• Ilhan Omar has criticized the Biden administration for allowing what she calls a "genocide" in Gaza.
• Yet she and other Squad members are sticking with the president in his moment of weakness.
• "There is not going to be a situation where the President is being removed," she told BI.

Rep. Ilhan Omar, along with other members of the progressive "Squad," has been a staunch critic of President Joe Biden's policies on Israel.

Like other progressives, the Minnesota congresswoman has used the term "genocide" to describe Israel's war in Gaza, which has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians in the nine months since the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Omar's been pretty direct about that criticism, too, accusing the Biden administration of "greenlighting the massacre of Palestinians" at a February press conference.

Yet with Biden in his weakest political position ever, struggling to retain the support of Democrats on Capitol Hill, Omar has remained firmly behind the president, declining to join the growing number of her colleagues who have publicly called on him to step aside. She's unhesitant in defending that approach, arguing that former President Donald Trump would be worse.

"Obviously, I would like the administration to cut funding to Israel. We will continue to push for that," Omar told Business Insider on Wednesday. "I think for the genocide in Gaza, with Trump, it will be worse."

"Domestically and internationally, we will be devastated by a Trump presidency, and at this point, it is important that we do everything that we can to help we re-elect Biden," Omar continued. "So what's the conflict?"

Other progressives who have been critical of Biden on Israel, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have also remained behind Biden after his disastrous debate performance.

A large part of their argument is simply that Biden will be the nominee, and that there's no way to change that. "The matter is closed," Ocasio-Cortez told reporters on Monday.

That's a significant contrast to progressives outside of Congress, many of whom have rallied around Vice President Kamala Harris as an alternative.

"He's the nominee. I'm fully behind him," Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York, who recently lost his primary to a moderate Democrat in large part due to his criticism of Israel, told BI this week. "The debate performance wasn't the best, but what are we going to do now? We can't have Trump and Project 2025."

Some have even suggested that Harris would handle the issue of Israel in a way that's more in line with progressive preferences, pointing to differences from Biden in her rhetoric on the topic.

But Omar wouldn't entertain the idea of a Harris candidacy.

"There is not going to be a situation where the President is being removed from being the nominee," said Omar. "It is done, case closed. I work in reality, not in fantasy."

• Wedbush analysts note a Trump presidency may hurt the EV sector but benefit Tesla.
• Higher Chinese tariffs could limit competition, giving Tesla an edge in the US EV Market.
• Overall, Wedbush writes that Trump's presidency would be an overall negative for the industry.

As Tesla's stock surges and the EV giant gears up for its (reportedly delayed) robotaxi unveiling, questions are swirling about how the impending US presidential election will impact Elon Musk's car company.

According to a note to investors from Wedbush analysts, Trump's possible return to the White House could be a good thing for Tesla.

"Tesla has the scale and scope that is unmatched in the EV industry and this dynamic could give Elon Musk and Tesla a clear competitive advantage in a non-EV subsidy environment," Wedbush analysts wrote in the note.

Additionally, the Wedbush analysts wrote that a likely increase in tariffs on Chinese goods would "continue to push away cheaper Chinese EV players (BYD, Nio, etc.) from flooding the US market over the coming years."

Chinese tariffs have remained a large talking point in Trump's campaign. The Republican candidate has discussed implementing a 60% tariff on Chinese imports, largely exceeding his former tariff policy on China during his presidency.

Some of Tesla's biggest competitors include BYD and Nio, which are currently not available in the US. But Musk has previously said China is "by far" Tesla's biggest competitor. He said a lot of people think the top 10 car companies will be Tesla, followed by nine Chinese car brands, and "they might not be wrong."

Most recently, Tesla's biggest competitor BYD just made a deal to build a $1 billion factory in Turkey, which could provide the automaker with a way around EU tariffs and make it a larger threat in the global EV market.

Even though a Trump presidency could benefit Tesla, Wedbush analysts said in the note it "would be an overall negative for the EV industry" because the EV tax incentives would likely be removed.

EV tax incentives allow buyers to save up to $7,500 when they purchase a new EV, although there's some caveats to the tax break, like a limited number of eligible vehicles.

