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NORAD Tracker Keeping a Close Eye on St. Nick; Evacuation Warnings in Effect as Storms Pound California; Powerball Jackpot Reaches $1.7 Billion for Tonight's Drawing; Trump Administration Ordered to Restore Disaster Funds to Dem-led States; Two Dead, 20 Injured in Pennsylvania Nursing Home Explosion; DOJ Uncovers More Documents Potentially Related to the Epstein Case. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired December 24, 2025 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:00:39]

SARA SIDNER, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" (voice-over): A dangerous scenario is unfolding right now in Southern California. A powerful storm has descended on the entire state. The flash flood risk in some areas is now at its highest possible level. Plus, ordered to pay, a federal judge says the Trump administration must restore disaster money he stripped from Democratic states.

And it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas. A member of NORAD's Santa tracking team joining us with the latest on the big guy's location. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

Let's start with some fun in the news for once. The big question from everyone, are you on Santa's naughty list or nice list? I don't know which one I belong on this year. But perhaps NORAD can tell us right now.

The team there is keeping a close eye on St. Nick during its annual high-tech mistletoe mission. With us is NORAD Deputy Commander, Lieutenant General Iain Huddleston. Thank you so much for being here with us.

First, do you have any expectations of exactly when Santa will get to North America tonight? Because the North Pole, you know, it's a long trek.

LT. GEN. IAIN HUDDLESTON, NORAD DEPUTY COMMANDER: Well, we don't know exactly, but our analysis shows that Santa shows up at everybody's home between nine and midnight. So if you're on the East Coast or the West Coast, it's between nine and midnight. As long as the kids are in bed, they'll be good.

SIDNER: All right. Nine and midnight. Did you hear that, kids? Nine o'clock, got to be in bed.

(LAUGH)

SIDNER: What type of technology is NORAD using to do this? You do this on a yearly basis. Has anything changed?

HUDDLESTON: Well, over time it has. We've been doing this for 70 years. So obviously, the sensors we used back in the '50s were rudimentary compared to what we use today. But basically, we use the sensors that we use every day to protect North America against airborne threats, so radars, satellites and fighter aircraft primarily. We see Santa on radar when he takes off from the North Pole.

And then generally, we track him using satellites, using infrared technology because Rudolph's nose is so bright.

SIDNER: OK. So you've got air traffic controllers who are extremely busy with all of this holiday traffic. So, how do the pilots sort of navigate and also then greet him and the reindeer?

(LAUGH)

HUDDLESTON: Well, they just have to do what they're doing. So, Santa somehow magically understands and can navigate his way through everything that's in his path, weather, other aircraft, that sort of thing. He's much faster than our airplanes. So we only see him briefly with our fighters. But he's the perfect aviator. We'd like to have him on our team.

SIDNER: Now, this might put me again on the naughty list, but I got to ask you. There has been some serious tension between the United States, our president and Canada. This, though, is a joint effort between the U.S. and Canadian militaries. And you're actually the highest ranking Canadian officer within NORAD. How important is this cross-border cooperation for you all?

HUDDLESTON: think it's critical. We can't defend our continent without this binational command and the capabilities that it brings to bear. And myself, I'm here with approximately 350 Canadians spread across the NORAD enterprise, and this is a binational command. It's a Canadian headquarters as much as it's an American headquarters. It's critical to our defense.

SIDNER: Well, we love our Canadian neighbors, and we're so glad that everyone is working together to make this happen. I know that kids can go online. They can track Santa there as well. But they can also call in. Who are they going to be able to talk to if they call in to NORAD?

HUDDLESTON: Well, we have hundreds of volunteers that man the phones hour by hour. Last year, we had 380,000 calls. One hour, there was 60,000. That was 6 p.m. Mountain Time. So maybe try to avoid that 9 o'clock phone call from the East Coast.

(LAUGH)

HUDDLESTON: But the number is 1-877-HI-NORAD, so 1-877-446-6723. But even -- but now, this year, we've got a web VoIP possibility on our website, noradsanta.org, where the kids can just on a computer press the VoIP button, and they'll be connected to our callers in the same way as they would with a telephone. [14:05:00]

SIDNER: Nice. Noradsanta.org. OK, that makes it really easy. How did this all get started? You mentioned it started way back in 1950. How did this get started?

HUDDLESTON: Well, it was 1955 to be exact and the predecessor organization for NORAD was called Continental Air Defense. And one night, Christmas Eve, a child called the ops center by mistake and got in touch with a colonel, Col. Harry Shoup who realized that he couldn't connect the caller with Santa, but he could do something almost better in that he could pass them information about where Santa was. And so that's where the tradition started.

