• Project 2025 is a road map for the next Republican president.
• The Heritage Foundation, a prominent conservative think tank, authored the plan.
• It calls for eliminating the Education Department, among some other surprising things.

Well before the disastrous presidential debate during which President Joe Biden may have handed the keys to the White House back to former President Donald Trump, conservative thinkers were assembling a game plan.

In January 2023, The Heritage Foundation began promoting Project 2025, a 922-page "playbook" assembled with input from dozens of other conservative organizations to guide the next Republican administration.

"The time is short, and conservatives need a plan," reads the website for the right-wing presidential transition plan. "The project will create a playbook of actions to be taken in the first 180 days of the new Administration to bring quick relief to Americans suffering from the Left's devastating policies."

Some of Project 2025's priorities include:

• Slashing employment in the federal government and muzzling "woke propaganda at every level of government"
• Eliminating the Department of Education and its "woke-dominated system of public schools"
• Prohibiting the FBI from fighting misinformation and disinformation
• Ending the "war on fossil fuels" and allowing further development on Native American lands
• Ending active FBI investigations that are "contrary to the national interest"

The plan is so extreme that even Trump has distanced himself from it, writing on Truth Social this week that he knows "nothing about Project 2025."

"I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they're saying and some of the things they're saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them," Trump wrote.

A spokesperson from Project 2025 told Business Insider that the playbook "does not speak for any candidate or campaign."

"We are a coalition of more than 110 conservative groups advocating policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative president. But it is ultimately up to that president, who we believe will be President Trump, to decide which recommendations to implement," the spokesperson said.

• Hope Davis is a 47-year-old mom and community activist in New Orleans.
• She receives $1,000 monthly from the state ACLU's guaranteed monthly income program.
• Framed as reparations, the program supports people who have been racially targeted by police.

This is an As Told To essay based on a conversation with Hope Davis, a participant in the ACLU of Louisiana's guaranteed basic income program, which focuses on reparations for people who have experienced racist policing. It has been edited for length and clarity.

I had never heard of the ACLU before in my life, but they ended up helping me with some legal troubles. With support from their staff, I felt like I had a family member on my side and like somebody actually cared.

After deciding it was not in my best interest to seek restitution in the courts, they approached me with this new opportunity. They explained that two donors who had learned about their ancestors' history as enslavers donated $1 million to a program that would provide a guaranteed income and a number of other services to people who've suffered from unconstitutional policing.

We set up a meeting, and the ACLU staff asked me and some others what we needed to be whole. We told them counseling, expungement services for unjust charges, and access to financial fitness courses. To this day, it's unbelievable they picked me. I never thought in a million years that I would be in a position where somebody is giving me $1,000 a month for a year, or reparations of any sort. It is overwhelming, and it also came at a very critical time in my life.

I'm a mom and a widow. I am a certified chef, but I lost my job after reporting sexual harassment, so this program came at just the right time when the payments began in November. It's helping me pay a lot of personal bills, and it's helping me do activism work. This reality has inspired me and given me the strength to pour myself into my community.

Working in a community is something new and different for me. I got our tenant organization up and running again, so the stress for me right now is getting people involved in rebuilding and redeveloping our community. We meet monthly, so I have to run copies and buy lunches, gifts, books, things like that. I feel good when I'm getting a gathering together and can give something back.

The guaranteed monthly income program has really given me peace of mind. I am able to provide lunch for our community meetings and buy books and materials about Black history and systemic oppression so we can learn and study together. I provide rides to doctor appointments and support women and young mothers in learning about the resources available to them. I've also become a gardener and have taught families in the community how to grow food.

Even when I worked, we still struggled. Sometimes, I had two jobs. It was hard. The rent was always high. I was evicted at one point, sleeping in my vehicle for four or five months while trying to find a place to live.

I know people who lost their jobs and don't know how to apply for unemployment. I know women who are pregnant and don't know how to apply to get WIC. I went out into the neighborhood looking to see who I could help because I've seen situations like this all my life where people can't find help even when programs are out there. So that is my endeavor, that is my passion, to find those programs and bring them to the neighborhood. And I'm using the funds to help me do that. From here, I know I can build a life that I deserve and that uplifts the people around me.

