10 things you need to know today: July 7, 2023

The Threads app is seen on a smartphone screen

The feud between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk continues to escalate

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1. U.S. expected to give Ukraine cluster munitions
2. Twitter threatens to sue Meta over Threads
3. Trump aide Walt Nauta pleads not guilty in classified documents case
4. Marjorie Taylor Greene kicked out of House Freedom Caucus
5. Yellen slams China on 'punitive' measures aimed at foreign firms
6. Questions swirl about Prigozhin's whereabouts
7. 'Scorching hot' jobs report defies expectations
8. Robert De Niro's grandson apparently died after taking fentanyl
9. Global regulator sets out emissions targets for shipping industry
10. FDA grants full approval to Alzheimer's drug Leqembi

published 7 July 2023

1. U.S. expected to give Ukraine cluster munitions

With Ukraine low on ammunition, the Biden administration is expected to announce on Friday that it will send the country cluster munitions as part of a weapons package worth $800 million, U.S. officials told CBS News on Thursday. Cluster munitions contain multiple submunitions called bomblets, and are banned in more than 100 countries — including several U.S. allies — because they could harm civilians. Ukraine has been requesting cluster munitions for several months, as the country continues its counteroffensive against Russia.

Twitter's legal team accused Meta of "deliberately" copying the Twitter application for its new Threads app and poaching former Twitter employees to do so, Semafor reported Thursday. "Over the past year, Meta has hired dozens of former Twitter employees" who "improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices" and "continue to have access to Twitter's trade secrets and other highly confidential information," lawyer Alex Spiro wrote in a cease-and-desist letter. He also accused Meta of "deliberately" assigning those employees to create Threads. A Meta source denied the accusations. "No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee," the person told Semafor. "That's just not a thing."

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Walt Nauta, a Navy veteran who served as a valet to former President Donald Trump in the White House and later his personal aide at Mar-a-Lago, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to federal charges that he conspired with Trump to withhold classified documents. Nauta, 40, and Trump both face five counts of concealing or withholding documents and taking part in a conspiracy to obstruct justice. The federal indictment alleges that Nauta, at the request of Trump, moved boxes containing classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, and later lied about it to federal investigators.

In June, the conservative House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after she got into a fight on the House floor with fellow member Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), it was confirmed Thursday. During the incident, Greene called Boebert a "little bitch." Freedom Caucus board member Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) told Politico on Thursday that "the way she referred to a fellow member was probably not the way we expect our members to refer to other fellow, especially female, members," and the decision to remove her from the caucus was "an appropriate action." This is the first time the caucus has kicked out one of its members. In a statement, Greene did not confirm or deny getting booted. "In Congress, I serve northwest Georgia first, and serve no group in Washington," she said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen leveled "a forceful objection" to China's measures aimed at foreign firms, The New York Times reported. Yellen is in Beijing in on a "high stakes-trip" to smooth relations between the U.S. and China, but "tension between the two nations has escalated," the Times added. Yellen accused China of taking "punitive" action against American companies. The Chinese government recently detained five Chinese nationals working for an American consulting firm, and imposed export controls on some critical minerals. "We are still evaluating the impact of these actions, but they remind us of the importance of building resilient and diversified supply chains," Yellen said. The Biden administration has been trying to restrict China's access to semiconductor components and kneecap the country's tech development.

Yevgeny Prigozhin has been in Russia for most of the two weeks that have passed since his mercenary Wagner group launched a mutiny in Russia, according to a Pentagon official speaking anonymously to The New York Times. Prigozhin stopped his rebellion in exchange for exile in Belarus and charges against him being dropped, but on Thursday the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, said Prigozhin was in St. Petersburg. The Pentagon official said it wasn't clear whether Prigozhin had been in Belarus at all, "because he apparently uses body doubles to disguise his movements," the Times reported.

An "expectation-shattering" June jobs report published Thursday showed that the U.S. labor market remained strong, CNBC reported. Companies added almost half a million jobs in June according to ADP, more than double the projected estimates "despite growing risks of a recession," Reuters said. Stock futures were little changed Friday morning, but the "scorching hot" jobs report has traders worried about what the Fed will do next, CNBC said. "The jobs data … reaffirmed that the U.S. economy isn't cowed by current interest rates, meaning that higher rates in the upcoming months are all but certain."

Leandro De Niro Rodriguez, the grandson of Oscar-winning actor Robert De Niro, died after taking fentanyl-laced pills, the 19-year-old's mother said. Drena De Niro announced her son's death on Instagram on Sunday. Robert De Niro told CNN he was "deeply distressed by the passing of my beloved grandson Leo." Drug overdoses involving the synthetic opioid fentanyl killed more than 70,000 Americans in 2021, CNN said.

A group of negotiators representing nearly every country in the world reached a tentative agreement Thursday to "effectively eliminate" the shipping industry's greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, The New York Times reported. The commitment from the International Maritime Organization, the global shipping regulator, is "in line with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius," the Times said. The shipping industry accounts for roughly 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions and is set to grow, but zero-emission fuel alternatives are emerging. The IMO agreement is nonbinding but is aimed at encouraging governments to set their own aggressive emissions targets for shipping companies.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday gave full approval to Leqembi, a drug that can slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. While other drugs have been approved that target the symptoms of Alzheimer's, this is the first time the FDA has granted full regulatory approval to one meant to slow cognitive decline. Leqembi, made by the drugmakers Eisai and Biogen, targets beta-amyloid, a kind of protein in the brain believed to play a role in Alzheimer's disease. For the phase 3 clinical trial of the drug, 1,795 people with mild cognitive impairment or early-stage Alzheimer's participated, and researchers found that over 18 months, progression of the disease slowed by 27%. This is not a cure, but "it's a first step for hopefully more therapeutics in the future," Dr. Ronald Peterson, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, told NBC News. Leqembi could cause serious side effects, including brain swelling and hemorrhage, and the drug will come with a boxed warning.

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