| A new wave of anti-capitalist leftists claiming to fight for the climate is taking it out on car tyres, risking further damage to a climate movement already gasping for air. The climate activists we are already familiar with – those who would glue themselves to the streets – may be annoying, but they are also highly courageous to brave the wrath of their “victims”. But Europe’s big cities are seeing another, increasingly popular, trend: “climate activists” who sabotage big cars in wealthy neighbourhoods under cover of the night. Meet the tyre extinguishers, a global network of anarchist activists open to anyone who opposes the status quo and whose sole purpose is to punish the owners of big cars, mostly SUVs. “ATTENTION – your gas guzzler kills,” state flyers the group leaves behind after sneaking lentils into a car tyre’s air valve. The group – which claims to be leaderless – aims to “make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4×4 in the world’s urban areas,” as per their website. With increasing frequency, the group is responsible for European news stories to the tune of “climate activists sabotage 80 cars.” Anybody can claim to operate on the group’s behalf, and as media coverage of them increases, so does their activity. Berlin, the Petri dish of Europe’s radicalised left, saw 336 police reports because of “extinguished” tyres in 2022 alone. By 15 December 2023, another 1,001 police reports were filed on top. The police told the CDU there had been 1,337 victims just in Berlin since the “tyre extinguisher” movement officially launched in March 2022, and the trend is pointing upwards. Since 15 December, another 400 cars were hit in the Berlin area. | 