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Connect the World

Pope Urges Peace & Unity in Ukraine, Middle East; Zelenskyy Signals Willingness to Compromise in Donbas; Christmas at Bondi Beach in the Wake of Shooting Tragedy; DOJ Discovers a Million More Possible Epstein File Documents; Korean Man Recounts Story of Christmas Birth 75 Years Ago. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 25, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST, CONNECT THE WORLD: Hello, everyone. Live from New York, I'm Bianna Golodryga. This is a special Christmas edition of

"Connect the World". And Christmas Day is being celebrated around the world with Pope Leo using his first Christmas message to call for peace, unity

and compassion.

The pope delivered the traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing from the St. Peter's Basilica in the past few hours. He prayed for the people of

Ukraine, calling for a pause in fighting as well as dialog. He also denounced the suffering of people in Gaza and elsewhere around the world,

saying that by becoming man, Jesus could truly identify with human anguish.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE LEO, HEAD OF CATHOLIC CHURCH: From God, let us ask for justice, peace and stability for Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Syria. Trusting in these

divine words, the effect of righteousness will be peace and the result of righteousness, quietness and trust forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: Christopher Lamb is in Rome with more of the pope's address today. It was a rainy address. Nonetheless, people flocked to hear from the

pope, his first in the papacy as addressing the world. And also, Christopher speaking to the conflict and the war in Ukraine, saying that

both Russia and Ukraine need to find the courage for, quote, sincere, direct and respectful dialog. What else was heard from the pope today?

CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, Pope Leo using this first Christmas since his election to really try and apply the message

of Christmas to conflicts around the world, saying that Christmas is about peace. And he wanted to see the Christmas message being taken up in, as you

say, places like Russia and Ukraine, in Gaza and in many other parts of the globe.

Leo addressing a large crowd in St. Peter's, who gathered despite the bad weather, the cold and the wet, and he spoke them in different languages,

and said Happy Christmas in Arabic and in Chinese. There was a festive and celebratory atmosphere, as well as a very serious message from the pope on

this first Christmas since his election earlier this year, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Christopher Lamb, thank you so much. Live from St. Peter's there. Appreciate it. Merry Christmas to you. Well, Ukraine is

marking its third straight Christmas during wartime today. And it moved the holiday to December, 25 two years ago today, to distance itself from the

traditions of Russia's Orthodox Church, which celebrates in January.

The holiday comes amid ongoing negotiations to bring an end to the war. When asked about a 20-point peace plan during the that is currently under

discussion, the Kremlin would only say that it is analyzing the latest documents. Nada Bashir is live in London for more.

We know that President Putin had expressed Christmas wishes to President Trump. Other than that, no conversation about the latest proposal from

President Zelenskyy. What more are we hearing from Kyiv on this point, Nada?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And in fact, we heard from the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, saying that it would be

unproductive to discuss the progress and developments behind the scenes on this 20-point peace plan with reporters or with the public in general.

So clearly, discussions are still ongoing. The Kremlin has said that it will maintain communications and dialog through open communication channels

over the coming weeks. So, we may expect to see some developments, some updates from the Kremlin in the near future, as they have said.

But of course, on the side of Ukraine, we have been hearing more positive indications from President Zelenskyy with regards to the possibility of

Ukraine making concessions to push this peace plan forward. Now we've seen over the last few days is a continuation of Russia's assault on Ukraine, a

continuation and ramping up, really, of Russia's bombardment of Ukraine.

And that is something that President Zelenskyy had warned about. He had said that his armed forces were on high alert around the Christmas period.

We have, of course, in previous Christmases during wartime in Ukraine, seen that ramping up of Russian attacks.

And that is certainly been the case this time around, when we have seen attacks not only being carried out on Christmas Eve as referenced by

President Zelenskyy during his Christmas address to the nation.

[09:05:00]

But also, now today another series of attacks targeting Kharkiv. So clearly, we are still seeing that doubling down of the Russian assault on

Ukraine. President Zelenskyy, however, has signaled to reporters that he may be willing to make concessions when it comes to territory, and that is

a crucial sticking point that has long really stalled negotiations and peace talks from going forward.

He has been quite specific in terms of the potential to cede some territory in the Donetsk region. That was an area that President Putin had long

insisted that Ukraine cede territory. He is, in fact, pushed for effectively all territory in the Donetsk region to be seized, but of course

-- ceded, but of course, in return for that, Zelenskyy has also been clear, as outlined to reporters, that he would expect to see Russia also ceding

territory in parts of Ukraine to an equivalent amount.

And there is a whole list of wide ranging areas where President Zelenskyy would expect to see guarantees, not only from Russia, but also from

international allies, in order to push forward with this peace plan, including guarantees of Ukraine sovereignty, including non-aggression

agreements between Ukraine and Russia, including security guarantees from the U.S., from NATO nations, from EU nations, as well as some sort of

concrete commitment from its international partners and allies for an economic recovery plan.