July 6, 2024: This story was updated with additional context about the ACLU of Louisiana program and Davis' experience.

• Preqin employees are getting paid after BlackRock acquired the company for $3.2 billion.
• Staffers will share about $650 million, making some of them millionaires.
• Preqin founder Mark O'Hare and his wife will walk away with about $2 billion after taxes.

Some Preqin employees are poised for a big payday after BlackRock acquired the data company for $3.2 billion.

The acquisition, announced on June 30, has made Preqin founder Mark O'Hare and his wife billionaires.

O'Hare owns nearly 80% of Preqin through Valhalla Venture and will gain about $2.6 billion from the acquisition, Fortune reported. The number shrinks to about $2 billion after taxes.

The remaining wealth, about $653 million, will be shared among Preqin management and its 1,500 employees — making some of them millionaires.

Preqin is a financial data and analytics provider focused on alternative investments. O'Hare founded the company in 2002. In a press release, Preqin said it had 30,000 private market investors, 60,000 fund managers, and 190,000 funds. The company expects to generate about $240 million in revenue in 2024.

The acquisition has deepened O'Hare's pockets enough for him to surpass BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, whose net worth is $1.7 billion. As part of the acquisition, O'Hare will also join BlackRock as a vice chair.

"BlackRock is known for excellence in both investment management and financial technology, and together we can accelerate our efforts to deliver better private markets data and analytics to all of our clients at scale," O'Hare said in the press release. "I look forward to joining BlackRock and continuing to play a role in the continued growth and success of Preqin and our customers."

This is O'Hare's second major sale after Reuters purchased his equity owner database, Citywatch, in 1998.

• Biden continues to defend his candidacy after his poor debate performance against Trump.
• But a new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll showed that he has made up ground in swing states.
• In the survey, Biden led in Michigan and Wisconsin and only narrowly trailed in other key states.

President Joe Biden's widely panned debate sent his campaign reeling.

But while some recent polls showed former President Donald Trump with wider leads than before the debate, a new Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll showed Biden making up ground in the most important places of all — swing states.

Trump, in the latest survey, had a 47% to 45% overall advantage over Biden in swing states. That's the closest result between the two candidates since the tracking survey started last fall.

Biden led Trump in both Michigan (48% to 43%) and Wisconsin (47% to 44%), two must-win states for the incumbent. The president trailed Trump but remained within the margin of error in Arizona (45% to 48%), Georgia (46% to 47%), Nevada (45% to 48%), and North Carolina (43% to 46%).

It wasn't all good news for the president, however. Biden was behind by seven points in Pennsylvania, where he was born and spent significant time campaigning. Trump had a 51%-44% lead over Biden in the state, a major warning sign.

The Bloomberg News/Morning Consult survey also found that 39% of swing-state voters — a number well short of a majority — felt as though Biden should "definitely" or "probably" continue his candidacy. Biden registered higher support among liberals. For Trump, 50% of respondents said the former president should "definitely" or "probably" stay in the race.

Biden has faced several calls — from some sitting Democratic lawmakers and an array of donors — to step aside and allow the party to select a new standard-bearer ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.

There have also been multiple reports in recent days of lawmakers looking to meet with Biden to discuss the viability of his campaign.

The White House, for its part, has so far pushed back against reports that Biden is considering an exit.

In a highly-anticipated ABC News interview on Friday, Biden told host George Stephanopoulos that he was "exhausted" and didn't follow his instincts ahead of the debate but insisted that he would remain in the presidential race.

• Ukraine's attacks have left Russia's Black Sea Fleet HQ effectively useless, a Ukrainian naval officer said. 
• Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa said the fleet had been forced to relocate due to significant damage to the base.
• Ukraine has had huge success targeting the Black Sea Fleet with sea drones.

Ukraine's sea drone and missile attacks have left Russia's Black Sea Fleet headquarters at Sevastopol effectively useless and forced many of its ships to relocate to other locations, the head of the Ukrainian navy has said.

