Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon guide to Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know… and stick around for a close look at Elon Musk’s hidden media ambitions.

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Meanwhile, on the pods…

And now, a little more on Elon’s media ambitions…

MEDIA

Last week, X’s head of product, Nikita Bier, declared that fixing the platform’s creator program was his top priority, warning that without a crackdown on the aggregator accounts ripping off original content, “X will become a media property composed of 50 accounts, instead of a social network.” It’s a problem partly of X owner Elon Musk’s own making: His 2024 pivot to a “video-first” algorithm deprioritized the external links that once made Twitter the news industry’s nerve center, pushing thousands of paid accounts to chase on-platform engagement at all costs.

But as Julia reports, fixing the slop is merely an entry point into something far more ambitious. Buried in SpaceX’s I.P.O. prospectus is a blueprint for a vertically integrated media empire—combining content creation, a walled-garden distribution system in Starlink, and native A.I. in Grok. It’s a flywheel that no single media company, carrier, or A.I. lab has attempted at scale: Better content trains Grok, a better Grok builds better creator tools, and better tools attract the online names that draw advertisers and subscribers with money to spend. In other words, it’s a plan that sounds crazy for anyone but Elon…

Click here to read Julia’s full story.

HOLLYWOOD

Shawn Levy’s production company assigned a young staffer to monitor YouTube for potential talent. Four years later, Kane Parsons’ fantasy thriller opened to $118 million worldwide and has everyone in town talking about a possible sea change.

FASHION

The restless creative director is everywhere: opening hotels, shilling champagne, even investing in Quince—exactly the sort of dynamism that made LVMH want to work with him. But where does Louis Vuitton fit into his grand plan?

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SPORTS

Tucked inside Congress’s latest college sports proposal is a provocative idea: Some games may simply be too important to disappear behind a paywall.

WASHINGTON

John welcomes back Politico’s Jonathan Martin to discuss the Texas Senate race: how scandal-soaked Attorney General Ken Paxton thrashed incumbent Senator John Cornyn in the G.O.P. primary runoff; Democratic nominee James Talarico’s “race against time” to define himself before Paxton’s effort to cast him as a weak, weird, ultra-woke vegan sinks in with voters; and whether Democrats are once again chasing fool’s gold in Texas or the race is a genuine tossup. JMart also unpacks the latest episode of his On the Road YouTube series, featuring Pennsylvania governor and likely 2028 presidential candidate Josh Shapiro.

FASHION

Lauren’s guests are Kavi and David Moltz, the co-founders of D.S. & Durga. They discuss Brooklyn in the era of indie sleaze, why they started a business together, what a “nose” means in 2026, the rise of niche fragrance, and so much more.

MEDIA

Dylan Byers joins Peter to discuss Monday’s blowup at CBS News, where 60 Minutes legend Scott Pelley torched new E.P. Nick Bilton and accused Bari Weiss of “murdering” the show in an all-hands meeting that predictably leaked to every media reporter in town. Dylan discusses whether Pelley just dared David Ellison to fire him, and how long the patience at Paramount Skydance can last.

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