AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 13, 2026--
BuzzFeed, Inc. (Nasdaq: BZFD) today unveiled Branch Office, a new spinoff company that has been secretly developing a slate of apps designed to reinvent how people connect on the internet. The first two are launching now. More are coming this year.
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QUIZ PARTY: A NEW SOCIAL QUIZ APP COMING SOON
BF ISLAND: A PLACE FOR THE LATEST TRENDS
CONJURE: COMING SOON (iOS APP STORE, US & JAPAN)
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260313571948/en/
Branch Office operates independently, with its own founders, its own mandate, and a product philosophy built for a world where AI has blurred the lines between software and content. BuzzFeed saw a gap no one else was filling, and built a dedicated company, quietly, to move fast enough to actually fill it.
"We're accelerating into an era of infinite fake news, slop, personalization bubbles, and cuts at the organizations that actually care about content," said Jonah Peretti. "We need a solution. Branch Office is that solution."
IN THE LAB
BuzzFeed has been running AI experiments for years – a game where you raised a nepo baby, a chatbot that lets you attempt to talk a Karen down in a Starbucks line. Through hundreds of projects the team learned what AI could do when it wasn’t trying to replicate existing models of static content production, but building totally new experiences that would not have been possible before the advent of GenAI.
While most social media companies are using AI to keep people isolated in their own algorithmic feeds, BuzzFeed’s projects were built on the premise that creativity and engagement can bring people closer together, help them connect with their friends.
THE PHILOSOPHY: NINTENDO, NOT BIG TECH
Led by founder Bill Shouldis, Branch Office operates with a clear vision: treat software as a creative medium. Build fast. Iterate constantly. Let real communities, real culture, and genuine taste shape what gets made.
The guiding philosophy comes from an unlikely place: Nintendo. The gaming giant's principle of "lateral thinking with withered technology," taking maximum creativity out of what already exists, is Branch Office's north star. We don’t need to build our own foundational models or compete with Big Tech. We just ask one question: what's already here, and how do we make it genuinely fun?
When Branch Office looked at the market, they saw two camps: companies building AI to replace humans, and companies building AI to simulate them. Branch Office is doing neither.
"Most companies are using AI to replace human creativity," said Bill Shouldis, Founder, Branch Office. "We're leveraging it to connect people."
THE APPS
1. CONJURE — COMING SOON (iOS APP STORE, US & JAPAN)
Every day, Conjure sends you a summons: a subject to go photograph. You submit your photo as an offering. Something on the other end accepts it. Or it doesn't. No explanation. The lore builds over time, and entirely unlike anything else in the App Store – a daily ritual designed to pull people out of their feeds and into the world.
As Shouldis said on stage, "It solves the eternal problem for people who wanted BeReal to be in the X-Files universe."
2. BF ISLAND — IN PRIVATE BETA NOW (iOS APP STORE, US)
Your group chat has its own language, the callbacks, the bits, the references that only land with the seven people in the thread. BF Island lets you visualize all of it, drop in a photo, riff on it, spin it into something that makes your friends lose it. No algorithm. No followers. Just your people.
3. QUIZ PARTY — COMING SOON
A social quiz app. You find a quiz, you take it, you get your result, and then you share it with your friends. Everyone in the ‘quiz party’ sees each other's results and you roast each other in the chat. People have been doing this with BuzzFeed quizzes for years – screenshotting, texting, posting – but now we're building that behavior directly into the product, so it's easier, it's tighter, and it brings more people in.
THE BET AGAINST THE ALGORITHM
"The Internet disrupted distribution. Now AI is disrupting production," said Peretti. "When you don't have a vision for the content, you get a feed of slop. The value has moved – it's about community, culture, and taste. That's what Big Tech can't automate. Software is the new content."
Branch Office: branchoffice.studio/email
Conjure: whatwillyouconjure.com
BF Island: bfisland.com
About BuzzFeed, Inc.