SIDNER: It's so cool. It's so much fun. And thank you all for doing this because you're spending your holiday tracking Santa to make sure that everyone else has a great holiday. We do appreciate you and the team there, Lt. Gen. Huddleston. Really appreciate it. And have a very Merry Christmas to you all there, as you're continuing to track. And Santa looks like he's going pretty -- pretty fast. Those reindeer are, you know, they're speedy little guys.

HUDDLESTON: He's quick.

(LAUGH)

SIDNER: We do appreciate it.

HUDDLESTON: Yeah. We love doing this, Sara, but Merry Christmas to you and all your listeners as well.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you. Appreciate you. This shouldn't interfere with Santa's sleigh ride, but we are following a major storm brewing over the state of California. The entire state, thousands of residents, now under evacuation orders or warnings in the state. The Weather Prediction Center says a dangerous scenario is unfolding with widespread and significant impacts from flash flooding and debris flows are expected. We are already seeing some of them there. You see some of the danger there and why it's really important that you don't drive through something like this.

A family evacuating their home today in Wrightwood, California, shot this video of the floodwater with the debris flow there rushing across the road, making it impassable. Sara Floyd tells us her husband woke up this morning to the sound of a river hitting the house. She says they grabbed their two children, some jackets, got in the truck and got to safer ground.

CNN's Julia Vargas-Jones is in the midst of all of this rain. You are there in the suburb of Altadena, which we must mention, dealt with so much trauma because of the fires. And there's a lot of burn areas as well, making this much more dangerous. Julia, what's the situation where you are right now?

JULIA VARGAS-JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly the main concern here, Sara, is those preparations for what happens when water hits ground that has been burned out. So that means no vegetation, nothing to hold that water in place. We are at the foothills, right? This is where Altadena is at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. Behind my cameraman here, that's where all of that water is coming down from. That's where the Eaton Fire burned. It burned down. You can't see mountains there right now, right?

All you see is this atmospheric river nicknamed the Pineapple Express. But we can see the water. It has been flowing non-stop. We've been here since about 5 a.m., 6 a.m., and it's just been continuously non- stop. Right now, I'll say, the rain is actually a little lighter. It's been gusts of wind.

Now, we have been warned winds of up to 70 miles per hour today. But right now, in the past few minutes, there's been a special weather warning until about another 45 minutes from now, winds of up to 55 miles an hour. And this is what we drove up to here.

I don't know when this tree fell, but we did see this blocking the road just half a block up from one of the main drags here in Altadena. We're seeing some sandbags. Some sandbags already down through the middle of the street here.

All around this neighborhood, some closures. And we're seeing from the emergency services here in Southern California, there are resources already in place that have been mobilized from last night. But they're saying please do not get on the road if you don't have to, if you don't absolutely need to do anything on this Christmas Eve.

Of course, Sara, it does put a damper on some plans here. I'm sure nobody wants to spend a wet Christmas. But they're saying better to be safe than sorry.

SIDNER: Absolutely. That is great advice. Who are you working with out there today, your photojournalist?

VARGAS-JONES: With Jack Hanna and with Rudy, all getting wet here.

(LAUGH)

SIDNER: Yeah, I know. They do such a great job. We sometimes forget to mention them. Thank you to Jack Hanna. Thank you to Rudy for being out there with you. And you guys stay safe. I do appreciate it. Have a great holiday.

All right, now to some of the other headlines that we're watching this hour. If you're playing Powerball tonight, you could receive a true Christmas miracle. The jackpot, now $1.7 billion after nobody won on Monday. That is the fourth largest prize in the game's history. Now, the odds are a little difficult to hear, one in 292 million people. Good luck.

Also, a federal judge is blocking the Trump administration from withholding disaster funds from Democratically-led states for not cooperating in Trump's immigration crackdown.

[14:10:00]

Twelve attorneys general sued the administration after learning their states will receive drastically reduced grants due to their so-called sanctuary jurisdictions. Well, the federal judge ordering agencies to restore that funding. DHS is planning to appeal the ruling.

And a major explosion at a Pennsylvania nursing home. This is just awful. It killed at least two people there, leaving 20 other people injured. Now, this explosion happened yesterday afternoon as utility workers were responding to reports of the smell of gas. First responders rushed to rescue those inside, some of whom were trapped because part of the building collapsed. Pennsylvania Governor, Josh Shapiro says investigators suspect a gas leak was to blame.

All right, still to come, our predictions for the year to come, everything from business to what we can all look forward to at the movie theaters. Don't worry, we've got you covered. Stay with us. That and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

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[14:15:15]

SIDNER: All right, we have some Breaking News to share with you. The Department of Justice says it has uncovered "A million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case." Katelyn Polantz is here. Katelyn, with these documents, do we know if they're above and beyond all of the ones they already have? And if so, what that's going to mean to the release?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is quite a Christmas news drop, Sara. The Justice Department now revealing that they are still discovering files from Jeffrey Epstein in all of the different parts of the Justice Department that had files related to him in various investigations. In this statement, this was just out about 20 minutes ago, the Justice Department now says the Southern District of New York, so that's their prosecutor's office out of Manhattan and the FBI have informed the Department of Justice, they've uncovered over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case.

