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

First up today, Kim Masters relays the chatter from inside the Simon Wiesenthal shindig honoring David Zaslav—where at least two-thirds of the industry’s power elite were gathered in the Beverly Wilshire and all anyone could talk about was the battle for Warner Bros. Discovery. Naturally, David Ellison was in attendance, but so was Ted Sarandos, triggering a cascade of whispers about everything from the Ellison-Trump connection to rumors of a mystery Emirati-backed bidder…

Plus, below the fold: Abby Livingston rings up veteran G.O.P. consultant Mike DuHaime to preview the high-stakes Sherrill–Ciattarelli throwdown in New Jersey. Lauren Sherman evaluates J. Press’s ambitious scale-up plan under its polarizing new creative director, Jack Carlson. And John Ourand chronicles Fox’s World Series ratings revelation, the Disney–YouTube TV standoff, and the still-roiling NBA betting scandal.

Meanwhile, on the pods: Dylan Byers and Julia Alexander are joined by LightShed’s Rich Greenfield on The Grill Room to break down the WBD bidding war. And on The Powers That Be, Peter Hamby and Leigh Ann Caldwell tee up today’s consequential elections in New York, Virginia, California, and beyond.

🚨 Special announcement!: Tomorrow at 6 p.m. ET in Washington, D.C., Leigh Ann will interview Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Noah Oppenheim about their new nuclear armageddon thriller, A House of Dynamite—a conversation hosted by Puck and our partners at Netflix. R.S.V.P. here.

The surest sign that the Ellisons are still frontrunners in the WBD sweepstakes? The chorus of industry critics is growing—and fantasizing about other options. Meanwhile, the PSKY team might be looking to take its bid over the top with help from abroad.

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A candid chat with Mike DuHaime, the veteran New Jersey Republican consultant, on the brink of the Sherrill–Ciattarelli throwdown in the Garden State.

For decades, J. Press was content to remain a backwater Ivy League WASP clothier, marooned in sleepy enclaves like New Haven and Cambridge. But the resurgence of prep has motivated its Japanese owner and new creative director to scale to once unfathomable heights. Will it work, old sport?

News and notes on the latest fascinations and frenzies of the sports media business: Fox’s World Series numbers, the Disney–YouTube TV beef, and the roiling NBA gambling saga.

Last year, Instagram launched Teen Accounts, which default teens into automatic protections. Now, a stricter “Limited Content” setting is available for parents who prefer extra controls.  

Instagram will continue adding new safeguards, giving parents more peace of mind. 

Learn more.

LightShed’s Rich Greenfield joins Dylan and Julia to take stock of the WBD bidding war, as Paramount and Comcast circle the prize while Netflix and Amazon lurk on the sidelines. They game out who needs it the most, what each is willing to pay, how they might integrate their assets, and much more.

Leigh Ann Caldwell joins Peter with a primer on today’s pivotal elections in New York, New Jersey, Virginia, California, and beyond—and why you should care even if you don’t live in any of those locales. From Zohran Mamdani’s potential win in New York City’s mayoral race to Gavin Newsom’s Prop 50 push in California, these contests could serve as the clearest snapshot yet of America’s political mood nearly a year into Trump 2.0.

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