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      How Humans Failed Racehorses

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      An exploration of the troubled state of horse racing in the U.S. It was a thrilling finish: A long-shot named Mystik Dan held off a late charge by Sierra Leone and a colt from Japan named Forever Young on Saturday to win the 150th running of the Kentucky Derby, America’s oldest major continuing sporting event, bringing to a close a much-needed casualty-free week of thoroughbred racing.It was a welcome conclusion for the multibillion-dollar sport imperiled by frequent racing fatalities, reckless breeding, dodgy doping practices and the old-fashioned greed of veterinarians, trainers and owners.Last year, 12 horses perished at Churchill Downs in the days surrounding the famous race. It only got worse. Two weeks later, a horse trained by one of the sport’s most recognized trainers died at Pimlico Race Course. At the historic Saratoga Race Course in New York a few months later, another 13 horses died while racing and training at the sport’s signature summer meet, including two that seemed poised to win their races before they broke down near the finish line on nationally televised broadcasts.Ambulances rumbled onto the track, emergency workers erected privacy screens and, behind them, vets euthanized the horses with injections. All of it put the social acceptability of one of America’s oldest sports at risk.The root of the problemAhead of the race. Audra Melton for The New York TimesWhy do racehorses die? As beautiful as a thoroughbred is in full flight, the legs that seemingly rarely touch the ground are fragile. Ankles the size of a Coke bottle and hooves the size of a crystal ashtray propel a 1,200-pound thoroughbred at speeds up to 35 miles per hour.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why Beijing Stands to Gain from Elon Musk’s Visit

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      Tesla’s C.E.O. appears to have landed a deal that moves the company closer to bringing fully autonomous driving to a giant market. But Beijing is keen to exploit the visit for its own purposes.Elon Musk meeting with Premier Li Qiang, China’s second-highest official, on a weekend visit to Beijing that boosted Tesla stock.Wang Ye/Xinhua, via Associated PressWhy Elon Musk went to China Just days after Secretary of State Antony Blinken traveled to Beijing and warned China about unfair trade practices, Elon Musk landed in the Chinese capital. The Tesla boss’s meeting with China’s No. 2 official may have paid off: Musk reportedly cleared two obstacles to introducing a fully autonomous driving system in the world’s biggest car market.The split screen again reveals the gap between Western diplomacy and corporate imperatives. Tesla has to stay committed to China even as it faces big headwinds — a conundrum that other multinationals also face, and one that Beijing is eager to exploit.Musk is betting big on self-driving, and China is key. Tesla last week reported its worst quarter in two years as a price war hurts profit. Tesla shares have plummeted (though they’ve rebounded in recent days, and are up more than 8 percent in premarket trading) amid plans for big layoffs.Musk has tried to reassure the market by pushing ahead with a low-cost model. Fully autonomous driving is also crucial. Musk told analysts last week that if investors don’t believe Tesla would “solve” the technological challenge that is autonomous driving, “I think they should not be an investor in the company.”The carmaker faces challenges in its second biggest market. Heavily subsidized Chinese rivals are eating into sales, led by the Warren Buffett-backed BYD, which is vying with Tesla for the crown of world’s biggest E.V. maker.Teslas are banned from many Chinese government sites because of concern about what data the American company collects. President Biden’s move to declare Chinese E.V.s a security threat probably won’t have made it any easier for Tesla in China.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Real Estate Fantasies

