News Skyward Brandon Sanderson’s Sci-Fi Novel Skyward Being Adapted Into a TV Series The Cytoverse is coming to television By Matthew Byrd | Published on May 20, 2026 Image: Charlie Bowater (artist) Comment 0 Share New Share Image: Charlie Bowater (artist) Brandon Sanderson’s Cytoverse will make the leap to television as Deadline reports that the author’s hit sci-fi novel Skyward is being adapted into a TV series. Sanderson will reportedly write the pilot for the just-announced series alongside Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen (who previously served as the showrunners for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). The show will be produced by Tomorrow Studios, who you may know as the studio behind Netflix’s hit One Piece live-action series. Tomorrow Studios’ CEO Marty Adelstein had this to say about the project. “Brandon has created a thrilling universe where courage, curiosity and determination to challenge what we think can change the fate of entire worlds. The vision that he, Jed and Maurissa have for a television adaptation is ‘defiant to the end’.” Skyward stars a teenage girl named Spensa who lives on the ruined world of Detritus with a band of shipwrecked survivors. Spensa dreams of becoming a pilot in the society’s defense force but must overcome her family’s tarnished legacy in order to be accepted into the academy. As noted above, Skyward is the first entry in the Cytoverse: a series of stories that exist in an imagined version of our own future in which various individuals across many species have access to powerful psionic abilities known as Cytonics. So far, the Cytoverse consists of the Skyward series and the short story Defending Elysium. There’s no word on any plans to adapt the subsequent books in that series or Defending Elysium at this time. It’s a busy time for Brandon Sanderson, to say the least. As we previously reported, the author recently signed a massive deal with Apple TV to write and produce shows and movies based on The Stormlight Archive and Mistborn series. At present, the plan is for The Stormlight Archive to be adapted into a TV series while Mistborn will be turned into feature films. The Skyward adaptation appears to be separate from those other projects, and there has been no indication that this new series will also air on Apple TV at this time. We’ll bring you further information on this story as it becomes available.[end-mark] The post Brandon Sanderson’s Sci-Fi Novel <i>Skyward</i> Being Adapted Into a TV Series appeared first on Reactor.

This past December, whistleblowers came to me, and they started warning about what they believed to be massive Medicaid home health care fraud here in the state of Ohio. They weren’t just talking about a few bad claims. They were actually describing what they believed to be a systemic fraud pipeline right here in Columbus. These whistleblowers told me providers were being pressured to rubber stamp home health care paperwork, and for people who actually didn’t medically need it. They said individuals would come into their office, ask for home health care services. Some appeared to be actually coached on what to say to get those services, with somebody many times who didn’t even speak English, so you had a translator in the office, and they were pushing aggressively for paperwork to be approved. But these providers did the right thing. They conducted physical exams, they evaluated the person that was pushing for home health care services, and when the person didn’t qualify, they flat out denied them. They refused to rubber stamp Medicaid paperwork, which was the right thing to do. The whistleblowers told me much of the pressure that they were seeing was actually coming through individuals and businesses operating within the Somali, Bhutanese, and Nepalese communities here in Ohio. And they said that some of the health care agencies were even going so far as to suggest, and I quote, “I will make this worth your while if you approve the paperwork.” Again, these providers flat out said no. This is not about health care anymore. This is an alleged fraud operation that we uncovered back in December. These whistleblowers actually tried to sound the alarm long before the public even knew anything about this. These whistleblowers went to legislators in the state of Ohio, state office holders. They even went to the attorney general’s office. They repeatedly were ignored at the highest levels in Ohio. And when they went to the AG’s office, they asked a very serious question, “Can you protect us? And can you protect our confidentiality?” Because they specifically said if they said anything about this home health care fraud, they would literally be stoned to death for speaking the truth. They didn’t feel that their concerns were being taken seriously. So in December when they came to me about the potential home health care fraud… I reviewed the information, I investigated it, and I discussed these allegations. I shared the list of potential fraudsters right here in central Ohio with the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, the Ohio Department of Medicaid, and even the Auditor’s Office. And here’s why this matters. Ohio’s own Medicaid reimbursement rates show exactly how home health care fraud actually can open and explode in terms of fraud operations. One elderly or older recipient can actually gain $75,000 to $90,000 a year of personal care billing through high daily hours that are authorized. So a family member can come in and take care of a parent. Two parents, you can push that number to $180,000, and then you add your in laws. In one household, you can start making $250,000 plus for Medicaid billing. This is the financial incentive, this is the vulnerability, and this is what the whistleblowers were trying to