The official World of Warcraft Twitter account has announced that it will take immediate action to "remove references that are not appropriate for [its] world." While it didn't elaborate on what those references are, they may pertain to in-game elements connected to its senior creative director Alex Afrasiabi, as Kotaku has noted. Afrasiabi was singled out in the lawsuit filed by California authorities accusing Activision Blizzard of fostering a "frat boy" culture that's become a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women."

According to the lawsuit, Afrasiabi is known for hitting on and touching female employees inappropriately in plain view of other male employees who would try to intervene and stop him. He apparently has such a notorious reputation within the company that his suite was nicknamed the "Crosby Suite after alleged rapist Bill Crosby."(The lawsuit has misspelled Bill Cosby's name.) In addition, executives allegedly knew about his behavior but "took no effective remedial measures." Blizzard President J. Allen Brack talked to him a few times, the lawsuit reads, but gave Afiasiabi a slap on the wrist for the incidents.

Activision Blizzard denied the accusations in the lawsuit and said it "includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past" in its initial response. Executive Vice President Fran Townsend told employees in a memo that the lawsuit "presented a distorted and untrue picture of [the] company, including factually incorrect, old and out of context stories."

A group of over 800 Activision Blizzard employees decried the company's response to the accusations as "abhorrent and insulting." They wrote in an open letter: "Categorizing the claims that have been made as ‘distorted, and in many cases false’ creates a company atmosphere that disbelieves victims." At least 50 employees working in the company's main office in California are now planning a walkout on Wednesday to protest the company's actions and to demand better working conditions for women.

In WoW's announcement, it said the decision to remove inappropriate elements was made in order to rebuild trust. It admitted that it must earn people's trust with its "actions in the weeks and months to come," though it didn't say what other steps the company intends to take in response to the lawsuit's allegations. 

Tesla's Semi truck won't start hauling cargo this year either. The automaker has revealed during its most recent earnings call that it has pushed back the truck's arrival — yet again — to 2022, three years after its original launch target in 2019. Last year, the company announced that it had to delay the vehicle's release to 2021 but didn't elaborate on what prompted the decision and if it was primary due to the pandemic. Now, according to TechCrunch, Tesla told shareholders that the Semi truck will be delayed due to the limited availability of battery cells and global supply chain challenges.

The whole statement reads:

"We believe we remain on track to build our first Model Y vehicles in Berlin and Austin in 2021. The pace of the respective production ramps will be influenced by the successful introduction of many new product and manufacturing technologies, ongoing supply-chain-related challenges and regional permitting.

To better focus on these factories, and due to the limited availability of battery cells and global supply chain challenges, we have shifted the launch of the Semi truck program to 2022. We are also making progress on the industrialization of Cybertruck, which is currently planned for Austin production subsequent to Model Y."

As TechCrunch notes, Tesla executive Jerome Guillen also left the company in June, just a few months after he started leading the trucking division. While the automaker didn't say whether his departure was in any way connected to the Semi's delay, Guillen used to lead Tesla's entire automotive business until he was made president of the Heavy Trucking unit in March. 

Tesla first announced the Semi back in 2017, promising an electric big rig with a 500-mile range and technologies that include Enhanced Autopilot. It's been traveling all around the US and has apparently been capable of doing cross-country trips on its own without escorts since 2018, relying entirely on Tesla's existing Supercharger network. Elon Musk told staff in an internal email last year that the Semi is ready to enter mass production, but the company's readiness doesn't mean anything without the truck's components. 

Luke Skywalker's CGI face in the character's The Mandalorian cameo was met with a lot of criticism, and fans even tried to fix the scene with various tools and programs. One of those fans did so well, Lucasfilm has hired him to help it ensure its upcoming projects won't feature underwhelming de-aging and facial visual effects. That fan is a YouTuber known as Shamook, who uses deepfake technology to improve upon bad CG effects and to put actors in shows and movies they never starred in. 

In the comments section of a video that replaces Christian Bale with Robert Pattinson as the Batman in Christopher Nolan's film, Shamook wrote that he joined Lucasfilm/Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) a few months ago. When asked what his role within the company is, he said his official title is "Senior Facial Capture Artist." The studio has confirmed the hire with IndieWire, telling the publication that it's always on the lookout for talented artists. A representative said in a statement:

"Over the past several years ILM has been investing in both machine learning and A.I. as a means to produce compelling visual effects work and it’s been terrific to see momentum building in this space as the technology advances."

In addition to working on a deepfake version of Luke in The Mandalorian, he also deepfaked Tarkin's and Leia's appearances in Rogue One. Shamook's videos don't always show the most realistic results, but the great ones like Luke's truly look impressive. Lucasfilm could his technical know-how to make sure de-aged characters and CG faces won't take us straight to uncanny valley anymore. 

