reserve troops to fight in its invasion of ukraine and threatening the use of nuclear weapons. this as russia plans sham referendums in the occupied parts of ukraine in an attempt to annex large swaths of the country. joining us live from kharkiv, ukraine, nbc news chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. richard, what is the reaction on the ground there? >> reporter: so ukrainian officials are dismissing this. they say that the fact that vladimir putin has to call up so many reservists is a sign of weakness. that his so-called special military operation, which was supposed to only last a few days, three days by ukrainian estimates, has now gone on for seven months. they say it is an indication that russia took on more than it could chew, that russia wasn't anticipating ukraine to rally, wasn't anticipating the west to

come in and supply ukraine with so much money, and so many weapons. but this is a significant escalation from vladimir putin. the fact that he's calling up the reservists shows that he has no intention of backing away from this war. in fact, in his comments, he framed the war not against ukraine, he described this as a war against the west. and that the west, he didn't mention the united states, but clearly, that's the main power he's referring to, has been propping up ukraine and intends to bring down russia and bring down the russian federation the same way that the west primarily the united states, toppled the soviet union. so he is framing this very much as an existential fight for russia. and in order to fight this fight, he's calling up the reservists and making nuclear threats to show that he is serious and that he has no intention of backing down. >> so, richard, is there a sense this could lead to some sort of

nuclear standoff? >> i think that is where this is heading. and if you look at what's happening right now, so over the last two weeks, russia has lost significant amounts of territory, thousands of square miles of territory in ukraine that it had been occupying. now, it is down to the areas right near the russian border, the areas that connect russia to crimea. areas that vladimir putin considers essential for his objective, which was to occupy part or all of ukraine in order to secure a corridor to crimea. now that those core interests are threatened, that russia has been embarrassed on the world stage, that vladimir putin is making these nuclear threats, i think it is very possible that in the next phase over the next several months, perhaps, we're going to hear more and more alarming nuclear rhetoric coming out of russia, in order to intimidate europe, intimidate

the united states, and convince them to back down and stop supplying ukraine to the degree that they are now. >> nbc's richard engel, thank you very much for your reporting this morning. and jonathan lemire, given richard's stunning analysis, that he thinks this is headed towards some sort of nuclear standoff, how does this impact the president addressing the u.n. general assembly this morning in just a few hours? i can't imagine that speech is going to be the same speech that was on his desk yesterday. >> no, in fact, white house aides are confirm that there are last-minute rewrites in the president's address in the wake of news overnight from vladimir putin, about calling up members of the reservists, and again, brandishing the nuclear saber here. of course, the war in ukraine was always going to be the centerpiece of the president's speech today, but now there's heightened urgency. we should expect strong warnings from turtle bay, from the president, about putin escalating any further.

he, of course, will urge europe to stand with kyiv, even as it begins to stare down a potentially cold and dark winter. expect some chiding from the president to countries that have not joined the effort, who have not fully condemned what russia is doing, namely the likes of china and india. and certainly, while he will touch on the other things that have stemmed from this war, including a food crisis and fuel crisis that have gripped much of the globe. so there will be a number of topics the president will hit today, but certainly, first and foremost would be standing up to moscow. >> yeah, mika, it's going to be interesting to see what the president does with his speech this morning. as jonathan indicated, and we've heard from the white house, jonathan has heard from the white house, that they have been adaptations to the text following putin's address earlier this morning. but with a sense of caution, because the president of the united states is not going to

get into going back and forth in nuclear one-upmanship with vladimir putin. the thought is that he would probably use this to encourage more coalition strengthening among nato countries, and as jonathan just pointed out, a stronger message to countries like india, who they don't want to be linked with nuclear threats coming from russia, and this would be another opportunity for the united states to step out front and say, we're going to -- we continue to be committed to what we're doing for ukraine, with ukraine, and we would encourage countries like india and other countries that have not yet stepped forward strongly to join us, because we are confronted by potential nuclear blackmail. >> and mike barnicle, you make a great point. this is coming at a time when nato is stronger than ever and unified and growing. and at a time where countries, as you said, like india and china are no necessarily saying

on the world stage what vladimir putin wants to hear. and so i wonder, putin finding himself in a corner, is this a bluff? is this what he does when he's in a corner and how bad is it going to get? this will be fascinating to see how the president deals with this escalation, to say the least, in his speech in just a few hours. we're also following a developing story out of iran, where anti-government protests erupted across that country following the death of a 22-year-old woman in the custody of the country's morality police. thousands, mostly led by women, took to the streets yesterday, chanting "life and freedom." many of the women also took off their head scarves as an act of defiance. masa amini died in police custody last week for allegedly violating the country's hijab law, which requires women to cover their head.

