• President Joe Biden had a major mix-up while speaking at a NATO summit on Thursday.
• The 81-year-old president introduced Voldomyr Zelenskyy as Vladimir Putin.
• Biden quickly corrected himself and told Zelenskyy he was "better" than Putin. 

President Joe Biden introduced Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy as Russian President Vladimir Putin in a cringeworthy moment at a NATO conference on Thursday.

The inaccurate introduction is Biden's most recent flub amid increasing skepticism over the 81-year-old president's fitness for office, including from members of his own party.

"Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination," Biden said. "Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin."

Putin has waged a yearslong war in Ukraine after invading the neighboring country in February 2022.

Biden quickly caught his mistake after mixing up the two leaders on stage.

"He's gonna beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy," Biden said. "I'm so focused on beating President Putin."

Zelenskyy, for his part, appeared to make light of the situation, responding, "I'm better."

"You are a hell of a lot better," Biden said.

NATO leaders appeared to give halted applause following Biden's mix-up, with some chuckling and smiling following his correction.

The gaffe comes as a growing number of Democrats publicly call on Biden to drop out of the 2024 election following his disastrous debate performance earlier this month.

Vermont Sen. Peter Welch was the first Senate Democrat to urge Biden to end his reelection campaign, writing in a Wednesday op-ed that he no longer believes Biden to be the best candidate to beat former President Donald Trump come November.

Meanwhile, thirteen House Democrats and counting have called on Biden to step down as the party nominee.

Biden's Thursday slip-up unfolded less than an hour before the president will face reporters in an unscripted, live press conference to wrap up the NATO summit in Washington, DC, this week.

• General Atomics released video showing the maiden flight of the US Air Force's XQ-67A drone.
• The autonomous aircraft is part of the service's effort to build out its manned and unmanned fleet.
• The Air Force plans to deliver 100 collaborative combat aircraft by 2029, with up to 2,000 in total.

In what appears to be a fist pump as a rapidly built and developed new combat technology comes to life, the US Air Force and contractor General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) have released a 90-second video showing the first flight of the XQ-67A, a likely predecessor of the service's long-anticipated collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA.

The new video, published at the end of June, shows the unmanned aircraft taxiing from a covered hangar at the General Atomics Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility near Palmdale, CA, accelerating on the runway, and cruising and banking in the air before returning for a conventional landing.

"Move fast. Move first," a slogan superimposed by the contractor reads as the drone taxis back.

It's been an eventful few months for the XQ-67A and the Air Force's efforts to create a fleet of low-cost, high-tech autonomy-capable aircraft that can network with and support manned fighters in the air. First unveiled in February 2024, the same month it took its first flight, the drone prototype was given a life extension in April when the Air Force awarded both General Atomics and Anduril funding to continue developing their designs. In its own announcement, GA-ASI confirmed it would be sticking with the design of the XQ-67A, which it has called an "Off-Board Sensing Station," or OBSS.

"The CCA program redefines the future of aviation and will shape the USAF acquisition model to deliver affordable combat mass to the warfighter at the speed of relevancy," Mike Atwood, the company's vice president of Advanced Programs, said in an announcement at the time.

Following the release of the previously unseen first flight footage on June 26, the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) awarded GA-ASI a new $9.3 million contract for additional research on the platform, bringing AFRL's investment on the XQ-67A up to nearly $68 million. And, in an exclusive report published July 6, Air and Space Forces Magazine revealed that a first contract for delivery of CCA is expected to be awarded to one or both contractors this fall.

The new angles highlighted in the short video underscore the unique design of this prospective fighter jet teammate. Like a fighter, it has a pair of angled vertical stabilizers, a large jet intake — in this case where the cockpit would be — and, as The War Zone has pointed out, what look like openings for side-looking airborne radar. Based on the taxi shots, the aircraft appears to be similar in size to a small private plane such as the Cessna Skyhawk. And like many aircraft in that category, it has fixed, rather than retractable, landing gear.