warn the state about months and months ago. This could have been stopped a year ago. After I brought this information forward to the Attorney General’s Office, initially, they asked me for the names of my whistleblowers. Now, as an attorney, I said, “No, attorney client privilege.” But I did ask them one simple question, “Can you protect these whistleblowers? Because then a hundred percent, I’ll give you the names.” They told me no, so I refused. The Attorney General’s Office then called me back, and they said they had orders from higher up, we know who that is, that they could subpoena me before a grand jury and that I would be protected, but they needed the names of the whistleblowers. So I asked again, “You subpoena me, you put me in front of a grand jury, great, you’re gonna protect my confidentiality, but what about the whistleblowers, the ones that are actually fearing for their lives? Can you protect them?” They said, “No.” They continued to press me. They actually went so far as to threaten subpoenas, and at one point they even floated the idea of reading off names of everybody who’s been a confidential informant that has come forward to their office. And all I had to do was confirm or deny if that was the individual who were my whistleblowers. And again, I said, “Absolutely not. That’s unethical.” That would actually violate attorney client privilege, and they should know better being attorneys. I was never going to help the state intimidate the very people who actually had the courage to speak up after the state actually failed to listen, especially when these allegations were in the official hands for months. So I told them directly, “You have the information, you failed to take it seriously, and now I’m not going to allow your office to threaten me or betray these whistleblowers who came forward because they believed Ohio was looking the other way.” So I kept investigating. I actually personally went to buildings in Columbus, Ohio, that house dozens of home health care companies. In one building after another, what I saw was empty offices. In fact, one building had 34 to 36 home health care companies, one to two people present, letters sitting under doors from the attorney general’s office unopened. People could not explain how health care operations work. Now federal oversight is confirming just how serious these red flags are. On May 12, the House Oversight Committee actually sent a letter to the Ohio Department of Medicaid announcing an investigation into the widespread waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicaid personal care services authorized through Ohio’s home and community based waiver programs. So this is a home health care program we’ve been flagging for almost a year now. The letter cites reports of providers billing for services never performed, relatives billing Medicaid to care for families, abandoned office buildings packed with Medicaid companies, and estimates that Ohio’s fraud waiver program could exceed $1.2 billion. The committee also noticed one Columbus office reportedly alone housed 288 providers that collectively billed $250 million to Medicaid between 2018 and 2024. And you just have to look at the timeline. Look at what happened in Ohio. You had whistleblowers come forward, then I came forward with allegations to Ohio officials in December. The state failed to act with urgency, and it’s now only when Congress is demanding answers and documentation. There’s no leadership, there’s no accountability until there’s actually a scandal brewing, and it was impossible to ignore, and that’s why the state of Ohio is stepping up. So yes, now the governor has decided he’s announcing a new fraud prevention program, and steps include a proposed moratorium on new home health care, hospice providers, payment suspensions for providers, fraud red flags, and more frequent revalidation of higher risk providers, tighter electronic visit verification controls. But all of that’s fine. Here’s the big problem. This is not enough. A moratorium on new providers doesn’t actually do anything to expose the fraud that’s already happening within the system, that was already reported. GPS tracking does nothing if the person should have never been approved for home health care in the first place. Remember, people have been rubber stamping this. This is why the fraud is occurring. Electronic visit verification also does not do anything if providers were allegedly being pressured to approve services that were never really medically necessary. Ohio needs to go further. The governor’s office and the Department of Medicaid should immediately require full audits and reverification of any high dollar home health care provider and recipient. There’s tons of them. This is an automatic red flag. Conduct unannounced site visits of providers that are clustered at suspicious addresses. That’s something that I can give you and so many others can. Cross check companies for shared office space, related ownership, duplicate billing, shell company patterns, and abnormal billing spikes. Again, these are also red flags that should be immediately accounted for. Review every provider flagged for billing large amounts through family care arrangements. Again, if you have a home health care provider in your home that’s a family member, that’s an issue. Also, we have to strengthen our clinical verification. It should only be for documented, real medical need. And most importantly, Ohio must protect whistleblowers instead of making them feel like they’re the ones that are under investigation, because the scandal here is not just the alleged fraud of billions, it’s the people who tried to warn the state of Ohio, and they were ignored. They were terrified for their lives, that they would allegedly be stoned to death. And when they