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Ukraine Disputes Mercenaries Claim Soledar Has Fallen; Soledar Villagers Staying Put Despite Russian Advance; Russian Economy Strained As War Grinds On Ukraine; United States Extends COVID Public Health Emergency; Signs Of Rising COVID Death Toll Grow In China. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired January 12, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:31]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (on camera): Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead here on CNN Newsroom.

CHURCH (voice over): The fight for Soledar rages on. Ukrainian troops insists they are holding on in the key eastern town despite a claim of victory by Russian mercenaries.

Plus, a shake-up at the highest levels of the Russian military.

China releases more COVID data. Is it accurate? We will show you hospitals and funeral homes where the government's numbers are at odds with the grim reality.

Plus, taking no chances. Military police in Brazil out in force as Bolsonaro supporters call for nationwide protest just days after storming the country's capitol.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Center. This is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH (on camera): Thanks for joining us.

Well, the battle for Soledar in eastern Ukraine is getting bloodier by the day, with Russian back mercenaries now claiming they control the entire town.

CHURCH (voice over): But Ukraine is pushing back, and Ukrainian soldier tells CNN the situation is very difficult, but he and his comrades are hanging in there, and the next 24 hours could be critical.

Even the Kremlin is being cautious saying only that there was a positive trend. Here is the assessment from the Russian defense ministry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJ. GEN. IGOR KONASHENKOV, SPOKESPERSON, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY (through translator): The Russian Airborne units blocked Soledar from the northern and southern parts of the town. The Russian Aerospace Forces conduct strikes against enemy strongholds. The Russian assault detachments waged combat in the town.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The salt mining town is not far from the strategic city of Bakhmut, which has been under siege by Russian forces for weeks.

Ukraine's president says Russia is exaggerating its claims in Soledar to boost support for its invasion at home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): The terrorist state and propagandists are trying to pretend that some part of our city of Soledar almost completely destroyed by the occupiers as some kind of achievement of Russia.

They will present this to their society in order to support mobilization and to give hope to those who are for aggression.

But the fighting continues. The Donetsk front is holding.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Meanwhile, the Ukraine is trying to get the last remaining residents of Soledar and the surrounding villages to leave as Russian- backed forces move in.

CNN's Ben Wedeman has details.

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BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Medics load a wounded soldier onto an ambulance, another casualty from the embattled town of Soledar.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One day, 2025.

WEDEMAN: It varies depending on the number of casualties on the front lines.

Russian forces, mostly troops from the Wagner group, the private military company, claimed to have control of the entire Soledar territory.

WEDEMAN (on camera): The battle for Soledar may be in its final stages and it doesn't appear to be going well for the Ukrainians.

And if indeed the Russians do emerge victorious, the villages around it may be the next to fall. WEDEMAN (voice over): Ukraine's helicopters still flying sorties, its forces aren't giving ground easily. One soldier says, it's difficult but we're hanging in there.

Despite the fighting, Ida (PH) is staying put with her pigs and cows in her home in a nearby village.

We won't leave, she says. You can only die once. I will not abandon my house.

Her 81-year-old mother, Ludmilla (PH) has lived here for more than 40 years.

We had a good life here, she says.

Sergey Gorshkov (PH) heads the Soledar Military Administration.

I'm delivering aid, he says. And reminding people they need to evacuate before it's too late.

Sweetlana (PH) says she'll heed his call.

[12:05:01]

Everyone is tired, she tells me. We can't take it any longer.

As Soledar burns, there is little time to waste.

Ben Wedeman, CNN, outside Soledar.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Russia is once again shuffling commanders for what it calls its special military operation in Ukraine. General Valery Gerasimov, the head of the Russian general staff will take over the campaign.

He replaces Sergey Surovikin, who was only appointed in October. And CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us now live from London.

