CNN’s Wolf Blitzer mocked for reporting on Cop26 from Edinburgh – as conference gets under way in Glasgow

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CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer has found himself on the wrong side of some Scots after tweeting that Cop26 was happening in Edinburgh, instead of Glasgow.

Appearing to confuse Scotland’s two biggest cities on Monday, Mr Blitzer tweeted an image of himself in front of Edinburgh Castle, where he said Cop26 was happening.

“I’m now reporting from Edinburgh in Scotland where 20,000 world leaders and delegates have gathered for the COP26 Climate Summit,” tweeted the veteran anchor.

He added: “COP, by the way, stands for ‘Conference of the Parties.’ It’s the 26th time they have gathered to discuss and take action on this critical issue.”

A number of world leaders, including US president Joe Biden, flew in to Edinburgh for Cop26, making their way on to Glasgow for the conference by road and rail.

Follow Cop26 news – live: Boris Johnson to fly from Glasgow to London despite giving climate warning

As many highlighted on Twitter, the two cities are about 42 miles apart – and an hour by road and rail – and on opposite sides of Scotland.

“You’re in the wrong city, dude! COP26 is in Glasgow, on the other side of the country,” tweeted Charlie Stross. “Distances are deceptive: from where you’re sitting it’s about a two hour drive, or 45 minutes by train then a 20 minute taxi ride.”

“I can see how you could make that mistake. I was looking for a map and it looks like every place in Scotland is actually Glasgow,” tweeted Marcel Dirsus, an academic.

He also attached a map with the names of all of Scotland’s towns and cities replaced with “Glasgow”.

Edinburgh was marked as being “100 per cent Glasgow” on the fake map of Scotland.

“Two hours have gone by and this still hasn’t been corrected or deleted?” tweeted writer Adrian McKinty. “Not a good look CNN.”

As The Scotsman reported, the CNN anchor was not alone in appearing to confuse Scotland’s two biggest cities, with a White House correspondent for Reuters tweeting his arrival into “Glasgow”.

The reporter, Jeff Mason, was in fact at Edinburgh’s airport, whose account tweeted back at him: “Jeff, you have no idea what you’ve done ... Welcome to Edinburgh, and Scotland!”

Mr Mason followed by tweeting “Correction: arrived in Edinburgh. The president is motorcading now to Glasgow.”

The US president is among the world leaders who are in Glasgow for the start of intensive talks on the issue of the climate crisis, with Cop26 being billed as the “best last chance” for committing to reducing emissions and limiting the temperature rise to 1.5C.

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