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      Celebrity agents are selling a dream, as real homes get more out of reach.There are few acts more optimistic than shopping for a home. You walk through its doors, run your fingertips along its appliances and see your face reflected in its windows and mirrors. You consider untapped versions of your life, imagining yourself waking up every day in that bedroom, cooking every day in that kitchen and letting the years unfold between those walls.Real estate agents understand this allure. The good ones package it up, serving it to clients in the form of property tours that show off not only a house, but also the life that a house can offer. And the really good ones are so adept at spinning the fantasy that they’re building careers on television out of it.For a new story for The Times’s real estate section, which published this morning, I spent time with agents from shows like “Million Dollar Listing” and “Buying Beverly Hills” to understand how they became stars in their own right, and what that tells us about the state of housing in the U.S.Hollywood luxuryLate last year, I flew to Los Angeles to attend an awards show for some of Hollywood’s most famous real estate agents. Seated in the backyard of a sprawling estate once owned by Madonna, I watched as Mauricio Umansky, who stars on Netflix’s “Buying Beverly Hills,” cracked jokes and presented awards like “Stratospheric Sale of the Year.” (The winner was Kurt Rappaport, who represented Beyoncé and Jay-Z in their purchase of a $190 million Malibu pad last May.)“This is the Oscars of real estate,” Alexander Ali, a public relations official, told me that night. He runs a company, the Society Group, devoted solely to promoting celebrity agents and the houses that they list.Millions of us are hooked on his clients’ content. The most recent season of “Selling Sunset” brought in about 3.2 million streaming viewers per episode, according to Nielsen Media Research; “Buying Beverly Hills” drew 1.7 million per episode in its first season.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      E-Commerce and the Influencer Economy

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      How internet shopping became choked with junk. People are bombarded online each day with ads for newfangled products that promise dramatic life improvements. Modish tumblers. Sleek pans. Miraculous cleaning solutions. Overblown air purifiers. Just click this link and — voilà! Productivity. Happiness. Nirvana.Don’t buy it.Wirecutter, The Times’s product recommendation service, tests many of the wares that clog Americans’ social media feeds. And while our testers do like some, these products are often built on empty promises. In today’s newsletter, I’ll explain how e-commerce, a $6 trillion global industry, became choked with junk.Paid to sellOnline shopping can expose people to a greasy influencer economy. Influencers often join affiliate-revenue networks, such as Amazon’s. When an influencer’s follower clicks a link and buys something, the influencer makes money. That’s why people on your social media feed are crowing about their 10 favorite Amazon finds or talking about how an expensive gizmo has changed their life.Many influencers have another incentive: Brands pay them to hawk stuff. Some people with large followings make deals for tens of thousands of dollars per post. Then, when enough people like or share a post, TikTok, Instagram and YouTube algorithms push it to more people. The result is a blizzard of gadgets.Consider these spin scrubbers, pitched online as the solution to all of your cleaning woes. “In videos, these devices churn up rings of soap suds, implying they are lifting away all the filth beneath them,” writes Ellen Airhart, Wirecutter’s cleaning expert.In reality, they’re the worst cleaning tools we’ve ever tested. Ellen spent six hours trying to scour a soap-scum-covered shower and a toothpaste-crusted sink with two spin scrubbers popular on TikTok. They splattered water everywhere and often cost upward of $50. Instead, Ellen recommends a humble $1 sponge.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Iran Attacks Israel

