PBS News Hour - Full Show - August 24, 2025 – PBS News Weekend full episode

Episode Date: August 24, 2025

Sunday on PBS News Weekend, ceremonies in Kyiv mark 34 years of Ukrainian independence. How sophisticated criminals are faking student identities to steal millions of dollars from U.S. colleges. Why three brothers from Scotland are attempting to row 9,000 miles across the Pacific. Plus, a summer program in South Dakota and Minnesota gives a special group of campers a rock star treatment. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, Russia says a Ukrainian drone attack set a nuclear plant on fire, as ceremonies in Kiev marked 34 years of independence. Then, how sophisticated criminal networks are faking students' identities to still millions of dollars from U.S. colleges. And three brothers from Scotland who are attempting to row 9,000 miles across the Pacific to raise money, awareness for clean water projects it's a real challenge in in kind of resilience and not just your you know your physical ability to do it but i think you know mentally staying positive uh keeping morale up good evening i'm john yang today Ukraine marked 34 years since declaring its independence from the Soviet Union, even as its war to repel Russian invaders stretches on. In Kiev's independent square, President Volodemir Zelensky

stood with Ukrainian troops for a moment of silence to honor fallen fighters. In St. Sophia Cathedral, Zelensky and faith leaders offered a prayer for peace. Then he, his wife, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney placed flowers at a memorial wall dedicated to fallen soldiers. Meanwhile, while the path to peace remains uncertain, on NBC's Meet the Press, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said that President Vladimir Putin won't be sitting down with Zelenskyy anytime soon. Putin is ready to meet with Zelenskyy. When the agenda would be ready for a summit, and this agenda is not ready at all.

There are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted. including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything. Russia said an overnight Ukrainian drone attack started a fire at a nuclear power plant in Kursk. Plan officials said there were no injuries and radiation levels are normal. Despite the fighting, the two countries exchanged prisoners of war, 146 from each side.

To the war in Gaza now, where the desperation to reach food aid is hitting a new high. Witnesses said Israeli troops killed four people who were traveling through a military zone south of Gaza City on their way to a food distribution site. And Gaza's health ministry reported eight deaths related to malnutrition, including a child, bringing the total to nearly 300. There are reports that the Pentagon is planning a military deployment to Chicago as part of President Trump's crackdown on crime, homelessness and undocumented immigration.

If approved, the mission would have parallels to deployments to Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, both Democrats, say sending troops is unwelcome and unwarranted. On Friday, the president touted his intervention in Washington and suggested that Chicago could be next, followed by New York City. And Vilnius Lithuania was the center of the Corgi Cosmos this weekend, as thousands gathered in the city's largest park to watch an international competition

that drew 120 teams of the Welsh breed. Corgis from across Europe battled in group races, solo sprints, and costume challenges. Lithuanian-owned Mango won the solo race. His owner said he knows what he did, and he's really proud of himself. Still to come on PBS News Weekend, how scammers create fake identities

to steal college financial aid. and three brothers rowing across the Pacific Ocean at world record pace. This is PBS News Weekend from the David M. Rubinstein studio at WETA in Washington, home of the PBS News Hour. Weeknights on PBS. There's a rising threat U.S. colleges have to deal with. Sophisticated criminal networks are using identity theft to disguise. themselves as students. They flood colleges with applications in order to siphon off tens of millions of dollars in financial aid. What's more, they're taking up seats that real students need.

A series of recent reports reveal that these so-called go students even go as far as turning and homework assignments so they don't get dropped from classes. As colleges are set to begin a new academic year, Ali Rogan spoke with Amanda Garrett of Fortune who's been reporting on this growing scam. Amanda, thanks so much for joining us. Let's start with the basic question, which is what are go students and how do they operate? So go students are masses of synthetic or fake identities and they're used by these sophisticated criminal networks to flood college application and enrollment systems. These are sophisticated broad rings operating some overseas in places like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and they are swarming community college

systems. They are applying, enrolling, and getting into classes and requesting financial aid. Sometimes it's a revenue generation scheme. It's just about making money. Other times, it's about getting that.edu email address. And that email address, if you're a scammer, is like a gold bar. You look like a legitimate college student, and you can get discounts on laptops, software, streaming services, and fraudsters want a piece of that action. And the financial element for those that are operating strictly out of a profit motive, how does that work? They're getting student loans, is that right? They're applying for financial aid, applying for student loans, and they're using usually stolen

