Return to Transcripts main page

One World with Zain Asher

Eurostar Suspends Channel Tunnel Service; Ukraine Denies Russian Claim Of Drone Attack On Putin Residence; Trump warns Iran Against Rebuilding Missile Program; FBI, DHS Descend On Minnesota After Video Alleges Fraud; Questions Remain After DOJ Misses Congressional Deadline; Madrid's Traditional Preparations For New Year's Eve; Sticking To Your new Year's Resolution; Cape Town Academy trains Young Tech Talent; Aired 12-1p ET

Aired December 30, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:41]

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR: It's rush hour in London. If you're traveling on Eurostar, good luck to you. The second hour of "One World" starts right

now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR: Eurostar has suspended its cross-channel train services during the busiest period of all the winter travel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: I mean, did anyone want to hear that? It's one of the busiest rail corridors in Europe, and right now, there are serious delays. When, how,

and why coming up.

Plus, war of words. The Kremlin doubles down in its claim that Ukraine attacked Putin's residents. They haven't offered any proof.

Also ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I hear that Iran is trying to build up again. And if they are, we're going to have to knock them down.

We'll knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: New warnings. Donald Trump puts Iran on notice saying where there's smoke, there's fire.

And later, love them or hate them, just the season for New Year's resolutions. How to make them keep them and flourish, that later this hour.

Live from New York, I'm Paula Newton. Zain and Bianna are off today. You are watching "One World."

At the height of the busy winter travel period, all rail travel through the Channel Tunnel is at a standstill because of a power supply failure.

Getlink, which operates the infrastructure in the tunnel between Britain and France, says repairs are underway this hour, but travelers have been

warned of severe delays. This disruption affects Eurostar high-speed train service and LeShuttle, which transports cars and other vehicles.

CNN's business economics reporter Anna Cooban is right across the story from us from London. You saw some of the chaos at the London rail hub

firsthand wondering where we stand right now. And do we have a timeline on when the service might resume?

ANNA COOBAN, CNN BUSINESS ECONOMICS REPORTER: Well, things are easing up now, Paula. We've seen Eurostar say that some services have been resumed,

but they are still warning passengers, you know, don't turn up to the station. Don't travel if -- if it's -- if it's not completely necessary.

They said that those trains that will be running expect severe delays and even late last-minute cancellation. So people are not completely out of the

woods yet.

And this all happened because of an overhead supply or power failure earlier in the day. It caused trains to break down. And we took one train

called LeShuttle. This is the train that carries cars and trucks with people inside them under the channel tunnel.

That was been broken down for hours and has now been removed. But I went to King's Cross Station, the terminal in London, from which a lot of these,

well, all these Eurostar trains leave for Paris. I spoke to one man who had been in a Eurostar train behind that LeShuttle that broken down Le Shuttle

earlier. And he said that he wasn't underwater, but he was stuck on that train for around six hours.

And I spoke to another woman who said that she's looking at cancelling her New Year's Eve plans in Rotterdam. So, the repercussions of this are far-

reaching and financially. You know, Eurostar has said that it is allowing passengers to rebook and to -- to rebook at a different time and date.

And so the financial repercussions for Eurostar is something that is yet to be calculated. But we can expect with thousands of passengers affected that

it will be quite big.

NEWTON: Yes. And the issue here is they want to make sure the passengers are not stranded there. So they'll want to reserve service when they know

that it is 100 percent reliable and safe.

Anna Cooban for us. Thanks for following up on this story.

Peace is on the horizon. Those remarks from Poland's Prime Minister as European leaders express optimism about reaching a deal to end Russia's war

in Ukraine following their talks earlier today.

Now, this despite signs that an already fragile peace process could be unraveling as the battle continues on the ground. Kyiv is denying Moscow's

claim that Ukraine targeted one of the Russian resident's residences.

The Kremlin claims the attack took place in Novgorod region with no reported damage or casualties. Ukraine vehemently rejects those claims.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I don't -- I don't trust Putin. And he doesn't want success for Ukraine, really, he doesn't want.

