OSLO: Some 150 Extinction Rebellion activists blocked access to the Norwegian energy ministry in Oslo on Monday as part of an ongoing 10-day campaign to protest against the Nordic country’s oil industry.
Norway is Western Europe’s largest producer of crude and natural gas, pumping some four million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
Around 17 campaigners, some with “Ban oil” written on their palms, occupied the reception area of the ministry in central Oslo, while dozens of others demonstrated outside.
“For decades we have written letters, we have spoken out, we have demonstrated. You let us speak but you are not listening,” Hanna Kristina Jakobsen, 22, told the crowd via megaphone.
“This is why we do peaceful civil disobedience now. We are desperate.”
Following the publication of the latest IPCC report on Aug. 9, climate change has become a focal point of debate ahead of an election on Sept. 13, in which Norway’s center-left opposition is expected to defeat the incumbent Conservative-led coalition.
In a separate location, 29 protesters were arrested when they blocked a major road in the city and refused to comply with police orders to move, Oslo police said on Twitter.
Extinction Rebellion is also planning protests elsewhere in Europe, with two weeks of demonstrations starting on Monday in London.
Norway Minister of Petroleum and Energy Tina Bru said that, while she shared the worry over climate change, the protesters were using what she called anti-democratic methods that would not lead to results.
“We’ll never succeed in the fight against climate change if we scrap democracy on the way,” Bru said in a statement.
Earlier this week Extinction Rebellion activists blocked access to an Equinor-run oil export facility on Norway’s west coast, temporarily halting the loading of oil. (Reporting by Gwladys Fouche, Terje Solsvik and Nerijus Adomaitis Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Mark Porter)
Extinction Rebellion occupy Norway’s oil ministry as part of 10-day protest
https://arab.news/652bs
Extinction Rebellion occupy Norway’s oil ministry as part of 10-day protest
- Earlier this week Extinction Rebellion activists blocked access to an Equinor-run oil export facility on Norway’s west coast
- Extinction Rebellion is also planning protests elsewhere in Europe, with two weeks of demonstrations starting on Monday in London
Hegseth vows most intense day yet of US strikes as Iran aims to fight on
- Netanyahu meanwhile said: “We are breaking their bones”
- “No nation takes more precautions to ensure there’s never targeting of civilians,” Hegseth said
WASHINGTON: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday will be the most intense day yet of US strikes inside Iran as the Islamic Republic, its firepower diminished, vowed to fight on.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile said: “We are breaking their bones” and said the war’s aim is a popular overthrow of Iran’s government.
US President Donald Trump, for his part, has sent contradictory signals about how long the war could last, causing wild swings Monday in financial and fuel markets. The US stock market and oil prices were holding relatively steady Tuesday.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf dismissed any suggestion Tehran has sought a ceasefire. Another top Iranian security official, Ali Larijani, appeared to threaten Trump himself, writing on X that “Iran doesn’t fear your empty threats. Even those bigger than you couldn’t eliminate Iran. Be careful not to get eliminated yourself.”
Hegseth says US is taking the investigation on a school strike ‘very seriously’
Responding to a question shouted by a reporter at a news conference about accountability for the strike, Hegseth said that “we take things very, very seriously and investigate them thoroughly.”
“No nation takes more precautions to ensure there’s never targeting of civilians,” he said, adding that “open source information” shouldn’t be used to determine what happened.
Satellite images, expert analysis, a US official and public information suggest the explosion that killed at least 165 people, mostly children, was likely caused by US airstrikes that also hit an adjacent compound associated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.
Trump erroneously claimed Monday that Iran has access to the American Tomahawk cruise missile, the weapon likely used to strike the school.
