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Bolsonaro Supporters Storm Key Government Buildings in Brazil; Biden Visits Border for First Time in Presidency; Hugs and Reunions at Border after End of Zero-COVID; More Bombshells from Prince Harry's Upcoming Memoir; Ukraine Denies Russia's Claims It Killed Hundreds of Soldiers; Massive Flooding Hits Northwestern Australia. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired January 09, 2023 - 00:00   ET

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

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome. Coming to you live from Studio Seven at the CNN Center in Atlanta, I'm Michael Holmes. Appreciate your company.

[00:00:36]

Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, hundreds of people arrested in Brazil after supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro stormed Congress and breached buildings in the country's capital.

Loved ones finally reunited. China opens its borders to the world just in time for the lunar new year. But amid the celebrations, a lot of angst, as well.

And the revelations from Prince Harry ahead of the release of his memoir.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Michael Holmes.

HOLMES: Brazil's president vowing to punish hundreds of supporters of former leader Jair Bolsonaro after they stormed key government buildings in the capital on Sunday.

The tension and unrest continued into the night as police used tear gas to try to disperse the crowd. This scene coming just hours after the violence first erupted in Brasilia, where Bolsonaro supporters breached security barriers and broke into Congress, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court.

One Brazilian official says at least 400 people have been arrested so far, and according to CNN Brazil, all three buildings are now clear of protesters. But not before they left behind much damage, including broken windows and furniture.

The beaches come about a week after the inauguration of President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva. He called Sunday's events barbaric and promised those responsible would be held to account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LUIS INACIO LULA DA SILVA, PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL (through translator): There is no precedent in the history of our country. There's no precedent for what these people have done, and these people will be punished. And we will find out who financed these vandals who went to Brasilia. We will find out the financiers, and they will pay with the force of the law for this irresponsible gesture, this anti-democratic gesture, and this gesture of vandals, and fascists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Brazil's Supreme Court has now ordered the armed services to dismantle all Bolsonaro supporter camps across the country within 24 hours. And is calling for the arrest and imprisonment of any supporters still left in those camps.

Earlier, we heard from Anne Barbosa with CNN Brasil, who described the chaotic scenes that broke out in the capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE BARBOSA, CNN BRASIL: It all starts about 3 p.m. here in Brazil. Supporters of Jair Bolsonaro, who refuse to accept that he lost the elections in last October, they broke through palace barriers in the capital of Brazil, Brasilia, and they invaded Congress, National Brazilian Congress, Supreme Court and the presidential palace.

For those who don't know the place, these building are located at the same square here in Brazil, actually in Brasilia. We call place the "Tres Poderes" in Portuguese. In English, it means "Three Powers." And they invaded this place about 3 p.m. here in Brazil, palace.

After that, actually, they used gas tear [SIC], trying to repel them, but they failed.

Image that actually, you may be seeing right now, shows people breaking windows, jumping into seats. All of this happening inside the National Congress and Brazilian Congress, inside the presidential palace, inside the Supreme Court. Totally out-of-control scenes.

So, as you said, it's happening a week after President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva's inauguration. He's not at the capital right now.

On the other hand, Jair Bolsonaro has left Brazil in the end of the last year. He's currently in the United States. And supporters of Jair Bolsonaro were camping at the capital of Brazil after the election since October, since last October. Actually, in another cities in Brazil, it was happening at the same situations.

Just this minister, Flavio Dino, before all of this happening, has ordered armored forces to refuse these people, actually, to the assembly. Parliamentarian ministers were not working there. But actually, there -- there were a lot of people in this building, of course.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[00:05:16]

HOLMES: World leaders, meanwhile, condemning the violence in Brazil and expressing their support for President Lula da Silva. U.S. President Joe Biden calling the situation a, quote, "assault on democracy and on the peaceful transfer of power in Brazil."

He said, quote, "The will of the Brazilian people must not be undermined."