So, Clare, what more do we know about the man now tasked to lead Russia's war in Ukraine?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Yes, Rosemary. Valery Gerasimov is the head of the armed forces. He is essentially Russia's chairman of the Joint Chiefs. He's been in that job for more than a decade, overseeing Crimea, Syria, all those campaigns.

So, this is not -- this is the fourth general that will be in charge of Russia's war in Ukraine. But this is no mid-level general. This is essentially the top soldier in the country.

It's not a demotion for him, he retains his current title, it seems and it's not clear whether this is about strategy or personality. It's not clear whether this makes it more likely that Russia will now launch an offensive in Ukraine and new offensive in the coming months. The ministry of defense statement was pretty vague. But it did say the increase in the level of leadership of the special military operation was a reflection of the amplified range of tasks, the necessity of closer cooperation between services and branches of the armed forces.

So, read into that what you will, but what is clear is that you don't tend to switch up the leadership if things are going really well.

Sergey Surovikin, who is now there's going to be the deputy Gerasimov, when it comes to running this operation as Russia calls it in Ukraine.

He has been in that job -- he was in the job for since the beginning of October, has overseen Russia's retreat from Kherson, the only original capital that it managed to take a brutal but not decisive bombardment of Ukraine's energy grid blunders, like for example, having all those troops, those conscripts in one place when Ukraine launch that rocket attack on New Year's Day, killing what Russia says is 89 of its conscripts.

So, it's clear that there have been issues in the past few months, but as to what this means, going forward and what Gerasimov will bring to the job, I think, there is mostly speculation out there about what it could mean.

CHURCH: Right. And Clare, Russia just admitted a bigger than expected budget deficit for last year. If there's no apparent end game on the battlefield, what about economically? Can Russia keep funding its war, especially under sanctions?

SEBASTIAN: Yes, like the state of the Russian economy, you have to keep a close eye on it, because it is potentially one of the deciding factors when it comes to the length of this war.

As Ukraine gets ever more sophisticated Western weapons, Russia has to try to keep up and it has been promising to fund ever -- to pile ever more resources into its own military even as the sanctions tightened.

Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN (voice over): More than 10 months into a war that he hoped to wrap up in days, President Putin is preparing his people for a long and costly battle.

VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): We have no limits when it comes to financing. The country, the government gives the army everything it asks for.

SEBASTIAN: It's not just the high tech drones and tanks or the new frigate loaded with hypersonic missiles, according to an estimate in July from British think-tank Roussy (PH), at the height of the fighting in the Donbas, Russia was burning through more ammunition in two days than the British military has in stock.

Impact of that clearly showing up in the Russian budget. SEBASTIAN (on camera): Now, this was the official estimate for last year. Defense spending was expected to have grown by about 30 percent compared to 2021.

National security spending, meanwhile, by about 20 percent. But oil and gas revenues were expected to grow by about a third. They ended up coming in higher than expected according to the finance ministry, but so did spending, tipping the budget into a bigger than expected deficit.

Now, this year, we're looking at more defense spending a rise of about six percent. That's roughly in line with inflation. But add to that, a 58 percent planned increase in national security spending and a complete reversal of last year's oil and gas windfall, and this means budget cuts.

SEBASTIAN (voice over): Roads, agriculture, even healthcare all getting hit.

ELINA RIBAKOVA, DEPUTY CHIEF ECONOMIST, INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL FINANCE: The money is not infinite, unlike what President Putin says. And I think he understands it's better than anybody else.

Because this resort is where in, in power, already in the 90s when Russia went through severe crisis default denomination, it will develop devaluation, and I think they remember that.

It's that's -- if that's were to happen, it will be even faster way for them out of the office.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.

[02:10:02]

SEBASTIAN: Keeping Putin in power and fighting a war is expensive. Next year, Russia has allocated almost as much to national security, which also includes law enforcement as it has to defense.

According to the budget passed early last month. OSI in Moscow may still intensify its crackdown on protests and dissent.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all know that European solidarity --

SEBASTIAN: Yet, experts say even with an E.U. embargo on Russian seaborne oil, a price cap mechanism in place, and lower energy prices, Russia is not facing an imminent budget crisis.

