Sunday talkies: Cassidy, Blanche, Ron Johnson, Malliotakis, Coates, Abbott

 NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday”: Former Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.)

CBS News’s “Face the Nation”: Pennsylvania State Rep. Chris Rabb (D), Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), Gov. Andy Beshear (D-Ky.), 

CNN’s “State of the Union”: Gov. Wes Moore (D-Md.), Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), 

Fox News’s “Fox News Sunday”: Attorney General Todd Blanche

NBC News’s “Meet the Press”: Attorney General Todd Blanche, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures”: Republican National Committee Chair Joe Gruters, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), Victoria Coates

ABC’s “This Week”: Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Luke Bronin

Fox News’s “The Sunday Briefing”: Rep. Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), Gov. Greg Abbott (R-Texas)

https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/6031629-sunday-shows-preview-key-primary-races-set-stage-for-tight-november-battles-democrats-raise-concerns-over-uss-lincoln-conditions/

Iran fires anti-ship missiles toward Strait of Hormuz - report

 

Anti-ship missiles were reportedly fired from Qeshm Island and Iran’s southern coast toward the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman on Saturday, IRGC-linked Saberin News reported. The report did not provide further details on the targets or any possible damage.

https://www.iranintl.com/en/202608159188

Qatar denies Iranian pilot detention claims

 Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari dismissed reports of detaining Iranian Su-24 pilots as "misleading" and poorly timed amid regional de-escalation efforts.

In an X post on Saturday, he said the pilots violated Qatari airspace, and "after following the rules of engagement & attempting to communicate with them without receiving a response, the necessary measures were taken to defend our territory".

"Qatar also communicated with the Iranian side to coordinate the handover of the remains of one of the pilots who was found, in accordance with the relevant provisions of international humanitarian law. Qatar also issued an invitation for an Iranian team to visit Qatar to be briefed on the details of the search & rescue operations in April, but the Iranian side has yet to respond to the invitation," he stressed.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Qatar-denies-Iranian-pilot-detention-claims/66927750

Fauci In Hiding As ABC Censorship Bombshell Explodes

 by Steve Watson via Modernity News,

Dr. Anthony Fauci just refused a private transcribed interview with Sen. Ron Johnson's subcommittee. The same week, a former ABC News correspondent revealed that the network gutted a 2021 Wuhan lab leak investigation after the script was sent to Fauci for review.

The pattern is unmistakable. Stonewall. Censor. Invoke privilege. Repeat.

On Friday, Fauci's attorney notified Sen. Ron Johnson that the former NIAID director would not appear for a closed-door, transcribed interview as part of the ongoing investigation into the failed COVID response.

Johnson laid it out plainly:

"Dr. Fauci's attorney has just notified us that Fauci refuses to appear for a private transcribed interview. The American people deserve answers to legitimate questions regarding our miserably failed response to COVID-19. Some of those questions can only be answered by Dr. Fauci. He arrogantly once stated that he was 'very happy to testify before any congressional oversight committee. I have nothing to hide.' Apparently, he has a lot to hide. Since Fauci refuses to talk about his role and decisions related to COVID-19, my Subcommittee will continue to obtain his records and request to speak with key individuals that he worked with. We will explore our legal options before deciding our next steps."

This comes days after the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee voted along party lines to hold Fauci in contempt for his July 29 performance, where he invoked the Fifth Amendment roughly 112 times.

Fauci's lawyer responded to Johnson's request by claiming any effort to compel his appearance would "impermissibly harass or degrade Dr. Fauci for political purposes."

The AP reported the decline, noting it followed the partisan contempt vote and the earlier hearing in which Fauci repeatedly declined to answer questions about pandemic decisions, origins, and funding.

The contempt referral is already heading toward the Justice Department. Sen. Rand Paul has argued the Biden preemptive pardon removed any legitimate basis for the Fifth Amendment claims, leaving Fauci with no shield against answering.

While Fauci ducks the Senate, a separate bombshell landed from inside the media machine that once amplified him.

Former ABC News senior national correspondent Terry Moran, speaking on The Fifth Column podcast, described what happened to his early 2021 Nightline investigation into the COVID lab-leak theory.

