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'We don't need Bezos': Venetians plan to protest billionaire's wedding

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'We don't need Bezos': Venetians plan to protest billionaire's wedding
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While last-minute preparations for US billionaire Jeff Bezos’ lavish Venice wedding next week should be under way, protesters are drawing up plans in parallel to block streets and waterways and send a message: the Amazon founder is not welcome in their city.

For some Venetians, the wedding of Bezos and Lauren Sánchez, a former TV journalist, which is rumoured to be costing some €10 million, represents the sell-off of their city to the highest bidder – and they are mobilising against it. 

Marta Sottoriva, an organiser of the No Space for Bezos campaign, told Euronews that activists are demonstrating against Bezos’ wedding because of what it represents for the city.

“We are not protesting the wedding per se, but a vision of Venice … as a city that people come and consume,” Sottoriva said. 

The billionaire is also a “symbol for a type of wealth built on the exploitation of the many”, citing Amazon’s resistance to unionisation, Sottoriva said, while noting his presence at US President Donald Trump’s inauguration. 

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Sottoriva argued the city increasingly caters to tourists and large-scale events rather than its residents, resulting in “depopulation and the closure of many services and spaces for locals”. In some ways, the problem of overtourism and the billionaire’s luxury event “represent the same vision of the city as a commodity”, she said.

‘We need houses and decent wages’

Scant details have been made official about the wedding, but some 200 guests are expected to attend and are said to have booked the city’s most expensive hotels, while the Amazon founder will be travelling with his yachts.

While the campaign does not expect to stop the wedding, it hopes to throw a spanner in the works. The activists have already begun to take a stand, most notably by hanging a banner daubed with Bezos’ name crossed out on the bell tower of San Giorgio Basilica on Thursday, while posters advertising their actions are plastered around the city.

The group is planning its main demonstration for 28 June. “We will create some inconvenience and delays and make the protest visible,” Sottoriva said, adding that the peaceful protests will feature people blocking roads, clogging up canals on boats and kayaks and jumping into the water. 

She hopes hundreds will come out across Venice. “We’ll also have people playing music – it’s going to be a party for the city, too.”

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It is not the first time Bezos’s presence has courted controversy in Europe: in 2022, Rotterdam faced criticism for considering dismantling its iconic De Hef Bridge so that his yacht could pass, despite the city council’s promise not to disturb the monument after it was restored five years prior.

Venice has become a poster child for the impacts of overtourism, with the number of visitors ballooning in recent decades, with some 30 million visiting the small city each year.

Just 51,000 locals reside in the historic centre, with around 250,000 more living on Venice’s mainland. Some Venetians complain that they have been pushed out of their neighbourhoods by rising costs and that tourism is straining the city’s infrastructure and diluting Venice’s unique character.

The city has introduced a tourist tax, with a daily fee for visitors, which its mayor, Luigi Brugnaro, said aims to help the city to dampen down massive influxes of travellers, though critics say it has failed to dissuade tourists from coming in droves.

But some see the wedding as an opportunity, with some business owners telling Italian media that they oppose the protests and that events like Bezos’ wedding bring in custom.

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The wedding has also been wholeheartedly embraced by the mayor, with Brugnaro saying he felt “honoured” that Bezos had picked Venice. “We are very proud,’’ he told the AP last week, adding that he hoped he would get the chance to meet the billionaire.

“I don’t know if I will have time, or if he will, to meet and shake hands, but it’s an honour that they chose Venice. Venice once again reveals itself to be a global stage.’’

Unsurprisingly, Sottoriva holds a contrasting view. “We don’t need Bezos. We need houses, decent wages, and a sustainable future.” 

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Kilauea displays lava fountains for the 37th time since its eruption began last year

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Kilauea displays lava fountains for the 37th time since its eruption began last year

HONOLULU (AP) — The on-and-off eruption that’s been dazzling residents and visitors on Hawaii’s Big Island for nearly a year resumed Tuesday as Kilauea volcano sent fountains of lava soaring 400 feet (122 meters) into the air.

The molten rock was confined within Kilauea’s summit caldera inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, the U.S. Geological Survey said. No homes were threatened.

It’s the 37th time Kilauea has shot lava since last December, when the current eruption began.

The latest lava display was preceded by sporadic spattering and overflows that began Friday. Each eruptive episode has lasted about a day or less. The volcano has paused for at least a few days in between.

In some cases, Kilauea’s lava towers have soared as high as skyscrapers. The volcano has generated such tall fountains in part because magma — which holds gases that are released as it rises — has been traveling to the surface through narrow, pipelike vents.

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Kilauea is on Hawaii Island, the largest of the Hawaiian archipelago. It’s about 200 miles (322 kilometers) south of the state’s largest city, Honolulu, which is on Oahu.

It’s one of the world’s most active volcanoes and one of six active volcanoes in Hawaii.