RIBAKOVA: Well, we did not implement energy sanctions up until now. Right? The embargo just came in. So, what happens, Russian current account surpluses last year was more than $200 billion.

So, if you think about it, if you're rested about say roughly $300 billion in reserves, Russia already accumulated more than 200 billion just last year.

SEBASTIAN: Pressure is still mounting. If the E.U. and G7 lower their oil price cap below $60 a barrel that would likely hurt revenues.

And technology sanctions make it harder for Russia to modernize its military.

Still behind the propaganda, it's clear Russia has a financial plan to fund this war, even as its people pay an ever increasing price.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SEBASTIAN (on camera): So, it's clear 2023, Rosemary, will be harder for the Russian economy and the Russian people than 2022.

But they have been planning for this stashing away money, saving up, really since Crimea in 2014.

CHURCH: Clare Sebastian, many thanks for that report. Appreciate it.

The U.S. public health emergency related to the COVID pandemic will remain in place for now.

CHURCH (voice over): The White House extended it on Wednesday partly because of concerns over the new Omicron sub-variant called XBB.1.5.

The weekly average of new COVID cases is now up more than 16 percent. So, the White House says the public emergency is still needed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ASHISH JHA, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: The reason is that there's still a lot of COVID out there, and the public health emergency in his determination gives us tools to fight this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The XBB sub-variant was first discovered in the United States in late October, and it's been spreading rapidly ever since.

The World Health Organization doesn't have enough data to say if the virus causes more severe disease. But the group says XBB is definitely more contagious. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, COVID-19 TECHNICAL LEAD, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: It is an incredibly transmissible variant like all of them are. It does have a growth advantage compared to other sub lineages of Omicron. But the data that we have to assess XBB.1.5 is currently very limited.

Most of the information we have is from only one country and that's the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (on camera): But the U.N. agencies says more COVID data is coming its way from China. CHURCH (voice over): It says Beijing has begun to share more information about its ongoing outbreak. But more data on viral sequencing is still needed to help identify potential new variants.

The WHO also believes China's reported death toll is nowhere close to the actual number with hospitals and crematoriums overwhelmed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHAEL RYAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, HEALTH EMERGENCIES PROGRAMME, WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION: We, WHO, still believes that deaths are heavily underreported from China. And this is in relation to the definitions that are used, but also to the need for doctors and those reporting in the public health system to be encouraged to report these cases and not discouraged.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: CNN's Selina Wang went to a funeral home in Beijing, where signs of the rising COVID death toll are impossible to ignore.

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SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): COVID lockdowns may be over in China. But for many, there is misery at the end of zero-COVID. The virus is overwhelming hospitals across the country, the sick struggle to get help.

Patients cramped into every available space. Every hallway and corner of this northern Chinese hospital. Not everyone survives the struggle.

Rows of bodies filled this funeral home storage room in Liaoning Province that we don't know how many died of COVID.

In Jiangsu, families in mourning clothes flood the gate. And in Sichuan, families lined up outside right next to coffins, waiting to cremate their loved ones.

China has only officially reported a few dozen COVID-19 deaths since reopening.

But satellite images confirm the different reality we see on the ground.

These images taken in late December and early January show crowds and long lines of cars waiting outside of funeral homes in six Chinese cities.

[02:15:00]

The images from the outskirts of Beijing showed that a brand new parking lot was even constructed.

We visited that funeral home. Rows of cars were already there.

WANG, (on camera): I'm now standing in that new parking lot of this Beijing funeral home. This entire parking lot area did not exist a month ago. And as you can see, the roads are not paved.

WANG (voice over): One van pulls in, unloads a body and another follows. A man tells me he waited hours for his brother's body to be cremated. But the weight is nothing, he says, compared to the crowds from a few weeks ago.