Moran said the piece examined evidence that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had received Chinese military funding - something the lab's "Bat Lady" Shi Zhengli had denied. He and his team laid out the arguments.

Then the review hit.

"The day it was supposed to air, it gets 'reviewed.' It comes back to me...I was told: FAUCI," Moran stated.

He added that he was "absolutely livid," cursing in the booth as the final product arrived "incomprehensible," loaded with caveats and legalized language that stripped the original work of meaning.

"I've never watched that story [again] and I never want to. Because it wasn't mine, and most importantly, because it was incomprehensible."

He was told the script had gone to lawyers, standards - and Fauci.

This was not a conservative activist speaking. Moran is a longtime network journalist. His account directly undercuts years of media insistence that questions about the lab were fringe conspiracy theories while Fauci and allies worked to shut them down.

These latest refusals and revelations sit atop a mountain of prior evidence already documented.

Secret texts recovered from Fauci's government iPhone showed him privately warning in January 2021 that the second COVID vaccine dose "theoretically could be associated with miscarriage in the 1st trimester" because of cytokine storms and fever. Publicly, he and other officials pushed the shots for pregnant women with no such caveats.

Emails previously released by Sen. Rand Paul showed Fauci instructing then-NIH Director Francis Collins to "read it, then destroy it" - language Paul has called a violation of federal records law.

At the July 29 hearing itself, Fauci offered an opening statement accusing Paul of an "unhinged obsession," then refused nearly every substantive question.

CNN legal analysts noted that the 112 Fifth Amendment pleas likely made his position worse, given the pardon removed criminal jeopardy and left him exposed to contempt.

The American people watched schools shuttered, businesses destroyed, and dissent crushed while the same officials privately fretted about risks they would not acknowledge publicly.

Now the central figure in that response continues to refuse basic questions under oath or in transcribed interviews, and a network reporter has confirmed that even internal journalistic work was routed through him for approval.

Johnson's subcommittee says it will keep pursuing records and other witnesses. The contempt referral sits with the Justice Department. The lab-leak story that was sanitized in 2021 is no longer radioactive. Accountability is no longer optional.

Fauci had years of unmatched power and media deference. That time is over.

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/fauci-hiding-abc-censorship-bombshell-explodes

More Than Half Of Gen Z Investors Have Moved Money Into Sports Bets

 A growing share of young Americans is folding sports gambling into their long-term financial plans, according to new research from the investment platform Betterment.

In an online survey of 1,000 U.S. retail investors conducted in late March and early April and released this week, 52% of Gen Z investors said they had shifted money originally set aside for stocks or other investments into sports wagers over the past year. Only about one-third of Gen Z participants reported no involvement in sports betting at all, compared with 63% across all age groups in the survey.

26% of Gen Z respondents - those born between 1997 and 2007 - said they view sports betting as a deliberate, ongoing part of their wealth strategy. That figure drops sharply with age: 14% of millennials, 6% of Gen X, and just 1% of baby boomers reported the same outlook.

Of those Gen Z respondents, roughly 11% described betting as an investment strategy aimed at high returns, while 15% treated it as a short-term way to raise cash.

The betting numbers sit inside a broader shift in where young investors get their information. Social media is now Gen Z's most commonly cited source for financial news, rising from 45% in 2024 to 60% this year - nearly three times the 21% who cite a financial advisor.

The findings highlight how the rapid growth of legal sports gambling and prediction markets is competing for the same discretionary dollars that once flowed into retirement accounts and brokerage portfolios. The state-regulated sports betting industry in the United States has expanded into a nearly $17 billion business in recent years. Prediction markets have also surged; Robinhood Markets, long known for democratizing stock trading, added them to its app in 2025 and has called the segment its fastest-growing business line ever.

Betterment Chief Executive Officer Sarah Levy warned that the trend carries risks. "When a prediction market or sportsbook starts to feel like a retirement strategy, we have a problem," she said in a statement. "These products are designed to keep people seeking the next quick score, not to help them build toward the next decade. Younger investors deserve access to the tools and information that meet them where they are, but the industry also has a responsibility to be clear about the difference between participating in a trend and building lasting wealth."