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Russia warns it may reject US-Ukraine peace plan if it fails to uphold Alaska summit ‘understandings’

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Russia warns it may reject US-Ukraine peace plan if it fails to uphold Alaska summit ‘understandings’

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested Moscow could reject the White House’s latest Ukraine peace deal framework if it doesn’t uphold the “spirit and letter” of the understandings reached at the August Alaska summit between President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.

Lavrov said at a news conference Tuesday that Russia is awaiting the updated version of the Trump administration’s latest peace plan aimed at ending the nearly four-year war.

He warned that if the terms of the “key understandings” are “extinguished” then the situation would become “fundamentally different.”

Russia has maintained its maximalist demands in negotiations, insisting Ukraine be barred from joining NATO and required to give up the rest of the Donbas as part of any peace deal.

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RUSSIA BOMBARDS KYIV, KILLING AT LEAST 6, AS TRUMP PEACE PLAN MOVES FORWARD

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivers a speech for heads of diplomatic missions accredited in Russia in Moscow, Russia, Sept. 19, 2022. (Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool/AP Photo)

John Hardie, the deputy director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia Program, told Fox News Digital Moscow’s intransigence over the past 10 months has been the main obstacle to Trump’s diplomatic efforts.

“The United States has really shot itself in the foot by kind of flip-flopping between strategies. One month you’re trying to pressure the Russians and saying they’re the obstacle to peace. The next minute you’re trying to, you know, force their terms on Kyiv,” said Hardie. 

“What we really need is sustained military support for Ukraine and economic pressure on Russia, and Putin has to realize that neither the Ukrainian military nor Western, especially U.S., resolve, are going to falter.”

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Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire after a Russian attack in Kyiv, Ukraine Sept. 7, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo)

Former CIA station chief Dan Hoffman told “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Tuesday he remains skeptical about an end to the war, arguing the United States lacks the leverage to compel Moscow to halt its invasion.

NATO JETS SCRAMBLED AMID RUSSIA’S LARGEST DRONE ATTACK ON UKRAINE

“Vladimir Putin, his strategic objective has always been to overthrow the democratically elected government of Ukraine. He’ll engage in negotiations, but he does it to ensure that he’s asserting the primacy of Russia in his self-designated sphere of influence,” said Hoffman. “I just don’t see any evidence that Russia is going to pause in their relentless attacks on Ukraine.”

Ukrainian soldiers from the 115th Brigade Mortar Unit conduct mortar training as members of the Anti-UAV unit test an FPV drone inhibitor in Lyman, Ukraine. (Jose Colon/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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Ukraine agreed Tuesday to a peace deal to end the war with Russia, but some details still need to be finalized, a U.S. official told Fox News.

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U.S. Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with Russian officials in Abu Dhabi Monday and Tuesday to discuss the framework for a Ukraine peace deal. The U.S. official said a Ukrainian delegation was also in Abu Dhabi and in contact with Driscoll and his team.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin contributed to this report

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Hungary’s Orbán looks to meet Putin in Moscow amid Ukraine deal talks

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Hungary’s Orbán looks to meet Putin in Moscow amid Ukraine deal talks

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will travel to Moscow on Friday to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to media reports.

The information came from Hungarian government sources who were involved in the preparations of the trip, according to investigative central European outlet VSquare.

The Hungarian government has not confirmed the visit at this time, with Budapest saying it would inform the public about Orbán’s programme in due time.

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The agenda for the meeting is not yet known. But Orbán has maintained ties to Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the two leaders have kept in regular touch, meeting in person three times since early 2022.

The Hungarian premier has repeatedly stated he was in favour of an immediate ceasefire and peace talks to end the war in Ukraine. Over the weekend, Orbán called on the European Union to support Washington’s peace efforts and engage in direct negotiations with Russia.

‘”Europeans must immediately and unconditionally support the peace initiative of the President of the United States,” Orbán said in a letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday.

“In addition to supporting the US president, we must, without delay, launch autonomous and direct diplomatic negotiations with Russia,” he added.

Europeans ‘prefer to continue the war,’ Orbán says

Hungary is one of the few European countries that imports large quantities of Russian oil and gas, despite the European Union’s efforts to decouple from Moscow’s fossil fuels.

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During a visit to Washington in November, Orbán secured exemptions from Washington’s secondary tariffs targeting Russia’s oil exporters Rosneft and Lukoil.

Addressing US President Donald Trump, Orbán also blamed the European Union for what he said was its support of the war.

“Your peace efforts are splendid, but the problem is Brussels, the Europeans. They prefer to continue the war, because they still think Ukraine can win on the front line,” Orbán said.

Earlier, Trump announced direct talks with Putin in Budapest, only for the meeting to be called off by Washington, citing a lack of agreement with Moscow.

Following the leak of the US-Russia 28-point plan last week, said to be strongly in favour of Moscow, Ukrainian and European representatives have met with their US counterparts for further talks, followed by a counterproposal offering more guarantees for Ukraine.

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