And the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, tweeted this: quote, "absolute condemnation of the assault on the democratic institutions of Brazil" and made clear he fully supports President Lula da Silva.

CNN's Rafael Romo tracking developments. He joins me now here with more.

Let's just start with what you're hearing from your sources about the state of the protests, especially with this order coming that all camps across the country have to be broken down.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, No. 1, the good news is that all of the buildings have been cleared, which was not the case for the past six hours or so. That's No. 1.

No. 2, more than 400 people arrested. But I know the number sounds like a lot of people arrested, but given the thousands upon thousands of people who showed up and who entered this building, the buildings violently, the number is really quite low.

And No. 3, heads have begun to roll. You heard previously that one of the justices on the Supreme Court has already suspended, if you can imagine that the governor of the federal district, which means he's not going to be able to govern for the next three months.

And also the judge is saying that all of the protesters that had been camping around the country, they have to go, and the armed forces have to comply with his order.

HOLMES: Yes, it was interesting because President Lula da Silva, he tweeted earlier. And I'll just read part of his tweet. He said, "There are several speeches by the former president encouraging this. And this is also his responsibility and the parties that supported him."

What is -- what has Bolsonaro's reaction to this been?

ROMO: Yes, Bolsonaro, there was a deafening silence from Bolsonaro for the first few hours of this happening. And then later, yes, he on Twitter, publicly condemned what happened. But also took the opportunity to attack again his political rival, the new president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva.

And the reality is that it's almost as if the election never really finished. Bolsonaro has yet to concede that he lost the election, and this has empowered many of his followers to keep on saying lies about the election, and keep on trying to boycott the new administration, and making these things worse and worse.

The camps have been there for weeks in Brasilia, and nobody had done anything until what happened today, which was tragic for Brazil. HOLMES: What do we know about this -- you know, this doesn't just

happen, right? What do we know about the command structure, the organizational structure of the protests, and importantly, too, who's financing them? This costs money.

ROMO: That's an excellent question. There's accusations flying from both sides, with people saying that the authorities, specifically, the military police in the federal district, should have known that there was a possibility that this would have happened.

And the question is, did they know and decided not to do anything about it? And the best-case scenario is that they failed to realize the kind of problem that they had their hands, and that they were negligent.

But there are many people in Lula's camp who are saying, no, they probably knew, and they didn't lift a finger to try to stop this.

HOLMES: Yes. It's going to be continued for a while --

ROMO: That's right.

HOLMES: -- one imagines.

Rafael Romo, thank you for coming in. Appreciate it.

ROMO: You, too.

HOLMES: All right. Well, for the first time since taking office, President Joe Biden has a visited the Southern U.S. border to see how the region is tackling a surge in migration.

In El Paso, Texas, he inspected the iron fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico, and pledged more resources to ease the crisis. In the days ahead, the president is also expected to discuss migration at the North American leaders summit in Mexico City.

CNN's M.J. Lee reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Biden arriving in Mexico City after a brief stop in El Paso, Texas. This, after a growing outcry, including from Republican lawmakers, for the president to visit the U.S. Southern border to see with his very own eyes the number of migrants that have been trekking to the U.S. Southern border.

The president spending the day with Border Patrol agents and elected officials, and also visiting a migrant respite center. But notably, when he was at that center, he didn't appear to actually meet or see any migrants there. A senior administration official telling CNN that was purely coincidental, that at the time of his visit, there just didn't happen to be any migrants at the center.

[00:10:18]

It is worth noting that, at the time of the president's visit to El Paso, there had been a drastic drop in the number of migrants at this border city.

Now what he told reporters after spending the afternoon in El Paso was this: that the city needs a lot more resources.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What have you heard at the border today?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That they need a lot of resources, and we're going to get it for them.

LEE: President Biden, of course, is trying to strike a balance between appearing strong at the border and taking the concerns of the situation at the border being out of control seriously.

