• US Navy's guided missile frigate project faces delays due to a flawed design.
• The $22 billion project started construction before completing the design, causing issues.
• GAO recommends prioritizing design quality and testing systems on land to mitigate risks.

A congressional report published Wednesday found that the US Navy's designs for its guided missile frigate project are flawed, stalling construction and delaying the delivery of the first frigate.

"The Navy had good reason to be optimistic that the frigate program was positioned to deliver capabilities on the schedule it promised," the report said. "Subsequent missteps, however, have jeopardized the Navy's ability to achieve these goals."

In order to accomplish its ambitious goal of acquiring and delivering up to 20 Constellation–class guided missile frigates over the course of 20 years — an endeavor projected to cost over $22 billion — the US Navy began building the first frigate before its design was complete. But that was a big mistake, a congressional watchdog found.

The US Government Accountability Office reported that this misstep resulted in design challenges that paused construction on the first ship, which began in August 2022, and will cause the frigate to be delivered to the service three years late.

"To reduce technical risk, the Navy and its shipbuilder modified an existing design to incorporate Navy specifications and weapon systems," the report said. "However, the Navy's decision to begin construction before the design was complete is inconsistent with leading ship design practices and jeopardized this approach."

In addition to scheduling delays and the halting of ship construction, the Navy has yet to demonstrate frigate propulsion and machinery control systems.

However, the report suggests that scheduling delays coupled with changes made to the frigate testing process may allow the Navy to test these two unproven systems on land. By doing this testing, there may be fewer problems once the ship is at sea.

The future frigate was designed to be a multimission workhorse that carries air defense and strike missiles, as well as torpedoes to attack submarines. It is being built by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in Wisconsin.

The report proposed five recommendations including that the Navy prioritize measuring the quality of ship designs over the quantity of design deliverables as well as complete and assess the design before moving on to building the second frigate.

The Navy agreed to accept four of the recommendations and one of them partially, which involved updating testing.

• The Manhattan jury in Donald Trump's hush-money trial has reached a verdict.
• The jurors gave a note to the judge at 4:20 p.m. It'll be announced shortly.
• The verdict follows the first-ever criminal trial of a former American president.

The jury in former President Donald Trump's criminal hush-money trial has reached a verdict.

Trump, the 77-year-old presumptive Republican presidential nominee, may soon be found guilty — or acquitted — of criminal charges related to a hush-money payment made to a porn star.

The Manhattan jury in Trump's historic trial deliberated over whether to find him guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to cover up a $130,000 hush-money payment to adult film actor Stormy Daniels just 11 days before the 2016 election. They deliberated for less than 10 hours over two days, telling the judge that they had reached a verdict on Thursday afternoon.

At the heart of the criminal case against Trump was a payment prosecutors said was designed to influence the 2016 election.

Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer, bought Daniels' silence over a sexual encounter the porn star says she had with Trump at a Lake Tahoe hotel suite in 2006 during a celebrity golf tournament, according to prosecutors. Trump repaid Cohen with a series of checks in 2017, once he was already president, prosecutors alleged.

Trump has denied having sex with Daniels and has attacked the Manhattan district attorney office's case against him as a political "witch hunt" and a "scam."

The former president has also repeatedly slammed New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan, who presided over the trial, as "totally conflicted" and "corrupt."

If convicted, Trump faces a sentence of anywhere from zero jail time up to a maximum of four years in prison.

Merchan would sentence Trump at a later date. Over the course of the trial, he has held Trump in contempt of court 10 times for violating his gag order, which may become a factor in the sentence. But the odds of Trump spending any time behind bars are still low, with probation a more likely outcome.

The verdict follows the first-ever criminal trial of a former American president.

It comes after a marathon 11-hour day of closing arguments, where lawyers from each side presented their competing versions of events to the jury.

Jurors heard testimony from 20 prosecution witnesses — including Daniels and Cohen — for more than five weeks in a packed and chilly 15th-floor downtown Manhattan courtroom.

Cohen, the prosecution's star witness, testified how Trump was the one who directed him to make the hush-money payment to Daniels just before the 2016 election.

