Riot Games, the video game developer responsible for the popular game League of Legends, has agreed to pay $100M to settle a class-action gender discrimination lawsuit. Plaintiffs alleged that the workplace culture of Riot Games was characterized by gender discrimination and a misogynistic attitude toward women. The company said that it must "take responsibility for the past." More: - According to California's Department of Fair Employment & Housing (DFEH), Riot Games engaged in "systemic sex discrimination and harassment."
- The complaint, which was filed in 2018, argued that Riot's "bro culture" led to grossly inappropriate behavior at the workplace.
- The plaintiffs said that an email chain rating the company's "hottest women employees" was circulated and that unsolicited pornographic images were sent to employees by bosses and colleagues.
- In addition to the $100M settlement, Riot has agreed to institute workplace reforms and accept the monitoring of its workplaces in California for three years.
- Riot also agreed to set aside $18M to create diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.
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 Proud Boys Joseph Biggs (left) and Ethan Nordean (right) A federal judge ruled that a case against four alleged leaders of the far-right Proud Boys group charged with conspiring to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 can proceed. The four men — Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, and Charles Donohoe — were indicted in March 2021 on charges of conspiracy and obstructing an official proceeding. Their attorneys had asked District Judge Timothy Kelly to dismiss the charges, arguing that the conduct in question was protected by the First Amendment. More: - Kelly rejected the request, writing in his ruling:
- “Defendants are not, as they argue, charged with anything like burning flags, wearing black armbands, or participating in mere sit-ins or protests... Moreover, even if the charged conduct had some expressive aspect, it lost whatever First Amendment protection it may have had.”
- The four men remain in jail while awaiting trial.
- More than three dozen people charged in the wake of the Jan. 6 insurrection have been identified as members or leaders of the Proud Boys.
- Last Wednesday, Proud Boy member Matthew Greene pled guilty to conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding. He was the first Proud Boy to plead guilty of charges related to the riot and has agreed to cooperate with authorities.
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 RIP Harry Reid (1939-2021) Longtime Senator Harry Reid died yesterday after a four-year bout with pancreatic cancer. A lifelong Democrat, Reid served in the Senate from 1987 to 2017. He was one of three U.S. Senators to have spent at least eight years as majority leader. More: - Reid grew up in rural Nevada and attended George Washington University Law School in the early 1960s.
- He was elected to the Nevada Assembly in 1968 and served as Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1971 to 1975.
- Reid briefly served in the U.S. House of Representatives before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, remaining in the Senate until his retirement in 2017.
- In 2013, under Reid's leadership, the Democratic majority in the Senate eliminated the 60-vote requirement to end a filibuster for appointments made by the President (excluding Supreme Court nominations).
- President Joe Biden said of his late colleague:
- "If Harry said he would do something, he did it... If he gave you his word, you could bank on it. That’s how he got things done for the good of the country for decades."
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 A historical conservation team in Virginia opened a box of Confederate war memorabilia that is believed to be more than 130 years old. The box featured ~60 items donated by local residents at the time, ranging from newspapers, books, ammunition, and a Confederate flag. More: - The box was found in Richmond, Virginia when workers were completing the removal of a controversial statue of Robert E. Lee.
- Historical records show that a time capsule was buried in Richmond, Virginia, in 1877.
- The lead conservator of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources confirmed that the box matched the historical records.
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 Police officers outside of Stand News' building today. Stand News, a pro-democracy media outlet in Hong Kong, was shut down today after police raided its office, froze its assets, and arrested senior staff. Seven staff members were arrested on charges of "seditious publication" stemming from media articles about the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. More: - 200 officers participated in the raid. They seized assets worth ~$7.8M, in addition to computers, phones, and property of Stand News' journalists.
- Steven Butler of the Committee to Protect Journalists said the arrests constituted an "open assault on Hong Kong's already tattered press freedom."
- In June 2021, police raided and shut down Apple Daily, another Hong Kong media outlet.
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Northvolt has started producing lithium-ion batteries for electric cars. The Swedish battery manufacturer, which is seen as a potential competitor to Tesla's battery-making division, has now met its goal of beginning battery production at its plant in Skellefteå by the end of 2021. More: - This is the first battery of its kind to be designed, developed, and assembled by a European company.
- Most EV batteries are produced in Asia and the U.S. and Northvolt's plant is part of European efforts to develop a homegrown battery industry.
- The Skellefteå plant is a "gigafactory" — a large-scale industrial plant where the annual output is measured in gigawatt hours.
- Northvolt aims for 60-gigawatt hours of output from its Skellefteå plant in 2022, which would allow it to produce batteries for ~1M electric vehicles annually.
- Northvolt has signed over $30B in contracts with carmakers, including BMW, Volkswagen, Volvo, and Polestar. Commercial deliveries of the battery will begin in 2022.
- In June, Northvolt was valued at ~$12B by investors.
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- A new study from South Africa offers some tentative evidence indicating that infection with the Omicron variant can provide protection from future infections with the Delta variant. The study was posted on the Africa Health Research Institute website earlier this week but has not yet been peer-reviewed.
- Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, visited Israeli Prime Minister Benny Gantz at Gantz's home. This was the first time in years that the leader of the P.A. visited Israel, and the Israeli defense ministry said "the two men discussed security and civil matters" during their meeting.
- Indian tax officials seized more than $30M in cash and gold in raids on suspected tax cheats this week. The Indian finance ministry said this was the "biggest ever seizure of cash."
- Nine Bosnian Serbs were indicted on charges of killing ~100 Muslim Bosniaks between 1992 and 1995. The war crimes prosecutor said the men — who were members and commanders of the Bosnian Serb army — killed men, women, children, and elderly people. The indictment will need approval from Bosnia's state court for the case to proceed.
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 Sheaves of Wheat by Vincent van Gogh. 1890
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 |  | Daniel Smith is an Inside Analyst who currently resides in Miami, Florida. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Daniel spent the last four years as a PhD candidate in Politics and International Studies at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom. He is fascinated by tech, business, politics, venture capital, and everything in between. When he’s not writing for Inside he can be found kicking a ball on the nearest rugby pitch. Follow him on Twitter @DanSmithInside. |  | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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