The impact there, it means that the Department of Justice is going to be processing these before they can all be posted transparently under the law for weeks. Here's a little bit more of the statement. "We have lawyers working around the clock to review and make the legally required redactions to protect victims, and we will release the documents as soon as possible. Due to the mass volume of material, this process may take a few more weeks." This comes on the heels as well of yesterday. Prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida, so in and around Miami, being asked to volunteer their time and jump on board the group that is already looking at these Epstein files.

This email from leadership in the department said they needed volunteers. It was an emergency. They understood it was the holidays, but there are more documents than they have enough people to review, reviewing right now. They need more hands on deck. Sara? SIDNER: This is going to fuel all sorts of questions about how the DOJ has handled this, both the left and the right, both going after the DOJ. How does this all fit in with the law that has been put in place that the president signed, the Transparency Act as well? It requires that they had put these out way earlier all together, and now here we are.

POLANTZ: The requirement was that they would all have been released last Friday. That was the day for all of the files to become transparent, that was mandated for the Justice Department. They did not meet that deadline. And there's another deadline upcoming, January 3rd. That is the day when the Department of Justice is going to have to tell Congress, here's everything we did to redact in these files and the reasons for those redactions.

If they're not even through all of the documents by then, they're digging a hole that already is reaching a lot of people and getting a lot of public and political criticism for it. There are members of Congress calling for contempt for the attorney general for not meeting the deadline and others who want to go to court. It is not over. There are more files, and there will also be much more reaction as well. Sara?

SIDNER: Yeah, and we could have some of the files, not the million they haven't gone through, but some of the files that they have gone through already put out in any moment now. In the next couple of days, we're expecting those as well. I know you will be all over it and working really hard through the holidays, so I thank you, Katelyn Polantz, for joining us today with that breaking news. We will be right back.

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[14:22:45]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": 2025 was a big year for business, from soaring stocks to a surge in investment into A.I. by tech companies to the struggles of Americans with persistent inflation.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": What happens on Wall Street matters more than ever to Main Street, so what does 2026 have in store? Jack Crivici-Kramer and Nick Martell are the hosts of "The Best One Yet" business podcast and they join us now. So, fellas, thanks so much for being with us. Let's talk trends for next year. You all have said that you see some trends that could develop into the New Year, including self-driving cars.

Waymo is planning an expansion to more cities next year. How do you see that playing out, Jack?

JACK CRIVICI-KRAMER, CO-HOST, "THE BEST ONE YET" PODCAST: Merry Christmas Eve, Boris and Brianna. Great to be here.

(LAUGH)

CRIVICI-KRAMER: 2025 was the year that self-driving finally arrived at its destination. Right, Nick?

NICK MARTELL, CO-HOST, "THE BEST ONE YET" PODCAST: OK, yeah. Here in San Francisco, you got Waymo, five cities it's expanded to. 20 more planned for next year. You got Tesla Robotaxis catching up. I took one to work today to get to this studio. You got Amazon Zoox already in Las Vegas and San Francisco. Robotaxis are expanding next year at a pace that was not expected.

But here's what, Jack, I think is even less expected. And it's going to be a public attention win for the robotaxi industry. What do we got, Jack?

CRIVICI-KRAMER: Our 2026 kind of eccentric prediction is the first self-driving hotel. We're talking red-eye robotaxi rides.

MARTELL: Wow.

CRIVICI-KRAMER: So you go to sleep in your self-driving car in one city, and you wake up in another. Because to convince a skeptical public that self-driving cars are actually safe, you need a public spectacle. And a red-eye robotaxi ride is just that.

KEILAR: I kind of like that.

SANCHEZ: It's a good idea.

KEILAR: I've had to do something similar in, you know, moving between stories at times.

CRIVICI-KRAMER: Brianna, this is actually inspired by a book we read about the Brooklyn Bridge. So when they built that bridge across the East River, New Yorkers didn't believe it's possible that such a gigantic, spanning bridge could hold people. So they called up the Ringling Brothers Circus and got a dozen elephants in broad daylight to walk across the bridge. That's the kind of public spectacle that we think Americans are going to need to believe that self-driving cars are safe.

[14:25:00]

So, a CEO is going to livestream his eight-hour snooze on YouTube going from San Francisco to Las Vegas in a red-eye robotaxi ride.

KEILAR: Or maybe they can just move an elephant.

SANCHEZ: That'd be awesome.