the police has denied mistreating her and says that she died of a heart attack. they also released a cctv video showing the moment amini collapsed, but her family says she had no history of heart trouble. iran's president has ordered an investigation into her death. now, to the first special master hearing regarding the documents seized by the fbi from former president donald trump's mar-a-lago home and club. judge raymond deary pressed trump's attorneys to quickly provide more answers about whether or not trump declassified the documents marked "top secret," whether he declassified them himself. he appeared skeptical about trump's claim that he had declassified the more than 100 highly sensitive documents in question. the ones found at mar-a-lago. judge deary also signaled that he intends to move quickly through the review process of the documents, telling attorneys for both trump and the doj that

the court has little time to complete its assigned tasks. let's bring in "washington post" reporter, perry stein. she covers the justice department and fbi. also with us, former u.s. attorney, joyce vance. she's an msnbc legal analyst. good to have you both. perri, just give us the latest in terms of process now. we understand what the judge has said and is indicating he's interested in, but does he fullout ask for these things or what happens next? >> so so far he hasn't specifically asked the trump team to answer any of these questions that i know have made the headlines, but he did say that by friday, they have to kind of select a vendor, which would be the third party that uploads all of these documents, so that they can -- both parties can view them and the special master can settle any disagreements about privilege. that's the first step, so that suggests it's moving along. and by early next week, the

justice department said that they could hand over all the nonclassified documents in their proper format to be reviewed. >> so, joyce, what do you make of what the special master has sort of put out there, not making a ruling or anything like that, but certainly, it appears the trump attorneys were a little taken aback by what he's interested in. >> so, as a lawyer, i found this to be profoundly satisfying. judge deary did what judges are supposed to do, but what somehow seems to never happen when the former president is involved. he simply applied the facts and the law, and in essence, this is what he said to trump's lawyers, and it's remarkable, mika, i think you're right to say that they found it startling. they're not used to this sort of treatment in a courtroom. but the judge said, you brought the lawsuit, you bear the burden of proof. the government has made out a prima facie case that these documents are classified, the

ones that have classified markings. if you want me to order that these documents be returned to you, you're going to have to come back with some kind of evidence to support your position. you know, this isn't a criminal case where the government bears the burden of proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. it's a civil case, brought by trump. he has to show by the preponderance of evidence that he's entitled to relief. judge deary's point was, you have brought forward no evidence, no affidavits, no statements that say that the former president declassified anything, so judge deary strongly implied that the trump forces were going to be defeated. and that's the rule of law in action. it was a reassuring day for folks who believe in the rule of law. >> joyce, there are so many stories swirling around about trump and various criminal cases. you've got the tax fraud case in new york state, and you know, certainly, the classified documents have been at the forefront of discussion. what do you make of all of these cases and what do you think is

the riskiest case for donald trump? >> so, trump's assessment -- and let's be clear about this, trump's assessment is that this is an ongoing witch hunt. and that's the -- not a defense in court, but the political story that he tells to his followers. and so, with each of these cases, as they've come into focus for a few days, as there's activity in them, he uses those to fundraise, he uses those to alienate people, he uses those to undercut confidence in our democratic institutions. and we should be aware that that's a danger. and i think the question, elise, is whether one of these cases or a group of these cases in combination will ultimately do something to change the zeitgeist, so that people really appreciate that far from being a witch hunt, it's just evidence of robust criminality by the former president across the board. i think, in terms of immediacy,