So, this is a broad ranging, wide ranging peace plan. But of course, there has been significant, there has been several moments where we've seen this

peace plan stalling. The pressure seems to be ramping up from the U.S. and international allies to get this peace plan forward.

Clearly now, that needle seems to be moving slightly on the Ukrainian front, but we will wait to see how Russia responds, Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, and these concessions from President Zelenskyy not only include land perhaps from the Donbas, but also earlier, Ukraine had

conceded that it would not be demanding or requiring NATO membership, at least in the immediate future.

These concessions, though, do seem to be all one sided at this point, coming from Ukraine, not much from Russia. Nada Bashir thank you so much.

Well, Christmas celebrations are muted this year and Australia's Bondi Beach in the wake of the mass shooting targeting Jews nearly two weeks ago.

That was when 15 people were killed when they were celebrating the first night of Hanukkah. Police patrolled Bondi Beach in Sydney as hundreds of

people, some in Santa hats, gathered for their traditions this year, while also remembering the victims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK ALEXANDER, BRITISH TOURIST: I think it's nice. You know, everyone's coming together, celebrating Christmas. You know, everyone's clearly

enjoying the beach, enjoying Christmas day. So, it's nice that can happen, even though, you know, there's a lot of upset that happened recently.

MARK CONROY, BRITISH TOURIST: It's like a celebration, but everybody has got it in the memories, and everybody is respectful of what happened. And

everybody, and I mean, everyone is feeling for their family and friends who are going through the worst possible thing you could imagine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: The attack prompted stricter public meeting rules in Sydney that were passed on Wednesday. And still ahead for us, the U.S. Justice

Department announces another delay, and it's releasing more of the Epstein files. Ahead, why the DOJ is now saying it could take weeks to make public

the rest of the massive trove of documents.

Plus, flooding, rain, rescues and evacuations as a powerful storm hit Southern California. We'll have the very latest conditions for you.

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GOLODRYGA: The U.S. Justice Department says that it has lawyers working around the clock to review and redact over a million more files that it

discovered that are potentially related to the Epstein investigation. The department says the new materials came from the Southern District of New

York and the FBI.

And it warns it may take a few more weeks to go through all of them. That's prompting bipartisan criticism from lawmakers who are already angry, not

just with the slow rollouts of the documents, but also the heavy-handed redactions without explanation on files that have already been made public.

Under federal law, the DOJ was supposed to release all documents related to the case last Friday. CNN's Kevin Liptak joins me now live from West Palm

Beach, Florida, near President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. So potentially another million documents to be released from this trove.

What is the DOJ saying in terms of new information that I believe Kevin for so long, the DOJ had been saying that all of the investigation, all of the

information, had already been known and closed.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, it is puzzling, really, because this information that's coming from the Southern District

of New York, these million more pages of documents all originate from when that department was charging Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine

Maxwell. Those proceedings occurred in some cases, many, many years ago.

You know, in 2019, and 2020, so they have been in existence for some years now. So why they're just coming to light at this moment has not been fully

explained. And remember, just over the weekend, Todd Blanche, who's the number two at the Justice Department, said at that point there was still a

million pages to go through to redact to ensure that there was no identifying information about some of the victims.

And so at this point, there are now perhaps as many as 2 million pages that Justice Department lawyers are going through to try and release now, after

that Friday deadline, we did get -- kind of a glimpse of the scramble under way at the Justice Department when we learned about this memo that was sent

out to prosecutors, career prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Florida.

Asking them to work through the weekend and work through the Christmas and holiday stretch to continue these redactions really sort of an all-hands-on

deck effort to try and get these documents out. I think underscoring the pressure that The Justice Department feels now to get everything out amid

this bipartisan outcry in Congress that they didn't meet that Friday deadline.

And so yesterday, what we heard from Robert Garcia, who is a Democrat, he said that it was outrageous that the DOJ has illegally withheld over 1

million documents from the public. We heard from the Democratic Leader in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, who said that justice delayed is justice denied

released the files follow the law.

And so, I think still quite a bit of explaining to do, perhaps from the Justice Department, from the White House's perspective, I also don't think

this is necessarily good news. They have been somewhat dismayed at how these documents have been released, kind of this drip, drip, drip that puts

them on the defensive every couple of days to explain, for example, the mentions of President Trump.

And you saw that occur just earlier this week, the Justice Department very much going to bat in a highly unusual manner for President Trump on their

own social media accounts, saying that some of the information was false, that it was sensationalist. And so, I think it's clear that even as

President Trump, you know, tries to quiet down in the holiday stretch here in Palm Beach, that this will continue to be an issue for them in the

foreseeable future.

