One day before 100 world leaders were due to arrive at the UN for a conference on climate change, the activist prankster group The Yes Men papered New York City with a spoof edition of the city’s favorite tabloid, the New York Post.
The 32-page edition mimicked the Post, from the US flag on the front page to the cartoons to the Page Six celebrity page, with one key twist: The entire paper was devoted to the issue of climate change and the main headline blared, “We’re Screwed.”
“Although the 32-page New York Post is a fake, everything in it is 100 percent true, with all facts carefully checked by a team of editors and climate change experts,” The Yes Men said in a statement.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The actual news came from an official New York City government report prepared by a panel of scientists commissioned by the mayor’s office to determine the potential effects of climate change on the city. That report was released in February (www.nyc.gov/html/om/pdf/2009/NPCC_CRI.pdf), but received very little coverage at the time.
Last November, The Yes Men recruited volunteers to distribute copies of a fake New York Times across the country. This time, the effort was restricted to the Big Apple, with volunteers told to assemble at 4am at assigned locations around the city, including Penn Station. Copies of the spoof were even handed out in front of the Post’s own building at Sixth Avenue and 48th Street. The Yes Men said almost 1 million copies were handed out.
Monday’s spoof was one of 2,500 initiatives taking place in more than 130 countries as a response to the “Global Wake-up Call” on climate change, including a “flash mob” event that drew thousands of demonstrators to the front of Sacre-Coeur church in Paris, holding up beeping alarm clocks and cellphones to tell French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other world leaders that it was time to “wake up” to the threat posed by global warming.
Like last fall’s fake New York Times that proclaimed the Iraq War was over, The Yes Men also prepared an elaborate fake Web site (www.nypost-se.com) for the Post, complete with interactive ads.
The real Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, was not amused.
“It’s no surprise that they tried to spoof the New York Post; they figured this time they’d choose a paper people actually love to read. But this is a limp effort. It has none of the wit and insight New Yorkers expect from their favorite paper. The Post will not be hiring any of their headline writers,” the company said in a statement issued by Rubenstein PR.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS