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Race Against Time As Rescuers Search For Quake Survivors; Growing Concerns Over Humanitarian Crisis In Turkey And Syria; California Organization Is Sending Medical Supplies To Earthquake Victims; U.S. Fighter Jets Take Out "High-Altitude Object" Off Alaska Coast; Zelenskyy: We Need To Speed Up Weapons Supplies Faster Than Russia; Pence Subpoenaed By Special Counsel Investigating Trump; Brazil's President Tells CNN His Plans To Combat Climate Change. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired February 11, 2023 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:26]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST (on camera): Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

All right. Now, to Turkey where the death toll from this week's earthquake has now passed 25,000. Five days after the earthquake hit, rescuers are still finding people alive.

WHITFIELD (voice over): But time is running out to find other survivors. One senior U.N. official warning they are approaching the end of the search and rescue window and many of those who died are being buried in mass graves like this one in Turkey.

And for the 1000s of survivors most were left with nothing. CNN's Nick Payton Walsh looks at some of the amazing rescue stories.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Fred, make no mistake what is happening in the quake ravaged areas is increased desperation, cold, a lack of shelter, a government desperately doing all it can that simply can't be enough given the millions affected.

But amid all of that horror, frankly, are moments of startling joy and relief. 70-year-old woman pulled after 121 hours under the rubble of Kahramanmaras -- just in the last hours. And three brothers also pulled out after 120 hours.

We saw ourselves another rescue in the heavily hit key city of millions of Antakya after 109 hours. Here is our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice over): Over 100 hours after the worst quake in nearly 100 years, and still there were lights that won't go out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (text): Coming! Pull! WALSH: Naked feet, a reminder this happened in everyone sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (text) Slow! Slow!

WALSH: And this new dawn, so welcome. No better way to show you're alive than this smile.

The crowds at each site larger louder in success. Now, the number of living buried is smaller.

(INAUDIBLE) husband was pulled out moments before her. They don't have to go far to be reminded how so many searches end.

The preciousness of each moment of hope is most acute here were military helicopters and ambulances form a stream, rushing the injured to hospitals in other Turkish cities. Because so many here are crippled.

We see a 3-year-old girl conscious. Her two-months-old sister the same. It is unclear if they know where their mother is. Nobody here does.

WALSH (on camera): This just how urgent their work is. Each time they try to take off, another ambulance arrives with another injured person who urgently requires treatment elsewhere.

WALSH (voice over): The old are rushed on too. But also too, so tiny, they share a stretcher. And on board must be carried in their arms. They too fly without their parents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (text): One more space. One more.

WALSH: About 15 patients in total this morning.

Remember though, this is how most stories are ending here. Hurried graves in a cemetery dug by hand and cardboard. Even this, a relative luxury in a time of nothing. Two families of four who died in the same building.

Across this city though, the task of burying so many also urgently.

Back at the same rubble site, another search has begun. This resident explains its interior.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (text): Where Is the elevator shaft?

WALSH: Hope now is for Yeshima's (PH) brother, mother, and father. A nurse, she's been here since Tuesday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I've been struggling for five days. Everyone has lost hope now and is sending me condolences. Officials told me, they'd only find a corpse.

And now, two people have come out alive. We need professional rescuers. The fire brigade quit on us. We found those two just now with construction workers. I brought three body bags, maybe I need them and a graveyard.

WALSH: Into dusk, the dig inches carefully forwards with no time limit or guarantee it will find anything.

The city center swamped in dust and the heavy knowledge that the longer their patience and struggle, the less likely it is to be rewarded.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[12:05:05]

WALSH (on camera): Now, there is another problem compounding the misery of those in that city. As the operation turns from getting people alive out from under the rubble, to try to keep them alive above it. And that is, I think, a fraying of the kind of bonhomie, the order between people in the initial moments of response after the quake. There is desperation, frustration, people realizing they simply do not know where they will live in the weeks and months ahead.