Musk hasn't announced who he's voting for in the 2024 Presidential election, but has said it's unlikely he'll vote for Biden.

Musk has met with the former President on multiple occasions and said at Tesla's annual meeting that Trump calls him "out of the blue for no reason." He also mentioned in the meeting that Trump's "a huge fan of the Cybertruck" and his friends that have Teslas "love it."

Microplastics have infiltrated our bodies, including the brain, blood, organs, and even penises. What are the health risks, and how can we avoid them?

• Ukraine is set to receive its first F-16 fighter jets from its Western partners this summer.
• But the exact number of planes is unclear, and Zelenskyy said it likely won't be enough.
• He compared the problem to Ukraine's Abrams tanks, which it only got 31 of and hasn't used much.

Western-provided F-16 fighter jets are on their way to Ukraine and set to start flying missions later this summer.

But they may not yet be enough to make a difference on the battlefield, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated in a discussion this week on what Ukraine needs, comparing the jets to the US-made Abrams tanks that Ukraine got last fall.

Asked by Fox News' host Bret Baier at the Reagan Institute if the 31 Abrams Ukraine received as its counteroffensive was already stumbling made a difference, Zelenskyy said: "I'm not sure that such number of tanks can change the situation on the battlefield."

Speaking in Washington, DC, Wednesday as the NATO summit was underway, he said "it's like the dialogue about F-16." Usefulness comes down, in some ways, to numbers and timing.

"We always wait, like my mother waited me after school," Zelenskyy said. "This is the same but much more serious."

"The problem with F-16," the Ukrainian president said, "is the number and the dates."

The Ukrainian President said that because Russia is operating so many combat aircraft "on the territory of Ukraine," small numbers of F-16s won't make a difference.

"Even if we will have 50, it's nothing. They have 300. Because we are defending, we need 128," he said, adding that unless Ukraine has that amount of F-16s, they won't "compare with them in the sky." He said "it will be difficult."

As Zelenskky noted, his concerns about the number of F-16s coming and the timing of those deliveries mirror conversations surrounding the US-provided Abrams tanks, which arrived in Ukraine last fall. The US sent only 31 M1A1 Abrams in total, and they were delivered to Ukraine months after British and German tanks.

The Abrams is recognized as a "tank killer" and celebrated for its lethality and heavy armor. It has a fearsome reputation, particularly given its exploits in the Gulf War in the early 1990s. Experts and former tank operators have praised the Abrams' capabilities, noting that it is far superior to any Russian tank.

But the Abrams hasn't been able to fight the battles it was made for in Ukraine where massed armored assaults haven't been an option and tank-on-tank combat is uncommon, it faces threats from drones, anti-tank weapons, and mines, and it is a high-profile target available in only limited numbers.

For comparison, Ukraine received about 300 US-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, nearly ten times more than the number of Abrams sent.

Zelenskyy's comments follow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's announcement earlier Wednesday that the first transfer of F-16 fighters to Ukraine — coming from Denmark and the Netherlands — is underway.

"Those jets will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer to make sure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend itself against Russian aggression," he said at the NATO public forum.

The arrival of the fourth-generation aircraft will be important for Ukraine and an upgrade over Kyiv's Soviet-era air power and another marker of closer relations with the West. But there have been questions surrounding how useful the fighters will be on the battlefield and if there will be enough jets and trained pilots to make a difference. There have also been concerns they may be coming significantly later than when Ukraine needed them most.

The West has attributed the long road to getting F-16s to Ukraine to complicated logistics.

"The trouble is that for F-16s, it's not as simple as just getting the planes and handing them over. The planes have to be reconfigured from the different air forces that they come from to make them suitable and usable for the Ukrainian Air Force," a NATO official said to reporters at a briefing on the sidelines of the summit Thursday.

The official also noted the training, logistics, and capabilities that are required to operate and defend airfields and said the yearlong process of procuring and delivering the fighters was "actually pretty good."

"If you look at a program like this, generally, even [when an] allied country in peacetime conditions takes on a new airframe like this, it could take much, much longer to get everything into place," the official said.