BuzzFeed, Inc. is home to the best of the Internet. Across pop culture, entertainment, shopping, food and news, our brands drive conversation and inspire what audiences watch, read, and buy now – and into the future. Born on the Internet in 2006, BuzzFeed is committed to making it better: providing trusted, quality, brand-safe news and entertainment to hundreds of millions of people; making content on the Internet more inclusive, empathetic, and creative; and inspiring our audience to live better lives.
QUIZ PARTY: A NEW SOCIAL QUIZ APP COMING SOON
BF ISLAND: A PLACE FOR THE LATEST TRENDS
CONJURE: COMING SOON (iOS APP STORE, US & JAPAN)
BRANCH OFFICE
President Donald Trump said Friday that he was banning CNN, MSNOW and Politico from the White House due to what he called unfavorable coverage, and threatened that more such prohibitions of media outlets could follow.
Meanwhile, in-person voting for this year’s midterm elections is underway in Virginia, ushering in the final six weeks for Americans to decide which party they trust to lead Congress at a time of a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues. Voters in Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, can cast absentee ballots in person.
And a top official at the U.S. Postal Service has said the agency has stopped work on developing a controversial computer system that was central to Trump’s effort to limit mail voting after the Supreme Court rejected his executive order this week.
Here's the latest:
CNN denounced the move, saying it stands behind its White House team and their “fair and accurate reporting.”
“We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government,” it said in a statement on the social platform X. “Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be an illegal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally-protected right.”
Politico said it would “continue to fairly report on this White House and future ones. We will vigorously defend our First Amendment rights against any attempt to restrict them.”
The president said Friday that he has a deal with Denmark to bolster the U.S. military presence in Greenland after months of threatening to take the island by force from the NATO ally.
Trump, in a social media post announcing the agreement, said it “gives the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.”
He added that with the agreement, his administration would “immediately” begin the process of developing a larger military presence on the mineral-rich Danish territory.
The Danish Embassy in Washington had no immediate comment.
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“They’re going to have an official opening on the 21st with the first helicopter landing, etc. and it’s beautiful,” Trump said about the granite helipad on the South Lawn of the White House.
Trump designed the landing pad in the image of the presidential seal.
He has said the helipad was necessary because the new versions of the Marine One presidential helicopter are so powerful that they would burn the grass.
Trump has said Sikorsky Aircraft, a subsidiary of defense contractor Lockheed Martin, would pay for it.
The White House has not said how much it cost.
Asked about Donald Trump Jr.’s recent wedding being bankrolled in part by Umar Kremlev, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said “a lot of people have parties” and “it’s totally allowed.”
The president further suggested, without evidence, that his son was in the process of paying Kremlev back.
Trump said he heard about Kremlev paying partially for the event “a little while ago” and asked his son about it. He then recalled a conversation in which he said his son responded, “I’m paying him back, Dad.”
Trump Jr. and socialite Bettina Anderson were married in the Bahamas in May. The president did not attend, suggesting that he was too busy with major issue like the war in Iran.
ProPublica first reported the story about Kremlev’s involvement this week.
“This is a democracy,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer posted on X.
“You will not be able to manipulate the news or hide the truth.”
The Senate leader’s criticism came after Trump’s post banning CNN, MSNOW, Politico from the White House over their coverage of the president and his administration.
As Trump tries to convince voters that Democrats have let crime run amok, he’s digging into the country’s political past to cite one of the most controversial campaign advertisements that relied heavily on racist tropes.
During a campaign stop Wednesday in Gastonia, North Carolina, to stump for Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley, Trump resurrected a 1988 George H.W. Bush presidential campaign ad featuring Willie Horton, a Black man convicted of rape and assault after his release through a Massachusetts prison furlough program.
A grainy black-and-white prison photo of Horton was used in the ad targeting then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was ahead of Bush in the polls. On Wednesday, Trump evoked the Horton ad in an effort to convince voters Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper, Whatley’s opponent in the Senate race, is soft on crime.
Since returning to office, Trump has pursued other legal action against a variety of different outlets, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the BBC.
Trump seeking to block White House access for CNN is especially notable, however, as it could upend the traditional five-network television pool that travels with the president and tracks his every move — meant to provide independent coverage of his actions and interactions for the Americans who elected him and the world.
