US Senate rejects bid to curb Trump's Iran war powers
A view shows the aftermath of an Israeli strike on a building on Monday, after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS/File Photo
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The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Venice protests target Bezos over mounting grievances
ROME (Reuters) -Mass tourism, impossibly high rents, worker exploitation, inequality and elitism: Venice, Italy's protests in recent days against Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez's high-profile wedding have highlighted growing global grievances. Local politicians dismissed protesters as a fringe minority. Bezos's fame and Venice's stunning visual backdrop have offered them international visibility which they effectively exploited. "No Space for Bezos" banners draped over the iconic Rialto Bridge and a huge canvas laid out on St Mark's Square urging the tech billionaire to pay more taxes have been seen all over the world. Concerns of greater disruptions forced Bezos and his bride to move their final and biggest celebrity party from the central district to a more isolated venue in the eastern part of the lagoon city. "The idea that the city should be seen as a set, a stage, or an amusement park has been highlighted like never before by Bezos' wedding," Tommaso Cacciari, a frontman for the No Space for Bezos movement, told Reuters. In the final protest on Saturday, around 1,000 residents and activists rallied in front of Venice's train station under a scorching sun, before marching roughly 1.5 kilometres (0.93 miles) to the Rialto Bridge. They carried banners including one proclaiming 'Kisses yes, Bezos no', playing on Venice's reputation as the city of love, and another one saying 'No space for Bezos' with a rocket, in a reference to his Blue Origin space technology company. Venetian businesses and politicians, however, welcomed the event, hailing its major boost for the local economy. Luca Zaia, the regional governor of Veneto around Venice, said the city should be proud of hosting the wedding. TRUMP TIES Alice Bazzoli, a 24-year-old university student, called Bezos a "hypocrite" for donating 3 million euros ($3.5 million) to Venice while flooding its fragile ecosystem with high-polluting private jets and yachts. Bezos and Sanchez have given 1 million euros each to three Venetian institutions: CORILA, an academic consortium that studies the lagoon, UNESCO's local office, and Venice International University. "I'd love Venice to be tailored for citizens, not for tourists, with affordable housing," Bazzoli told Reuters, complaining that students were being priced out of the market, with the best accommodations offered to visitors. Andrea Segre, a 49-year-old Italian film director born in Venice, said the city was also pushing out ordinary residents. "People aged 25 to 35 — the age group that starts families — cannot afford to live in Venice. The consequence is a lack of diversity and social liveliness," he said. Venice is rapidly depopulating, largely because of the cost of living crisis. Its historic city centre now has fewer than 50,000 residents, compared to more than 100,000 some 50 years ago. The city has hosted scores of other VIP weddings, including that of actor George Clooney and human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014, but the latest luxury nuptials have attracted far greater resentment because of Bezos' corporate and political role. The Amazon founder is the world's fourth richest man, and has developed ties with U.S. President Donald Trump, whose daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner were in attendance at the wedding. "Bezos is the embodiment of the most absolute wealth gained through the exploitation of everything around you," 28-year-old student Giulia Cacopardo told Reuters in the run-up to Saturday's march. In Italy, the e-commerce giant has faced criticism and strikes from trade unions over labour practices, and scrutiny over tax compliance. Reuters reported in February that Italian prosecutors were investigating alleged tax evasion worth 1.2 billion. "I would have protested against Bezos even if he had come on a rowboat with just a handful of people ... because he contributed practically, materially and politically to Donald Trump's re-election," protest leader Cacciari said. ($1 = 0.8533 euros) (Writing by Angelo Amante; editing by Alvise Armellini and Diane Craft)
The Star
2 hours ago
- The Star
Serbia's students, opposition rally to demand snap elections