GOLODRYGA: Well, I hope you, my friend, Kevin, get to quiet down and enjoy the holiday personally as well. Merry Christmas to you. Thanks so much for

working today and all of your hard work. Appreciate it. Well, it is a very wet Christmas for parts of the U.S., as dangerous storm is battering

California, bringing flooding rain, powerful winds and heavy mountain snow.

[09:15:00]

Evacuations are under way across Southern California, including Wrightwood, where mud and debris flow have triggered rescues. Flood warnings remain in

effect through Christmas Day. CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with the latest. Never good news for residents to wake up to and have to

deal with, especially as they are trying to celebrate the holidays and Christmas today, when if any relief is in sight, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, so we've got two more systems we have to get through. But finally, once we get to this weekend, we should

start to see things drying back out for the state as a whole. So, one of those bands is now ongoing, so that first wave is going to be throughout

much of the rest of the morning into the early afternoon hours.

And you're seeing that now these last few frames very heavy rain and snow moving in across portions of northern and central California. We've already

had several locations pick up at least half a foot of rain, some even nearing that one foot marker, and they likely may get there, especially

once we take into account how much more rain is expected to fall today and tomorrow.

Here's a look, a little bit more of a zoomed in path on portions of northern and central California. You can see the snow up there across

portions of the Sierras, but the very heavy rain that has now started to exit San Francisco, pushing more into Sacramento, but that next round

should be arriving very soon.

Here's a look at Southern California. We've still got a flash flood warning, in effect, just to the northwest of L.A. as that next round of

rain is expected to slide in. So, both today and tomorrow, we still have the potential for excessive rainfall across central and southern California

because of these two waves.

That first wave is ongoing. Here's a look at that second wave. It comes in basically about 7, 8, 9 o'clock this evening, focused really on northern

and central California. Then as we go a little bit farther into the day Friday, you see more of the focus begins to take over portions of Southern

California.

But then by the time we get to the weekend, finally, we start to see some relief as areas begin to dry back out. The concern, though, is the short

term, because until we get to the weekend, we still have more rain that is anticipated to hit some of these areas. Especially in Southern California,

you could still be looking at an extra four to six inches of rain in some of these spots, even into Central California, the same thing.

And then when you talk about the higher elevations, places like the Sierras, now you're talking an extra couple of feet of snow. Again, this is

on top of what they've already had. So, travel, say, between Reno-Tahoe and then over to the west, is likely going to be dicey for the next 24 hours.

GOLODRYGA: The weekend can't come soon enough. Allison Chinchar, thank you so much. Still to come for us. One lucky person has 1.8 billion reasons to

celebrate this Christmas. We'll have the latest on the Powerball jackpot winner.

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GOLODRYGA: Three quarters of a century ago, five Korean families fled their homeland as forces from the north invaded. They boarded an American cargo

ship in 1950 and later in that ship's hold, five Christmas babies were born. Our Mike Valerio spoke to one of the miracle babies about the

family's escape and his decades long search for siblings left behind.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SOHN YANG-YOUNG, "MIRACLE BABY": Every day, my parents told me that mom had given birth to me on the ship. I am the first out of a total of five

miracle babies in terms of delivery who were born on the cargo vessel SS Meredith Victory.

[09:20:00]

He's been called a Christmas miracle, born Christmas Day 1950 aboard an American ship. Al SS marriages, victory.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He's been called a Christmas miracle. Born Christmas Day 1950 aboard an American ship carrying about

14,000 North Koreans escaping communist forces during the Korean War.

YANG-YOUNG: My family I brought --

VALERIO (voice-over): This is Sohn Yang-young, who he met in Seoul. His parents, 75 years ago, were told to shelter in South Korea as fighting got

closer to their home near the North Korean port of Hungnam. They hoped to leave for just a few weeks, but they would never see North Korea again.

BURLEY SMITH, FORMER JUNIOR THIRD MATE, SS MEREDITH VICTORY: All of a sudden, we got the word, hey, they need you up in Hungnam.

VALERIO (voice-over): 97-year-old Burley Smith is the last living crew member of the Meredith Victory. An American cargo ship radioed by U.S.

military commanders to set sail on an urgent refugee rescue mission into North Korean waters. Smith still remembers the scene at the northern port.

SMITH: It looked like Times Square in New York on Christmas Eve, people just packed on the dock with babies on their backs and men, women, lot of

children.

VALERIO (voice-over): The American sailors jammed as many people into the cargo holds as possible. But Sohn said his parents did not bring their

other two children, thinking the journey could be dangerous and the separation temporary. Sohn remembered what his father said.

YANG-YOUNG: Since I was young, when I was able to understand words, they used to tell me, "You're all I have, I left your brother and sister in the

north."

VALERIO (voice-over): The conditions on the ship for Sohn's mother, nine months pregnant with him, were abysmal.

