Matt Stone and Trey Parker announced they are renaming South Park to 'South America' for its new season, mocking President Trump's pattern of renaming geographic features like the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario. The change was unveiled on the show's social media with a doctored sign reading 'South America' instead of 'South Park', shortly after the series won an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program. The creators also sarcastically thanked parent company Paramount Skydance, referencing its pending $111bn merger with Warner Bros Discovery.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-09-09
Over Labor Day weekend, President Trump and the White House posted a wave of AI-style memes depicting him as an all-powerful superhero, including building walls and factories with a Green Lantern ring, towering over Canada's prime minister on a hockey rink, and commanding a warship in battle. The imagery arrives as Trump's approval ratings decline amid struggles with inflation, the Iran conflict, and manufacturing promises.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-09
NOAA has released new agency-wide priorities framed as cutting red tape and boosting fishing communities, following Trump's April executive order on seafood competitiveness. The plan includes opening marine national monuments to commercial fishing, narrowing critical habitat protections, and loosening scientific standards that have guided fisheries management for decades.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-09-09
Huawei is scheduled to face a US criminal trial on charges that it violated Iran sanctions and stole trade secrets from competitors. The proceedings are set to begin just weeks before a planned meeting between President Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-09
Following President Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario, a Canadian seller has created a hat reading 'Canada Is Not for Sale' as a direct response. The design borrows the style of Trump's own campaign caps to turn his signature branding against him, while a rival version supporting the 'Lake America' idea has also appeared for buyers on the other side of the debate.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-09
A Census Bureau report claiming to find 24,000 noncitizen voters in the 2020 election has been shown by a WIRED investigation to rely on faulty data and a rushed approval process. Several of the report's authors have ties to the Trump administration, including a former DOGE affiliate and researchers from the America First Policy Institute. Experts say the numbers likely stem from analytical errors rather than actual instances of illegal voting.
wired.com
· 2026-09-09
The White House removed a browser game called 'Build the Wall' from its website after the Tetris Company said it had no involvement in the title and takes copyright infringement seriously. The game, which used block-stacking mechanics resembling Tetris, tasked players with building a wall to stop a 'zombie border siege' and drew criticism for its racist framing. The page now returns a 404 error, though another game on the site, Rio Run, which involves deporting immigrant characters, remains live.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-08
The U.S. carried out another round of military strikes targeting tankers carrying Iranian oil, escalating pressure on Tehran's crude exports. Separately, the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to approve use of a voter verification system, and Meta launched a new consumer-facing AI agent.
wsj.com
· 2026-09-08
A new Gallup/Walton Family Foundation poll finds only 32% of American adults are satisfied with K-12 education quality, an 11-point drop over two years and the lowest mark in 27 years of polling. Dissatisfaction has climbed to 67%, with Democrats showing the steepest decline—about 19 points since Trump's second term began—while independents and Republicans also reported smaller drops.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-08
Stella Parton, sister of the late singer Dolly Parton, publicly asked fans to stop sharing AI-generated images and fabricated tribute videos following her sister's death. She said the flood of fake content, including AI images shared even by President Trump, has made it difficult for the family to grieve and process the loss.
futurism.com
· 2026-09-08
A Boeing 767-300 cargo plane operated by 21 Air under Amazon's Prime Air branding overshot the runway at Miami International Airport on Sunday and caught fire. At least five people died and five more were injured, forcing the airport to shut down its runways temporarily.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-08
President Trump spent over 10 hours on Truth Social posting dozens of AI-generated images, including one showing him monitoring markets with a caption claiming he personally made 'Hundreds of Billions of Dollars on Stocks' and other holdings for the country. No evidence was provided for the claim, which came amid other unrelated AI images depicting scenes like Iran's defeat and Trump on horseback with George Washington.
cnbc.com
· 2026-09-07