The unknowns for this CCA prototype remain abundant, including its top speed, range, and payload capacity. Also unclear is what that payload will ultimately consist of, and whether the OBSS, or a variant, will be able to carry weapons. A payload that includes weapons has always been part of the Air Force's ultimate vision for the CCA. Also unclear is to what extent the OBSS, which is remotely piloted but also capable of autonomous flight, employed autonomy in its maiden flight.

In an announcement accompanying the new footage, Air and Space Forces Magazine hailed the rapid design, building, and testing process that led to a first flight in just over two years.

"It is the first of its kind to be built on a common chassis or genus — much like that of a motor vehicle frame — and with its first successful flight, the XQ-67A is proof that the genus approach works," the announcement stated. "This enables a faster and more cost-effective replication of the aircraft," it added.

The OBSS shares much of its DNA with the Kratos XQ-58A Valkyrie, an entrant in the Air Force's Skyborg program that remains in use by the Marine Corps as a testbed platform. The Marine Corps anticipated the Valkyrie to meet a variety of needs ranging from electronic warfare to fires support, and as a platform to inform its own low-cost drone wingman program, the Penetrating Affordable Autonomous Collaborative Killer, or PAACK.

Many challenges remain ahead of OBSS as the Air Force continues to fast-track plans for its cheap, smart drone fleet, which it calls Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Technologies, or LCAAT. The Air Force plans to fast-track production of the first 100 collaborative combat aircraft, delivering them to the fleet by 2029. Ultimately, according to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who testified before Congress this spring, the service wants at least 1,000 and possibly as many as 2,000 CCAs at an individual cost of $30 million or less.

The Air Force hopes CCA won't just augment or modernize air warfare — but transform it entirely. A report released in February from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies emphasizes that the service is the "oldest, smallest and least ready in its history" while it faces an "unprecedented threat" from a highly capable China. The report describes an internal wargame employing different mixes of CCA and manned fighters that showed how the unmanned aircraft, if made rugged and capable enough, could "help disrupt and suppress" the integrated air defense system employed by China and supercharge the Air Force's ability to project combat mass.

CCA, the paper's authors write, could help disrupt China's preferred way of fighting and deny the country an assured victory, if employed correctly to multiply capabilities.

"Understanding what is meant by 'collaborative' is important to fully appreciate the potential of CCA," the paper states. "AI-enabled CCA should be capable of collaboratively operating with other crewed and uncrewed aircraft to share threat information, their own locations, and fuel and weapons status across a force package. Future CCA could even be designed to autonomously assign targets to aircraft within a mission package to achieve the best weapons-to-target pairings," it adds.

As the development phase for GA-ASI and Anduril moves forward, we'll be looking for demonstrations of how XQ-67A and other prototypes interact with manned fighters and exhibit the full effect of their autonomous and AI networking capabilities.

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• Trump now says SCOTUS immunity voids his entire hush-money case, not just his conviction.
• The argument was made in a 55-page legal filing on Thursday.
• It argues that grand jurors should never have seen 'official-act' evidence now banned by SCOTUS.

In a new court filing made public Thursday, lawyers for former President Donald Trump argue that his newly-won presidential immunity voids not only his hush-money conviction, but the indictment itself.

Grand jurors should never have been shown "official-act" evidence in violation of "the Presidential immunity doctrine" set earlier this month by the US Supreme Court, the 55-page filing argues.

SCOTUS found that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts and that such acts cannot be used as evidence against them, even in the prosecution of non-official acts.

The filing appears to mention at least four instances of "official-acts testimony" used by Manhattan prosecutors in the grand jury that indicted Trump on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

But one portion of Trump's filing has been redacted to obscure what this official-act evidence purportedly was.

No reason for the redactions was given, but grand jury proceedings are presumptively secret in New York.

Showing grand jurors this evidence retroactively tainted the indictment, Trump argues.