identities to do so. So the victims are not just the colleges themselves. themselves, but people who have nothing to do with it. So people are having their identity stolen, and then they're having financial aid taken out in their names. And what do we know right now about the scale of this problem? The scale of the problem is really difficult to put your arms around because these scammers are stealing legitimate people's identities. So it usually takes a person noticing that someone has taken out a student loan in their name. So right now, the Department of education has identified $150 million that's been dispersed to ineligible students, and $30 million of that went to people who were dead, who had their identities stolen. And then we know, like,

in California, community colleges have been hit very hard, but it's not just a California problem. Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, New Jersey, some of the largest districts are vulnerable to this, and then some of the super small rural community colleges are also being hit. Why is it that these rings are targeting those schools as opposed to four-year universities that might have more money? So community colleges are so vulnerable to this because they are meant to be open access institutions. You can take a class whenever you want at a very affordable price.

They're meant to be a community resource, and so they're open. And they're also typically required by statute to accept any eligible student. So fraudsters know that, and they're exploiting that by the way that they're flooding those systems. And certainly the people whose identities are being stolen are losing money, but there's also a downside for the students and for the teachers that are legitimately trying to operate within the community college system. Okay. So for real students, every dollar that goes to a go student is one less dollar for a legitimate student. So real students are losing out on the opportunity to get financial aid to pay for their classes. They're locked out of classes that they need to graduate, delaying their plans to graduate.

They're locked out of courses they've planned to take. And then for teachers and faculty, there's excitement over your class suddenly being full, full to the brim. Maybe you need to add new sections. And then nobody shows up on the first day. So you have this wasted time, all this wasted energy going towards these AI generated ghost students when, you know, all the energy at a community college is typically focused on getting people educated. And the community colleges are the ones responsible for making sure that the students that are registered are, in fact, human when they go and ask the state for money.

So what burden remains on these colleges? And what does that look like right now? They're doing hand-to-hand combat right now. Some of them are doing manual application reviews. they're asking students to go to a notary to verify their identity. They're asking them to come in. And the more barriers that you put in front of students to getting educated, the less able they are to access those resources. So that's part of the pain point here, is how much friction do you put in the system for, you know,

making people able to get into community college? Amanda Garrett with Fortune, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Now, a story about three brothers, a boat, and thousands of miles of ocean. The brothers are the McLeans from Scotland, and they're in the final stretch of their attempt to row nonstop across the Pacific from Peru to Australia. They're going for more than just a world record. they're raising money for clean water projects in East Africa.

In April, brothers Ewan, Jamie, and Lachlan McLean set off from Lima. Their destination? The east coast of Australia, 9,000 miles across the Pacific, without stopping and without any support. No sails, no engine, just oars. And they're not using just any rowboat. They helped design the 600-pound vessel which uses Formula One racing technology. They named it Rose Emily to honor their sister who was lost during pregnancy.

When they're not rowing, their routines include fishing, cooking, and holding virtual dinners with celebrities like Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and actors Ewan McGregor. And I'm sure where you are right now is as close to being like at the pinnacle of adventures you could ever be. And Mark Wahlberg. I could play you in a movie. They are crossing 9,000 miles. They even made a virtual appearance at a rock concert in San Diego. They can hear you, man.

Joining the band, the All-American Rejects featuring Jamie on bagpipes. Light moments that are. offer a respite from the dangers they face. Recording a storm. While their bodies have taken a beating, their spirits have been buoyed by the thousands of people around the world who are following their journey on social media and contributing toward their goal of raising more than a million dollars

to provide clean water for 40,000 people in Madagascar. I spoke with the brothers when they were about 500 miles from Australia. Wachlan kept rowing while Jamie. and Ewan explained how the idea to cross the Pacific came to them five years ago while they were rowing across the Atlantic. Whilst we were out at sea on the Atlantic, I think we already knew that we wanted to do another road. I think the three of us, we got a bit of a bug for it.

We set up the charity to kind of raise more funds for clean water projects. And we kind of, I think about two years ago, we looked at each other and thought, you know, I think it's time for another big one. How do we fundraise the best way we know how? and we came up with the biggest ocean that's out there, so aim for the Pacific. Yeah, the biggest ocean. Tell me, what's an average day like for you guys? We'll tell us an average day on board, the boat.

