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The 2021 Kentucky Derby win-ner, Medina Spirit, failed a drugtest after the race, putting a newstain on a sport troubled by dop-ing problems and placing thor-oughbred horse racing’s most rec-ognizable personality, the Hall ofFame trainer Bob Baffert, underuncomfortable scrutiny.

If he is disqualified, MedinaSpirit will be stripped of the Derbytitle and its winning purse, and be-come the third horse in the 147-year history of the race to receivesuch a penalty after finishing first.The colt cannot be disqualified un-til a second sample, collected atthe same time as the first, con-firms the result in a test expectedin the coming weeks. Mr. Baffertwill then have an opportunity toappeal.

The positive test comes ashorse racing, acknowledging ithas a drug problem, prepares tocarry out the Horseracing Integri-ty and Safety Act, which waspassed last year in Congress. Itwill take effect on July 1, 2022, andcalls for a board overseen by theFederal Trade Commission to

write rules and penalties to be en-forced by the United States Anti-Doping Agency.

The agency, which regulatesOlympic and other elite athletes inthe United States, revealed the cy-clist Lance Armstrong’s cheatingand issued him a lifetime suspen-sion in 2012.

In a statement, officials atChurchill Downs, the racetrack inLouisville, Ky., said that if MedinaSpirit’s positive test was con-firmed, the Derby’s runner-up,

Failed Drug Test Puts Derby WinAt Risk and a Trainer Under Fire

By JOE DRAPE

Bob Baffert after a record sev-enth Kentucky Derby victory.

ANDY LYONS/GETTY IMAGES

Continued on Page A17

WASHINGTON — When fed-eral regulators late last year ac-cused one of the world’s most pop-ular cryptocurrency platforms ofillegally selling $1.38 billion worthof digital money to investors, itwas a pivotal moment in efforts tocrack down on a fast-growingmarket — and in the still-nascentindustry’s willingness to divedeeply into the Washington influ-ence game.

The company, Ripple Labs, hasenlisted lobbyists, lawyers andother well-connected advocates tomake its case to the Securities andExchange Commission and be-yond in one of the first big legalbattles over what limits and re-quirements the governmentshould set for trading and usingdigital currency.

Ripple has hired two lobbyingfirms in the last three months. Ithas retained a consulting firmstaffed with former aides to bothHillary Clinton and former Presi-dent Donald J. Trump to help it de-velop strategy in Washington.And to defend itself against theS.E.C., it hired Mary Jo White, aformer chairwoman of the com-mission during the Obama admin-istration.

Ripple is just one of a long list ofcryptocurrency companiesscrambling for influence in Wash-ington as the Biden administra-tion begins setting policy thatcould shape the course of a poten-tially revolutionary industry thatis rapidly moving into the main-stream and drawing intensifyingattention from financial regula-tors, law enforcement officialsand lawmakers.

“There is a tectonic shift under-way,” Perianne Boring, the presi-dent of the Chamber of DigitalCommerce, a cryptocurrency lob-bying group, told other industrylobbyists, executives and twoHouse lawmakers who serve asindustry champions, during a vir-tual gathering last month. “If wedon’t start planning and taking ac-tion soon, we have everything torisk.”

BATTLE BREWINGOVER REGULATINGCRYPTOCURRENCY

BID TO INFLUENCE POLICY

Firm Plans Strategy WithLawyers, Lobbyists

and Consultants

By ERIC LIPTON

Continued on Page A14

Pauline Rojas’s high school inSan Antonio is open. But likemany of her classmates, she hasnot returned, and has little inter-est in doing so.

During the coronavirus pan-demic, she started working 20 to40 hours per week at RaisingCane’s, a fast-food restaurant, andhas used the money to help payher family’s internet bill, buyclothes and save for a car.

Ms. Rojas, 18, has no doubt thata year of online school, squeezedbetween work shifts that end atmidnight, has affected her learn-ing. Still, she has embraced hernew role as a breadwinner, shar-ing responsibilities with hermother who works at a hardwarestore.

“I wanted to take the stress offmy mom,” she said. “I’m no longera kid. I’m capable of having a job,holding a job and making my ownmoney.”

