Tag: News

• Will Ferrell said it was "excruciating" to be called "John" on the first week of school. 
• The "Barbie" actor added that he did not know why he felt embarrassed. 
• A psychologist weighs in on why names can cause insecurities. 

The first day of school is never easy. It was especially awkward for Will Ferrell, as he had to deal with being called by his real name: John.

"On the first day of school, the teacher would be like, 'John Ferrell,' and it was so embarrassing to me to have to say, 'Here. But I go by Will, I don't go by John,'" Ferrell told Christina Applegate and Jamie-Lynn Sigler on Tuesday's episode of the MeSsy podcast. His full name is John William Ferrell.

"It was excruciating," the "Barbie" actor, 56, said, explaining that teachers would often take a week to remember to call him Will. "So the beginning of the school year was always like, 'Oh my gosh, I hate this.'"

When asked why the name John embarrassed him, Ferrell said he didn't know. "It wasn't by choice. My parents named me John but called me Will," he said.

"People are probably going to be listening to this going, 'That is the lamest thing ever,'" he said. Applegate laughed, pointing out that they probably lost any listeners named John.

Reflecting further on his school days, Ferrell shared how his humor helped him socially.

"I think, definitely, being funny was an easy way to make friends, not to feel like being an outsider, and it was a way to ingratiate yourself into a group," Ferrell said.

Why names can cause embarrassment

As names are closely tied to our identities, insecurities about them can affect our self-esteem and confidence, Dr Annabelle Chow, a clinical psychologist and director at Annabelle Kids, told Business Insider.

She added that children who feel insecure about their name might find it difficult to introduce themselves and make friends.

"Used to his loved ones calling him 'Will,' he could have formed an emotional connection to this name. His self-concept was built around the 'Will' identity, and that was who he had known himself to be," Chow said.

Celebrities are not the only ones who go by different names. In 2002, fashion designer Ralph Lauren told Oprah that he changed his last name from Lifshitz to Lauren when he was 16, after being bullied in school.

Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba, was born Ma Yun, but he used the Westernised name "Jack" to make his name more accessible to a global audience.

A representative for Ferrell did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

• President Joe Biden avoided a major disaster during his high-profile news conference.
• But Biden is unlikely to have drastically changed the apprehension within the Democratic Party.
• The reality is that the president still has a difficult path to win the election.

President Joe Biden on Thursday avoided a repeat of his disastrous debate night — despite notable flubs — in a foreign policy-laden news conference aimed at assuring Democrats that he can still beat former President Donald Trump.

"I think I'm the best-qualified person to do the job," Biden said at one point, touting his ability to lead the Western response to Russia's war against Ukraine.

His appearance, though, is unlikely to stem the flow of Democrats calling for him to bow out of the race. And it doesn't help that he flubbed some answers and, at one point, referred to "Vice President Trump" instead of Vice President Harris.

Just before the news conference, Biden referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, standing nearby, as Russian President Vladimir Putin before quickly correcting himself.

"Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin," Biden said before quickly realizing his mistake and adding, "He's gonna beat President Putin, President Zelenskyy."

"I'm so focused on beating President Putin," he said.

Biden opened the door slightly to stepping aside, telling reporters that if his team presented him data showing he had no chance of beating Trump, he would listen. But, as of Thursday, it didn't appear that the campaign or the White House had discussed that possibility, though there were reports of grumbles behind closed doors.

Earlier Thursday, Biden's top campaign advisors explained that they still have multiple paths to the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

"Our internal data and public polling show the same thing: this remains a margin-of-error race in key battleground states," Biden's campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon and campaign manager Julie Chavez Rodriguez wrote in a memo to staffers that was first published by The Associated Press and later obtained by Business Insider.

They conceded that the debate had been a setback for the president but argued it was far too early to count him out.

Biden in his wheelhouse

The good news for Biden is that the news conference set him up in his wheelhouse: foreign policy. As a US senator, Biden served on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee for decades and eventually rose to lead the panel. President Barack Obama praised Biden's knowledge of world affairs when he tapped him as his running mate.

Following the press conference, pundits and journalists acknowledged his command of the issues. But there is still concern — even from Europeans at the NATO summit — about his ability to campaign and beat Trump.

Biden's press conference was likely never going to assuage Democrats' concerns. Multiple lawmakers have said they wanted to see the president get out on the campaign trail, hold more news conferences, and grant more in-depth interviews. Biden seemed to acknowledge this during his press conference.

Unfortunately for Biden, this was his first live unscripted event following the debate two weeks ago. His current schedule sets up a reality where each new event becomes a proverbial cliffhanger — will this be a debate repeat? — rather than a chance to focus on his opponent and his weaknesses.

