Several UK petrol stations ran out of fuel this weekend as climate activists targeted oil terminals, the Times reports. According to the protest group Just Stop Oil, which is linked to Extinction Rebellion, fuel supplies from oil terminals were disrupted in Warwickshire, Hertfordshire and Essex, the Times reports. The article carries a reaction from the UK home secretary Priti Patel, who says: “Hard-working people across our country are seeing their lives brought to a standstill by selfish, fanatical and frankly dangerous so-called activists. Keir Starmer’s Labour Party repeatedly voted against our proposals that would have given the police extra powers to deal with this eco mob. The police have my full backing in doing everything necessary to address this public nuisance.” [Patel is referring to a new policing bill which critics say will stifle protests in the UK.] Patel’s comments are carried on the frontpage of the Daily Mail. The Guardian carries a quote from Howard Cox, a founder of FairFuelUK, who says he has been “bombarded with messages that garages up and down the country are short of petrol and diesel stock”. [FairFuelUK is a pro-diesel and petrol lobbying group that has attempted to cast doubt on the health impacts of air pollution.] The Guardian also carries a feature behind the scenes with the Just Stop Oil group and an interview with an 80-year-old oil campaigner who has five times stopped fossil fuel companies from expanding.
Elsewhere, the Guardian also reports on the return of Extinction Rebellion to the streets of central London. Several thousand demonstrators met in Hyde Park on Saturday, before moving to Oxford Circus and occupying the road, the Guardian says. Ahead of the protest, XR had promised to “grind the capital to a halt” over the coming week, “with new tactics developed in response to increasingly harsh policing that limited the group’s attempts to cause disruption in protests last August”, the Guardian says. On Sunday, the group blocked bridges across London, the Independent reports. Meanwhile, a second story in the Independent reports that a climate activist on hunger strike outside the Houses of Parliament has gained the backing of 75 scientists. The activist is calling for all cabinet ministers to receive the briefing that is said to have convinced Boris Johnson on climate change, which was first made public by Carbon Brief.
Away from the UK, the Guardian carries a feature on “Fireproof Australia”, an offshoot of Extinction Rebellion, while the Independent reports on a protest at a West Virginia coal plant in the US “where senator Joe Manchin makes $500,000 a year”.
