Pay for Play: The State department now admits that a $400 million payment to Iran was “leverage” for the release of three Americans on the same day the money was paid. The Republicans have accused the Obama administration of paying ransom for hostages, which is forbidden by US policy. It’s a little of both. The US paid the money to ensure the release of the Americans but the money already belonged to Iran. It was impounded during the Carter administration.

Under Water: The four American swimmers who claimed they were held up at gunpoint in Rio made it all up, according to Brazilian police, and it’s a mystery why the athletes did it.

The US Olympic Committee has apologized for the incident but so far the swimmers have not.

Gold medalist Ryan Lochte, who was the dumb blonde of men’s swimming even before he bleached his hair, originally said that the taxi the four swimmers were riding in had been pulled over at about 6am by men posing as police and that the four were robbed at gunpoint. He later said the taxi had stopped at a gas station so the men could use the bathroom and the incident happened there.

The Brazilians, who are fighting the image of Rio as a dangerous city, were embarrassed by such a high profile crime and dug deep to solve it. Police now say the swimmers vandalized the bathroom and it was the gas station security guard who pointed his gun at them.

Security video from the gas station appears to show that the attendants were exasperated with the swimmers, but doesn’t reveal why. At one point the swimmers are ordered to sit on a curb, possibly at gunpoint. It’s all very different from the original story. The Rio police chief said, “We saw our city stained by a fantastical version.”

Police Beat: Chicago’s police superintendent wants to fire seven cops accused of lying about the fatal shooting of a teenager by a white officer in 2014. Officer Jason Van Dyke shot Laquan McDonald 16 times, nearly two years ago. Van Dyke is on unpaid leave charged with first-degree murder.

Digit World: The website Gawker.com, the digital tabloid website that lost a $140 million libel lawsuit to former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan, is shutting down after its parent company was bought by Univision. Gawker Media’s other websites live on: Deadspin, Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Jezebel, Kotaku and Lifehacker.

It’s Political: The NY Times Reports that Donald Trump’s support among white men is slipping, possibly driving a stake in the heart of his campaign. The paper quotes Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster and advisor saying, “If you set out to design a strategy to produce the lowest popular vote possible in the new American electorate of 2016, you would be hard-pressed to do a better job than Donald Trump has.”

>The Clinton campaign announced that if Hillary becomes president, the Clinton Foundation will no longer accept foreign or corporate donations, and Bill Clinton will no longer accept money for speeches. The foundation’s acceptance of foreign money while Hillary was secretary of state is a question of propriety that will dog her through election day.

One critic says the campaign statement is an invitation to buy your influence now before the foundation is closed for business.

The Games: Ashton Eaton failed to set a world record, but he won his second straight Olympic gold in the decathlon. — Jamaica’s Usain Bolt ran away from the field in the 200-meter sprint, winning his second gold of the Olympics. — The US women’s 4×100 relay team got a second chance after successfully appealing their qualifying loss. The judges ruled that a dropped baton was caused by a Brazilian runner. And then the Americans ran the race again, alone on the track, to set a time that got them into the finals.

Ooh La La: It’s been 70 years since a French designer shocked the world with the introduction of the bikini bathing suit for women. Now it’s the French who are shocked by the full body Muslim bathing suit known as a “burkini.” Five French beach towns have banned the burkini and Prime Minister Manuel Valls called it part of “the enslavement of women.” It does save money on sunblock.

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