Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez’s star-studded wedding celebrations in Venice have begun, with VIP guests including the Kardashians descending on the Italian city.

The billionaire Amazon founder and his journalist fiancee waved to onlookers as they left a luxury hotel to travel to their pre-wedding reception by water taxi on Thursday evening.

Hollywood star Orlando Bloom was seen flashing a peace sign to fans as he left Venice’s Gritti Palace Hotel and he was soon followed by TV presenter Oprah Winfrey, who smiled and waved.

Kim and Khloe Kardashian travelled to the reception with their mother Kris Jenner – who snapped a picture of the pair on a water taxi – and other notable figures in town for the nuptials include Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.

Some 200-250 A-list guests from showbusiness, politics and finance are expected to attend the events, with the wedding and its parts estimated to cost €40m-€48m (£34m-£41m).

Bezos, his soon-to-be wife and their famous guests have taken over numerous locations in the city, with the couple staying in the luxury Aman hotel, where rooms go for at least €4,000 per night.

The first of the weekend’s many wedding parties is taking place in the cloisters of Madonna dell’Orto, a medieval church that hosts masterpieces by 16th century painter Tintoretto.

While the couple and their A-list guests were all smiles, some in Venice are not happy about the wedding – with protesters seeing it as an example of the city being gift-wrapped for ultra-rich outsiders.

Read more: Why are activists protesting the wedding?

An activist climbed one of the poles in the main St Mark’s Square on Thursday, unfurling a banner which said: “The 1% ruins the world.”

Elsewhere, a life-size mannequin of Bezos clutching an Amazon box was dropped into one of the city’s famous canals.

In a bid to keep demonstrators away from Thursday’s party, the city council banned pedestrians and water traffic from the area surrounding the venue, from 4.30pm local time to midnight.

The couple will exchange their vows on Friday, on the small island of San Giorgio, opposite St Mark’s Square.

Another party will follow on Saturday – the venue for which was changed at the last-minute earlier this week.

A convicted killer previously jailed for stalking Girls Aloud singer Cheryl has admitted another breach of his restraining order after turning up at her home.

Daniel Bannister, 50, pleaded guilty to the new charge at Reading Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday.

Confirming his plea, he told the court he attended an address he “reasonably believed or suspected” was the star’s home.

A court previously heard Bannister “can’t stay away” from the 41-year-old singer.

He was jailed for 16 weeks in March for repeatedly turning up at Cheryl‘s Buckinghamshire home while under a restraining order.

He had initially been jailed for four months in September last year and was handed a three-year restraining order, which he breached when he turned up at her home unannounced in December 2024.

At the March hearing, Cheryl said she “immediately panicked” when he rang the bell at the gate and was “terrified” when she saw him – fearing for the safety of her eight-year-old son Bear.

In 2012, Bannister killed 48-year-old Rajendra Patel in an attack at a south London YMCA shelter and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

He was remanded in custody on Friday and will appear at Reading Crown Court on 23 September.

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Bear’s father, former One Direction star Liam Payne, died last October in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after falling from his third-floor hotel balcony.

Cheryl described his death as “indescribably painful“, as she voiced fears about protecting their son.

Sean “Diddy” Combs led a criminal enterprise for two decades, using “power, violence and fear” to carry out brutal crimes, believing his “fame, wealth and power” put him above the law, a prosecutor has told his trial.

Christy Slavik spoke for nearly five hours, as she presented the prosecution’s closing arguments after more than six weeks of testimony and 34 witnesses.

She began by describing the 55-year-old music mogul, telling the court: “He’s the leader of a criminal enterprise. He doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. And now you know about many crimes he committed with members of his enterprise.”

She said charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy were supported by proof that over two decades, Combs kidnapped one of his employees, committed arson by trying to blow up fellow rapper Kid Cudi’s car, engaged in forced labour, bribed a security officer and carried out the “brutal crimes at the heart of this case.”

Diddy trial: As it happened

Ms Slavik said Combs “again and again forced, threatened and manipulated” his former girlfriend, Cassie Ventura and an ex-girlfriend who testified under the pseudonym Jane into drugged-up, elaborate sexual performances, dubbed “freak offs” or “hotel” or “king nights”.

“The defendant used power, violence and fear to get what he wanted,” she said. “He thought that his fame, wealth and power put him above the law.”

Combs is charged with one count of racketeering conspiracy, two charges of sex trafficking, and two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution.

He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has strenuously denied all allegations of sexual abuse.

Read more:
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The rise and fall of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs
What we learned from Cassie’s testimony

Ms Slavik said Combs used a “small army” of employees – his trusted inner circle of staff including bodyguards and assistants – to “serve his needs,” covering up his harm to women in the process.

Homing in on the racketeering charge against him, she said, while Combs was already “very powerful”, he became even more so with the support of his business.

She said Combs and his inner circle “committed hundreds of racketeering acts,” including drug distribution, kidnapping, arson and witness tampering.

They listed drugs such as cocaine, meth, ketamine, Oxycodone and MDMA, that Combs’s assistants said they procured for him, or that federal agents said they found during raids of his multiple homes.

During parts of the evidence, Combs looked dejected, sitting with his head down, and with his chair pushed back from the defence table. At one point, when video footage of Combs appearing to beat Cassie at the InterContinental Hotel was shown to the court, he looked away.

Combs has been in a New York jail since his arrest in September last year. If convicted on all counts, he could face a minimum 15-year prison term and could be sentenced to life behind bars.

The 12-member jury must be unanimous to convict Combs on any of the counts.

Defence lawyers have conceded that Combs was involved in domestic violence but say he committed no federal crimes.

They say the women took part in the “freak offs” willingly and that there was no racketeering conspiracy because none of his employees agreed to be part of any conspiracy. They say the drugs procured were for his own personal use.

But in her closing argument, Ms Slavik said employees repeatedly agreed to commit crimes for Combs, such as delivering him drugs, accompanying him to kidnap his personal assistant, Capricorn Clark, and locking his girlfriend in a hotel room after he stomped on her face.

In her conclusion, she said proof of Combs’s guilt had been demonstrated, adding: “Before today, he was able to get away with it due to his money, power and influence, but that stops now…

“It is time to hold him accountable, it is time for justice, and it’s time to find him guilty.”

On Friday, Combs’s lead attorney Marc Agnifilo will give his closing argument, followed by the government’s rebuttal.

Judge Arun Subramanian says he will instruct the jury on the law later that day, allowing them to begin deliberating as early as late afternoon.

The trial continues.