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This week on ‘Sunday Morning’ (July 12)

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.  “Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

Guest host: Tracy Smith

COVER STORY: How white supremacists staged the only successful coup in U.S. history
In 1898, Wilmington, N.C., was a prosperous integrated city, where Black and white North Carolinians shared political power and leadership positions. But white supremacists took back control of the city’s multi-racial government at gunpoint, and launched a wave of violence that killed scores of Black residents. That little-known history is the subject of The New Yorker journalist Lauren Collins’ new book, “They Stole a City.” She talks with Lee Cowan about her hometown’s darkest chapter – the only successful coup in our nation’s history.

READ AN EXCERPT: “They Stole a City” by Lauren Collins

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ALMANAC: July 12
“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

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CBS News

SUNDAY BEST: The universal nostalgia for “Take Me Home, Country Roads”
“Take Me Home, Country Roads,” a song about a longing for home (co-written by a songwriter who had never even been in West Virginia), has been embraced by the Mountain State in a big way, and has since been appropriated by singers around the world looking for their very own “place I belong.” Correspondent Conor Knighton looks into the genesis and global impact of John Denver’s first big hit; and with country star Brad Paisley about the special pull the song has for him. (Originally broadcast Dec. 26, 2021.)

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The Park Avenue Armory installation of Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s “Clinamen,” in New York City. 

CBS News

ARTS: Grace notes: Art as a reverie of gentle sounds
French artist and composer Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s “Clinamen,” at the Park Avenue Armory in New York City, is a mesmerizing installation in which porcelain bowls floating in giant basins of water collide, producing chiming sounds that reverberate in the 55,000-square-foot hall, to foster a state of grace. Tracy Smith reports.

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Correspondent Tracy Smith with singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams. 

CBS News

MUSIC: Gracie Abrams: Now center stage
At 26, singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams has won praise from critics and fans for her intimate songs – whispered words that become anthems, and which the shy girl-turned-superstar now performs to sold-out stadiums. Correspondent Tracy Smith talks with Abrams about how she worked up the nerve to post her early songs online. She also discusses being the opening act for Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift, and recording her latest album, “Daughter From Hell.”

To hear Gracie Abrams perform “Hit the Wall,” click on the video player below:

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PASSAGE: In memoriam
“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.

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In the Bravìo delle Botti, teams race while rolling 200-lb. wine barrels up the streets of a medieval Italian city. 

CBS News

WORLD: Training for a Tuscan tradition: The wine barrel race
Every August, the medieval Italian town of Montepulciano becomes the backdrop of intense rivalries among neighborhood teams competing in the Bravìo delle Botti – the wine barrel race. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with locals training for the grueling competition: to roll 200-lb. wine barrels uphill through the medieval city’s streets.

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HARTMAN: It takes a village
     

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Filming the HBO Max medical drama “The PItt.” 

CBS News

SUNDAY BEST: Behind the scenes of “The Pitt”
The Emmy-winning HBO Max drama “The Pitt” immerses viewers in the hour-by-hour struggles faced by the overworked-yet-superhuman emergency room staff at the fictional Pittsburgh Trauma Medical Center. CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook visits the series’ hyper-realistic set at Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, Calif. (where cast members undergo a two-week medical boot camp), and talks with star, writer, director and executive producer Noah Wylie about why the former “ER” actor returned to the medical drama genre. (The series just received 25 Emmy nominations, including Outstanding Drama Series, the most of any program.) [Originally broadcast Jan. 4, 2026.]

Extended interview: Noah Wyle

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EXTENDED INTERVIEW: Noah Wyle (Video)
In this web exclusive, CBS News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jon LaPook talks with Noah Wyle, the star of “ER” and the HBO Max series “The Pitt,” about how his new show depicts the fragility of the medical system, and about his character, Dr. Michael “Robby” Robinavitch.

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Commission Of Fine Arts Meets To Hear Proposal For President Trump's D.C. Arch
An image and model of President Donald Trump’s proposed triumphal arch are displayed during a public meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts, at the National Building Museum on April 16, 2026 in Washington, D.C. 

Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

HEADLINES: Trump’s monumental reimagining of Washington, D.C.
President Trump has triggered a firestorm of lawsuits over his plans to remake Washington, D.C. – from constructing a 250-foot arch that would dwarf the nearby Lincoln Memorial, to demolishing the East Wing of the White House for a ballroom. CBS News chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes looks at the president’s efforts to remake our nation’s capital, and opponents fighting to preserve it. 

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NATURE: Cape May, N.J.
      

WEB EXCLUSIVES:

Notable Deaths in 2026

Notable Deaths in 2026

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GALLERY: Notable deaths in 2026
A look back at the esteemed personalities who’ve left us this year, who’d touched us with their innovation, creativity and humanity.

Summer music highlights of 2026

Summer music highlights of 2026

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GALLERY: Summer music highlights of 2026
Summer is the time to enjoy live music, indoors and out. Scroll through our gallery of some of 2026’s leading musical acts, featuring images by CBS News photojournalist Jake Barlow and photographers Ed Spinelli and Kirstine Walton.

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.

“Sunday Morning”: About us

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“Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

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You can also download the free “Sunday Morning” audio podcast at iTunes and at Play.it. Now you’ll never miss the trumpet!