But at the same time, taking a humane approach to how to handle and process these migrants that are wanting to come across the border into the U.S.

Of course, the administration has been harshly criticized after this week's decision to essentially expand the controversial Title 42 program and saying that people who are coming in from countries like Cuba and Nicaragua and Haiti, if they do so without properly applying for asylum somewhere else first, that they can be turned away at the border.

This has been described by advocate groups as being inhumane and hypocritical. And all of this is looming over the president's visit to Mexico City, and immigration is expected to be such a big issue when he meets with the Mexican leader and the leader of Canada, as well.

M.J. Lee, CNN, Mexico City.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: It was all hugs and happy reunions at one of China's busiest airports on Sunday. Want to show you the scene at the international arrival hall in Beijing.

Barriers that separated domestic and international travel arrivals were gone, as were the so-called "big whites": staff wearing white hazmat suits, which had become a symbol of life in China during zero- COVID, which is now, of course, a thing of the past.

For more on this, I'm joined by our own Steven Jiang in Beijing. So I mean, how is the return to freedom to travel rolling out? It's been three years.

STEVEN JIANG, CNN BEIJING BREA CHIEF: Yes, Michael. And I was just speaking to some travelers who actually, especially, timed their international flights into China on Sunday to take advantage of this return to normalcy, if you will. Now, some of them had been in and out of China during the pandemic, but some of them it was the first time for them to leave and come back.

But all of them told me it was just such a surreal experience for them to -- you know, when they stepped out of their planes, because as you mentioned, all of a sudden, overnight, all of the cumbersome, stringent procedures, arrival procedures for international travelers, they were just gone.

No more testing upon arrival, waiting for the result. You have your luggage disinfected. And then waiting for hours before being sent to your quarantine hotel.

All of them said they were able to, you know, clear immigration and customs relatively smoothly and reducing the arrival procedure time from 6 to 7 hours, to just 30 minutes to an hour. So that was just day and night.

But some of them just also mentioned to me, there's still some remnants of the old policy inside the terminals, with some of the barriers and the partitions still not being taken down, and there is still that lingering smell of very strong disinfectants.

But this new aspect of international travel obviously being highlighted by state media here, as well, as they try to really push this narrative of the country's so-called scientific and proactive approach to COVID-19.

But I think the public reaction to the reopening is a bit more mixed. Obviously, many people welcomed this with open arms because of their desire and need to travel abroad for study, for work and for tourism, even. That's why we've already seen lines outside of foreign embassies coming back in terms of seeking visas, and the prices of international flights surging, as well.

But remember, this is a population that, for almost three years, being told by their government and state media how scary the virus is and how scary the situation outside of Chinese borders was. And very much so and that's still actually being pushed out by state media, as well, that is why there still a lot of doubts and displeasure or even anger among some segments of the population about its reopening -- Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, and to that point, I mean, obviously, relief for Chinese travelers. I can't imagine; it's like night and day.

But COVID spread still, by all accounts, rampant in China, so relief, but one imagines anxiety , as well, even though the government has been, many would say, less than transparent about what's going on with COVID, particularly when it comes to death tolls in China.

[00:15:01]

JIANG: That's right. And the lack of transparency, of course, is one of the reasons we have seen other governments now imposing some targeted measures towards travelers from China in terms of testing requirements and such. Which, ironically, has now greatly upset Beijing.

But as you mention, officially the data is just quite absurd in terms of the cases and death toll. Just today on Monday, actually, one of the most populous provinces in this country, Henan (ph), announced that almost 90 percent of its 100 million people had been infected. But that's the kind of numbers we are now seeing in the national figures, not to mention the Henan (ph) provincial authorities not disclosing death tolls and severe cases.

But that is the sight many ordinary people are seeing in their daily, lives in terms of medical facilities across the country being overwhelmed, still, and bodies piling up in crematoriums.

