It's been a busy two weeks at WSUM! Last week, we tabled at UW–Madison's organization fair, where we greeted students and future radio hosts. On Friday the 13th, we hosted our annual Snake on the Lake music festival with WUD Music—which, in our humble opinion, was a total blast! Bnny, Sick Day and Graham Hunt performed, and two of our DJs, Roger Roger and IDJAF, spun between sets. 

To put it simply, WSUM staff are tired from two exciting, long weeks. While most staff members didn't have time to check their phones and see the most recent pop culture news, we still compiled the most pressing pop culture news of the week. After all, the Talk Director has to have something to talk about with future WSUM members, right? 

The best bird is returning

No, I'm not talking about Twitter… Flappy Bird, a fun mobile game from 2013, is finally making its return after a decade of being unavailable! Rumor has it that some remember the game staying on their devices even after it was formally taken off the app store (cough cough, my brother). But, now everyone has a chance to feel the rage of birds running into that obstacle you swear you didn't hit. 

Kendrick as the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show performer

Kendrick Lamar has officially been announced as the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show performer. If this is another diss at Drake, it certainly is a large hit. Unfortunately for me, this means I'll actually have to tune in to football… 

Diddy arrested on sex trafficking charges

Sean “Diddy” Combs, who has been under fire over the past several months for sexual assault allegations, was arrested in New York on September 16. He was arrested after being indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. 

Diddy pleaded not guilty and proposed paying a $50 million bail fee, which was denied twice. 

Several houses in Los Angeles and Miami that were linked to Diddy were raided in March 2024 based on a possible sex trafficking investigation. Specific details of the raid have not been released. 

Diddy also has to pay Derrick Lee Cardello-Smith $10 million a month for not showing up to the hearing, in which Diddy was accused of drugging and sexually assaulting Cardello-Smith. 

The indictment describes Diddy as the head of a criminal enterprise, specifically one that engaged in forced labor, sex trafficking, drug offenses and more. 

Taylor Swift endorses Harris and Walz after the presidential debate

Vice President Kamala Harris and previous President Donald Trump had their debate earlier this week. While there were many… highlights… of the night, a large talking point after the debate was Taylor Swift's endorsement of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. She formally endorsed them, signing it off as “childless cat lady”, which hit at Trump's vice pick JD Vance who previously made fun of “childless cat ladies”. 

Walz actually learned about the endorsement during a live interview. He seemed exceedingly happy about it. Taylor Swift's post gained a million of likes within the first minute it was posted. 

NewJeans argues with company

A group that fans once thought would be the best of the new generation of K-Pop, NewJeans is certainly in a bit of a sticky situation right now. The group has been dealing with a legal dispute between Min Heejin, the CEO of their label Ador, and the executive board of Hybe, Ador's parent label. 

Hybe, the company behind BTS, launched an audit of Ador in April, asking Min Heejin to step down. There were suspicions that Min Heejin was attempting a coup to get sole management of Ador (and therefore NewJeans). Fans also accused Min Heejin of being mean to NewJeans, such as making belittling comments. But, according to Hybe, the audit only occurred because Min Heejin had voiced concerns that ILLICIT, a girl group also under Hybe, had too many similarities to NewJeans. 

After Hybe's audit, Ador accused Hybe of plagiarism, creative infringement, and attempts to undermine NewJeans' and Ador's achievements.  

In a later statement, Hybe claimed that Min Heejin was planning a hostage takeover of Ador and NewJeans, apparently pressuring employees to also pressure Hybe to sell their shares of Ador. Hybe also claimed that an employee admitted to fabricating certain documents and that confidential files and information were disclosed to outsiders. 

That same day, Min Heejin held a press conference to dispute Hybe's claims. She denied that she attempted a takeover of Ador and countered almost every single one of Hybe's claims, including the one about her calling NewJeans ‘dumb' and consulting a shaman about major business decisions. 

Hybe refuted all of her claims. No one is really surprised by that.

In May, Hybe attempted to vote out Min Heejin and replace other key Ador board members, but Min Heejin filed an injunction—with all five members of NewJeans siding with her injunction request. The injunction was eventually granted, with the court saying that Hybe didn't have enough evidence against her. 

Unsurprisingly, Min Heejin held another press conference, where she essentially claimed that NewJeans was planning on a world tour after their album was released and that Hybe was the reason it didn't happen. A Korean news outlet published a letter supporting Min Heejin, which was allegedly written by NewJeans members' parents, but Hybe then refuted the claims in the letter and claimed that Min Heejin was actually the one who wrote the letter. 

In May, ILLIT's label, Belift Labs (which is still under Hybe), filed a lawsuit against Min Heejin for “obstruction of business and defamation.” They then filedanother lawsuit in June, specifically for Min Heejin to be responsible for “the damages suffered by our artists and staff.” In July, Source Music (another imprint under Hybe), also filed a lawsuit against Min Heejin for defamation, specifically for the comments she made about Le Sserafim's debut process in one press conference. 