if we're looking at criminal cases, the classified documents case probably moves the most quickly and ends up being very damaging, precisely because trump has the burden of coming forward with some evidence. and it will be tough for him to explain when he doesn't, if he doesn't. but civil cases, there are a lot of, you know, cases that are nipping at his heels, that combined may have a lot of force. this morning, new york attorney general tish james holds a press conference. some folks believe that that may have something to do with the trump organization, down in georgia, district attorney fawny willis is reported to be considering subpoenaing the former president himself, and always looming over his head is this possibility that the justice department might succeed in holding him responsible for the insurrection. i would say what happens overall here is the cross-effect between these different investigations. doj is likely to develop evidence in the course of the classified documents case that could impact the outcome of the

insurrection investigation. witnesses tend to know about more than one instance of misconduct, by someone that they are closely connected to. and so, i think it's this tightening of the net around trump that he should be the most worried about. >> perry, there are so many developments seemingly by the hour on these various legal fronts. the one story line that was at the center of the conversation in the immediate aftermath of the fbi's search of mar-a-lago has sort of fallen by the wayside. and that is a number of threats that the fbi and the department of justice, agencies that you cover, were receiving from those on the right, upset with what had happened there in palm beach. tell us the latest in terms of just the sense of political violence. how much part of discourse that is, and how alarmed are fbi agents to this day that something could happen, particularly as these cases proceed and may end up with an indictment of the former president. >> so we know immediately after this search of mar-a-lago, the fbi reported a number of -- a

spike in threats against their agents. we know it is still a concern. even yesterday at the hearing, yesterday, the doj made sure to say any additional information, any court documents that are released, they really wanted to make sure that the fbi agents' names were redacted. i think there were some, earlier, there were some fbi agents' names that got out and they received threats. so it is still a concern. and we saw that yesterday, just in this special master hearing, where the doj went out of its way to make sure that any name that went out was redacted, so that fbi agents did not receive these threats, and there was no pushback from the trump's legal team on this point. >> all right. "the washington post," perry stein and former u.s. attorney, joyce vance, thank you both very much for your coverage and analysis this morning. and still ahead on "morning joe," polls show democrats continuing to rise in the generic ballot for congress. but there is another predictor that our next guest says should

have democrats concerned. we'll explain. also ahead, stock futures rise slightly, ahead of the fed's expected interest rate hike, as the heads of the nation's seven largest banks head to capitol hill to face a grilling from congress. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin is next with his latest reporting on all of that. xt with his lateg on all of that bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms. and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is where i want to be. call your doctor about sudden behavior changes or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion, stiff or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be life threatening or permanent.

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19 past the hour, seven ceos from the nation's largest banks are in washington for two days of testimony before congress. they are expected to face tough questions on rising inflation and recession worries, as well as savings rates and overdraft fees. this as the federal reserve is widely expected to raise its benchmark interest rate by three

quarters of a percentage point later today. joining us now, co-anchor of cnbc's squawkbox, andrew ross sorkin. andrew, let's start with interest rates. ouch! what's going to happen? >> so, at 2:00 p.m., watch your screens, at 2:00 p.m., we're going to hear from fed chair jay powell. as you said, 75 basis points is the expectation, but focus less on the number and it could come out even hotter. maybe he goes to a full hundred points. that would actually, i think, make people a little bit more nervous, frankly, about what the fed may or may not do. but it's really going to be his commentary on what he expects to do for the rest of the year in terms of raising interest rates. and whether he thinks that any of the interest rate increases that are already in effect have had any success. there is a big question and a great article in "the new york times" today about automobiles, as a signifier of where we are in terms of the economy and inflation in particular. we've seen profits in the auto industry and in dealerships,

especially, actually be remarkably high. that may come down or have to come down if it does, you'll start to see that maybe raising interest rates is starting to work. that's one piece of the puzzle today. as you said, the other piece of the puzzle in washington is the bank ceos. >> yeah, so what's going to happen? they're headed to get a grilling from congress. tell me what the issue is with the specific things that i mentioned, including overdraft fees. >> well, i think there's going to be a couple of issues that they're going to be on the hot seat about. one is what they think of inflation. and if you look at some of the testimony that they've already prepared for this, there's a lot of warnings going on. overdraft fees are going to be a big issue. there's been -- this is a long and contentious topic about how big overdraft fees should be, what consumers should and shouldn't have. but i would also point you to the other big issue, which is, it's almost a political -- it's a very political issue, i should say, which is, the way banks are working with or not working with fossil fuel companies, that's