Only a small slice of Americanschools remain fully closed: 12percent of elementary and middleschools, according to a federalsurvey, as well as a minority ofhigh schools. But the percentageof students learning fully re-motely is much greater: morethan a third of fourth and eighthgraders, and an even larger groupof high school students. A major-ity of Black, Hispanic and Asian-American students remain out ofschool.

These disparities have put dis-trict leaders and policymakers ina tough position as they end thisschool year and plan for the nextone. Even though the pandemicappears to be coming under con-trol in the United States as vacci-nations continue, many superin-tendents say fear of the coronavi-rus itself is no longer the primaryreason their students are optingout. Nor are many families ex-pressing a strong preference forremote learning.

Rather, for every child and par-ent who has leapt at the opportu-nity to return to the classroom,others changed their lives overthe past year in ways that makegoing back to school difficult. Theconsequences are likely to rever-berate through the education sys-tem for years, especially if statesand districts continue to give stu-dents the choice to attend school

Many FamiliesTurning Away

From Schools

Education Crisis BornNot Only of Fear

By DANA GOLDSTEIN

Continued on Page A6

A dose of psilocybin, at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins.MATT ROTH FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

It’s been a long, strange trip inthe four decades since RickDoblin, a pioneering psychedelicsresearcher, dropped his first hit ofacid in college and decided to ded-icate his life to the healing powersof mind-altering compounds.Even as antidrug campaigns ledto the criminalization of Ecstasy,LSD and magic mushrooms, anddrove most researchers from thefield, Dr. Doblin continued hisquixotic crusade with financialhelp from his parents.

Dr. Doblin’s quest to win main-

stream acceptance of psychedel-ics will take a significant leap for-ward on Monday when the journalNature Medicine is expected topublish the results of his lab’sstudy on MDMA, the club drugpopularly known as Ecstasy andMolly. The study, the first Phase 3clinical trial conducted with psy-chedelic-assisted therapy, foundthat MDMA paired with counsel-

ing brought marked relief to pa-tients with severe post-traumaticstress disorder.

The results, coming weeks aftera New England Journal of Medi-cine study that highlighted thebenefits of treating depressionwith psilocybin, the psychoactiveingredient in magic mushrooms,has excited scientists, psycho-therapists and entrepreneurs inthe rapidly expanding field of psy-chedelic medicine. They say it isonly a matter of time before theFood and Drug Administrationgrants approval for psychoactivecompounds to be used therapeuti-

Psychedelics Are Poised to Reshape Psychiatry

By ANDREW JACOBS Colleges and InvestorsRush to Get Involved

Continued on Page A16

A father, center, at the funeral Sunday for his 17-year-old daughter, who was killed in a strike on a high school in Kabul, Afghanistan.KIANA HAYERI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

KABUL, Afghanistan — One byone they brought the girls up thesteep hill, shrouded bodies cov-ered in ceremonial prayer cloths,the pallbearers staring into thedistance. Shouted prayers for thedead broke the silence.

The bodies kept coming and thegravediggers stayed busy, strain-ing in the hot sun. The ceaselessrhythm was grim proof of the pre-ceding day’s news: Saturday af-ternoon’s triple bombing at a localschool had been an absolute mas-sacre, targeting girls. There wasbarely room atop the steeplypitched hill for all the new graves.

The scale of the killing and theinnocence of the victims seemed

further unnerving proof of thecountry’s violent unraveling, asthe Taliban make daily gains andthe government seems unable tohalt their advances or protect itspeople from mass killings. OnSunday there were mourners ev-erywhere in the neighborhood ofthe bombing, home to the be-sieged Hazara ethnic minority,but hardly any security to protectthem.

The death toll exceeded evenprevious massacres in thisbustling neighborhood of a minor-ity long singled out for persecu-tion by the Taliban and, in recentyears, the Islamic State. Afghani-stan’s second vice president, Sar-war Danesh, himself a Hazara,said more than 80 people had beenkilled in the attack.

After the 2001 American inva-sion, the Hazaras were a minoritythat made the most of the coun-try’s new educational and busi-ness opportunities, and theymake up a large part of the coun-try’s young technocrat genera-tion. But through it all, the pre-dominately Shiite Muslim groupbecame a target of choice forSunni militants like the new Tal-iban insurgency and ISIS.

