Abused and Ignored: Four US Olympic gymnasts delivered stunning testimony before Congress yesterday, describing sexual abuse at the hands of team doctor Larry Nassar and how their complaints were ignored then misrepresented by investigating FBI agents.

  Simone Biles, the winner of seven Olympic medals, said, “USA Gymnastics and the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee knew that I was abused by their official team doctor, long before I was ever made aware of their knowledge.” She said, “I blame Larry Nassar, but I also blame an entire system that enabled and perpetrated his abuse.” 

  Aly Raisman, winner of two golds and a bronze in the London Olympics, said “It was like serving innocent children up to a pedophile on a silver platter.”

  Nassar may have abused 150 girls or more. He was first reported in 1997 and didn’t go to prison for another 10 years. FBI Director Christopher Wray, who was not in charge of the bureau while all this happened, was left to take the heat with no explanation for why the FBI had failed. “I don’t have a good explanation for you,” he said.

  Most graphic was McKayla Maroney, who won gold and silver in the 2012 Olympics, describing a night in Tokyo with Nassar. “That evening I was naked,” she said, “completely alone, with him on top of me molesting me for hours.” She said she told FBI agents, ‘I thought I was going to die that night because there was no way that he was going to let me go.”

  She said that when she finished telling the FBI, their response was, “Is that all?” 

Maroney went on, “Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said.” 

  Larry Nassar is serving life in prison. The two FBI agents who started the investigation are no longer with the bureau and their supervising agent was fired just days ago.

  Biles told the congressional panel, “As the lone competitor in the recent Tokyo Games, who is a survivor of this horror, I can ensure you that the impacts of this man’s abuse are not ever over or forgotten.”

Covid Nation: Announcing a milestone statistic, Johns Hopkins University says one in 500 Americans has now died of Covid-19 in a period of 19 months.

  As of this morning, the US has sustained 666,624 deaths. 

Duke Nukem: In a major effort to counter China’s territorial expansion in the Pacific, President Biden yesterday announced plans to help Australia develop nuclear submarines. Australia could use the subs to patrol areas of the South China Sea that Beijing now claims to be their exclusive waters. American officials say Australia pledged to never to arm the submarines with nuclear weapons.

Powerplay: Bob Woodward’s new book “Peril” details a frightening phone call then Vice President Mike Pence made to former Republican VP Dan Quayle, asking if there was anything to be done to overturn the 2020 election.

  The book says Quayle, who bears the reputation of being one of the weakest VPs ever, stood fast and repeatedly told Pence there was nothing to be done. Pence pressed and said, “You don’t know the position I’m in,” according to the authors. It appears to be a veiled reference to President Trump’s madness.

  “I do know the position you’re in,” Quayle responded, according to the book. “I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power.”

The Spin Rack: The failed attempt to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom cost the state $276 million and he’s up for election again next year. —  Colorado Democratic Gov. Jared Polis married his longtime partner yesterday, marking the first same-sex marriage of a sitting US governor. — Animal lovers and environmentalists are outraged over the slaughter of 1,428 white-sided dolphins over the weekend in the Faeroe Islands as part of a 400 year traditional killing of the creatures for their meat and blubber. 

Death in the Family: This is a tale that could be a crime novel. 

  Alex Murdaugh, a wealthy and prominent South Carolina lawyer is expected to turn himself in today on charges that he attempted to stage his own assassination while police continued to investigate the murders of his wife and son at the family’s home in June.

  Murdaugh’s lawyer said he tried to have himself killed so that his surviving son would get a $10 million life insurance payout. Instead, he was wounded in the head and survived.

  Police have since arrested a 61-year-old man Murdaugh hired for the job. And now they are investigating the 2018 death of a housekeeper at the Murdaugh home, who was said to have tripped and fallen even though her death was listed as natural.

  And there is still no determination of who killed Murdaugh’s wife and son … or why.

Private Space: SpaceX overnight launched the first fully private manned spaceflight carrying four astronauts, none of them from NASA. They will orbit Earth for three days.

  The flight was financed at a cost of about $200 million by Jared Isaacman, a 38-year-old billionaire and founder of Shift4, a payments processing service. Proponents of private space travel say they are breaking a new frontier, pioneering “space tourism.” Isaacman said, “A few have come before but many are about to follow.”

  What it appears so far is that space, like the Hamptons, will be reserved for the rich. 

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