But the biggest concern right now, Michael, is actually with domestic travel. Remember, because of the approaching lunar new year holiday, pre-pandemic, that used to be the world's biggest annual human migration. And it's now all coming back with a vengeance for the first time in three years. That's likely bring the virus from the cities to the countryside where the medical facilities are very much lacking.

That could really cause devastating consequences, Michael, with global implications.

HOLMES: That -- -that's a very, very good point. Great wrap-up there, Steven. Thanks. Steven Jiang in Beijing for us.

Quick break here. When we come back, more bombshell revelations from Prince Harry before the release of his eagerly-awaited, by some, memoir. A detailed report on "Spare" coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Welcome back.

More startling revelations from Prince Harry ahead of the release of his memoir, "Spare." Speaking with Anderson Cooper on CBS News' "60 Minutes," the Duke of Sussex says nothing he's written is intended to hurt his family. But he reveals that he has not spoken to his brother, Prince William, nor father, King Charles, for quite a while now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR/CBS NEWS "60 MINUTES" CONTRIBUTOR: Do you speak to William now? Do you text?

PRINCE HARRY, UNITED KINGDOM: Currently, no. But I look forward to -- I look forward to us being able to find peace.

COOPER: How long has it been since you spoke?

PRINCE HARRY: A while.

COOPER: Do you speak to your dad?

PRINCE HARRY: We haven't spoken for quite a while. No. Not recently.

COOPER: Can you see a day when he would return as a full-time member of the royal family?

PRINCE HARRY: No. I can't see that happening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Harry also sat down for an interview with ITV News, where he discussed his frustration with the British media and the death of his mother, Princess Diana.

CNN's Max foster with those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR/ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Just when you thought there wouldn't be any more oil revelations, more keep coming.

[00:20:01]

These latest ones come out of a media round that Prince Harry did with the TV networks ahead of the publication of his book on Tuesday.

He accuses Camilla, the queen consort, of leaking stories about the British media, as part of her campaign to become Charles's wife, and the queen consort.

Ultimately, he also says that Kate and William never really connected with Meghan. They stereotyped her in a, way and that meant they never really built up a proper relationship with her. It never worked from the get-go.

PRINCE HARRY: Some of the things that my brother and sister-in-law, some of the way they were acting or behaving definitely felt to me as though, unfortunately, that stereotyping was causing a bit of a barrier to them really sort of introducing or welcoming her in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you mean, specifically?

PRINCE HARRY: Well, American actress, divorced, biracial. There's all different paths to that and what that can mean.

But if you are, like a lot of my family do -- if you are reading the press, the British tabloids, at the same time as living the life, then there is a tendency where you can actually end up living in the tabloid bubble rather than the actual reality.

FOSTER: Prince Harry denied in these interviews that he ever accused his family of being racist.

He says he's not speaking to his father or his brother at the moment.

And he described how when he came to the U.K. and Queen Elizabeth died, he wasn't offered a seat on the plane the rest of the family were using to get to Scotland to see the body of the queen.

He says the door is open to reconciliation, but the ball is in the royal family's court.

Max Foster, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: Sally Bedell Smith is a CNN contributor and author of "Elizabeth the Queen."

Wow. There's so much that raises eyebrows. What has stood out to you about what you've heard so far?

SALLY BEDELL SMITH, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, what has really stood out is the intensely personal nature of everything that -- practically everything that Harry had to say.

And the most shocking and disturbing, really, was the extent of his grievance against his brother. We knew that things were not going well for the last few years, but by his accounting, there was a very intense sibling rivalry, and a lot of envy on his part going back all the way to his school days. This was very new.

HOLMES: It seemed very -- it seemed very entrenched, too. Very deep down.

But, you know, the thing that makes me curious, I mean, given the obvious damage it does to the Firm, the royal family, why do you think he's done this? Why expose such things? To what end? What's the point?