He can say it. I believe that he can say such words to President Trump. I believe in it that he can say it, but it's -- it's not -- it's not truth,

really.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:04]

NEWTON: Now, the U.S. president says Vladimir Putin told him of the claim in a phone call early Monday and he seemed to take Putin's word on it

before conceding that the incident may not have occurred. That prompted criticism from a Republican lawmaker.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): There's a moral blindness here. There's a moral ambiguity. I do not get it. And that's why I'm very vocal because this will

go down in the history books. And I want America to be on the right side of this. And I want to be on the right side of it. And I hope the president

sees, he's going down as a chamberlain, not as a Churchill, when it comes to this particular war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Meantime, Russia is showcasing missiles that could boost its ability to strike targets across Europe. Moscow released this video Tuesday

and said to be close to Belarus. And Belarus is a close ally.

President Putin says the nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile system is impossible to intercept. The missile speed is reportedly more than 10

times the speed of sound. Some western officials have expressed skepticism.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Berlin. I mean, look, Fred, you're following this so closely. I do want to get to two important issues.

First, though, let's deal with whether or not there is any proof that Ukraine tried to and they did target one of Putin's residences.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, so far, the Russians really haven't presented very much in the way of evidence.

However, they keep saying that this attack took place.

And in fact, there were several phone calls that Vladimir Putin had today with the leaders from around the world, one of them being with the

president of Iran, who also condemned this alleged attack.

But again, so far, the Russians have not shown any debris of any of these UAVs that apparently those drones that apparently flew close to a residence

near Novgorod, nor have they showed any video of the residence itself in Novgorod, whether or not there is any damage there.

And in fact, there was a phone call earlier today with a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, where he was asked whether there was any concrete evidence

this attack had taken place. And he sort of scoffed at all of this, saying that there was no evidence necessary that all of the UAVs, all the drones,

had been shot down by Russian air defenses. He called any claims that this was not true, to be crazy, insane claims. And then also went over or went

into a tirade against the Ukrainians, accusing them of trying to undermine President Trump, U.S. President Trump's peace process.

And at the same time, also saying, this is probably the most important thing that we drew from that phone conversation, that the Russians were now

going to take a harder line in those negotiations.

The Russians are saying, as far as they're concerned, the negotiations will continue. But the Russians say they are going to be tougher, even more

tough than they have already been in the past.

NEWTON: Yes, which brings us to the next question, right? We have some optimism, apparently from Poland. I'm not sure why, given that Donald Tusk

himself, you know, posted on social media, good luck to President Zelenskyy as he went into that Mar-a-Lago meeting.

And, Fred, to me, it seems like the United States, Ukraine, European allies are speaking to themselves. Do you see any opening here? And I know how

closely you follow this. You just returned from Moscow. Do you see any opening here?

Because many are saying that what Russia is doing is just stalling because they have a very significant spring offensive that they are preparing for.

PLEITGEN: Well, the Russians certainly feel that right now they have the momentum on the battlefield, and therefore, it is the Ukrainians who would

need a pause in fighting and not the Russians.

That's one of the reasons why they're against any notion of a temporary ceasefire that, of course, the Ukrainians are demanding, if for instance,

there would be a referendum on any sort of peace agreement, which could include, of course, Ukraine's seeding territory to the Russians. And, of

course, the Ukrainians say that needs to be brought in front of the Ukrainian people.

But at the same time, the process does appear to be moving forward. There does appear to still be a lot of momentum. One of the interesting things

that we've heard from the Ukrainians, from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, just a couple of minutes ago, he said, despite the fact that these claims were out

there by the Russians, that there has once again already been a phone call between members of his own team, Rustem Umerov, who is, of course, the

chief negotiator for the Ukrainians and Steve Witkoff, who's really been going full speed at trying to move this forward and apparently is still

trying to move things forward.

Zelenskyy is saying that the team discussed the possible next step forward. And, of course, we've heard from Volodymyr Zelenskyy. We've heard from U.S.

President Donald Trump, that both of them believe about 90 percent of the issues, at least as far as the U.S. Ukrainian Europeans are concerned,

about 90 percent of the issues have been ironed out, territories, of course, a big issue, and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.

But it certainly seems as though, despite this hiccup with this alleged drone attack that again is still contested, whether or not it happened,

things certainly do still seem to be moving forward.