Nearly every building has a question mark over if it's not crumbled to the ground from the quake. A little snapshot of what we experienced. A rumor spread in the crowd, where we were that a nearby dam had broken, flooding was imminent. Untrue, incorrect, I should stress, that cause mass panic, people to jump into their cars and try and leave as quickly as possible. When it all calm down, locals then chased around men who they thought were thieves, who'd use that moment to try and steal from an abandoned building.

That's the sort of chaos I think it's fair to say panic anxiety that's beginning to spread amongst people there. There's little the government can do about that other than stepping as forcefully as it can with resources that may not have to the extent that it necessarily needs.

And that is certainly the challenge going forward for aid workers too. The Austrian army saying they've suspended their operations because of security concerns, not against them. But possibly clashes between various different groups, being something they're concerned that might happen.

That's another problem for a government that's already got far too much on his plate with these millions of people now potentially homeless going forward, utter desperation that will grow as our attention around the world possibly move somewhere else, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Nick Paton Walsh, thanks so much for that. Well, today, California-based organization Direct Relief, sending medical and humanitarian aid to Turkey and Syria.

Let's bring in now CNN news source correspondent Mike Valerio in Santa Barbara.

Mike, tell us more about this effort.

MIKE VALERIO, CNN NEWSOURCE NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Sure, Fred. Well, the name of the game here is to get 17 tons of supplies out of this 3-1/2-acre warehouse. On a direct flight from LAX down the 101-405 freeway all the way to Istanbul, a 13-hour flight.

So, let's give you a little bit of a tour to show you all these pallets are bound for Turkey. And then, further in the background, where we have half dozen guys working on this latest shipment. Those exclusively white pallets wrapped in the white over there, those are bound for Syria.

So, they're going to go from Los Angeles, to Istanbul, cross the border, and get to Syria by the middle of the next week. But if we walk over here, we're going to show you Fred, in terms of what's in these boxes, we have these sturdy backpacks that are meant for first responders.

So, if you take a look inside here, this section meant for wound treatment, we have bandages, everything, you would need makeshift tourniquet right here, water purification, tablets, light sticks. So, these are going to the center of the earthquake zone.

But take a listen to what we heard about the two main types of supplies that are bound for Turkey and Syria. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ALYCIA CLARK, DIRECTOR OF PHARMACY AND CLINICAL AFFAIRS, DIRECT RELIEF: Yes, it's really a combination of two different things. So, the first kind of set of supplies are to address really the acute emergency. So, fresh wounds, more critical care items, I.V. fluids, antibiotics, and then, it's going to be followed with a series of products meant for chronic disease management. And so, we know that, you know, initially all of the trauma is kind of first and in the front and center. And then, beyond that, it's a trail effect of, you know, chronic disease management.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALERIO: OK. So, we're talking about chronic disease management. What does that mean? It means people with diabetes, heart conditions. People with asthma, Fred, those are conditions that aren't going to need, you know, assistance for the next couple of days.

But for the next few weeks and months, if we look further back into this warehouse, though, again, 3-1/2 acres. When the initial call, Fredricka, went out from here in Santa Barbara, California -- at central coast of California, everything needed for diabetes, heart conditions, asthma, for the initial first response was already here.

So, what they are doing now? They're going to send out this second shipment bound for the airport, and then, reload supplies. But this is just a monstrous effort. You know, the generosity of Californians who are helping out people 1000s of miles away.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it's a monumental effort, and I'm sure it'll make a significant difference and impact.

Mike Valerio, thank you so much.

All right. For the second time in less than a week, U.S. fighter jets have shot down an object inside us territory. The latest is what military officials call a high-altitude object that was spotted crossing into frozen territorial waters of Alaska. An F-22 shooting it down right out of the sky on Friday. But unlike the Chinese spy balloon shot down near South Carolina, officials do not believe this new object was carrying surveillance equipment.

[12:10:00]

CNN reporter Katie Bo Lillis, joining us now. So, Katie Bo, what do we know about this latest intrusion?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER (on camera): Fred, still a lot more questions than answers at this point. The U.S. military on Thursday, observed this unknown object entering into American airspace off the coast of Alaska.