SMITH: I've never been so cold in my life. And the folks who were down below had no heat. They were locked into these holes, no electricity, no

light, no heat, no water, no food and no toilets.

VALERIO (voice-over): But even in these conditions, five healthy babies were born. Sohn was the first, Christmas 1950 named temporarily Kimchi by

the crew.

SMITH: And the only word that any of us knew in Korean was Kimchi. So, one of our crew must have said, hey, that's Kimchi number one. That's number

two. And so forth.

VALERIO (voice-over): The Meredith Victory made it to safety to what is now the shipping powerhouse of Geoje Island, South Korea. Smith, Sohn and Lee

Kyung-pil aka Kimchi 5 have reunited all these years later, but what remains a wound. Sohn has never seen his brother and sister.

YANG-YOUNG: My dad passed away about 40 years ago, and my mom 20 years ago. Their last words were, "We couldn't find your brother and sister, so you

must find them."

VALERIO (voice-over): Decades of trying have been unsuccessful. The walls sealing off North Korean society difficult to break through. But on the

75th anniversary of his parents escape Sohn has a message for his siblings.

YANG-YOUNG: Brother Sohn Tae-young and sister Sohn Young-ok. I'm waiting day by day, still searching for you. Our father Sohn Chi-hoo and mother

Park Soon-jeol tried hard to find you and have not forgotten about you, even for a day, since fleeing and until they passed away. We have to meet

again.

VALERIO (voice-over): Mike Valerio, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: What a powerful and touching story. Our thanks to Mike Valerio for that report. Well, someone in Arkansas woke up Christmas morning nearly

$2 billion richer. Powerball officials say a single lottery ticket sold in Arkansas won the $1.8 billion jackpot.

That is the second largest U.S. lottery prize ever. CNN's Randi Kaye is following the story for us. You know, there are some people who are

expecting gifts this morning, and then there's a $1.8 billion gift.

RANDI KAYE, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah.

GOLODRYGA: Just talk about what we know about this lucky winner?

KAYE: Well, they're very lucky, certainly quite the stocking stuffer, right, Bianna. But we don't know much about the winner. Just yet. We have

been checking we don't know where the winning ticket was sold just yet for that $1.8 billion. We don't know who the winner is, so we don't know the

store and we don't know the winner.

But we do have the winning numbers, just in case someone else wants to check their ticket. And here they are. They're 4, 25, 31, 52 and 59 and

then the red Powerball is 19. Now the drawing got pushed actually even higher because of all these last-minute ticket sales.

[09:25:00]

People wanting in on this lottery, making it the second largest jackpot in the U.S. lottery history. Now, the odds of winning these are really

something. According to Powerball, it's something like one in 292 million that you could actually win. Now, the jackpot has been won once before on

Christmas Eve.

It's also been won before, on Christmas day, but they've never reached a billion dollars. But the winner of this prize, Bianna, does have some

options. They can get the cash option, which is a lump sum payment of a mere 834.9 million. Or they can take 29 annual payments, which increase by

5 percent as the years go on.

Most winners do take the lump sum, but all of this, of course, is before taxes as well. We should note. But there was one big winner on Wednesday,

but there were some other winners. Actually, eight tickets also won a million dollars. So that's a little extra cash in the stockings.

And those tickets were sold in California, Indiana, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. And then also, just nationwide here in the

U.S., 114 tickets won a $50,000 prize, and 31 tickets won $100,000 that's according to Powerball. And the Powerball jackpot now resets to a mere $20

million which sounds like nothing compared to that nearly 2 billion, right?

GOLODRYGA: Yeah, pocket change. Well, hopefully that $1.8 billion winner will be footing Christmas dinner tonight.

KAYE: Absolutely.

GOLODRYGA: Out the bill for that. Randi Kaye, thanks so much.

KAYE: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Well, in the next hour, King Charles will broadcast his annual Christmas address, which has been prerecorded from Westminster Abbey.

Earlier in the day, the royal family turned out for Christmas church service in Sandringham. The king and queen were joined by the Prince and

Princess of Wales, as well as their children.

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie also attended the service that's being seen as a show of support from the king, in spite of the scandal surrounding

their father, Andrew. When the German capital swimmers, young and alike, took a cold Christmas Day plunge to ring in the holidays.

Dressed in their Santa hats and Christmas garb, the Berlin seals braved a frigid lake earlier today. The temperature outside was just minus eight

degrees Celsius. Members of the group range in age from 12 to nearly 90 years old. The tradition has been going on for 40 years.

Wow, I can understand the 12-year-old, but a 90-year-old, those are some brave swimmers. All right, wishing everybody a Merry Christmas, today. I am

Bianna Golodryga in New York. I'll be back in about 90 minutes time with more news. Next, it's vital signs with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Do you stay with

CNN.

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