Just Stop Oil climate activists have clashed with a motorist who said he was trying to take his partner to hospital as they blocked a road in London.
The Metropolitan Police said officers were on the scene quickly and 26 arrests were made for wilful obstruction of the highway.
Around 30 protesters gathered on Shoreditch High Street at the junction of Great Eastern Street at around 12.15pm on Saturday where they set up a road block to disrupt traffic.
Image: Protesters block a road on Shoreditch High Street just after noon on Saturday. Pic: Just Stop Oil/Twitter
Image: The motorist was telling protesters to ‘move out of the way’ so he could drive his partner to hospital. Pic: Just Stop Oil/Twitter
Several individuals “locked on” and glued themselves onto the road surface, adding that specialist officers were required to attend to carry out de-bonding, police said.
Footage posted on its official Twitter account showed pedestrians and drivers growing angry at the demonstrators as they urged them to move.
In a clip, a driver tells the group sitting on the road to “move out the way” as another man appears and drags one of the protesters to the pavement.
After stopping his vehicle, the driver was heard telling the protesters: “My missus is not well, mate. She needs to get to the hospital. Get out of the f******* way, mate.
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He added: “Have some respect for other people, not just yourselves, yeah. There’s other people that need to get places.”
Saturday marks the 15th day of demonstrations linked to the group – which wants the government to stop issuing all new oil and gas licences.
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Image: Pedestrians and motorists are seen getting angry at protesters calling them to move. Pic: Just Stop Oil/Twitter
Elsewhere in the city, Animal Rebellion supporters poured milk over the floors and over other dairy products at luxury store Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly.
A clip posted to the group’s social media showed activists emptying milk bottles as shoppers and staff quietly looked on, as the group calls on the government to support farmers in a transition to a plant-based food system.
Image: An Animal Rebellion supporter pours milk over the floors at Fortnum & Mason. Pic: Animal Rebellion/Twitter
The women walked into the gallery in London’s Trafalgar Square and threw the contents of two tins of Heinz tomato soup over the famous 1888 painting, which has an estimated value of £72.5m.
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Soup thrown over Van Gogh painting
Anna Holland, of Westgate Road in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and Phoebe Plummer, 21, of Elms Road in Clapham, south London, are due to appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Saturday charged with criminal damage to the frame of the painting.
The force added that 28 arrests were made in total in relation to protests in central London on Friday.
Lora Johnson, 38, of Keens Lane, Reydon, Southwold in Suffolk, are also due to appear in the same court.
Image: The climate change group gathered at the junction of Great Eastern Street on Saturday
Johnson is charged with criminal damage after the main sign outside New Scotland Yard was covered with yellow paint on Friday.
Demonstrators also blocked the road in front of the Metropolitan Police’s headquarters during Just Stop Oil’s action.
Police said 25 other people have been bailed pending further inquiries.
Image: A Just Stop Oil protester stands next to a sign she spray painted outside New Scotland Yard
Home Secretary Suella Braverman on Saturday unveiled plans for a major crackdown on the kinds of protests typically undertaken by climate activists – as she pledged to stop demonstrators holding the public “to ransom”.
She said she will give the police new powers to take a more “proactive” approach to some protests, with some of the measures specifically targeted at the tactics used by some environmental groups.
Comedy writer Bill Dare, – who worked on shows including Spitting Image and Dead Ringers – has died after an accident overseas, his agent said.
Described as a “super producer” by his peers, Dare, 64, worked on eight series of hugely popular satire puppet show Spitting Image.
Airing on ITV during the 1980s and 1990s, the show delighted in lampooning public figures including politicians, celebrities and royalty, winning BAFTAs and Emmys. It was rebooted in 2020.
Dare also created Dead Ringers, a comedy impressions show broadcast on BBC Radio 4.
He also produced The Now Show, a satirical take on the news which ran on Radio 4 from 1998 to 2024.
Dare worked on a wide range of comedy shows during his career, including the radio production of The Mary Whitehouse Experience in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He had also written several novels.
In a statement released on Monday, his agent JFL Agency confirmed he died at the weekend.
A spokesperson said: “We are shocked and greatly saddened to have to announce the death of our brilliant client Bill Dare, who died at the weekend following an accident overseas.
“Our thoughts are with his wife Lucy, daughter Rebecca, and with all of Bill’s family and friends who will be devastated by his loss.