Experts say Beijing's COVID outbreak has already peaked.

In December, we filmed these body bags, piling up in metal crates at another Beijing crematorium during the height of Omicron spread in the city.

This video CNN has obtained was filmed by a man who said his father's body was lying in this overflowing Beijing hospital morgue for days.

He said his father waited hours for hospital beds space. By the time of bed opened up it was too late.

Cities are now scrambling to set up fever clinics and increase ICU capacity.

For weeks, it was nearly impossible to buy cold or fever medicine. They were all sold out because of the huge demand.

WANG (on camera): Rug companies like this major pharmaceutical manufacturer in Beijing, they are going into overdrive to increase supply after there was a shortage of medicine to treat COVID-19 symptoms.

I asked the vice president if he had received any advance warning from the government that they were going to abandon zero-COVID, so they could prepare to ramp up production.

Well, he didn't directly answer my question, but it's clear that now, they are doubling down.

WANG (on camera): The company told us, they simply follow government policy. The drug shortage, overflowing hospitals and crematoriums, they are images of a country unprepared for the sudden end of zero- COVID.

So, many families in mourning are questioning what their three years of sacrifice during zero-COVID was really all for?

Selina Wang, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH (on camera): Dr. Scott Miscovich is the president and CEO of Premier Medical Group USA and a consultant for COVID testing. He joins us now from Hawaii. Thank you so much for being with us, Doctor.

DR. SCOTT MISCOVICH, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, PREMIER MEDICAL GROUP USA: Certainly, Rosemary.

CHURCH: So, the WHO believes China is heavily under reporting COVID-19 death since dropping its zero COVID policy. And we just saw satellite pictures and other images supporting this, showing increased activity at funeral homes and crematoriums across the nation as well as in hospitals.

How dangerous is it for China to underreport COVID infections? And what are the global consequences of that?

MISCOVICH: Well, Rosemary, we all agree we all know they're under reporting. I mean, your piece just, you know, show direct evidence of that.

And, you know, one of the comparisons we use as we looked at India, which had the surge of Delta, in a four month period, we know they had 1.4 million deaths. That people were having to bury or burn their own family members, because there was just no access.

And when you look at Beijing, you know, when you look at China in general, it's 67 percent urban, when you have that kind of population density, it spreads.

Now, what's it mean to the rest of the world? You know, we have no reporting. We have no idea what variance unless we're kind of guessing what variants are coming out of China right now.

And I think the bigger issue is, this is another step where the people of China, they know they're losing loved ones, I think it's just giving them even less confidence in their government, because they're not being forthcoming about COVID and what it's doing to their population. So, the rest of the world will still stay.

CHURCH: And also to China is very angry that the rest of the world is imposing restrictions on travelers coming from China right now. Suggesting other nations are overreaching by insisting on PCR tests and quarantining. What would your advice be to China on that? And of course, the way it's handling this surge in COVID cases, particularly, as so many prepare to travel for the Lunar New Year.

MISCOVICH: Well, I think your prior question is the answer. The rest of the world is not getting any kind of information that's honest report coming.

Therefore, the rest of the world is forced to try to get their own information. Because understand, one of the things that will happen is other countries, when, we get PCR testing from our visitors from China, they will then be sequenced. And those sequences will be then the accurate information that the rest of the world has to get on its own versus getting it from Chinese health ministries.

[02:19:55]

And as you're well aware, we're getting all types of tit for tat, activities across the world where, you know, one neighbor, Singapore is saying, (INAUDIBLE) that's OK, we're not worried, yet, other countries are putting very strict measures on departure and arrival testing. So, you know, I can understand both sides of it. You know, on one hand, when you get a rival testing, there's probably going to be a lot of positives. The Milan study at the very beginning showed 50 percent of the people were positive, yet, I can see where Singapore is coming from. And what they're saying is, this is a naive COVID population.

China has to worry more about what variants we're going to send in with travelers versus what they're going to send out because there are variants right now who are running wild with their country.

