Masked daredevil couple climb to top of Empire State Building to unfurl banner with message
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New York City residents were surprised to find two masked people climbing the Empire State Building just after noon on Wednesday.The New York Police Department confirmed via social media that they closed down streets near 5th Avenue and 34th Street in Manhattan.They unfurled a banner that read, 'When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace.'The couple identified themselves on social media as daredevil climbers Ivan Beerkus and Angela Nikolau from Russia.They unfurled a banner that read, "When the power of love beats the love of power the world knows peace."The NYPD later confirmed that officers had taken the couple into custody but did not immediately say what charges they may face.One woman told USA Today that there were rumors that the man proposed to the woman during the climb."But I don't really know exactly what it is," Stephanie Hazelwood said. "It just seems like an attention thing and art, maybe."Video obtained by ABC News did indeed appear to show the male climber getting on one knee and proposing to the female climber, who then takes photos of her hand."If it's a proposal, it's an elaborate one, and I hope she said yes," one news anchor said on the video."OK, they're hugging. I think he just proposed!" the other anchor said.The couple were the subject of a documentary titled "Skywalkers: A Love Story" from 2024 and have a large following on social media.RELATED: Watch: 'Pro-Life Spider-Man' climbs New York Times building and California's second-tallest skyscraper in daring protest against abortion A spokesperson for the Empire State Building said the "unauthorized" incident was resolved and used the occasion to market the building."It is to be emphasized that the Empire State Building Observation Deck, atop the 'World's Most Famous Building' in the center of New York City, does offer a practical way for the most memorable marriage proposals," the spokesperson said.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
Two people were arrested after an apparent marriage proposal atop the Empire State Building’s spire on Wednesday, having climbed well above the section open to the public. The pair were identified as Angela Nikolau and Ivan Beerkus, Russian 'rooftoppers' known for carrying out similar stunts in cities including Los Angeles and Tianjin in China. Dressed in black and with their faces covered, they unfurled a large black banner bearing the words: 'When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace.' It remains unclear how they reached the uppermost section of the building, which rises 1,454ft (443 metres) above midtown Manhattan. The New York police department said charges were pending and the investigation remained ongoing. CBS News later reported that the pair were facing charges including burglary, criminal trespass and reckless endangerment Continue reading...
Two people are in police custody after climbing to the top of the Empire State Building on Wednesday afternoon while dressed in black and holding a pro-peace banner, the NYPD confirmed. Their charges are currently pending. “Two unknown individuals were observed on the antenna of the Empire State Building located 20 West 34 Street, within…
Right-wing pundit Tucker Carlson said he plans to build a new party after leaving the Republican Party last month. “I’m going to help build a third party,” Carlson told the Columbia Journalism Review in an interview published Wednesday. “There should be a good-faith effort to figure out what benefits the country.” Much of his frustration […]
Republican leadership in the House is calling on President Donald Trump to allow for the expiration of the Jones Act waiver later this summer in order to protect the U.S. maritime industry. The waiver, which has been in place since March, has permitted refiners to use foreign-flagged ships to transport fuel between U.S. ports. The […]
“There are tons of people here,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, the former TV quack who now runs Medicare and Medicaid, at the Great American State Fair on Monday. He was speaking with Dean Cain, another former TV man—he played Superman on ABC in the 1990s—who has acted as a kind of hype man for the event, ostensibly a celebration of America’s 250th birthday, that is currently taking place on the National Mall. Oz seemed to know he was lying—there were not tons of people there. “This is a huge space and it’s just going to be more and more crowded as the week goes on,” he added. He’s right that it’s a huge space, but videos showed he was speaking to a sparse crowd of maybe 100. Cain later shared a picture from the top of the Ferris wheel where you can literally count the attendees. There are a few hundred. Dr. Oz on stage with Dean Cain talks about how great the crowd is at the Great American State Fair... so @hicharliecotton pans his camera to reveal quite the opposite. https://t.co/vZ3exnGWS3 pic.twitter.com/4e1ugj7AVw— TMZ (@TMZ) June 29, 2026Just as President Trump insists his lackeys dress like him, he also demands they adopt his Norman Vincent Peale–inspired embrace of positive thinking—which is to say, the refusal to acknowledge politically inconvenient truths. But it’s hard to argue with the wealth of video and photographic evidence of the Great American State Fair. It may very well get more crowded, but right now it’s a flop. That’s no surprise to anyone who’s been paying attention to this administration, which is itself a total failure—a group of losers and buffoons so incompetent they … well, can’t even put on a state fair. If they can’t even manage a corn maze, no wonder they’re losing a war.But the Great American State Fair is also failing because it’s the reflection of a president who has no substantive story to tell about the country he leads. While the U.S. is meant to be celebrating its semiquincentennial, Trump can only tell a story about himself. The centerpiece of the fair, after all, is a cheap scale model of a massive triumphal arch Trump hopes to build near Arlington National Cemetery. What triumph does that arch celebrate? When CBS News’s Ed O’Keefe asked Trump whom the 250-foot-tall structure is for, he pointed at himself and said, “Me.” The same could be said of the fair, the war, and so much else that this administration has done—while the World Cup offers a fitting counterpoint.History, at least in an abstract sense, has always been a part of Trump’s political project. He did not invent the slogan that gave the name to his movement—Ronald Reagan used “Make America Great Again” in his 1980 campaign—but he now owns it. Of course, the genius of those four words for Trump is that they don’t really mean anything. They harken back to an earlier, supposedly rosier period without actually saying what period that is. It’s not hard to extrapolate, given Trump’s long history of racism, xenophobia, and misogyny, that he is gesturing at a past when white supremacy went unquestioned. But the statement’s utility as a political slogan is entirely dependent on its vagueness. Trump wants to return America to greatness. When was it great? Let’s not get into specifics. Trump, of course, has no genuine interest in history, not even America’s. Although some observers have floated supposed models for his presidency—Andrew Jackson in Trump’s first term, William McKinley in his second—he has never expounded knowledgeably on Jackson’s populism or McKinley’s protectionism, only gesturing at them half-heartedly in an attempt to explain his own xenophobia and imperial ambitions. No, Trump is only interested in history to the extent that he will feature prominently in it. He wants to be seen as a “great man” who changed the world.This unbridled narcissism is how you get a fiasco like the Great American State Fair and the larger project of which it is a part, Freedom 250—an organization that Trump created despite the fact that Congress had already created an organization, America250, for the purpose of celebrating the country’s anniversary. The primary purpose of Freedom 250, which is not subject to congressional oversight and does not have to disclose its donors, is the elevation of Trump and his political movement. That’s why so many musicians withdrew from performing at the Great American State Fair, and organizers had to turn to Kash Patel’s girlfriend. With just a few days to go before America’s “birthday,” Freedom 250’s most notable event so far was the UFC fight held on the White House lawn on Trump’s actual birthday. Under a different administration—one helmed by Kamala Harris, say, or even a doddering Joe Biden—it’s not hard to imagine a different, nonpartisan celebration of America’s 250th.
