Worth reading

• Anthony Lane on the Olympics (New Yorker). Brook Larmer on "mercenary athletes" (Time). Barry Newman on the tiny countries (WSJ)

• George Packer on Burma (New Yorker)

• Mark Hemmingway on the failed mercenary coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea (Weekly Standard).

• Michael Tomasky on Obama's active-duty military advantage (Guardian). John Nichols on why Russ Feingold wasn't on the VP shortlist (Nation)

• Gary Bass on humanitarian intervention (NYT)

• Bradford Plumer on the rising cost of air travel (New Republic).
  

• Sam Roberts on racial demographic classifications (NYT)