Vice-Admiral Oleksiy Neizhpapa told Reuters news agency that "almost all the main combat-ready ships have been moved by the enemy from the main base of the Black Sea Fleet" following significant damage to the Crimean base.

"The ships are kept in Novorossiisk, and some of them are kept in the Sea of Azov," Neizhpapa said.

The Sevastopol headquarters was the site of numerous key functions for the Black Sea Fleet, including training, repairs, and storing ammunition.

The UK Ministry of Defence said in April that moving the fleet to Novorossiisk was likely the "best method of avoiding Ukrainian sea-borne attack," noting that the "maintenance, logistics and weapons-handling infrastructure" at the base had "highly likely been improved to support the new basing arrangements indefinitely."

Ukraine, which lost most of its traditional navy during the annexation of Crimea in 2014, has targeted Russia's Black Sea fleet with great success using sea drones, as well as hitting targets in occupied Crimea with US-made ATACMS missiles.

Ukraine's relatively cheap drone technology has scored a number of major hits on Russian battleships, including the Sergei Kotov patrol ship and the Ivanovets corvette.

Ukraine has also targeted key infrastructure with sea drones, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin's prized Kerch Bridge, which links the Russian mainland to the Crimean peninsula.

Putin has since moved to increase defensive measures of the bridge.

Despite Russian moves to blockade Ukraine and break its economy, Ukrainian operations around the Black Sea have also enabled it to maintain the passage of vital food supplies, particularly grain shipments.

Hope for F-16s

Frederik Mertens, a strategic analyst at the Hague Centre for Strategic Studies, previously told BI that by targeting Crimea, especially Russian ground-based air-defense (GBAD) systems, Ukraine was "preparing the ground" for future air strikes once F-16 jets arrived.

"Crimea is vulnerable," he said. "The Russians have relatively limited maneuver space on the peninsula."

"Putin has a lot to lose both politically and militarily. So if a limited number of fighters can have a real impact, it is here — and above the Black Sea that becomes fully accessible once the GBAD on Crimea is dealt with," he added.

Neizhpapa told Reuters that the expected delivery of F-16 fighter aircraft later this year would help Ukraine challenge Russia's dominance over the region.

"F-16s with the right armaments will be able to push away Russian warplanes," he said. "The northwestern part of the Black Sea, particularly the corridor for civilian ships, will be almost 100% secure."

• Hackers infiltrated OpenAI in early 2023, but the company chose not to disclose the security breach.
• News of the hack has raised concerns that OpenAI is vulnerable to foreign agents, especially China.
• It's the latest in a string of bad news for the company.

The hits just keep on coming for booming tech giant OpenAI. The latest addition to its list of problems? Hackers.

OpenAI, despite its name, has developed a reputation for secrecy. But it was still surprising to learn that hackers gained entry to the company's internal messaging system all the way back in early 2023, stealing information related to its AI designs, and that the company never mentioned it to anyone.

Two people with knowledge of the incident told The New York Times that OpenAI executives decided not to publicly disclose the hacking because no customer or partner information was compromised. OpenAI also did not report the hack to the police or the FBI.

OpenAI told Business Insider that the company had "identified and fixed" the "underlying security issue" that led to the breach. The company said the hacker was a private individual without government affiliation and that no source code repositories were impacted.

Still, the hacking prompted concern inside and outside the company that OpenAI's security is too weak, leaving it open to foreign adversaries like China.

While the United States leads the global AI arms race, China is not far behind. US officials consider China's use of AI a major potential security threat. So the idea that OpenAI's data and systems are penetrable is worrisome.

Employees inside the company have also expressed concern about its attention to security. Leopold Aschenbrenner, a now former OpenAI board member, said the company fired him in April after he sent a memo detailing a "major security incident." He described the company's security as "egregiously insufficient" to protect against theft by foreign actors.

OpenAI has denied that it fired Aschenbrenner for raising security concerns.

Aschenbrenner was a member of the company's "superalignment" team, which worked to ensure the safe development of OpenAI's technology. A month after OpenAI fired Aschenbrenner, two more of the team's top members quit, and the team effectively dissolved.

