post. the latest missing records are from two officials inside of the trump administration acting homeland security secretary chad wulf, and acting deputy secretary ken cuccinelli, we will get to all of those stories and more throughout the course of this hour, but we start with the latest efforts of the united states to win the release of wnba star brittney griner from a russian jail. russia s foreign minister now says he is open to talking to secretary of state anthony blinken about the u.s. proposal for russia to belize griner and former marine paul whelan in exchange for the release of a russian arms dealer named victor boot. russia gave no indication of whether they would agree to that offer or for the timing of when the foreign minister might be able to talk to anthony blinken. griner s trial on charges of having to vape cartridges of hashish oil in her luggage is expected to wrap up next week with a verdict, according to her lawyers, they say that griner s had a doctor
cannabis. it was nearly the maximum sentence for bringing less than one gram of cannabis oil into the country. when she arrived in moscow s airport in february. she told the court that bringing them into russia was an honest mistake after she packed in a hurry. before the sentencing today, on emotional brittney griner apologized, saying she never intended to break any laws in a final plea for leniency. i never meant to hurt anybody. i never meant to put in jeopardy the russian population. i never meant to break any laws here. i made an honest mistake. and i hope that, in your willing, that it doesn t end my life here. i know everybody keeps talking about political pawn and politics. but i hope that that is far from this courtroom. but the judge didn t grant her any leniency. the lawyers called the verdict absolutely unreasonable and plan to appeal, saying the court ignored the defense is defenses evidence. she was very upset. very upset, very stressed. and she can har
ready to discuss a prisoner swap. former u.s. ambassador to russia michael mcfaul and the executive director of the wnba players association will join us to break down the latest. also ahead, democrats reach an agreement on their economic package helping president biden make good on a major campaign promise. we ll have the latest from the white house. that is because, and willie, my gosh, our economy later job numbers have just come out. you talk about a resilient economy, man. it keeps rolling. this is an incredible jobs number. the july jobs report is in and much stronger than expected. the u.s. economydded 528,000 jobs last month. with the unemployment rate ticking down to 3.5%. that jobs number notably higher than what we ve seen in recent months. economists are expecting gains to slow this month and in months to come. let s go right to nbc news senior business analyst stephanie ruhle. by my count, this is about twice as many jobs as most analysts expected to be added
georgia, fought for black lives matter, have now organized and helped bring home a player. what are the conversations like amongst wnba players? obviously, they re overjoyed but are they empowered thinking wow, we re athletes and we have also been able to affect international change? what are the conversations happening amongst players right now? since 2016, when they stood up unified for black lives matter, and 2017 against racial hate in charlottesville, for years on issues surrounding voting rights, reproductive rights, lgbtq rights. our members understand the power of their voice, particularly the power of the collective. they understand what it means to be a part of a union. and we as the players association staff are right there supporting them on the court and off the court with their advocacy.
decision to bring ms. griner home. i m so glad he did. i m super excited she s free and able to spend time with her family. joining me now is terry jackson, executive director of the women s national basketball players association. i just have to start, how do you feel? how do you feel today when you woke up and saw this news? we re having trouble with sound, guys. i feel today can you hear me? i can hear you now. i feel today very different from what i felt yesterday, but i gotta tell you, each day i have held out hope, each day i would wake up saying bg is coming home today. when that didn t happen at night, i would say okay, it s going to be tomorrow. yesterday i heard some news that had me anxiously anticipating today. and i woke up and my heart has just been filled with joy, lots