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One World with Zain Asher
Two Killed in Car-ramming & Stabbing Attack in Northern Israel; Turkish Police Detain 115 Suspected Members of ISIS; Former Malaysian PM Najib Razak Sentenced to 15 Years; Trump Slams " Sleazebags Who Loved Jeffrey Epstein" in Christmas Post. Aired 11-11:30a ET
Aired December 26, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: Hello, everyone. Live from New York. I'm Bianna Golodryga. You are watching a special edition of "One World".
After months of warnings, President Trump says the U.S. launched air strikes on Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media quote, more to come. The U.S. military says the attack on Christmas Day in Northwest Nigeria,
killed multiple terrorists and happened in coordination with Nigerian authorities. The U.S. President has focused on Christians in Nigeria for
weeks, accusing terrorists of persecuting them.
In a post on Truth Social President Trump said, in part quote, I have previously warned these terrorists that if they don't stop the slaughtering
of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. Nigeria has been grappling with complex security problems driven by several
factors.
And experts say radical Islamists have targeted both Christian and Muslim populations. Nigeria's Foreign Minister says, it's not about religion, it's
about innocent civilians being killed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
YUSUF TUGGAR, NIGERIAN FOREIGN MINISTER: Any country that is willing to work with Nigeria based on our moral precepts and ethical considerations
and respect for our territorial integrity and sovereignty. We're prepared to do so, and we demonstrated this yesterday.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: CNN's Nada Bashir has been following the story and joins us now from London. Nada, Defense Secretary Hegseth says more to come. How is that
being interpreted?
NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Bianna, there have been no clear details as to what those next steps might look like. We've certainly been
hearing those warnings for some time now from the Trump Administration. President Trump himself in November saying that the U.S. could potentially
take direct action to target extremist Islamist groups in Nigeria, in his words, to protect the country's Christian population.
And that is certainly what we have seen overnight, this direct targeting of what is believed to you said to have been Islamic State militants in
Northwestern Nigeria, carries out by the United States in coordination with the Nigerian government. And we have, indeed, as you mentioned, heard from
the U.S. President already in relation to that targeted strike.
He in a post on social media saying it was a powerful and deadly strike against Islamic State terrorists. We've also heard from, of course, the
Nigerian Foreign Minister speaking to CNN, who made clear that this did not go ahead without the green light from the Nigerian President himself.
So, this certainly has been a coordinated effort. And of course, Nigeria has a long, deep, rooted history with security troubles when it comes to
extremist groups, particularly Islamist extremist groups. As you mentioned, Bianna, these groups have a history of targeting both Nigeria's Christian
and Muslim communities in the country, two of the largest religious groups in the country.
So, there is certainly a fort history when it comes to extremism and issues surrounding extremism in the country. Again, President Trump suggesting, of
course, that this is not a one and done sort of campaign, but that the country that the U.S. government and armed forces will be looking at
tackling any sort of signs of extremism in Nigeria.
In his words, again, to reiterate, to protect Nigeria's Christian community, Nigeria has taken a slightly different tone. We've been hearing
from government officials saying this has been an effort to protect all Nigerians from terrorism and from extremism. But again, no clear signals as
to what any sort of next steps will look like, whether that is carried out by the Nigerian government and armed forces or indeed with coordination
with the United States, again, as suggested by the defense secretary, Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Nada Bashir reporting live for us from London. We'll continue to follow this developing story. Also developing Ukrainian
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that he is now planning to meet with President Trump this Sunday in Florida.
He's cautioning that it may not lead to a firm agreement to end the war in Ukraine, but says the two sides will finalize as much as possible, and that
the agreement put together with the Americans is, quote, 90 percent ready. President Zelenskyy this week signaled a willingness to compromise on a
number of key issues in the negotiations and floated the idea of a de facto demilitarized zone in Eastern Ukraine.
[11:05:00]
Meantime, Russia is describing its progress with American mediators as slow and steady. Israeli police say two people were killed in a car ramming and
stabbing attack in Northern Israel. They say a Palestinian from the West Bank is responsible for a rolling terror attack.
They say he ran over a male pedestrian in Beit Shean then stabbed a young woman near Gan Harod before a bystander confronted him. The Israeli Defense
Minister has ordered a military operation in the suspect's hometown. A new video shows the moment an Israeli reservist soldier ran over a Palestinian
man while he was praying in the occupied West Bank.