In a call with press on Thursday, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan acknowledged that the "ramp-up period" to get F-16s operational in Ukraine has been significant but added that the jets are expected to have an impact in the short-term and give Ukraine the capability to take back territory currently occupied by Russia.

• Even some White House advisors are reportedly doubting that Joe Biden can win.
• According to The New York Times, some White House officials are trying devise ways to convince Biden to drop out.
• The White House strongly denied the report.

President Joe Biden may have to convince some of his own White House officials that he's still their best hope of defeating former President Donald Trump.

According to The New York Times, some unnamed longtime aides and advisors to Biden have become convinced that the president will drop out of the 2024 race. The Times also reported that some advisors are trying to devise ways to convince the president that he should step aside.

The White House strongly denied the report.

"Unequivocally, this is not true," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates told The Times, a statement he reiterated to Business Insider. "President Biden's team is strongly behind him."

Biden has repeatedly said that he is staying in the race.

The president has tried to face down an uproar within the Democratic Party since his disastrous debate performance. Earlier this week, it looked like the White House had successfully frozen most of Capitol Hill not to pressure the president.

But on Wednesday, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi suggested that Biden had not made a final decision to stay in the race despite days of repeated statements to the contrary. Since then, more House Democrats have called on Biden to drop out. On Wednesday evening, Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont became the first Democrat in the chamber to join the chorus, saying Biden should step aside.

Not long before The Times published its story, NBC News reported that three unnamed campaign officials told the outlet that Biden has no chance of beating Trump.

"He needs to drop out," one Biden campaign official told NBC. "He will never recover from this."

Biden is set to speak to White House reporters at length Thursday night in his first extensive news conference in months. Multiple Democrats have encouraged the president to hold more unscripted events and to campaign more extensively to help convince them that he's up to the task of slogging through a reelection battle.

The president's reelection campaign sought to tamp down on the outcry, arguing that while Biden's support had slipped since the debate, the race is still very much winnable.

"There is a long way to go between now and Election Day with considerable uncertainty and polls in July should not be overestimated, but the data shows we have a clear path to win," Biden's campaign campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo on Thursday to staffers. "As we've always said, in today's fragmented media environment, it will take time for our message to break through with trusted messengers and a strong ground game. That remains the case."

The campaign memo, first reported by The Associated Press and later obtained by BI, said that Biden still had "multiple" paths to 270 Electoral Votes while emphasizing that Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan "remain critical to victory."

If Biden loses Nevada, Georgia, and Arizona, which polls show he might, he would need to run the table in the old so-called "Blue Wall" states and hold onto the Omaha-area Nebraska 2nd Congressional District to win.

• I've been to all of Canada's provinces. Ontario is great, but there are less-visited spots I love.
• I loved seeing the Earth's mantle in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland and Labrador.
• Cycle Prince Edward Island has beautiful scenery, and Vancouver Island has a lovely coastline.

Canada is pretty massive. The country spans almost 4,700 miles from east to west, touches three oceans, and hosts six different time zones.

Fortunately, I've been able to visit all 10 of its provinces. But with so many options, I know it can seem overwhelming to choose where to explore next.

Although I enjoyed learning and experiencing what makes each province unique, a few places stand out — and they aren't in Ontario, Canada's most visited province.

Here are the three Canadian provinces I loved visiting, plus highlights I experienced there that'll make you want to plan a trip to each.

Explore the Earth's mantle and freshwater fjords in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Humans tread on the Earth's crust, but it's not every day that you experience the second component below it, the mantle. But in the Tablelands in Gros Morne National Park, parts of the Earth's mantle are exposed — and visitors get a rare chance to admire this distinct structure without any digging.

When I explored the south end of this UNESCO World Heritage site, the rust-colored terrain made me feel like I was on Mars. I loved learning about the local carnivorous pitcher plants and feeling the texture of the rusty rocks.

There, I opted to take a guided group walk along the Tablelands Trail that's just under 5 miles out and back.

After walking on the mantle, I headed north of the park to visit Western Brook Pond. This freshwater fjord was carved thousands of years ago by retreating glaciers, and it's nothing less than breathtaking.