SMITH: Well, as he said to Anderson Cooper -- and I guess he also said it to Tom Bradby -- that he feels that, for 38 years, he's been misunderstood, and his story has been told by other people. And he wanted to tell his truth, as he's called it. Himself.

But, I think, in the process, he's created an awful lot of collateral damage to members of his family, certainly to William, certainly to his father, although he has said some very nice things about his father.

He hasn't really set very many nice things about his brother. And of course, the title of the book is, "Spare." And he is the second-born son, and traditionally, the second-born son has been the spare.

And, I mean, I know from talking to people who were advising William and Harry, as they were coming of age. And they were working very hard to craft a role for Harry, and then for Harry and Meghan, to give them some meaning. Being a spare didn't need to be what he sort of envisioned it to be.

HOLMES: Has what he and Meghan have done hurt them? What do you see as the level of blowback? And do you think Harry can ever make it back into the family?

SMITH: The relations with his family were frayed from the moment they did the Oprah interview. And, as we now know, that resulted in a terrible fight after the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh.

So everything was very frayed, and from -- at least from Harry's perspective, it was frayed from almost the beginning. I mean, he said basically, that the relationship between Meghan and William and Kate was a non-starter, because he felt that they had judged her and had stereotyped her.

And this is so at odds with what everybody around them was observing, which is that the family really welcomed her. And they were giving her -- the queen was certainly giving her a significant series of jobs.

And so it's -- it's really hard to fathom the degree of his grievance.

HOLMES: Yes.

SMITH: Because the world was in love with Meghan when she arrived on the scene. And I know everything that he says about the timeline of people turning on her just doesn't jive with the reality that a lot of people were able to observe.

HOLMES: At the end -- at the of the day, it's a lot of dirty laundry being aired.

We're out of time, Sally Bedell Smith. We really appreciate your insights into this. Thank you so much.

SMITH: You're welcome.

HOLMES: Brazil's most essential government buildings now secure after security forces arrested hundreds of protesters who stormed those buildings violently. We'll have the latest on the unrest, plus reaction from the country's current and former presidents.

Also, still to come on the program, dozens of captured Russian and Ukrainian soldiers headed home after a prisoner of war exchange on Sunday. That story and the latest from the front line after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOLMES: Recapping our top story for your now. Brazil's president, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, has visited the presidential palace, and the Supreme Court hours after hundreds of supporters of the former president, Jair Bolsonaro, stormed both of those buildings, as well as Brazil's Congress.

Some smashed windows and used furniture as barricades against security forces. Police eventually using tear gas to get things under control, and they have arrested at least 400 people.

President Lula da Silva called the unrest "barbaric," and vowed to punish those responsible.

Bolsonaro, for his part, also denounced what he called, quote, "the invasions of public buildings."

And now the country's Supreme Court has ordered all Bolsonaro supporters' camps to be demolished and protesters there arrested within 24 hours.

Eric Farnsworth is the vice president of the Council of the Americas, and Americas Society.

Good to see you again. First of all, how do you see this playing out?

ERIC FARNSWORTH, VICE PRESIDENT, COUNCIL OF THE AMERICAS AND AMERICAS SOCIETY: Well, what happened today in Brazil is outrageous. It's a sad day for Brazil. It's a sad day for hemispheric democracy. Many people had predicted something like this might happen, when we last talked, you and I, on January 1st for the inauguration of President Lula.

But that transition has already occurred. The previous president, Jair Bolsonaro, is out of the country. He's actually in Florida. And so this caught a lot of people by surprise who thought perhaps the worst threats were behind us.

In fact, what we saw today was mob violence and, really, vandalism of the worst sort, just sacking of government institutions without any real hope for doing anything, other than just protesting and creating, really, just violence and vandalism.

HOLMES: Yes.

FARNSWORTH: So it's a really sad day for Brazil.

HOLMES: President Lula tweeted that his predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, encouraged such action. Bolsonaro denies it. But do you think that his comments and actions played into what happened at all?

