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This week on ‘Sunday Morning’ (July 26)

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: Mo Rocca

     
COVER STORY: Home, not alone: Helping aging seniors in rural America
According to the USDA, the number of counties where at least 20% of residents are over the age of 65 has nearly tripled since 2010 – and it’s in those older, more rural populations where the health risks associated with loneliness and social isolation are more common. Correspondent Lee Cowan goes to North Dakota, where the program Aging in Community, aimed at building connections among neighbors, takes a grassroots approach to helping rural seniors.

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ALMANAC: July 26
“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

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An installation view of “Derrick Adams: View Master,” at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. 

Photo by Mel Taing; Courtesy of Derrick Adams/ICA Boston

ARTS: Artist Derrick Adams’ depictions of Black joy
At 56, Derrick Adams is widely regarded as one of the most important artists of his generation, known for capturing the Black experience in vibrant, kaleidoscopic colors. Correspondent Nancy Giles talks with the artist about leaving his mark with his depictions of joyous scenes of everyday life. She also visits the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, home to a mid-career retrospective of Adams’ art.

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Tadeusz Kosciuszko (1746-1817), Polish soldier and patriot.
An engraving of Polish soldier and engineer Tadeusz Kosciuszko. 

Ann Ronan Pictures/Print Collector/Getty Images

THESE UNITED STATES: Revolutionary War hero Thaddeus Kosciuszko
Polish-born Thaddeus Kosciuszko (1746-1817) was a military engineer who became key to Gen. George Washington’s success against the British. Mo Rocca looks at the immigrant hero whose contributions to the Revolutionary War helped secure independence for America.

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Singer-songwriter Corinne Bailey Rae with correspondent Seth Doane.

CBS News

MUSIC: Corrine Bailey Rae on the sadness of loss and the beauty of life
Twenty years after her single “Put Your Records On” made her an international star, two-time Grammy-winner Corrine Bailey Rae is embarking on a tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of her breakout debut album. The British singer-songwriter talks with correspondent Seth Doane about the inspiration of Billie Holiday and Kurt Cobain; grieving the death of her first husband; and of rebirth – a life after loss.

You can stream the 2006 album “Corrine Bailey Rae” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):

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

     
HEADLINES: Food safety
David Pogue reports.

     
SCIENCE: How plants feel
Science shows us that, even though plants don’t have brains, they seem to have a nervous system that responds to touch in remarkable ways. Robert Krulwich and puppeteer Barnaby Dixon explore the science of thigmomorphogenesis (the phenomenon of plants reacting to outside stimulae), a discussion that plants the seeds for a song.

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Modeling shots of Lauren Hutton taken by Richard Avedon. 

CBS News

SUNDAY PROFILE: The adventures of Lauren Hutton, the original supermodel
She didn’t set out to be a model, or an actress, and several agencies rejected the gap-toothed Lauren Hutton, before Eileen Ford gave her a shot. As the face of Revlon, Hutton became the highest-paid model in history, and still holds the record for most cover appearances on American Vogue. She talks with Anthony Mason about her adventurous life of no regrets – from living among the bushmen of the Kalahari, to a near-fatal motorcycle accident in 2000. Even of the low points she says, “I’d do it again in a second.” (Originally broadcast Jan. 25, 2026.)

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  • Thanks to the Rauschenberg Foundation, New York City
  • Photographs by Richard Avedon © The Richard Avedon Foundation
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Collecting the results of “worm grunting.” 

CBS News

U.S.: The “magic” of worm grunting
If you are looking for live fishing bait, you could dig up some worms – or, you could use a bizarre trick involving vibrations to conjure earthworms out of the soil. Correspondent Conor Knighton looks into a little-understood process known as “worm grunting.” He also visits Sopchoppy, Florida, the self-described “Worm Capital of the World,” to attend the Worm Gruntin’ Festival – a big party celebrating the town’s favorite invertebrate. (Originally aired June 15, 2025.)

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NATURE: Sharks

      

WEB EXCLUSIVES:

From the archives: Legendary late-night producer Peter Lassally

08:56

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Legendary late-night producer Peter Lassally (Video)
Peter Lassally, the fabled TV executive for such late-night hosts as Johnny Carson and David Letterman, and a mentor for many rising comedians, died July 19, 2026 at age 93. In this March 11, 2018 “Sunday Morning” profile, correspondent Mo Rocca talked with Lassally (affectionately dubbed “The Host Whisperer”) about working with the kings of late-night. Lassally also talks about his childhood, part of which was spent in Nazi concentration camps, and also about whether he has had joy in his life.   

Notable Deaths in 2026

Notable Deaths in 2026

45 photos

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

85 photos

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.

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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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Follow us on Twitter/X; Facebook; Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; Bluesky; and at cbssundaymorning.com.  

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. 

