Swim Shock, Biles Blow for Team USA

A swastika was found etched into a State Department elevator on a day the House of Representatives was hearing emotional accounts from officers who defended the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack by far-right supporters of former President Donald Trump. “This is how I’m going to die,” Capitol Police Sergeant Aquilino Gonell recalled thinking as he defended the Capitol from the mob attack, wiping tears. Michael Fanone, another officer — who suffered a heart attack and a brain injury as he was thrashed that day — banged his hand on the table in a show of anger at some Republicans who’ve underplayed those events. (Sources: CNN, AP, WaPo)

2. No Vax Lax

President Joe Biden is contemplating asking all federal workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or take regular tests, extending an approach already adopted by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the state of California and New York City. Meanwhile, South Korea and Thailand registered records for fresh cases. (Sources: NYT, Bloomberg)

3. Money, Money, Money, Must be Funny

… In a rich man’s world. It sure is, if you’re in Big Tech. Apple, Alphabet — the parent company of Google — and Microsoft have made $57 billion in profits over the last quarter, with Apple witnessing a 50% rise in earnings from iPhone sales. (Sources: FT, WSJ)

The U.S. men’s 4x200-meter relay team finished fourth in the pool on Wednesday morning. It’s the first time America has failed to win a medal in the event since it was introduced in 1908, sparking questions about the absence of star swimmer Caeleb Dressel from the lineup. Great Britain won gold, the Russian Olympic Committee silver and Australia bronze. Japan’s Ohashi Yui (200-meter medley) and American Katie Ledecky (1,500 meter) were today’s other swimming stars.

2. GOAT Backs GOAT

Star gymnast Simone Biles pulled out of Thursday’s individual all-around gymnastics final, a day after withdrawing from yesterday’s team final citing mental health concerns. Swimmer Michael Phelps, the greatest Olympian of all time, defended Biles. “It’s OK to not be OK,” he said. Biles’ team mates dedicated their silver medal to her. The U.S., China and Japan are in the top three positions on the medals tally. Do you think Biles’ decision shows boldness or weakness? Vote here or on Twitter.

The 49-year-old factory cook was sold to her husband by her struggling family. Today, she’s emerging as China’s unlikely new poetry sensation. Each morning, she wakes up in her village in central Henan province to a flood of comments on her musings from the previous day, which she posts on Kuaishou, the popular, TikTok-like app. For Han, the poems are an outlet from a mundane life between the factory and the shoes she crochets in her free time. It turns out her writings are just what many other Chinese people need as the country recovers from recession and the pandemic.

2. Yrsa Daley-Ward

The daughter of a Jamaican mother and a Nigerian father, the British poet has earned success spanning the worlds of Instagram and formal publishing. But wearing multiple hats comes naturally to Daley-Ward, who spent her early 20s as a struggling model in London for brands such as Apple and Nike, battling racism before moving to Cape Town, where it was easier to find work as a Black model. That was before she found her true calling in prose, and a platform in Instagram that catapulted her to fame and success.

3. Rupi Kaur

Arguably the queen of social media poetry, the Indian-Canadian artiste has 4.3 million followers on Instagram, and now does live readings. But she’s had critics too, with one preparing an artificial intelligence-based program that churned out poems remarkably similar to Kaur’s. But it’s precisely the simple language and relatable themes such as identity and womanhood that Kaur believes make her Insta-poems accessible. If poetry is about the masses and not just the elite, Kaur might just have found the magic potion.

Check out other Gen Z poets here on OZY.

Murderous rebels raided the village of Solhan in northeast Burkina Faso in June and killed at least 132 people. But even scarier is the detail that emerged some days later: The killers were mostly 12- to-14-year-olds. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, described the recruitment of child soldiers as a “generation-defining crisis.”

2. Myanmar

The Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s military, was accused last October of forcing a group of farmers and several boys to clear a path through mines for its troops. This led to two boys being killed and a third wounded when fighting broke out in an operation against the insurgent Arakan Army. The Tatmadaw has an extensive history of using children in armed conflict.

3. Yemen

In Yemen, 10,300 children are believed to have been forcibly recruited by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since 2014. Child soldiers recruited by the Houthis undergo a one-month military training camp before they’re sent to battlefronts.

1. Footloose in South Korea

Seoul has recently banned music over 120 beats per minute (bpm) in gyms. The idea? To stop people from trying to keep pace, breathing too heavily and splattering each other with sweat and — potentially — with COVID-19 droplets.

2. Crackdown on Vending Machines

Many states in Mexico are trying to prohibit the sale and marketing of junk food and sugary drinks to their youth because of fears that health conditions like diabetes and obesity are placing people at a higher risk for the coronavirus. This forbiddance applies to school vending machines as well.

3. Lucky ID Numbers

Does your ID number end in 0, 7 or 4? If you are in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, you are allowed to leave the house on Monday. Some Colombian towns and cities are allowing people outside at certain times simply based on their ID number. Fortunately, these measures do not impact essential workers in these places.

Dubbed Africa’s “Chanel No. 5,” it was for years the world’s best-selling perfume — so popular that traders used it as currency. The legendary perfume, whose name translates to Daughter of Sudan, was first created in 1920 with equally iconic branding: a topless Sudanese woman wearing bridal jewelry. A musky, non-alcoholic perfume, you can tell Bint el Sudan by its unique mix of jasmine, lily and lilac.

2. Ittar

Extracted from flowers like jasmine and rose, spices and herbs, this natural perfume has roots in ancient Persia but is widely used by communities across the Middle East and South Asia. Manufacturing quality ittar has for centuries been a family profession, the tricks and recipes passed down over generations.

3. Peru Balsam

The balsam that’s central to this fragrance actually originates from El Salvador. The perfume has a vanilla flavor tinged with cinnamon and an earthy smell that lingers ... just as you’ll want to linger near the Peru Balsam.  

Congratulations to the above winners!