In the social media announcement, Trump did not provide details on how the ban would be implemented.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the nation’s largest business group, announced Friday that the bus tour will visit nearly 20 states in six weeks to promote private enterprise and push back against candidates affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America.
“Free enterprise isn’t perfect,” Suzanne Clark, president and CEO of the Chamber, told reporters who joined her on a short bus drive around Washington. “But it is the best at getting better. ... It’s our job to get out there and promote it and protect it.”
The tour will launch this weekend with events supporting three Republican members of the House: Rob Bresnahan, Mike Lawler, and Ryan Mackenzie.
Clark acknowledged there were “extremes” in both parties that are increasingly questioning the benefits of a free-market economy. Still, she added that, “we have to out-work and out-organize our socialist opponents.”
The president said the movie is due to what he called unfavorable coverage, and threatened that more such prohibitions of media outlets could follow.
Trump wrote on his social media site that effective immediately, “I am banning” CNN, MSNOW and Politico “from the White House as a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”
It is the administration’s latest test of constitutional First Amendment protections.
It follows Trump’s decision in February 2025 to keep Associated Press journalists out of the Oval Office, Air Force One and other events too small for a full press corps, in retaliation for the news outlet’s decision not to follow his lead in changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name.
The AP filed suit, and the case is ongoing.
Plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the administration’s takeover of the U.S. Institute of Peace asked a federal appeals court to stop plans to carve President Donald Trump’s name in the façade of the building.
The emergency filing late Thursday alleged that a contractor has been chosen to do the work even though the case is pending. Trump’s name is already affixed to the building. Carving his name into it would cause “irreparable injury,” the filing said.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in an email that “frivolous litigation to stymie” Trump’s efforts in global peace should be rejected. She did not address the contract issue.
Elon Musk-led DOGE took over the nonprofit in March 2025, removing the board and firing employees. A district court reversed the action in May 2025 but a federal appeals court stayed that lower court decision.
The filing is just one of several this week by plaintiffs in lawsuits against Trump vanity projects amid concerns work might move forward on them despite pending litigation.
Trump is set to announce Friday that all 50 states will join in on a program set to provide most favored nation pricing to some drugs within the Medicaid program, bringing the net price of selected drugs down to prices paid in certain other countries.
The Trump administration claims that Medicaid will save billions on prescription drug costs as a result of the plan, dubbed the Medicaid “GENEROUS” model. Experts say the savings are unclear since the content of the deals isn’t public.
In advance of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. next week, a commission created by Congress to monitor human rights in China will hold a hearing Tuesday that will focus on people imprisoned and persecuted by the Chinese government.
Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., will chair the hearing. A press release from his office said members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China will examine the treatment of prisoners and the persecution of Christians, Falun Gong practitioners, and Uyghurs.
Another topic of the hearing will be the prolonged detention of U.S. citizens. Nelson Wells, the father of detained American citizen Nelson Wells Jr., and Tim Hunt, the brother of detained American citizen Dawn Michelle Hunt, are among those scheduled to testify. Both have been jailed in China since 2014 on drug charges that family members say are wrongful.
The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday determined that the planned “ Triumphal Arch ” would not pose a hazard to aircraft at the nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
The agency said its safety experts reviewed airspace, air traffic patterns and procedures around the airport and other nearby tarmacs to arrive at the decision.
The 250-foot-high triumphal arch is proposed to be built along the Potomac River across from the Lincoln Memorial, on a flight path near the airport.
The FAA said the arch, which would be more than twice as high as the Lincoln Memorial, should be properly illuminated with lights at the top of the structure and near its base to make it noticeable for pilots.
The vice president is continuing his midterm travel with his second visit to Iowa this year.
On Friday, he appeared with Zach Lahn, the GOP’s nominee for governor in Iowa, and Chris McGowan, the candidate for Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.
As he opened his remarks, Vance called McGowan a “rock star” and complimented Lahn as “not a politician.”
“Zach Lahn exists to fight for you,” Vance said.