FARNSWORTH: Well, you would have hoped, at least, that Bolsonaro would have come out earlier, and more forthrightly, to condemn what was going on in Brasilia today.

He did tweet some things out which said that he condemned violence, but it was late. And -- and not the strong sort of signal that many people would have preferred.

But, you know, what I think President Lula was talking about was the really atmosphere that President Bolsonaro created when he was in office for four years. He really pushed the boundaries of democracy. He really challenged the norms of democracy. He really called into question some of the best practices.

And so it caused a lot of people to really question, going forward, such basic things as if the elections in October were free and fair. Bolsonaro still hasn't conceded his defeat in that election.

So there are a lot of people in Brazil, already a very polarized society, who took that as license, perhaps, to say, We're going to take things into our own hands, and we're going to see what we can come up with today.

HOLMES: Yes. The thing is, Bolsonaro, of course, never formally conceded defeat, but he never actively tried to block the transfer of power either. How important are his next moves? FARNSWORTH: I think it's really important, because look, most of the

international community early on condemned this. Many people in Brazil are very proud of their democracy of their -- it's a polarized society. They might not support Lula, per se, but they support democracy.

The military is professional and doesn't want to get involved in politics.

So you have a real lineup of forces that would suggest that Bolsonaro really has to choose his next move carefully, if he wants to remain relevant in politics going forward in Brazil at all. Otherwise, he's just going to be completely delegitimized.

So I think these next few days will be very important for him, but more importantly, the country of Brazil. The Brazilian institutions, for all the attacks today and on the physical space, nonetheless spirit of democracy, I believe, remains strong in Brazil. And so the people are going to have to work through that in the days coming forward.

HOLMES: Yes. The protesters were actively calling for the military to take over, for there to be a military coup. I mean, do you see any set of circumstances where there could be a serious threat or potential threat to Lula's presidency?

FARNSWORTH: I mean, I personally would rate that as not very high. I mean, you never say never, but the military in Brazil are professional. You know, they don't want to have a coup. They don't want to come in in support of Bolsonaro. They see their role as being independent and neutral.

And so I think that's a really important point in terms of Brazilian context.

And I also think that, you know, again, the people of Brazil really don't want to go back to the dictatorship of the '60s and '70s. That was a period of time that they want to leave behind. And as messy as democracy is, that really is their preference.

So I would anticipate going forward that there's going to be a real coalescing in Brazil around the idea that people have to really work to defend their democracy.

But there are some challenging and difficult and volatile days ahead, perhaps. And we haven't seen anything yet outside of Brasilia. One wonders whether some of these actions will take place in other cities, as well. For today, it was contained at least in the capital city.

HOLMES: Always great to get your analysis. Eric Farnsworth, thanks so much for taking the time.

FARNSWORTH: Thank you for having me.

HOLMES: The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is praising the resistance of two Eastern cities, despite their near total destruction.

[00:35:08]

In his nightly address on Sunday, Mr. Zelenskyy said Bakhmut and Soledar were holding out against Russian attacks, despite being among, quote, "the bloodiest places on the front line."

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia exchanged 100 prisoners of war Sunday, 50 from each side. This is the 36th such swap, and Ukraine says it won't be the last.

Also on Sunday, Belarus announced joint air force exercises with Russia, starting January 16 and running through February 1st.

Meanwhile, Ukraine dismissing Moscow's claims that a recent Russian strike in Kramatorsk killed hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers. A CNN team on the ground has seen no indication of any massive casualties in the area. CNN's Scott McLean with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was literally just minutes after the unilaterally-declared Russian ceasefire was over, when a series of missiles came down in Kramatorsk. Kramatorsk is not on the frontline, but it's close enough that it is often a target for Russian bombs.