A drone view shows Serbian students and other demonstrators participating in an anti-government protest demanding snap elections at the Slavija square, in Belgrade, Serbia, June 28, 2025. REUTERS/Djordje Kojadinovic BELGRADE (Reuters) -Tens of thousands of students and anti-corruption protesters rallied in Belgrade on Saturday, demanding snap elections and an end to the 12-year rule of President Aleksandar Vucic. Police deployed scores of officers in riot gear around government buildings, parliament and nearby Pionirski Park, where throngs of Vucic's backers from across the country gathered in a counter-protest. Months of protests across the country, including university shutdowns, have rattled Vucic, a populist, whose second term ends in 2027, when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled. Vucic's opponents accuse him and his allies of ties to organised crime, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms, something they deny. The student protest is set to last until 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) at Slavija Square and Nemanjina Avenue, where most of the government offices are located. The protesters, who want the government to heed their demands by the end of the protest, have pledged non-violence. Vucic has previously refused snap elections. His Progressive Party-led coalition holds 156 of 250 parliamentary seats. On Saturday, Vucic said unspecified "foreign powers" were behind the protest. He said police should be restrained, but warned that violence will not be tolerated. 'The country will be defended, and thugs will face justice,' he told reporters in Belgrade. Sladjana Lojanovic, 37, a farmer from the town of Sid in the north, said she came to support students. "The institutions have been usurped and ... there is a lot of corruption. Elections are the solution, but I don't think he (Vucic) will want to go peacefully," she told Reuters. In the days ahead of the protest, police arrested about a dozen anti-government activists, charging them with undermining the constitution and terrorism. All denied the charges. Protests by students, opposition, teachers, workers and farmers began last December after 16 people died on November 1 in a Novi Sad railway station roof collapse. Protesters blame corruption for the disaster. The Belgrade rally coincides with St. Vitus Day, venerated by most Serbs, which marks the 1389 Battle of Kosovo with Ottoman Turks. (Reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic and Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Jane Merriman)
The Star
3 hours ago
- The Star
EU plans to add carbon credits to new climate goal, document shows
FILE PHOTO: A view shows wind turbines in front of a cow at Paradela's City Council, in Galicia, Spain September 27, 2022. REUTERS/Nacho Doce/File Photo BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Commission is set to propose counting carbon credits bought from other countries towards the European Union's 2040 climate target, a Commission document seen by Reuters showed. The Commission is due to propose a legally binding EU climate target for 2040 on July 2. The EU executive had initially planned a 90% net emissions cut, against 1990 levels, but in recent months has sought to make this goal more flexible, in response to pushback from governments including Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, concerned about the cost. An internal Commission summary of the upcoming proposal, seen by Reuters, said the EU would be able to use "high-quality international credits" from a U.N.-backed carbon credits market to meet 3% of the emissions cuts towards the 2040 goal. The document said the credits would be phased in from 2036, and that additional EU legislation would later set out the origin and quality criteria that the credits must meet, and details of how they would be purchased. The move would in effect ease the emissions cuts - and the investments required - from European industries needed to hit the 90% emissions-cutting target. For the share of the target met by credits, the EU would buy "credits" from projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad - for example, forest restoration in Brazil - rather than reducing emissions in Europe. Proponents say these credits are a crucial way to raise funds for CO2-cutting projects in developing nations. But recent scandals have shown some credit-generating projects did not deliver the climate benefits they claimed. The document said the Commission will add other flexibilities to the 90% target, as Brussels attempts to contain resistance from governments struggling to fund the green transition alongside priorities including defence, and industries who say ambitious environmental regulations hurt their competitiveness. These include integrating credits from projects that remove CO2 from the atmosphere into the EU's carbon market so that European industries can buy these credits to offset some of their own emissions, the document said. The draft would also give countries more flexibility on which sectors in their economy do the heavy lifting to meet the 2040 goal, "to support the achievement of targets in a cost-effective way". A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the upcoming proposal, which could still change before it is published next week. EU countries and the European Parliament must negotiate the final target and could amend what the Commission proposes. (Reporting by Kate Abnett, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