Scott Bessent will meet in New York with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng to discuss a wide range of economic issues, according to a source familiar with the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the details publicly.
The meeting comes ahead of a scheduled meeting in Washington next week between President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Artificial intelligence will be a focus of the Bessent-He talks in New York, the source said.
“The United States remains the leader in AI,” Bessent said in a statement ahead of the meeting. “We are open to discussions on avoiding shared risks and avoiding bifurcation of our two systems.’’
Also on the agenda will be China’s stockpiles of rare earths minerals, critical to everything from smartphones to fighter jets. Beijing has used its near-monopoly on the minerals to bring the U.S. to the negotiating table in a trade war started by Trump’s tariffs and other sanctions on China. The talks might continue at the working level into Monday, the source said.
— Paul Wiseman
The Pentagon has rolled out formal guidance for mandatory testosterone testing for male service members 30 and older.
The policy leaves out women for now and faces questions from medical experts about the need for such a program. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in July that a new program to screen troops for “testosterone deficiency” was necessary to allow them to operate at their “absolute best.”
The new clinical guidance, released late Thursday, outlines how the program would work.
It clarifies that the mandatory testing would initially apply to only male service members and says “the female clinical practice guideline is being reviewed and will be posted upon approval.”
The top three Democrats on the Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Natural Resources committees said the Trump administration’s actions “have outstepped its legal authority.”
The letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Todd Blanche was from Rep. Gregory W. Meeks, Rep. Robert Garcia and Rep. Jared Huffman. It is seeking information about the U.S. decision to partner with North American Blue Energy Partners (NABEP), a private company led by Venezuelan businessman Alejandro Betancourt, raising questions about his background.
“Partnering with Betancourt on this shady oil deal suggests that Trump and Rubio remain more focused on pillaging Venezuela for its natural resources to the benefit of their friends and donors,” Meeks said.
Diane Briest, a retired health surveyor voting early Friday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, said she voted for Democrats because the Iran war was a top concern.
She teared up as she recounted that her son was disabled after serving in Iraq.
“This can’t be happening to people, it’s not OK,” said Briest, 65. “We have a Congress that’s supposed to balance the presidency. They’re doing nothing.”
Affordability was another concern for Briest, who said her 21-year-old grandson pays $6 per gallon to fill his pickup truck and is disappointed he can’t get ahead.
John Thomas, a conservative retired police officer who cast a ballot at a county office in Sioux Falls, said his biggest concerns were public safety and election integrity. He said he doesn’t want to see votes in federal elections from immigrants living in the country illegally.
Trump’s immigration agenda is “spot on,” the 77-year-old said. “We wouldn’t be a country that much longer if it had stayed the same for another four years.”
The White House says the first lady will welcome new member countries to a global coalition she unveiled during last year’s United Nations gathering.
The aim of her Fostering the Future Together program is to encourage countries to support children through technology and education.
Melania Trump will also be announcing new partnerships with technology companies.
Nearly five dozen nations are members of the group, according to the White House.
At a voting center in suburban Richmond, William Curry said he voted for Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate and House.
The 74-year-old retiree, who described himself as a Libertarian-leaning independent conservative, said he generally approves of the job Trump has done so far this term, apart from the president’s handling of the war with Iran.
“He’s in a mess he can’t get rid of,” he said of the conflict. Still, that issue didn’t affect his vote this cycle.
Curry said he wanted to cast his ballot on the first day of early voting to “make sure my vote counts.” But he went on to say he lacks faith in the security of American elections and thinks Democrats are trying to cheat the system.
“I think the whole thing is corrupted now,” he said.
“This is a referendum on our democracy,” said Dragan Colakovic, a 47-year-old business processing engineer, who worries that Trump and his supporters are trying to subvert the elections.
“We didn’t want to wait until Election Day,” said Colakovic, who came with a friend on a rainy morning to a Minneapolis voting center. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t stopped by ICE or Homeland Security.”
Colakovic was also driven to vote by the immigration crackdown that shook Minneapolis earlier this year. The surge of agents terrified Colakovic, a naturalized U.S. citizen who moved from Bosnia in 1997.
