Bezos' lavish wedding in Venice draws fire over inequality
VENICE, Italy, June 25, (AP): This weekend's star-studded Venice wedding of multi-billionaire Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez has galvanized activist groups that are protesting it as a sign of the growing disparity between the haves and have-nots as well as disregard of the city's residents.
About a dozen Venetian organizations - including housing advocates, anti-cruise ship campaigners, and university groups - have united to protest the multi-day event under the banner "No Space for Bezos,' a play on words also referring to the bride's recent space flight.
They have staged small-scale protests, unfurling anti-Bezos banners on iconic Venetian sites. They were joined this week by Greenpeace and the British group "Everyone Hates Elon,' which has smashed Teslas to protest Elon Musk, to unfurl a giant banner in St. Mark's Square protesting purported tax breaks for billionaires.
"IF YOU CAN RENT VENICE FOR YOUR WEDDING YOU CAN PAY MORE TAX,' read the banner, which featured a huge image of Bezos. Police quickly took it away.
There has been no comment from Bezos' representatives on the protests.
The local activists had planned a more organized protest for Saturday, aiming to obstruct access to canals with boats to prevent guests from reaching a wedding venue. Then they modified the protest to a march from the train station after claiming a victory, asserting that their pressure forced organizers to change the venue to the Arsenale, a more easily secured site beyond Venice's congested center.
"It will be a strong, decisive protest, but peaceful,'' said Federica Toninello, an activist with the Social Housing Assembly network. "We want it to be like a party, with music, to make clear what we want our Venice to look like."
Among the 200 guests confirmed to be attending the wedding are Mick Jagger, Ivanka Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Katy Perry, and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Venice, renowned for its romantic canal vistas, hosts hundreds of weddings each year, not infrequently those of the rich and famous. Previous celebrity weddings, like that of George Clooney to human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin in 2014, were embraced by the public. Hundreds turned out to wish the couple well at City Hall.
Bezos has a different political and business profile, said Tommaso Cacciari, a prominent figure in the movement that successfully pushed for a ban on cruise ships over 25,000 tons traveling through the Giudecca Canal in central Venice.
"Bezos is not a Hollywood actor,'' Cacciari said. "He is an ultra-billionaire who sat next to Donald Trump during the inauguration, who contributed to his re-election and is contributing in a direct and heavy way to this new global obscurantism.''
Critics also cite Amazon's labor practices, ongoing tax disputes with European governments, and Bezos' political associations as additional reasons for concern.
Activists also argue that the Bezos wedding exemplifies broader failures in municipal governance, particularly the prioritization of tourism over residents' needs. They cite measures such as the day-tripper tax - which critics argue reinforces Venice's image as a theme park - as ineffective. Chief among their concerns is the lack of investment in affordable housing and essential services.
City officials have defended the wedding. Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called the event an honor for Venice, and the city denied the wedding would cause disruptions.
"Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage,'' Brugnaro told The Associated Press, adding he hoped to meet Bezos while he was in town.
Meanwhile, a Venetian environmental research association, Corila, issued a statement saying Bezos' Earth Fund was supporting its work with an "important donation.'
Corila, which unites university scholars and Italy's main national research council in researching Venetian protection strategies, wouldn't say how much Bezos was donating but said contact began in April, well before the protests started.
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Arab Times
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US businessman Jared Kushner and his wife Ivanka Trump leave the St Regis Hotel. Jordan's Queen Rania leaves the St Regis Hotel. US journalist Gayle King, US TV host Oprah Winfrey (center) leave the Gritti Palace Hotel. US tech entrepreneur Bill Gates and partner Paula Hurd. 'Enchanted' Wedding guests snapped by paparazzi as they hopped into boats included Jordan's Queen Rania, French luxury goods executive Francois-Henri Pinault, American football player Tom Brady, US fashion designer Spencer Antle, the singer Usher, and Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner. The guests reportedly lunched Thursday in the gardens of Villa Baslini, on the islet of San Giovanni Evangelista. The celebrations are set to end Saturday with a party likely at the Arsenale, a vast shipyard complex dating back to when the city was a naval powerhouse. 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Arab Times
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What's next for birthright citizenship after the US Supreme Court's ruling
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It's part of the hardline immigration agenda of the president, who has called birthright citizenship a "magnet for illegal immigration.' Trump and his supporters focus on one phrase in the amendment - "subject to the jurisdiction thereof' - saying it means the U.S. can deny citizenship to babies born to women in the country illegally. A series of federal judges have said that's not true, and issued nationwide injunctions stopping his order from taking effect. "I've been on the bench for over four decades. I can't remember another case where the question presented was as clear as this one is. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order,' U.S. District Judge John Coughenour said at a hearing earlier this year in his Seattle courtroom. In Greenbelt, Maryland, a Washington suburb, U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman wrote that "the Supreme Court has resoundingly rejected and no court in the country has ever endorsed' Trump's interpretation of birthright citizenship. The high court's ruling was a major victory for the Trump administration in that it limited an individual judge's authority in granting nationwide injunctions. The administration hailed the ruling as a monumental check on the powers of individual district court judges, whom Trump supporters have argued want to usurp the president's authority with rulings blocking his priorities around immigration and other matters. But the Supreme Court did not address the merits of Trump's bid to enforce his birthright citizenship executive order. "The Trump administration made a strategic decision, which I think quite clearly paid off, that they were going to challenge not the judges' decisions on the merits, but on the scope of relief,' said Jessica Levinson, a Loyola Law School professor. Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters at the White House that the administration is "very confident' that the high court will ultimately side with the administration on the merits of the case. The justices kicked the cases challenging the birthright citizenship policy back down to the lower courts, where judges will have to decide how to tailor their orders to comply with the new ruling. The executive order remains blocked for at least 30 days, giving lower courts and the parties time to sort out the next steps. The Supreme Court's ruling leaves open the possibility that groups challenging the policy could still get nationwide relief through class-action lawsuits and seek certification as a nationwide class. Within hours after the ruling, two class-action suits had been filed in Maryland and New Hampshire seeking to block Trump's order. But obtaining nationwide relief through a class action is difficult as courts have put up hurdles to doing so over the years, said Suzette Malveaux, a Washington and Lee University law school professor. 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"By denying lower courts the ability to enforce that right uniformly, the Court has invited chaos, inequality, and fear.'