Robert Kosciuk, a 32-year-old from Huntington, New York, illustrates the shift - maintaining a Robinhood account for stocks but devoting more energy this year to betting, Bloomberg reports. He says he approaches sports wagers with the same discipline he applies to investing: researching outcomes carefully, avoiding emotional decisions, and limiting most bets to $100. He acknowledges the activity is gambling but believes he manages it more thoughtfully than casual players. So far this year he has earned roughly $2,500, enough to cover a vacation he attributes in part to successful bets on the Carolina Hurricanes.

Industry representatives push back on the idea that betting should be treated as investing. Joe Maloney, president of the Sports Betting Alliance - whose members include FanDuel, DraftKings, Fanatics Betting & Gaming, bet365, and betMGM - told Bloomberg that sports wagering is entertainment, not a wealth-building strategy. Adults who choose to bet, he added, should do so responsibly within a fixed entertainment budget and never with money needed for savings or essentials.

Broader economic pressures may be amplifying the appeal of high-risk options. Eighty percent of Gen Z respondents who already use or are considering speculative investments said concerns about falling behind financially played a role, according to a Northwestern Mutual study of 4,357 adults conducted by the Harris Poll in January. As homeownership grows more difficult and everyday costs rise, some younger adults are turning to sports betting, prediction markets, and crypto in hopes of accelerating progress toward their goals.

The Betterment survey also examined how investors make decisions. 56% percent said they rely primarily on their own research and judgment - more than any other single source. That self-reliance increased with age, rising from 40% among Gen Z respondents to 69% among baby boomers. About one in three participants reported trusting artificial intelligence for financial advice. Of those, 53% said AI had prompted a decision they would not otherwise have made, including 48% of all Gen Z respondents. Gen Z investors were eight times more likely than baby boomers to say they were comfortable using AI for long-term financial planning - 41% against 5%.

The survey polled 1,000 U.S. retail investors between March 27 and April 3, split evenly across four generations, meaning each generational figure rests on roughly 250 respondents. Participants were recruited through an incentivized online panel and were required to hold at least one investment outside a 401(k).

https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/more-half-gen-z-investors-have-moved-money-sports-bets

'AP: Taliban marks 5 years back in power as Afghan women remain shut out of public life'

Taliban rulers and other officials gathered at Afghanistan’s traditional Loya Jirga assembly hall on Saturday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of their return to power, touting what they said had brought stability and an end to conflict after decades of upheaval.

A top United Nations official, however, warned of a grave human rights crisis in the country where girls above the age of 12 were denied an education.

The Taliban seized power on August 15, 2021, as the US and other NATO troops withdrew following a costly two-decade war. The US withdrawal led to chaos at Kabul airport as crowds of people tried to flee the country in desperation.

Soon after they took power, the Taliban administration imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and later also banned higher education for women, despite having pledged before the takeover that women would be allowed access to education, employment and public participation.

Women had also been banned from public spaces such as gyms and parks, from taking part in sports and traveling to distant locations without a male guardian.

At the Loya Jirga, high-ranking officials were joined by some foreign representatives and thousands of ordinary citizens for speeches that marked what they said was Afghanistan’s liberation from American forces.

A boy sits among Taliban delegates from across the country during a meeting opening celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of the US withdrawal and the Taliban’s return to power, at Loya Jirga Hall in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

The Taliban government remained isolated internationally, with Russia being the only country that had recognized it formally.

“We pray to Almighty God to forever protect our homeland from occupation, aggression, wars, and insecurity, and to enable our people to enjoy peace, tranquility, and prosperity under the auspices of the Sharia-based government,” the Taliban government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, said during the ceremony.

There were no women present.

Celebrations were also held in provinces across Afghanistan, where Taliban flags and posters emblazoned with slogans in praise of the Taliban’s return to power were displayed along major roads and marketplaces.

In a video message, Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, said the country was undergoing a deep human rights crisis.

A woman wearing a burqa walks along a street on the eve of the fifth anniversary of the US withdrawal and the start of Taliban rule in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)

“While the era of war has ended, it’s questionable whether there’s real peace, and the human rights situation has steadily deteriorated, most dramatically for women and girls,” Bennett said. “My mandate has concluded that this system amounts to the crime against humanity of gender persecution.”