Do you have sun art you wish to share with us? Email your suns to SundayMorningSuns@cbsnews.com. 

AI isn’t the biggest cybersecurity problem. People are

By CNN
(CNN) — Cases of AI escaping the lab, infiltrating other companies and trying to deceive people have all made headlines in recent weeks. And in one case, AI models even worked together to break free from their test environments.Does this mean the machines are taking over? Not quite.AI isn’t the mastermind behind today’s most widespread cyber threats; it’s people who can use AI nefariously – and for nefarious purposes. AI has given bad actors massive power, allowing them to create malicious software, research targets, create convincing schemes and automate attacks at an unprecedented pace.One in four data breaches were driven by AI from February 2025 to March 2026, according to an IBM report. And Americans lost more than $893 million to AI-related scams last year, the FBI says.But experts say real-world threat actors – that is, people – are still the ones pulling the strings. AI agents have only perpetuated existing attack methods, like phishing and malware scams, rather than creating wholly new ones.“It’s the humans that we need to watch out for,” said Oren Etzioni, professor emeritus at the University of Washington and former CEO of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. “AI is just the tool.”AI going rogueSome recent incidents have shown what AI is capable of in the real world, not just in theory, igniting fears about whether the technology is advancing too quickly.In July, OpenAI test models escaped their constraints and hacked into other companies’ systems during an internal evaluation.Days later, Anthropic said it discovered its AI models had breached three companies during testing.In a separate test, Anthropic’s most advanced model used fake identities to try to deceive real people, researchers at Britain’s AI Security Institute said Tuesday.One of Meta’s AI models also broke into an external company, the social media giant said Wednesday.Those breaches also show how unpredictable AI can be when interpreting instructions. OpenAI’s models, for example, were trying to pass a cybersecurity test when they broke out of their test environment and breached another company, even though they weren’t told to do so.Patrick Fussell, global head of adversary simulation at IBM, compared AI to a genie.“You want to ask it a wish, but you have to be very, very specific about the details of your wish,” he told CNN. “Or it could sort of go awry.”But these instances also happened under very specific circumstances.OpenAI turned off restrictions that would have prevented its model from “pursuing high risk cyber activity.” Anthropic ran its tests without the standard safety safeguards in models that are generally available to the public. The AI Security Institute also turned off certain tools that could have “reduced the scope” of what the models were capable of.Researchers typically do this to fully evaluate a model’s capabilities.“I couldn’t go into ChatGPT or Claude or something like that, and it accidentally breaks into the FBI. That’s not going to happen,” said Adam Meyers, head of counter adversary operations at cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike. “So what we’re seeing is these are done in specific test conditions where they’re monitoring to see, ‘Does this thing do something that it’s not expected to do?”How hackers are using AIAI isn’t acting autonomously to come up with new attacks, experts say. Instead, it’s helping cyber criminals implement existing techniques much faster while being more efficient and effective.That can include things like using AI to analyze a company’s website to figure out who to target or deploying an AI agent to handle initial negotiation talks with a cyber extortion victim. AI agents can mimic human conversations through both text and even specific voices. Hackers with little expertise can now leverage AI to pull off advanced schemes.“They’re using (AI) to enhance the cyberattack methodology, essentially, in all the different stages, but it’s still kind of being run by the human,” said Jud Dressler, head of the risk operations center at cyber insurance firm Resilience.Bad actors used to hastily scrap together basic scripts – instructions for automating tasks – to achieve their goals, according to Meyers. But now they’re able to churn out higher quality work that looks like it would have taken three times as long to produce.They’re also using AI for behind-the-scenes work like generating the infrastructure needed to put up malicious websites.“With AI, they could automate that buildout, and so the cost of rebuilding became very small and that changes the game,” said Rob Lefferts, corporate vice president of threat protection at Microsoft.The bigger threatFor Etzioni, the recent incidents are a “canary in the coal mine” moment for AI and cybersecurity. And he’s not alone; Nobel prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, known popularly as the “godfather of AI,” recently warned that more rogue AI attacks are likely to come.The rogue AI reports underscore the importance of implementing strong cybersecurity practices, such as patching vulnerabilities, monitoring AI agents in the workplace and being wary of social engineering and phishing scams, experts say.But as advanced as AI is becoming, it’s still a program being orchestrated by a human. And those humans are the bigger concern because they’re the ones making the decisions, like conducting espionage or scamming users out of huge sums of cash, says Meyers.Tech giants are racing to make AI as intelligent as humans, a theoretical milestone known as “artificial general intelligence.” The recent incidents, however, have heightened calls for a slowdown.More than 1,200 workers at top AI companies, including Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, recently signed an open letter calling for the government to help pace AI development. The White House met with major AI companies last week to discuss a framework that would allow the government to review certain AI models before they’re released.Cybersecurity researchers have likely considered the threats of AGI because those in the field tend to be paranoid, said IBM’s Fussell. But we’re still far from a reality in which AI agents are as smart as humans, he says.“It’s like asking someone, ‘What would it be like to live on a different planet?’” he said. “You can sort of imagine, but it’s so beyond our ability to really make a plan for.”The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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