PBS News Hour - Full Show - December 7, 2025 – PBS News Weekend full episode

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Sunday on PBS News Weekend, Hegseth doubles down on attacking alleged drug boats, saying Trump can take military action as he sees fit. What to know as online holiday shopping scammers get savvier. How small plug-in solar panels are gaining traction as a way to cut electricity bills. Plus, scientists flock to Iceland to study the effect of melting glaciers on earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. PBS News is supported by - https://www.pbs.org/newshour/about/funders. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy

Tonight on PBS News Weekend, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth doubles down on attacking alleged drugboats saying President Trump can take military action as he sees fit. Then how small plug-in solar panels that can be mounted on balconies and walls are gaining traction as a way to cut electricity bills. And the land of fire and ice. Scientists are flocking to Iceland. to see whether melting glaciers could be more intense earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Iceland is essentially one of the best places in the world to study this. It's a natural laboratory because we have both volcanism and glaciers. The shockwaves from the contentious second strike and an alleged drug smuggling boat in the Caribbean in September are still reverberating some three months later.

That second attack came about a half hour after a first strike appeared to have destroyed most of the boat. Today, lawmakers who were shown video of the attacks offered starkly different interpretations of what they saw. The boat was adrift. It was going where the current was going to take it. And these two were trying to figure out how to survive. They were not incapacitated. They were not in the water, surviving only because they had a life jacket or hanging to a plank of wood. They were sitting on that boat.

They were clearly moving around on it. At a defense forum in California Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth defended the action. Fully support that strike. I would have made the same call myself. Those that were involved in 20 years of conflict, Iraq and Afghanistan or elsewhere, know that reattacks and re-strikes, combatants on the battlefield, happened often. Heggseth wouldn't say if the video would be made public, saying the question is under review. Even as negotiators seek to end the war in Ukraine, Russia bombarded the country with overnight attacks.

At least four people were killed and nearly a dozen others injured. In Florida, White House Special Envoy Steve Whitkoff and Ukrainian national security officials were at three days of talks this weekend about President Trump's peace plan. After the attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more air defense systems, a request he's likely to repeat tomorrow when he meets with European leaders. A massive fire at a popular nightclub in India has killed at least 25 people, including tourists. It was in North Goa, a popular area for tourists and nightlife. Local police say it was touched off when a gas cylinder exploded.

Officials said some of the 100 people on the dance floor rushed into the kitchen. and got trapped along with staff. Authorities said the club violated fire safety regulations that action would be taken against club management and officials who allowed it to operate. With the gift-giving season just around the corner, shoppers looking for good deals are getting savier, but so are holiday scammers.

One in three Americans say they've fallen prey to an online shopping scam. Just last year, scams involving items that were either counterfeit or never delivered cost people more than $700 million. Ali Rogan explores these scams with Alyssa Abdullah, Deputy Chief Security Officer for MasterCard. Thank you so much for being here.

What are some of the most common holiday scams that people should be looking out for? The most common holiday scams are big flashy ads, the big discounts. A lot of times those are things we need to think about. Another common holiday scam may be charitable websites. in a time where people are in the season of giving. And so you might want to be careful and make sure you verify the website,

verify the charity, to make sure the charity is a verified charity before you actually donate. What can people do to make sure those shopping sites, those charity sites are legitimate? So the first thing I tell people to do is take a beat. Take a pause. Go and do your own research on a website. easiest thing to do, then you can go and say, I'm going to go on the platform. You need to actually verify the platform as well. Sometimes the website maybe look good.

The charity may sound right, but the platform is a little shaky. So you need to verify all of those things. I look at the URL to make sure words are spelled right. If you're going to make a payment, you want to use HTPS. Because the S on the end of HTPP, when you're looking at the web browser, that means secure. So that means when I'm sending money from my computer to the next person, it is through a secure tunnel.

So those are things you've got to think about. Now, MasterCard put out a report that said that nearly half of today's consumers are likely to ignore the red flags of something being a big flashy sale, if there is a really, really lucrative deal behind it. They might just purchase that thing anyway. Why is that?

And how should people avoid falling into those kinds traps. We always want to get the big deal. Well, cybercriminals know that as well. And so when they're thinking about it, they're targeting us with the, with QR codes, with flashy, you know, urgent. You've got to, you've got to click this link right now. Well, actually, you don't have to click the link right now. If you miss that deal on one, at one store, you'll find it on another. So I always tell people, take a pause, verify, it is okay. I think that's the, that's the, that's the, suggestion that goes past holiday season. How lucrative are these scams to scammers?

