i'm jane pauley. "face the nation" is just ahead. please join us when our trumpet sounds again next sunday morning. ♪ . i'm margaret brennan in washington. this week on "face the nation," a dangerous drama unfolds in russia as a mercenary group fighting the ukrainians turns on vladimir putin and his government. breathtakingly bizarre twist to the war in ukraine this weekend, what could have been a

disaster inside russia. the tough nuclear adversary came to a halt late saturday. the crisis has cooled for now, but what will the impact of the uprising be on vladimir putin's weakened hold over a country struggling in its war against ukraine? here in washington, intelligence agencies have been quietly monitoring the escalating tensions between the wagner mercenary group and the putin government for some time, and spent the weekend nervously watching events in russia unfold. we'll hear from secretary of state antony blinken and the head of the house intelligence committee mike turner. one year after the end of roe versus wade, the march to ban abortion in some states continues. >> we will never rest and relent until we restore the sanctity of life to the center of american law in every state in the land. >> as do efforts to motivates voters to fight for the right to choose an abortion. >> the court was betting that all of us would remain silent,

butt but we're not. >> we'll talk with texas congresswoman veronica escobar. finally the new head of the united nations world food program, cindy mccain, joins us to talk about where the hunger crisis is worst and why we need to do more. it's all just ahead on "face the nation." ♪ good morning. welcome to "face the nation." there is a lot we don't know yet about the motivations behind and the consequences following wagner group leader yevgeny prigozhin's actions in russia this weekend. what we do know about what one senior administration official calls a very bizarre episode, is that there seems to be a pause, at least for now, due to a truce struck between vladimir putin

and prigozhin that was brokered by the president of belarus. the terms of the deal are emerging but even after prigozhin abruptly stopped his march to moscow yesterday, there remains trepidation about the risks ahead on this unpredictable path for russia which holds the largest nuclear arsenal. ian lee reports from dnipro, ukraine. >> rarely do failed mu tain eyres received place. as they left the city last night, come back alive and take care of yourself shouted people in the crowd. the mer nary group leader yevgeny prigozhin smiled and posed for selfies on the way out. some greeted them less warmly with jeers and insults. for 24 hours the world watch wagner forces inch closer to moscow, updates of their advance

splashed across social media. the russian military secured the capital, soldier deese ploids on the streets and heavy equipment ripped up roads leading to the city. after accusing the russian military of killing his men in ukraine with a missile strike, a claim russian defense officials deny. his men seized rosstov home of the southern military headquarters before advancing towards moscow. on russian state tv president vladimir putin accused prigozhin of treason, though he never mentioned his name and called for unity. we will protect our people and country from any threats including internal betrayal, said putin. with wagner troops just 124 miles from moscow the kremlin spokesman announced a deal. wagner troops would be pardoned and returned to bases, criminal charges against prigozhin would be dropped and he would go into

exile in belarus whose leader brokered the agreemenent. this morningng an uneasy calm settled on moscow, life in rostov returned to normal. putin's hold on power survived, battered and bruised, but not all may be forgiven. in a 2018 interview putin told a state tv reporter there's one thing he can never forgive. betrayal, he said. russia continued air strikes on several cities here in ukraine while kyiv took advantage of the chaos to launch assaults. it will take time to see what effect this mutiny has on the war. margaret? >> ian lee in ukraine. thank you. secretary of state antony blinken is one of the many top biden administration officials who have been monitoring the events of the last two days and joins us from the state department. good morning to you, mr. secretary. >> good morning, margaret. >> can you tell us who in the biden administration has been in touch with russian leadership?

>> well, i instructed my own team at the president's behest to engage with the russians, first and foremost, to make sure they understood their responsibilities in terms of protecting our own personnel, ensuring their safety and well being, as well as any american citizens in russia, so a number of people have engaged to make sure that russians got that message. >> is the u.s. ready for further unrest in russia, and the scenario that vladimir putin does not remain in power? >> margaret, this is an unfolding story and we're in the midst of a moving picture. we haven't seen the last act. step back for a second and put this in context 16 months ago, russian forces were on the doorstep of kyiv in ukraine, thinking they'd take the city in a matter of days, erase ukraine from the map as an independent country. over this weekend, they've had to defend moscow, russia's capital, against mercenaries of

