LONDON: Four men were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of trespassing after entering the grounds of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s country estate in northern England, police said.
North Yorkshire police said the group was detained just after noon and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
A group called Youth Demand posted video showing a man in boots step into Sunak’s pond, where he pretended to defecate.
The group said in a statement chock-full of a crude four-letter word for human waste that it was a “parting gift” to the prime minister. It said the stool used in the stunt was made of latex so it could be retrieved and prevent environmental damage.
Sunak was in London at the time for the state visit by the Japanese emperor and empress.
The incident comes just over a week before the UK’s general election that will determine if Sunak remains in power. Polls and pundits have predicted the Labour Party to take control after 14 years of Conservative rule.
The police officer who confronted the group asked the man identified by the group as “Oliver” what his intentions were, according to video of the incident.
“I think our intentions are carried out,” he replied.
Youth Demand said it is calling for a two-way arms embargo on Israel and for the next UK government to revoke oil and gas licenses granted since 2021.
The group said the four detained included a press photographer.
Sunak had condemned the group earlier this year when it hung a banner on the home of Labour leader Keir Starmer, saying “Stop the killing,” in reference to Israel’s war with Hamas militants.
In August, four Greenpeace protesters were charged with criminal damage after climbing on Sunak’s home while he was away and draping it in black fabric to protest his plan to expand oil and gas drilling in the North Sea.
4 men arrested for allegedly trespassing on grounds of British prime minister’s country estate
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4 men arrested for allegedly trespassing on grounds of British prime minister’s country estate
- North Yorkshire police said the group was detained just after noon and arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass
- The group said in a statement chock-full of a crude four-letter word for human waste that it was a “parting gift” to the prime minister
UN chief calls on Israel to reverse NGOs ban in Gaza
- In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out
- Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on Friday for Israel to end a ban on humanitarian agencies that provided aid in Gaza, saying he was “deeply concerned” at the development.
Guterres “calls for this measure to be reversed, stressing that international non-governmental organizations are indispensable to life-saving humanitarian work and that the suspension risks undermining the fragile progress made during the ceasefire,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“This recent action will further exacerbate the humanitarian crisis facing Palestinians,” he added.
Israel on Thursday suspended 37 foreign humanitarian organizations from accessing the Gaza Strip after they had refused to share lists of their Palestinian employees with government officials.
The ban includes Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which has 1,200 staff members in the Palestinian territories — the majority of whom are in Gaza.
NGOs included in the ban have been ordered to cease their operations by March 1.
Several NGOS have said the requirements contravene international humanitarian law or endanger their independence.
Israel says the new regulation aims to prevent bodies it accuses of supporting terrorism from operating in the Palestinian territories.
On Thursday, 18 Israel-based left-wing NGOs denounced the decision to ban their international peers, saying “the new registration framework violates core humanitarian principles of independence and neutrality.”
A fragile ceasefire has been in place since October, following a deadly war waged by Israel in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
In November, authorities in Gaza said more than 70,000 people had been killed there since the war broke out.
Nearly 80 percent of buildings in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged by the war, according to UN data, leaving infrastructure decimated.
About 1.5 million of Gaza’s more than two million residents have lost their homes, said Amjad Al-Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGO Network in Gaza.