CHURCH: Yes. Interesting, you mentioned the variants, because China's CDC has informed the WHO that the coronavirus, sub-variant currently circulating in the country is mainly BA.5.

What does that tell you? Given the U.S. and other parts of the world are now dealing with new sub-variants, which are overtaking BA.5?

MISCOVICH: And what -- that's it exactly. Basically, we have older variant that we evolved dealt with, we've all been through. And then, we've had this re-competent variant of an advanced form of Omicron that's formed now in the United States, the XBB.1.5.

And so, what that tells us is they're dealing with an older variant that we've already seen through the world. So, if there's any hope right now, if you're seeing someone from China, that you won't have as much chance of getting infection from them.

Also, because they knew by bivalent vaccine, we have in the United States and most of the good vaccines around the world will cover it.

So, you know, basically, again, it goes back to say that, like our XBB.1.5, if that gets into China, those people will not have any immunity from it, even if they just contracted the current variant they'd have. So, they're at risk.

CHURCH: Yes, a very important point. And exactly why information has to be shared. Dr. Scott Miscovich, thank you so much for joining us. Appreciate it.

MISCOVICH: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Well, travel chaos here in the United States, and some very long lines at airports after a key computer system failed.

CHURCH (voice over): Ahead, what's known about the cause of the outage?

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CHURCH (on camera): Welcome back, everyone.

Well, flights in the United States are getting back to normal after a computer failure drastically disrupted air travel on Wednesday.

CHURCH (voice over): For about 90 minutes, the Federal Aviation Administration grounded all flights after a crucial safety system went down.

[02:25:05]

We are told there was a corrupted data file that shut down the main system and even its backup. The FAA says the system is now "operational and stable".

But the glitch caused the delay of more than 10,000 U.S. flights, as well as more than 1,300 cancellations.

The global impact is more difficult to assess, of course. The cause of the corrupted file is still unknown.

CHURCH (on camera): But the U.S. transportation secretary says the FAA is technology must be reviewed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE BUTTIGIEG, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION: Now, we have to understand how this could have happened in the first place. Why the usual redundancies that would stop it from being that disruptive, did not stop it from being disrupted this time, and what the original source of the errors or the corrupted files would have been.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (voice over): It was the FAA's notice to air missions system that failed. It sends alerts to pilots, updating them on conditions that could affect the safety of their flight.

CHURCH (on camera): CNN safety analyst David Soucie joins me now from Pensacola Beach in Florida. He is also a former FAA safety inspector. Great to have you with us.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST: Thanks, Rosemary. Good to be here.

CHURCH: So, about 10,000 flights were mostly delayed, but also canceled Wednesday right across the United States, in what proved to be the largest ground stops since 9/11, apparently, triggered by a corrupt file.

How does a massive aviation system outage like that happened, exactly?

SOUCIE: You know, that's a very good question. It -- this system is incredibly -- immeasurably complex, really. That takes information from hundreds of different other systems, all that information comes in to it. And then, it's disseminated out in a meaningful manner for the pilots so that they don't have to go through all of that themselves, to find out if they have everything they need, information wise.

So, it's a -- it's a bit of a challenge for them. But I think the trouble with it right now is that they're trying to tighten up on security. So, when they do, and then they have one of these errant systems go bad, right now, they're trying to tighten up all that security. So, they say, well, we have this bad piece of information. So, they shut down the entire system for it, as opposed to what they used to do, which is when they have that bad information that we just put a notice out a no tam itself that says we don't have information from the flight service, or we don't have information from these other areas.

So, I think, and honestly, I believe that it was an upgrade that they are trying to do to make things better and safer. But I think it actually backfired on them.

CHURCH: So, how does the FAA make sure this doesn't happen again? Can that even be guaranteed?

SOUCIE: Well, I don't think it can be guaranteed. I think the challenges that in these systems, because they're so long, they're what we call legacy systems.