putin's own making. prigozhin himself in this entire incident has raised profound questions about the very premises for russia's aggression against ukraine in the first place, saying ukraine and nato did not pose a threat to russia, and it was a direct challenge to putin's authority. this raises profound questions and shows really cracks. we can't speculate or know exactly where that's going to go. we know that putin has a lot more to answer for in the weeks and months ahead. >> but is the u.s. prepared for the potential of the fall of the putin government? is their nuclear stockpile, the largest in the world, secure? >> we always prepare for every contingency. in terms of what happens in russia, it's an internal matter for the russians to figure out. of course when we're dealing with a major power especially a major power that has nuclear weapons, that's something that's of concern, something we're very focused on. we haven't seen any change in russia's nuclear posture. there hasn't been change in

ours. it's something we're going to watch closely. >> vladimir putin is appearing on television this morning, but it appears to have been prerecorded. do you know the whereabouts of vladimir putin right now? is he in moscow? >> i don't want to -- i don't want to speculate on that or what information we have. again, we're watching that carefully. i think one of the things this tells you is that we still don't have finality in terms of what was actually agreed between prigozhin and putin. i suspect that we're going to learn more in the days and weeks ahead about what deal they struck. the president brought together not only the national security cabinet yesterday, he brought together the leaders of our key allies and partners and instructed all of us to do the same. we have tremendous unity of purpose and action when it comes to supporting ukraine and that's where our focus is. >> as you just said, prigozhin drew into question the very

premise for vladimir putin's war. >> that's right. >> do the wagner fighters return to the fight in ukraine? do we know? >> too soon to tell what's going to happen to the wagner forces. whether they go back to the fight. it was extraordinary they were moving out of ukraine into russia, but too soon to tell whether they're going to go back into the fight as wagner, whether they get integrated into russian forces, what this means for wagner in other parts of the world. both putin and wagner responsible for committing terrible acts in crane against ukrainian citizens but in wagner in country after country in africa, wherever wagner is, death and destruction follow. but all of this is likely to unroll in the coming days and weeks. to the extent it presents a real distraction for putin, and for russian authorities, that they have to look at sort of mind their rear even as they're trying to deal with the counteroffensive in ukraine, i think that creates even greater

openings for the ukrainians to do well on the ground. >> as you indicated yevgeny prigozhin has a footprint that goes from africa to syria to ukraine. do you have any idea where he is right now? >> i can't get into what we know or don't know through intelligence. it's something that we're looking at and that we're tracking. >> one of the things prigozhin did was directly undermine the russian military leadership. do we know who is in charge of the russian military right now? how could vladimir putin agree to any changes in the leadership of his military and still look like he's in charge? >> those are great questions and i think we'll get the answers in the days and weeks ahead. it's too soon to say with any certainty what the final chapter in this particular book is going to be. the rising storm of prigozhin, inside of russia, is something that many people have seen over months now. direct challenges to the leadership, to the military

leadership, powerful criticism of russia's conduct of its aggression against ukraine, and now, questioning the very premises of the war. prigozhin himself saying that ukraine and nato did not pose a threat to russia, which is, as you know, been part of putin's narrative. these create more cracks in the russian facade, and those cracks were already profound. economically, militarily, its standing in the world all those things have been diminished by putin's aggression against ukraine. he's managed to bring europe together and managed to bring nato together and get europe to move off of russian energy. he's managed to alienate ukrainians and unite ukraine at the same time. across the board this has been a failure. now you introduce into that profound internal divisions and there are questions he's going to have to answer in the weeks ahead. >> is there a possibility of civil war? >> i don't want to speculate on that. these are fundamentally internal matters for the russians to figure out. it's not our place to do that.

>> will president biden reach out directly to vladimir putin? has the cia director reached out to russian intelligence? >> margaret, i'm not going to get into any diplomatic contacts that we may have or have had. i can tell you that on my instruction, on the president's instruction, we had some engagement with the russians over the weekend to make sure they understood their responsibilities when it comes to looking out for the safety and security of our personnel in russia. very important we do that and did that. >> i want to ask you about beijing. i was there with you earlier this week and listened to you pick your words carefully, and then on our way home, president biden called xi jinping a dictator with economic problems who didn't know what his own military was doing by flying the spy balloon over the united states. how much did that hurt the work you did? >> margaret, one of the things that i think you heard me say during the trip and after the trip, is the main purpose was to