finally found someone willing to fight for them, the state’s first instinct wasn’t to protect the whistleblowers, it was to get their names. And here’s what makes this even more maddening. This is the same DeWine administration whose office, when it was pressed earlier about these fraud allegations, said, “It’s the cost of doing business.” And they’ve said Ohio has a robust anti fraud measure. That’s unfortunate, and that’s not true, and they didn’t take these allegations seriously. Fraud is not the cost of doing business. Fraud is the cost of government failure. I reached out to Gov. DeWine’s office repeatedly to share the patterns of alleged fraud that were brought to me by the whistleblowers that I have witnessed. To date, nobody from his office has called me back. I even called the governor personally to explain to him how the fraud is actually occurring. I haven’t heard back. Ohio taxpayers really deserve answers. Vulnerable citizens, disabled Ohioans, they deserve a system that protects them and not scammers. And every official who dismissed these warnings should be asking one simple question, how much taxpayer money was lost because you refused to listen? Congress is now investigating, and I have full faith in the team. The receipts are going to be coming out, and this story is far from over. So stay tuned. There’s much more to come on Ohio fraud. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal.

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL— President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order on artificial intelligence safety later this week, but sources familiar with the draft say the directive won’t answer key questions about how to contain potential national security risks posed by new models.  Trump is slated to sign an executive order in the near future giving the Office of the National Cyber Director 60 days to develop a framework on cybersecurity, sources say.  The order will lay out a plan for the government to perform voluntary vetting of AI labs’ pre-deployment models, but it will postpose answering the question of what to do if the vetting process deems the model dangerous, sources say.  There are many differences of opinion within the administration about the proper level of cybersecurity protections, and the substance and timing of the order is subject to change.  A White House official told The Daily Signal that any policy announcement on the subject will come directly from the president. “Discussion about potential executive orders is speculation. The White House continues to proactively engage across government and industry to protect our country and the American people,” the official said. Previously, members of the administration considered a draft executive order requiring government officials to have early access to new AI models before their release, sources say. This approach was popular with 82% of American voters, a YouGov/Institute for Family Studies poll found. Some officials wanted an order that would have required labs to submit AI models for review pre-deployment as a condition for government contracts.  However, at this time, the draft of the executive order only outlines a plan for voluntary government vetting, sources say.  The order will direct agencies to hire more people to help the critical infrastructure sector with cyber preparedness. Currently CAISI, or the Center for AI Safety and Innovation, within the Commerce Department, offers voluntary vetting of pre-deployment models. On May 5, Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and xAI agreed to work with the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, but the Commerce Department has since deleted the details of the arrangement from its webpage.  The order will likely involve in the vetting process the Office of the National Cyber Director, who will be tasked with writing a framework, as well as others in the intelligence community. This comes amid concerns that the National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross lacks the technical skills for the role, Politico reported. Cairncross is an experienced political operative whose past roles include chief operating officer of the Republican National Committee in 2016 and 2024.  “Sean Cairncross is doing excellent work to protect the American people and our nation’s critical infrastructure from cyber threats, working closely with senior administration officials and American companies to advance shared objectives and priorities – including addressing cybersecurity challenges posed by the rapid scaling of artificial intelligence — while continuing President Trump’s commitment to ensuring American technological dominance,” White House spokeswoman Liz Huston said. Huston also cited statements from Jason Kwon, chief strategy officer of OpenAI, and Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, praising Cairncross’ work. She said the Office of the National Cyber Director has been in “constant communication with frontier labs, and any solution will be a compilation of their collaboration.” “While the White House is the primary convening entity for these conversations, this work would not be possible without the expertise and guidance of industry leaders and their teams,” she said. Until recently, the Trump administration has taken a light approach to AI regulation, with officials like former AI czar David Sacks criticizing AI “doomers” who fear severe negative outcomes from the rapidly advancing technology.  In fact, the Trump administration reduced funding for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. The agency’s workforce has been cut by about one-third since Trump’s second term began, Axios first reported.  But White House officials were motivated to implement a more heavy-handed approach to regulation due to increased awareness of the national security risks posed by new models like Anthropic’s Mythos, as well as concerns about possible AI-enabled cyberattacks before the midterms, sources say.  White House chief of staff Susie Wiles posted on X on May 6 that the Trump administration is not “in the business of picking winners and losers” on AI and cybersecurity. “This administration has one goal; ensure the best and safest tech is deployed rapidly to defeat any and all threats,” she said. President Trump is the most forward leaning president on innovation in American history. When it comes to AI and cyber security, President Trump and his administration are not in the business of picking winners and losers. This administration has one goal; ensure the best and…— Susie Wiles (@SusieWiles47) May 7, 2026