KEILAR: City to city in a robotaxi.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: I would like that. I like what you're paying homage to. I think that would be excellent.

OK. So Nick, big deals were also the norm this year, especially for tech companies. And you think, you know, we could see some giant IPOs in 2026. Who, how much are we talking about? What do you think?

MARTELL: Oh, we are talking, Brianna, about something Jack and I call, IPO-luza. IPO, of course, standing for initial public offering. In 2026, Jack and I think it stands for initial public outburst. Because there are going to be more IPOs in 2026 of bigger size than since there was an actual wall on Wall Street.

First up, everyone is focusing on the trillion-dollar valuation of a SpaceX IPO. Then you've got people focusing on Anthropic and OpenAI, the first pure-play A.I. hyperscalers going public. So, we think there's going to be a battle and this is going to be the key word next year, over ticker symbols. Who is going to get the stock tickers for MARS? You know, SpaceX is going to jump on that. And who is going to get the ticker symbols so coveted, GPT? It's going to be Anthropic or it's going to be OpenAI. One of them is going to go public first and snag that.

And we're looking at potentially $5 trillion worth of size, $3 trillion to $5 trillion for the first time in public markets IPOing.

CRIVICI-KRAMER: Although, Nick, everyone's talking about Elon Musk and Sam Altman. Kim Kardashian may be the most culturally exciting IPO if it happens with Skims. Ticker symbol for that has got to be KIM. They're selling a billion dollars of merchandise right now, which has grown so fast, their private market valuation is five times that, $5 billion. They're adding 18 new stores in 2026. That's faster than Kris Jenner can get a facelift. If Skims hits the stock market --

(LAUGH)

CRIVICI-KRAMER: -- that might be even more exciting than SpaceX.

SANCHEZ: Those ticker symbols obviously going to carry a lot of meaning and weight and influence. At the same time, other companies though are hitting rough patches. Some are looking to rebound with new CEOs. Who do you all see having a bounce back year in 2026, starting with you, Jack?

CRIVICI-KRAMER: So two iconic brands, one of which Nick owns stock in -- sorry, Nick -- have hit their darkest moments in decades. We're talking about Nike and Starbucks. Both have new CEOs. Both have had deep stock market declines this year. And both have a ton of new competition. But the question is, to quote Batman, "Is the night darkest before the dawn?" Are Nike and Starbucks going to have big comebacks in 2026? We think the stage is set for that.

MARTELL: Yes, they seem to have hit lows. And so, Jack and I have been working on what can they do to lean into megatrends right now, macro trends to boost the stocks. And to start with Nike, we see a huge opportunity in hospitality. You look at the hospitality industry in 2025, it thrived despite what may be happening in the economy for many Americans.

You've got Louis Vuitton and other fashion brands launching hotels. That was unexpected. You've got restoration hardware doubling down as a company that makes home goods on hotels. So, we think there's an opportunity for Nike to expand into resorts, to build back the brand by going in full on hospitality, which is the ultimate expression of a brand and the best way to experience a brand. So, we think Nike can stage a comeback.

Remember, they've got a new CEO, Elliott. He's been there for about a year now. He can finally, now that he's done his cost cutting, he can finally start investing where the company has done things that it hasn't done before. And we think the first opportunity is in Nike hospitality. Just do it.

CRIVICI-KRAMER: Yeah. Again, we have a skeptical public that isn't sure that Nike is cutting edge when it comes to performance. Brooks, On running, Hoka, they've all kind of taken the lead in this running shoe race. But Nike could convince a skeptical public with a big public spectacle, the Nike Hotel Resort. It's all about fitness, cutting-edge materials, functional health, a wardrobe when you walk into the hotel room full of all your Nike gear in the size that you told them ahead. The ultimate gym to try out all that gear.

So, look, it might be a little bit of a crazy PR stunt, but that would get our attention and we'd be like, whoa, Nike is back, baby.

KEILAR: I like your big ideas. And I don't mean to quibble with Batman, but it's not darkest before the dawn. That's pre-dawn. It gets lighter, right, before the dawn.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: But, you know, nonetheless, I think we would welcome that maybe for both of those companies. So --

(LAUGH)

CRIVICI-KRAMER: I'm going to check with Commissioner Gordon on that.

KEILAR: I would. I think he's going to back me up.

(LAUGH)

KEILAR: So Nick, affordability. I mean, that's what everyone throws around here in politics in Washington. That is like the word of the moment. How could that be impacting businesses next year?

MARTELL: Yeah, Brianna, the word of the year on Wall Street was 'trillion'. Jack and I said the word trillion more times this year than we have in any other year. But the theme of the year was also affordability.

CRIVICI-KRAMER: Yeah. As in NVIDIA hit a $5 trillion valuation. Elon Musk got $1 trillion dollar pay package. Sam Altman announced $1 trillion --