This jarring cycle was thrown into sharp relief shortly after Biden left the stage. Rep. Jim Himes of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called on the president to step aside.

There are now 17 congressional Democrats who have called on Biden to withdraw. After the news conference, one of those lawmakers said that Biden had done a fine job but that he just couldn't stomach the current trajectory of the race.

"We just can't have a situation where every day we are holding our breath whether it is a press conference, a debate, or a rally," Rep. Brad Schneider of Illinois told CNN.

• Finneas O'Connell and Billie Eilish talked about the challenges of working with a sibling on "Hot Ones Versus."
• Eilish described her brother's habit of putting his feet up while they worked on "Hit Me Hard and Soft."
• An executive coach shares the pros and cons of working with family.

Like most siblings, brother-sister duo Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell have had their fair share of tiffs. But something that has struck a nerve more than once for Eilish has been O'Connell's feet.

On Tuesday's "Hot Ones Versus" episode by First We Feast, the siblings had to choose between answering personal questions or eating spicy wings.

When Eilish asked what their biggest argument was while working on her album, "Hit Me Hard and Soft," O'Connell said, "I put my feet up on the desk a lot."

"He's a lot of times barefoot. He's a lot of times in very filthy shoes," Eilish said.

"This is the situation," she said, pushing the plate of wings away and plonking her feet on the table — snug in a pair of black Etnies shoes. "My face is like, right there," she said, pointing to the space beside her feet as O'Connell laughed.

The conversation took a more serious turn when O'Connell talked about an argument they'd had regarding honesty.

"To give you credit, I was very much like high and mighty about like, 'You're not being honest or authentic enough,' and you were coming up with such beautiful melodies and cool cadences," he said. "I learned a lot from being too egocentric in that process."

Released in May, "Hit Me Hard and Soft" is Eilish and O'Connell's third studio album together.

The siblings' partnership started in 2015 after O'Connell wrote "Ocean Eyes." The song was recorded when Eilish was 13, and she shot to stardom after uploading it to SoundCloud.

O'Connell, who also produces his music under the name FINNEAS, has shared about the success of his musical partnership with his sister.

"In the alternate reality where I wasn't involved at all, and I'd been like, just, sweating my way through, trying to have a music career for years? And then my sibling had one, and I wasn't involved at all? I think I'd be very tortured by it," Finneas told The Washington Post in 2020. "But the fact that we've had one in tandem makes a lot of sense."

How to mix family and business

Mixing family and business can be tricky, but Eilish and O'Connell aren't the only ones who have made it work.

Siblings Patrick and John Collison found success working together in the business world. After dropping out of college, they launched the payments company Stripe in 2010. The brothers are now both billionaires.

When asked what it was like working with family in an Ask Me Anything session by Stripe, Patrick said: "We spend most of our daily lives working and building things, creating, and why not do that with the people you're closest to? It's awesome."

Huda Katten, the founder and CEO of Huda Beauty, launched the cosmetics brand in Dubai in 2013 with the help of her sisters, Mona and Alya. Since then, Mona has branched out to create a fragrance arm, Kayali.

In an interview with Vogue Arabia in January, Huda reflected on their sibling partnership: "We're not in competition but as a family, we give each other feedback, because we want the others to succeed."

Marlo Lyons, a career and executive coach, told Business Insider about some of the benefits of working with family. "Siblings often have a deep level of trust built from years of growing up together. They know each other's strengths, weaknesses, and quirks," she said.

She also said that difficulties can arise from working closely with one another, such as inefficient decision-making or overstepping boundaries.

Her advice? "Recognize that you may be siblings, but that doesn't mean you know everything about each other. Be curious about behaviors or communication that doesn't make sense to you," Lyons said.

A representative for Eilish did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

• Deborah Danan and her husband are working parents, raising their three kids in Israel.
• They live in a mixed city where Jews, Muslims, and Christians live together. 
• She's been surprised by her 8-year-old's capacity for both compassion and comprehension of what was happening.

I've learned surprising truths about my children since the horror of the October 7 terror attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza.

I live with my husband and three kids in a mixed city in Israel, where Jews, Muslims, and Christians live together. I moved here over a decade ago from Jerusalem.

Jerusalem, while officially considered a mixed city, largely consists of religiously homogeneous neighborhoods, making apartment blocks with Jews, Muslims, and Christians living together — like mine — far less common.

I love the diversity in my city. I love that my children attend Christmas parades and are aware of the fact that as I write this essay on a June afternoon, our neighbors are celebrating the Muslim holiday of Eid al Adha. But like everything else in this neck of the woods, living side by side can sometimes be fraught with complexities.