One of them was OpenAI cofounder and chief scientist Ilya Sustkever. He announced his departure just six months after he helped spearhead OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's failed ouster, partly due to disagreements the two men had over the safety of the technology. Hours after Sustkever announced his departure, his colleague Jan Leike also left.

After the drama settled, last month OpenAI created a new safety and security committee, adding former NSA director Paul Nakasone to lead the group. Nakasone, now the newest OpenAI board member, is the former head of the US Cyber Command — the cybersecurity division of the Defense Department.

While Nakasone's presence signals that OpenAI is taking security more seriously, his addition was also not without controversy. Edward Snowden, the US whistleblower who leaked classified documents detailing government surveillance in 2013, said in a post on X that Nakosone's hiring was a "calculated betrayal to the rights of every person on Earth."

• Robert F Kennedy Jr. has said he would not "take sides" on 9/11 if elected president.
• Kennedy said he wished to restore trust with the American people "through honesty and transparency."
• Kennedy has previously spread a number of other wild conspiracy theories.

Independent presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy Jr. said on Friday that he would not "take sides" when it came to the events of the 9/11 terrorist attacks if he won election to the White House in November.

"My take on 9/11: It's hard to tell what is a conspiracy theory and what isn't. But conspiracy theories flourish when the government routinely lies to the public," Kennedy wrote in a post on X.

"As president I won't take sides on 9/11 or any of the other debates. But I can promise… that I will open the files and usher in a new era of transparency," he added.

Kennedy's campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, which was sent outside regular working hours.

The September 11 attacks were the deadliest terror attacks ever in the US.

Nearly 3,000 people were killed and thousands were injured when terrorists hijacked and crashed commercial jets into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and a field in Pennsylvania.

Kennedy said in a follow-up post that he had been referencing an excerpt from a recent CBS "60 Minutes" episode, which he said looked at "possible Saudi involvement in 9/11, sparking all kinds of speculation on X."

The episode focused on a newly released video of a Saudi intelligence officer filming in Washington, DC, in 1999.

In a third post, the long shot presidential candidate wrote, "Speculation about what our government may be covering up is rife outside the mainstream of our political culture."

The way to restore trust in the government, he said, "is through honesty and transparency."

"That is my promise, and that is what will resolve any questions about 9/11, UAPs, and other contentious topics. I am personally agnostic on those issues. My issue is TRANSPARENCY," he added.

It's not the first time Kennedy has promoted a conspiracy theory, having previously shared wild ideas ranging from how mass shootings are linked to prescription drugs to how certain chemicals in water impact the sexuality of children.

• Boeing's new flagship 777X aircraft is the first commercial plane with folding wingtips.
• Airport gate space concerns ignited the need for the new folding mechanism.
• The aircraft has garnered 481 orders from carriers such as British Airways, Emirates, and Lufthansa.

Boeing's latest addition to its growing fleet of commercial jets is the innovative 777X.

Boeing announced its next-generation widebody at the Dubai Airshow in 2013 as a bigger and more efficient version of its 777-300ER and its solution to the rival Airbus A350. Over a dozen global carriers, like British Airways, Emirates, and Lufthansa, have contributed to the 777X's 481-strong order book.

Boeing expects the plane to be certified by 2025, though it is already five years behind schedule and $1.5 billion in the hole due to design flaws, supply chain issues, and the pandemic, among other setbacks.

Emirates president Tim Clark, the biggest buyer of the 777X, with 205 on order, told The Air Current in June that the timeline will likely see a 2026 certification. Still, airlines remain confident that the new high-capacity flagship will replace older-generation widebodies as a more cost-efficient long-haul option.

That's thanks to its mammoth engines and wingspan, the latter sporting a revolutionary technology not yet seen in commercial aviation but necessary for the plane's success: folding wingtips.

The 777-9 is the largest commercial airplane in production and is based on Boeing's classic 777 but with modifications that enhance its size and efficiency.

The 777X will be available in two passenger variants, the larger 777-9 and the smaller 777-8, which can carry up to 426 and 384 passengers, respectively.

It will also have a freighter option called the 777F.