"Because an Indictment so tainted cannot stand, the charges must be dismissed," a lawyer for Trump, Todd Blanche, writes in the filing.

Read the Trump motion to dismiss his hush-money indictment and his verdict here.

Trump's defense team had warned in a one-page court filing just hours after the landmark immunity opinion was published that it would be using it to challenge his May 30 hush-money conviction.

This is a breaking story; please check back for developments.

• An entity that appears to be affiliated with King Charles scooped up a $6.6 million NYC condo.
• It's located on Billionaires' Row, a neighborhood with south of Central Park.
• A building rep told BI that consulates have historically purchased in residential buildings.

An entity that appears to be affiliated with King Charles III has scooped up a lavish apartment on New York City's Billionaires' Row.

The buyer on closing documents for the almost 3,600-square-foot condo, which sold for $6.6 million on June 27, is listed as "His Majesty the King in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs."

The deed was signed by Robert McCubbing, whose LinkedIn page identifies him as the senior trade commissioner and director of trade and investment for the Consulate General of Canada in New York.

The three-bedroom, 4½-bathroom apartment is on the 11th floor of 111 West 57th Street, a skyscraper just south of Central Park known for its slender design. That stretch of 57th Street and the surrounding area is home to some of the most expensive residential real estate on earth.

The sale was first reported by The Real Deal.

The Consulate General of Canada in New York and Buckingham Palace did not immediately to Business requests for comment from Business Insider.

Douglas Elliman's Erin Boisson Aries and Thomas Aabo repped the buyer, according to The Real Deal. They declined Business Insider's request for comment through an Elliman spokesperson.

Unit 11A was the last unit left for sale in 111 West 57th Street's landmarked Steinway Building section, a 111 West 57th Street spokesperson said. There are 14 condos in that lower part, which used to be the headquarters of iconic piano maker Steinway & Sons, and 46 apartments in the tower portion of the building.

The condo is ideal for someone who "enjoys modern conveniences within grand spaces reminiscent of the pre-war era," according to its listing on New York real-estate site StreetEasy.

Building amenities at 111 West 57th Street include an 82-foot, two-lane swimming pool with private cabanas, a private dining room and chef's catering kitchen, and an on-site padel court.

The deed for the transaction hit New York City's public records database on July 9.

It's far from the only NYC property tied to the crown, The Real Deal reported, noting it found 24 properties across the city affiliated with the Queen in the wake of her death — at which point King Charles became the sovereign of Canada.

• Rose Hanbury is a British noblewoman whose family has been linked to the royals for years. 
• She and her husband, David Cholmondeley, are neighbors of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
• Media reports have speculated about Hanbury's ties to William and Kate on and off since 2019.

Rose Hanbury found herself thrust into the spotlight in March as questions swirled about Kate Middleton's absence from the public eye, which Kate later confirmed was because of her cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Hanbury, 40, is a British noblewoman who lives in a stately home close to Kate and Prince William's countryside residence.

She's no stranger to royalty.

Here's a closer look at her aristocratic upbringing, career, relationships, and how Hanbury, who inherited the Marchioness of Cholmondeley title upon marriage, became part of rumors surrounding the Prince and Princess of Wales.

Rose Hanbury's family has moved in royal circles for generations.

Hanbury's maternal grandmother, Lady Elizabeth Lambart, was a childhood friend of Queen Elizabeth II's, the Daily Mail reported. She was also a bridesmaid at the Queen's wedding to Prince Phillip in 1947. In the above photo of the wedding party on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, she's the fifth bridesmaid from the left.

The Queen Mother also attended Lambart's wedding to Mark Longman in 1949.

After graduating from university, Hanbury worked as a model and political researcher.

Hanbury attended the prestigious Stowe boarding school, whose famous alumni include Prince Rainier of Monaco, Richard Branson, and Prince Harry's ex-girlfriend Chelsea Davy, Buckinghamshire Live reported.