We may have witnessed the most MS NOW moment of all time. On Monday, MS NOW host Katy Tur moderated a panel in which she discussed recent, supposedly controversial comments by Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La. “What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government, they come from you, our Creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?” she asked incredulously. I’m just going to pause here and quote from this obscure line in the Declaration of Independence. And by obscure, I mean one of the most famous lines in the English language. “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…” maybe Tur never got past that part, “that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” So, the concept that God is “above” the Declaration of Independence is… in the Declaration of Independence. God’s law supersedes man’s law. Governments that deprive citizens of rights endowed by their creator without due process are bad governments and are possibly illegitimate. That’s the whole point of the thing, right? One of Tur’s guests, Atlantic writer McKay Coppins, actually managed to answer her question with a straight face but with an acknowledgement that her audience may remarkably not be familiar with the concept of God-given rights. “You know, I think that idea is not wholly uncommon, the idea that we sort of have unalienable rights that come from God can be read in a fairly benign way,” Coppins responded. “Which is basically that we have innate human rights, that our constitution and our government, our democratic government are meant to codify. Right. That idea is not totally abnormal.” You don’t say. God talk is SO foreign to MS NOW. Katy Tur: What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? They come from you, our creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?McKay Coppins: I… pic.twitter.com/sfpykN5bYc— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) May 18, 2026 Somehow this isn’t even the first time an MS NOW host or guest has expressed shock at the concept of rights being endowed by a creator. In 2024, the now former Politico journalist Heidi Przybyla went on the network and said that the only people who believe in “God-given rights” that don’t come from the government are “Christian Nationalists,” whom she distinguished from other “Christians.” At least Przybyla later sort of apologized for these remarks, calling them “clumsy.” Saying that rights come from our creator should be one of the most noncontroversial statements an American could make, a concept universally understood by anyone with a basic understanding of our history. Unfortunately, it’s not as universal as it once was. Johnson weighed in on Tur’s comments, saying in an interview with Townhall editor Larry O’Connor that it was “stunning” she didn’t know the concept of God-given rights was in the Declaration. The speaker of the House said that it was incredible that “someone who is in the mainstream media, on TV every night espousing her views … does not understand the birth document of the country.” BOOM: @SpeakerJohnson TAKES DOWN Katy Tur…"This is the MSNBC clip to end all MSNBC clips!""To someone who in IN the mainstream media, on TV every night, espousing your views who does NOT understand the birth document of the country…it's incredible!"@LarryOConnor: "You… https://t.co/qbXdKox0Nl pic.twitter.com/JUeCSaaiUU— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 20, 2026 It is stunning, but it is not surprising in my mind. There is now a significant bubble of America’s college-educated elites who’ve somehow spent decades speaking in the public arena who’ve never come across an idea that was once wholly elementary. They’ve absorbed completely the idea that rights surely come from government to the point that they don’t even know how wildly out of step that notion is with the entire American political project. It’s not hard to see why there is such a wide philosophical chasm in this country, why politics now seem so existential. We aren’t just battling over a few strongly held ideas. At this point we aren’t even speaking the same political language. Of course, the concept of God-given rights was essential to the Founders’ justification for the American Revolution. The Framers designed our government not so that it would give rights, but so that it could protect them as best as could be done in the imperfect world we live in. Members of our most prestigious media institutions apparently don’t even know that their constitutionally protected right to free speech comes from the idea that it is inalienable, endowed by our Creator. But if the standard for free speech is simply a matter of who has the most governmental or institutional power then I find it doubtful that anyone will have freedom of any kind at the end of our country’s next 250 years of existence, or that we’ll even have a country. The folks at MS NOW don’t seem to grasp this, and it’s not looking promising that they ever will.