[12:10:01]

And one of the other things that Zelenskyy also said on that phone call with journalists as well, he said that January could be a time when some of

the documents surrounding a possible peace agreement for Ukraine could be ready for signing.

He also keeps talking about his willingness to meet Vladimir Putin, to meet with the Russians. But, of course, we know that so far from the Russians'

perspective, there's been very little willingness to do that.

NEWTON: And again, we may see documents, but we are not seeing documents from Russia. We are nowhere near, it seems, to that point where we have the

outlines of what would be acceptable to Russia in any kind of peace deal.

Fred Pleitgen from Berlin. Grateful to you.

Now, the second phase of the U.S.-brokered peace plan for Gaza appears to be on hold since the ceasefire took effect in October.

Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed on Monday. U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed the lack of progress, insisting he is not concerned about

Israel's conduct in Gaza.

While Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to reach an agreement on the second phase, they did exchange plenty of compliments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The relationship has been extraordinary, and Bibi is a strong man. He can be very difficult on occasion. But you need a strong man. If you had

a weak man, you wouldn't have Israel right now.

Israel would have been -- you know, Israel with most other leaders would not exist today.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think Israel is very blessed to have President Trump leading the United States. And I'll say leading the

free world at this time. I think it's not merely Israel's great fortune. I think it's the world's great fortune.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Now, President Trump claims Iran may be trying to rebuild its weapons capabilities. This possibly happening at sites different than the

ones the U.S. attacked earlier this year.

Take a listen to Trump's new warning for Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we're going to have to knock them down. We'll knock them down. We'll knock the

hell out of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: In response, Iran's parliament -- parliamentary speaker says that Tehran has the right to defend itself, and that its future actions may be,

quote, unexpected.

Let's get more on this from Kevin Liptak. He is live in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he's traveling with the president.

Kevin, listen, you were at that briefing yesterday. It was a wide-ranging briefing, but certainly one of the things making news was the president's

posture towards Iran, and whether or not he would give any kind of green light to Israel to once again make any kind of a move that would inoculate

Iran's weapons capability.

I mean, what are you hearing now from the administration? Because Trump seemed to say, well, we could do it, but we'd prefer not to.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And I think the way he put it was that he didn't want to waste the fuel in those B2 bombers to fly

all the way back to Iran to take out the nuclear program, which you'll remember, he did say was obliterated by those strikes that he ordered up in

June, but now says that he's reading, maybe renewed again.

And same with the ballistic missile program, the president suggesting that he had received information that Iran is building all of that back up.

And, you know, American officials had been expecting Netanyahu to come into this meeting to press the president for a green light to go after these

programs, again, to essentially renew what they had begun in June and to try and take out more of what Netanyahu sees as a major threat to Israel.

And I think, essentially, at least in public, he got everything that he wanted. President Trump saying that the U.S. would go out very strongly,

that they would perhaps go more strongly than they even did back then to take out some of these sites.

And I think it's notable, you know, the president ran on this promise of peace. But when you see what he's been doing just over the last, you know,

week or so, whether it's strikes in Nigeria or this CIA action in Venezuela that we're reporting on, or this new bellicose rhetoric against Iran, you

see the president really sort of threatening military action, American military action, in all of these different places, which is a striking

difference from perhaps the rhetoric he was using as a candidate, vowing not to get the U.S. embroiled in another foreign conflict.

When it comes to Israel, when it comes to Netanyahu, you know, there are a lot of American advisors who are wary of what Netanyahu is doing,

particularly when it comes to Gaza, concerns that he's sort of slow walking the move to the second phase of this deal, but also concerns about Israel's

sort of posture in the region, whether it's with Syria, whether it's with Lebanon, concerns that all of these Israeli actions could be undermining

the president's efforts to reshape the entire region, to bring peace to a part of the world that has been so damaged by war over the last decade.

There are concerns that Netanyahu is doing that, but certainly, the president didn't mention any of those yesterday. It was really kind of a

chummy affair.

[12:15:06]

And I think if you're Netanyahu, who is staring down potentially very difficult reelection in the next year, you really couldn't have walked away

from that meeting, hoping for anything better.