I took a guided boat tour through the fjord and learned all about it. If you want a panoramic view of it, take the day to hike to the top of the Western Brook Pond Trail.

British Columbia is Canada's second-most-visited province for a reason.

British Columbia is an adventurer's playground with impressive natural beauty. It's hard to get bored of the beautiful Pacific coastline and legendary old-growth forests.

Johnstone Strait, a glacier-carved channel between mainland British Columbia and Vancouver Island, is especially beautiful — and you might even see a humpback whale in the water if you visit at the right time.

One of my favorite experiences on the province's Vancouver Island is kayaking around the shores in the morning. I watched Steller sea lions glide through the water, and a river otter play on a nearby dock.

Once you're done with the water, venture along to visit some of the nearby picturesque communities like Telegraph Cove and Hanson Islands. Or perhaps find your footing and try the Haddington Beach Trail (just under 2 miles out and back) or the Salmon River Estuary Trail (under a mile out and back).

While there, I suggest learning about the area's diverse ecosystem — and there's perhaps no one else better to teach you than members of the Tlowitsis Nation, a group acknowledged as being among the first to originally live on this stretch of land.

Taking time to learn about Indigenous cultures in the area and booking experiences through Indigenous tour guides can also enrich your trip, allowing you to learn the history of the land you're visiting and why it's so important to protect it.

Take in the scenery while cycling along Prince Edward Island's numerous trails.

Prince Edward Island is famous for its potatoes, red-sand beaches, and picturesque countryside.

There are just over 20 supervised beaches on the island, and the red sand is due to the soil's rich iron content, which gets oxidized (turns reddish) as it touches the air.

Instead of admiring the area by car or on foot, my family and I have enjoyed exploring it by bicycle. Biking allowed us to slow down, be present with where we were, and get a taste of the laid-back island lifestyle.

We chose to peddle along the Confederation Trail, which stretches tip-to-tip of the island and covers about 278 miles. It helped us connect to special towns like Cardigan, where we visited Canada's smallest library.

The Confederation Trail has labeled stretches that range from easy to hard, so you can choose your own cycling adventure. If you're looking for a strenuous trail, I recommend gearing up on the Gairloch or O'Leary Mountain Bike Trail.

But if you're not confident in your cycling skills, consider taking a guided ride or renting an e-bike to help you go the distance.

• Celina, Texas is the fastest-growing city over 20,000 people in the US.
• Mayor Ryan Tubbs said two things set Celina apart. The first is its tight-knit community.
• The city is also more affordable than parts of California and Texas many people are moving from.

America's fastest-growing city isn't what you might expect.

It's not a big metropolis where movies are set like New York or San Franciso. Instead, it's a small town in the South that only welcomed its first Starbucks in 2022: Celina, Texas.

Celina, located about 40 miles north of downtown Dallas, has been attracting movers with its relatively lower cost of living and its close-knit community.

Celina's population surged 26.6% from July 2022 to July 2023, far exceeding the 0.5% growth rate of the nation as a whole, according to the latest figures from the US Census Bureau.

In 2010, the city had only 6,028 residents. By 2020, its population had increased to 16,739, and by 2023, it was 43,317, according to the census.

Most new residents in Collin County, where Celina sits, come from Texas ZIP codes, as well as ones in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, and Missouri, according to BI's analysis of census migration data. A significant number of people are also coming from Africa, Asia, Central America, and Europe.

The city said Celina welcomes an average of 830 newcomers each month.

Celina mayor Ryan Tubbs told Business Insider that he believes people are drawn to two main things about Celina: its relative affordability and its tight-knit community.

"It's just astronomical growth when you think about the influx of residents," Tubbs said. "Even so, our vision is to maintain that small-town feel, no matter how big we get."

Many movers to Celina come for affordability

Celina's proximity to Dallas makes it an attractive option for those who work in the city or visit for entertainment but prefer to steer clear of its hustle, bustle, and high costs.

According to data company Payscale, Celina's cost of living is 18% lower than the national average, while Dallas' is 3% higher. In total, Celina's cost of living is 19.9% less than Dallas'.