going to be a big issue today. and this issue about credit cards and guns are going to be a very big issue today. i think you're going to see lots of questioning about the role that banks play or should be playing or might be playing soon, in monitoring gun sales and you already just saw some of the red state ags come out against this. and i think you're going to see quizzing on all of these big social issues, which, of course, becomes very political. >> absolutely does. cnbc's andrew ross sorkin, thank you very much. we'll be talking to you about all of this tomorrow. coming up, the top republican in arizona's statehouse warns that a proposal from his fellow republicans could take the state back to the dark ages. we'll explain that. plus, our next guest says that there's a key indicator that looks good for republicans heading into the midterms. that is straight ahead on "morning joe." that is straight "morning joe."

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welcome back. 26 past the hour. arizona's republican speaker of the house is warning that trump-backed candidates could pass legislation to overturn election results in that state. rusty bowers told cnn that a republican proposal in arizona's house would have given broad powers to the legislature to dismiss an election. bowers said his reaction to the bill was, quote, welcome to fascism. so, he assigned the proposal to all 12 committees in arizona's house, ensuring that it would never get a vote. bowers fears the bill could come back if election deniers win in november, adding, quoting with the possibility of that getting a governor's signature would just be a disaster. i call it the possibility of going back into the dark ages in arizona. you remember, bowers was a key witness for the january 6th

committee, and it seems he was punished politically for it. he lost his state's senate race by almost 30 points last month to a trump-backed candidate. meanwhile, arizona's republican nominee for secretary of state, mark fincham is an election denier who continues to push trump's big lie. he was asked if he would certify the election if president biden wins the state in 2024? finchah said, quote, if the law is followed and legitimate votes have been counted and joe biden ends up being the winner, i'm required under the law, if there's no fraud, to certify the election. but he added, quote, i think you're proposing something that, quite frankly, is a fantasy. fincham also said that he didn't think that president biden won the state in 2020, because he couldn't find anyone who would admit they voted for him. elise, your thoughts? >> wow, mika, this is just yet

another state where the stakes aren't just political in terms of who wins and who is going to have another vote in the house or the senate. or, you know, in the statehouse, it's existential in terms of our democracy. you look at what could happen with the secretary of state race, and it's scary. it's scary, when you think about how free and fair elections have been the bedrock on american democracy. and that's why it's been so strong in america because foreigners want to put their cash here. if free elections go away and are threatened in 2024, it's so bad for the overall state of not just american democracy, but also capitalism. and that's a case i would like to see being made a little bit more. but also, watching pennsylvania where you have the republican governor's candidate, mastriano

saying he doesn't agree how elections are being administered and he will change that up. >> mastriano nodding to the far right as much as he can, some rather racist groups. but mika, this makes the case really smartly, the big lie is on the ballot. it's not just about officials in these states who are saying the 2020 election was conducted unfairly and day don't acknowledge that joe biden is president, as bad as that is, but it's what they threaten to do going forward. chaning how elections are administered in their states. we already know more than a dozen states in this country really tightened access to the ballot in the wake of big lie. now we have the idea of how ballots are counted and elections certified may change at the state level. and it's that fear, which is leading at the federal government, both the house and senate, to try to reform the electoral count act to at least have some sort of new safeguard there to prevent another january 6th. there's hope that will get done, but it's not across the finish line just yet. >> well, with just over a month to go until the midterms, the

latest survey from politico and morning consult shows 46% of voters say that they would vote for the democratic candidate on the ballot, if the election were held today. 41% say that they would vote republican. this lead for the democrats has grown since march, but our next guest is looking into one little-known election predictor that he says should worry democrats. joining us now, columnist and data analyst for "the washington post," david byler. dave, what is this predictor that you are focused on. >> right, so it's a really simple predictor. it's just primary turnout. if you total up the number of people who voted in republican primaries and the number of people who voted in democratic primaries and you see who won, you see the republicans have about a 4 or 5-point advantage in this metric. and i think that might mean something. because the last two times republicans won on this metric were 2010 and 2014 and in those