Adult Swim and Crunchyroll has released the first trailer for Blade Runner: Black Lotus, the anime series they're co-producing, at San Diego Comic-Con this year. The show is set in Los Angeles in the year 2032, putting its events in between the original Harrison Ford movie set in 2019 and the sequel film starring Ryan Gosling set in 2049. It features a new replicant named Elle known as the "Black Lotus," who was created with special powers. She seems to have escaped from her creators, and is currently being hunted down by authorities.

In the action-packed trailer, you'll see Elle take down foe after foe — she goes from not knowing how she's able to knock a handful of men completely out cold to wielding a katana — in a backdrop of smoke, fog and neon lights. Elle is voiced by Jessica Henwick (Iron Fist) in the English version and Arisa Shida in the Japanese version. The show will run for 13 episodes, which will be directed by Shinji Aramaki (Ultraman, Ghost in the Shell: SAC 2045) and Kenji Kamiyama (Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, SAC_2045). It's produced by Alcon Entertainment and animation studio Sola Digital Arts, with Shinichiro Watanabe (Cowboy Bebop) serving as a creative producer.

When Blade Runner: Black Lotus debuts this fall, you can watch it in English on Adult Swim and in Japanese on Crunchyroll.

A SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket will be launching NASA's long-awaited mission to Europa, Jupiter's icy moon that may have the conditions to support life. The agency has been planning to send a probe to the Jovian moon for years and finalized its plans in 2019. In its announcement, NASA said the Europa Clipper spacecraft is scheduled to launch in October 2024 on top of a Falcon Heavy rocket from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A. It has also revealed that the contract will cost the agency approximately $178 million — a bargain, compared to what it would've cost to launch the mission on top of NASA's Space Launch System rocket.

As Ars Technica notes, Congress originally urged NASA to use the SLS to launch the Europa Clipper. At the time, though, the White House estimated a single SLS launch to cost a whopping $2 billion. Far from ideal, especially since the SLS would need gravity assist from Venus and travel farther to be able to reach its goal, whereas the Falcon Heavy wouldn't. In addition, NASA told Ars that the SLS would need $1 billion worth of additional modifications to be able to complete the mission. 

If Europa Clipper launches in October 2024 as planned, it will reach Jupiter's orbit in April 2030. The probe will then investigate whether the icy moon truly has conditions suitable for life. It'll capture "high-resolution images of Europa's surface, determine its composition, look for signs of recent or ongoing geological activity, measure the thickness of the moon's icy shell, search for subsurface lakes, and determine the depth and salinity of Europa's ocean."

While scientists have found plenty of exoplanets over the years, they've yet to spot to moons orbiting those worlds outside our solar system. Now, a group of astronomers has discovered (PDF) what's believed to be a region with exomoons-in-the-making for the first time. Myriam Benisty and team from the University of Grenoble found the disk of dust — the moon-forming region — around a young exoplanet in a star system dubbed PDS 70 located 370 light years from Earth. 

The team found the first protoplanet (PDS 70b) in the system back in 2018 using European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile. A year later, they found another young gas giant (PDS 70c) using the same equipment. The astronomers believe based on the data they have that the star system is only 10 million years old and that both gas giants are several times bigger than Jupiter. To know more about the system, they focused all other possible instruments on it, including the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array. ALMA is made up of 66 short-wavelength radio dishes, and its observations made it possible to spot the dust around PDS 70c.

The disk of dust spans a distance slightly wider than that between Earth and the Sun, and there's enough mass in there for three moons the same size as ours. Benisty says the moons may have already formed, but there's no conclusive proof yet because they can't be seen with ALMA. According to Science, the Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the world's largest optical telescope when it's built, may have the power to see if the moons have already formed around the protoplanet. The telescope is still under construction, though, and scientific operations won't start until 2027 at the earliest. 

Back on July 2nd, Russia-linked ransomware group REvil staged what ended up as a massive attack on IT management software giant Kaseya, as well as its clients and their customers. The group took advantage of vulnerabilities in the Kaseya software companies use to send out updates to computer networks, allowing it to distribute ransomware to as many as 1,500 businesses and organizations worldwide. Most of them are just small businesses, and some of the victims in New Zealand are schools, which aren't your typical ransomware targets. Now, Kaseya has announced that it has obtained a universal decryptor and will help those "impacted by the incident."

REvil originally demanded a payment of $70 million for a universal decryptor that will unlock the data owned by victims of the July 2nd attack. In mid-July, however, the group suddenly fell off the face of the internet. The critical sites it uses to communicate with victims vanished shortly after President Biden revealed that he talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin about ransomware attacks originating from his country. It's still unclear if the group disappeared from the internet as a result of that talk, of an offensive cyber operation conducted by US authorities or of something else entirely. 

