world. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. we begin this hour with very encouraging news for the u.s. economy. and for the biden administration. tonight the president is seizing on the much better than expected jobs report as he caps a week of unexpected successes. here is our white house correspondent jeremy diamond. today we received another outstanding jobs report. reporter: tonight president biden hailing another strong jobs report and promising more relief to americans struggling with stubbornly high prices. today there are more people working in america than before the pandemic began. in fact, there are more people working in america than at any point in american history. reporter: the unemployment rate dipping to 3.5% as the economy added 528,000 jobs last month. bucking expectations and tamping down fears of a recession. but the strong jobs report will do little to beat back inflation. americans number one concern. i know people will hear
i m rich barnes. it s hard for people to know how much their accident case is worth. let our injury attorneys help you get the best result possible. the barnes firm injury attorneys call one eight hundred, eight million tonight, the biden administration is urging china to tempt down tensions over how speaker nancy pelosi s taiwan trip. white house official john kirby telling me a little while ago there is no need for beijing to be conducting live fire military drills near taiwan. cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more on china s provocative response. a torrent of chinese
president biden is expressing new hope about u.s. efforts to free wnba star brittney griner from russia. moscow said it is now ready to discuss a proposed prisoner wrap a day after she was convicted on drug charges and sentenced to serve nine years in a russian prison. fred pleitgen has the latest from moscow. reporter: tonight, for the first time, russia saying it is willing engage with the u.s. on a possible prisoner swap to bring wnba star brittney griner home. but the kremlin warning talks must remain secret or they ll fail. if we discuss a few details of prisoner exchanges by the pre then those ex changes will never take place. americans have already made that mistake, suddenly deciding to use mega phone diplomacy to resolve these issues. this is not how they are
happening now, a surprising new jobs report shows huge gains in july defying expectations and recession fears. i ll ask former u.s. treasury secretary larry somers what it means for the u.s. economy and for americans struggling with inflation. also tonight, as brittney griner begins a nine-year sentence in russia, the kremlin said it is now willing to discuss a prisoner swap that could lead to the wnba star s release. president biden said he s hopeful about her fate. and jurors jut ordered conspiracy theorist alex jones to pay over $45 million in punitive damages to the parents of a sandy hook shoal shooting victim on top of the $4.1 million he s already been ordered to pay them for the lies about the massacre. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the
put in place after president biden as meeting with putin last year. as for the issue of persons convicted in russia and in the u.s., i have already said that there is this special channels that was agreed to by the presidents. whatever might be said publicly, this channel is still relevant. reporter: after being handed a nine year jail sentence, brittney griner s lawyer said the two time olympic gold medallist is in shock but in a fighting spirit. she s doing better than yesterday. she s still processing what has happened. but we tried to cheer her up, we told her about this huge support she s getting in russia now as well because everybody here is very much surprised with this harsh sentence. and while the legal team said they will appeal the verdict which they say was deeply unfair, they welcome a prisoner swap to get her back to the u.s. it is to get her home of course.