"The cost of living in Celina is a significant factor for many families and individuals who choose to live here," Tubbs said.

Over the past few years, thousands of movers who have relocated to Celina are also drawn by its many newly built homes from companies including Taylor Morrison, Toll Brothers, and Highland Homes, which sit in numerous master-planned communities.

According to the city, from 2010 until June 2024, 15,062 single-family permits have been issued for Celina.

Combined with the rise of remote work and improved accessibility via the expansion of the North Texas Tollway, the area has become increasingly appealing to both Texans and out-of-staters looking to rent or buy homes.

Money can go farther in Celina than in other parts of the US.

California native Michelle Clifford is moving to Celina in July after renting in its neighboring town, Prosper, Texas, since February.

Clifford, along with her husband and their two children, will be settling into a 2,400-square-foot home in Celina on an acre of land they purchased for around $600,000.

She said they "absolutely could not afford" that caliber of property in a Dallas neighborhood or in and around San Diego, where they previously lived.

"I have really good friends who live in the Preston Hollow neighborhood of Dallas, and those home prices are right up there with San Diego," Clifford said.

In Preston Hollow, an area about eight miles north of downtown Dallas, the median home price was $2.1 million in May, according to Redfin.

The median home in Celina sold for $632,030 in May. While it's more expensive than some parts of Dallas, it's significantly cheaper than San Diego, where the median home price was $980,000, according to Redfin.

"I feel like a lot of the city's natives will roll their eyes at me calling Celina affordable," she added. "It's a double-edged sword with Californians coming in and raising prices. But for me, it made our dream come true to be able to buy a home."

Celina's intimate, friendly feel is also a draw

Celina's growth reflects a broader trend of Americans seeking out smaller, community- and family-focused towns that offer some relief from the fast pace and density of big cities.

Census population totals from 2020 to mid-2022 show that while smaller cities in Texas like Celina — as well as Josephine, northwest of Dallas, and New Braunfels, between Austin and San Antonio — are experiencing population surges, the state's biggest cities have seen minimal growth or, in some cases, even outright declines.

Until recently, Celina was a sleepy town dotted with homes in between farms, cornfields, and cotton fields.

"We have people who were born and raised in Celina and remember it when it was just a small farming community," Tubbs said.

While the city's relative affordability may initially attract newcomers, they are staying for its "close-knit relationships" and strong sense of community, Tubbs said.

To preserve Celina's friendly vibe, the city puts on events, especially in its downtown square.

The city regularly hosts movie screenings on its lawn, and a night market six times a year with up to 70 local vendors and small businesses.

Several holiday events are on the horizon, including "Christmas on the Square," which features Santa in costume, a petting zoo, live performances, and local vendors.

"These events connect us to our past and to one another in an incomparable way," Tubbs said.

• Jack Kennedy Schlossberg, 31, is the grandson of John F. Kennedy and the son of Caroline Kennedy.
• Schlossberg is on track to follow the family tradition of becoming a lawyer.
• He's also shown that he has a sense of humor and is an avid paddleboarder. 

There's a new Kennedy in town.

Jack Kennedy Schlossberg is the 31-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy and the son of Caroline Kennedy.

He was recently the subject of internet rumors claiming he dated pop singer Selena Gomez, 31, between 2020 and 2021, and he was just named Vogue's first-ever political correspondent.

Despite being known as a member of one of America's most iconic political families, Schlossberg has asserted he has no plans to enter a race of his own. However, he's already making a name for himself with humorous online videos and a passion for his family's political history. 

Here's what you need to know about Jack Schlossberg.

John "Jack" Bouvier Kennedy Schlossberg is the 31-year-old grandson of President John F. Kennedy and the son of Caroline Kennedy.

He was named for his maternal grandfather, John F. Kennedy, and his maternal great-grandfather, John Vernou Bouvier III, People reported.

He is the youngest child of Caroline Kennedy and designer Edwin Schlossberg, who have been married since 1986.

Kennedy came from an Irish-Catholic background, while Edwin Schlossberg was raised Jewish. 

Jack Schlossberg was born in New York City on January 19, 1993.