elections, they had more enthusiasm and won in november. >> in terms of enthusiasm among republican voters, what role would the aforementioned, many, many times during this morning, former president donald trump have to do with driving republican turnout, as opposed to anyone driving democratic turnout? >> that's a really good question. it's something that i kind of stress tested in the article. if you look at the primaries, where trump made an endorsement, republican turnout was higher. and if you look at the ones where he didn't, it was a lot closer, it was more even. but, it's a hard thing to exactly figure out, because trump made endorsements in all of the competitive primaries. so, if you sort of try to adjust it and look at the numbers, i think you still see a republican edge, even after you control for trump. >> so, david, it's become sort of a ritual since 2016, around this time, election cycle, there's a wave of articles about

people doubting polls. whether we can even trust them. 2016, of course, they were off in a lot of ways, and we've seen some errors since. so what do you think? in this new day and age, where people don't have landline phones, where it's not clear that people want to talk to pollsters, even if day do plan to go to bat, how can we trust polls and what are you seeing -- what do you see that you still do have faith in to give you confidence in some of your analysis? >> right, so, polls are sort of the only thing that do exactly what they do. they're the only sort of mathematical truly for really approximating the electorate in the way that they do. so, you know, there's error around them, but they're kind of the only game in town. what i would say is that even though there were big misses in 2016 and 2020, in 2018, the polls, as a whole, were reasonably good. so, i think, you know, i want to go into the election with an open mind, thinking that, okay, they might be right, or they might be wrong.

and just kind of keep the possibilities in my mind open there. and look at all indicators, like primary turnout, as well. >> well, i like your piece, david, because it somewhat makes the case for focus groups, for adding in a human touch that's been cure rated for a certain electorate you're trying to track. are there any states that you're seeing this year, where the polling seems to be particularly dicey? >> yeah, so it's interesting. there's a number of states sort of in that midwestern tier where the polls have been along before that everyone in the world in data is kind of biting their fingernails over. you have states like pennsylvania, you have states like wisconsin, you have ohio. all of these rust belt states where people are kind of saying, okay, are the polls going to move towards republicans, understatement republicans again and have the pollsters really done enough to sort of eliminate the errors that we've seen before. so i would say that sort of core tier of swing states in the

midwest, a lot of which have competitive senate and governor races, are ones that you're going to yet again have to keep an eye on this year. >> columnist and data analyst for "the washington post," david byler, thank you very much for being on and sharing your reporting with us this morning. up next, we'll speak to humanitarian and chef, jose andres, who has already mobilized to help the people of puerto rico after another devastating hurricane. "morning joe" is back in a moment. hurricane. "morning joe" is back in a moment oooh we're firing up the chewy app... what do we want delivered every month. hmm. clumping litter? resounding yes. salmon pate, love that for me. and some of those catnip toys. just choose the frequency... and ship it. we did it. i feel so accomplished. now you can pet me. ok that's enough you're literally so annoying. just kidding love you. great prices on everything pets want.

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safety board is reporting that all new vehicles in the u.s. be equipped with blood alcohol monitoring systems that can stop an intoxicated person from driving. if enacted, the recommendation could reduce one of the biggest causes of highway deaths in the u.s.. it comes as nearly 43,000 americans were killed in roadway crashes last year, the highest number in more than 15 years. the arizona daily star reports fentanyl seizures in the state have reached a new high. new figures show that custos officers at arizona ports seized more than 1,300 pounds of fentanyl in august alone. that is more than twice as high as the amount seized in july, which was also a record setter. the paper notes that officers in arizona last month seized more than fentanyl than all other officers and agents throughout the country's border regions combined. according to the talave advance register, the number of

migrants taken into custody soared in the month of august. new figures show that venezuelans have become the second largest nationality among migrants crossing the border illegally. meanwhile, officials say fewer migrants from mexico and some central american countries tried to enter the u.s. for a third straight month. "the dallas morning news" reports that almost 1 million texans have registered to vote so far this year for the november election. the new registration numbers are significantly higher than they were during the midterm election cycles of 2014 and 2018. it puts the number of eligible texas voters at more than 17.5 million and counting. and finally, in nevada, where the "las vegas sun" has a front-page feature of the newest wnba champions. the las vegas aces. several thousand fans yesterday gathered along the las vegas strip to celebrate the team's historic title celebration. the aces on sunday became the

