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As Venice readies for Lauren Sánchez and Jeff Bezos’s multi-day wedding extravaganza, it’s no longer just gondolas floating around the city’s famous waterwaysit’s creepy Bezos mannequins as well. The long-awaited nuptials of the Amazon founder and the journalist is bringing flocks of celebrities including Oprah Winfrey, Ivanka Trump, and the Kardashians to the small city, booking most of the city’s elite water taxis, gondolas, and docks. While Venice has hosted star-studded weddings in the pastincluding that of Amal and George Clooneynone have drawn as much criticism, due in part to the event’s extravagant nature. For instance, just days before the wedding, the couple celebrated a foam party aboard their $500 million super yacht. Locals and internet activists have been rallying in protest of not just the wedding, but of Amazon’s labor practices, its founder’s mass accumulation of wealth, overtourism, and the disruption of daily lives for locals. As a result, organized efforts are giving the wedding party a not-so-warm welcome along the way. To keep up with the chaos, Fast Company rounded up some of the pre-wedding protests, breaking down some of the strange yet somewhat successful efforts. “No Space for Bezos” A nod to Bezos and Sánchez’s now infamous space-travel pursuits, “No Space for Bezos” is the unifying movement for activists opposing the local government’s alleged prioritization of tourism above local residents. The movement gained traction following a now viral stunt, draping St. Mark’s Square with a large banner reading “If you can rent Venice for your wedding, you can pay more tax.” Below the text was a large image of Bezos laughing. [Photo: Stefano Rellandini/AFP via Getty Images] Since then, grassroots efforts have plastered the city with banners across famous sites, and have gained the support of larger organizations like Greenpeace and U.K. group Everyone Hates Elon. Floating mannequins On the stranger end of protests, several mannequins resembling Bezos and Sánchez have been spotted around the Floating City’s canals. In one, the figures are dressed in wedding attire aboard a gondola, with a cardboard sign featuring Amazon’s logo. “The live versions are creepier,” one user commented on the TikTok video. Another viral video features a man throwing a mannequin held onto an Amazon package box into Venice’s grand canal. The mannequin appears to be wearing a blue suit resembling the one used on the infamous space mission, and is holding fake dollar bills. Online mockery Beyond the more organized protests, countless people have taken social media to mock the event, particularly a now leaked image of the wedding’s invitation. While the invitation asks guests not to bring giftsbut rather provide donations to Venice-related causes, including UNESCO Venice, CORILA, and Venice International Universityit gained attention due to its kitschy design. On the r/CrappyDesign subreddit, a now-deleted post of the invite drew ridicule and criticism, with one user commenting, “Youve got all the money in the world and you do an invite that looks like it was designed by a 10-year-old on MS Paint.” Another user on TikTok commented on the invitation, making a video saying, “You are shitting money every two seconds, I was expecting some Ambani-level shit, I was expecting opulence.” She added, “I need rich people to rich right.” What have the wedding planners said about the backlash? Reached for comment by Fast Company earlier this week, the events team that is organizing the wedding said it has aimed to minimize disruptions. It also emphasized that it has overwhelmingly hired locals to staff the event.
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E-Commerce
Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond President Thomas Barkin said on Thursday tariffs are very likely to push inflation up over coming months, in remarks that said U.S. central bank policy is where it needs to be to deal with what lies ahead. I do believe we will see pressure on prices, Barkin told a gathering of the New York Association for Business Economics. When it comes to tariffs and their impact on price pressures, to date, these increases have had only modest effects on measured inflation, but I anticipate more pressure is coming, amid comments from businesses that they expect to pass at least some of the rise in import taxes imposed by President Donald Trump. That said, I dont expect the impact on inflation to be anywhere near as significant as what we just experienced during the pandemic and there are signs that consumers will try to move away from tariffed goods, which could limit some of the upsides for higher inflation. Last week, the Feds most recent gathering of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee saw officials leave their overnight target rate unchanged at between 4.25% and 4.5%. Uncertainty over the outlook is keeping the central bank on the sidelines amid expectations the tariffs will push up inflation this year while depressing growth and hiring. In his remarks, Barkin noted the Fed is facing risks on both its job and inflation mandates. Citing the uncertainty of the outlook, Barkin declined to say where monetary policy is heading, while cautioning there are a number of scenarios in play for the central bank’s interest rate target and the exact timing of a rate move matter much less than many expect. While most Fed officials are in a wait-and-see mode and Fed Chair Jerome Powell reiterated that message this week in testimony before Congress, some officials on the Board of Governors have said they view tariffs as a one-time price increase and are open to cutting short-term interest rates at the late July FOMC meeting. Futures markets believe the Fed will cut rates at the September FOMC meeting. Barkin told reporters after his speech that policymakers should never take any action off the table, while adding he’s still seeking data to know what to do with interest rate policy. “Given the strength in todays economy, we have time to track developments patiently and allow the visibility to improve, Barkin said, adding, when it does, we are well positioned to address whatever the economy will require. Barkin also said that given inflation had been on a cooling trend at the onset of the tariff regime, hiking rates to contain price pressures “doesn’t seem like the topic of the day.” Barkin said that as the economy now stands things look pretty good and recent inflation data was encouraging. He said job growth has been healthy. Michael S. Derby, Reuters