When news started emerging of what took place on October 7, I did everything in my power to protect my three children, especially my eldest, a highly sensitive 8-year-old with a string of acronyms after her name that point to her various diagnoses. I made sure that in any room she entered, the news was switched off — no small feat in a country where news consumption is basically a national pastime. I would stifle any conversation about the situation by family members that was within her earshot.

I was terrified of scarring her for life

I only let her know that hostages had been taken into Gaza after half of them — including almost all of the children among them — were released, more than 50 days into the war.

But then came the day when she was home alone in our apartment during a rocket siren. It was inevitable, really. Rockets were raining down on our city on a daily basis, and my work as a journalist meant that I was often out of the house.

My husband also found himself working around the clock when his boutique hotel, like many others across the country, was converted overnight into semi-permanent housing for some of the 300,000 internal refugees fleeing Israel's northern and southern borders, which were under attack.

On that day, I called my daughter as soon as the Code Red app on my phone bleeped, alerting me to an incoming projectile. She told me that she was trying to close the iron blast door of the safe room but that it was too heavy for her. She said it matter-of-factly. I tried to mask the rising panic in my voice as I told her to try again, harder this time.

It was useless, so I told her to go into the stairwell of our building, where there were no windows and less risk of falling shrapnel. Buildings erected in Israel since the 1990s have built-in safe rooms to avoid bombs and air strikes. For many Israelis living in older apartments, without safe rooms, this is the standard refuge from rocket fire.

My Arab Muslim neighbor saw her on the way to the stairwell. She took her hand and guided her to her own safe room, where she looked after her until I returned. To my relief — and surprise — my daughter was completely unfazed by the whole episode.

Adjusting to the new normal

Now, nearly 9 months after the October 7 attacks, we've settled into a routine. Schools in most of the country are operating, people are going out, life is continuing — but the reminders that life is anything but normal are everywhere, puncturing the facade: from posters of hostages on every tree to the almost daily news of the deaths of loved ones to the imminent threat of a new war on a different front.

But while even the most inconsequential event is cloaked in pain, I'm fully aware that my day-to-day as a mother is peachy compared to mothers in Gaza.

In the midst of it all, I find myself still torn between a duty to let my children know what's happening around them — to allow them to grow thick-skinned, to build resiliency, and hopefully, to seek solutions — and the instinctual urge to shelter them, not just from rocket fire but from things I think children should never have to know.

The night of the rocket fire, my daughter and I lay in bed. I spoke to her about our Arab friends and neighbors and what it means for them to be straddling a precarious duality in which they are scared about their own well-being, as Israeli citizens under fire, as well as that of their people — sometimes even family members — under bombardment in Gaza.

I asked her to imagine that right now in Gaza, there was probably a girl of her age who may be scared for her life. And that maybe that girl has a cousin who lives right here, in our neighborhood.

My daughter's capacity for both compassion for their plight and comprehension of what was happening right now, right here, to us, astonished me and continues to astonish me.

• Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani are slated to get married on Friday in Mumbai.
• Four Indian event planners shared what it's like to plan a big celebrity wedding.
• The Ambani wedding is already setting trends for couples planning their own nuptials.

The wedding of the year is upon us.

After rounds of opulent pre-wedding festivities, Radhika Merchant and Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia's richest man, are slated to get married on Friday in Mumbai.

Their guests, who have so far included Bollywood actors, Indian cricketers, and international business leaders, will also attend events on Saturday and a reception on Sunday.

During a pre-wedding event in March, Ambani said his mom worked 18 hours a day for the four months leading up to the parties.

"All this is created by my mother and no one else, and my mother has gone all out for the last four months," Ambani said, per a video of the speech uploaded in March.

Planning such an event takes a village, according to four wedding planners who spoke to Business Insider about what goes into organizing a multi-day Indian celebrity wedding.

The biggest cost is the venue

The planners BI spoke to said a typical multi-day wedding that they plan costs between five to 10 crore Indian Rupees, or about $1.2 million.

Crore is an Indian term for 10 million; 1 crore rupees is around $120,000.

Whether it's a big-ticket wedding like the Ambani's or the wedding of an upper-middle-class family, the breakdown of major costs in an Indian wedding look about the same, one event planner told BI.

About 40% to 50% of the budget goes to the venue, which includes catering and rooms for the guests, said Nishita Aggarwal, the founder of The Event Designer, a Mumbai-based wedding planning company.

Next, 25% to 30% of costs go toward decorations, which include elaborate backdrops, tents, and floor-to-ceiling floral arrangements.

About 10% is spent on entertainment. The Ambanis have hired Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, The Backstreet Boys, and Pitbull for pre-wedding functions in recent months.

Other families spend a lot on artists including singers and celebrity DJs, said Purvi Modgil, a destination wedding planner based in Mumbai.

