UK’s Johnson Jeered at Platinum Jubilee Service

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to attend the National Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen's reign at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 as part of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee celebrations. (AFP)
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to attend the National Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen's reign at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 as part of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee celebrations. (AFP)
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UK’s Johnson Jeered at Platinum Jubilee Service

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to attend the National Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen's reign at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 as part of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee celebrations. (AFP)
Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson arrives to attend the National Service of Thanksgiving for The Queen's reign at Saint Paul's Cathedral in London on June 3, 2022 as part of Queen Elizabeth II's platinum jubilee celebrations. (AFP)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was met with boos and jeers as he arrived at London's St. Paul's Cathedral for a Service of Thanksgiving for Queen Elizabeth on Friday, reflecting the mounting pressure he is facing in office.

As Johnson and his wife Carrie climbed the steps outside the cathedral, in front of leading members of the military and the church, thousands of royal fans started to jeer and boo.

Some of those in the crowd clapped and started to cheer.

Johnson has faced widespread calls from opposition politicians, and some in his own party, to resign over a "partygate" scandal after it was revealed both he and Downing Street officials broke stringent laws his government made during the pandemic.

The fine is believed to mark the first time a British leader has been found to have broken the law while in office.

Johnson swept to power in 2019 on a promise to complete Britain's exit from the European Union, but his premiership has suffered a series of controversies and missteps in recent months.

Polls show his personal popularity has plummeted and a growing number of lawmakers in his own party have called for Johnson to quit, with speculation he might face a leadership challenge.

The couple were arriving for the Service of Thanksgiving, being held on the second day of the four-day Platinum Jubilee national celebration. Former prime ministers including Tony Blair and David Cameron were met with polite applause.

The politicians were arriving before the royal family. The queen will watch the service from her Windsor Castle home due to a recurrence of "episodic mobility problems".



Thunberg Leads Pro-Palestinian, Climate Protest in Milan

Thunberg wore a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel - AFP
Thunberg wore a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel - AFP
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Thunberg Leads Pro-Palestinian, Climate Protest in Milan

Thunberg wore a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel - AFP
Thunberg wore a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolising the Palestinian struggle against Israel - AFP

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg attended a climate change and pro-Palestinian rally in Milan on Friday, days after her criticism of Israel sparked a row over protests in Germany.

More than 1,000 people, many of them teenagers, joined a peaceful march in the northern Italian city organized by Fridays For Future, the climate change movement Thunberg helped found.

Wearing a keffiyeh, a traditional scarf symbolizing the Palestinian struggle against Israel, Thunberg walked near the front of the procession as other protesters waved flags, held banners and danced to music.

"Palestinians have been living under suffocating oppression for decades by an apartheid regime, and during the last year with Israel's live broadcasted genocide, the world has once again abandoned Palestine," the 21-year-old said in a speech, AFP reported.

Israel's retaliatory military offensive in Gaza after October 7 attack by Hamas has killed more than 42,000 people, most of them civilians, according to figures provided by the Gaza health ministry. The United Nations has acknowledged the figures to be reliable.

Thunberg drew a link between global warming and the weapons industry.

"The fight for climate justice is a fight against the fossil fuel industry, just as much as it is a fight against the weapon industries, militarisation and the over-extraction of natural resources," she said.

German police on Tuesday closed a pro-Palestinian protest camp that had invited Thunberg after a rally she attended in Berlin Monday -- the anniversary of the Hamas attack -- ended in clashes with police.

She accused Germany of "silencing and threatening activists".

The Milan march was part of a "national strike for the climate", a series of protests organized by Fridays For Future across Italy.

"Demonstrating is the only weapon we have against the injustice that we suffer," said protester Sofia Parisi, 17.