LILLIS (voice over): Sent up some military aircraft to check it out, see what they could see. The pilots weren't able to learn a whole lot. They could see that it was unmanned, and they were able to determine that it was flying at about 40,000 feet, which did raise some concerns for interference with civilian air traffic. But this was a very different situation than what the military was confronted with, with the entry of the Chinese spy balloon into American airspace a week prior -- a couple of weeks prior.

In that instance, the U.S. military knew what they were looking at. They knew that they were -- they knew that they were looking at a part of an existing Chinese surveillance program that they had previously been tracking and had been aware of for at least a year at this point.

And they thought at that point, they were going to be able to sort of track this, watch it, they knew -- they thought they knew what it was going to do. They wanted to try to collect intelligence on it. In this instance, the U.S. military really didn't know what it had on its hands and still apparently doesn't.

We are being told by Pentagon officials that the item in question did not bear any sort of shape or size similarities to the -- to the Chinese spy balloon that it appeared to not be maneuverable itself, it was sort of riding the airwaves, which makes its movements very unpredictable.

But at this point, they're still calling it an object. So, we are really going to be reliant on what the military and the FBI are going to be able to determine by recovering this object off of the frozen seas, 10 miles off the coast of Alaska. And who owns it? What is it? They don't know yet.

WHITFIELD: All right. Katie Bo Lillis, thanks so much.

Let's talk more about this and other matters. Retired General Wesley Clark. He is a CNN military analyst and a former NATO supreme allied commander. So good to see you. So, this is the second object now shot down in a week. Is there a larger concern about how well the U.S. is protecting its airspace?

GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I don't think there shouldn't be any concern about how well the United States is protecting our space. I think we're doing a fine job of it. I think the question really is, what is this balloon? Where did it come from? And why was it sent? It's too large, it's too prominent to be a radiosonde weather balloon there. These are launched by the 1000s every day. We know that's not what it is.

So, it's coming from somewhere in Asia. China, could be North Korea, could be Russia somewhere. What's it doing there? So, these are questions we want to see answered. But as for protection of U.S. airspace? No, I think we're doing very well so far.

WHITFIELD: So, publicly, while we may not know a whole lot about it, is it your feeling that intelligence, or military surveillance was able to ascertain a good amount about what that object is to know that it was at least safe to take down?

CLARK: Yes, I think we did look at it before we took it down. So, we didn't think that we were shooting down something that was going to blow up in the face of the pilots or whatever. We get look at it. We know now that in the case of the Chinese balloon that we did fly reconnaissance aircraft past it, we collected electronic emissions from that balloon. Sure, we did something similar here and looks at it very carefully.

WHITFIELD: All right. Now, let's turn to Ukraine. Russia is escalating attacks with missile strikes, hammering large areas of the country. Is Russia on the eve of a major offensive in your view?

CLARK: It sure seems that Russia is on the eve of a major offensive. In fact, it may have already started with the preparatory phases. There is heavy artillery, there is another wave of attacks on the infrastructure in Ukraine to discomfort civilians, to distract, to destroy the energy, to break up communications inside the country.

Then, the pounding of the artillery and the infantry assault on the -- in the east. Some people are suggesting it's a two-pronged defensive. One from the northeast, one from the southeast, to encircle forces west the Dnipro. We don't know really what the intention of it is, at least, at the unclassified level. But the Ukrainians are certainly concerned about it and they say there, perhaps more than 300,000 Washington soldiers there now poised for this offensive.

Now, figures released show more than 1,000 tanks proposed or prepared by the Washington's heavy artillery and so forth. So, I think this has to be taken very seriously. Ukraine's President Zelenskyy traveling this week. Meeting with European leaders and he had a familiar message. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translator): Ukraine's artillery guns, shells for them, modern tanks, long-range missiles, and modern aviation.

