Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today and over the weekend
The Dubai World Cup kicks off. The world’s best jockeys and thoroughbreds will compete on Saturday for $30 million in prize money, with the winning duo set to earn $10 million. Now-retired American stallion Arrogate surged from last place to win “the world’s richest horse race” in 2017, capping off the highest-earning career in history for a racehorse.
Costa Rica wraps up its general election. Christian preacher Fabricio Alvarado won the election’s first round—but not the required 40% majority—after fiercely opposing an international ruling for marriage equality. The already tight race (paywall) could turn against opposing candidate Carlos Alvarado (no relation) for good if liberal voters don’t show up during the Easter holiday.
SpaceX preps for another launch. After a one-day delay, the aerospace manufacturer is scheduled to send its Falcon 9 rocket skyward at 10:13am ET (10:13pm HKT) on Friday. It’ll be the company’s fifth rocket launch this year, this one towing 10 Iridium NEXT communications satellites. A sixth launch will follow on Monday at 4:30pm ET (Tuesday at 4:30am HKT), with SpaceX rolling out its Dragon rocket from the East Coast for a space station resupply mission.
While you were sleeping
Donald Trump takes on Jeff Bezos. The US president tweeted this morning that the retail giant pays “little or no taxes to state & local governments,” while overusing the US Postal Service and cannibalizing small businesses. Amazon’s stock slipped by 2% on the news.
Russia retaliated by expelling around 150 western diplomats. Foreign minister Sergey V. Lavrov indicated the final number would “mirror” the number (paywall) of Russian diplomats pushed out from western countries to protest the poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter. The Kremlin also ordered the closure of the US Consulate in St. Petersburg.
Snap made big layoffs for the second time this month. Snapchat’s parent company just celebrated the one-year anniversary of its IPO, but user dislike of the app’s redesign and outrage over offensive ads hasn’t helped its value. A layoff of 100 workers, mostly from advertising, echoed the 120-employee purge of the engineering department on March 2.
The subject of the Serial podcast will get a new trial. Adnan Syed’s case, in which he was convicted of murdering a fellow high school classmate in 1999, was examined closely by the podcast producers. Based on information they uncovered, a Maryland appellate court overturned his conviction and called for a new trial.
Malala Yousafzai returned to Pakistan for the first time since her attack. The 20-year-old education activist has been studying and receiving medical treatment abroad after an assassination attempt nearly took her life. The four days she’ll spend in her home nation will send a powerful message to her supporters, despite continuing condemnation from conservatives.
Quartz obsession interlude
Michelle Kim on why focusing on the “business case” for diversity is a red flag: “I’m afraid too many are wasting time trying to convince those who don’t have the desire to be convinced in the first place. I’m afraid too many executives are hiding behind the decades-old question of ‘what’s the ROI?’ to delay the work that should have begun in their companies a decade ago, or the work that needs to continue.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Is tricking a robot the same as hacking it? The debate raises thorny questions around the emerging science of adversarial machine learning.
Cambridge Analytica’s psychology is massively overhyped. The firm may understand data, but we’re not as susceptible to manipulation as it would like to believe.
Follow Vladimir Putin’s money trail west. Perhaps more effective than expelling diplomats (paywall), nations should hit the Kremlin where it hurts most—its wallet.
Surprising discoveries
The mysteries of knuckle-cracking could be explained. Scientists found that force is the biggest factor, which could lead to more important discoveries about joint health.
South Africa jailed someone for hate speech for the first time. Vicki Momberg used an apartheid-era slur (paywall) against a dark-skinned police officer and will spend two months in prison.
A headless cockroach can live for two weeks. The hardy bug’s abundant genes (paywall) also let it regenerate legs, eat just about anything, and avoid bitter poison.
China’s space station will land…somewhere. Tiangong-1 could make contact anywhere on a wide potential area around Earth’s midsection, sometime this weekend.
Lululemon pants manipulate our sense of touch. The veritable yoga pant machine attempts to make both men and women feel hugged, but not crushed.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, space station parts, and huggy pants to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written and edited by McKinley Noble and Susan Howson.