bring some greater stability to the relationship, but one of the things i said to chinese counterparts during this trip was that we are going to continue to do things and say things that you don't like, just as you're no doubt going to continue to do and say things we don't like. if you look at what comes out of the. >> are you saying that's a strategic remark? >> the president always speaks candidly, speaks directly, he speaks clearly and for all of us. >> you said that chinese officials assured you they won't provide lethal assistance to russia but chinese companies are. according to u.s. treasury, chinese companies have done business with the wagner group. have you reached out to the chinese about trying to gauge what is happening on the ground inside russia now? >> again, i can't get into any diplomatic contacts that we may or may not have had. you're right, when it comes to the visit the chinese did reiterate to us, as well as to many other countries, that they

have not and will not provide lethal military assistance to russia for use in ukraine. i also raised the concerns that you said about chinese companies providing that kind of support, and pressed them to be vigilant about that. i'm sure they're making their own assessments about what's happened inside of russia in recent days. >> secretary blinken, thank you for your time this morning. >> thanks, margaret. good to be with you. we turn to the chairman of the house intelligence committee, republican congressman mike turner of ohio. he joins us from dayton. good morning to you. >> good morning, margaret. >> i understand top congressional leaders, yourself included, have been briefed multiple times in recent days by the administration in regards to the risk posed by the wagner group. last year, u.s. intelligence had extraordinary detail, those are the words, the head of u.s. intelligence, about putin's plans to invade ukraine. i wonder how you would describe the intelligence the u.s. had about this march on moscow?

>> sure. well, the intelligence committee was very much aware that conflict between prigozhin and putin was inevitable, and even from public sources you've seen, prigozhin for months has put out videos critical of the russian government, critical of putin. putin has allowed this. as the secretary said, those videos themselves even included criticizing putin's very premise of the war that it was not started by nato, there were not nazis in ukraine. and then entering into moscow, entering into russia itself and taking their convoy to moscow shows the basic issue of whether or not putin controls his military. for any government to have stability, they have to control their military. obviously, prigozhin in order to make that's distance, where was the russian air force preventing this? that's an issue that putin will have to deal with internationally and domestically, is, you know, his government as an authoritarian government, depends on its

assertion of power force to contain -- to continue to weald power and that certainly is going to be an issue. >> was vladimir putin himself aware of the potential of this uprising? >> well, you know, i can't go into what our intelligence was. these videos he was allowing prigozhin to put out were public and distributed around the world. putin was aware of them because he was allowing them. the content of them, where they not only criticized putin and the russian government, and called for the removal of the minister of defense, ultimately as you know, this weekend prigozhin's statement was the removal of the president himself. vladimir putin had lots of public notice that prigozhin was a critic and was threatening the government and now ultimately took his military action into russia itself. >> but that raises the question of whether this was a strategic move by prigozhin or just sort of a gamble, and an opportunity he sees? do we have any insight?

>>s you know, he's a military guy. this is a 12-hour trip from ukraine to moscow. he got within two hours of moscow. he understands the logistics and the assistance he needs to do that. this is not a weekend trip he's taking. taking his convoy and military convoy up to moscow. there's a number of accomplices including as we saw of the russian people on the border with ukraine who clearly support the wagner group. in contrast to their support for the russian government. this is something that would have had to have been planned for a significant amount of time to be executed in the manner it was. >> there was a report last month that prigozhin had offered in january to help ukraine attack the russian military by sharing information on troop positions that he had. is this in any way helpful, what has just occurred, to ending the war in ukraine? like where is prigozhin's interest? >> right. so this really does hurt putin.

not only just politically and in his leadership from russia and his presidency, but in his efforts to continue the war in ukraine. i think, obviously, in the beginning there's going to be an initial increased activity against ukraine, but because he went -- putin went on national tv to respond to prigozhin and prigozhin said that your government has lied to you, this is not a war that nato started, there are no nazis in ukraine, taking down the very premise makes it much more difficult for putin to continue to turn to the russian people and say we should continue to send people to die in this war that for which prigozhin himself has said to the russian people the premise is a lie. >> there was a lot that secretary blinken said he could not answer during our interview. is that because u.s. intelligence does not know or because it's classified? >> you know, i can't answer that either. you can assume certainly that we have been very focused on russia and ukraine and this is an area

where, you know, ukraine's success has been a result in part because of the successes of the intelligence community, so we've been very focused on this. i think that as we go forward, this is going to be even more critical as it -- as we face the threats for ukraine and the united states, what's going to happen to putin and russia next. >> chairman, please stay with us. we have to take a break. we'll be right back in one minute with more of our conversasation. ♪ when you start a business you put everything into it. hahackers knowow that smalal busisiness ownerers are busy.