Hanbury then studied at The Open University, which offers distance learning but is headquartered in Milton Keynes, England.

She signed with Storm Management, the same modeling agency that represented Kate Moss, when she was 23 years old, Tatler reported. She also worked as a researcher for the British member of parliament Michael Gove.

She's married to David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley, and they have three children.

Cholmondeley — pronounced "Chumley" — is a lord-in-waiting to King Charles III, attending official functions with the monarch and occasionally representing him at events.

They have three children: Alexander Hugh George, who carries the title Earl of Rocksavage, Lord Oliver Timothy George, and Lady Iris Marina Aline.

Their son Oliver was a page of honor at Charles' coronation.

Oliver, second from the left in the above photo, helped carry the train of Charles' robe as he processed into Westminster Abbey for the coronation. He also appeared on the balcony of Buckingham Palace alongside Prince George after the ceremony.

Hanbury and Cholmondeley attended the coronation, as well.

The couple owns two historic homes, but they primarily live at Houghton Hall in Norfolk.

The couple's real-estate portfolio includes two historic homes in the UK: Cholmondeley Castle, a gothic country house in Cheshire that is Grade II* listed — meaning it's been designated of special interest or national importance — and Houghton Hall, a palladian-style mansion in Norfolk. Parts of both residences are open for public visits on select days.

The Financial Times reported that Cholmondeley inherited Houghton Hall, where he and Hanbury primarily live with their children, in 1990.

Built in the 18th century, the 106-room home is filled with renowned art and artifacts. It's roughly a 10-minute drive from Anmer Hall, a country home that Queen Elizabeth II gave Kate and William after their 2011 wedding. When they aren't in Windsor, the Wales' have been known to spend time there with their children.

Her charity work includes supporting East Anglia's Children's Hospices, the National Gallery, and the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

In 2016, Hanbury and Cholmondeley hosted a fundraising gala for EACH at their Houghton Hall home, which William and Kate attended. Hanbury became a patron of EACH in 2018, Cambridge Network reported.

Kate is also a patron of the organization, occasionally visiting on royal engagements.

She and her husband have been friends with William and Kate for years.

The Cholmondeleys and the Waleses have run in similar circles for years and have even attended many of the same events. Kate and William were photographed being greeted by the Cholmondeleys as they arrived for a charity event hosted at Houghton Hall in 2016.

In 2023, the Daily Mail reported that Kate made an appearance at a music festival at Houghton Hall after attending a dinner hosted by the Cholmondeleys.

Stephen Colbert mentioned Hanbury on his late-night talk show while discussing Kate's absence from the public eye.

Kate underwent a "planned abdominal surgery" in January, after which Kensington Palace said she would be taking time away from royal duties to recover and would be expected to resume work after Easter.

In the months that followed, the internet was flooded with "Katespiracies," unsupported rumors about Kate's condition and whereabouts.

On March 13, Colbert waded into the ongoing discourse around Kate's absence from the public eye and mentioned Hanbury during his opening monologue on "The Late Show." He referenced unverified rumors from "internet sleuths" that William had an affair with Hanbury.

At the time, Hanbury's lawyers told Business Insider that "the rumors are completely false." Kensington Palace declined to comment.

On March 22, Kate said that she'd been taking time away from the public eye because she has cancer and is undergoing treatment.

William and Kate, who have been together for nearly 13 years, haven't indicated their relationship is in trouble. While discussing Kate's cancer diagnosis on camera in March, the Princess of Wales remarked that having William by her side was "a great source of comfort and reassurance."

Reports that Prince William had an affair with Rose Hanbury have been quietly deleted from some news websites.

Rumors about a relationship between Hanbury and William have been swirling since at least 2019.

According to the Daily Beast, lawyers representing William issued a firm warning to "at least one British publication" that allegations of any relationship were "false and highly damaging" and that to cover them would be to infringe upon his privacy under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The talk about Hanbury and William ebbed and flowed in the years that followed, sometimes given a wider audience on social media as well as US and UK media publications.