NEWTON: Absolutely, as the president continues to conduct a lot of the White House business there at Mar-a-Lago.

Kevin Liptak, appreciate that.

Now, still to come on "One World." First a viral video, then a surge of federal resources and agents in Minnesota. We'll tell you what they're

investigating, next.

And how an Olympic athlete turned into one of the FBI's most wanted fugitives.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, happy new year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: The countdown is officially on, as the world gets ready to ring in the New Year. We'll show you how major cities are preparing from New York

City all the way to Madrid.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: U.S. Homeland Security and the FBI say they're surging resources to Minnesota to investigate claims of widespread fraud. And it follows the

release of a YouTube video that accused Somali-run daycare centers of taking federal money without providing care.

And it comes just weeks after ICE launched operations there, specifically targeting Somalis. The probe has triggered door-to-door checks by federal

agents, but critics say there's no evidence to support the allegations.

Keep in mind, investigations into possible fraud were launched before the Trump administration took office. Some Minnesota Republican lawmakers are

calling for the governor, Tim Walz, a Democrat, to resign.

CNN's law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild takes a closer look at what's been happening in Minnesota and what is taking place now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: I think it's important to remember that the investigations into a major fraud problem here in

Minneapolis goes back at least a decade specifically about problems and frauds involving daycare, but it's so much broader than that.

There are 80 indictments within the last few years of fraud. Many of those indictments concentrated in Minneapolis areas, Somali-American community.

And this is something that local news has been reporting on for years here.

I mean, award-winning, long-running investigative series here from local reporters who have been trying to, you know, raise the alarm about a major

fraud problem here in Minneapolis.

[12:20:01]

And it was just earlier this month that prosecutors unveiled more indictments, more fraud cases here. So this is something that has been a

long-running issue in Minneapolis, even still. It seems that it did not catch the attention at the broad scale until there was this YouTuber Nick

Shirley who came to Minneapolis and began knocking on doors here at some of these daycares, saying that he was exposing more fraud.

We've called several of these daycares one answered, several did not. We've reached out to state officials here.

Here's what the Minnesota Children Youth Commission statement says. We have questions about some of the methods that were used in the video. We do take

the concerns that that video raises about fraud very seriously.

This is a major political headache for Governor Tim Walz. It will not go away. We have been reporting on this problem plaguing Walz as a leader here

for 14 months. We have a story about these issues back in October of 2024. Our reporter Rob Kuznia putting together a very detailed long report on

this.

So when you look at the political, you know, ramifications here, this is a problem that Walz just seems to not be able to shake. We reached out to the

governor's office, and here's what he said.

The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action. He has

strengthened oversight, including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed. He's hired an outside

law firm to audit payments, to high-risk programs, shut down the housing stabilization services program entirely.

That was one that local reporters exposed was rife with fraud and announced a new statewide program integrity director and supported criminal

prosecution.

This is just the latest chapter in a long-running story. We have no indication this story is anywhere close to finished.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: Our thanks to Whitney Wild there.

The FBI released these photos of a motorcycle collection worth more than $40 million. It allegedly belonged to one of their top 10 most wanted

fugitives, former Olympian Ryan Wedding.

Authorities say the Canadian snowboarder is a drug kingpin now hiding in Mexico under the protection of the Sinaloa cartel.

The FBI director calls Wedding a modern-day Pablo Escobar. There is a $15 million reward for his capture in a case involving alleged cocaine

trafficking and multiple murders.

More questions emerging from the Justice Department recently released hundreds of thousands of files on Jeffrey Epstein. The DOJ notably missed a

deadline set by Congress to release all of the documents.

More releases are expected in the coming weeks. Officials say there are over a million newly discovered files potentially related to the late sex

offender.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz brings us right up to date.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: There's so much more to come in the Justice Department's releases of the Epstein files. That's

because there's a million more documents or so that the Justice Department just began working through before Christmas.

And we still haven't seen the fruits of that effort. This is a file release that began on the deadline that Congress had set for full transparency of

the Epstein files. And we've learned some things in the documents that have come out so far, although there haven't -- hasn't been that much new or

revelatory about Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes of sex trafficking.

