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

First up today, Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander present their wide-ranging and remarkably candid conversation with Meredith Kopit Levien, the formidable chief executive of The New York Times Co., about the fate of the Times’s bundle, the upside of acquiring The Athletic, how the paper quietly reinvented itself as a software company, the A.I. question (natch), and much, much more…

Plus, below the fold: Leigh Ann Caldwell reveals the anxiety swirling among Hill Republicans about the F.C.C.’s escalating assault on free speech. Bill Cohan digs into Trump’s latest head-scratching incursion into the private sector. Marion Maneker assesses whether the surrealism resurgence can buoy the private market. Julie Davich spotlights a peculiar trend surrounding Chinese ceramics and furniture. And Sarah Shapiro considers whether Meta’s A.I.-integrated Ray-Bans will help Mark Zuckerberg crack the wearable tech market.

Meanwhile, on the pods: John Ourand rings up Charlie Neiman, Amazon’s head of sports partnerships, on The Varsity to discuss the company’s game plan for tier-one sports rights. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Jon Kelly chew over the roiling Jimmy Kimmel crisis and the latest Paramount-WBD deal heat.

P.S.: If you missed Leigh Ann’s conversation with House Republican whip Tom Emmer last week during Puck’s latest Power Breakfast, presented in partnership with Solana Policy Institute, you can listen to their conversation on a special Saturday episode of The Powers That Be by clicking here, or read the abridged transcript here.

A defiantly optimistic conversation with Meredith Kopit Levien, C.E.O. of The New York Times Company, on buying The Athletic, the possibility of a Times-powered A.I., and why it’s still all about the news.

With a few notable exceptions, Republicans on the Hill are avoiding talking about Trump’s demands to shut down broadcast networks, cancel comedians, imprison protesters, investigate Democratic nonprofits, sue newspapers, and prosecute speech. “We don’t love it,” one senior aide said. But mostly they’re just waiting to see if things get worse.

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By directing the government to take an equity stake in Intel, followed immediately by SoftBank and Nvidia, Trump was able to boost the company’s market value by $26 billion. But the leading U.S. producer of semiconductors is still way behind on A.I., and notably short of customers.

Museum orthodoxy is starting to give greater weight to surrealism as a force in art history. And fascination with the movement is helping the private market regain some of its mojo.

Sales at Christie’s, Sotheby’s, and Bonhams had mixed results for Chinese ceramics and furniture that underscore the changing patterns in international trade.

Mark Zuckerberg unveiled his company’s new A.I.-integrated Ray-Ban sunglasses at Meta Connect this week, brushing off a buggy demo and upping the ante on wearable tech.

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Charlie Neiman, Amazon’s head of sports partnerships, joins John to discuss the company’s new deal with Augusta National to air four hours of the Masters each year. Then he pulls back the curtain on Amazon’s broader play for tier-one sports rights—including the NFL, NASCAR, and the upcoming NBA deal—how the company is tinkering with A.I. to reimagine its broadcasts, and more.

Jon Kelly and Peter share their notes on the roiling Jimmy Kimmel crisis and its impact on the Disney succession sweepstakes. Then they chew over the latest Paramount-WBD deal heat.

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