So, they've been in place a very long time. And so, as technology improves, and as they add new technologies, and new data comes into this older system, it's not being upgraded. That costs a lot of money.

And the same system has been in place, as long as I've been around 40 years in the aviation industry, and the same systems been there, and they've just been patched working and adding to it.

So, I think the problem is they need to have some longevity in their FAA administrator and in the development team that they have there, because they're not following through the entire development cycle of a system. And really upgrading it to be keeping up with today's technology.

CHURCH: Yes, I want to talk about that. Because, of course, we know that Southwest suffered major cancelations and delays over the holidays due, in the most part, to outdated technology.

This time, of course, problems were experienced by all airlines. So, how concerned should we be about this outdated technology across the U.S. aviation industry? Why haven't they updated it early -- earlier than this? Because they have had instances where really the red flags have popped up all over the place, haven't they?

SOUCIE: Yes, even back in January, the FAA had a very -- nobody really talked about it. But back in January, the FAA system actually had some issues, then.

But it was kind of kept hush, hush at the time, because it wasn't a big deal. They didn't affect that many airplanes. But it could have, and they caught it early, and it didn't.

So, that was another indicator of the fact that they really needed to look at these systems.

Now, my philosophy is and always has been with the FAA that they need to separate out the development of these systems and not have it done within the FAA channels.

The FAA has a very tight budget, and that budget is controlled specifically by the standards, by their safety standards.

It doesn't need to be that way. It really should have a separate report to the director of transportation, and that's where it should be part, where it should be handled, rather than at the individual level of the FAA.

[02:30:05]

So, it's going to take some time. And it's going to take Congress to really understand what they're doing. They can't just keep throwing money at the system, they need to understand the infrastructure behind it. And what it really takes to keep up with technology as it moves forward. Because they have not been successful at it so far.

CHURCH: It does always seem to get back to the infrastructure in this country, doesn't it? A lot of things have been left to age, and no effort is being made it seems to update things. So, this is a file that got corrupted, and you're talking about this aged technology, but it also did happen in Canada. Do you -- would you rule out a cyber- attack completely in this instance?

SOUCIE: I would not rule it out. But it is typical that when programmers have similar systems, similar technologies that they share from each other, they have certain parts of the system that they'll say, well, we need to take this particular subroutine, and we're going to use that again in other software. So, it's much like the viruses that we talked about in system design and infrastructure and technology and information technology, particularly. When a virus starts, it's -- it continues because there are similarities within each of those systems. So, I'm not ruling it out. But I really don't think that it is a cyber-attack. If it was, it would be much more pronounced than this. So, I really am not going down that path at this point.

CHURCH: All right. David Soucie, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your expertise with us. We appreciate it.

SOUCIE: Certainly, Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Coming up next, Brazil reinforces its security as supporters of Jair Bolsonaro call for mass demonstrations. We will have the latest just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Brazil has stepped up security across the country amid calls for more protests from supporters of former President Jair Bolsonaro. But so far, there's been no sign of mass demonstrations. Posts began circulating on social media calling for protests on Wednesday to retake the power in 20 cities including Brasilia. Just days earlier, Bolsonaro's supporters stormed all three branches of government in the capital. President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said, any move against democracy will be punished. [02:35:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, BRAZILIAN PRESIDENT: What happened here, I wouldn't even like to think of as a coup. I'd like to think of something smaller, like a group of crazy people who still haven't understood the election is over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH (voiceover): The official now in charge of public security in the capital says, there is no chance the events that took place on Sunday will ever be repeated.

(on camera) More now from CNN's Isa Soares reporting from the Brazilian capital.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They said they would come, but they were a no show. Pro-Bolsonaro protesters take into social media in the day saying, they will be protesting across the country, not just here in Brasilia, but also in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. Well, I can tell you, just walking around the Capitol here, I haven't seen a single pro-Bolsonaro protester, and that could be for several reasons. They could have been rattled by the activists we've seen in the last few days, more than 1500 arrested or so, more than 500-plus charged, and could be facing up to 12 years. That's one of the reasonings that one polices -- one police officer told me could have stopped them in their tracks.

