s shop, and you can follow his practice on Instagram.

Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Trompe-L’œil Paintings by Jason Limon Reveal a Hidden Skeletal World appeared first on Colossal.