SAVE $400: As of Feb. 27, get the brand new Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with 512GB of storage for just $1,299.99, plus receive a $200 Amazon gift card. That saves you $200 off its list price, plus gives you $200 to spend at Amazon totally free.

On Feb. 25 at Samsung Galaxy Unpacked, the brand debuted its newest S Series smartphone: the S26. With its arrival, we expected to see some stellar markdowns on the previous generation, the S25, which has dropped as low as $899.99. Yet, there’s an even better deal to shop now, and it’s on the new S26.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with 512GB is priced at $1,499.99 on Samsung’s website, yet we found a major deal on Amazon. As of Feb. 27, the phone paired with a $200 Amazon gift cart is a bundle worth $1,699.99, but it’s on sale for just $1,299.99. That saves you $200 off the phone plus gets you a free gift card, saving $400 for 24% off.

So what’s new with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra? Coming out of Samsung Unpacked, the biggest headline is the phone’s new the new privacy display. The adjustable feature allows you to keep your screen hidden from those around you, as it shades the screen unless you’re looking at it straight on. Additionally, Samsung combined its AI photo and video editing in one spot, the Creative Studio. It’s an impressive device, which makes this deal tantalizing.

Plus, with your $200 Amazon gift card, you can use it to shop the new Samsung Galaxy Buds 4 Pro or a Samsung Galaxy Ring.

TL;DR: Best Buy is running free Pokémon Trade and Play events on Feb. 28 (12-2 p.m. local time). Participants can score free packs, trade cards, and shop exclusive collections.

We’ve made a lot of noise about Pokémon’s 30th birthday celebrations, and so has the rest of the world. We’ve seen genuine excitement over new Pokémon TCG releases, the first-ever Lego Pokémon sets, and the return of nostalgic Pokémon games, and it feels like there’s more to come from this special anniversary.

Best Buy is clearly feeling the party vibes. On Feb. 28 (12-2 p.m. local time), Best Buy stores across the country will host in-store Trade and Play events, with demo stations, Pokémon TCG trades, exclusive card drops, freebies, expert tuition, and a whole lot more. Attend solo, bring a friend, or gather together everyone from your neighborhood. This is going to be big.

Somehow still on the fence? Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect from these special events:

Before you set off, it’s important to check out Best Buy’s Pokémon page to find a Trade and Play event at a store near you. Once that’s sorted, you’re all set to capture the magic of Pokémon this weekend.

By Robert Scucci
| Published 1 hour ago

There’s only one thing more amusing than watching 2004’s Team America: World Police, and that’s listening to the Season 8 commentary tracks on the South Park DVDs. Not only did Team America: World Police require a biblical amount of work from Trey Parker, Matt Stone, and their puppeteering production crew to pull it off, they were also concurrently working on their flagship series, a time they now refer to as the year from hell when looking back at this era of their careers.

Parker and Stone worked themselves into the ground with Team America: World Police, resulting in some of the most unhinged episodes South Park has to offer.

Episodes like “Cartman’s Incredible Gift,” which I consider essential viewing and a perfect entry point to the series, have commentary tracks from Parker and Stone suggesting they don’t even remember making the episode because they were so locked in at that point that they were putting very little thought into the minor details. They were contractually obligated to stick to their grueling production schedule, and relied on their manic, do-or-die energy to pull it off. The finale, “Woodland Critter Christmas,” one of South Park’s most notorious episodes, is another example of a zero-hour effort that was constantly reworked until just a day before it aired.

Team America’s Grueling Production

Always leading with what’s funny and figuring out how to do it later, Parker and Stone had no idea how complicated it would be to pull off their movie, which they fully intended to play like a Jerry Bruckheimer production starring marionettes. Dozens of scale replica set pieces were constructed, including Paris, Cairo, the Panama Canal, Mount Rushmore, and North Korea.

Their vision was simple. They wanted each location to look like how it’s depicted in action movies, and therefore how the average American thinks it looks.

Additionally, 270 puppet characters had to be built, along with over a thousand costumes to make Team America: World Police possible. Given the puppets’ roughly two-foot stature, countless props had to be custom made to accommodate their size, along with multiple animatronic heads that would be attached to their bodies. Controlling the puppets proved exhausting, resulting in unthinkably long shooting days with only a handful of usable dailies passed off to editors compared to films made through more conventional means. Rumor has it that designing Kim Jong-il’s glasses was a painstaking process due to camera glare, making them one of the most expensive props in the movie.

America, F*** Yeah!

Team America: World Police centers on the titular international counterterrorist organization, run by its fearless leader, Spottswoode (Daran Norris). Under his command are psychologist Lisa, psychic Sarah, martial arts expert Chris, Carson, and all American jock Joe. Together, they fight terrorism by causing so much collateral damage to whatever locale they visit, that a terrorist attack would actually leave the area better off. When Carson is killed and a new threat reveals itself, Spottswoode recruits Gary Johnston, a Broadway actor, to use his acting skills to infiltrate various terrorist factions.

Meanwhile, Kim Jong-il is revealed to be the true mastermind behind the terrorists, and the supplier of WMDs, unbeknownst to Team America, resulting in the Film Actors Guild throwing Team America under the bus for their sloppy, reckless work.

If you’ve never had the pleasure of watching Team America: World Police, all you need to know is that it carries itself like every over the top action movie, but with enough raunch that it almost landed an NC-17 rating. 

By then, knowing exactly how to work with censors, Parker and Stone knew what they had to do. By filming a prolonged sex scene with the puppets that was far longer than what they needed for the film, they simply waited for the production notes explaining how short the scene would have to be in order to secure an R rating.

Appreciate The Hustle

Though it’s not my favorite Trey Parker and Matt Stone vehicle, Team America: World Police is indirectly responsible for some of the best episodes South Park has to offer. Had they not taken on such an ambitious project while also working on the series in tandem, we may have never gotten episodes like “Good Times with Weapons,” “Awesome-O,” “Goobacks,” “Something Wall-Mart This Way Comes,” “Quest for Ratings,” or “Cartman’s Incredible Gift.”

Don’t get me wrong. Matt Damon only being capable of saying his own name, poorly, in Team America: World Police because his puppet came off the production line looking a little dim is comedy gold. But topical political humor is fleeting. South Park is forever.

Team America: World Police is streaming on Paramount+.