An image grab from a video released by the Just Stop Oil climate campaign group shows activists spraying an orange substance at Stonehenge in Wiltshire, southwest England, on June 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Climate activists of the ‘Just Stop Oil’ group sprayed orange powder on to the stones of Stonehenge, the prehistoric rock monument in Wiltshire, England, on Wednesday. The attack happened a day before the summer solstice (June 20) when crowds gather at the site. The monument, thought to have been built in several stages between 3000 BCE and 1500 BCE, was likely significant, historically, as a gathering place for rituals during the summer and winter solstices, as the position of the stones aligns in specific ways with the sun’s trajectory on these days.

Two people have been arrested in connection with the incident, the police said.

In a statement the group said two of its members had “decorated” Stongehenge to demand an end to oil and gas burning and extraction by 2030.

“Standing inert for generations works well for stones – not climate policy,” the group said.

The U.K.’s top leaders, normally at loggerheads with each other with a general election three weeks away, found common ground over the attack

“’Just Stop Oil’ is a disgrace,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on social media site X.

“The damage done to Stonehenge is outrageous. Just Stop Oil are pathetic,” said leader of the Labour Party Keir Starmer, who is the frontrunner for the Prime Minister’s post.

‘Just Stop Oil’ members have attacked a number of culturally significant objects. Two activists in their 80s – a priest and a retired teacher – had smashed the case around the Magna Carta in the British Museum in May. In January, two other activists threw soup on the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris.

German activists glued themselves to a runway at Munich airport Saturday and caused dozens of flights to be cancelled, in their latest action aimed at pushing authorities to tackle climate change. 

The activists from the Last Generation environmental protest group forced their way into Germany’s second-busiest airport by cutting through a fence in the early hours, an airport spokesman said. 

Flights were suspended, leading to the cancellation of 61 take-offs and landings, he said. 

The action came to an end with the arrest of eight climate activists, police told the local public broadcaster.

Both airport runways have been open again since 7:20 am (0520 GMT) but disruptions are expected to continue throughout the day. It came at the start of a long weekend in Germany, which is a busy day for travel.

Last Generation are known for mounting eye-catching protests — from gluing themselves to busy roads, to flinging mashed potato at a Claude Monet painting — which have sharply divided public opinion and brought increasingly tough responses from authorities. 

Transport Minister Volker Wissing condemned the action, saying it was “not a legitimate protest, but a targeted intervention in air traffic.”

“If air traffic is not safe, people are put at risk, major economic damage is threatened and thousands of travellers are stranded.”

But in a post on X, formerly Twitter, Last Generation accused the government of not doing enough to discourage people from flying, a major source of climate-damaging emissions.

“It is absurd that people are more likely to be able to afford flights than train journeys,” the group said. “The responsibility for this lies with the government: it subsidises flights while the railways are being cut to the bone.”

In December 2022, activists from the group had also glued themselves to a runway at Munich airport but caused only minor delays.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg has been charged with a public order offence after a climate protest in central London, CNN reported. The 20-year-old was one of 26 people charged after protesters gathered outside the luxury InterContinental Hotel during the Energy Intelligence Forum. The protesters chanted ”oily money out” and sought to block access to the hotel on Tuesday.

As per Metropolitan Police, Ms Thunberg is accused of breaching a Section 14 order that police put in place outside the InterContinental Hotel on Park Lane, where oil executives were meeting on Tuesday.

”The protestors were asked to move from the road onto the pavement, which would enable them to continue with their demonstration without breaching the conditions,” a statement by Metropolitan Police said. 

Video footage of the incident showed Ms Thunberg, wearing a badge with the slogan ‘Oily Money Out’ standing calmly as two police officers spoke to her. One was seen holding her arm.

Ms Thunberg said at the demonstration, “Behind these closed doors at the Oil and Money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries – the fossil fuel industry. People all over the world are suffering and dying from the consequences of the climate crisis caused by these industries who we allowed to meet with our politicians and have privileged access to.”

NEW: Greta Thunberg has just been detained protesting a Big Oil conference in London.

This was her powerful message to the fossil fuel industry before she was detained.@fossilfreeLDN#OilyMoneyOutpic.twitter.com/wZAfvAvE7e

— Greenpeace UK (@GreenpeaceUK) October 17, 2023

Ms Thunberg was detained and taken to a police station before being released overnight, police said. She has been released on bail with a trial set for November 15. The other protesters facing charges were also allowed bail.

Greta Thunberg, who became the face of young climate activists worldwide after staging weekly protests in front of the Swedish parliament in 2018, has this year been detained by police or removed from protests in Sweden, Norway, and Germany.