I am grateful to everyone who provides such arm assistance. We have to enhance our dynamics of our cooperation. We have to do it faster than the aggressor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:15:06]

WHITFIELD: He said they need to replenish military supplies faster than Russia. I know you've been a bid -- big advocate of the kind of air arsenal that they have been requesting. They want planes.

Do you still feel that way? And do you feel like they are able to get what they need fast enough?

CLARK: I feel like we're about two steps behind giving them what they need fast enough, Fredricka. We just -- some of the stuff we don't have in our inventory, like more defense assets.

Some of the things we've waited too long, talked about too much, haven't given them at all, like the long-range missile, a (INAUDIBLE). The drones that could go in there and disrupt the Soviet prep or Russian prep before it gets started.

The tanks, which could have been sent months ago, training could have been done months ago. But we've modulated what assistance we've given them. We didn't want to escalate the situation. And that's certainly understandable.

The question is whether this idea of being responsive to the battlefield is going to work at this case, or whether the Ukrainians are going to be simply overwhelmed by the mass of Russian forces.

And you look at the urgency of President Zelenskyy and other things we're hearing out of Ukraine. They're certainly concerned that they don't have enough to match this latest Russian buildup.

WHITFIELD: All right. General Wesley Clark, thanks so much, and I can't help but acknowledge your pooch, you know, making his debut on camera as well.

What's his name?

CLARK: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Something tells me he has an interesting name. All right. General, thank you so much.

All right. Embattled Congressman George Santos' web of lies expanding yet again. He's facing another accusation of deception, this time over several bad checks for puppies in 2017. Detail is next. Plus, on a mission to save the lungs of the planet. Brazil's newly elected president sits down with CNN about his efforts in the Amazon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:21:05]

WHITFIELD: All right. New revelation seem to be coming to light every day on the lies embattled Congressman George Santos is accused of telling. Like the latest, Santos claiming Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema told him to quoting now, "hang in there, buddy" when she walked past him at the State of the Union Address.

Sinema's office claiming that's a lie. Here is CNN's Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Santos --

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The latest controversy surrounding embattled Congressman George Santos, involves another allegation of malfeasance regarding dogs.

New information that Santos was charged with theft in Pennsylvania in 2017, when several bad checks in his name. Checks obtained by CNN totaling over $15,000 for "puppies" went to dog breeders in Amish Country.

That's according to a lawyer who helped Santos navigate the case.

TIFFANY BOGOSIAN, ATTORNEY WHO HELPED SANTOS WITH THEFT CHARGE: And when they went to go cash the checks, they would learn that, you know, there was no money behind the checks, all the checks bounced.

TODD: Santos face charges of theft by deception. Both, that lawyer, Tiffany Bogosian and Pennsylvania prosecutors told CNN, those charges against Santos were later dismissed.

But Bogosian has turned on her former friend.

BOGOSIAN: That's all the (INAUDIBLE) checks bounce.

He is definitely, you know, not qualified to be where he is in Congress. And he should really be in jail.

TODD: CNN has reached out to Santos for comment on the latest information. We haven't heard back. The FBI is already investigating separate allegations that Santos took off with money he raised through his pet charity to care for a dying dog belonging to a military veteran.

In an interview with the conservative talk channel, Newsmax, Santos denied allegations that he had lied about previously working for Goldman Sachs and Citigroup. Saying he did work through "contacts" with those firms.

He was once again evasive on the source of the $700,000, he says he loaned his campaign.

REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): I can attest that the total of the money was all legitimate money obtained through my legal practices with my company, and I distributed my dividends to myself and loaned it to the campaign.

TODD: And he spoke of all the negative media coverage he's faced.

SANTOS: It's really easy to pile on, on me. I'm the new -- I'm the new favorite punching bag in America. Sure, you can come for me. I understand. I can handle the heat.

TODD: The heat is coming from almost every direction. The Federal Election Commission is now asking Santos to declare whether or not he plans to run for re-election next year. Because he's crossed a fundraising threshold, which requires him to make a formal declaration.