They have grown increasingly

angry at the government, accus-ing the security forces of standingby while they suffer horrific casu-alties. Now, on the edge of whatmany fear will become a return ofTaliban rule in many areas withthe planned American troop with-drawal, and a civil war some seeas inevitable, the Hazara are in-creasingly determined to taketheir security into their ownhands.

On Sunday, a wheelbarrowstacked with the bloodied clothingof the girls, packed tight in plasticbags, was parked outside onemosque where bodies had beenbrought. At another mosque, abasement room, crowded withblack-robed women, echoed withmuffled sobs. At a third mosque

Continued on Page A10

‘Why Do We Deserve to Die?’ Burying Hazara Girls in KabulBy ADAM NOSSITER Fury, Heartbreak and

Cries to Take UpArms in Defense

He was an ambitious state as-semblyman and a rising star inthe liberal hothouse of UpperWest Side politics. She was a NewYork newcomer, born in South Ko-rea, raised in Ohio and eager tobreak into the city’s thriving Dem-ocratic scene.

The two — Scott M. Stringerand Jean Kim — would eventuallyplay central roles in this year’sNew York City mayor’s race. Buttheir paths first intersected morethan 20 years ago, initially at polit-ical events, and then more in-tensely as Mr. Stringer ran an un-successful campaign for publicadvocate in 2001.

That summer and fall, Ms. Kim,working unpaid on his campaign,regularly attended Mr. Stringer’sevents. They socialized as well,gathering over drinks with otheractivists at Upper West Side barslike Merchants. On at least one oc-casion, there was a kiss.

On this much, Mr. Stringer andMs. Kim largely agree. But theiraccounts of the nature of their re-lationship diverge sharply fromthere, as do their views of thepower dynamics at play. Theclashing narratives have thrownMr. Stringer’s mayoral campaigninto crisis after Ms. Kim accusedhim of sexual misconduct, sap-ping his momentum and drivingmany of his allies away.

To Mr. Stringer, Ms. Kim was apeer with whom he had an “on-and-off” consensual relationshipthat spanned four to five months.

Details of ClaimThat Shook UpA Mayor’s Race

By KATIE GLUECK

Continued on Page A18

A photo essay series looks at peopleemerging from isolation. Above, a Cali-fornia farm attracts volunteers. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-19

How We Gather NowShops in Hamburg, Germany, havebeen pushed to the brink by lockdownsand curfews in the pandemic. PAGE B4

BUSINESS B1-6

Improvising to Survive

An executive order on cybersecuritymay not go far enough even as thepresident prepares to issue it. PAGE A19

New Cyber Defense Road Map

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executivetook a self-deprecating approach andappeared in several skits while hosting“Saturday Night Live.” PAGE C3

Elon Musk, Comedian

With a focus on lasting communitypartnerships, the orchestra that callsLincoln Center home is using a shippingcontainer to stage shows around thecity this month. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-6

A Mobile N.Y. PhilharmonicRobert Lewandowski of Bayern Munichbecame one of world soccer’s mostruthless scorers through seconds ofcalculation and years of dedication,Rory Smith writes. PAGE D1

SPORTSMONDAY D1-6

The Making of a Goal Machine

Zeynep Tufekci PAGE A20

OPINION A20-21

Zion Williamson’s name surfaced in alawsuit over a shoe company’s pay-ments to college recruits. The amountsare small, but the schools cash in big,Kurt Streeter writes. PAGE D3

Basketball’s Grand Bargain

Grounded for a year, a downsized Cirquedu Soleil faces challenges as it limbersup for a summer return. PAGE A8

Circus Coming Back to Town

The United States and Iran say theywant to restore the nuclear deal, buteach side has sticking points. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A8-12

A Tricky Road to ‘Yes’

Sixty-eight percent of New York City’sadult Asian population has received atleast one dose, despite language barri-ers and a fear of violence. PAGE A4

TRACKING AN OUTBREAK A4-6

A Group Leads in Vaccinations

There is no word on reopening a pipelineafter a ransomware attack, but a delaycould spur price increases. PAGE B1

Possible Gas Shortages

Late Edition

VOL. CLXX . . . . No. 59,054 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, MONDAY, MAY 10, 2021

Today, stray showers early, cloudy,partly sunny late, high 62. Tonight,partly cloudy, low 47. Tomorrow,partly sunny, turning windy, high 62.Weather map appears on Page A22.

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