However, a July 2024 Vulture investigation revealed that some UK news outlets have quietly deleted or substantially amended coverage related to the Hanbury-William relationship.

Vulture said it was unclear whether the outlets that erased or edited sentences or stories, including the Daily Mail and The Sun, did so at the request of representatives for William or Hanbury.

The outlets, Kensington Palace, and representatives for Hanbury didn't respond to July 10 requests for comment from BI.

• NASA aims to send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s. But with current technology, the journey will be years long.
• That's why NASA invested in a new type of rocket that could shorten the trip to just 2 months.
• Reducing the amount of time astronauts spend in spaceflight is critical to their health.

NASA has invested $725,000 in a new rocket system that could solve one of the major obstacles standing in our way of sending humans to Mars: travel time.

With current technology, a round-trip to the red planet would take almost two years. For astronauts, spending that much time in spaceflight comes with big health risks.

They'd be exposed to high levels of solar and cosmic radiation, the harmful effects of zero-gravity, and a long period of isolation.

Space radiation is arguably the biggest threat. Astronauts who spend just six months in space are exposed to roughly the same amount of radiation as 1,000 chest X-rays, and this puts them at risk for cancer, nervous system damage, bone loss, and heart disease, according to NASA.

The best way to reduce radiation exposure and other harmful health effects is to shorten the length of the trip, Troy Howe, president of Howe Industries, told Business Insider. That's why he's teamed up with NASA to develop the Pulsed Plasma Rocket (PPR): a new rocket system that could shorten a round-trip to Mars to just two months.

This technology "holds the potential to revolutionize space exploration," NASA wrote in a statement, and could one day take humans even further than Mars.

How a rocket could get us to Mars and back in 2 months

The PPR is a propulsion system that uses pulses of superheated plasma to generate a lot of thrust very efficiently. It's currently in phase two of development, funded by the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program.

This phase two study is scheduled to begin this month, and is focused on optimizing the engine design, performing proof-of-concept experiments, and designing a PPR-powered, shielded spaceship for human missions to Mars.

The big advantage of the PPR is that it can make a spacecraft go really, really fast. It has both a high thrust and high specific impulse. Specific impulse is how quickly a rocket engine generates thrust, and thrust is the force that moves the spacecraft along.

The PPR generates 10,000 newtons of thrust at a specific impulse of 5,000 seconds. That means a PPR-equipped spacecraft carrying four to six passengers could travel roughly 100,000 miles per hour, Howe told BI over email.

A spacecraft flying that fast would eventually have to slow down to reach its destination. Howe said the company has accounted for the additional energy and propellant this would require to land on Mars.

Even after phase two is complete, it will still be about a couple of decades before the PPR is ready to blast astronauts off to the red planet. But once it's available for spaceflight, Howe hopes that this technology will significantly expand the range of human space exploration, perhaps even aiding missions to Pluto one day.

"You can pretty much achieve anything you want in the solar system once we get this technology running in 20 years," he said.

• Past political gridlocks and the upcoming US presidential election have fueled concerns over future Ukrainian military aid.
• Donald Trump, a critic of NATO, has questioned the large amount of support the US gives Kyiv.
• NATO has a new initiative underway to keep the assistance flowing over the long run.

NATO is moving forward with a new initiative that will see it take greater control over Western efforts to arm and train Ukraine's military. The move comes as the alliance aims to solidify the long-term support for Kyiv as it battles the Russian invasion.

The development also comes as uncertainty surrounds American reliability. It follows a political fight in Congress that jammed up critical aid for months and comes ahead of a pivotal US presidential election, which could see former president Donald Trump — an outspoken critic of NATO and some of its allies and a skeptic of the large amount of security assistance that has been sent to Ukraine — back in the White House.

Growing concern about the potential change in US leadership has hung over the highly consequential NATO summit in Washington this week.