“The crisis extends well beyond gender discrimination, even beyond gender apartheid,” he continued. “Across Afghanistan we continue to document arbitrary arrests, torture and ill treatment, extrajudicial killings, corporal punishment, enforced disappearances, restrictions on freedom of expression, attacks on journalists and human rights defenders, persecution of ethnic and religious minorities, discrimination against LGBT plus persons, and the reduction of civic space.”

Bennett warned the international community against “normalizing” the Taliban’s policies, saying it would legitimize the discrimination and tell “victims their suffering is negotiable.”

A boy walks past Taliban members riding motorcycles and waving flags during celebrations marking the fifth anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power, in Kabul, Afghanistan, August 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Nava Jamshidi)

In an interview with The Associated Press this week, Molvi Hayatullah Mahajar Farahi, deputy minister in the Taliban government for broadcasting at the Ministry of Information and Culture, said despite “challenges and difficulties” the administration had in the past five years delivered security, infrastructure and created jobs.

Farahi, when asked, did not address the issue of the education of girls and women but said “the level of investment made in universities surpasses anything seen in the past.”

The UN agency on education and culture, UNESCO, estimates that some 2.4 million girls have been excluded from secondary education.

The world body’s agency on women’s rights, UN Women, said this week that women and girls had been facing the harshest restrictions in the world and that the bans had been damaging Afghanistan’s future, with the lack of teachers, doctors, nurses and midwives threatening the country’s social and economic foundations.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/taliban-marks-5-years-back-in-power-as-afghan-women-remain-shut-out-of-public-life/

'NYT: Trump Authorizes US Companies to Launch Cyberattacks Against Hackers'

 President Donald Trump has authorized vetted American corporations to launch offensive cyber operations against foreign criminal syndicates, upending decades of federal security doctrine that strictly confined offensive digital warfare to military and intelligence agencies.

The directive, signed late Wednesday under a presidential national security memorandum, allows approved commercial firms to disrupt, manipulate, or dismantle digital infrastructure used by transnational cybercriminals.

Under the framework, participating enterprises will coordinate with the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security to conduct offensive maneuvers and deep-network surveillance, according to The New York Times.

The White House intends to harness the technical capacity of commercial entities to counter the spiraling economic fallout from ransomware and illicit digital intrusions.

A Guarded Authorization Framework

The White House initiative does not establish an unregulated digital arena. Access to the program requires rigorous federal screening, formal interagency contracts, and prior written authorization from law enforcement and homeland security leadership before any strike can proceed.

Contract terms subject participating commercial operators to $1 million fines for protocol violations.

The mandate explicitly prohibits actions that could cause loss of life, inflict bodily injury, or cross the legal threshold into armed conflict under international law.

Amanda Naylor, director of cyberpolicy at the National Security Council, stated that the memorandum would "give the United States new tools to protect Americans from cybercrime and fraud."

Following in Russian and Chinese Footsteps

Security analysts and former intelligence officials have warned that the initiative introduces profound operational and geopolitical risks, particularly regarding the misidentification of targets.

Disentangling independent criminal networks from state-sponsored espionage entities remains an acute challenge.

Foreign powers often mask state operations behind criminal proxies or employ commercial cyber gangs for side operations.

"Just how difficult attribution in criminal operations is, and how few organizations can repeatably do it right," remains the primary vulnerability in privatized offensive action, noted Nick Carr, threat intelligence lead at Microsoft.

The shift brings American policy into closer alignment with adversary nations such as Russia and China, which have long utilized commercial contractor ecosystems to execute state-aligned offensive cyber objectives.

"Now it seems the U.S. is interested in copying China’s system for deputizing private-sector hackers," said Dakota Cary, a cybersecurity adviser at SentinelOne.

Legal Exposure

Former defense leadership noted that the existing military mechanisms for managing cyber campaigns are inherently strained.

"The current pace of cyberoperations is unsustainable for just the military," said Mieke Eoyang, a former Pentagon cyber official.

Corporate legal advisors, however, caution that participating businesses face unprecedented legal liability, disclosure requirements, and exposure to foreign retaliation if their commercial systems engage in government-sanctioned digital strikes.

https://clashreport.com/world/articles/trump-authorizes-us-companies-to-launch-cyberattacks-against-hackers-24s5glg44qq

Sources:

The New York Times