What we have seen though is we've seen more about the investigation around him, including what was happening when he was in jail in 2019. And then

after his death, when his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell was being taken to trial, among that we have seen more about the depth of his relationship

with high-profile people, including Donald Trump.

There were prosecutors writing in January of 2020 that they saw Trump's name on flight logs with Epstein. Now, he hasn't been accused of any

wrongdoing nor have anyone else outside of that wider circle of just Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.

But watching those investigative steps unfold in the documents is quite notable. We are though waiting to see exactly how much the Justice

Department is going to be releasing. They're under criticism for having heavy redactions throughout the Epstein files at times, deciding to redact

things because they believe it's their own internal work product of attorneys in the Justice Department. We'll see if those go unchallenged,

those redactions, blacked out lines of text throughout the files.

We also are waiting to see how much more there is. The Justice Department has also faced criticism from Capitol Hill for not meeting their deadline

for transparency. Two weeks following that, they are supposed to tell Congress the summation of their work and everything they did to redact.

We will even see if the documents are released by then just before Christmas. The Justice Department had said that they had a million more

files to go, having only released a few hundred thousand.

So there is much left to come. And as far as the Justice Department has said, as of now, this could drag on for many more weeks. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:25:05]

NEWTON: Our thanks to Katelyn Polantz there.

Now an update out of Nigeria, where British boxing star, Anthony Joshua, was injured in a car crash on Monday. The incident took place on a busy

stretch of the expressway in Ogun State.

Police say the boxer escaped with minor bruises, but the other two individuals in the car have died. The victims were both friends of Joshua

and members of his team. Sina Ghami was the boxer's strength and conditioning coach. And Kevin Latif Ayodele was Joshua's personal trainer.

Here you can see video that Joshua himself posted showing both he and Ayodele playing ping pong just hours before the accident. Tributes are

pouring in for both men.

And we will be right back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NEWTON: Welcome back to "One World." I'm Paula Newton.

And preparations are well underway here in New York ahead of tomorrow nights and New Year's Eve celebrations. And some people are already having

all the fun.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one, Happy New Year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NEWTON: Organizers in Times Square, testing out the confetti ahead of the famous ball drop before 3,000 pounds of it are thrown onto the one million

people expected to attend.

Now, across the Atlantic, preparations look a little milder in Madrid where clockmakers are gearing up to make sure one annual tradition runs smoothly.

[12:30:03]

CNN's Pau Mosquera explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAU MOSQUERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We are just admiring it from the outside, but only on very rare occasions it is seen from within.

What you see here around me is the inside of the tower that houses Madrid's most famous clock, the one that is located in iconic Puerta del Sol.

Since the beginning of the 20th century, this clock has marked the 12th times on New Year's Eve. Spaniards with this clock beat far world to one

year and welcome the next one while eating the 12 Grapes of Luck per each chime.

Now, it is such the importance of this clock that everything has to be on place for the big moment. And that is why it is so important the work of

the clockmaker.

JESUS LOPEZ-TERRADAS, CLOCKMAKER (through translator): I'm going to make a clock. Every week we clean the clock, oil it and check if there are any

problems so that we can fix them.

Here, the only thing to do on New Year's Eve is to keep an eye on the second hand to stay coordinated with the hourly signals.

Once we are 28 seconds away from midnight, we activate the ball that will alert the crowd by removing the retaining lever. After a few seconds, when

the ball has descended, the quarter chimes begin. After 20 seconds following the four quarter chimes, the first bell tolls at exactly 12

o'clock.

The following chimes sound every three seconds. In Puerta del Sol, when it's not so crowded, the sound of the bells can be heard well, but when

it's packed, speakers have to be placed because otherwise the sound is absorbed by the crowd.

MOSQUERA: Now that we have checked that everything is on place, we're just going to have to wait until the clock gets to its big moment and guide us

all to 2026.

Pau Mosquera, CNN, Madrid.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: OK. So most of us have made New Year's resolutions, right? Whether it's, you know, lose weight, save money, learn a new scale, do more

reading. However, many of those resolutions, yes, you know it, they just don't get done.

