Latest News

Just Stop Oil, a UK-based climate protest group, has announced that it will cease direct action.

Just Stop Oil, a UK-based climate protest group, has announced that it will cease direct action.

Just Stop Oil in Britain, which has been known for its high-profile actions, including throwing soup on a Van Gogh picture and disrupting sports and theater events, announced Thursday that they would be ending their direct action campaign.

The group that has been campaigning for Britain to stop extracting oil and gas in 2030, and which over the past few years has become the most well-known protest organisation of the country, announced it would "hang up the hi-vis" at the end April.

In recent months, activists of the group have painted the grave of Charles Darwin, British naturalist, at Westminster Abbey in London with orange paint, and poured liquid latex on a robot inside a Tesla Store.

Two protesters were arrested for throwing tomato sauce on Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” paintings at London’s National Gallery after they sprayed paint on Stonehenge.

Many of the activists were sentenced to long prison terms as a result of their protests. Critics have derided them, claiming that their actions were meaningless and only inconvenienced ordinary citizens.

Just Stop Oil released a statement that said, "It's the end of cornstarch on Stonehenge, soup on Van Goghs and the slow march in the streets."

The decision was made after the Labour Party, which took power in Britain last January, announced that it would no longer be pursuing new gas and oil projects.

It said that "as corporations and billionaires corruption political systems around the world, we must take a different approach." The group also announced it would stage a final demonstration outside Parliament on April 26. (Reporting and editing by Sarah Young; Michael Holden)

(source: Reuters)