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authoritarianism against democracy that we wanted, that they're now rising up against. he's standing next to a guy who can't even control his own military. remember, putin in his national address said that these individuals are going to have inevitable punishment, and then in the end, prigozhin gets a vacation in belarus and his troops will sound contracts, sounds like paperwork than a kgb agent doing punishment. xi seeing that with putin, has got to understand that putin's stature in the world has diminished that diminishes president xi and as putin looks weakened, certainly not being able to control his military and being a strong power, president xi has to be worried about the stability of russia itself. >> we'll be watching that. last friday, this past friday, sorry, back from beijing and my time frame is screwed up here, the director of national intelligence released this

declassified summary in the findings in links between the wuhan institute of virology and the covid pandemic. it said several researchers at that institute were nil 2019 with symptoms consistent with, but not diagnostic of covid. why is it so inconclusive still? >> well, this is the problem really what the director of national intelligence has done. we passed a law saying declassify the information you have about the covid and wuhan lab's activities. what they did is basically went and did a paper on what they believe about the intelligence they've looked at. to give you an example we've asked to open the curtain and release the intelligence and they went behind the curtain read the stuff and said this is what we think about it. this is not sufficient and this is going to set up a battle between the congress and director of national intelligence to make certain that law passed unanimously both the senate and house and signed

by the president, complied with, but also the american public get the answers they deserve. >> so there was a classified an next to this, though, that was not released. i would assume that you have read that. is that -- >> no. actually we got this late friday. i haven't had access it to in a classified setting. even releasing a classified an next goes against what the law says. the law says declassify, not give us more classified information. my committee has seen a significant amount of this intelligence, giving my committee more intelligence doesn't give it to the public and that's what declassification law was about. >> the report says that, you know, it details two agencies say it was a lab accident. cia can't determine. national intelligence council and four other agencies say most likely caused by natural exposure. do you believe that there actually is a definitive conclusion that the government is not releasing? >> so i have seen, for example, the classified an next to the report that president biden requested the intelligence

community gave. what you just read were more conclusions by the intelligence community. in the report that was given to the president, the 90 day report, they have information in that report that contradicts, i believe, the impressions that are given in these statements by the intelligence committee. we want the intelligence released and their opinion about the released. if we wanted their opinion we would have asked for it. we passed a law saying declassify it so the american public can see it. expert in the community besides the intelligence community need to take a look at this and help us understand what happened that resulted in millions of people dying. >> congngressman, t thank you f your timime today. we'll bebe right bacack. ♪ (oh♪ inin my ozempipic® tri-z-zoni lolowered my a a1c, cv risi, and lolost some weweight. ozempic® providess powerfulul a1c reducuction. in stutudies, the e majority f peopople reacheded an a1c under 7 7 and maintatained i. ozempic® lowers ththe risk off major r cardiovascscular evens

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welcome back to "face the nation." wagner group leader yevgeny prigozhin is actually wanted by the fbi here in the u.s. for his effo efforts to medal in the 2016 elections. foreign correspondent deborah patton has been tracking the group and reports from johannesburg, south africa.

>> reporter: yevgeny prigozhin's uprising appears to have been extremely well planned and executed. who would have thought one of putin's closest allies, a for convict, would be pitted against the russian leader. it was during russia's first invasion of ukraine in 2014 that prigozhin made the leap from putin's shift warlord running an off the books mers sair narrowry group, wagner group soldiers started showing up in africa, prigozhin makes his money by plundering resources in places like the mineral rich central african republic car and wagner provides the muscle to prop up the leader, guarding the president. what wagner doesn't say, they effectively run this nation through violence and a galaxy of shell companies. this model is repeated across

africa allowing prigozhin to evade sanctions and rake in billions to fund what the u.s. has called a transnational criminal organization as well as his private army in ukraine. until recently, prigozhin vigorously denied any links to wagner, but stepped out of the shadows last year recruiting prisoners from russian penal colonies in exchange for pardon, and at salaries far higher than any regular kremlin soldiers, and he certainly enjoyed the notoriety filmed himself strutting around the battlefield and delivering putin his only real victory after months of war capturing soleda and bakhmut at a heavy cost as many of his mercenaries were killed in the fighting. now throughout this war, prigozhin has appeared untouchable, and has survived even after this armed insurrection, and he seems

