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ESPN’s recently launched ESPN+ streaming service is adding e-sports to its repertoire . The company has announced that it will broadcast live coverage of several League of Legends competitions this summer, beginning on June 16th with the 2018 North American League of Legends Championship Series Summer Split (NA LCS). After that comes the NA LCS Summer Finals in September September and then the League of Legends World Championship in the fall. The deal between ESPN and Riot Games is non-exclusive, so you’ll still be able to stream those same competitions for the hugely popular multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) title on Twitch. For free. But ESPN is likely hoping that covering e-sports will help bring in more subscribers for the still-new $4.99/month ESPN+ service . ESPN+ includes thousands of hours of live events from various sports leagues throughout the year, original programming, and an ad-free experience when using the ESPN website and app. Subcribers aren’t constantly sad...

It’s official: The Expanse has been saved. After the Syfy Channel canceled The Expanse earlier this month , Alcon Entertainment has confirmed that Amazon will pick up the show for a fourth season, after after outcry from the show’s fans. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos made the announcement at the International Space Development Conference: where he appeared next to members of the show’s cast: “The Expanse is saved.” WITH CAST PRESENT @JeffBezos just announced here at @ISDC : “The Expanse is saved.” Room erupts. #SaveTheExpanse ✅ pic.twitter.com/XUXyaUDmds — Mike Mongo (@MikeMongo) May 26, 2018 Alcon Entertainment Co-Founders and Co-CEOs Andrew Kosove and Broderick Johnson issued a statement, confirming that Amazon would be picking up the show: “We couldn’t be more excited that The Expanse is going to continue on Amazon Prime! We are deeply grateful that Jeff Bezos, Jen Salke, and their team at Amazon have shown such faith in our show.” Hey @JeffBezos , Thanks. — James S.A. Co...

Facebook’s internal policies on Pepe the Frog — now considered an anti-Semitic hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League — offer a little leeway for what is allowed on its platform. Documents obtained by Motherboard show that the platform doesn’t outright ban Pepe images, but rather, it only deletes them if shown “in the context of hate, endorsed by hate groups to convey hateful messages.” While Pepe began his life as a cute, relatable meme, bad actors have since co-opted the character for their own hateful ideals. Pepe’s creator, Matt Furie, has officially killed the character and even gone as far as sending takedown notices to alt-right sites and suing conspiracy theorist site Infowars for MAGA posters it sold featuring the character. Facebook is well-aware of this dark history, noting in its “Dangerous Organizations” training manual for moderators that “Pepe the Frog has been endorsed by many hate groups to convey hateful messages.” Its decision to ban these hateful images i...

Are you driving somewhere for the holiday weekend? Here at The Verge , we’d like to encourage you to use a car that’s wholly, or at least primarily, powered by dirty fossil fuels. On this week’s episode of The Vergecast , Nilay, Natt, Casey, and Paul discuss how we’re financially beholden to Big Car and what to do about it now that Elon Musk has called us out on our bias . We also got a chance to discuss Nilay’s bonkers theory about Apple’s dongle suppression campaign, Mark Zuckerberg’s wacky trip to the EU, and we spoke with unearned confidence about Dieter’s hands-on with the RED Hydrogen One phone. Paul’s weekly report on robots that do backflips is, of course, also something that happened. 01:50 - Elon Musk 27:54 - RED Hydrogen One hands-on 32:34 - RIP Essential? 36:37 - BlackBerry KEY2 41:19 - Dongle suppression exposed! 47:15 - Paul’s weekly segment “ Robot backflip weekly update ” 51:08 - GDPR is happening 55:54 - Mark Zuckerberg in the EU 1:03:51 - Casey shamelessl...