Then, there's the pressure Santos is getting from fellow Republicans. Some GOP representatives want him to resign. And Republican Senator Mitt Romney confronted Santos at the State of the Union address. Saying, Santos shouldn't have been as visible there. Still --

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION: I still think the chances are very low that he'll be kicked out, because it takes a two-thirds vote of the House to dispel a member, and it looks like most Republicans don't want to take that step, mainly because their majority is thin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: George Santos has generally denied or tried to explain away the various allegations of fabricating his background or being otherwise dishonest.

In that interview with Newsmax, he continued to defend himself against the daily negative headlines, saying that while the media fanfare around him continues to spiral, he is doing the work that his constituents elected him to do. Answering their calls and taking meetings.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

WHITFIELD: And another classified document was found in vice president -- former Vice President Mike Pence's home, and another search is imminent.

The latest on the investigation next.

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[12:28:50]

WHITFIELD: All right. Sources tell CNN, the FBI is expected to search Mike Pence's Washington, D.C. office in the coming days for more classified documents. This comes after a search of Pence's Indiana home on Friday, uncovered several government documents, including, yet, another one marked as classified.

And you'll recall last month, an attorney for the former vice president found about a dozen classified documents in Pence's Indiana house.

For more on this, let's bring in CNN national security reporter Zachary Cohen. So, Zach, what more do we know about these new documents found in Pence's home?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER (on camera): Yes, Fredricka. We know that there was one document that was marked classified and six additional documents that didn't have classified markings but were also removed from Pence's home by the FBI, when they searched his house yesterday.

And look, this is not what the Pence team was hoping for when they pledged, you know, their full cooperation with the Department of Justice review of his handling of classified materials.

You'll remember that his lawyer searched the home himself and found around 12 classified documents then, but he appears to have missed at least one.

And now that is going to mean that this review is going to be extended. It's going to take a lot longer than what the Pence team had hoped.

[12:30:02]

That's because the FBI has to examine each document. They need to figure out if it -- there was any harm that was caused by this information being out there. But there's also a political impact here, too, because Pence is eyeing a potential 2024 run for President. And, you know, this hanging over him is only going to hinder that.

Ironically, you know, his team has really posture themselves as being fully cooperative with the Justice Department and draws a stark comparison to his likely 2024 rival in his former boss, Donald Trump, who has taken a different path in his own documents investigation.

WHITFIELD: Mike Pence was also subpoenaed this week by Special Counsel Jack Smith, who is investigating Trump and his role in the January 6th insurrection. So what more do we know about that subpoena if Pence plans to, you know, honor it, or would he claim executive privilege?

COHEN: Yes, it was a busy week for Mike Pence, no doubt, and this subpoena was the other part of it. Jack Smith, the special counsel who is investigating, you know, the circumstances around January 6th and efforts to overturn the election, did take the step to issue a subpoena to Mike Pence, who is really viewed as a key witness and a central figure in all of this because, as you remember, Donald Trump really did try to pressure Pence to overturn the election on January 6th.

And prosecutors want to know about the conversations that he had with his former boss. Now, there might be some privilege issues that arise over the course of the next few weeks as the terms of the subpoena get sorted out. But, you know, Pence did publish a memoir recently that does open a window into his conversations with Trump, and it may present an opportunity for prosecutors to really push the issue and get information about what he and Trump discussed when it was just the two of them.

WHITFIELD: All right, Zach Cohen, thanks so much.

Let's talk a bit more on all this now with Michael Zeldin. He is a former federal prosecutor and former independent counsel who was appointed to investigate President. Good to see you. So how significant, in your view, is this discovery of this one? I believe it was described as a folder marked classified. And then there were a handful of other documents found in the latest search of Pence's home.

MICHAEL ZELDIN, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: I don't think it's significant. It's never been, Fred, about the number of documents. It's really more about how were they mishandled, was it intentional or accidental? And once they were mishandled, what happened to them next? Were they destroyed? Were they altered?