convinced, margaret, at the very least, he will continue his rein in africa, the real wagner money spinner. >> deborah, thank you. for more on the situation in russia, we turn to cbs news national security correspondent david martin and former ambassador to russia, john sullivan. good to have both of you here. david, let's start on just what happened on the ground. 124 miles outside of moscow, that's how far the wagner group says they got. what does this tell us about russia's intelligence in military? >> it came as a surprise to u.s. intelligence. they had some warning that there was going to be a mutiny, but they were surprised when they -- russians put up no resistance, allowed prigozhin to go into their military headquarters in

rostov and then send his army unopposed north toward moscow. and then they were surprised again by how quickly a deal was made. they had expected a longer, more violent affair and that's why people like the national security adviser, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, canceled their travel plans, because there was the danger that this mutiny could mushroom into a civil war and that brings up all sorts of concerns about the security of russia's nuclear weapons and what you learn is that when a person like putin is sitting on top of an arsenal of thousands of nuclear weapons, his problems quickly become your problems. >> right. ambassador, i mean, it sounds strange sometimes, the phrase catastrophic success when foreign policy analysts talk

about it, but are we in a situation where vladimir putin is preferable to yevgeny prigozhin in terms of running the russian state? >> he's a known quantity. he's a hardened adversary of the united states, but the alternative could be worse. i think the biden administration is rightfully concerned, as david suggests, with chaos and uncertainty in russia with their nuclear arsenal is dangerous not just for the united states but for the world. >> when you look at the map, rostov, the city you mentioned, it's a major logistics hub on that route to moscow. do we have any insight yet, david, into what's happening within the russian military right now? are they remaining loyal to vladimir putin? >> there was no sign that any of the security apparatus around putin had switched sides. they seem to hang tough with

putin. the question of why there was no russian resistance, one possible explanation is because putin told them not to resist. we're going to settle this as quickly and as peacefully as possible. >> ambassador, it was a surprise to many when it was belarus that announced that they were the brokers here, that president of that country. that country is pretty much viewed as a vassal state of russia. vladimir putin controls it. there are nuclear weapons that vladimir putin says he's putting there. explain this part of the puzzle? why would yevgeny prigozhin move to belarus? why are they appearing to be power brokers? >> as you point out, lukashenko is in power now as president because of vladimir putin. vladimir putin came to his rescue in august 2020. it was lukashenko who was dependent on putin, but now,

think about this, this is, as you know, belarus is part of a union state with russia. they are conjoined. how dependent is putin on lukashenko. it's evidence of the weakness that this reveals, what's happened in the last three or four days, the weakness of vladimir putin. it's to the just an appearance of weakness. it's actual weakness. a person he said is a traitor, who stabbed him and his nation in the back, he struck a deal with? a deal that he needed to strike to avoid bloodshed and chaos? what strong leader does that? >> exactly. and when you look at i think for so many americans learning about wagner group for the first time and they just heard deborah's great reporting there, the u.s. considers them a transnational criminal organization. is this like the mafia has its own military? how do we think about this? >> prigozhin himself spent most of the 1980s in prison because

he's a career criminal. wagner operates in states in africa and elsewhere, not because they are patriots who were executing policy on behalf of the russian government, they're there to get access to gold mines, oil resources and so forth. this is a money-making organization, corrupt organization, that united states correctly treats as a transnational criminal organization. >> and david, it was interesting here, from both the secretary and mike turner, this concern of what happens next, not just in ukraine, but in libya syria, throughout africa? do we have any concept yet? does this become a separate company? does this become part of the russian military? >> i somehow don't think that prigozhin has gone to belarus to live out his days in idle exile. i don't think he's out of the game, and although there's been this deal with vladimir putin,

who says vladimir putin is going to deliver on the deal? i mean, if i were prigozhin, i would keep my bodyguards and my food taster closer because poison is one of putin's favorite instruments of getting revenge. >> he has a force of 25,000 under his command? allegedly? >> that's what he's credited for. at the start of this year, he was credited with 50,000, and i think the drop from 50 to 25,000 is a measure of how much they lost in the fighting in eastern ukraine. >> this was great to have your analysis and your reporting. thank you, both. >> thahanks. >> w we'll be riright back..

for. >> we'll be right back.

