Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon medley of Puck’s best new reporting. First up today, Bill Cohan dissects the latest Bill Ackman micro-scandal, wherein the indefatigable hedge fund manager found himself defending an apparent potshot against his hero Warren Buffett on a financial podcast. It was a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it mea culpa, but one that gets to the heart of a subtly important vibe shift on Wall Street as the value investing era gives way to something more… Ackman-esque. Plus, below the fold: Rachel Strugatz goes inside Sephora’s secret Bachelor-themed brand summit. Leigh Ann Caldwell and singular Kentucky senator Rand Paul unpack Washington’s crumbling division of power. Lauren Sherman gathers all the pressing front-row chatter from Paris Fashion Week. Exclusively for Inner Circle members, Marion Maneker spotlights the biggest revelations from New York’s midseason sales at Sotheby’s. And on The Powers That Be, Julia Ioffe joins Peter Hamby to reveal what insiders in Washington are really saying about Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Oval Office meeting with Trump and J.D. Vance.

Bill Ackman, the voluble hedge fund manager, has a tendency to shoot from the hip, leaving even his friends scratching their heads. That said, it was particularly notable when Ackman posted a seemingly apologetic note this week to “clarify” his comments on a much more personal subject: Warren Buffett. Last week, Ackman appeared on an episode of the Boyar Value Group podcast with Jonathan Boyar, president of the eponymous Wall Street research firm. The ostensible reason for Bill’s appearance was to discuss his new offer to turn the Howard Hughes Corporation—the real estate concern in which Bill and his affiliates are the largest shareholders, with a 37.4 percent stake—into the next Berkshire Hathaway by buying $900 million more of the stock at $90 per share. But things took a bizarre turn when the topic turned to Buffett, Bill’s hero, north star, and investing inspiration… Read Now

Every year, many of the biggest beauty founders and executives descend on the Ritz in San Francisco for two days of schmoozing, healthy competition, and tons of beauty programming at the Sephora Brand Summit—the industry’s version of the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. While it’s always useful to see which founders and brands receive awards, the summit also offers something far more valuable: a true barometer of the latest trends across the beauty industry. Any brand that the retailer anoints its unofficial “darling” is destined to become the industry’s darling, too, and should probably expect a lot of attention… and potentially a big exit, investment, or liquidity event in the near future. This year, all eyes were on fragrance brand Kayali. Read Now

This is how bp does refining bp supports 300,000+ US jobs. Like the science, engineering and skilled labor jobs that produce the energy products Americans rely on. In Washington state, we’re refining traditional fuel and have begun producing renewable diesel from agricultural waste. See how else bp is investing in America.

While the rest of the G.O.P. has dutifully marched behind the president in tariff-imposing, government-cutting solidarity, Rand Paul has been one of the few Republicans in the House or Senate to publicly criticize Trump. Paul, of course, is a contrarian by nature. He’s also a consistent free-market libertarian who insists that other members of the G.O.P. privately agree with him and “whisper under their breath [that] free trade is good.” A strict constitutionalist, Paul doesn’t think Republicans should give this president a free pass on separation of powers just because he represents their party. But can he build the cachet within his party, let alone his own branch of government, to create action? Leigh Ann got Rand on the phone to discuss all that and more. Read Now

In her latest dispatch from Paris, Lauren distills three emergent talking points from this week’s fashion shows. First, she offers an inside-the-room account of Pieter Mulier’s Alaïa show on Tuesday night, which once again illuminated Mulier’s ability to transform women’s sense of their own bodies. Then, she probes Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s decision to dispense with the typical seating arrangement for The Row’s show the following day—and how this kept them in the conversation without the boost of social media engagement. And finally, she charts the pervasiveness of Brian Molloy’s taste on the industry writ large. Read Now

The art market has begun to heal. That’s the main takeaway from last week’s sales in New York, where $50.6 million worth of artworks were sold for an average price of $95,000. In the end, 73 percent of the 530 lots offered were sold, with just under a quarter selling at prices above the estimate range. Meanwhile, about one-third had to be sold at compromise prices, where the consignor did not get bids to their estimates. In any case, the return to a lower number of works offered, and a higher average price, is a good sign for the market. But there’s still a large gap between this year’s 73 percent sell-through rate and the 90 percent sell-through of 2022. Bottom line: The sales were good, but not great. Most important, though, they weren’t terrible. For now, that’s enough to be positive news. Read Now

Julia Ioffe joins Peter to reveal what insiders in Washington are really saying about Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous Oval Office meeting with Trump and J.D. Vance, as even Democrats believe the Ukrainian president has blundered—raising serious questions about how much he has weakened his negotiating position as the U.S. looks to wind down the war. So what exactly does the process to peace look like? Listen Now

This is how bp invests in America bp added $130+ billion to the US economy over the last two years. From people working to produce oil and gas in the Gulf of America and Permian Basin, to investments in refining and bioenergy projects nationwide, and so much more, see all the ways bp is investing in America.

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