Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A Trump employee takes the fall for Melania’s speech, a notorious troll finally gets banned from Twitter, and it turns out that female VCs and women-run startups are a win-win combo. Have a wonderful Thursday.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
• Mistakes were made. The blowback over Melania Trump's plagiarism scandal continues. Yesterday, Trump Organization employee Meredith McIver released a letter saying that she wrote the speech and was the one who made the "mistake" of including portions from Michelle Obama's 2008 address. She said that she had tried to quit, but that the Trumps refused her resignation. "Mr. Trump told me that people make innocent mistakes and that we learn and grow from these experiences," wrote McIver.
Her announcement comes after the Trump campaign spent a day denying that any plagiarism had taken place. Interestingly, the letter also raises another potential problem for the GOP nominee: If McIver is in fact an employee of Trump's personal business, and if corporate resources were used to write a political speech, that could be illegal. Fortune
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
• Twitter v. troll. Twitter has finally taken a stand on harassment, banning the account of Breitbart tech editor and notorious troll Milo Yiannopolous—also known as @Nero—following a torrent of racist and sexist abuse coordinated by Yiannopolous and directed at comedian and Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones. Fortune
• We know how to pick 'em. A recent study by University of Alberta finance professor Sahil Raina found that female-founded, VC-backed startups have a much higher chance of a successful exit if the firms investing in them have female partners. His explanation: Female VCs are better at picking women-run companies. Fortune
• Calling all men. Watching the RNC roll call—the moment when each state's delegation reports its votes—officially nominating Trump, it was hard not to notice the shortage of female voices. Of 56 delegations, just 10 chose women to cast their votes. Fortune
• May meets Merkel. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is officially on the job, yesterday facing her first grilling from Parliament, then heading to Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is the first time the two nations have had women as leaders at the same time. WSJ
• Patents not pending. According to a new analysis by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, women held fewer than one in five patents in 2010. And the numbers are far worse when it comes to patents where women are the primary inventors: Just 8%. Fortune
• A question of faith. The Washington Post asks religious hardliners—including conservative Christians, Muslims, and Jews—a single hot-button question: "Do their Scriptures prohibit a female president?" Washington Post
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
• Beauty and brains. LifeSite, an ultra-secure, cloud-based safety deposit box, boasts among its co-founders two beauty queens: Crystal Lee, a 2014 Miss America finalist and former Google employee, and YoonJin Chang, who was crowned Miss Korea in 2010 and worked for a tech accelerator in her home country. Fortune
• Coming out conservative. Speaking at an event sponsored by American Unity Fund, Caitlyn Jenner joked about the difficulty of being both transgender and conservative, saying, “It was easy to come out as trans. It was harder to come out as a Republican.” WSJ
• The other Trump daughter. Did Tiffany Trump's RNC speech on Tuesday pique your interest about The Donald's lower-profile daughter? Here's what to know about Tiffany's music, modeling, and legal ambitions. Fortune
• What happened to filters? While Republicans—or anyone else—are obviously entitled to talk about their dislike of Hillary Clinton, some of the anti-Hillary rhetoric around the RNC has been stomach-churning. Case in point: Al Baldasaro, a Trump delegate from New Hampshire who advises the candidate on veterans issues, said on a radio program that Clinton should be "put in the firing line and shot for treason." New York Times
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ON MY RADAR
Swimmer Dana Vollmer seeks another gold medal, this time as a mother New York Times
Meet the two female filmmakers who want to change how you perceive the Middle East Fast Company
Trendy brands market gender neutral styles WSJ
Watch "Melania Trump's" hilarious defense of her RNC speech Fortune
QUOTE
Kick the sh— out of option B.
Advice given to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg after the death of her husband, which can now be seen on posters in the company's offices worldwide