A warning, the video is disturbing. Footage obtained by CNN shows a Palestinian Muslim man praying on the side of a road in Ramallah on
Thursday. Then an Israeli man drives a quad bike into the man, running him over. The Palestinian man eventually gets up.
The Israeli military says the same reservist soldier had been spotted firing his weapon while dressed in civilian clothes in the area just hours
before the incident. The Israeli Defense Forces says the incidents are under review, and based on the findings, the matter will be transferred to
the relevant authorities.
The IDF terminated the soldier's reserve service and confiscated his weapons. Well, Turkish police have launched major anti-terror raids across
the country, detaining at least 115 suspected members of ISIS. Authorities say they were plotting attacks linked to Christmas and New Year
celebrations, and were targeting non-Muslims.
Istanbul Prosecutors say operations to apprehend more suspects are ongoing. Police say so far, they have seized guns, ammunitions and organizational
documents. Turkey regularly ramps up counter terrorism operations around year's end, particularly since an ISIS attack on an Istanbul nightclub
killed dozens of people during New Year celebrations in 2017.
And in Syria, government officials say eight people were killed and several more injured in a bombing at a mosque in the City of Homs. State News
reports that the bombs were planted inside the mosque to target worshippers attending Friday prayer. Reuters reports the attack happened inside a
mosque of the Al Walid minority sect.
Syria has seen waves of sectarian violence since the fall of Bashar al- Assad last year. There have been no immediate claims or responsibility in today's attack. And in Malaysia, a court has sentenced former Prime
Minister Najib Razak to 15 years in prison and imposed a massive fine over his role in the 1MDB corruption scandal.
Judges found Najib guilty on multiple counts of abuse of power and money laundering involving more than half a billion dollars deposited into his
personal accounts. He has long denied those claims. The court ordered him to pay nearly $3 billion. The 72-year-old former prime minister has been in
prison since 2022.
Najib's attorney says that he plans to appeal. The Jeffrey Epstein investigation was on President Trump's mind over Christmas. He used one of
his dozens of holiday posts to wish, quote, Merry Christmas to all, including the many sleaze bags who loved Epstein.
Now it comes as the Justice Department says it has uncovered more than a million additional documents potentially related to the case, and that it
may need a few more weeks to review and release them to the public. Under the law signed by President Trump, all of the Epstein documents were
supposed to be released earlier last Friday.
Earlier, CNN spoke with James Marsh, an attorney who represents Maria Farber and other survivors of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse about the release of
the documents. Let's take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAMES MARSH, REPRESENTS SURVIVORS OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S ABUSE: For our purposes, at least, we've been asking for these documents since the summer.
I do believe that since they were identified with the Southern District of New York, which is the federal prosecution office there.
That these are the documents related to Jeffrey Epstein's prosecution as part of the tower financial scam and in a lease arrangement that he had
with the State Department. So, we know from the court files, these are pretty voluminous, just from what was filed in court.
And if these are the prosecution files, they're very important for uncovering, really, the genesis of Jeffrey Epstein, what he was engaged in,
in the 90s when my client Maria Farber made her complaint, and how well he was known, and we know that he was well known to the federal government at
that time.
So, these documents may not be relevant to the current period, but I think they're going to give us some important historical perspective on the
origins of Jeffrey Epstein.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: CNN's Marshall Cohen is tracking the developments for us. And Marshall to that point from the lawyer, how is the White House responding
to that argument that these documents can be important to the quote, origins of Jeffrey Epstein.
[11:10:00]
We know that the president and Epstein go back many, many years they, president had described them as friends before they had a rupture and their
relationship. Obviously, many people have been tied to Jeffrey Epstein.
MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It's true, Bianna. Well, Donald Trump has always denied all wrong doing with regards to Jeffrey Epstein and the
White House in the past week, as these revelations have come out, drip, drip, drip, they've tried to punt the attention over to Jeffrey Epstein's
connections to Democrats like Former President Bill Clinton, who also denies all wrong doing.
But it really was the bombshell on Wednesday from the Justice Department, where they revealed on Christmas Eve that there is so much potentially
still to come. We have seen hundreds of thousands of documents already released, but there might be a million more.
And I want to read for you what was in the tweet from the Justice Department where they dropped that bombshell. They said, quote, 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.
They went on to say that it might take weeks. They are pleading for patience, but so far, they're really not getting a lot of patience, Bianna.
Folks on Capitol Hill, lawmakers from both sides, Democrats and Republicans, have already responded with outrage, and there have been
threats, bipartisan threats, I should mention, to potentially hold DOJ leaders in contempt if this goes on for much longer.