Were they shared with others? And so, yes, politically, it's a bit of a nuisance for Pence, but legally speaking, the finding of one additional document in and of itself, unless it was mishandled, intentionally taken or shared with another, really doesn't, I don't think, raise any tricky legal problems for him. I think he doesn't have a problem.

WHITFIELD: Do you think that because of the precedents, you know, that a special counsel might be appointed as it pertains to Mike Pence, simply because a special counsel is involved with Donald Trump and now Joe Biden as well?

ZELDIN: I wouldn't think a special counsel is needed for Mike Pence. I didn't think it was needed for President Biden. I think they're doing this for optics, meaning that they want to make sure that the public believes that they're -- they can have confidence in the integrity of his investigations. Mike Pence's case seems so much a matter of inadvertent that I don't think there is really a criminal law issue that requires a special counsel to inquire of it. I think the DOJ can handle it all by themselves.

WHITFIELD: OK. Then, separately, the former Vice President Mike Pence has been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating Trump's role in the Capitol Insurrection. He wants documents and testimony from the former Vice President. What would the options be for Pence? Just simply comply? Or might he also exert an executive privilege?

ZELDIN: So the best course for him is to comply, I think, and continue the Mike Pence I'm a hero. I resisted on January 6th leaving the Capitol, and I did what the Constitution requires of me, and now I am doing what the Constitution requires me, of me again, and I'm testifying. But if former President Trump asserts executive privilege, Pence can assert it himself. President has to assert it. The President asserts it. Then Mike Pence can say, look, Court, let me know if that privilege is availing or whether, under U.S. versus Nixon and other president, the grand jury subpoena Trumps that assertion of executive privilege, and if so, I will come in and testify.

So he could say, let the court decide, and then tell me what the best thing to do is. But either way, I will come in if required. WHITFIELD: And the fact that there is a subpoena, what does that tell you about the direction of the investigation?

ZELDIN: Well, it tells us that this is an ongoing criminal inquiry, that this is not some civil type of inquiry to determine whether or not there needs to be new legislation or the like. This is a criminal inquiry as to whether or not there were laws broken with respect to January 6th or whatever else the grand jury is investigating.

[12:35:19]

The mandate of a grand jury is to determine whether or not anyone needs to be indicted for their behavior. So this is serious stuff. It's probably more serious former President Trump than it is former Vice President Pence. But Pence is a key witness here, and he's got to make a decision whether the national security and the national interest in the Constitution is more important to him than his personal political future.

WHITFIELD: On Friday, Donald Trump's legal team turned over more materials with classified markings and a laptop to federal investigators. This seems to be, you know, quite the contrast from, you know, before, a resistance to hand things over. And then there were search warrants, and we know what happened at Mar-a-Lago. But I'm wondering if this latest development and the handling of turning things over seemingly voluntarily, does that in any way change the investigation, the trajectory of it, or even the intensity of it in any way?

ZELDIN: I wouldn't think so. I think, Fred, the issue of whether or not the President, the former President, obstructed the investigation at the outset of it is not going to be impacted by whether he's now learned a lesson and is turning over in a cooperative way some additional documents. What struck me was, though, there were some classified documents that were copied onto a thumb drive of a computer which was then taken to the Trump pack. So remember, we talked about whether these documents were mishandled. I think that laptop raises the possibility of mishandling, and that may be a legal problem for the owner of that computer and the former president.

WHITFIELD: All right, potentially even something new and a new turn. All right, Michael Zeldin, good to see you. Thanks so much.

ZELDIN: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, coming up, one-on-one interview with Brazil's new president and his efforts to save the Amazon.

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[12:41:28]

WHITFIELD: Brazil's newly elected president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is determined to right the wrongs of his predecessor, former President Jair Bolsonaro, especially when it comes to the destruction of the country's critical rainforests. Yesterday, CNN's Christiane Amanpour sat down for an exclusive interview with Lula da Silva and asked him what his plans are to combat climate change.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: Mr. President, you spoke about your view that under the previous government, genocide was committed against your people. You talk about the deaths during COVID and particularly, the hundreds of deaths amongst that Yanomami people, the indigenous people. And I know you visited their region in the Amazon recently.

