u.s. and china deteriorated to their lowest point in decades. real tension, particularly over taiwan. secretary of state antony blinken speaking today with his russian counterpart sergey lavrov. as cnn learned exclusively of plans under way for a prisoner swap, trading convicted russian arms dealer viktor bout for detained wnba star brittney griner and marine veteran paul whelan. we re watching that closely. let s begin with the new gdp numbers, cnn chief business correspondent christine romans is here with more. christine, break down, a lot of numbers not just you but economists follow, this headline number is not good. this is gdp gross domestic product. it is the largest gauge of the size of the economy and it this rank 0.9% in the second quarter. this is a rear view mirror looking picture, and that s after the economy this rank 1.6% in the first quarter, that first quarter was blamed on the omicron variant and how much was going through the economy with supply chain pro
plus the u.s. and russia debating a prisoner swap. antony blinken speaking with sergey lavrov. and a breakthrough on capitol hill. chuck shchumer and joe manchin striking a deal after a year of negotiations. there s a lot in this bill, including tax changes. we begin with major developments on the u.s. economy. the gross domestic product fell 0.9%, following a 1.6% drop in the first part of this your, blamed in part on the omicron surge, all of this adding to fears the u.s. could be in a recession. joining me to talk about all this, white house national economic director brian dees. good morning. thanks for taking the time this morning. happy to be here. two consecutive quarters of negative growth. every period since 1948 of two straight negative quarters of gdp has coincided with a recession. in every prior recession in the united states, we have lost jobs. and over the course of the year we have gained 2.7 million jobs. the unemployment rate is 3.6%. there s only be
a gun and grenades hidden behind an mri machine. a stash of guns in a closet. military gear and uniforms. israel calling it proof hamas is using the hospital as a command center. hamas denying that. and what about the potentially thousands of civilians including dozens of premature babies taking shelter there? our team embedded with israeli forces in gaza. also tonight, face-to-face, president biden greeting chinese leader xi jinping in california. can the two leaders find a path to ease tensions? the deadly bus crash investigation. what we re learning about the six killed including three students. our nbc news exclusive, never-before-seen footage from the alec baldwin movie rust. baldwin seen firing a gun and speaking to the cinematographer later fatally shot. i m going to shoot right. want me to go on the outside of the camera? it comes as baldwin faces potential new charges. and she s been called the michael jordan of field hockey making history as the ncaa s
sea, the war in ukraine and the competition occurring between the u.s. and china. now while this call had been scheduled and the planning had been worked on for several weeks, it s taking place against the backdrop of that pop visit by speaker of the house nancy pelosi to taiwan, a trip that has drawn a possible trip that has drawn a strong rebuke from china. last week president biden revealed that the u.s. military did not think it was a good idea for pelosi to travel to taiwan at this time. administration officials have been working to try to convince her of the possible risks. we know defense secretary lloyd austin spoke with pelosi recently about the security assessment of the region, though he didn t get into the details of what they discussed and china promised a forceful response if she traveled. this is expected to come up between the president and she at a very precarious moment. thank you.
brian deese, we appreciate you taking the time to join us this morning. happy to be here. this morning the president holding a critical call with chinese president xi jinping. it s the first call in months since the tension between the two nations. this conversation has been going on a little over 90 minutes now. any word about what s come out of it? well, we re still waiting to hear from the white house on whether this call between immedi president biden and chinese president xi jinping this morning. it s the first time the two have spoken since president biden took office last year. this comes as u.s. officials say the president has tried to keep this open dialogue with one of america s greatest competitors and that is china. they ve also acknowledged there are real points of tension that were likely to arise on this call. that includes taiwan, china s posturing in the south china