“This echoed what I saw in Bosnia,” he said of the heavily armed immigration agents who repeatedly swept through his neighborhood, which has many immigrants.
“These were my neighbors, my friends,” being arrested, he said.
One Friday morning voter, 63-year-old Laura Bland in Virginia’s Henrico County, said she cast a ballot early to send “a signal that we’re still here” amid Trump’s efforts to curtail mail voting.
“Regardless of whether you vote for a Democrat, Republican, people are not going to be stopped or intimidated from participating in our elections,” Bland said, nearly moved to tears as she explained her reasoning.
“We say seven days,” postmaster general David Steiner said in an interview. “Everything is solved if people vote early.”
On a rainy day in Sioux Falls, Bill Goehring, 67, said he voted early at the county office because he will be traveling later. He voted for a mix of Democrats and independents, and said Trump’s “dictatorial tendencies are bad for America.”
Voting rights advocates have encouraged voters this year to cast mail ballots early, in part because of concerns about recent changes in U.S. Postal Service operations that could delay the application of postmarks to ballots.
“Voting early, whether in person or by mail, is good for all of our communities because it gives voters options, eases lines on Election Day and can even mean faster results,” said Hannah Fried, co-founder and CEO of the voting rights group All Voting Is Local.
In a news briefing Thursday, Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon urged people not to be swayed by stories they might have seen or read that cast doubt on election operations. They would be able to vote “just like they always have,” he said.
The start of early voting comes at a time of deep angst among many Americans about issues including rising gas and grocery prices, the war in Iran, the looming risks of artificial intelligence and Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.
It also follows an unprecedented spate of mid-decade redistricting for the U.S. House that began when Trump urged the Republican-controlled legislature in Texas to redraw its congressional map to help the party. California and other states followed.
The changes affect millions of people: Research shows 1 in 10 Americans this fall is a resident of a different congressional district than in 2024.
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Friday marks the start of early voting in the midterm elections in Virginia. Voters in a handful of other states, including Idaho, Minnesota and South Dakota, can now cast absentee ballots in person.
The first day of early voting ushers in a six-week stretch in which Americans will decide which party they trust to lead Congress through a cost-of-living crisis, a prolonged war in Iran and other pressing issues.
At a voting location in suburban Richmond, a poll worker rang a bell as the building opened Friday morning and a cheerful line of about a dozen voters who had queued up began to file in.
Stephen Gura was excited to be the first in line.
“This election is critical,” said Gura, who added he voted for incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Mark Warner and Shannon Taylor, a Democratic nominee for the U.S. House.
Attorney General Todd Blanche is blurring traditional boundaries between politics and federal law enforcement with recent speeches at political events that mark a sharp departure from norms meant to protect the Justice Department from the appearance of partisan bias.
Blanche took the stage this week at an event for a Republican Senate candidate in North Carolina days after speaking at a GOP midterm convention, where he praised Trump and touted the administration’s tough-on-crime approach.
Blanche’s participation at the rallies has drawn scrutiny from critics who say it threatens to undermine public faith in law enforcement decisions that are supposed to be made free of political interference. It has added to critics’ concerns about Blanche’s loyalty to Trump and White House influence on Justice Department matters against the backdrop of investigations into numerous perceived foes of the president.
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They rallied Friday in a government-organized show of defiance after months of war, pledging their readiness to take up arms in the biggest such demonstration since the United States and Israel attacked in February.
Iran’s government has sought to rally the people and stress national unity, even as the economy worsens under a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and new U.S. sanctions. On Friday, it claimed another attack on a tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway it has sought to control since the start of the war.
Estimates varied of the number of people volunteering to receive limited military training and defend the country in an effort described as “Janfaday-e Iran,” or the “ones who sacrifice their lives for Iran.” They marched through downtown Tehran in combat uniform, carrying flags, as onlookers cheered.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio listens as President Donald Trump speaks during an event about healthcare in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during an event about healthcare in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump holds up a printout of a Breitbart article as Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, from left, Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., look on during an event about healthcare in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday Sept. 18, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks during a dinner in the Rose Garden of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