In 2011, he graduated from The Collegiate School, a prestigious all-boys private school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

Caroline Kennedy and Edwin Schlossberg share two other children besides Jack: Tatiana Schlossberg, 34, and Rose Schlossberg, 36.

Schlossberg is the lone grandson of John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy and the eldest surviving male descendant of the former president's immediate family.

Rose and Tatiana Schlossberg are both married, but Jack appears to be single.

When appearing on the "Today" show in 2022, Schlossberg shared that his sister Tatiana had recently welcomed a son named Edwin, after their father. Schlossberg also said he'd moved back to his "childhood bedroom" to be closer to his family after graduating from Harvard.

He bears a striking resemblance to his maternal uncle, John F. Kennedy Jr., who died in a plane crash in 1999.

John F. Kennedy Jr. died after an aircraft he was piloting crashed off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, on July 16, 1999. His wife, Carolyn Bessette Kennedy, and her sister Lauren Bessette also perished in the accident. 

The couple did not have any children together, so there were no surviving Kennedy heirs through Kennedy Jr.

Schlossberg is on track to follow the family tradition of becoming a lawyer.

After Schlossberg graduated from Yale University in 2015 with a history degree, he entered Harvard Law School in the fall of 2017 and Harvard Business School in the fall of 2018.

"I'm inspired by my family's legacy of public service," Schlossberg said in his first live interview on "Today" in 2017. "It's something that I'm very proud of."

He graduated from the university in 2022, and in April 2023 he shared that he had passed the New York State bar exam.

His mother, Caroline, passed the same bar exam in 1989. According to People, his uncle John F. Kennedy Jr. famously failed the New York bar exam twice before ultimately passing on his third try in 1990.

"I went to law school super liberal, and I came out of the program with the same thinking — just realizing that I was still right but that I had not known what I was talking about before," he told Vogue in July. 

He appears to share his family's interest in politics and civic justice.

"I'm still trying to make my own way, figure things out, so stay tuned. I don't know what I'm going to do," he told "Today" in 2017. He again told Savannah Guthrie in 2022 that he had "no plans" to enter politics at the moment. 

While he hasn't committed to a career in politics just yet, Schlossberg has taken an increasingly public role with the family's Profile in Courage Awards, which honors world leaders, and the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation.

According to People, Schlossberg has also worked as a Senate page and intern for former Secretary of State John Kerry.

Schlossberg spoke at the 2020 Democratic National Convention as a representative of his family and has appeared with his mother at many public events. In December 2022, the Harvard graduate was pictured alongside his mother and sister Tatiana meeting with Prince William at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.

Schlossberg has become the face of a new generation of Kennedys.

Schlossberg has nearly 200,000 followers on Instagram, where he often shares photos and videos related to his paddleboarding hobby. 

He's also shown that he has a sense of humor. In July 2023, a series of light-hearted videos Schlossberg posted to Instagram about the downsides of eating at restaurants went viral.

"We have to wait there to eat something that we don't get to choose, really, what it is," Schlossberg said to the camera in one video. "We only get a few choices and you don't know what any of them are gonna taste like or what's good … and we're gonna sit there and wait for some guy to ask us a question. And we're gonna have to talk to some guy about what we wanna eat."

Secretary of State John Kerry once said of him, "A sense of humor is not genetic, but apparently in the Kennedy family, it can be inherited. In President Kennedy's grandson, Jack Schlossberg, this quality seems to abide."

"I'm a silly goose — a silly goose who's trying, just trying, to get the truth out there," Schlossberg told Vogue. 

• The Biden campaign conducted a survey measuring Kamala Harris' performance against Donald Trump.
• In an internal memo, the campaign insisted that no other nominee would perform better than Biden.
• The survey comes ahead of a make-or-break presser, where Biden will speak unscripted.

Despite President Joe Biden's insistence that he is staying in the race, his campaign is testing Kamala Harris' strength against Donald Trump. The campaign's analytics team conducted a survey this week that measures her performance in a head-to-head battle against the former president, the New York Times reported.