it's now been one year since the supreme court overturned roe versus wade and the political dissension over abortion rights continues to grow. we've recently discussed the

topic with republican presidential candidates on this broadcast but today we turn to texas congresswoman veronica escobar, a co-chair of president biden's re-election bid and she joins us from el paso. good morning to you, congresswoman? >> good morning. >> it's been 50 years since 1973 and that ruling. but in that time, congress failed to pass any protections for abortion access. even when democrats controlled both houses, even when presidents were democrats. we're now at this point where our cbs news polling shows 53% of democrats feel as though your party isn't doing enough on the issue of abortion. why do democrats think this is a winning issue for the party when they've not been able to deliver on it for so long? >> well, margaret, the house democrats have passed the women's health care protection act.

we did that both sessions of congress the last two when we had a majority, but as you know, and as the american people know, we did not have a wide enough majority in the senate because of the filibuster, the senate has not acted on protecting access and women's freedom to have access to abortion care. it's important we look at what's happened since roe v. wade was overturned by the republican controlled supreme court. we have seen 23 million women lose access to reproductive health care. we've seen 18 states enact harsh abortion bans, and we have also seen every single republican nominee express support for a federal national abortion ban. we cannot go in that direction, and that's why these upcoming elections are critically important. >> even when there was unified control, it wasn't delivered on. when you look at what's happening now, half of those

polled by cbs say borseabortion access has become more restrictive. president biden is taking these actions and orders. why isn't there more grassroots mobilization at the state level if if the entire point of the court ruling was that it goes back to the states? >> we have seen grassroots mobilization at the state level. we've seen -- >> you're saying you're losing the argument, though? >> i'm sorry? >>, but you just detailed that state by state in many places you're losing that argument. >> well, states are making every efforts and grassroots organizations and women across the country are working to put in protections at the state constitutional level, but the challenge that we will face, should republicans maintain control of the house and gain control of the senate or the white house, is that we would see national restrictions that are harsher and more serious

than what we see today. so we've got a huge challenge on our hands in the sense that women's reproductive freedoms continue to be rolled back and the only way to win that is by winning elections. both making sure that we flip the house and regain control and that we elect a wide enough margin a filibuster proof majority, or senators willing to lift the majority to protect women, and we've got to maintain the white house. >> well, republican presidential candidate nikki haley was on this program and she said candidates aren't telling the american people the truth. republicans and democrats. she puts in that bucket. she said, you know, there's neither the consensus or votes for either party to legalize or fully ban abortion. listen to what she said. >> so let's be honest with the american people and say, let's find national sconsensus. let's agree on getting rid of

late-term abortions and we need more adoptions. let's agree on the fact that we need accessible contraception, that mothers shouldn't be jailed or go to -- get the death penalty for abortions. >> doesn't she have a point? there are smaller issues related to abortion you can find consensus on? >> the national consensus, margaret, is 80% of americans do not agree with the overturning of roe v. wade. >> but in terms of what you could actually get passed in congress? >> well, again, we -- democrats passed the women's health care protection act. >> in the house. >> in the house. >> only in the house. >> and the challenge in the senate is that you need a super majority. >> right. >> 60 votes. >> exactly. >> and so, right, which is why we need to win elections this -- next november. and furthermore, we've got to retain the white house because there's only one person who will be on the ballot next november,

that's president biden, who has promised and committed to fighting for women's reproductive freedom. make no mistake about it, as much as nikki haley wants to talk about finding consensus here and there, the bottom line is -- >> well stopping women from prosecuted, for example, the death penalty? you have to appreciate that. why not pass a law on that front? >> can you imagine -- >> is that -- >> that's where they want to allow consensus? >> she's saying let's pass a law to prevent that on the national level? >> my perspective and i think the vast majority of americans' perspectives, we want protections under roe v. wade restored. 80% -- even -- >> so 24 weeks? >> i'm sorry? >> protection up to 24 weeks of pregnancy? that's your defined position? i know that's what was in the protection act, but specifcally that's what you are endorsing?

>> roe v. wade essentially protects a women's right to access abortion and what we are seeing in states like my own in texas where the rollbacks have happened and the bans are occurring, is that even in cases where women's health is at risk, be politicians don't really care about the health of the woman. >> congresswoman, thank you for coming on and making that case. we'll be back in a moment.

we turn to the global hunger crisis and our conversation with the new executive director of the united nations world food program, cindy mccain. she spoke to us thursday from new york where she addressed the u.n. security council about what she called a spiraling hunger crisis in parts of the world. >> there are a lot of fires in the world right now. there's a lot going on. there's a lot of countries in deep distress. somalia being one of them. so we're spread pretty thin right now. so to be able to continue the work that we do, obviously, we need more help, but we need the world to pay attention to us also and make sure that people understand it's not just a security crisis in somalia. it's a humanity crisis as well.