What are you going to do, though, also about climate because that's another big item on your agenda with President Biden because we watched the Amazon being, you know, not taken care of, let's say, during the previous government?

LUIZ INACIO LULA DA SILVA, PRESIDENT OF BRAZIL (through translator): Amanpour, from 2003 to 2015, when the workers party ruled Brazil, we reduced to deforestation 80 percent. Now, we have the commitment in COP -- I -- we'd taken the commitment in the COP15 that we reduced the greenhouse emissions, and we reduced that in 39 percent. And so, our commitment with the climate issue is not a commitment that is theoretical or for running for candidate, no, it's a human being commitment that lives on the planet that has to be taken care of.

And so, Brazil today has 30 million of hectares of land that are degraded. You don't have to cut down one single tree. You can't advance where you should not advance an indigenous reserve or in a forest that -- as our forest we reserved demarked by the government. You cannot allow someone to invade that land.

And so, we have a commitment. Our commitment is a government commitment. And as a citizen and a commitment -- as a humanitarian, we will reach deforestation zero in 2030. This is our commitment to try to build the condition so that we can reach deforestation zero. And then you have to talk with the mayors, local mayors, with the governors.

And then you have, instead of punishing, you have to award those mayors, those governors that guarantee that in their state, their province there's no more burning of the forest or unnecessary deforestation. Instead of punishment, you should give incentives and award him or her with some help from the federal government so that they can feel motivated to be co-participant of the government attitudes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And you can see much more of this exclusive interview at CNN.com.

[12:44:16]

All right, still ahead, survivors of the devastating earthquake are bracing for a potential secondary disaster as a dangerous cold crawls into the region. What we're tracking, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Desperation is growing in Turkey and Syria as the death toll from Monday's massive earthquake surpasses 25,000. The hope of finding survivors is fading by the hour, but there are some moments of relief. Rescuers in Turkey saved a father and his young daughter who were buried underneath the rubble for 132 hours.

And crews are now racing to get to others who might be trapped as survivors face what the World Health Organization is calling a secondary disaster. Freezing temperatures and new snowfall have made the already horrific conditions even worse. Let's bring in now CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar. Alison, how cold are we talking in the region?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, you're talking below freezing, and for some of these areas, it's going to below freezing for prolonged periods of time. So here's a look at the area. All these yellow and orange dots that you see on the screen, that's where we've had those earthquakes in the last week, the orange dots being the ones in the last 24 hours. But you can notice a lot of these areas already dropping down into the 30s. Keep in mind local time, it's just before 9 o'clock at night. So these temperatures have already peaked. They're going to continue to go down.

[12:50:07]

And the farther you get away from the coast, those temperatures are also going up in elevation, so they're much cooler there. And the cold air, as you'll notice, really over the next week, is really supposed to hold in place. So there's not really going to be much of a warm up in terms of these temperatures over the next several days.

Now, we showed you the current temperature researchers. Now we take a look at the overnight lows, and you'll notice a lot of these areas surrounding the earthquake zone is we're talking about below freezing. And in many cases, you're not just talking right at the freezing mark, you're talking 10, 15 degrees below that. So you're talking several hours below freezing. And many of these folks still do not have power, which means they still do not have access to heat or even a hot meal per se.

One good bit is at least during the day, for a lot of these areas, the temperatures do rebound back above freezing, only to go right back down below freezing once we get into the evening hours. Now, one bit of good news is that most of the snowfall and rain across the area has ended for now, and we're going to get of a break across much of this region.

We do anticipate some rain and snow well off to the east and down towards the south. But the good news is, for a lot of these regions, we are likely going to stay with no rain or no snow, Fred, for at least the next 72 hours. And that's good not only for rescue efforts, but also for the cleanup process as well, albeit cold, but at least it will be dry.

