Friday morning news: July 7, 2023

BIDEN: Hello South Carolina!

KENT COVINGTON, NEWS ANCHOR: Biden » President Biden is out on the campaign trail touting what the White House is calling “Bidenomics.”

BIDEN: Bidenomics is just another way of saying restoring the American dream. Forty years of trickle-down limited the dream to those at the top.

A new Associated Press poll shows only 34% of Americans approve of Biden’s handling of the economy. And his campaign is hoping to turn that around.

The president made his pitch Wednesday to a skeptical public that the U.S. economy is thriving under his policies. He highlighted what he called huge investments in the US economy.

But Republicans call it huge spending. South Carolina Senator and GOP presidential candidate Tim Scott:

SCOTT: Every single month since he’s been in office except for one, inflation outpacing increases in wages. We’ve done better. We can do better.

Republicans charge that massive spending under President Biden has fueled inflation and hurt the economy.

Trump aid pleads not guilty » Former President Donald Trump’s valet, Walt Nauta, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities. WORLD’s Kristen Flavin has more.

KRISTEN FLAVIN: Nauta was charged alongside Trump in June, but his arraignment was twice delayed.

Prosecutors allege that Nauta, following Trump’s direction, moved boxes of documents that were marked as “classified.” They say the intent was to hide the records from a Trump lawyer who was tasked with searching for classified records to return to the government.

Prosecutors say Nauta also misled the FBI during an interview by claiming he was unaware of boxes of documents that had been delivered to Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence.

For WORLD, I’m Kristen Flavin.

Yellen » Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is in Beijing this morning where she’ll meet face to face with China’s No. 2 leader, Premier Li Qiang.

She plans to tell Chinese officials that Washington wants healthy economic competition.

And the Treasury Department says Yellen will reiterate that Washington does not support so-called decoupling, disconnecting U.S. and Chinese industries and markets.

But she will express several concerns:

Among them: Beijing’s controls on the export of metals used in semiconductors and solar panels.

Iowa abortion » Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds is calling for more legislation to protect the unborn. WORLD’s Josh Schumacher has more.

JOSH SCHUMACHER: The state Supreme Court ruled last month that a 2018 pro-life heartbeat law could not take effect.

The law would’ve protected babies starting as soon as six weeks of pregnancy, but currently babies are only protected after 20 weeks of gestation in the state.

So now the GOP controlled legislature is looking to pass another pro-life law.

The special session for state lawmakers is scheduled to start Tuesday of next week.

For WORLD, I’m Josh Schumacher.

Threads launch » Facebook’s parent company Meta has just launched a new social media platform to compete with Twitter.

The micro-blogging platform called Threads amassed more than 30 million users in less than a day as people are able to log-in with their existing Instagram accounts.

Meta announced the app’s launch days after Twitter owner Elon Musk imposed temporary limits on the number tweets users can view each day. The move is meant to combat third-party data-mining, but it’s angered many users.

Social media Consultant Matt Navarra:

Navarra: How upset are people with Elon Musk and Twitter that they would happily go to a Meta app? It's hard to tell whether the upset and discontent is strong enough to make a mass exodus.

But some users are already reporting heavy censorship on Threads in contrast to Twitter’s recent commitment to free speech on its platform.

It’s unclear right now if the new platform will suspend users for not using the preferred pronouns people who identify as the opposite sex.

Wagner head in Russia » The leader of the Wagner mercenary group, who led a short-lived mutiny against the Kremlin was expected to live in exile in Belarus as part of an agreement to call off his march on Moscow.

LUKASHENKO: [Speaking Russian]

But according to Belarusian strongman Alexander Lukashenko, Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin is in Russia.

Lukashenko's claim could not be verified, and the Kremlin won’t comment on the whereabouts of Prigozhin. But Russian media report that he was recently seen at his offices in St. Petersburg.

It was not clear if Prigozhin's presence in Russia violates the deal or if the agreement allowed him to finalize his affairs in Russia.

I’m Kent Covington.

Straight ahead: Culture Friday with John Stonestreet. Plus, the next chapter in the Mission Impossible franchise.

This is The World and Everything in It.

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