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 morning briefing


Morning Briefing: Chiquita Evans breaks a video game barrier

Los Angeles Times

Chiquita Evans became the first woman ever drafted into the video game NBA 2K League when she was selected in the fourth round Tuesday night by Warriors Gaming, which is run by the Golden State Warriors. Evans is now the esports league's first female pro. Each of the 126 players in the league will make between $33,000 and $37,000 per season, plus benefits and team housing. "It feels surreal,'' she said. Evans, who lives in Mobile, Ala., was one of two women who qualified for the draft this year through the league's online combine. The other, Brianna Novin, was not selected. The NBA and game publisher Take-Two Interactive run the league. The league had no women in its first season, and the NBA wanted to change that. They hired some analysts to talk to focus groups to determine why only men qualified for the league. "It made us put more emphasis on how good a player was when they got the ball in their hands,'' 2K League managing director Brendan Donohue said.


Is Getting Our News From Smart Speakers a Threat to Media Diversity?

Slate

If the 2016 election made one thing clear, it's that people in this country are getting their news from very different sources. But with the growing popularity of smart speaker-delivered morning briefings, this may be about to change. As digital assistants becomes the go-to news source for more and more people, so too does NPR. And while there's nothing wrong with millennials rediscovering public radio, some are raising the alarm about media diet conformity. Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based NGO that promotes freedom of information, has voiced concerns about voice assistants, suggesting they present a "threat to pluralist news and information."


News Daily: Trump invites Putin to US and HIV 'complacency' warning

BBC News

Donald Trump wants Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit the US this autumn. The two men met at the beginning of this week in Finland, and despite some significant fall-out, planning is under way for a second get-together. Moscow hasn't reacted publicly yet to the invitation. "OK... that's going to be special," laughed US Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats when told about it. Well, the US intelligence services were at the centre of the aforementioned fall-out, after the president seemed to reject their view on Russian meddling in the 2016 US election and side with Moscow instead.


News Daily: Facebook data row and NHS set for pay deal

BBC News

An academic who created an app which harvested data from 50 million Facebook users says he has been made "a scapegoat" for Facebook and UK firm Cambridge Analytica. Dr Aleksandr Kogan completed work for Cambridge Analytica in 2014, but said he had no idea the data would be used to benefit Donald Trump's US presidential campaign. Facebook says Dr Kogan violated the site's policies. Last night, Alexander Nix, the chief executive of Cambridge Analytica, was suspended, having been secretly filmed by Channel 4 News appearing to suggest the company could use tactics to discredit politicians online. The company says the programme "grossly misrepresented" Mr Nix's conversation.


Morning briefing: What drove the Las Vegas killer?

BBC News

Why? What could possibly have motivated Stephen Paddock, a retired accountant, to open fire from a balcony above a Las Vegas music festival, killing at least 59 people and injuring more than 500? Police found 23 guns in Paddock's hotel room, but have not discovered any connection to international terrorism, despite a claim of involvement from so-called Islamic State. President Donald Trump described the act as "pure evil" and some investigators say there is reason to believe the gunman, 64, had a history of psychological problems. Meanwhile, searches have uncovered explosives at Paddock's home in a retirement community in the small town of Mesquite, north east of Las Vegas. There is a second house in northern Nevada which Swat teams are due to check for booby-traps before carrying out a search. The authorities have yet to confirm the identities of any of the people killed, but Jordan McIldoon, 23, from British Columbia in Canada, has been named as a victim of the attack by CBC News.