first professional sports franchise in the city's history to win a championship after defeating the connecticut sun in a 78-71 win. and still ahead, these are live pictures from the united nations where in less than an hour, president biden will address world leaders. he'll look to rally support for ukraine and against vladimir putin, who is now threatening the west with nuclear weapons. but first, humanitarian jose andres on his life-saving work in the aftermath of hurricane fiona. "morning joe" is back in a moment. ane fiona. "morning joe" is back in a moment book with priceline. you save more, so you can “woooo” more. - wooo. - wooo. wooooo!!!!! woohooooo!!!! w-o-o-o-o-o... yeah, feel the savings. priceline. every trip is a big deal. the new subway series menu. the greatest sandwich roster ever assembled. tony, the new outlaw's got double pepper jack and juicy steak. let's get some more analysis on that, chuck.

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46 past the hour. hurricane fiona is expected to keep intensifying as it heads towards bermuda today, after leaving a trail of destruction across the caribbean. this morning, most of the hard-hit puerto rico has still no power. nbc national correspondent gabe gutierrez has the latest. >> reporter: this morning, hurricane fiona is strengthening, heading towards bermuda after barreling through turks and caicos with winds up

to 125 miles per hour triggering a shelter in place order. in the dominican republic, more than a million people are without power, carving a deadly path through the caribbean. at least five people dead, either directly because of the storm or its aftermath. from above, just a small glimpse at the dr destruction. homes and even entire crops of bananas now gone. in puerto rico, another agonizing night, days after fiona made landfall, just 20% of the island has power. 50% has running water. >> here is my sofa, my microwave, my tv. >> reporter: she is in the dark, her flooded belongings now on the street corner. her patience running out. >> i don't know how to explain how hard it is. >> reporter: she and many others here think local officials did not learn lessons after hurricane maria decimated the island's power grid five years ago. >> do you think that the

government of puerto rico was quality prepared for this hurricane? >> no. >> why not? >> because they did nothing. >> reporter: fiona now also devastating her town in northern puerto rico, as we saw during an a aerial tour. >> the water here just kept rising, choking off these communities for the better part of two days. thankfully now the water is receding, but the pain is not. we met another family in southern puerto rico, reaching their flooded home for the first time. >> it's so bad. >> today, more long fuel lines are expected, as puerto ricans scramble to feed their portable generators. the governor here is asking for expedited federal help. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez with that report. and in the aftermath of the storm, finding food can be difficult, next to impossible. one organization's mission, though, is to make sure those affected in puerto rico and around the globe never have to

worry about where their next meal will come from. joining us now, the founder of world central kitchen, chef jose andres. and it's amazing what you did with ukraine, what you're doing there. tell us what your plans are for puerto rico and beyond. >> well, we do what we always do. we try to be ahead now of hurricanes in this case. so we had teams already in place in the dominican republic, in puerto rico. we had teams already going to bermuda. we have teams trying to get the green light to land in turks and caicos. you see big problems have very simple solutions. people, always food somewhere. find the cooks, find the kitchens, find the volunteers and then the most important, find the people that need you. go to find them. and make sure that every day, you increase. the first day we did 5,000 meals, yesterday we did 10,000. this is only puerto rico.

today, my teams are going to be reaching 20 to 30,000 meals. by the weekend, we need to be in the 100,000, 150,000, whatever it takes, we will do that. you see big problems, i repeat, have simple solutions. what we do is start cooking and start feeding. >> so chefchef, it's not just po rico. we were talking earlier. you bring water to mississippi. 80 days in the ukraine border. if 24-hour a day operation. you have been to afghanistan, pakistan, alaska, all of these places around the world. i have a simple question for you. how do you do this? how does it get done? >> when you say me, the organization, i mean a few of those, but the organization we have 80 people.

