Welcome back to The Daily Courant, your afternoon compendium of Puck’s best new reporting. Here’s what you need to know… and stick around for more on the latest WarnerMount wrinkle.

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Meanwhile, on the pods…

And now, a little more on WarnerMount’s new red flags…

HOLLYWOOD

This past weekend, as the U.S. celebrated 250 years of independence from British rule, Paramount Skydance executives found themselves pondering a question: Could the U.K. still determine the fate of an American empire? As Eriq reports, British culture secretary Lisa Nandy’s declaration that she was “minded to intervene” in the $110 billion Paramount–WBD merger has introduced an unexpected wrinkle—and sent the deal’s architects scrambling to figure out whether Britain can actually stop it.

The answer, Eriq writes, is murkier than the headlines suggest. Britain’s system is less a tidy sequence of filing, waiting, and receiving a formal blessing than a period of regulatory courtship, with the parties testing concerns and negotiating informally before deciding whether actual intervention is necessary—which is partly why Paramount believed it could close without London’s explicit blessing. However, much of the chatter isn’t about killing the deal, but about the price of passage. Every month of uncertainty raises costs and increases pressure on dealmakers to offer concessions—like, say, a divestment of CNN—that they might otherwise resist. The whole contest, in the end, often comes down to credibility. So which side better projects that it’s willing to endure the pain?

Click here to read Eriq’s full story.

A.I.

Abdul El-Sayed, Michigan’s Bernie-endorsed Senate candidate, has released an aggressive A.I.-regulation plan that includes Big Tech divestiture (you heard that right) and a series of “no-goes.” Here, he talks about A.I. as an affordability issue, the myth of Chinese domination, and the inaction of the U.S. Senate.

SPORTS

As talk of a new suite of NFL deals cools, analyst Steven Cahall predicts a bruising rights fight that will reshape media economics, while casting doubt on blockbuster M&A scenarios for NBC and Fox.

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FASHION

Five years into Spanx’s life under private equity rule, its early highs have fizzled, its lunch has been eaten by Skims, and its owners have to be looking for a next chapter. So where does it go from here?

ART

Two current de Kooning shows—one at Princeton and one in Chicago—feature different eras and aspects of the Dutch-American artist’s mastery. But both make a similarly compelling case for de Kooning as the meticulous leader of abstract expressionism and set the stage for a market shift. And they help explain his market bounce.

MEDIA

Dylan Byers joins Peter to make the case that Versant is more than its declining linear assets—pointing to the acquisition of Full Swing, the popular golf simulator, as a sign of broader ambitions beyond cable. Dylan also weighs in on Sky buying ITV, which will make the combined company an attractive acquisition target—assuming they can clear the regulatory hurdles ahead.

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