largest auto worker unions called general motors' offer to avoid a potentially devastating strike. what this standoff could mean for the entire economy ahead. and deeper than the empire it state building is tall, well over times two, that's how far below the earth this american caver is now trapped, after he fell ill underground on saturday. details on the urgent evident now to save him. we are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "cnn news central." soon, president biden departs for india for a critical g-20 summit with world leaders, but back here at home, he is facing a tough crowd. new cnn polling shows the president's numbers are essentially down across the board. numbers on his handling of the economy, his age, his job approval, all of them sinking. right now, just 39% approval of biden's job as president. that's down 41% in july. we're covering all angles and implications of this story. with us, congressional correspondent jessica dean, white house correspondent kayla tausche and chief congressional correspondent manu raju on capitol hill for us. jessica, let's start with you, these numbers not looking good for president biden. walk us through them. >> yeah. they're really not, boris. let's dive in to some of them and talk first about his approval ratings. you saw the big number you laid out, 39% across the board. that's a low place to be for an incumbent president heading into a re-election campaign if you divide it out by party, look at democrats, he's seen his support fall within democrats from 80 to 74% now. independents at 36%. that is a stubborn numbers he's going to need to improve. those independents are going to be key in 2024. then you see the republicans there at the bottom. another additional data point that is important here is, we asked people how his policies have affected the economy and look at that there. 58% believe that biden's policies have worsened conditions in the u.s. economy. only 24% believe they've improved conditions. 18% saying they have no effect. and that worsened conditions number boris going up by 8 points since last fall. we hear the president an his team talk about bidenomics as they are on the road, at the white house, really trying to convince the american people that these policies are actually improving the economy. look the economy has improved, but if you look at those numbers, it is not something that americans are feeling right now. they feel generally pretty sour and down on things. >> the numbers not great not only when it comes folpolicy, b his age and stamina. what do the numbers show? >> if you talk to voters on the campaign trail, democrats and republicans, his age does come up. the age of both frontrunners or the frontrunner in the republican party, former president donald trump and then the age of president biden. so we asked people, does biden have stamina, the sharpness to serve as president. look at that number. 74% say it does not apply to him they don't believe he has the stamina and sharpness. it's hard to get 74% of americans to agree on anything. that is a troubling number. take it down even more narrowly and look at democrats and voters who lean democratic. when we asked them what their biggest concern is about the president, 49% cited age. that was the number one thing, by far, age. 49%. everything else right there at 7%. boris? >> put it in the context of 2024 republican candidates. where does he stand compared to them? >> so i think what's important to note, and we have been talking about this as we cover the republican side of this and go into the election season, this is a deeply divided country and that bared out in this polling. the only gop candidate that was outside the margin of error in the race would be nikki haley, 49% to joe biden's 43%. this is among registered voters, it is a national poll. we go state by state with the electoral system. that is worth noting. everyone else that's running is within a margin of error. this is going to be a tight race. one more thing, boris, covering capitol hill the last two years, we saw a lot of legislation that biden and the democrats got through, bipartisan legislation and, of course, their inflation reduction act, they -- you can go down and tick through what they've done. the infrastructure bill, the chips act, gun legislation. these are thugs thatings the whe wants to talk about, but it's not things people seem to be absorbing in terms of success. >> they take time to take effect. standby. over to you, kayla. president biden has not been someone who has put a lot of stake into polling over the years. i imagine he's probably scoffing at these numbers. what's the response from the white house? >> well, boris, the white house on the face of it is taking the numbers in stride and establishing its counterpoint like the legislative agenda the president was able to pass last year and the foreign policy agenda that will be center stage when the president travels to india and vietnam. the white house continues to say that policies underlying the president's messaging and his administration remain deeply popular, and that it's just a matter of getting the message to sink in. the president has put that message under the banner of bide bidenomics, and aides say give it more time. a month is not enough time to sink in. when i talk to sources and members of biden's inner circle they suggest as the economy improves and as that messaging sinks in, perhaps the poll numbers will improve too. the questions about age and stamina, continue to get deeper from voters and just today, vice president harris answered a question from cbs trying to put some of those concerns to rest. here's what she said. >> are you prepared to be commander in chief? >> yes, i am. if necessary. but joe biden is going to be fine. let me tell you something, i work with joe biden every day. the work that under joe biden's leadership, our administration has accomplished is transformative. i think the american people most of all want a leader who actually gets things done. >> reporter: continuing that refrain when people criticize the president's age, they say watch him. the problem is that those concerns are getting deeper. the 74% of respondents in the cnn poll who say president biden lacks the stamina and sharpness to serve effectively is up from 51% during the last election. and that's up by 7 points just since march. it's not going in the right direction for the administration. >> yeah. still some 14 plus months to go until the next election. they have time to work out that messaging as they described it. on that question, manu, there