LONDON — Calling Donald Trump’s victory a sign of “fascism” and “climate breakdown,” environmental activists vandalized the U.S. Embassy in London on Wednesday, spraying an outer wall with orange paint.
No one was injured. Police say two men, ages 72 and 25, were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage. In an email to NPR, Andy Valentine, the Metropolitan Police's deputy assistant commissioner, called the incident “vandalism purporting as protest” and said the suspects remain in custody.
The protest group Just Stop Oil claimed responsibility and posted footage on social media.
In a statement, the group said the “only real winner” of the U.S. election is “corporate power” that puts the fossil-fuel industry over ordinary people. It referred to deadly floods last week in Spain, where “hundreds of bodies continue to be dragged from the mud,” as evidence of “what is to come” if politicians don’t change course.
“As long as democracy is hijacked by corporate interests and billionaires, it will fail to deliver the change people are crying out for,” it said. “This will always leave the door open for fake populists like Trump to exploit the disaffection many feel.”
Just Stop Oil activists have disrupted tennis matches at Wimbledon, blocked parade floats at London’s pride festival and vandalized Van Gogh paintings at the city’s National Gallery to raise awareness of what it calls a climate collapse.
The target of Wednesday’s attack was a relatively new U.S. Embassy complex on the south bank of London’s River Thames, to which diplomats relocated in 2018. Trump once called it an “off location” and the move a “bad deal.”
Copyright © 2024 NPR