Everyone's up at about half five, six o'clock a.m. There's always someone on the oars. Generally speaking, we go straight into a two-on, one-off routine, so it'll be an hour on the oars, half an hour off. And then in that 30-minute off break, it's not really a break, to be honest. You're constantly having to do work, whether that, fuel yourself, rehydrate, do boat jobs, clean, do some media things. And then you're back on the oars before you know it.

That's been our routine for 132 days. The original plan was to hit Australia on day 120. What happened and how have you had to adjust your plans? The last kind of 2,000 nautical miles have been particularly difficult. And we've been hit with just weather system after weather system. The main result of that was we just got pushed north and north and north. and we're having to duck behind islands to hide from these storms, from these weather systems that wanted to push us backwards.

And so little by little, Sydney slowly slipped out of our grass, and we had to make the call, you know, a few weeks ago, that it was just untenable. It wasn't physically going to be possible to push as far south as Sydney. So we did. We upped it to Brisbane, and then we got hit by another cyclone. And so we've landed on Cairns, and we think Cairns is doable. We're on a good line at the moment.

We're on a good course. You referred to the physical consertion, the physical strain of this. How did you guys prepare? There was about a year, a year and a half of kind of physical preparation. And that was really, that program was put together by a lady called Chloe Lanthia,

who she usually designs programs for astronauts spending time in zero gravity for six months and works a lot with big football teams and that sort of thing. You can't quite experience conditions like this, you know, big rolling seas on the west coast of Scotland, but time on the oars definitely, you know, that all adds up. And then it's kind of a couple hours in the gym each day.

And then quite a lot of kind of mental preparation as well. It's a real challenge in kind of resilience and not just your, you know, your physical ability to do it. But I think, you know, mentally staying positive, keeping morale up. What's been your worst day so far? And we got hit by this anti-cyclone and the seas were huge. Every 10th wave would hit our side on. and we got just absolutely battered by this weather system. So I saw this wave, like a wall of water, like 25 feet sort of, you know,

veering up over the boat. And it was barreling. It was just as it was cresting into the boat. We were very near, quite near Tonga at the time. And I think it was like being spear tackled by a Tongan rugby player. You know, it just totally overwhelmed me, pushed me over to the starboard side of the boat. and my kind of upper half went over

and my legs just flipped and it was like so it was like a backwards somersault and then I was into darkness you know I didn't know what had happened I didn't know if the boat had capsized fortunately I was tethered onto the boat that saved my life I would have been lost 100%

Ewan was on the oars he jumps up pulls Lacham back on board and thankfully everyone was okay but I think that was it was a bit of a rude awakening of just how, yeah, at the mercy of the ocean we are out here and how vigilant we have to be with our safety equipment. There are hundreds of thousands of people around the world who are following your progress on social media. What does that mean to you? We weren't sure whether

the strategy that we were going to implement to share the story was going to work, whether people were going to get behind it, and whether people were going to get behind the cause that we so wholeheartedly believe in. And it's just been incredible to see that following gently build and messages of support. And then, of course, you know, that translating into donations to then feel the support from people all over the world, it really does help you get through some really tough days out on the ocean. What have you missed about being on land?

It's really like homely comforts that you miss the most out here. I mean, we live our day-to-day lives out here are pretty uncomfortable. I'm really looking forward to my first pizza on land, pizza and a beer, and then a warm shower. That'll be the order. a pizza beer, warm shower, and then I'll tuck myself into bed. That sounds pretty good. Do you think there's going to be something you're going to miss about being on the boat,

being out on the ocean? I think definitely, yeah. There's always going to be a small part of it that sort of belongs out here and year and yearns for this sort of adventure. The isolation can be a positive thing. And with that comes this sort of clarity that you don't have on land. You're not constantly being pested by people texting. you, emailing you, you're not being bombarded by social media or, you know, it's quite a peaceful

existence. We'll miss the simple, you know, that simple aspect of life out here, for sure. So now you've crossed the Atlantic. You will have crossed the Pacific in a few days. What challenges left? We're really involved with the aid side. So we'll be going out to Madagascar working with our partner charity out there. And, you know, that's a huge project. about 130 different sites where we're looking at developing access to clean water. So that will be an amazing thing to be involved in. And I think that will be our focus coming out of this. I think after that, you know, we're, you know, we've loved this experience.

I think, you know, there's been really tough times. I think I think our girlfriends would be pretty upset with us if we decided to spend another six months away. So I think we'll do some smaller things. But there's certainly going to be more to come, that's for sure. Youan McLean, Jamie McLean, and Lachlan back there doing all the work. Thank you very much, and good luck in the days ahead. John, thank you so much for having us on.

