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Mike Richards steps down as "Jeopardy!" host after offensive comments resurface
Mike Richards, the new host of "Jeopardy!," announced Friday he's stepping down after derogatory comments he made about women and Jewish people resurfaced in recent weeks.
Driving the news: Richards, who was named a co-host nine days ago, made the offensive comments in 2013 and 2014 from now-deleted episodes of his podcast, "The Randumb Show," The Ringer reports. Sony said Richards will remain the show's executive producer.
- Richards repeatedly used offensive language to describe women's bodies, called his co-host a derogatory term for people of short stature and used the same slur to describe actress Kristin Chenoweth, per The Ringer.
The big picture: In a statement posted to Twitter, Richards said Sony will begin its search for a new host while the show will bring back guest hosts in the meantime.
- "I want to apologize to each of you for the unwanted negative attention that has come to Jeopardy! over the last few weeks and for the confusion and delays this is now causing," Richards said in a statement. "I know I have a lot of work to do to regain your trust and confidence."
Go deeper: “A Smile With Sharp Teeth”: Mike Richards’s Rise to ‘Jeopardy!’ Host Sparks Questions About His Past
Cryptocurrency jokes get serious
The cryptocurrency market is becoming one of the few places where internet meme culture can translate into serious money.
The big picture: "Joke" cryptocurrencies can thrive when bored people who have cash to spare look for new ways to entertain themselves with seemingly benign bets —hoping that one of those bets could turn into a lucrative investment.
Catch up quick: A meme coin or token is a cryptocurrency inspired by internet memes, jokes, notable personalities and existing cryptocurrencies. They are typically worth fractions of a penny, and have no utility.
The market cap of meme coins and tokens is now about $33 billion, according to CoinMarketCap.
- Dogecoin, the most valuable of the meme coins with a $27 billion market cap, is just one of possibly thousands of meme cryptos that have been created since around 2011.
Yes, but: 90%-95% of jokes coins end up dead, according to dead-coin tracker Coinopsy.
State of play: Launching new cryptocurrencies has become easier over the past few years, making it possible for someone to do so without expensive equipment or technical knowledge — sometimes in less than an hour.
How it works: Many joke cryptos are available to trade on exchanges like Gate.io and PancakeSwap.
- Dogecoin was created in 2013 and features the Shiba Inu dog from the "Doge" meme as its logo. But it didn't soar in value until earlier this year, when it became a target for the Reddit crowd.
- Other joke and meme cryptos have monikers like Loser Coin and Sad Cat Token. Both of those are worth fractions of a penny, and combined, are held by more than 100,000 addresses.
What they’re saying: Outside of crypto, there aren't that many real-world examples of literal jokes that turn into something of monetary value, says Guan Yang, a data scientist who launched Stalwartbucks as an inside joke with journalist Joe Weisenthal in 2014.
- Like baseball cards or NFTs, joke currencies can be viewed as collectibles, Yang says. When enough people are interested in them, and assign them monetary value, they morph into an asset class.
- “We have a craving to do that with almost anything," he says.
What to watch: Regulators are taking notice as pump and dump schemes and losses tied to crypto scams spike.
Go deeper: The world's largest regulatory arbitrage
GM boosts investment in electric, autonomous vehicles by $8 billion
General Motors plans to boost its cumulative investment in electric and autonomous vehicles to $35 billion from 2020-2025, a significant jump from a $27 billion target.
Driving the news: GM said this morning that the initiative will include building two new battery cell manufacturing plants in addition to the two already under construction in Tennessee and Ohio.
- GM, without providing details, also said it's adding new commercial electric trucks to its planned EV lineup and additional U.S. assembly capacity for electric SUVs.
Why it matters: It signals how the world's biggest automakers are betting big on electric vehicles that now represent a tiny — albeit growing — share of global sales.
- GM rival Ford recently increased its estimated investment in EVs and related technologies to $30 billion by 2025.
- The moves come as regulators in the U.S. and abroad are pushing EVs to fight climate change.
The intrigue: The industry faces also activist pressure to act more aggressively, and a suite of startups are entering the game.
- Increasing demand for batteries is prompting automakers to more aggressively build up their own supplies.
The big picture: It's GM's second major increase in planned EV investments in less than two years.
- "We're seeing strong profitability on the [internal combustion engine] franchise. We have to make sure we continue to invest in [scaling] EVs to get the cost down. Acceleration is absolutely right risk for us to invest in right now," GM chief financial officer Paul Jacobson told reporters this morning.
Axios' Joann Muller contributed reporting.