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E-Commerce
States can block the countrys biggest abortion provider, Planned Parenthood, from receiving Medicaid money for health services such as contraception and cancer screenings without facing lawsuits from patients, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday. The 6-3 opinion by Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by the rest of the courts conservatives was not directly about abortion, but it comes as Republicans back a wider push across the country to defund the organization. It closes off Planned Parenthood’s primary court path to keeping Medicaid funding in place: patient lawsuits. The justices found that while Medicaid law allows people to choose their own provider, that does not make it a right enforceable in court. The court split along ideological lines, with the three liberals dissenting in the case from South Carolina. Public health care money generally cannot be used to pay for abortions, but Medicaid patients go to Planned Parenthood for other needs in part because it can be difficult to find a doctor who takes the publicly funded insurance, the organization has said. Gov. Henry McMaster (R-SC) said Planned Parenthood should not get any taxpayer money. The budget bill backed by President Donald Trump in Congress would also cut Medicaid money for the group. That could force the closure of about 200 centers, most of them in states where abortion is legal, Planned Parenthood has said. McMaster first moved to cut off the Medicaid funding in 2018, but he was blocked in court after a lawsuit from a patient, Julie Edwards, who wanted to keep going to Planned Parenthood for birth control because her diabetes makes pregnancy potentially dangerous. She sued over a provision in Medicaid law that allows patients to choose their own qualified provider. South Carolina argued that patients should not be able to file such lawsuits. The state pointed to lower courts that have been swayed by similar arguments and allowed states such as Texas to act against Planned Parenthood. The high court majority agreed. Deciding whether to permit private enforcement poses delicate policy questions involving competing costs and benefitsdecisions for elected representatives, not judges, Gorsuch wrote. He pointed out that patients can appeal through other administrative processes if coverage is denied. McMaster, in a statement, said his state had taken a stand to protect the sanctity of life and defend South Carolinas authority and valuesand today, we are finally victorious. In a dissent joined by her liberal colleagues, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said the ruling is likely to result in tangible harm to real people. It will strip those South Caroliniansand countless other Medicaid recipients around the countryof a deeply personal freedom: the ability to decide who treats us at our most vulnerable,'” she wrote. Planned Parenthood officials said the decision will hamper access to care such as preventive screenings for 1 million Medicaid recipients in South Carolina and that other conservative states will likely take similar steps. Instead of patients now deciding where to get care, that now lies with the state, said Katherine Farris, chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic. If they fall on hard financial times, as many are right now, they are fundamentally less free.” She said South Carolina did not say Planned Parenthood provided inadequate care, describing it as political decision. Other conservative states are expected to follow South Carolina’s lead with funding cuts, potentially creating a backdoor abortion ban, said Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. Medicaid patients make up 3.5% of the organizations South Carolina patients who come for services unrelated to abortion or gender-affirming care, officials said. Because South Carolina has not expanded its Medicaid program, reimbursements do not cover its preventive care costs, spokesperson Molly Rivera said. Public health groups like the American Cancer Society have said in court papers that lawsuits are the only real way that Medicaid patients have been able to enforce their ability to choose their own doctor. Losing that ability is expected to reduce access to healthcare for people on the program, which is estimated to include one-quarter of everyone in the country. Rural areas could be especially affected, advocates said in court papers. In South Carolina, $90,000 in Medicaid funding goes to Planned Parenthood every year, a tiny fraction of the states total Medicaid spending. The state banned abortion at about six weeks gestation after the Supreme Court overturned it as a nationwide right in 2022. The state says other providers can fill a healthcare void left by Planned Parenthood’s removal from Medicaid. By Lindsay Whitehurst, Associated Press Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Meg Kinnard contributed to this report.
Category:
E-Commerce
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