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.



South Korea Police Say Rite at Family Grave Led to Deadly Wildfire

29 March 2025, South Korea, Andong: A firefighting helicopter tries to extinguish a wildfire in Andong, in Gyeongsang Province, southeastern South Korea. Photo: -/yonhap/dpa
29 March 2025, South Korea, Andong: A firefighting helicopter tries to extinguish a wildfire in Andong, in Gyeongsang Province, southeastern South Korea. Photo: -/yonhap/dpa
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South Korea Police Say Rite at Family Grave Led to Deadly Wildfire

29 March 2025, South Korea, Andong: A firefighting helicopter tries to extinguish a wildfire in Andong, in Gyeongsang Province, southeastern South Korea. Photo: -/yonhap/dpa
29 March 2025, South Korea, Andong: A firefighting helicopter tries to extinguish a wildfire in Andong, in Gyeongsang Province, southeastern South Korea. Photo: -/yonhap/dpa

South Korean police said on Sunday they booked a man suspected of starting what grew into the country's largest wildfire, killing at least 26 people and razing thousands of buildings including historic temples.
Authorities believe the man, who is in his 50s, began the fire in southeastern Uiseong County when he performed an ancestral rite by a family grave on March 22, an official from Gyeongbuk Provincial Police said.
"We are in the process of verifying evidence," the official added.
In South Korea's legal system, booking involves registering a suspect but may not coincide immediately with arrest or charges.
According to Reuters, Yonhap news agency said the man had denied the allegations.
The fire burned about 48,000 hectares (119,000 acres), destroyed an estimated 4,000 structures, and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate. By Friday the blaze was largely contained although firefighters were still battling small hotspots that had sprung up on Saturday.
The Uiseong fire as well as separate blazes across the country last week left at least 30 people dead and sparked calls for national reforms to better tackle such disasters, which experts say are being exacerbated by climate change.
The forest service said on Sunday another wildfire broke out in a southern area near Suncheonsi, and authorities had deployed 23 firetrucks, four helicopters and 123 firefighters.