The Weekend

September 20, 2026; 7am: Iranian-backed Houthi rebels say they fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Riyadh and Saudi oil facilities, landing the first strikes on the Saudi capital in months. This comes on the heels of President Trump telling Axios he faces a big decision on Iran, "Do I want to go in and annihilate them, or do I not?" Axios says the president was referring to the Iranian regime. This question comes just days before he meets with Gulf leaders, including Saudi Arabia, at the UN General ­Assembly. The State Department is reportedly granting Iran's leaders travel documents to attend UNGA, even as the U.S. and Iran remain officially at war. Richard Haass, President Emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations, joins “The Weekend” to discuss.

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September 19, 2026, 9 AM; As the Wall Street Journal points out, mortgage rates are apprroaching 7%, gas prices are near their highest level since 2022, and the Federal Reserve just raised interest rates for the first time in three years. For millions of Americans, keeping up with everyday expenses is getting harder. While this is screaming trouble for Republicans in the polls, the Trump administration has done very little to address the issues voters care about. Rep. Melanie Stansbury joins The Weekend to discuss current state of the economy. 

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September 19, 2026, 8 AM; This week, Open-AI disclosed six new instances in which artificial intelligence systems hid mistakes, made up data and moved files onto the open internet without permission. In one case, during the development of a specific A.I. model, the system wrote hidden notes to remind itself to hide errors from users. Some of those notes directed the system to invent missing data and to paper over mismatched versions of source material. A new Politico poll finds that 63 % of Americans say the technology poses at least a moderate risk of *destroying humanity*. With the midterms quickly approaching, Democrats are calling for a more robust response to deal with the complicated task of A.I. regulation. Top candidates on the ballot this year such as Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia are pressing for sweeping action in Washington. New York State Assemblyman Alex Bores joins The Weekend to discuss A.I. regulations.

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September 19, 2026; 7am: As early in-person voting for the November midterms gets underway, there are new signs that President Trump and his economy are dragging down his party's chances of keeping the majority in both chambers of Congress. Two new polls from The New York Times and Fox News show that voters trust Democrats more than Republicans on the economy. And this week, MS NOW added Kansas and South Carolina, two states that previously looked safely Republican, to its list of Senate races to watch. Mike Allen, co-founder of Axios, and Dana Milbank, columnist for The Washington Sun, join “The Weekend” to discuss. 

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September 13, 2026; 9am: New alarms are being raised about what could happen after all the results are counted on Election Night in November. Retired Judge J. Michael Luttig, who served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, joins “The Weekend” to discuss what he is calling the final battle for America's democracy.

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September 13, 2026, 8 AM; In a 3,800-page essay released Saturday, Dario Amodei the chief executive at the AI research company Anthropic warned. "We really do earnestly believe AI could kill all humans! I personally think it is greater than 10% within the next decade." Sam Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI, and Elon Musk even took to social media, agreeing that the pace of AI growth needs to slow down. Rep. Suhas Subramanyam joins The Weekend to discuss the recent warnings from tech leaders about AI.

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September 13, 2026; 7am: President Trump is wrapping up his two-day trip to Ireland with an appearance at the Irish Open at his golf course. Thousands of Irish citizens took to the streets in protest yesterday, making clear their opposition to Trump's agenda and anger at the Irish government for welcoming him to their country. MS Now’s International Reporter Ines De La Cuetara joins “The Weekend” from Dublin with the latest.

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September 12, 2026, 9 AM; That was his message to Republicans in Dallas this week as he closed out a two day, so-called Trump-a-palooza convention that was ostenibly supposed to gin up enthusiasm for Republican candidates. One of the realities Republicans now have to live with is Trump's promise of a payment to Americans if Republicans hold Congress. Those government checks have not been authorized by Congress and Trump hasn't explained where the money would come from. Rep. Madeleine Dean and Gina Hinojosa join The Weekend to discuss the latest on the GOP's strategy and Democrats momentum for the midterms.

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September 12, 2026, 8 AM; The captured island is a key alternative shipping route for Saudi oil. It comes after Saudi Arabia said it shut down its crucial East-West oil pipeline on Friday as a "precaution" from being targeted by drones launched in Iraq. Despite having knowledge of the sobering information, Vice President J.D. Vance along with President Donald Trump and other top White House officials are still choosing to downplay the war. This week the President even said he expects the war will end after the midterms. Adm. John Kirby and Alex Ward join The Weekend to discuss the current state of affairs surrounding the war.

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September 12, 2026; 7am: As Republicans attended the ‘Trumpapalooza’ midterm convention in Dallas, Democrats provided a counter message to voters. Illinois Governor JB Pritzker was among those calling out President Trump's historic unpopularity and voters' growing dissatisfaction with the war in Iran and high prices. The Weekend’s Eugene Daniels spoke exclusively with Governor Pritzker about what Democrats need to do to succeed in November and how he plans to protect the right to vote in his state.

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