In its announcement, Kaseya said it "obtained the tool from a third party" and that it worked with software company Emsisoft to confirm that it can unlock victims' data. It also said that it formed teams to actively help "customers affected by the ransomware to restore their environments" and that its representatives will contact clients who haven't heard from the company yet.

When BleepingComputer asked Kaseya if it paid the ransom to obtain the key, the company replied that it "can't confirm or deny that." The publication also asked the FBI if it was involved in obtaining the decryption key, but the agency refused to comment on an ongoing investigation. That means that key's origin is still a mystery, though we doubt its source matters for the victims that just want to access their locked data.

Apple has recently updated its Music app for Android, but it left out a couple of new features you may have been waiting for: support for lossless streaming and spatial audio. Engadget has confirmed that the tech giant has started rolling out the new high-quality streaming options, even though they aren't specifically mentioned in the Android app's release notes. 

The company first announced that it's making the streaming options available to subscribers at no extra charge back in May, promising immersive experiences similar to what Tidal HiFi and Amazon Music HD offer. Both options arrived for Apple users back in June, but they're limited to certain albums. Apple promised to make Dolby Atmos content easy to find with curated playlists and special badges, though, and it said lossless streaming will eventually come to its entire catalog with 75 million tracks.

You will need to use compatible speakers or headphones to be able to enjoy these new immersive listening experiences, though. Apple previously said that AirPods and Beats earbuds and headphones with an H1 or W1 chip, as well as the speakers on the latest iPhones, iPads and Macs will work with Dolby's spatial audio. You'd have to look up your device's features to make sure it can also access spatial audio streaming. Meanwhile, lossless audio requires a wired connection and won't work with wireless audio devices. 

Activision Blizzard is facing a lawsuit filed by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing for fostering what the agency describes as a "frat boy" workplace. As first reported by Bloomberg Law, the DFEH sued the gaming giant after a two-year investigation wherein it came to the conclusion that the company discriminated against female employees. In addition to receiving smaller salaries than their male counterparts, female employees were also allegedly subjected to constant sexual harassment.

The DFEH enumerated several findings from its investigation in its complaint (PDF). Activision Blizzard's workforce is only about 20 percent women, and very few of them reach top roles in the company, the court document reads. Further, those who do reach higher roles earn less salary and total compensation than their male peers. Other female employees in non-executive roles are also paid less, promoted more slowly and terminated more quickly.

DFEH also said that the defendant's "frat boy" culture is a "breeding ground for harassment and discrimination against women." Female employees constantly have to fend off unwanted sexual comments, the agency wrote. They have to endure being groped during "cube crawls," in which male employees would drink alcohol as they make their way around various cubicles, as well. The document mentioned one particularly egregious case, in which a female employee took her own life during a business trip with a male supervisor who brought sex toys with him on the trip. According to Bloomberg, that employee was severely harassed prior to her death, with her nude photos passed around during a company holiday party.

Activision Blizzard's HR department received a lot of harassment, discrimination and retaliation complaints, the DFEH said. However, the defendant allegedly failed to take "effective remedial measures in response" to them. Also, people were apparently discouraged from making complaints, since human resource personnel were known to be close to the alleged harassers.

The state agency has filed the lawsuit to force the video game titan to comply with California's workplace protections. It's also seeking unpaid wages and pay adjustments for female employees.

Activision Blizzard, however, denies DEFH's allegations. In a statement, the company said that the agency's lawsuit "includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard's past." It called the DFEH's complaint "inaccurate" and described the lawsuit as the "type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State's best businesses out of California."

The whole statement, courtesy of Kotaku, reads:

"We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue.

The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived. They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so. Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family. While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California.

The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years.

We put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings including for those who are part of the compensation process.

We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation."

Salesforce has completed its $27.7 billion acquisition — its biggest one to date — of business messaging app Slack. When the companies first announced the purchase back in December 2020, they said Slack founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield will continue to lead the messaging service as a unit within its new parent organization. They also said that Slack will become the new interface of Customer 360, which is a Salesforce tool where you can add and access the company's apps.

In Salesforce's announcement about the acquisition's completion, it confirmed both points and said the purchase will allow them to deliver a "Slack-first Customer 360." It will give clients "a single source of truth for their business, and a single platform for connecting employees, customers, and partners with each other and the apps they use every day."

While Slack has become synonymous with messaging service for businesses following its launch in 2019, it suffered from losses last year after Microsoft positioned its Teams app as a competing product in the middle of the pandemic. Slack even filed an antitrust complaint against the tech giant with the European Commission for bundling Teams with the Office suite. Salesforce announced Slack's acquisition half a year after the EU complaint was filed.

Salesforce President and COO Bret Taylor and Slack CEO and Co-Founder Stewart Butterfield will be hosting an event next month to share more details about the messaging app's integration. It will happen on August 17th at 1PM ET and will be streamed on the Salesforce website.