Just Stop Oil targets Taylor Swift’s jet – and fails to locate it
Just Stop Oil is keeping busy.
Just one day after targeting renowned prehistoric UNESCO World Heritage Site Stonehenge, two demonstrators from the British environmental activist group, named by the group as Jennifer Kowalski, 28, and Cole Macdonald, 22, are said to have broken into a VIP private airfield at Stansted airport this morning.
The pair attempted to target Taylor Swift’s jet, as the pop star is scheduled to perform at Wembley Stadium on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this week, as part of her worldwide Eras Tour.
Unable to find the plane, they instead painted two other jets using fire extinguishers filled with orange paint.
Cole Macdonald said: “We’re living in two worlds: one where billionaires live in luxury, able to fly in private jets away from the other, where unlivable conditions are being imposed on countless millions. Meanwhile, this system that is allowing extreme wealth to be accrued by a few, to the detriment of everyone else, is destroying the conditions necessary to support human life in a rapidly accelerating never-ending ‘cruel summer’."
"Billionaires are not untouchable, climate breakdown will affect every single one of us,” Macdonald concluded.
Just Stop Oil at Stansted airport - Thursday 20 June 2024 Just Stop Oil
The two Just Stop Oil activists at Stansted airport this morning Just Stop Oil
Yesterday, the campaign group confirmed that a pair of its activists, named by the group as Niamh Lynch, 21, and Rajan Naidu, 73, had "decorated Stonehenge in orange powder paint" one day before the summer solstice.
They did so to demand that the UK's next government legally commit to phasing out fossil fuels by 2030.
Just Stop Oil activists at Stonehenge - Wednesday 19 June 2024 Just Stop Oil
The footage was posted on social media, with the group sayng that they has used "orange cornflour" so that it "will soon wash away with the rain".
English Heritage said the incident was “extremely upsetting”, and it has instructed its curators to investigate the extent of the damage.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the attack as a "disgraceful act of vandalism to one of the UK's and the world's oldest and most important monuments", while Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said that "the damage done to Stonehenge is outrageous."
"Just Stop oil are pathetic," continued Starmer. "Those responsible must face the full force of the law."
Just Stop Oil has warned of "resistance" this summer if the government does not take "meaningful action".
"Whilst governments are allowing oil corporations to run amok destroying our communities, the actions of individuals mean very little," the group said. "That's why Just Stop Oil is demanding that our next government sign up to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”
"Failure to defend the people they represent will mean Just Stop Oil supporters, along with citizens from Austria, Canada, Norway, the Netherlands and Switzerland will join in resistance this summer, if their own governments do not take meaningful action."