Trump orders Lake Ontario to be renamed 'Lake America'

Plus: Why do we enjoy watching robots fall?  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Richard Hall | August 28, 2026     Hey there and welcome to The Brief. Have you ever wondered why humans find so much joy in watching robots fall, stumble, and occasionally explode? Read on to find out, and enjoy it while you can, because these robots are getting smarter all the time. We’re also unveiling our list of the most influential leaders in artificial intelligence, and sharing an on-the-ground view of the world’s biggest food fight. IN TODAY’S BRIEF Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Robots falling over The truth about CTE TIME100 AI 15,800 La Tomatina         READ THIS FIRST Trump signs order to rename Lake Ontario as 'Lake America' Jim Watson—Getty Images President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an ‌Executive Order instructing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” The change is set to take effect immediately, he said. Trump earlier in the week had floated the idea of a new moniker for the lake, which borders the Canadian ‌province ⁠of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. Trump signed a similar order upon returning to the White House last year, renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America." This most recent name change is the latest in a series of tit-for-tat measures amid an all-out trade war between the U.S. and Canada. British Columbia’s Premier David Eby on Tuesday called for residents of the Canadian province not to travel to America unless it’s absolutely essential. “I’m asking British Columbians: If you have a choice, please don’t travel to the United States. Choose another place to do your tourism,” Eby said at a press briefing. —Olivia-Anne Cleary         SPONSORED Never worry about roaming again Stay connected on every trip with Saily eSIM plans. From beach vacations to business travel, access data in 200+ destinations. VIP perks available. Activate instantly upon arrival. Download SAILY in your app store and use code newsletter15 at checkout to get an exclusive 15% off your first purchase. Get 15% off now Chat support available 24/7. Get a full refund if your device isn’t eSIM compatible.         THE VIEW Why we love watching robots fail Lintao Zhang—Getty Images When Tiangong Ultra unofficially smashed Usain Bolt’s 100m world record in Beijing, China, unballetically flailing past the finish line in 8.86 seconds, he did not flash an Olympian grin down the camera lens. In fact, he has no face. He is a headless robot. The unapologetically dystopian World Humanoid Robot Games produced several eye-catching moments, including when humanoids beat human records at the high jump and the 400m. But these tumbling records will likely be, in the pop cultural consciousness, eclipsed by something far more entertaining: tumbling robots. Along with the epic wins, there have been some seriously old-school, epic fails. One humanoid at the weightlifting event lost its balance with a weedy 15kg barbell, started jerking and slammed into the judges’ table, its helpless arms aloft, as if to say, “Why me?”  This robot schadenfreude is fueled by a fear of the future. Pointing out their flaws makes humanity’s finish line feel further away, even if that’s a highly unintelligent thing to think. It shatters the illusion that the future is here and already decided. —Kyle MacNeill         HAPPENING NOW At least one in four NFL players may have CTE George Gojkovich—Getty Images An alarming number of professional football players in the U.S. may someday have chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), the neurodegenerative disease associated with repeated concussions and sub-concussive hits to the head, a new study suggests. The research, published in the BMJ, studied the brains of NFL players who died from 2016 to 2021 and found that one in four had CTE—a figure that is almost certainly an undercount, the researchers say. Depending on how they crunched the numbers, the CTE incidence rose as high as 91%. “The one in four figure is intentionally the most conservative estimate possible,” says lead author Dr. Daniel Daneshvar, chair of the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Mass General Brigham and associate professor at Harvard Medical School. “We know the true prevalence is higher than that.” CTE is only firmly diagnosable by autopsy, but the range of symptoms that point to the disease—including memory loss, confusion, aggression, depression, apathy, tremors, and slurred speech—can be pronounced during a person’s life. —Jeffrey Kluger         SPONSORED These Are the Companies Profiting From AI’s Rise Everyone is trying to pick the winning AI company. OpenAI. Anthropic. ChatGPT. Claude. But every large language model needs the same thing: memory, storage, networking, fabrication, power, and cooling to keep running. MarketBeat’s newest report The Infrastructure’s Backbone: 10 Stocks Powering the AI Buildout reveals 10 companies supplying the technology behind AI’s rise, giving investors a way to look beyond the model makers and into the infrastructure powering the next phase of the AI boom. View The 10 Stocks         IN FOCUS How we chose the 2026 TIME100 AI Photo illustration by Israel G. Vargas for TIME We started the TIME100 AI three years ago with the goal of determining who were the most influential leaders in artificial intelligence, knowing that such a list would serve as a guide for our readers seeking to understand a booming field. Since then, if your experience with AI is anything like mine, the technology has gone from a curiosity to a constant in how we work and organize our lives. It’s become a primary way the world seeks out knowledge. The activity in AI has been explosive and divisive, filled with big promises and big fears. The individuals on the 2026 TIME100 AI reflect the tumultuous state of this field. In the past 12 months, we’ve seen executives like xAI’s Elon Musk take leading AI firms to the public markets; figures like Anthropic’s Dario Amodei clash with the Pentagon over how AI tools are used in war; founders like Oracle’s Larry Ellison rush to build the data centers the industry says AI needs to reach its full potential; and researchers like Chinese startup Moonshot AI’s Yang Zhilin build models that attract extraordinary attention and on occasion outperform the most advanced U.S. competitors. At the same time, a growing coalition of politicians and advocates like Senator Bernie Sanders, labor leader Liz Shuler, and actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt are warning what these changes could mean. “The bottom line is, I think we have to stop the development of superintelligence,” Sanders tells TIME. This year’s list selection was led by Ayesha Javed, who spent months working with TIME journalists and contributors to find the group of 100 individuals who best represent the year’s key storylines and who, in our opinion, are having the most influence in driving these developments. —Sam Jacobs, Editor in Chief of TIME Read the list here.         ONE NUMBER 15,800 Germany registered a record 15,800 heat-related deaths this summer as Europe battled deadly heatwaves. Most of those deaths came in one week in late June, and disproportionately affected people over 75. SOURCE: ROBERT KOCH INSTITUTE         A VIRAL MOMENT The world’s largest food fight You’ve almost certainly seen images and video of the famous La Tomatina festival in Buñol, Spain before, but check out this on-the-ground view to get a sense of what it really feels like.         SPONSORED Factor is America's #1 ready-to-eat meal delivery service. Chef-Crafted, Dietitian-Designed Meals Ready in 2 Minutes. Get 50% off your first Factor box. Try Factor Now       Linked In this addictive word-association game, find the steps that will unite two seemingly unrelated words in just four moves. PLAY NOW       ALSO WORTH YOUR TIME IDEAS A Two-State Solution Has Never Been More Vital AI  OpenAI’s Models Went Rogue. Investigating Them Required More AI     EMAIL US: thebrief@time.com More Newsletters from Click to sign up. D.C. BRIEF +FUTURE PROOF +HEALTH MATTERS +INSIDE TIME +IN THE LOOP +WORTH YOUR TIME + Connect with TIME   PRIVACY POLICY     © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. TIME Customer Service, P.O. Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508, United States Unsubscribe