Its predecessor is Boeing's best-selling 777 variant, with over 800 units sold since 2000

This upgrade strategy means the 777X and the 777 are familiar to pilots and regulators, making certification easier than building a new plane and keeping airline costs down.

The 777X is operationally similar to the classic 777. Further, the 777X's flight deck resembles that of the 787. This plane-to-plane familiarity means pilots can cross-train on 777 and 787 aircraft with minimal training, saving airlines money.

Boeing is using four experimental 777X planes for its certification program. They have already flown thousands of hours across some 1,00 test flights.

Still, the 777X has key differences that set it apart from its predecessor, like its size, engines, and wings.

For example, the 777X's massive General Electric GE9X engines generate more than 100,000 pounds of thrust, making the GE9X the biggest and most powerful engine ever made for a commercial airliner.

Meanwhile, the 777X's 10-abreast seats, which are common on the classic 777, are more spacious thanks to its wider cabin. The 777X will also have bigger and better windows, which can be dimmed to a level of darkness not achievable on other widebodies.

The most distinctive feature of the 777X's design is its folding wingtips, a first in commercial aviation.

The design has never been seen on passenger planes but has found success in military aviation for almost 100 years to offset the limited parking space on air carriers, according to the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The idea to create folding wing tips stemmed from airport gate space limitations. Like pilot training, Boeing didn't want the new 777X to require costly airport infrastructure changes.

The 777X has a wingspan of 235 feet, 5 inches, which means it is too wide to fit into existing 777 airport gates. 

To combat the concern, Boeing created the folding mechanism that reduces the wingspan to 212 feet and 9 inches — the length of the 777's wings.

This allows the 777X to fit into gates capable of fitting the current 777 models without modifications or changes to the airport.

 

The airplane will not be limited to which airports it can operate out of, an issue the Airbus A380 faced after the superjumbo's debut in 2007.

At launch, many airports couldn't accommodate the A380 superjumbo without modifying the gates and building wider taxiways and runways, limiting where airlines could fly it. Boeing didn't want the same problem with its new flagship 777X.

While Boeing could have simply kept the wings the same length as the 777, it needed an extended wingspan to improve the plane's performance.

The 777X's wings are about 23 feet longer than the 777's, allowing the jet to generate more lift. According to Boeing, this increases efficiency by reducing fuel burn by about 10% compared to competing widebodies.

Though some might think widening the wingspan would create a heavier plane, Boeing has used a lightweight composite material for the 777X's wings.

The company said this strategy means the longer wings do not increase the jet's weight. The composite materials are also beneficial because they allow the wings to flex and bend during flight, which lowers the risk of damage.

The 777X's familiarity and size, the latter partly thanks to the wingtips, are big selling points against the rival A350.

Airbus launched the A350 in 2013, garring over 1,300 global orders. The plane is already flying passengers and is the 777X's biggest competitor.

The two families offer similarly giant cabins and good long-haul economics, but each has distinct differences that make it more or less favorable to certain airlines. For example, the A350 is smaller than the 777-9 model but longer-ranged and cheaper. 

It is also not mired with the same production problems as the 777X program, meaning it isn't sitting in production limbo costing Boeing and airlines millions.

While the 777X has been much hyped, airlines have voiced concerns over Boeing's ongoing production problems.

The 777X's size and efficiency make it particularly favorable for Middle Eastern carriers Emirates, Etihad, and Qatar because of their strong hub-and-spoke networks, which rely on big planes to shuttle as many people as possible between cities at once. 

All three plan to phase out older planes like the A380 and replace them with the more efficient 777X. However, according to Reuters, flying less efficient planes longer than expected is eating into airline bottom lines.

With hundreds of billions of dollars worth of orders on the line, there's much riding on the success of the new 777X flagship.

Boeing has been scrutinized since the January Alaska Airlines 737 Max door plug blowout, which questioned its ability to safely produce airplanes. That, combined with ongoing production issues on its 787 Dreamliners, too, has made certifying new planes even harder.

Still, Clark told The Air Current that the 777X is a promising plane despite being an ongoing headache for operators.