Press
This is the official source for Extinction Rebellion UK news,
press releases, updates, images & videos.
Email: press@extinctionrebellion.uk
Phone: +44(0)7756136396
BREAKING: Scientists disrupt opening day of Shell sponsored ‘Our Future Planet’ exhibition at the Science Museum
At 10:30 AM on Wednesday 19th May, a group of scientists from Extinction Rebellion locked themselves to a mechanical tree in the Science Museum, the centerpiece of the Shell sponsored Our Future Planet exhibition. The group, who used bicycle cables and D-locks to lock themselves inside the exhibit on the opening day, explained that the decision by the Science Museum Group to continue to accept Shell sponsorship gives legitimacy to the fossil fuel giant’s planetary destruction. The group took great care not to damage the exhibit and to respect safety regulations.
‘How many bankers were arrested yesterday?’ – XR Co-founder released under investigation for fraud and conspiracy to cause criminal damage
Extinction Rebellion co-founder Dr. Gail Bradbrook was arrested at her home in Stroud at around 5:30 AM on Tuesday, 11 May, and released under investigation later the same day. She was arrested by officers from the Metropolitan Police for conspiracy to cause criminal damage following a Suffragettes-inspired window-breaking at her local Barclays branch, and fraud in relation to the Repair Harm debt strike, which donates Barclaycard debt as reparations to those tending to the effects of climate devastation. Both protests are Money Rebellion actions to spotlight Barclay’s deadly investments in environmentally destructive industries.
Supreme Court fines former government lawyer £5k ahead of COP26 for exposing government cover-up on Heathrow Expansion
On the afternoon of May 10th, Tim Crosland, a lawyer of 25 years standing, and the former Deputy Director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency was fined £5k and ordered to pay costs for breaking the Supreme Court’s press embargo on its ruling to allow the third runway at Heathrow. Tim’s deliberate act of civil disobedience exposed the Government’s decision to ignore the UK’s obligations under the Paris Climate Agreement of 2016.
XR v Murdoch: Trials begin for blockade of Broxbourne printworks
Monday 10th May 2021: The first in a series of trials for 50 Extinction Rebellion members who blockaded Rupert Murdoch’s Broxbourne printworks begins today. Six people will appear at St Albans Magistrates' Court charged with obstruction of the highway during a protest in September 2020 that disrupted the distribution of newspapers including the Sun, the Times, the Telegraph and the Daily Mail.
‘Rolling Justice’ – Helen Schlesinger, Clare Summerskill and April de Angelis to join event marking Tim Crosland’s Supreme Court trial
From 10am on Monday May 10th actors and public figures - including Helen Schlesinger, playwright Clare Summerskill and dramatist April de Angelis - will join a rolling online event marking the Supreme Court trial of Tim Crosland, former Barrister and director of climate litigation charity Plan B. The event will run simultaneously with Tim’s trial, with a non-stop series of readings highlighting the historical role of justice. Readings will include excerpts from the Magna Carta and the Declaration of the Rights of Women and poems in the cause of justice.
‘We will not stand by’ – two years since Parliament declared emergency over 200 people sit alone blocking roads across the UK
At 11am on Saturday 1st May, two years to the day since the UK Parliament declared an environment and climate emergency, over 200 hundred people sat alone in roads blocking oncoming traffic in a courageous ‘Rebellion of One’. The ‘sitters’ wore signs with a message about their fears for the future if the climate and ecological crises continues to go unaddressed. The individual disruptive actions took place in towns and cities across the UK - including Scarborough, Weymouth, Birmingham, Oxford, Bradford, Ipswich, Lincoln, Canterbury, Newcastle, Portishead, London, Newquay, Swansea, Bangor in Northern Ireland and many more.
JAIL THE MESSENGER? Panel discussion with environmental litigation expert Tim Crosland ahead of his trial in the Supreme Court
The event is an opportunity to hear from Tim ahead of his trial in the Supreme Court on Monday 10th May. In December last year, the Supreme Court overturned a previous decision by the Court of Appeal blocking the expansion of Heathrow Airport because it failed to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement, ruling instead that the project did not need to comply with the international climate agreement reached in 2015. Knowing he was in contempt of court, Tim broke an overnight press embargo on the Court’s decision, publishing a statement to “protest the deep immorality of the ruling.”
Extinction Rebellion steps up search for fossil fuel whistleblowers with micro-targeted online ads
Extinction Rebellion (XR) is using micro-targeted online ads to reach skilled workers at four major fossil fuel companies, asking them to expose their companies’ greenwash through whistleblowing platform www.TruthTeller.Life. The ads are directed at researchers, scientists and technicians at Shell, Exxon, Total and Chevron and invite them to anonymously share what they know.
WE WILL NOT BE BYSTANDERS: Two years on from Parliament’s declaration of climate emergency hundreds to take individual disruptive action around the UK
At 11am on May Day (Saturday 1st May) hundreds of people across the UK will take action individually in different disruptive locations to mark the second anniversary of Parliament’s declaration of environmental and climate emergency in 2019.
BREAKING: The XR activists who took on oil giant Shell – and won
Six Extinction Rebellion activists have been acquitted in a landmark verdict at Southwark Crown Court this afternoon.
BREAKING: ‘Ensuring Climate Breakdown’ – Coal dumped at entrance to Lloyd’s of London HQ
At 7am on Friday April 23rd members of Extinction Rebellion used a tipper truck to dump a large pile of fake coal at insurance giant Lloyd's of London's headquarters in the City of London, blocking the main entrance to the building. The group placed safety barriers around the area before the black rubble, used to represent coal, was dumped on the road. They then placed placards in the mound reading ‘stop Adani’, ‘we are the dead canaries’ and ‘do not insure the West Cumbria coal mine.’ They held banners reading 'climate criminals', ‘Lloyds insures colonialism’ and ‘insuring fossil fuels = ensuring climate breakdown.’
‘This is an act of care’ – Extinction Rebellion women break windows at HSBC Canary Wharf HQ in latest action to highlight the financing of climate breakdown
At 7am on Thursday 22nd of April, the 51st year the world has marked Earth Day, nine women from Extinction Rebellion broke windows at the HSBC headquarters in Canary Wharf. The women wore patches with the words ‘better broken windows than broken promises’ in reference to the Suffragettes acts of civil disobedience, which are widely credited with winning women the right to vote in the UK. They placed stickers on the windows of the bank reading ‘£80 billion into fossil fuels in the last 5 years.’ After carefully breaking the glass using hammers and chisels the women sat down and waited to be arrested.