The world’s oldest president left for a ‘brief stay’ in Europe. He hasn’t returned in two months

By CNN
(CNN) — When Paul Biya won his first presidential election in Cameroon in 1984, Nformi Bime was 23 and still a student.Bime is now 65 and retired from teaching. Biya is 93 – and still president. Last year, he won a disputed eighth term that could keep him in office until he is nearly 100.“The best is yet to come,” Biya said before the election, which his opponents called fraudulent and was marred by deadly clashes between protesters and police.For the past two months, however, the man who has ruled Cameroon since 1982, when as prime minister he assumed power following the resignation of the sitting president, has been thousands of miles away. He left on June 7 for what his office called a “brief private stay in Europe” — now his longest uninterrupted absence from the Central African nation in years.Last week, government spokesman René Emmanuel Sadi told French radio RFI that Biya was in Geneva, Switzerland and was not hospitalized, but did not give more detail on his whereabouts.A president who is rarely seenBiya is Cameroon’s second president since independence in 1960 and one of the world’s longest-serving leaders. He first won office in 1984 under a one-party system, then won six more elections after multiparty politics was introduced.He has spent extended periods abroad during his presidency. But his latest absence has revived questions about his health and who is running the country while he is away.Rumors about Biya’s health and whereabouts have long been part of public life in Cameroon, where he is rarely seen in public. His office has repeatedly had to push back against speculation that he was seriously ill or had died. In 2024, the government banned media discussions about his health, calling them a national security matter.Biya’s long rule also reflects a wider contrast across Africa. The continent has the world’s youngest population, but several countries are still led by aging leaders whose political careers began decades ago, including former liberation figures now governing in a different era.For millions of Cameroonians, Biya is the only president they have ever known.Bime’s children are among them. His oldest is 32, and his youngest is 18.Abit Riassai Acha, a 26-year-old doctoral student and community youth leader at the University of Yaoundé II, belongs to the same generation.“Growing up, President Biya was the only president I knew, so his presidency has been part of my entire experience of Cameroon,” said Acha, who voted for the first time in last year’s presidential election, backing the youthful opposition candidate Samuel Hiram Iyodi, 38.After more than four decades under the same president, questions about his leadership have only grown.“Because this has happened repeatedly over the years, many Cameroonians have become used to it,” Acha said of Biya’s long absences. “But becoming accustomed to something does not necessarily mean that people should stop asking questions about how the country is being governed.”Iyodi, who finished eighth in last year’s presidential election, which several candidates, including one of Biya’s main challengers, were barred from contesting, has called on parliament to ask Cameroon’s Constitutional Council to consider whether Biya’s absence amounts to a vacancy in the presidency. But such a move is unlikely to succeed, given the dominance of Biya’s ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement.Despite being away, Biya has continued to make key decisions from abroad, including a major military reshuffle announced earlier this month. Yet questions about his prolonged stay overseas have left officials publicly assuring Cameroonians that their president is still alive.Government spokesman Sadi dismissed concerns about a power vacuum, telling RFI that “President Paul Biya is alive” and “will soon return.”From hope to frustrationBime is old enough to remember when Biya was the change. He first heard Biya’s name in the 1970s, when he served as secretary-general of the presidency under Cameroon’s first president after independence, Ahmadou Ahidjo. After Ahidjo resigned in 1982, Biya took over.When Biya first appeared on the ballot two years later, Bime saw him as a “representation of hope,” he said. “We believed he was young and dynamic – handsome too. He meant so much to Cameroonians.”Few imagined that the man they saw as a new beginning would remain in power for decades. For his critics, the disappointment is not just about how long Biya has stayed in office, but what they see as his failure to improve the lives of ordinary Cameroonians.Political analyst Collins Molua Ikome, a Cameroonian based in Germany, said he saw some of the country’s problems firsthand when he visited Cameroon in April.“Roads in Cameroon are extremely bad. I even witnessed a fatal accident,” he told CNN.Ikome also pointed to frequent power cuts, corruption and a lack of jobs for young people.Wilson Tamfuh, a public and international law professor at the University of Dschang in West Cameroon, said the country has institutions that can keep the government running when the president delegates responsibilities. Key duties, he said, can be handled by the prime minister, the secretary-general at the presidency and ministers.But the bigger question, Tamfuh said, is whether the government is solving the country’s longstanding problems.“People want the Anglophone crisis resolved, standards of living ameliorated, more good roads, fewer people on the streets with degrees, and more,” he told CNN, referring to the years-long separatist conflict in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions.Whenever Biya eventually leaves office, his successor will inherit a country also facing attacks by Boko Haram militants in the north and deep economic frustration among young people.Healthcare is another concern. Ikome said access to quality healthcare remains out of reach for many Cameroonians.“Life expectancy in the country is below 70 years. However, Biya has far outlived that due to access to medical healthcare abroad, which the ordinary Cameroonian cannot access due to poverty,” Ikome said.The divide is not unique to Cameroon. Across Africa, political elites have often sought healthcare or maintained homes abroad, even as public services at home struggle.For Bime, the question is more personal: Will he live to see another president?After decades of waiting for change, he worries he may not – and that Biya could outlive him and many others who are not part of the country’s elite.“Anytime they have a cold, they run overseas and are taken care of, but the other Cameroonians are dying because of lack of care,” he said.The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
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