“Bill was a truly legendary producer and writer, and his comedy instincts were second to none.”
Image: Oasis depicted on Spitting Image in 1996. Pic: ITV/Shutterstock
Colleagues were quick to pay tribute and reflect on his talent.
Impressionist Jon Culshaw wrote on X: “It’s impossible to express the unreal sense of loss at the passing of the incredible Bill Dare. The wisest comedy alchemist and the dearest, dearest friend. Much love to Lucy and all Bill’s family and friends. We shall all miss him more than we can say.”
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David Baddiel posted on the social media platform: “Just heard that the original producer of The Mary Whitehouse Experience on radio, Bill Dare, has died. Bill was an amazing creative force. I owe him much. RIP.”
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Former EastEnders actress Tracy-Ann Oberman said she was “devastated” and that her “entire comedy career was down to Bill”.
She wrote: “When I was on the BBC Radio 4 rep company early on in career – I ran into Bill in the corridors – He asked if I was good at accents. I said yes.
“He cast me in a sketch show. I had to do about 15 different accents. We recorded in front of a live audience at Broadcasting House – afterwards Bill said ‘Why have I never met you – you’re going to have a big career’.
“He was incredibly loyal and supportive and really opened a path for me into the R4 comedy world and then TV having come out of the RSC and theatre it was all new. I will always be grateful. Fly high Bill.”
Comedian and writer Mark Steel wrote: “This is so grim. Bill was a compassionate hearty soul with the ability to be beautifully grumpy, a marvellously thoughtful comic mind.
“He’d argue but always listen and you’d always laugh, he made a million shows and wanted them all to matter and would have made a million more.”
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Have I Got News for You writer Pete Sinclair said: “I am utterly devastated by Bill’s death. I still can’t believe it. He was a comedy genius. A hugely talented writer as well as a brilliant producer. A close friend and co-writer. I cannot begin to say how much I’ll miss him.”
Julia McKenzie, comedy commissioner for Radio 4, said: “I am so terribly sorry to hear this tragic news and my thoughts are with Bill’s wife, family and friends.
“Bill has been a huge part of Radio 4 comedy for decades, as a writer and producer, and listeners will have heard his legendary name at the end of many of their favourite shows.
“Bill was a comedy obsessive, and very instinctive about making the funniest choices when it came to writing, directing and editing.
“He cared so much about his work that in the production booth during Dead Ringers you’d see him crouched over the script, utterly focused on the show.
“He was funny and very dry in person, amusingly cynical when he needed to be and always pushed to keep the comedy he made, and particularly satire, spiky.
“I’ve known and worked with him for 18 years and like many I can’t believe he has gone, he will leave a big hole in the comedy world and in our hearts.”
An ex-prison officer who boasted about performing a sex act on an inmate who “manipulated” her has been jailed.
Mother-of-one Katie Evans, 26, burst into tears in court as the judge described how she was “corrupted” by an “experienced criminal” not long after she started work at Doncaster Prison when she was just 21.
As well as starting an intimate relationship with the prisoner, Daniel Brownley, Evans had more than 140 phone calls with him, moved money around bank accounts for him, and supplied him with information the prison held on him, the court heard.
Brownley had been jailed in 2016 for attempted robbery, burglary and handling stolen goods, the court heard.
“It appears you indulged in some form of sexual activity in the prison. It has been described that on one occasion you had oral sex with him,” Judge Jeremy Richardson KC told Evans at Sheffield Crown Court.
“It is truly a terrible situation for a judge to be passing sentence on a former prison officer who has been branded a corrupt prison officer.”
Judge Richardson told Evans “he corrupted you and not the reverse”, adding: “I’m entirely satisfied you were manipulated by an experienced criminal to assist him.”
He said Evans was “young and immature” at the time but added: “Your misconduct materially affected the good order and discipline of the prison.”
“You were inexperienced and immature but that is, however, no excuse for what you did.”
Judge Richardson said the sentence of 21 months should have been longer but, “purely as an act of mercy”, he reduced it to take into account the effect it will have on Evans’ relationship with her young daughter and the difficulties she will have in prison as a former officer.
Evans, of Hatfield, Doncaster, admitted misconduct in a public office at a previous hearing.
Still crying, she waved at family members in the public gallery as she was led from the dock.