It is seemingly the first time that the Biden camp is measuring Harris' chances after the debate, though other pollsters have been acutely interested in her since the disastrous night. Three sources informed about the survey declined to tell The Times why the campaign conducted it and how they plan to use the results.

The revelation comes ahead of a key press conference this evening, where Biden will host his first solo news conference in eight months. All eyes will be on the president during the unscripted event, which many consider a litmus test for his campaign.

The Biden campaign on Thursday circulated an internal memo arguing that there is a "clear pathway ahead" and claiming there are no signs that another candidate would outperform Biden against Trump.

"Hypothetical polling of alternative nominees will always be unreliable, and surveys do not take into account the negative media environment that any Democratic nominee will encounter," the memo read.

• The Denver Basic Income Project gave cash to more than 800 Coloradans experiencing homelessness.
• They were divided into three groups to see how different payment structures might benefit them.
• Similar findings were reported across groups, including those who got just $50 a month.

Editor's note, July 11, 2024: This story was updated with context about the findings from the Denver basic-income pilot's control group. The story, which originally focused on the pilot's overall findings, now notes that the pilot's organizers did not identify major differences in outcomes between the test groups and the control group. This suggests that giving more money to participants didn't significantly improve their outcomes after 10 months. The story was also updated to clarify findings involving participants' mental health. While some individual participants did report improvements to their mental health, participants on average scored higher on the Kessler 10 test at the pilot's 10-month mark than they did at the beginning, indicating increases in stress.

Jarun Laws lived in his car in a restaurant parking lot near downtown Denver. He worked there as a cook until 2020 and had only $400 a month left after paying bills and child support. That was barely enough to cover his car payments and child support — and not even close to what he would need for rent.

The 51-year-old occasionally spent part of his paycheck on weekend stays at a cheap hotel, where he could spend time with his children. He struggled to afford food, clothes, and medicine — and he had been experiencing homelessness for nearly a decade.

That changed when Laws enrolled in the Denver Basic Income Project. He said the pilot program, which gave him $6,500 up front and $500 each month after, allowed him to secure a temporary apartment with furniture, spend more time with his children, and find a better-paying job.

"I had questioned myself: if I was going to be a good father to my children because I was suffering," Laws previously told Business Insider. "When I got accepted, it changed my life."

Denver's basic-income pilot program — which started payments in fall 2022 — focused on more than 800 Coloradans experiencing homelessness, including people living in cars, temporary shelters, the outdoors, or other nonfixed living situations. Participants like Laws were given direct cash payments, no strings attached, and could spend the money on whatever they chose.

The city's program initially lasted one year and was extended in January for six months. Participants were randomly sorted into three groups: One received $1,000 a month for a year, another got $6,500 up front followed by $500 a month, and a third got $50 a month as a control group.

Overall, the program found similar outcomes among the participants — indicating the two trial groups didn't outperform the control group.

During the program, participants were asked about their housing, food security, finances, and mental health. On June 18, the program released its one-year report, based on the self-reported surveys. It said that 10 months into the program, roughly 45% of participants in each group said they were living in their own house or apartment, up from 6% in both trial groups and 12% in the control group who said the same at the program's start.

The report suggested participants spent less time in places like emergency rooms, hospitals, temporary shelters, and jails during the program than they did before. It estimated that this reduction in public-service use saved the city $589,214.

These savings are a fraction of the $9.4 million it took to fund the program — with money coming from the city, the philanthropic organization The Colorado Trust, and an anonymous foundation.

Basic-income pilots like Denver's have become a trending approach to poverty reduction in US cities. Denver's program results reflect the short-term impact of cash payments on participants. Though researchers described housing gains, it's not clear how the basic income will affect participants in the long term.

Laws, for example, had to return to living in his car after the payments ended.

Results of Denver's basic-income project

Participants in Denver's program told researchers that the basic income primarily helped them pay for immediate expenses like transportation, hygiene, clothes, and groceries as well as recurring bills like rent, health insurance, or debt payments.

Participants in each payment group said they felt more financially stable and relied less on emergency financial-assistance programs than they did before the basic-income program began.

Nick Pacheco, a participant engagement coordinator, said at a press conference on June 18 that basic income helped put low-income families on "an equal playing field." He added that cash payments helped participants get training and resources to establish careers.