Very, very lucrative. We're talking about a big, big business globally. So you think about it from the good person's perspective, the cybersecurity industry's perspective. We have to get it right every single time. The scammer has to get it right once or twice or maybe 10 times, and they've got a big paycheck coming in. And we take note of that, and we use a lot of tools in the background to make sure that we are fighting,

not just fighting and detecting, but we're also preventing. We know now with AI how we can prevent fraudulent transactions, how we can detect a card has been compromised before you even know is compromised. So it's a tricky time now, but we've got all the tools in place to help us with that. Well, and without asking you to reveal too much about the sources and methods that you use, What are some of those tools? What is a company like MasterCard doing to keep their customers safe? We are taking, you know, before we would take a certain amount of data that we had, we would triangulate that data, and then we could, from that information, say,

huh, this appears to be fraudulent. Now, AI has given us leaps and bounds, and we've been using AI for the past two decades. I mean, when you think about threat intelligence, when you think about looking at patterns and pattern recognition and knowing, hey, is Ali really? in Bahrain making this purchase? You know, no, she actually isn't. She actually isn't. Those are things that we look at, but now we've got more data points about you,

about your transactions, about all of the information, about stores, about your patterns, your habits that we can put together in a matter of seconds to help make a decision on whether that transaction is fraudulent or whether it's real. What's your advice for people who might be unfamiliar with a degree to which, AI is playing a role in their purchases you know people are already I think using AI now in order to think through what do I want to buy my spouse right well when you think about it from the other perspective AI is being used to target people AI is being used to fake not just websites but your voice your dialect

your intonation your emails so there's a balance there's two things that are We're using it for the good on the good side and being, you know, for our level of convenience. But then we're also, the adversary is also using it on their side. And so luckily we've got tools in place, we've got mechanisms in place, and then we've got conversations like this to remind people, slow down, watch, turn on your notifications, know what's coming out of your account, things like that so that you know you can stop things on your own as well. Alyssa Abdullah, Deputy Chief Security Officer for MasterCard. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Still to come on PBS News Weekend. The growing popularity of plug-in solar panels across the United States. And as the world's glaciers melt, scientists investigate whether that will lead to stronger earthquakes and more violent volcanic eruptions. This is PBS News Weekend from the David M. Rubenstein studio at WETA in Washington, home of the PBS News Hour, weeknights on PBS. For years, solar power at home was mostly limited to people who owned their rooftops and could afford the steep upfront costs. But that's changing. A new generation of small, affordable systems, often called plug-in solar, are making clean energy more accessible. The technology is already widespread in Germany and the movement is gaining momentum in the United States.

Our report is from Laura Clivens of PBS member station KQED in San Francisco. San Francisco. Agnes Chan is a retired teacher in Berkeley, California. She wanted to install solar panels on her home, but was limited by her fixed income budget. I've looked for a long time and even consulted my roofer, but there's no way that I can afford that. So she found a cheaper workaround and is one of the newest adopters of plug-in solar. She hopes to rein in bills that run into the hundreds, even with a thermostat set to 60. It's a great house that I have lived in for over 35 years, but there's no way to insulate it. So I'm shivering in my own house.

Instead of tens of thousands of dollars for rooftop solar, Jan's setup costs $400 and took less than an hour to install. This is the app which will show me how much the panel is generating. And rather than taking a decade or so to pay it back, it will like to. take her two to three years. We are systematically removing the barriers. Cora Stryker co-leads the nonprofit that provided Chan with her panels. They bring plug-in solar to renters, people in multifamily housing, and other Americans shut out of rooftop systems. These things are modular. They're tiny. You can put them just about anywhere. You can add on as time

goes on. So it's less big upfront investment all at once. Introducing Gizmo Powers patented mobile electricity. From plug-in carports to balconies, entrepreneurs are investing in this emerging market. Now that you've seen the possibilities for installations in various scenarios... But there's a major hurdle to widespread adoption. In most of the U.S., it's not legal to just set up these systems and plug them in as envisioned. Our next topic on the agenda, so-called plug-in solar. At a recent online forum hosted by California's utility regulator,

Eamon Hoffman, who works for the state's largest utility, PG&E, said customer must comply with regulations and pay fees as if they were setting up a rooftop system. Utilities say that helps them manage energy supply and demand. But plug-in solar advocates say their systems should have a simpler registration process. This is the world headquarters of Brooks Engineering. We asked an independent expert to weigh in. So these panels were from early 1980s. Bill Brooks is an electrical engineer who specialized in solar for 37 years.

He helped write California's code that governs house. solar connects to the grid. There's 78 solar panels. I call it my solar garden. He says there are risks to plug in solar. If the product didn't have the proper certifications, then there would be the possibility that somebody could energize a down power line

that could injure a lineman. But Brooks says the barriers can be overcome by updating existing tools. This is a microinverter used in things like plug-in solar and it has a certification. And we have the National Electrical Code. When these safeguards are in place, Brooks doesn't see a need for a lengthy or costly registration. And he says, independent organizations are working on a safety standard for the technology.

We drop-shift this to our customers. But plug-in solar companies and their customers aren't waiting for regulators. Here's the instructions. Bay Area resident Joe Tenenbaum considered rooftop solar when his electricity bills started rising. A good amount of sun, even from the morning on, and then it's going to move. But it would require replacing the roof, too, and costs quickly ballooned. And we don't own this house. This is my parents' home. My wife and kids and I moved in with them when my mom got sick. It's not feasible for them to make $100,000 investment in a rooftop system, and it isn't either for us.