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      What we know about the assault — and what it means.Iran’s missile attack on Israel has ended, for now, and virtually none of the missiles reached their targets.Iran last night launched more than 300 drones and missiles in retaliation for an apparent Israeli strike on an Iranian embassy two weeks ago. Iran’s attacks caused minor damage at one military base, and shrapnel seriously injured a 7-year-old girl from an Arab Bedouin community in southern Israel. But Israel intercepted most of the drones and missiles. The U.S. and Jordan also shot some down.The big question this morning is whether the conflict between the two countries will now return to its previous situation — a long-running shadow war — or enter a more dangerous new stage.Last night did represent something new: Experts believe it was the first time Iran attacked Israel from Iranian territory. But Iran telegraphed the attack days in advance, and it did not cause extensive casualties — which increases the likelihood that both countries will be willing to de-escalate.Today’s newsletter tells you what else we know. You can follow the developments all day on The Times’s website and app.What happened last nightAir-raid sirens sounded across Israel around 2 a.m. Loud booms rang out in Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. Explosions illuminated the night sky as Israel, the U.S. and Jordan intercepted the missiles. (See video of the attack.)The weapons that Iran used were more sophisticated than those that Hamas (which Iran finances) and other groups have recently fired at Israel. Last night’s weapons “can travel much farther, and some of them can travel much faster,” our colleague Jin Yu Young explained.Some Iranians gathered in Tehran to celebrate the attack. Others stockpiled fuel.How leaders respondedBenjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, wrote on social media: “We intercepted. We blocked. Together we will win.” Hamas expressed support for the attack.The attacks prompted emergency diplomacy. President Biden expressed “ironclad” support for Israel and planned a meeting with the Group of 7 leaders today. The United Nations Security Council is also expected to convene. Israel’s war cabinet is set to meet today.Israel’s defense minister said that the confrontation with Iran was “not over.” A top Iranian official wrote on social media: “The matter can be deemed concluded. However, should the Israeli regime make another mistake, Iran’s response will be considerably more severe.”What the attacks meanSome analysts said that the attack was mostly performative. Michael Singh, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the U.S. National Security Council, told The Wall Street Journal, that it was “a slow-moving, thoroughly telegraphed, and ultimately unsuccessful retaliation.”Other experts called the attack more significant. Ahron Bregman, an expert at King’s College in London, called it an “historic event.” It brought Iran’s long shadow war against Israel into the open. The two rivals have no direct channels of communication, which can lead to dangerous military miscalculations.One reason to believe Israel may respond: “Any normalization of direct strikes by Iran is intolerable to the Israeli public and leadership,” The Economist magazine wrote. Dana Stroul, the former top Middle East policy official at the Pentagon, said, “Given how significant this attack was, it is difficult to see how Israel cannot respond.”Understand the shadow war: We recommend this article by Alissa Rubin and Lazaro Gamio. Iran largely fights through its proxies, like Hamas and Hezbollah. Iran provides arms, training, and financial aid to more than 20 groups in the Middle East. Israel conducts much of its fighting through espionage and assassinations.Other Middle East newsHezbollah — an Iranian ally — fired rockets at an Israeli military site yesterday. In response, Israel said its fighter jets had struck Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.Clashes across the West Bank wounded dozens of Israelis and Palestinians after a missing Israeli teenage boy was found dead. Israel’s military said that he had been killed in a terrorist attack.Several nations including Belgium and Canada have halted arms deals with Israel.THE LATEST NEWS2024 ElectionIn the latest Times/Siena Poll, Biden’s popularity improved slightly. Donald Trump now holds only a slight advantage — 46 percent to 45 percent.Trump is considering which potential running mates might help him raise money.More on PoliticsIn Phoenix.Caitlin O’Hara for The New York TimesArizona’s Supreme Court reinstated an 1864 law that bans almost all abortions. Patients at an Arizona clinic described their anxiety.Four Native American tribes in South Dakota barred Gov. Kristi Noem from their reservations after she said that Mexican drug cartels had a foothold there.InternationalIn Bogotá. Nathalia Angarita for The New York TimesCycling is an integral part of Colombia’s identity. This year, a number of robberies and assaults on cyclists have left many riders in Bogotá on edge.A decade ago, the terrorist group Boko Haram kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in Nigeria. Read the story of one woman who was captured.Drones keep Russian and Ukrainian troops from moving on the battlefield, The Washington Post reports.Thousands of protesters in Niger called for the withdrawal of the U.S. forces there. Russia has been supporting the country.A stabbing attack that killed six in an upscale mall in Sydney, Australia, has shocked the country.Other Big StoriesThe Vessel, a 150-foot-tall sculpture in Manhattan, will reopen this year with new safety measures. It was closed in 2021 after a series of suicides.Pittsburgh reopened a bridge that it closed as a precaution after barges broke loose on the Ohio River.O.J. Simpson owed millions to the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson at the time of his death.THE SUNDAY DEBATEA senior NPR editor accused his outlet of having a liberal bias. Is he right?The claim: NPR’s coverage of multiple issues — Covid, Hunter Biden’s laptop, the war in Gaza — shows that “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview,” Uri Berliner, the NPR editor, writes for The Free Press. “An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Golf’s Big Deal Veers Off Course