After the Department of Justice unveiled charges against Raul Castro, the former socialist leader of Cuba, Congress is divided between those eager to see the regime forcefully toppled and those who think America has its hands full with Iran. On Tuesday, it was revealed that a Florida grand jury has indicted Castro and five others in connection with the fatal downing of two American planes in 1996 that resulted in the deaths of three Americans delivering aid to Cuba. The charges come amid a U.S. blockade of shipments to the island. Castro, whose brother Fidel led the nation from 1959 to 2008, has been charged with murder. Although Raul Castro, 94, left the government in 2021, he and his family members continue to be influential in Cuba. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said of the steps to make Castro face justice, “This isn’t a show indictment. … There was a warrant issued for his arrest, so we expect that he will show up here by his own will or by another way.” For Florida Republicans who represent anti-Castro Cuban-Americans, the charges and their implications for the regime’s survival are cause for celebration. “Today is a glorious day. After six decades of tragedy, of misery, of distress, Cubans will be free soon,” Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, R-Fla., said Tuesday morning. “There are no words to describe the joy they feel—not only the Cubans on the island, but the Cubans that we represent in South Florida.” Today is a glorious day.Not only for the Cubans on the island, but for every Cuban in exile, for every family torn apart, for every neighbor, every friend, every loved one who spent their life waiting to go home.For 67 years, a group of gangsters seized a nation and turned it… pic.twitter.com/oYAsPm3ZId— Rep. María Elvira Salazar (@RepMariaSalazar) May 20, 2026 Salazar, who represents a Miami district, was joined by fellow Florida Republican Reps. Carlos Gimenez and Mario Diaz-Balart. Comparing Castro to the toppled leaders of Venezuela and Iran, Salazar spoke of a new future for the island. “A friendly Cuba, a prosperous Cuba, will help with the United States economy, with politics, with immigration. And that is what this country needs—friends in this Western Hemisphere,” she said. “Today marks the moment when 60 years of destruction will come to an end.” The prosecution of Castro is reminiscent of the prosecution of former Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on drug trafficking charges, which the administration used as justification for the capture of the head of state. .@SecRubio is absolutely right. As we’ve seen for decades, communism only leads to misery, oppression and suffering.For decades, the illegitimate communist Cuban regime has deprived the Cuban people of their God-given rights and left the island in ruins. Under @POTUS’… https://t.co/G7rRess9D9— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) May 20, 2026 Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told the Daily Signal he’d like to see regime change in Cuba, but that this would not necessarily have to involve military action, as scarcity induced by a blockade could trigger an uprising. He did not, however, rule out force. “Castro controls all the money. … Now the money’s drying up because of what [President Donald] Trump has done,” he said. “But if you look at the people of Cuba, they’re willing to fight for their freedom. … Hopefully now they’re seeing that America will stand up for them, they’ll do it on their own.”  But Scott added, “We should not take anything off the table. I mean, the same thing that happened to Maduro should happen to Raul Castro. But I’m not going to get ahead of whatever the Trump administration wants to do.” Moreover, Florida Republicans view ending the Cuban dictatorship as a good start at bringing freedom to the Western Hemisphere. Both Salazar and Gimenez mentioned Nicaragua as another nation in need of liberation from dictatorship. But some in Congress outside of the South Florida Cuban milieu are not so eager to aggravate another regime as the United States continues to navigate a difficult economic and strategic situation after conflict with Iran. “We can’t have another war there,” Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., told the Daily Signal of Cuba. Khanna has spearheaded multiple efforts to restrain Trump’s war powers. “You’ve had a war in Venezuela, a war in Iran. Let’s focus on jobs here.” He added that he supports efforts from “a number of leaders” in Congress ready to counter a potential military operation against Cuba. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the House Armed Services Committee, urged the administration to cool its jets on the Cuba issue. “We got our hands in enough areas that we ought to be very cautious about overextending ourselves,” he told the Daily Signal.  Florida AG James Uthmeier: "Let me be crystal clear. There can be no future for a free Cuba so long as the Castros and their criminal gang of thugs remain in power." pic.twitter.com/CrrxsR7vsg— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 20, 2026 “I’m a little weary about anything we’re doing in Cuba right now, even though Cuba’s a bad country. But after Venezuela [and] Iran, I just think let’s have a little bit of self-control,” said Bacon, who confessed he had not studied up on the latest Cuba developments and would have to “chew on it.” Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, expressed his support for an economic approach to inducing regime change in Cuba, rather than a military one. “Fidel was a murderer and they tried to make him some folk hero, and his little brother ain’t no better,” Burchett told the Daily Signal.  “One thing we can do is economics and quit worrying about bringing in our military. … But that doesn’t seem to have worked for the last few years—for them anyway. I think it’s an option. I think we put international pressure on them.” Democrats in the Senate could set up a political battle over a potential use of force against Cuba, as Sens. Tim Kaine of Virginia, Ruben Gallego of Illinois, and Adam Schiff of California have introduced a war powers resolution to prevent military action. Scott reacted with rancor when asked about the resolution. “I’m disgusted by what the Democrats have done,” he said. “I don’t get the Democrats. Don’t they want to live in freedom and democracy? Don’t they want people in Cuba and Iran … to have the same opportunities you and I have?” The White House told The Daily Signal to direct a request for comment to the Department of Justice, which did not immediately respond. Related PostsRaúl Castro’s Indictment and Cuba’s FutureCubans are no different from anyone else on this earth; God has endowed them with rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of property. For the past 67 years, a pitiless regime, run mostly by one family, has deprived them of these rights, and when they have raised their voices, the regime’s henchmen have thrown…Cuba’s Freedom Is an ‘America First’ CauseMiami-Dade County is home to one of the largest Cuban American communities in the U.S., but this May 20, most Americans will not realize they are observing what was once Cuba’s Independence Day. That matters because Cuba’s story has, over time, become an important part of America’s story. Long before the communist revolution of 1959,…‘Justice Has No Expiration Date’: Raúl Castro Indicted in USThe Department of Justice on Wednesday announced murder charges against former Cuban President and longtime Defense Minister Raúl Castro, 94. Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche stated during a press conference in Miami on Wednesday that a federal grand jury charged Castro and five co-defendants with conspiracy to kill U.S. nationals, destruction of aircraft, and four counts of…

Texas Opie Leading Both Cornyn and Paxton

Mamdani is a Socialist Demagogue Relying on People's Ignorance

The liberal crew on CBS Mornings faced the awkward task Wednesday of promoting billionaire media mogul and comedian Byron Allen paying CBS to air archival and supposedly new material from his show Comics Unleashed — which marks 20 years in 2026 — starting Friday in place of the cancelled Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Notably, Allen emphasized the show will not feature politics but instead “appeal to all” and “bring people together using comedy.” “[T]he show is comedians discussing funny things that happen. And are you going to talk politics, or is it all about comedy,” wondered Saturday co-host Adriana Diaz. Allen had an emphatic reply: “No, no, no, no politics. That’s it. You come, you laugh. You know...we’re about to have our 20th anniversary this fall...of Comics Unleashed, 20 years of laughter. We’ve had on a thousand comedians, every — every state, shape, size, you name it.” When Diaz said that means “you want to bring people together,” Allen added: “And I want to bring people together using comedy. I’m going to appeal to all.” Moments earlier, Diaz brought up Allen’s position of taking Colbert’s slot and wondered “how” it “sit[s] with you” after CBS suits pulled the plug: “[Y]ou just mentioned that you’ve written jokes for David Letterman and you know the public criticism from Letterman, from Kimmel, from others about CBS canceling Colbert. How does that sit with you as the person who’s taking on this time slot?” Byron Allen on his deal to air ‘Comics Unleashed’ episodes on CBS after Colbert’s cancellation... “I think it was a very unfortunate event. I love Stephen Colbert. I’m a big fan. Once they made the decision, I said, okay, this isn’t show business. This is business show. You… pic.twitter.com/8QWqi4ukQX — Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 20, 2026 Allen insisted he thought “it was a very unfortunate event” because “I love Stephen Colbert” and “I’m a big fan,” but also knew “this isn’t show business,” but “business show” given CBS has been “losing lots of money.” “I said, here’s a solution not to lose lots of money. And I think we can hold on to his audience and hopefully build on it because it is business show not show business. I absolutely love Colbert, and I would do anything — he doesn’t need me. I would do anything to support him,” he added. Diaz also delivered the two teases to this sit-down, describing Comics Unleashed as “taking over The Late