GOLODRYGA: And you're also reporting Marshall, how social media users have noticed that unredacted allegations could actually be uncovered.
COHEN: Yeah, this was buzzing all week. Users on Reddit and TikTok and X had been posting that they found a way to unredact at least one of the
Epstein files, just by doing a simple copy and paste maneuver. If you copied the redacted part from the PDF and then pasted it in a Word
document, you could actually see what was under the redactions.
We tried it for ourselves. It's true, but I should point out that it only seems to affect one, maybe a tiny few additional documents out of the
hundreds of thousands. So, this is not a widespread issue, but it was very interesting to see what was under those redactions.
This document in question came from the U.S. Virgin Islands Attorney General who sued Epstein's estate in 2021, claiming that he basically had
ran a civil racketeering enterprise on their island, got a lot of tax breaks and tax incentives that ended up being fraudulent.
The Epstein estate denied wrong doing, but those redactions were quite revelatory.
GOLODRYGA: All right. Marshall Cohen will be checking out your reporting. Thank you so much. And we are keeping a close eye on two severe weather
warnings across the U.S., west and East Coast. In the West California is reeling from life threatening storms that have lashed the state to this
holiday week, emergency crews warn some areas could see more flooding today, as heavy rain continues to saturate the ground with relief, finally
expected by the weekend.
And here in the east, we're expecting a major winter storm to bring snow and ice with New York City expected to get more snow than it's seen in
years. CNN's Allison Chinchar has the details.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We have two separate systems that we are keeping a close eye on. The first one, that's the one that's expected
to wrap up as we finish up the rest of the day on the West Coast into the Northeast. This is the next area to watch.
The system itself will be sliding from the Midwest into the Northeast as we go through the remainder of the day today. But we begin in California,
where there is still a threat for excessive rainfall and flooding across portions of Southern California and even this narrow path through Central
California, in anticipation of the extra rain that we are expected to get throughout the rest of the day today.
When you look at the forecast, you will see that surge of moisture into Southern California. But then finally, by the time we get to Saturday, all
things clear back out, and we finally get some drier conditions, not just Saturday, but also into Sunday. And this will continue at least through the
early portion of next week.
Now, additional rainfall totals, you're looking at maybe an extra one to three inches in most places. But remember, this is on top of what these
areas have already had, which is what's likely going to cause some concern. It's also going to keep their temperatures on the cooler side out to the
West, whereas much of the central portion of the country is dealing with temperatures above average, not just 5 or 10 degrees, but near record
breaking.
You're talking 20 to even 30 degrees above where they normally would be this time of year, and this will continue through the rest of the weekend.
The other cool spot is going to be the Northeast. And this is why this is important, because that means when this next system begins to slide
through, it's going to bring a lot of winter precipitation.
The purple color here indicating the snow. The pink is a little bit of a wintry mix, excuse me, where you have some sleet and even some freezing
rain.
[11:15:00]
This is going to continue to slide into the Northeast as we go through the remainder of the day today, and especially through the evening hours. Some
of this will still be wrapping up early tomorrow morning, especially across places like New York, Hartford and even around Boston.
But by the time we get to lunch time, that system finally exits the area, some of these locations could be looking at upwards of a quarter of an inch
of ice. This is a concern, because as that accumulates on trees and power lines, it could lead to some power outages.
And then in terms of snow fall, this could vary slightly, but there are going to be some isolated locations that could pick up 8 to 12 inches
total.
GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to CNN's Allison Chinchar for that report. And still to come for us on "One World". It's a very happy holiday for one lucky
power ball lottery winner. We're going live to the town where the ticket was sold just ahead. Plus, our pet's property or family.
We'll tell you about new legislation in Mexico that addresses custody of pets in a divorce.
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GOLODRYGA: More than $1.8 billion that's what one lucky lottery winner nabbed in the Powerball jackpot on Christmas Eve, making for a very happy
holiday. It's the second largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever, and the largest Powerball prize this year. The ticket was sold at a Murphy, USA gas station
in Cabot, Arkansas.
We don't know who the winner is, but Arkansas is among a growing number of states allowing winners to stay anonymous. So, let's go there, where we
find our CNN's Rafael Romo standing by. And Rafael, we know that the Powerball was a hefty sum when we start sending our own reporters to the
scene where it was purchased.
Just talk about what we know, perhaps we may never find out who this winner is. But what are you hearing around you and at that station where the
ticket was sold?