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      The Masters tournament should be all about sport, but the unresolved fight between the PGA Tour and LIV Golf looms over the competition.Jon Rahm won the 2023 Masters but defected to LIV Golf in December, dealing a big blow to the PGA Tour.Doug Mills/The New York TimesIn the rough The Masters is a tournament steeped in tradition and hosts one of sports’ most storied gatherings: the champions dinner, when former winners meet at Augusta National Golf Club, and the previous year’s winner sets the menu.But this week’s dinner was overshadowed by the fight between the PGA Tour and the Saudi-backed LIV Golf series that has split the sport. Last June, the two sides agreed to combine forces and end their battle. A deal hasn’t materialized — and possibly never will.The only certainties, according to insiders who have spoken to DealBook, are that a final agreement isn’t imminent after a series of deadlines have come and gone. The players, who have become more powerful than ever, want an agreement. And whatever happens between the PGA and LIV may permanently shape the future of professional sports.The Masters and the dinner highlight the schism. The 2023 winner, Jon Rahm, designed a menu that reflected his roots in the Basque region of northern Spain. There was, however, a bitter taste to his triumphant return: He quit the PGA Tour for LIV almost four months ago.It took a legend of the sport, the two-time Masters winner Tom Watson, to take on the issue that was on everyone’s minds. “Ain’t it good to be together again?” he recounted telling them at a news conference two days later. “I hope that the players themselves took that to say, you know, we have to do something. We have to do something.”The tours haven’t been sitting back. LIV is confident that more players will follow after Rahm’s defection.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Why States Have Spent Billions Subsidizing Hollywood

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      Inside the costly competition to attract TV and film shoots. State governments use our tax dollars to build roads, fund schools and provide health care. In 38 states, they also ship money off to a high-gloss private industry: Hollywood.And it’s a lot of money. My colleague Christopher Kuo and I found that those states had given out more than $25 billion over the past two decades to subsidize the making of movies and television. The idea is to lure businesses to spend money, employ locals and stimulate the economy.The problem is, the programs are actually huge money losers for states. Studies show that these efforts typically return a quarter or even a dime on every dollar given to studios.Yet lawmakers are not slowing their spending. Quite the opposite. Hollywood is playing states off one another, and the competition has them sweetening their deals to lure productions, economists say. Under mounting pressure from New Jersey, New York recently expanded its film incentive program by 67 percent, to $700 million. Oklahoma went from $4 million to $30 million in just three years, in part to stay competitive with Texas. Then, Texas decided to spend nearly seven times that amount.“You could find almost an unlimited number of better uses for the same dollars,” said Michael Thom, a tax expert at the University of Southern California. “Who on earth would say, ‘Keep giving the money to Hollywood; my kid’s school doesn’t need new books’?”My colleagues and I wanted to understand why these programs persist. This morning, we published the third article in our series about the topic. Here’s a quick look at what we found.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Life at Guantánamo Bay

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      Inside a new season of “Serial.”Around 780 people have been detained at the prison at Guantánamo Bay since it opened in January 2002. Thirty men remain there today, many of whom have not been charged.The podcast “Serial,” which debuted in 2014 with the story of a questionable murder conviction, has dedicated its new season to Guantánamo. Over nine episodes, it tells the story of the prison through a personal lens, by way of conversations with people who worked or were detained there.I spoke with the hosts, Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis, about the show. Desiree: There’s an interesting political story to be told about Guantánamo, but why did you decide to tell this story through the people who lived through it?Sarah: The government threw all of these normal people on Guantánamo, and they had to sort out how on earth are we supposed to behave in here, how are we supposed to make sense of this? So over the course of 20 years, you saw this thing, which was kind of like a terrible spasm in the national response to 9/11, harden into something that was trying to justify and sustain itself. I think that’s what we were interested in: Who were those people who are having to make decisions, who are having to survive a thing not of their own making, and what did that look like and what did that feel like?In the reporting of the podcast, did anything upend your preconceived notions or surprise you about Guantánamo?Dana: The people who work in Guantánamo for the military rotate in and out about every nine months, but the prisoners have been there, so very quickly the prisoners learned how the prison operated better than the guard force did. I heard a lot of stories about prisoners who would correct the guards and be like, “No, no, you need to give me 10 squares of toilet paper,” or “You’re not handcuffing me right. Let me show you how to do it.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More