Last week, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers announced he was selling the basketball team for $12.5 billion — the highest price ever paid for a professional sports team. The deal has shocked the sports world and drawn new attention to a growing trend: Big groups of investors have been buying up professional sports teams as the franchises chase skyrocketing valuations.

Today, Pablo Torre, the host of “Pablo Torre Finds Out,” explains the deal and how big money is transforming our relationship with the sports we love.

Guest: Pablo Torre, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and the host of “Pablo Torre Finds Out.”

Background reading:

• The deal for the Los Angeles Lakers valued the team at a record $12.5 billion, eclipsing the $10 billion paid for the franchise just last year.
• The transaction for the Lakers reflects the huge profit potential of major sports franchises.

Photo: The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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For the past 18 months, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has remade the top ranks of the U.S. military — dismissing or sidelining many whose rise he believes was aided by D.E.I. and replacing them with officers who fit his definition of merit. In the process, many argue he’s prioritizing loyalty to him and his ideas over loyalty to the military itself.

Today, Greg Jaffe, a New York Times reporter who covers the Pentagon and the U.S. military, takes us inside the hiring and firing for a single job that has become a case study for Hegseth’s approach.

Guest: Greg Jaffe, a reporter covering the Pentagon and the U.S. military for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• Before he was picked to lead the Navy, Adm. Daryl Caudle found ways to signal his support for Mr. Hegseth’s anti-diversity goals.
• Mr. Hegseth fired the Navy’s top officer, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, who spent roughly half of her 40-year career at sea, commanding a destroyer, two carrier strike groups and the U.S. Sixth Fleet.

Photo: Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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The global chaos agent known as El Niño is back, and this year it’s already on track to be, by far, the strongest and most severe on record, wreaking havoc on weather across the world.

Today, Chico Harlan, the global climate reporter for The New York Times, goes over El Niño’s history, its inner workings and its increasingly destructive fallout.

Guest: Chico Harlan, the global climate correspondent for The New York Times.

Background reading:

• El Niño, the Pacific climate shift that comes around once or twice a decade, is back, warming tropical oceans and setting off consequences worldwide.
• It’s expected to peak later this year but is already causing dry spells and crop failures on three continents.

Photo: Bay Ismoyo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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