>> i know you recently lost some employees in sudan where the united states has pulled out because of the violence there. are you still able to feed people, despite the war? >> well, we never left sudan. we stalled for a little bit, we paused for a few days because you're correct, we did lose three people there, and we had to evacuate our other citizens, our other nationals as well as our international people out, but we never left. so we are now, again, we're back in, we're distributing food. again, reminding everyone, it's extraordinarily dangerous there right now. our methods and how we're doing it are a little bit different, but we also have asked the u.n. to please guarantee us a humanitarian corridor for us to be able to work and operate so we can deliver our food. >> i know the u.s. is the largest financial donor to the

world food program and the u.n., having given $7.2 billion, more than all other donors combined last year. the second largest economy, china, gave $11 million. how receptive is beijing to your requests? >> well, i would like to encourage beijing to get involved and be a part of this. not only do we need their funding but their expertise on many things. their technology with regards to agriculture and the technology with regards to climate change can be very helpful in these countries that are really struggling with drought and lack of food, et cetera. >> is the issue that government wants credit and so, therefore, they want to do it under their own flag and not through the international system, which you represent? >> i think to some degree you're correct on that. i think it's also just a willingness to be a part of

working together as a team worldwide. in these countries that we're in, one agency cannot do the job. we need partnerships. so we encourage the chinese and we encourage many other countries around the world, to partner with us. >> in the room when you are trying to pitch the security council, you are looking at the united states, you are talking to china, you're also talking to russia in addition to some other members. i want to pick up specifically on the kremlin because they said this past week there were no grounds to extend the black sea grain initiative. that is the deal under which russia agreed to allow grain to leave the ports of ukraine, a country it is militarily occupying. that's weaponizing food. what's the impact if that deal goes away? >> well, the impact is, again, we're short on grain and what does that mean? it affects a lot -- a large

portion of africa. we're short on fertilizer. fertilizer is the other half of this that's supposed to be coming out, and so without the fertilizer in many cases they're not going to be able to grow crops that are as large or as productive as they could be. for all the things that are going on, i truly wish that we could end this war so that we could begin again to feed people around the world and so that the ukrainians can also feed themselves. what's at stake here is starvation and famine. that's what we're looking at. >> there's been an uptick in migrants to the united states from haiti which is largely controlled by gangs. how do you keep the food you are getting into that island nation out of the hands of criminals and into the mouths of starving children? >> you're right. the importance is that the international community needs to be in there to not only help keep the country safe, but to help us ep able our organization, and other organizations, to move the grains around and move food

around in general. the idea in haiti, which is such a lush tropical island, but it is also affected by climate change, also affected by, you know, land use, i think the world community has taken a step forward and kind of forgotten haiti a little bit. so my job having returned from haiti is to remind the world that haiti is still there, still needs our help, still needs food, still needs security, and it needs to be able to prosper in a way so that they don't lose a generation of children. >> broadly speaking, extreme weather is a factor that's affecting crops and migration. you've said climate change is influencing the situations in a number of the examples you just gave. where are you seeing it impact the most? >> well, one of the places is the sahel. if you can see what's down there and the impact that climate change has had on it, so what we're -- what we are doing with

regards to the sahel and other regions in africa is water management, teaching ancient ways, which are simple to do, and climate change not just in africa, or the sahel, but climate change is worldwide and we're going to be seeing, you know, we're having to manage crops now that have to be more resilient to drought. our animal feed and things have to be more resilient so the animals can be resistant to drought. there's a lot of things at stake here. i think when people talk about climate change, and those naysayers that think climate change suspect real, i would like to take them and show them what's real. >> cindy mccain at the united nations, thank you. >> thank you. we'll be right bacack. cycybn public infrarastructuree threataten the insnstitutions we all r rely on. major r enterpriseses arouound the wororld, healthcare companies, energy compapanies, small l businesseses, govevernments. -when n these orgaganizations run onon google clcloud, they're e defended b by the se ai-powowered secururity

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that's it for us today. thank you all for watching. until next week, or "face the nation," i'm margaret brennan.