Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon assortment of Puck’s best new reporting.

First up today, Eriq Gardner digs into the unnerving possibility that the Trump administration, as it continues squeezing corporate America, might target the copyright system as a new revenue stream, essentially forcing the film, TV, and music industries to pay a government toll. Is there a world where the next Avengers movie helps to underwrite the national debt?

Plus, below the fold: Ian Krietzberg chronicles the effects of A.I. on both the science and business of weather forecasting. John Heilemann and Texas Democratic state Rep. James Talarico discuss the state’s redistricting drama and his Senate ambitions. Marion Maneker wraps up his end-of-summer tour of Trump Country museums. Sarah Shapiro explores how D.T.C. brands are capitalizing on the tennis boom. And exclusively for Inner Circle members, Julia Alexander spotlights how YouTube creators became the newest entrants in the sports rights arms race.

Meanwhile, on the pods: John Ourand rings up NBC’s Mike Florio on The Varsity to break down the biggest off-the-field questions heading into the new NFL season. On The Town, Matt Belloni is joined by film producer Christine Vachon to assess the health of the indie film market. And on The Powers That Be, Leigh Ann Caldwell and Eriq game out Trump’s options for asserting control over Hollywood.

HOLLYWOOD

After successfully squeezing Paramount, ABC, Nvidia, and Intel for payoffs, public genuflection, and profit participation, the president is now working to assert control of the patent and copyright system, too. What’s to stop him from setting up a toll booth for Hollywood I.P.?

A.I.

Weather prediction agencies across the world are embracing A.I. models to assist with forecasting, but there are plenty of reasons to believe old-school, physics-based models aren’t going anywhere. Instead, the real revolution will involve the encroachment of the private sector on the industry.

WASHINGTON

A wide-ranging conversation with the Texas state rep on his party’s flight from Texas, the value of being in the political wilderness, and his own Senate ambitions.

ART

On a drive through Maine’s mashup of liberal arts college towns and Trump Country, we saw a marvelous Gertrude Abercrombie show, admired Ann Craven’s sunsets along with the real thing, and ran into Alex Katz holding court at the Colby College Museum.

FASHION

As the sport’s champions descend on the U.S. Open, new brands are capturing the overflow by focusing on the athleisure possibilities.

SPORTS

We’ve entered a brave new world in which individual YouTube creators are signing deals with leagues for limited sports rights—perhaps foreshadowing an era in which viewers get to choose from 1,000 different Manningcasts.

SPORTS

NBC’s Mike Florio returns to the pod for a wide-ranging NFL season preview, tackling the biggest off-the-field questions facing the league: the NFL’s in-house justice system, the league’s potential 10 percent ownership stake in ESPN and its impact on coverage, the NFLPA’s leadership issues, the potential expansion to 18 games, and much, much more.

HOLLYWOOD

Matt is joined by prominent independent film producer Christine Vachon to discuss the general state and health of the independent film market. She discusses her newest film, Materialists; how her company, Killer Films, has lasted 30 years; the challenge of getting challenging films made; where money is coming from in the indie space; and the current film festival hierarchy.

HOLLYWOOD

Eriq Gardner joins guest host Leigh Ann Caldwell to game out a bizarre but plausible future in which Trump insists on a cut of individual copyrights to assert control over intellectual property, particularly in the entertainment industry—and how that gambit could, paradoxically, bolster the case for A.I.-created works.

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