A while back, the Pew Research Center took a look at who makes resolutions and why. They found that about six in 10 adults who made at least one

resolution kept them all, three weeks later, 28 percent said they kept some of them. Thirteen percent responded, nope, they kept none of them.

Now, arguably, the most pragmatic group said they just didn't make any resolutions because they break them too easily.

It is now time for "The Exchange." Joining me now is Benjamin Gardner. He is a psychologist and also heads up the Habit Application and Theory

Research Group at the University of Surrey. Thank you so much for joining us.

And we're going to be talking a lot about habits, not just resolutions. You know, about 45 percent of us who make resolutions are able to keep them.

That actually surprised me. I thought it would be much lower than that.

Can you describe though to us and explain the whole psychology behind those resolutions and who's able to keep them?

BENJAMIN GARDNER, FOUNDER, HABIT APPLICATION AND THEORY RESEARCH GROUP AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SURREY: Yes. Well, I think, I mean, a lot of the time, I

think people fail to keep their resolutions because I think some people just make resolutions because they feel they have to.

So for some people, their hearts not really in it. They're not really motivated enough. So I think those people will kind of fall at the first

hurdle and really not succeed.

I think one thing that makes for a -- for a -- for a good resolution is one that's realistic. Again, I think people often fail because they set goals

that are way too challenging. You know, they want to go from sitting on the sofa every evening to going to the gym, you know, every evening instead.

And those kind of resolutions are just completely unrealistic.

And so I think what makes for a good resolution is one that is realistic. It's challenging, but it's challenging enough that it can be achieved

rather than, you know, it's going to be off-putting because people just can't achieve them.

NEWTON: I was fascinated by the psychology behind some of this. I mean, you point out the fact that habits and that's what we want resolutions to

become, right? We want them to become habits.

That those habits create powerful impulses and those what you call automatic nudges that push us towards certain behaviors without thinking,

hmm, how can we make this happen? Like it really is a habitual ritual sometimes that we learn to engage in.

GARDNER: Yes. So -- so habits. The best way to think about a habit is a habit isn't necessarily something that you do. It's an association that you

formed between a trigger in your everyday environment and something that you do in response to that trigger.

So a classic habit, when you wake up, well, many of us, when we wake up, the first thing that we do is reach for our phones. We don't think about

what we're going to do. It's just become a kind of an automatic response. It's something that we do on autopilot.

[12:35:00]

Another example, you know, you get off the subway in the morning on your way to work and you just go and get that coffee that you always get. You

don't need to think about what it is that you're going to do. It's just something that happens automatically because it's become part of your kind

of everyday repertoire.

Now the thing about habits is they can be both the friend and the enemy of the New Year's resolution. And that if you can consistently do a particular

action in a particular setting, you're likely to be able to form a habit for doing that thing, and it will become part of your autopilot. So you're

likely to be able to keep doing that over time. So that's what makes a good habit good.

On the other hand, what makes a bad habit bad is that these are the things that we do on autopilot that we don't really want to do, and that can

actually undermine and derail our attempts to change our behavior

NEWTON: Yes. The undermining and the derailing is something that people -- what keeps them from making the resolution.

I do have to ask, is it a good idea to make a resolution? Do you have one for this year?

GARDNER: I do have a resolution for this year, actually. I mean, my overarching goal is to sleep more, because, you know, I've constantly got a

sleep deficit. I only sleep for around six hours. So my goal is to sleep more.

But as I said, what makes for a good resolution is to be specific and realistic. So what the specific thing that I'm aiming for is to sleep for

at least seven hours per night on at least three nights per week. Because that's going to be achievable in a way that going from, you know, trying to

get, you know, going from six hours per night up to eight hours every day, it's -- it's just not going to happen.

NEWTON: And so you say that -- that those instigation habits, not execution habits are what make us repeat our everyday behaviors. I confess, and

forgive me, I have trouble understanding the difference between those two.

GARDNER: Yes. So the way to think about it is, you know, as I said, habits are about doing things on autopilot, but for any behavior that we do,

there's both the kind of starting off that behavior and then doing that behavior.

So take something like going for a run. So you can be prompted to go for a run by something that happens in your environment. So let's say you set

yourself the resolution of going for a run, you know, on a Monday, every Monday at 9:00 A.M.

