Humanity
An Olympic trio, the dark side of humanity, and a curious one
Here’s five for today:
1 Simone
NYTimes: “Since Tokyo, Biles said, she has regained control of her gymnastics and her self-confidence, having secured armor around herself, plate by heavy plate. Now, after much contemplation and many weekly therapy sessions, she said she will compete beginning today at the Paris Games, looking to satisfy only one judge: herself.”
🔗Simone Biles Is Done Being Judged [Gift link]
2 Aspire
People: "She [Serena] looks absolutely incredible. She's got someone just behind us holding an umbrella," commentator Laura Woods said. "Those are the levels you aspire to. To have an actual umbrella holder behind you."
3 Olympic sleeping
The Guardian: “Inside the village, room tours have lifted the curtain on accommodation. Members of the Danish handball team revealed they have decorated their bare white walls with pictures of themselves and the Danish flag. The sleeping arrangements have been of particular interest, with Tom Daley sharing a video of the cardboard beds, complete with Paris 2024 duvets, while Naomi Osaka gave her bed a quick test, providing viewers with a behind-the-scenes look few will ever see for themselves, sometimes dirty laundry and all.”
🔗‘It’s the perfect setting’: TikTok goes wild for backstage Olympics videos
4 Help
WSJ: “He’d been enslaved for 16 months in a twisted new criminal empire in which Chinese gangsters traffic people from around the world, often to remote and lawless parts of Southeast Asia, and force them to sit at computers all day scamming strangers online. The cyber frauds they’re forced to commit are called pig butchering, named for the way the perpetrators fatten up their victims by gaining their trust before taking their money and cutting them loose. Behind the scenes, the scammers are victims too.”
🔗Posing as ‘Alicia,’ This Man Scammed Hundreds Online. He Was Also a Victim.
5 Bank of Mellon
NYTimes: “All told, he has given $227 million in contributions to federal candidates and political committees since 2020, nearly all to Republicans — a sum that puts him in the top echelon of the party’s donors, alongside far better-known megadonors like Miriam Adelson and her husband, Sheldon, who died in 2021, and Liz and Dick Uihlein. Yet for all his financial influence, Mr. Mellon and his interests — and what exactly is motivating his largess — have remained largely a mystery.”
🔗A Pedigreed Rail Magnate Is Pouring Millions Into Electing Donald Trump