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, one thing, Bianna, is that it's probably going to be three years. Local law says that whoever won this may
remain anonymous for three years, but the lucky winner, or winners, it could have been a group of people as well, bought their ticket at this
Murphy, USA gas station right behind me.
We're in Cabot, Arkansas, population 27,000. We're located about 25 miles northeast of Little Rock.
[11:20:00]
I've been talking to people here, Bianna. And what they tell me is that they used to feel like they never won anything. Well, that has surely
changed, that the winning ticket was sold here, and according to Powerball, the jackpot on Christmas Eve was $1.8 billion with a cash option.
Listen to this, Bianna, of almost 835 million, making it the second largest U.S. lottery jackpot ever. The winner, or winners, will have to go to the
Arkansas scholarship lotteries downtown office to claim their prize. They have 180 days of the drawing to do it. And there are many questions about
this.
And one of them, Bianna, is what should the lucky winner be doing right now? This is what Sharon Strong, the Executive Director of the Arkansas
Scholarship Lottery, and an attorney herself, told me about that. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARON STRONG, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE ARKANSAS SCHOLARSHIP LOTTERY: I would be talking with my financial advisor. I would probably get some
accounts set up to invest that money and to you know, maybe set up a trust. And, you know, I may not come. I would, definitely lock the ticket away in
a safe place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: Now, Bianna, the store that sells the winning ticket gets a 1 percent commission on the price, but that commission is capped at $50,000 which is
the amount this Murphy USA gas station will get. Arkansas, we were talking about this at the beginning. Is one of a growing number of states that
allow lottery winners to remain anonymous.
Since 2021 the state has allowed winners of prices over half a million dollars to shield their identities, though, those names become public after
three years. So again, we don't know yet, but you know, you can bet your bottom dollar that somebody is very, very happy right now. Bianna, now back
to you.
GOLODRYGA: With a small community there in Cabot. I'm sure a lot of neighbors are going around asking each other, was it you? Was it you?
Anyway, great attention. Great reason for so much attention on that small town of Cabot, Arkansas. Rafael Romo, thank you so much.
Well, when relationships end, some couples fight over children, over custody of the children, but what about custody of the pets? Mexico City
has passed new reforms aimed at resolving the question of who gets the dog. CNN's Valeria Leon has learned more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VALERIA LEON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In Mexico City, pets are no longer considered mere property in the case of a breakup. A new reform to
the Civil Code now treats dogs and cats as family members, allowing judges to grant custody when couples separate.
For Leslie and David, that change reflects a decision they made on their own. Even six months after they split, they're still connected, not by
legal paperwork, but by the three dogs they adopted during their five-year relationship. Leslie says it wasn't based on convenience, but on the
emotional bond each dog had with its caregiver.
David agreed, any decision, he says, had to cause the least amount of emotional stress possible for their dogs. And that approach, prioritizing
the animal's well-being is exactly what lawmakers say they was missing in many breakups. Lebismas (ph) says that behavior is far more common than
cases like Leslie and David's.
In many separations, dogs and cats become bargaining tools used as leverage or to cause emotional damage. That pattern is what prompted Congress to
act. Lawmakers approved the reform known as who gets the dog, which formally recognizes animals in divorce cases.
Under the law, judges can grant full or short custody, and just like in child custody cases, failure to comply with the judge's decision, can carry
legal consequences. And while the law is meant to resolve disagreements for Leslie and David, it confirms something they already knew, that sometimes
love means letting go and putting the dogs first. Valeria Leon, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Thanks to Valeria for that very insightful report. All right, we are one step closer to the end of the hit show "Stranger Things".
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This whole time, everything we have ever assumed about the upside down has been dead wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Three new episodes are now streaming on Netflix.
[11:25:00]
This is the second installment of the fifth and final season. The finale drops on New Year's Eve. And finally, before we go, Netflix gave
"Bridgerton" fans the ultimate Christmas present, a new trailer for season 4.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We begin another season. I should like great gossip.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The social season might look a little --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, he must begin the proper way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dearest gentle reader.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: This season follows the second "Bridgerton" son Benedict as he searches for love in a Cinderella retelling. He sets out to uncover the
identity of the mysterious lady in silver that he meets at a masquerade ball. New and old faces are returning for season 4.
The first installment drops January 29 followed by part two on February 26. All right. Well, that does it for "One World" today. Stay with CNN "Elite
Escapes", Bodrum, is up next.
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