Really appreciate it. It's been a pleasure. Finally tonight, the benefits of music education for children are well documented. It can boost mental health. creativity and even improve cognitive functioning. A summer camp program in South Dakota and Minnesota aims to bring all that and more to a special group of campers. And as special correspondent Megan Thompson tells us, there's a little rock star treatment thrown in. The sound of drums, guitars, and keys drift from a building on the east side of St. Paul,

Minnesota. But peek inside and you'll see this is no ordinary garage band. This is Rock the Rez, a summer camp for Indigenous girls and gender diverse kids. We want them to feel strong and let them know that they have a voice. We'll get the snare going and then we'll get the hi-hat going. April Mattson, who is Sikungu Lakota and Athabaskan, has been the executive director here since 2019. Indigenous, Two-Spirit, LGBTQ girls, they're so overlooked. and representation is low to none. You rock!

And so this is our way of helping them to take up space and hopefully they take that courage and they put it into everything that they do. 10 campers from around the Twin Cities attended the session we visited in August. Marie O'Brien was teaching kindergarten on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota when she came up with the idea to start the camp in 2016.

Music really wasn't like an extracurricular very much, at least at the school that I was at. So like music wasn't as accessible. O'Brien, a self-taught musician, also wanted to promote the idea that anyone can pick up an instrument and jam. So it's kind of like breaking down the third wall of you can't do this. Maybe you don't see folks that look like you or you're not trained classically. I like that. There are now five rock the res camps, including three new. new camps in Minnesota that launched this summer.

The program is free of charge thanks to grants and donations, and the band coaches are mostly volunteers. Most of the campers who come in have no music experience, or they've played another instrument, but they've never played this instrument. The campers we met formed two bands and spent a few hours each day learning the instruments and parts they chose, working up to a public concert at the end of the week. Well, it's a little bit scary, but it's more fun. Rana Spears, who was Ojibway in Dakota, was the lead singer of the younger band, which called itself Little Rockers with Spirit.

I just get sometimes too excited that I try to go really fast, but I know I have to follow the other instruments, and they have to follow me too. Spears wrote the lyrics for her band's song. Gotta write how I get into the light, and what I mean by that is got to write how I get like, courage. So you can, like, show who you really are. Three, four. We're kind of, like, fighting for our voices to be heard and for change. Alia Hanson, who is read like Ojibway, led her band called Kamimila, which means butterfly in Dakota. Their song was filled with historical and social messages. This is where it started. We are taken from our homes. When we come back, we have nowhere to go.

Frame us as addicts, blame us and laugh. but when the white man leaves, you better hope you don't come back. I think it's very powerful, and it goes very deep into native culture. I wrote some things down. The songs were written collaboratively by the campers. The band coaches encouraged and facilitated,

but otherwise got out of the way. We all are seen equally and we're all respected. I'm an introvert, so it's hard speaking up. But here, I'm thinking I'm pretty loud here. And I like that, that I get to, like actually interact with people and not feel afraid. This is the only urban Rock Therese camp. The others are held on or near reservations.

So some of these campers come from communities where there aren't a lot of other native kids. At school, I just feel kind of left out on my culture. So here, I feel like I belong more. When people think of native, they think of those old photos that are yellow and wearing and its own chief guy. But we're not that anymore. We're still here, you know.

Workshops held each day, like this Dakota language lesson, gave the kids a chance to dive deeper into indigenous cultures. And there were musical performances every day after lunch. Lakota recording artist Tiana Spotted Thunder sang the day we were there. Show face your skills. Show face your talent. Then, after a week of pep talks and practicing, the final day arrived. The campers got themselves and each other all glammed up and headed to a park down the street to perform the final showcase for their friends, family, and community.

Welcome to the Rock the Road Showcase. The name of our song is singing to our hearts. Empowerment's a huge part of it. I hope that they are proud of themselves and feel like accomplished by the end of it. Because it's a pretty big feat to write a song and perform it in a matter of one week. Being lost in history. Being cheated of our treaties. And if anything, they can look back and say, oh, I performed in front of a bunch of people.

Because it can be really scary, but they are being so brave. Thank you for coming. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Megan Thompson and St. Paul, Minnesota. And that is PBS News Weekend for this Sunday. I'm John Yang for all of my colleagues. Thanks for joining us. Have a good week.