And Daniels, in graphic detail, told jurors about the sex she says she had with the then-"Apprentice" star.

Trump's lawyers presented a brief — but tumultuous — defense case. They put Robert Costello, a criminal defense lawyer who had previous dealings with Cohen, on the witness stand. Costello called Cohen untrustworthy, but his testimony may have backfired after the judge erupted at him for scoffing at his rulings.

Prosecutors alleged that Trump falsified 34 business documents throughout 2017, including in his first week as president, when they say he reimbursed Cohen for paying Daniels the hush money.

Trump paid Cohen back, prosecutors said, in a series of 11 checks, nine of them bearing Trump's handwritten signature — and the jury got to see those records at trial.

Much of Cohen's most damning testimony in the trial came when he quoted what he described as Trump's own words.

"Just take care of it," Cohen said Trump told him in ordering him to quash Daniels' sex story.

Trump "wasn't thinking about Melania — this was all about the campaign," Cohen told jurors.

In opening statements at the trial, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo described the case against Trump as being about a "criminal conspiracy," while Trump's lead defense attorney, Todd Blanche, likened hush money to "democracy."

While Merchan kept the inside of his courtroom moving briskly and professionally, Trump and protesters politicized the atmosphere on the outside. In almost-daily hallway press conferences and Truth Social posts, he attacked the proceedings as unfair and alleged without evidence that the case was orchestrated by President Joe Biden.

In the park across the street from the courthouse, the tone occasionally veered into delirium, with his political allies hosting press conferences that were pranked by protesters, supporters floating vulgar balloons into the air, and a press conference from Biden supporter Robert De Niro during closing arguments.

Trump still has three remaining criminal cases. Two of them — in Washington, DC and Georgia — are over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The other, in Florida, concerns him taking classified government documents to Mar-a-Lago after leaving the presidency.

None of those other cases are expected to go to trial before the 2024 election.

• A seller specializing in Target products has amassed a considerable following on eBay and Poshmark.
• Bullseye Deals sources salvage merch from Target, including from the company's private label brands.
• Off-price sellers have long been part of retail, but few feature store brands so prominently.

A seller has amassed a considerable following, offering huge deals on Target products to buyers on eBay, Poshmark, and Facebook Marketplace.

Bullseye Deals, which launched on eBay in 2013 and Poshmark in 2022, is a reseller that sources merchandise from Target's salvage inventory, much like the bin stores and liquidation centers that are scattered across the the country.

Modern Retail reported that Target is aware of the business but not officially connected to it. A spokesperson confirmed that to Business Insider.

Bullseye Deals did not respond to a request for comment, but the store's Facebook page says it is run by Liquidity Services, a publicly traded company that helps a wide range of businesses deal with returned or excess inventory. The company identifies Target as a client, as well as Walmart, Amazon, and several other major retailers.

What makes this store different from most is the emphasis on Target's private labels, like its Threshold household line, All in Motion activewear, or the supremely popular Cat and Jack kid's clothing brand.

Off-price sellers have long been part of retail — think T.J. Maxx and Marshalls, among others — but most of those tend to sell national brands or lesser-known independent labels.

That a robust resale market exists for Target-owned brands is a testament to their reach and popularity with consumers.

Target attributes roughly one-third of its sales to private label products — that's over $35 billion last year. In addition, several of Target's top-performing brands do over a billion dollars in sales a year. Cat & Jack sold enough children's apparel last year for every kid in the United States under 12 to have eight items.

In that context, it's no wonder that there would be a shop focused on surplus Bullseye brands. It's a big business.

Delhi, India, hit a record 127 degrees Fahrenheit amid a water shortage. At least 11 people have died, and hospitals are seeing spikes in patients.

• The FAA will allow Amazon to fly its drones beyond a pilot's direct line of sight.
• That means Amazon can now expand its delivery services with its MK-27 drones, the company announced.
• Amazon's drone delivery program has been delayed in recent years due to field test crashes.

Amazon's package delivery drones are expanding their horizons following a nod of approval from the FAA, the company announced on Thursday.

"We're excited to share that the FAA has given Prime Air additional permissions that allow us to operate our drones beyond visual line of sight, enabling us to now serve more customers via drone and effectively expand and scale our drone delivery operations," Amazon said in a press release.

The FAA requires companies to get approval to operate drones beyond a pilot's visual line of sight, something Amazon said it accomplished after developing "detect-and-avoid technology."

"We've spent years developing, testing, and refining our onboard detect-and-avoid system to ensure our drones can detect and avoid obstacles in the air," the company said, including "real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon."

Now, Amazon plans to scale the use of its MK-27 drone to "reach customers in more densely populated areas," the company said.

The FAA's permission comes after delays in the company's drone ambitions over the last few years due to field test crashes, one of which involved a drone that fell 180 feet and "just blew apart when it hit the ground," Business Insider previously reported.

The company began executing drone deliveries in 2022 in its distribution areas in College Station, Texas, and Lockeford, California — the latter of which the company closed in April to focus on other locations across the nation, CNBC reported.

Earlier this year, an Amazon executive boasted that one of its drones in College Station managed to deliver a box of cookies less than 16 minutes after it was ordered.

• Tech bosses are getting noticed for their style in 2024.
• As the weather heats up, tech workers should consider updating their wardrobes as well.
• Fashion experts suggested brighter colors and more accessories to make an impression this summer.

Tech's top players are switching over to their summer styles — and workers should follow suit if they want to dress to impress.

Whether accessorizing more like Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos or opting for sporty outfits like Bill Gates and Sergey Brin, there are more ways to express personal style than the stereotypical tech uniform of jeans and a t-shirt.

Unlike finance workers — who typically have to keep it a bit more professional — the tech industry is known for its looser dress code and emphasis on an open work culture (though that's shifting in recent years).

Still, tech workers have begun hiring stylists to help them dress better for work. Some pay tens of thousands to improve their look, but others aren't so quick to give up their beloved t-shirts, stylists told The San Francisco Standard.

"If you can get them to try something new, and they get a compliment from someone soon thereafter, that makes it much easier for them to continue updating their wardrobe," image consultant Eddie Hernandez told SF Standard.  

With Meta and others calling their workers back into the office over the past year, employees will have to update their wardrobes for in-person work.

Here's what fashion experts believe tech workers should be wearing this summer.

Ditch the grey tones for colors

No more black, white, or grey.

Hernandez told the SF Standard that he's discouraging clients from going for the drab shades "that are dominant in SF," and asking them to reach for colorful options instead in 2024.

As the temperature heats up, workers might want to put their shackets away and go for the more typical techy t-shirt.

For his clients who want more luxurious options, Hernandez recommended the $80 Niels Standard t-shirt from Norse Project. Entry level employees who want to save money can shop similar styles at Uniqlo and Abercrombie & Fitch for cheaper.

It looks like Gates got the memo and opted for sporty, breathable shorts and Adidas sneakers while off-duty at Zuckerberg's 40th birthday.

Find chic ways to stay cool

Wearing jean shorts and a tank top to work might not go over well — even at the most laid-back tech firms.

Save that for the weekend, and instead, find ways to stay cool during your commute and still look fashionable around the office. In its round-up of summer office outfits, Cosmopolitan included mostly maxi dresses, wide-leg jumpsuits, and light-weight dress shirts.

Loose, breathable clothes catch the wind and keep your body cool while also adhering to a corporate dress code.

Don't be afraid of accessorizing

Tech workers can take notes from Zuckerberg on how jewelry can elevate their look. The Meta CEO has been the subject of viral memes since adding a necklace to his outfits.

"Heading into the summer season, I can see the entry-level tech crowd wearing something clean and understated," Carol Altieri, COO of Bob's Watches told Business Insider.

Altieri suggested a Rolex Explorer for a high-earner starting their watch collection if they want a "clean, low-profile look." The timepiece starts at around $7,000.

To pair with the watch, jewelry brand Ritani told BI that tennis bracelets and necklaces are trendy ways to elevate an outfit.

Ria Papasifakis, vice president of e-commerce at Ritani, said that X CEO Linda Yaccarino is an example of the trend of wearing white gold accessories and putting on chunky bracelets.

"We like to call it the 'powerhouse' look," Papasifakis told BI.