when we need to grow, inside ukraine, two people, before days, before weeks, we got more than 5,000 ukrainians that join forces with us. we show them how we do it, who finance us, the american people. even though we have donors from around the world, we have finance dollar by dollar. because people see what we do in realtime. we don't tell them this is what we will do a month from now. the water is yesterday. what we do, we don't go to the assessment. we go to start feeding from the first moment we put the goot booths on the ground. >> dplifring food and water is one thing. but in ukraine, you dealt with a daily danger. how did you deal with the daily danger of ukraine while trying to keep local restaurants open and things like that. did you lose anybody? >> unfortunately, we lost two people in kharkiv. they were sleeping in a

community center. what president putin is doing is not war. it's a war against humanity. he's killing people that are only trying to live their daily lives. organizations like ours, we have cars destroyed, kitchens destroyed. one thing that's very clear. ukraine feeds 500 million people in the world. then you'll say why were they there? because that country was a war. they were moving away. we were there with the logistics where the supermarkets were shut down. we'd cover the lack of supermarkets. when people were in shelters, we brought food to them. so what we did was in the moment of chaos, trying to bring some by simply figure the problem, making sure that every ukrainian that needed food would get it.

the thinking that ukraine needs food, they are thinking like we need to be shipping food into ukraine, no. almost every dollar from world central kitchen has been spent thanks to the american people. we make sure that we put it inside ukrainian economy, in the process of solving the problem and feeding the people in need. we were able to keep factories open and giving hope to people. that's what we have been doing in ukraine. >> world central kitchen is relatively small to have such a huge impact and to be active in so many places around the world. and with minimal bureaucracy like you were talking about, hunger, thirst, it's immediate. you have to get in and address the need. how has your organization managed to be so effective in contrast, frankly torks a lot of the leaders wo are here in new york right now talking about what they are going to do to end hunger, but not actually doing anything. just making pledgeds behind podiums. >> the pledges is something that

keeps happening. very often we find out that not. ones demanding riches for different organizations that take care of the problem. are we really needing the people. one thing is every government said we're going to be donating money to fight the hunger. but very often it's not money. it's food from the rich countries that dump it into the poor countries. they are not self-sustained because we are breaking their way of life. because the rich countries keep dumping the food for free. then we are worried that we have north africans crossing into europe. we are worried that latino americans are trying to come to the united states. why you think it's that? because they are hungry. their economies are broken.

the world leaders, they need to stop coming with a wall war-fearing plan. president biden is about to give his speech in the u.n. global security is going to be important. this is very good step, but we need new recipes to feed the hungry world. the worst is coming. we're going to have floods, droughts, pests, political instabilities, war, all at the same time. the food that you and i are taken for granted is one day not going to be there. food is a national security issue. every president is tarting by president biden must have a food adviser and seen as a national security issue. the same way as defense and energy. the most important energy in the world is not us. it's food. food is it. let's make sure food stops being the problem and becomes finally the solution. we cannot feed africa because two ports taken by the russians

because they couldn't ship at the beginning. we're going to have an entire continent hungry because russia decided to stop two ports in ukraine. this cannot be. we need to make every country self-sustainable. that means that if we don't diversify our food sources, we are going to have a very hard awakening. we need to make sure food sources are diversified and the people that feed the world can feed themselves. those are the big problems that the world leaders should be addressing. i don't think they are addressing them. they keep repeating the same speeches, the same promises and we are not getting new recipes. >> chef jose, we are grateful for you. thank you very much for being on the show this morning. we really appreciate it. there is a lot happening this morning. president biden addresses the united nations general assembly in less than an hour. this is coming amid a massive

escalation on the part of vladimir putin calling on preservists, threat account nuclear escalation and then also new york attorney general letitia james, who has been investigating the finances of former president trump is expected to make what's being called a major announcement at 11:30 this morning. peter alexander picks up the coverage after a final quick break. up the coverage after a final quick break. twelve irresistible new subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪ it's subway's biggest refresh yet!

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good morning, i'm peter alexander in washington. we're looking at a busy hour an in a number of major stories. president biden set to take the podium at the united nations general assembly. that should happen in the next 30 minutes where he is likely to show his support for ukraine and ask for more assistance from the global community. we'll bring you his remarks as soon as they start. aids tell nbc news the president will respond to russian president vladimir putin's overnight speech announcing his plan to mobilize more russian troops. and again raising the speck tort of nuclear retaliation in the conflict. putin warning the west during a rare address that, quote, this is not a bluff. the question now how will russia's escalation factor into president biden's message at the u.n. this morning. plus hurricane fiona now a devastating category 4 storm with maximum sustain