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President Trump has mocked Stephen Colbert’s cancellation and even sued 60 Minutes. Still, the writers of South Park don’t seem too worried about potentially becoming his next target. After skipping the 2024 election season, Comedy Central’s long-running animated show is back on air for its 27th season, just in time to cover President Trump’s second term in office. While the serieswhose creators just closed a $1.5 billion streaming dealhas not shied away from mocking pop culture and political figures in the past (previous iterations of Trump as president include Mr. Garrison, a schoolteacher who later runs for president against Hillary Clinton and wins), the creators are directly targeting the current president this season, going so far as using his real face in place of their traditional animated renderings. In a short 22 minutes, the episode touched on some of the most controversial recent events in the past few weeks, including tariffs on Canada, the Jeffrey Epstein case, the Paramount-Skydance merger, and CBS’s cancellation of The Late Show. To top it off, a scene of the naked president features a small penis (albeit a cartoon one), twisting the knife even more. Comedy Central, the cable TV channel on which the series airs, is owned by Paramount Global. Real-life faces are back Skipping a caricaturized version of the president, South Park opted to use a real image of Trump, cut open like a marionette when speaking, although the artistic choice is famously not new. In the past, the show has opted for real-life-picture cutouts of certain celebrities and public figuresincluding some infamous ones. The series website describes such portrayals as “more of a personal decision” from the show’s creators. According to fan roundups collected online, the celebrities and public figures who have been featured with their real-life cutouts include Ben Affleck, Tony Danza, Christina Aguilera, Jeffrey Dahmer, Gene Siskel, Princess Diana, Adolf Hitler, Walter Matthau, Allen Ginsberg, Tiny Tim, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, John F. Kennedy, John F. Kennedy Jr., Mao Zedong, Michael Landon, Jerry Garcia, Saddam Hussein, Mel Gibson, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns, and now, notably, Donald Trump. In addition to bringing back the marionette-like real-life cutout, the show also revived its in-bed-with-Satan trope. Trump is pictured undressing before climbing into bed with the Devil, an apparent ode to the show’s 1999 film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which featured Saddam Hussein in a similar situation. [Image: Comedy Central] Not everyone is happy about the episode While many users on social media have praised South Parks season debut, those in support of the president seem less content with the episode. “South Park has gone woke. They must go broke,” reads a typical response on X. As expected, the current administration is also not delighted with the show’s creative direction. Taylor Rogers, a White House spokesperson, told Entertainment Weekly that the “show hasn’t been relevant for over 20 years and is hanging on by a thread with uninspired ideas in a desperate attempt for attention.” Trump has yet to directly respond to the episode.
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E-Commerce
Hasbro Inc (NASDAQ:HAS), the brand responsible for iconic games like Monopoly, Jenga, Magic: The Gathering, saw its shares tick upwards over 3% in pretrading on Wednesday. The uptick came just after the company reported its second quarter earnings of $1.30 per share for the second quarter, beating the analyst expectations of $0.78 per share.And, despite a 1% year-over-year decrease, Hasbro’s adjusted revenue was posted at $980.8 million, also beating analysts $874.66 million projection.While sales have been notably down for toy and gaming companies, Hasbro has managed to offset some of the volatility due to financial strains and tariffs. While tariffs represent a headwind for the business, we are compensating for these costs through a combination of cost reductions, rebalancing our marketing spend, diversifying our supplier mix and implementing some targeted pricing actions,” Hasbros CEO, Chris Cocks, said on the companys earnings call, per CNBC.The brand is also clearly leaning into its digital games, most notably, Monopoly Go! The game, which launched in 2023, has quickly become the most popular digital board game. It contributed $44 million in the second quarter.But the biggest driver of Hasbro’s recent earnings has been Magic:The Gathering. That’s thanks to a recently released Magic set: Final Fantasy Universes Beyond Expansion. The set dropped in June and almost instantly shattered records, earning $200 million in one day to become the fastest-selling expansion in Magic history.The Wizards of the Coast and Digital Gaming segment of Hasbro, which encompasses both Magic games and Monopoly Go!, saw overall revenue increase 16% year-over-year.Last year, Cocks spoke to the popularity of digital games and what it meant for the brand. “As we look at the business of play, it’s clear that digital is here to stay and a bigger factor than ever in how successful toy and game companies will grow and strengthen their brands,” Cocks said, noting that the brand was years ahead of its competitors. Still, the fact that Magic games remain popular shows that community is equally as important as digital entertainment.That sense of community is something other gaming companies seem acutely aware of, too. Mattel’s VP and global head of games Ray Adler recently told Fast Company about the brand’s newly introduced Uno Social Club a gaming and nightlife experience. Gen Z already loves Uno, Adler said. Theyve been playing it online, at parties, everywhere. What they dont always have are opportunities to connect in the real world. So we asked: What if game night could be a whole experience?Hasbro’s stock was down 1.1% in afternoon trading Wednesday, but the brand raised its full-year guidance for 2025. It now expects mid-single-digit revenue, and predicts earnings between $1.17 billion and $1.2 billion.