Top government officials from various allied countries insist that they are ready to work with whichever administration is in the White House come November, but ensuring that Ukraine will continue to enjoy lasting Western support is a significant priority.

Allied governments on Wednesday signed off on the decision to establish the NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine, or NSATU, to coordinate the future supply of military aid and training for Kyiv.

This new NATO initiative's "aim is to place security assistance to Ukraine on an enduring footing, ensuring enhanced, predictable, and coherent support," the allies said of the initiative in their summit declaration.

"NSATU will not, under international law, make NATO a party to the conflict, they said, explaining that the purpose is to "support the transformation of Ukraine's defense and security forces, enabling its further integration with NATO."

How it works

NSATU will be headquartered in Germany with several logistics hubs along the alliance's front — in Poland, Romania, and Slovakia — and include a staffing of around 700 people reporting to a three-star general.

The initiative will focus on coordinating the training of soldiers, facilitating the delivery of equipment, and future force development on behalf of allies, and it is expected to roll out over the following months.

A NATO official who spoke to reporters Thursday on the sidelines of the summit said that the idea for the new initiative began to formulate earlier this year. The alliance essentially sought to "cohere" all the different ways that Ukraine has been supported throughout the war to make the different efforts more consistent and sustainable in the long run.

The new NSATU program will not replace the US-led Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a coalition of nations that has met regularly for more than two years to coordinate the surge of security assistance from other countries to Kyiv. The NATO official said this group is more of a "diplomatic" forum.

"What we're aiming for with Ukraine is to get a certain set of its forces interoperable with NATO," the official said, adding that "if it was not wartime conditions, and if resources were unlimited, then maybe we could achieve that within the course of five, eight years — something like that."

"But during wartime, it's very difficult," they said.

Beyond NSATU, the alliance is also taking other steps to ensure long-term military equipment, support, and training for Ukraine — including a pledge of at least $43.4 billion in security assistance within the next year. They also announced the transfer of additional air-defense systems at the onset of the summit, a day after Russian missile strikes killed dozens of people in Ukraine and destroyed part of a children's hospital in Kyiv.

The Trump factor

The new initiative is NATO's attempt to help keep support flowing to Ukraine and has been referred to as a so-called way to "Trump-proof" long-term military aid should he win the upcoming presidential election. To what extent that's the case is unclear, but the former president's rhetoric has, at times, triggered concern.

"A big reason for the change is to Trump-proof the assistance effort to Ukraine," Ivo Daalder, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, told the Wall Street Journal recently.

"Rather than having Washington in charge of managing the training and assistance, NATO will be in charge," he said, explaining that "even if the US reduces or withdraws support for the effort, it won't be eliminated."

Trump has previously criticized NATO countries for not spending enough on defense, even going as far as to say that not only would he not protect countries not meeting their spending goals, but he would also encourage Russia to do whatever it wants with them.

The former president has also threatened to cut off military aid to Ukraine and has criticized its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for lobbying efforts to secure more support.

The US has provided over $53 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale war, which is more than any single European country — one of Trump's grievances. However, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, European countries have collectively spent some $30 billion more than the US in support of Ukraine, underscoring the monumental effort across the continent to assist Kyiv.

Allies will undoubtedly be closely watching the high-stakes US election in the fall, and no matter who wins, they are certain to say that they intend to work with Washington so that it will continue to invest in European security — which they assert is ultimately dependent on the outcome of the Ukraine war.

There is no "safe and secure" Europe without US support, Laurynas Kasčiūnas, Lithuania's defense minister, said at an event hosted by Politico and German television outlet Welt on Tuesday. "We should be prepared to work with" Republican or Democratic leadership.

"There are 32 countries in the alliance," the NATO official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said Thursday. "Governments change on a regular basis, and the NATO work continues."

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced articles of impeachment against Thomas on July 10 for influencing court decisions with "financial and personal entanglements."