Tenenbaum liked the idea that they'd be able to take their panels with them if they moved. For $1,600, he bought an $800,000. DIY kit from Craftstrom. All right. Should we build it? He liked how they built safety measures into their technology. The company also advises customers to register their systems. The panels won't power the whole house, but will keep Tenenbaum's refrigerator humming and small appliances charged.

He expects to save 5 to 10% on his monthly utility bill. Craftstrom co-founders and brothers Michael and Steven Scherer say demand for plug solar is growing. Especially here in California, people are telling us about the time of use rates that double as they come home and actually use power. And then the second motivation is becoming part of the Green Revolution. Housefield 340. Legislators across the country are taking note. We know they're safe just because they've been doing this for three or four years now and it's worked out well in Europe. Earlier this year, Utah passed the first legislation nationwide that will allow plug-in solar with no registration.

when certain safety standards and codes are set. Similar legislation is in the works in several other states, including New York, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Vermont. My panel is producing 645 watts per hour. As for Agnes Chan in California, she's hoping to stay warmer this winter. I expect to be comfortable instead of shivering in my own house, wearing a down jacket and a blanket to watch TV. Even if everyone in the U.S. had these panels, plug-in solar could only cover a slice of national energy demand.

But experts say every bit of renewable energy counts. Big moment here. I'm very excited about this new system. Just unboxing it, felt like opening up a gift. We have solar. That's all there is to it. For PBS News Weekend, I'm Laura Clivens in Northern California. The United Nations designated 2025 the international year of glacier preservation.

As the earth grows warmer, the world's glaciers are melting. In Iceland and elsewhere around the globe, scientists feared that melting could be setting off a ticking time bomb, more frequent and stronger volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. William Brangham has this Encore report. Getting to the volcanic crater called Vita, which comes from the Icelandic word for hell, involves a bumpy ride, an icy trek, and a steep downward climb. The gas emissions alone can be very dangerous. Here you're taking a greater risk because you're actually in an old freatic explosive crater.

And this is a side of active degassing. Michelle Parks is a volcanologist with the Icelandic meteorological officer. office. She and her colleagues regularly monitor this deep crater lake, which was created years ago by the volcano Askiya. Askiya last erupted in 1961, but it started stirring again four years ago. It's one of the most active and potentially dangerous volcanoes in Iceland. Scientists flock here for research, and they're asking an increasingly crucial question. As the glaciers that sit atop these volcanoes melt, which is driven in apart by a warming planet, will that shrinking accelerate and intensify volcanic eruptions?

I think it's very likely that we will see future changes, but the question, of course, is when will this start happening and by how much will it affect volcanic activity? Parks takes acidity and temperature readings from the bubbling, steaming, sulfurous water of the crater lake. A rise in either figure would indicate that more more gases are pushing up from below, suggesting the volcano is moving closer to an eruption. Aske is my favorite volcano in Iceland, as I've been coming here every year since 1990, to follow what the volcano is doing. Freystein Sigmansson is a geophysicist at the University of Iceland.

Every year he and his colleagues take precise measurements of the landscape, and they're finding that the land is shifting considerably. For my decades of studies here, The changes of the ground here have been on the centimeter scale. But then suddenly, when the unrest began, we have had over 70 centimeters of uplift. So that's a lot. That's a big pressure increase. That building pressure indicates this volcano could erupt at any moment.

Scientists can't rule out that one day, Oskia could erupt with the same ferocity that Mount St. Helens did in 1980 in Washington State. was one of the most dramatic eruptions in recorded U.S. history. Earlier this summer, Askiya had 129 small earthquakes. Only one was large enough for people to feel. But those small quakes, combined with changes in the terrain as well as what's happening with the glaciers, have researchers concerned about the future. So we're working on this large project investigating the effects of climate change and

the ice retreat on future volcanic. seismic activity in Iceland. Iceland has long been known as a land of fire and ice. Eons of volcanic eruptions shaped this wild and dramatic landscape. But millions of tourists also come here to see the majestic beauty of its glaciers and ice formations up close, hopefully before they disappear. At his summer home overlooking the Vakno Yolkaiqal ice cap, Ragnar Frank Christensen has seen glaciers retreating with his own.

eyes. Here and here. It was in the first 15 years. It was a little bit forward, 10 meters backward, nothing big changes. But the last 10 years is going to be 100 meters easier as a one football field. He's been a glacier monitor for more than 25 years, tracking the retreat of two large nearby glaciers. His daughter Iris has also seen the same changes over her lifetime.

I've sometimes said to people like, it is like watching your friends disappear and having a very rough time. And we look at the glaciers out of our, you know, kitchen window every day. I think, like, of course, it's just devastating to see, like, looking at photo albums and seeing like, oh my God, you know, when I was growing up.