The others, of course, is the fact there is a new interim head of security for the Capitol who has really put in place a pretty impressive operation today. We have seen barracks, barriers been put up. We have seen police on horseback, we have seen ambulances, we have seen lines of different types of police, federal police, military police on show, blockading pretty much this whole part of the Capitol. It's a very different scene, of course, than what we saw on January the 8th, when they stormed through the three branches of power here in the Capitol, and really putting at risk the threat of Brazilian democracy. It's a huge job, of course, for the new head of security, but even bigger job, of course, for Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the new president, who now has only been a week on the job but has to try and unite this deeply divided country. Isa Soares, CNN, Brasilia, Brazil.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: President Biden's legal team has found a second batch of classified documents where they shouldn't be. Sources tell CNN Mr. Biden's lawyers was searching for additional documents after they found an initial set of 10 classified documents in his former private office in November. It's not clear where they found the second set, how many documents it contains, or what's in them. The documents were from Mr. Biden's time serving as Vice President to Barack Obama. Republicans are pouncing on the issue, claiming there is a double standard for how the government treats politicians.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): This is a man who's been in office for four -- more than 40 years. This is a man who prides himself on knowing all of this. Why does he treat people different? This is the exact reason why we have to have a church committee. This is why we moved it yesterday, and this is why we'll get to the bottom of it because they treat people differently based upon their philosophicals or political party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: President Biden is now facing bipartisan scrutiny over the handling of the classified documents. The White House Press Secretary on Wednesday defended the President's legal team. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He takes this seriously when it comes to classified documents, when it comes to information that is classified. He was surprised to learn about the records had been there. And again, he believes that the -- that the lawyers did the right thing, and they immediately turned them over to the archives.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Obviously, it would have been better if it had not happened in the first place. But they've certainly dealt with it the right way, and they've not adopted any kind of obstreperous oppositional stance with regard to the archives and records.

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CHURCH (voiceover): U.S. lawmakers are asking the Director of National Intelligence for a damage assessment as well as a briefing on the documents. Some Republicans want a special counsel to investigate.

(on camera) And still to come, Californians have seen a brutal two weeks of back-to-back deadly storms. Now, they're bracing for more wet weather. We'll have details for you on the other side of the break. Do stay with us.

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CHURCH: Guitar great, Jeff Beck, playing Hammerhead there at the Grammy Museum a few years back, has died. The 78-year old's death from bacterial meningitis was announced on his social media accounts, Wednesday. Beck first rose to fame when he replaced Eric Clapton in the band, The Yardbirds. He later started his own band the Jeff Beck Group featuring Rod Stewart and Ron Wood, who would later join the Rolling Stones. Wood remembered his former bandmate in a tweet saying, "Now, Jeff has gone, I feel like one of my band of brothers has left this world, and I'm going to deeply miss him." Rocker Ozzy Osbourne also offered his condolences saying, "What a terrible loss for his family, friends, and his many fans. Long live Jeff Beck."

Well, California is working to repair the damage from back-to-back storms before the next one arrives. One official says the extreme weather over the past two weeks has been one of the deadliest disasters in state history. At least 18 people have died. Some places recorded 50 to 70 percent of the amount of rainfall they would usually get an in -- in an entire year. And that's led to severe flooding, damaged roads, and thousands of people forced from their homes.

In Northern California, the highest elevations have recorded more than 10 feet or three meters of snow in just 16 days. Conditions are relatively quiet right now, but more storms are expected to arrive in the coming days. First, bringing heavy rain to the Pacific Northwest on Thursday before shifting east. And thank you so much for joining us, I'm Rosemary Church. I'll be back in about 15 minutes with more CNN NEWSROOM. "WORLD SPORT" is coming up next. Do stick around.

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