Now what will happen there? If you can successfully keep doing that, you will learn this association between 9:00 A.M., that's the trigger, and then

going for a run.

And what that will actually involve is that when 9:00 A.M. happens, you start doing the stuff that's involved in going for a run. So that -- that

takes away the kind of conscious decision element, and it becomes an automatic response.

And, of course, once you've started doing whatever it is that's involved in going for a run, you're more likely to carry on doing it.

So that's what I call an instigation habit where there's a trigger that -- that starts off a kind of a whole episode of behavior.

Execution habits, on the other hand, are about how you do that behavior. So you could go for a run. You could do the entire run on autopilot if you

want, but actually, that's not the thing that -- that -- that will -- that will cause you to kind of continue doing that behavior.

And in fact, if you did a run in exactly the same way each time, it would actually get quite boring and you disengage. So the most important habit

that you can form is that one of being triggered to start doing that behavior. That's the instigation habit.

So that's my key bit of advice, form a habit for starting to do something, and then the rest of that sequence should follow from that.

NEWTON: So I understand you need that trigger point just to help you get on that road to the resolution actually making it.

All right. Benjamin Gardner, we learned a lot. I want to thank you, and we'll see how we do through 2026. Happy new year to you.

GARDNER: And to you.

NEWTON: Now, the countdown to 2026 is on for all of us here. Join us for New Year's Eve around the world. Our special coverage of celebrations from

right around the globe.

Party starts December 31st at 8:00 P.M. in Hong Kong. That's 11:00 o'clock in Sydney and noon in London.

So youth unemployment in South Africa is among the highest in the world with joblessness for people under the age of 25 reaching more than 62

percent this year.

Yet, demand for tech talent continues to grow. In this month's "Africa Insider," we take a look at WeThinkCode, a Cape Town Academy where young

people are training for careers in software development.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NYARI SAMUSHONGA, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, WETHINKCODE: I am Nyari Samushonga, and I am the CEO of WeThinkCode.

WeThinkCode is a tech academy that is preoccupied with bringing talented young people that are left out due to structural barriers into

participating in a digital economy that is creating an unprecedented amount of opportunity to create value.

South Africa is suffering from a crazy youth unemployment pandemic. But at the same time that that problem is there, the world is experiencing an

acute shortage of skills in emerging technology.

VENUS CHAPPIE, GRADUATE, WETHINKCODE: I would describe the experience of being a WeThinkCode student and graduate as nothing you would expect.

[12:40:07]

You are constantly challenged. And I think one thing about starting with something new, people are usually really afraid to not know what they're

doing and still have the confidence to keep going.

People don't understand how creative it is to be a problem solver. So when you are thinking of a problem and thinking of different solutions, you have

to be creative. That is the only way you thrive.

SAMUSHONGA: The cost of university as a barrier and the qualifications to enter are a barrier. Yet, young people have the raw talent, the drive, the

capacity to acquire this skill.

WeThinkCode exists to equip young people with the skills that the industry needs so that they can participate in the economy and solve real-world

problems.

One thousand eight hundred young people have graduated out of our academy. Over 80 percent of them have been placed in employment and are now earning

five times what their households were earning before they joined us.

CHAPPIE: I am proud to say that today I am a fully employed junior software engineer at MTN. And I fly the WeThinkCode flag very high. Very proud to be

a graduate of this space.

Generally, anyone can do it, especially women.

SAMUSHONGA: We are 52 percent women, which is unheard of in tech.

Over 60 percent of the youth that walk our halls come from households that are living on the poverty line. This is truly transformational for their

lives, for their families, for their societies and ultimately for South Africa.

CHAPPIE: WeThinkCode saved my life. It gave me a brand-new purpose. It made me feel like I know where I am going. I want this for my life.

SAMUSHONGA: What we really need to do is to dig into the talent pool that already exists, the opportunity that technology creates and then unleash

this juggernaut of young Africans building software, not just for us, but for everybody.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEWTON: And that does it for this hour of "One World." I'm Paula Newton. I'll be back in about three hours for "Quest Means Business." But I want to

thank you for watching.

African Voices Changemakers is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END

END