WHITFIELD: Right. That will be helpful. All right, Allison Chinchar, thanks so much. And for more information about how you can help victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, go to CNN.com/impact. And we'll be right back.

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[12:56:10]

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. The Great Salt Lake in Utah is evaporating before our eyes. Scientists say it may disappear altogether in five years, but it could be saved with some emergency measures. Many experts believe what's happening is a microcosm of what's expected to happen to the planet. CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir has a closer look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is what is left of the Great Salt Lake. They hit record lows in recent months, exposing around 800 square miles of lakebed. But unchecked water use and climate change aren't just threatening the birds and sail boaters. And here the western mega drought threatens a lot more than just snow sports, agriculture and industry.

(on camera): Because this lakebed holds centuries of toxic runoff. Mercury, selenium, arsenic, some of it natural, some of it manmade mining waste. But if it turns to dust and adds to some of the worst air pollution in the country, this is a threat to the lungs of over 2.5 million people.

BONNIE BAXTER, BIOLOGIST AND DIRECTOR, GREAT SALT LAKE INSTITUTE, WESTMINSTER COLLEGE: We've done this experiment in history before. We know about dust storms. We know about particulate pollution. We know about heavy metals and how they're bad for humans. This is an ecological disaster that will become a human health disaster.

WEIR (voice over): Bonnie Baxter is among the scientists who recently warned that the Great Salt Lake, as we know it, could be gone in five years, shriveled into fingers of lifeless water before becoming the great toxic dust bowl.

BAXTER: You can kind of see a person standing out there. Like, the water would have been above their head just a few years ago.

WEIR: This is what is known as a terminal lake with no rivers to take minerals to the sea. So, they build up over time, just like Owens Lake in California, after developers notoriously drained it a century ago to build Los Angeles. It both inspired the movie "Chinatown" and forced Californians to spend in the billions to control the toxic dust that remains a threat 100 years later.

BAXTER: This lake is 12 to 15 times bigger than Owens Lake. It's right next to a metropolitan center, which that lake was not. So there are people who will breathe this dust immediately. And we're really, really concerned about that happening here.

WEIR (on camera): Right. BAXTER: So, we have done that experiment. We shouldn't do it again.

BRIAN STEED, EXEC. DIR., LAWSON INSTITUTE FOR LAND, WATER AND AIR, UTAH STATE UNIV.: There's human choices that led to that catastrophic event, right? We're looking at the Great Salt Lake in a position right now to where we can avoid that a catastrophe, where we don't have to spend those billions of dollars in remediation in the future if we make choices today.

WEIR (voice over): Brian Steed and John Lin are from rival Utah universities. One with a background in state government, the other an atmospheric scientist.

JOHN LIN, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH'S DEPARTMENT OF ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES: The thing is, it's bipartisan, right? We probably all want clean air.

WEIR (voice-over): Together they're part of the newly formed Great Salt Lake Strike Team, out to convince everyone that every drop counts.

STEED: For a long time, I don't think that people were sufficiently talking for the lake. Now I think that we have a lot of people interested. The governor of the state, the legislature, who's all very interested in coming up with different scenarios and different solutions so that we don't end up with that catastrophic outcome.

WEIR (on camera): It seems like the path of least resist is for the state to pay farmers for their water rights. Is that going to happen?

STEED: I don't know. It remains to be seen. I mean I think there's a lot of things that we could do that go to that extreme.

WEIR (voice over): Among the signs of change, when U.S. Magnesium wanted to extend canals into the lake, the state said no. And last year, the legislature finally began revising water laws written in the days of the Wild West.

BAXTER: Sometimes we feel like we take a step forward and sometimes we take a step back. But, in general, all those pieces of water legislation that passed in 2022 were bipartisan and unanimous. Like, where does that happen anymore?

[13:00:05]

WEIR (voice-over): Fingers crossed it keeps happening because the only thing that can keep the Salt Lake Great is lots of snow and even more cooperation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)