are democrats on capitol hill that want the white house to get sharper when it comes to its message specifically on the economy. >> yeah. i spoke to more than a dozen of them this morning in the aftermath of this new poll, and that has been the consensus among members. they believe the messaging has been lackluster and there needs to be a sharper focus on this, on all the accomplishments, the legislative agenda. things passed in the first two years under joe biden. they believe voters will reward biden once they hear more about it and see the campaign really take shape, and some democrats also saying that they believe biden will be bolstered by former president donald trump, assuming he's the nominee, that will energize the democratic base. that doesn't mean there is still some talk about a potential third-party candidate emerging from one senator, joe manchin. >> i think the people have spoken loud and clear and not happy with the two choices. >> so there could be a third-party candidate? >> i think that's up to the public to decide that. >> the more the better in terms of pushing that message and making the american people aware of president biden's achievements, yes? more aggressive earlier and more widely i think is the right way to go. >> maybe we don't do a good enough job messaging about things like the fracture bill and pact act and things like that. >> every time donald trump opens his mouth, he draws that contrast pretty starkly. >> reporter: and manchin continued to play coy whether he might mount an independent third-party bid for the white house. something he has toyed with saying he has not made a decision yet and it would be up to voters to decide whether there is a pathway for a potential third-party challenge to president biden and potentially former president donald trump. >> he had taken part in one of those no labels events. we'll see where that heads. manu, kayla, jessica, thank you for the reporting. diplomat's look at the horrors of russia's war in ukraine. this is antony blinken seeing how ukrainian crews are risking their lives to clear land mines and other explosives from parks, playgrounds, busily traveled roads. that task will take years. this week the u.s. pledged more than $90 million for that effort. cnn's melissa bell is in kyiv and, melissa, that effort perhaps highlighted by the u.s. recently supplying cluster munitions to ukraine which have the risk of those that don't explode, last a long time, pose a danger to civilians, but i wonder, what did secretary blinken say as he toured these sites? >> reporter: well, he made the point, jim, this was now the most heavily mined country in the world. 30%, he said, of its entire surface is now littered with mines. that's going to take years, decades possibly, to get through and lots of consequences for the civilian population, the children especially going forward. essentially what secretary -- the secretary of state came to announce, this $1 billion package -- now part of that is military aid, pentagon stockpiles that include the controversial depleted ukraine ynium munitions that should allow ukrainians to help better get through the very formidable russian defenses we've been talking so much about these last few weeks and proving such a challenge to their counteroffensive. essentially however contro verl the munitions, because they're much denser than ordinary lead munitions they get through tanks and the understanding this might be with the cluster munitions that washington announced it was sending a few months ago, a key piece of weaponry of ammunition for the ukrainians as they desperately try to press further southward. in the end, after two days of meetings with his ukrainian counterparts and his trip here has wrapped up, he joined their assessment, that this counteroffensive is making progress and that was really now the message that both president zelenskyy and the united states are going to be taking to the united nations next week as they try to hold together this alliance after 19 months of a war that has exhausted absolutely everyone, not least the ukrainians. of course, secretary blinken's visit was punctured by precisely the sort of attacks he had come to talk about, a reminder the russians were own happy to oblige. >> 30% of the country is mined, the largest country in europe, that is a shocking figure. melissa bell in kyiv, thanks so much. the kremlin firing back. moscow saying it will continue to strengthen its relationship with north korea, quote, with no regard to other countries' opinions. today's comments a stern pushback to u.s. concerns that kim jong-un may meet russian president vladimir putin to discuss an arms deal. cnn's nic robertson is in london for us. this comes amid new activity today at the russian embassy in north korea. what can you tell us? >> yeah. this is very interesting, and it's information picked up from the facebook at the russian embassy in pyongyang. they have 20 new staff, diplomats and staff arriving at the embassy there. in the past only 18 members of staff there. there was some talk on the facebook post that perhaps how difficult it had been for the russian officials based in pyongyang previously during covid times because of the severe restrictions that north korea has placed on its citizens and any diplomats coming and going from the country, so this was a relief of posts it appears. an increase in the number of staff there, and interestingly, very interestingly, in the context we know there seems to be a gathering of momentum for president putin to meet with kim jong-un they said we have new work ahead of us set by our country. there are new tasks for us. that was a message from the diplomats arriving there in pyongyang amongst others. it does seem that they are setting for a strengthening, deepening and improving of relations between the two countries, and it does seem to be based around the weapons that president putin needs and strengthening that relationship. >> yeah. i suppose we're not surprised vladimir putin doesn't care what other countries think about this. he certainly does not. nic robertson with the latest, thank you. so a rescue operation is under way in turkey for an american man who fell ill in a deep cave, very, very deep in the ground, like 15 hours deep. the latest on a mission officials are calling rare and extremely difficult, next. plus, we're tracking hurricane lee. it's now a category 2 hurricane, expected to get stronger, and, of course, we'll keep an eye on its trajectory. american tennis star coco gauff and madison keys vying for a spot in the u.s. finals