Russia claims that this series of strikes was in retaliation for a devastating Ukrainian hit on a Russian barracks in the town of Makiivka, that even the Russians concede killed 89 of its soldiers, but potentially, even more than that.

In this case, the Russians claimed that they hit two buildings where a large number of Ukrainian troops were staying and claim that 600 of them were killed.

The trouble is that we haven't found even a shred of evidence to suggest that that is actually true.

The Ukrainian military dismissed it as nonsense, and our team on the ground in Kramatorsk said there was no wailing sirens. There was no backlog at the morgue, nothing at all to suggest that there had been this kind of mass casualty event in the city.

They even went out to the site, and what they found is some craters where the missiles had come down, and some blown-out windows of a high school there. But they found no blood, no bodies, not even any sign that Ukrainian troops had been there at all.

Scott McLean, CNN, Kyiv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOLMES: About 3,000 people marched through London on Sunday to show their support for protesters in Iran. This as international outrage grows over Tehran's bloody crackdown on dissent. The Iranian government reportedly executing two protesters on Saturday

who were alleged to have killed a member of the security forces. Police -- people at a rally in London say the brutality must stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The brave Iranians, back in Iran, on the streets of Iran, are just protesting and fighting for freedom. And they're just killing them. They're executing people, just because they're fighting for freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is beyond belief the things they're doing to these young human beings who are only merely asking for the basic rights for freedom just to breathe, freedom to just have the right to live, not to be hassled every time you go in the street, especially as a woman.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: And in New Delhi, hundreds of people filling the streets to call for legal recognition of same-sex marriage in India.

It was the capital's first pride march in years.

India's Supreme Court is set to hear petitions from gay couples seeking the same rights as heterosexuals. The court decriminalized gay sex five years ago.

It is being called the worst flooding in the history of Western Australia, and it is drenching a region about the size of California. We'll have details on the crisis in the Kimberleys when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:41:11]

HOLMES: An emergency official says pictures do not do justice to the amount of water covering the Kimberley region in Northwestern Australia.

A local minister is among those calling it the worst flooding in Western Australia's history. Hundreds of people have been rescued by air. It is feared the flooding has killed large numbers of livestock.

Now, the crisis in the Kimberley was caused by the remnants of Tropical Cyclone Ellie.

Meteorologist Derek van Dam has this look at the flooding, and what Australians can expect in the days ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, days of excessive rainfall and subsequent flooding over Western Australia, particularly across the Kimberley region, can really be traced back to what was a tropical cyclone. This is Tropical Cyclone Ellie. You could see it rotating across here;

really held strong near the coastline of Western Australia, particularly near Broome. You'll see some rainfall totals there. It has exited into the Northern territory over the past day or so, and it has weakened as it has done so. But it has left a large swath of heavy rainfall.

In fact, near the coastline of Western Australia, we have had a large area, including Broome, that has seen rainfall in excess of 400 millimeters. That's incredible. Just in a short period of time, as well; 485 millimeters recorded in Broome.

And get this: that is two times -- over two times -- their monthly average rainfall in just three short days. That's why we have the flooding taking place over this portion of Western Australia.

Incredible to see those amounts of rain. It is, of course, the rainy season. We do get tropical cyclones this time of year. You can see the highest rainfall totals for Broome in January in February, even starting to go up in terms of the climatological averages in December, but nothing like this, and nothing like this in such a short period of time, as well.

Look at this swath of 200 to 300 percent above normal rainfall for portions of the Northern territory and Western Australia, so much so that we've actually seen some record-breaking flooding.

Look at this. At the Fitzroy River, they have a forecasted crest of 11 meters. Their previous, record was 9.29 meters. So we are at major flood levels across this area.

The good news is we do have a generally dry forecast over Western Australia going forward over the next few days.

Back to you.

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HOLMES: All right, thanks for that.

Now thank you for spending part of your day with me. I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram, @HolmesCNN. Stick around. World Sport is up next, and Laila Harrak with more news.

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