During the third lawsuit, Hybe's CEO Park Jiwon stepped down, Min Heejin was apparently questioned by law enforcement for around eight hours, and one NewJeans member wrote a handwritten letter supporting Min Heejin. Then, Min Heejin was accused of mishandling a previous allegation of sexual assault made by a woman-identifying Ador staff member against a male executive. 

Many lawsuits, I know. Unfortunately, the story still isn't over. 

On August 27, the news that Min Heejin would step down as Ador's CEO broke. She claimed the decision was not her choice, and a statement by Ador said that she would remain as a board member and producer. But, Min Heejin rejected the proposal to continue producing for the company. 

You may be wondering, how does NewJeans fit into this? 

The day after Min Heejin's resignation was announced, three NewJeans members made posts expressing their frustrations, concerns and anxieties. This wasn't unexpected, but the next part certainly was.

On September 11, all NewJeans members went live for half an hour on a newly-created YouTube account, where they stated their support for Min Heejin and demanded that she be reinstated by September 25. They also accused Hybe of fostering a toxic work environment and refusing to adequately protect them from invasive online leaks. The video and channel have since been deleted, but the impact is still there. 

Historically speaking, K-Pop artists haven't really demanded their company for a thing like this. There have been other lawsuits between artists and their companies, such as EXO-CBX's lawsuit against SM Entertainment over money, but it's never gone this far—or this public. NewJeans still has five years left on their signed seven-year contract, so if they were to try to break that contract, it could get legally and financially messy. 

But, NewJeans isn't entirely alone. BTS' Jungkook posted vague captions on his dog's Instagram account that have been instituted to be supportive of NewJeans—which, of course, were quickly swept under the rug. Some fans are now fearful that NewJeans will be blacklisted from a lot of K-Pop opportunities, while other fans are firmly sticking by their side.

This case will certainly show volumes about the relationships between a label and an artist in K-Pop… We all will just have to wait to see what unfolds. 

Arcane Season 2's soundtrack is revealed

Netflix's hit show Arcane recently teased the soundtrack for their upcoming second season! They have quite the list of artists appearing on the album. Here's some artists: 

• Ashnikko 
• Fever 333
• Jarina de Marco
• King Princess
• Mako
• Royal & the Serpent
• Stray Kids
• Twenty One Pilots
• Young Miko

Ex-NCT member's sex crime case update

Taeil, ex-NCT member, is currently under investigation with the police in South Korea for sex crimes. To catch up on what he was accused of, read an update from last week here. His case has an update, though. His case has been referred to prosecution without detention. 

This essentially means that Taeil was released from custody during his trial, but he could still be sentenced during the trial. While the police continue to investigate and the trial occurs, Taeil is not being detained and held in jail. 

While NCT fans are not happy about this update, this hopefully just means that the prosecutors are doing their due diligence and looking into the case in detail. 

Halsey and Avan Jogia engaged

Singer Halsey and Avan Jogia, most well-known for his role in Victorious, are now engaged! This comes after an interview at the VMAs when Halsey said she hoped to marry her boyfriend—now fiancé. Congrats to the couple!

Other pop culture news to check out 

Some other news that almost made it to the list but ultimately didn't… for some may get too niche:

• VMAs results
• EMMYs results
• The trailer for the new season of Heartstopper
• Attendees of the Prada Show in Milan (and the debut of NCT's Jaehyun's blond hair)
• Charlie Kirk debates 25 liberal college students on Jubilee
• Dean Withers (itsdeaann on TikTok) debates 20 MAGA conservatives on Jubilee
• Aspyn Ovard (YouTuber) goes on a podcast about her recent divorce 
• Calum Hood (from 5 Seconds of Summer) and Brandy (almondmilkhunni on TikTok) are speculated to have broken up… and fans are calling her Arzaelia 2.0 (Luke from 5sos' ex girlfriend)
• Bryce Hall goes on stage with Trump at a Nevada rally
• Fan holds a totally unhinged sign for NCT's Jaemin at a recent NCT Dream concert 
• Nadia (grapejuicenads on TikTok) gets shown on screen at a recent Charli xcx concert
• The Nina girl (aka fish girl, aka ogfishgirl723 on TikTok) returns to the internet after her viral meme from a Jubilee video

My recent media enjoyments

• Spirited Away (2001)
• Obit by Victoria Chang
• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (fun fact, I'm reading this for a class!)
• Clips of Star Wars: A New Hope (in class)
• Challengers (2024) 
• Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses by Chandra Mohanty (for class)
• Binging New Girl
• Conan Gray!!! His concert was so fun