tonight. we're live from arthur ashe stadium in a few minutes here on "cnn news central." stay with us. let me be direct... you're watching football wrong! what do you call a guy in face paint that can't get the game? ...a clown! sorry, what app was it again? no, no. just give me a second... amateurs. ohhh! sorry, everybody. directv sports central gives you access to every game... ...so you never have to compromise on gameday. eh...was that necessary? i was just illustrating a point. access nfl sunday ticket on us, get a $400 reward card. okay... - [female narrator] five billion people lack access to safe surgery. thousands of children are suffering and dying from treatable causes. for 40 years, mercy ships has deployed floating hospitals to provide the free surgeries these children need. join us. together, we can give children the hope and healing they never thought possible. it's a mission powered by love, made possible by you. give today. we know you care. [music plays] but if this is all too real for you and your loved ones. ♪ make the call. because we care too. ♪ home instead. to us, it's personal. singlecare is amazing. even though i have insurance, it can't beat the pricing . before i submit any prescriptions, i always check singlecare first! just go to singlecare.com, search for your prescription and show the coupon to your pharmacist. millions of people on medicare, just like me, use singlecare every month, and you can too! visit singlecare.com and start saving today. an american cave researcher falls ill at the peak depth of his mission, and now an urgent rescue mission is under way in turkey. mark dickey is trapped more than 3,000 feet below the earth's surface. the 40-year-old is an experienced caving instructor who is part of a research team in morca valley, the third deepest in turkey. they say dickey suffered gastrointestinal bleeding and needs to be pulled out on a stretcher. cnn is following this story today, so bring us up to speed, what's the status of the rescue right now? >> yeah. we have 150 rescuers on the ground from all around the world to try and get mark dickey out from 3,300 feet below ground. i want you to think of the empire state building and times that height by three. that is how deep he is right now. he fell ill six days ago with gastrointestinal bleeding. he's already received six units of blood. he's stable. apparently he can walk on his own but walking in a cave is not good enough. i want you to think of the narrow spaces when you're in a horizontal area seeing pressure coming through on your back and stomach. you've got to crawl and then you have the vertical spaces where you need to climb, you need to be taken up by ropes. they're talking about a stretcher, but it's logistically and technically extremely challenging and very complex. think about signal in terms of communications with people above the ground. it takes hours to go to a spot where you can actually communicate. we know medical personnel have now reached him at this stage. he is, as we say, stable. on any given good day, by an experienced caver could take up to 15 hours to get out of this cave, so we're talking about days away from potentially getting him and his team out of the base camp that they're in right now. they are extremely deep. it's cold and it's wet and we're talking about very difficult conditions. >> we understand he was there on a research trip. what a exactly was he looking for? >> yeah. look, he was coleading a team of experts that were looking for new pathways in this cave. this was an exdigs to discover more of this cave, the depths and how far they could actually reach. falling ill was the worse case scenario here for someone so experienced, over 20 years of traveling around the world and going into some of the deepest of caves. caves are fascinating. you want to find out where the water sources are coming from. they're very interesting from organism perspective. there's so much to discover. him and his team, it's something they do. turkish authorities and the turkish federation of caving, said they're worried about what this is going to look like in the next few days but they're doing everything they can to map out how they will try to narrow some of the spaces or expand some of these narrow spaces and how each team at each point will be able to provide him the best care and safety out of where he is right now. >> really a delicate operation. we appreciate you staying on top of it for us. thanks. we are closely watching hurricane lee, and its potentially dangerous trek across the atlantic. cnn meteorologist chad myers is tracking everything. chad, where is it going? >> it's going in the atlantic. and then it's going to stay in the atlantaic. by the time it hits something you're going to be sick of hearing about it, we're seven or ten days before this thing being anywhere, it's so far out in the middle of the atlantic. even byp tonight it gets to be a major hurricane, around 105 right now. look at tomorrow night at a 8:00. we're looking at 160. that gets over your 157 to be cat 5. big wave, lots of wind around the storm system and really so far, missing everything that is the good news. oh, and well, my computer crashed, so now i can't show you the rest. that's just kind of what happens. so the effect basically is that this thing is going to be in the water for the next week. we'll be talking about it every day where is it going to go, how long will it take to get there and so really you have to watch this. this could be from north of the carolinas all the way to nova scotia. we don't know. we don't know anything about seven days, ten days away for any hurricane, let alone this one. >> i want to know if that's you swimming in that screen saver. you can save that answer for the next shot. chad myers. >> yes, those are my fins right there. fins up. >> we'll get that graph up. thanks so much. we continue to follow the storm. >> that is totally chad. there is a new analysis showing abortions are increasing significantly in the states bordering those where bans are in place. more on that just ahead. the department of justice says the special counsel is going to indict hunter biden this month on gun charges. what to expect. stay with contr"cnn news centra" while watching the game. who's winnnning? no idea. real milk. real delicious. and don't forget to try some delicious, creamy lactaid ice cream. what's that mabel? (mooo) wow, smart cow! says the special counsel is about two years ago, i realized that jade was overweight. i wish i would have introduced the fresh food a lot sooner. after farmer's dog, sh