Show slot.” The interview began with a clip of Allen from a 1979 appearance on NBC’s The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson as proof of his comedy chops being in addition to his ownership of a media conglomerate. “He made history as the youngest stand-up comedian to appear on the show, and now the media mogul and powerhouse producer is making late-night history again. This Friday, he takes over The Late Show time slot with his comedy talk show, Comics Unleashed. Byron Allen is the show’s host and executive producer,” Diaz began. After Diaz and co-host Nate Burleson joked about how he looked as a teen 47 years ago, Diaz remarked Allen has “said that you have wanted to have a late-night show since that performance that you had on Johnny Carson’s show.” Allen said that he had long watched Carson’s show as a boy in Los Angeles while waiting for his young mother (who had Allen when she was 17) to come home from giving tours at NBC, and in doing so, “I’ve said to myself, what a wonderful way to go through life, making people laugh.” Cued up by fill-in co-host Major Garrett, Allen explained that his official launch date in the Colbert slot is Friday, which will be 34 years to the day Carson left The Tonight Show. Before asking him to denounce the Colbert cancellation, Burleson had him explain how this deal with CBS had come about. Allen stated plainly to the former NFL player that broadcast networks are facing “some financial pressure” because “sports rights are very expensive” and “ad dollars are shifting from linear to digital,” which he’s come to learn as he “invested about a billion dollars buying ABC, NBC, CBS, and Fox affiliates and other assets like The Weather Channel.” He then relayed his negotiations to pay CBS to let him air his two-decade-old show to save $150 million by cancelling both The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Taylor Tomlinson’s After Midnight (click “expand”): And what I said to the networks, I said, look, you’re spending about $150 million on Colbert and the show after Colbert. So, you’ve decided to cancel both of them. My recommendation is that you don’t spend money on that time period now that you have decided to cancel them because at the end of the day, you’re throwing me an audience at 1:30 in the morning to my CBS affiliates that I own around the country. And I’m running half-hour infomercial spray on hair. You know, abs in 24 hours. I said, save your money, I will put my show Comics Unleashed on. Now, I started Comics Unleashed — well, first of all, they said, this is great...[T]hey said, this is a great idea. You’re going to save us $150 to $170 million. To see the relevant CBS transcript from May 20, click here.

Ukrainian military hardware appears to have once again endangered the people of a NATO member nation. Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal announced on Tuesday that "a drone entering Estonian airspace was detected quickly and shot down over Southern Estonia by a NATO Air Policing fighter jet."'These trajectories have to be as far from the NATO territory as possible.'Michal thanked Estonia's "NATO allies, the Romanian Air Force, and the fighter pilots who carried out this mission with professionalism and precision," adding that "NATO is vigilant, prepared, and capable of acting rapidly when needed."Hanno Pevkur, the defense minister for the Baltic nation of 1.36 million souls, confirmed that a Romanian Air Force F-16 pilot participating in a training flight shot down the drone using a single missile. The remains of the drone crashed several hundred meters away from a residential building in the Central Estonian town of Põltsamaa.A resident told state media that he saw two fighter jets soar overhead, then heard a loud bang."There was a loud blast, and I saw the drone falling from the sky," said the witness. "As it was already close to the ground, I heard another blast."It's presently unclear whether the drone was carrying any warheads.Heorhii Tykhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine, apologized to Estonia "for such unintended incidents," reported DW.RELATED: Killer drones have conquered the skies. Can we ever be safe again? Sergei SUPINSKY/AFP/Getty ImagesThe Estonian Defense Forces claimed that the Ukrainian drone stole into Estonian airspace "under the conditions of heavy electronic warfare, including GPS spoofing and jamming, by Russia."Defense Minister Pevkur said in an interview with Estonian Public Broadcasting that Ukrainian officials — who do not have permission to use Estonian airspace — "have indeed apologized, but they have also reaffirmed that they are doing everything on their part to ensure that these drones do not enter NATO airspace."Pevkur expressed some frustration with Kyiv, telling the Associated Press, "We’ve said to the Ukrainians all the time that if you’re attacking Russian positions or Russian targets, then these trajectories have to be as far from the NATO territory as possible."The Estonian Internal Security Service has launched a criminal investigation into the aerial intrusion.In recent months, numerous Ukrainian military drones have entered the airspace of friendly neighboring countries.A pair of Ukrainian drones entered Estonian and Latvian airspace on March 25, for example. One of the drones struck Estonia's Auvere power ⁠station and the other crash-landed. Officials suggested that the drones were supposed to be part of a Ukrainian attack on Russia.Days later, two drones entered Finnish airspace, then crashed near the city of Kouvola. Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told his country's state media that the drones appeared to be of Ukrainian origin.Earlier this month, two more Ukrainian drones strayed into NATO airspace, crashing ultimately on Latvian soil. Reuters reported that one of the drones exploded at an oil storage facility, damaging four tanks.Drones aren't the only unwanted surprises Ukraine had sent into NATO's back yard.A S-300 air defense missile landed in Poland on Nov. 15, 2022, rocking the village of Przewodów and killing two farm workers.Ukrainian officials and numerous media outlets — including the Associated Press, CNN, CBS News, and Fox News — rushed to suggest that the explosion was the handiwork of the Russians, which would have been sufficient to trigger articles 4 and 5 of the NATO charter, potentially putting the U.S. into direct conflict with the nuclear power.Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president whose term officially ended in May 2024, said in the wake of the deadly explosion, "Russian missiles hit Poland, the territory of our friendly country. People died."The Polish and American governments rejected the suggestion that Russia fired the missile, noting instead that it was likely a Ukrainian missile that had accidentally been lobbed into a NATO country.Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's foreign minister at the time, called the claim that the explosion was caused by Ukraine a "conspiracy theory."Polish investigators, denied any relevant intelligence from Kyiv, later claimed that the missile was fired by Ukraine. The particular missile that landed in Przewodów has a maximum range of 56 miles, and Russian forces were nowhere near close enough to land the shot.Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!

Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos ripped into many of the policies on the left in a recent interview that was clipped widely on social media.Bezos took aim at schemes to raise taxes on the wealthy and advocated lower taxes on Americans at the bottom of the economic ladder. He made the comments from the factory floor of his Blue Origin aerospace company during an interview on "Squawk Box" with CNBC host Andrew Ross Sorkin released Wednesday. 'We shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology!'When pressed on the issue of taxes, Bezos said half of Americans shouldn't pay federal income taxes at all. He cited the example of a theoretical nurse in Queens who earns $75,000 a year and pays about $12,000 in federal income taxes."People talk about making the tax system more progressive. How about we start by having the nurse in Queens not pay taxes? At all," he said."Why is a nurse in Queens who makes $75,000 a year paying more than $1,000 a month in taxes? That's $1,000 a month that could help with rent or groceries or anything. And by the way, do you know what that all adds up to? The bottom half of income earners in this country pay only 3% of the taxes," Bezos added."It's only 3%. We can find 3%. It's a small amount of money for the government," he continued. "And the more I thought about it, to me it's kind of absurd that we're doing this. You know, we shouldn’t be asking this nurse in Queens to send money to Washington. They should be sending her an apology! It really makes no sense!"Bezos said it was fine to debate what the wealthy should pay in taxes but went on to accuse politicians of distracting voters by vilifying the wealthy. He added that politicians were ignoring the root problems causing inflation and other economic problems."If you're really being honest about it, we don't have a revenue problem in this country. We already have the most progressive tax system in the world," Bezos said. "The top 1% of taxpayers pay 40% of all tax revenue, the bottom half pay only 3%, and I think it should be zero.""We actually have a spending problem," he added and cited the $44,000 that is spent on every child in the New York City school system with worse outcomes than other cities."If we ran Amazon the way New York City runs their school system," Bezos joked, "packages would take six weeks to arrive, we would charge you a $100 delivery fee, and when the package did finally arrive, it would have the wrong item in it!"Sorkin didn't laugh."That's a skills issue!" Bezos added. "It's just competence."RELATED: Leftists lose their minds after Jeff Bezos announces new direction for WaPo in favor of freedom Bezos also argued that the government could double the taxes he pays and it wouldn't help the theoretical nurse in Queens because government spending is so out of control. "You can't connect those two things, not logically," he said. The entire segment on taxes with Bezos can be viewed on CNBC's YouTube channel. Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!