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E-Commerce
In June, Apple previewed the iPhones next operating system, iOS 26. Without a doubt, the headline feature of iOS 26 (yes, the iPhones OS has a new number system) is its complete design overhaul, known as Liquid Glass. The new design introduces a transparent look to iOS, utilizing animations to replicate the way light and other objects refract through glass. Liquid Glass is an ambitious overhaul for the iPhones operating system, but its not the only change coming to iOS 26 when it ships to the public this fall. The new operating system is packed with some truly useful new features that will make using your iPhone better than ever. And, if youre interested in trying out those new features before iOS 26s official September launch date, now you can, thanks to the availability of the iOS 26 Public Beta, which Apple released this week. How to get the iOS 26 Public Beta on your phone right now The great news is that anyone can sign up to be a public beta tester for iOS 26. Once you do this, youll be able to install the iOS 26 public beta on your iPhone, provided you have a compatible model, which is the iPhone 11 and later. To sign up for the public beta, go to beta.apple.com. Once youve signed up, open the Settings app on your iPhone and from there tap General, then Software Updates. Tap Public Beta, and select the iOS 26 public beta from the list presented to you. Now, tap the back button, and on the Software Update screen, youll see you can now update to the iOS 26 public beta by tapping the blue Update Now button. Once your iPhone restarts, itll have the iOS 26 public beta running on it. Now. you can check out some of the operating systems best new features. Onscreen Awareness Visual Intelligence Visual Intelligence is Apples name for iOSs ability to identify something by looking at it. This feature is powered by Apple Intelligence, and in the current iOS 18, is only usable via the Camera. In other words, Visual Intelligence can interpret things your camera sees in the real world, but not things on your iPhones actual screen. Onscreen Awareness for Visual Intelligence in iOS 26 changes that. Now, your iPhone can use Apple Intelligence to recognize what’s happening on its screen and take action based on that on-screen awareness. For example, if you take a screenshot of a social media feed that shows a celebrity chilling at a cafe, you can tap their sweater and ask Visual Intelligence to show you where you can buy a similar one. Or, if someone posts the details of an event in a text message or social channel, you can simply take a screenshot of the details and have Visual Intelligence add the event to your calendar for you. Hold Assist for phone calls The Phone app in iOS 26 is getting its first major redesign in more than a decade, and, as mentioned before, it may just make you want to use your phone to make phone calls again. Coming to the Phone app in iOS 26 is a redesigned layout that puts all your call history, contacts, and voicemails in one place; call screening, which forces a caller to identify themselves before the iPhone will let the call go through; and Live Translation, which can translate the spoken words of a caller who does not speak the same language as you. But perhaps the best new Phone feature in iOS 26 is the ability to have the iPhone wait on hold for you. Now, you can simply tap the Hold button whenever you are put on hold, and the iPhone will continue holding your place in line, notifying you only when you reach the front. Customized Messages backgrounds and polls Apples popular Messages app is getting several updates in iOS 26. The first is, like much of iOS 26, cosmetic, but welcome nonetheless. Now in Messages, youll be able to set a customized background image for each chat you are in. Yesno more seeing those blue chat bubbles against a white wall. You can now set a color or image you prefer, adding some flair to each chat. A second great feature of Messages in iOS 26 is the ability to create polls within a message thread. Polls can help streamline planning when you are asking a group chat what day works best for everyone to meet up. Now, instead of waiting for everyone to type in their reply, members of the chat can just select with a tap from the poll options you specify. Passport storag iOS 26 is also adding a few great features for travelers. The first is the ability to store your U.S. passport on your iPhone in the Wallet app. With your passport stored on your iPhone, you can use it to prove your identity at select TSA checkpoints. The stored passport can also be used to verify your age in third-party apps. Best of all, the stored U.S. passport is Real ID compliant. However, before anyone gets too excited about this feature, keep in mind that if you are traveling internationally, youll still need to bring your actual physical passport with you. As noted by MacRumors, your stored digital passport cannot be used for border crossings. Still, if you are just traveling domestically within the United States, this new feature is a great way to ensure that you always have some identity on youprovided you have your iPhone. Real-time flight information on your lock screen A second great travel-related feature Apple is adding to iOS 26 is Live Activities, for flights for which you have your boarding pass stored in the Wallet app. Now these flights will show real-time updates on a widget on your iPhones home screen, including the flights progress, its arrival gate information, and more. Whats even better is that you can share this real-time information with someone else, such as a person on the ground who is picking you up when your flight arrives.
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E-Commerce
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