The program said participants who received the lump sum or the monthly payments of $1,000 were more likely to report having a full-time job than they were before they received basic income. Meanwhile, the percentage of participants in the control group who said they had full-time employment decreased slightly.

The report said participants in all three groups scored higher on average on a test called Kessler 10, designed to evaluate a person's overall level of psychological distress, at the 10-month mark than they did when the program began. (A higher score indicates more stress.)

But it also said participants in the $1,000-a-month group and the control group reported spending more time on leisure activities, such as being with family and friends, than they did when the program started. It added that parents in the program said they were able to better support their children and grandchildren financially.

These results echo those from the six-month report, which found that, compared with the start of the program, fewer people across all participant groups said they were sleeping on the street, experiencing food insecurity, and feeling unsafe.

Even so, several of the results — including in housing — were similar for both the participants in the two groups receiving higher payments and the participants in the control group, suggesting that giving more money to participants didn't significantly improve their outcomes.

Many families told the researchers that they were anxious about paying bills after the end of the payments. Some said they worried they could lose their housing.

"It is difficult to discern from the DBIP 12-month findings if changes in outcomes were a result of the differential amounts of unconditional cash or were due to other characteristics of the intervention," the researchers wrote in the report. They added that the availability of temporary housing vouchers during the COVID-19 pandemic could have also affected housing outcomes.

Some participants were better able to pay bills in the short term with basic income

Some participants in Denver's program have told BI that basic income was the financial safety net they needed.

Moriah Rodriguez, 38, was working as a youth developer for Denver Public Schools when she got hit by a car and suffered a traumatic brain injury. She lived in public housing with her kids, all of whom have intellectual disabilities, though they were displaced shortly after.

She received monthly Social Security payments, just enough to care for her kids. While staying with a friend, she learned about the pilot program.

Rodriguez used the payments to fix her truck, transport her kids to school and work, buy new clothing, and secure a lifelong public-housing voucher. She also used some of the money to pay for monthly expenses — mostly rent and gas — and some smaller daily purchases. She said that she returned to school to get her GED and that her credit score increased.

Rodriguez said the basic income gave her more time to focus on her children's education and mental health, adding that the program's extension was another lifeline. "I had the space to get them tested and get them diagnosed and connected with the support they need," she said.

Dia Broncucia, 53, and Justin Searls, 45, who received the $6,500 lump sum and $500 monthly payments, said the basic income helped them afford things like an apartment, a new car, clothing, hygiene products, furniture, and mental-health resources. They said they previously lived in a temporary shelter but were able to secure a studio apartment for $1,300 a month.

Broncucia and Searls said last October that though they had some uncertainties about their future, they felt much stronger and less stressed because of basic income.

"Starting with nothing and then being able to receive a lump sum of money and then get our payments once a month is why we were able to get on track and stay on track," Broncucia previously told BI.

Cities are using basic-income pilots to try to address poverty

While Denver's one-year results were mixed, basic-income pilots are increasingly popular in the US. In recent years, lawmakers in California and New Mexico have proposed starting or supporting basic-income programs for various groups of residents.

"The lessons from those pilots are infusing the whole ecosystem of support," Teri Olle, the director of Economic Security California, a branch of the nonprofit Economic Security Project, previously told BI. "People are really seeing the power of those pilots and the power of giving people money and trusting them."

The leaders of Denver's program hope to extend it for a third year and are raising millions of dollars to do so. While the researchers haven't found evidence that giving people $1,000 a month is substantially more effective than giving them $50, they said they hoped to see more-significant differences between participants in the trial groups and those in the control group over time.

Mark Donovan, the project's founder and executive director, said in June that he was paying close attention to results from basic-income programs across the country, adding that it's a "really exciting time in the movement."

"If we're able to move people into housing and out of homelessness at a lower cost and generate better long-term outcomes, why wouldn't we try to expand and build upon that?" Donovan said.

Have you benefited from a basic-income program? Are you willing to share how you spent the money? Reach out to these reporters at allisonkelly@businessinsider.com and nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.