Few Americans are aware that their country’s horses are being exported and slaughtered abroad – often in appalling conditions – to supply European taste for a meat that’s shunned at home. Andrew Wasley reports. Herded down a concrete shute, the horses — black and brown and grey; fat, healthy, thin, lame — have little idea of the fate that awaits them. But one by one, the horses are separated from those behind, a metal trapdoor swinging down to confine each to a metal box. There’s blood and filth on the walls and floor. Flies buzz.

New York environmental regulators this week released a plan to protect aquatic life in the state’s rivers that could cost power generators billions to upgrade their facilities. The plan, which still needs final approval, would affect most of the state’s six nuclear power plants and several facilities powered by fossil fuels that use water for cooling. The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) wants the facilities to recycle and reuse the water in a closed-cycle cooling system rather than discharging the heated water into rivers.