"If you plan to call three or four of them in different core functions, that can also add up to a good cost," she said.

The remaining 10% usually goes into wedding gifts and logistics for the family and guests.

"Now, when it comes to a high-net-worth wedding or a celebrity wedding, everything becomes 10 times or hundred times" of that cost, Aggarwal said. "There is no bar on the budget."

Planners' cost estimates of the Ambani wedding varied widely, from tens of millions of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars.

Anant's older sister Isha Ambani got married in 2018 in a similarly lavish wedding, including a Beyoncé performance. While media outlets speculated about a $100 million price tag, a spokesperson for the Ambani-owned company, Reliance, said that it cost less than $15 million, per a Forbes article at the time.

A spokesperson for the family did not respond to a request for comment about the costs for Anant Ambani's wedding.

The pre-wedding events have grabbed headlines for months. With so many celebrities and business leaders angling for an invitation, the nuptials are also a business networking event, Aggarwal said.

Each main family member is assigned a 'shadow'

Many couples don't want to host their weddings at venues where other high-profile families have already held nuptials, Aggarwal said.

"They want everything to be exclusive," she said. "The decor has to be something else that no one else has ever thought of. It is almost like a big movie set."

For a big celebrity wedding, planners divide their staff into teams and hire hundreds of additional people leading up to and on the day of the ceremony.

With chefs, waiters, light and audio teams, and decorators, about 500 people often work the event, Modgil said.

The planners also assign butlers to each main family member. These staffers, called "shadows," hold their phones and gifts and ensure they stay hydrated and have everything they need.

"There are over 70 suppliers and vendors who we work with for each wedding," said Darshan Shroff, a Mumbai-based wedding planner. "I like to describe wedding planners in India as circus masters."

Privacy and security are top concerns

Many celebrity or influencer couples are particular about how their wedding is portrayed on the news and on social media.

Planners have strict instructions that restrict posts from vendors about outfits, decor, or flowers before a set date. Most big weddings also collect the phones of their guests for privacy, and couples have teams that work with the media.

"You can't have too many people hanging out taking their pictures. It makes them very uncomfortable," Modgil said about celebrity guests and couples.

Top security firms and even local authorities may sketch out safety plans.

"The minute there are some kind of celebrities, whether it's politicians or Bollywood, security becomes very important," Modgil said. "We've had separate people escorting them and even taking them back because sometimes they even get mobbed."

The families and their guests are not always easy to please.

Aggarwal said she has planned weddings where celebrity attendees call to confirm what type of hotel suite they will be staying in and what kind of car is coming to pick them up. Everything must match their lifestyle standard.

Setting a blueprint for other weddings

The Ambani wedding is already influencing how other Indians are envisioning and planning their own nuptials.

The planners told BI that brides are asking them for the same designers that Radhika Merchant wore in her pre-wedding events, like the custom lehengas designed by Abu Jani Sandeep Khosla and Tarun Tahiliani.

Planners expect the main wedding to leave an even bigger mark.

"Given the immense influence celebrities have, their weddings often become blueprints for future celebrations worldwide," said Bharat Jagasia, a Delhi-based wedding planner.

"For the Ambani wedding, I am particularly excited to see how they differentiate the main event from their pre-wedding functions," he said.

The festivities are slated to kick off Friday at the Jio World Convention Centre, which is owned by the Ambani family. It can accommodate over 16,000 guests.

• President Joe Biden delivered his first press conference of 2024 amid questions about his future.
• In response to a question about VP Harris, he referred to her as "Vice President Trump."
• It was the first major gaffe he made at the press conference.

At a press conference after the conclusion of this week's NATO summit, President Joe Biden referred to Vice President Kamala Harris as "Vice President Trump."

"Look, I wouldn't have picked Vice President Trump to be vice president if I didn't think she was not qualified to be vice president," said Biden.

It was his first major gaffe of the press conference, which remains ongoing.

Earlier this evening, Biden referred to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as "President Putin" before quickly correcting himself.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

• I was with my partner for 19 years when we suddenly got divorced.
• I am now working on rebuilding my life as a 40-year-old, independent person.
• I am starting to find my identity and leaning on friends for support. 

Nobody gets married planning to get divorced, and yet about half of all marriages end that way. This year I've learned even queer marriages aren't special or immune from this fate. Much to my great surprise, love doesn't always "win."

I spent over 19 years with my now ex-partner, believing that what we had was forever. However, this year, a few months before turning 40, I learned the life we had was no longer what my partner wanted. They had a new life and wanted a divorce.

In the aftermath, I was left figuring out who I was without them and how to rebuild my life as a newly middle-aged queer person.

My childhood prepared me for this

This month, the therapist I started seeing during the divorce "graduated" me out of therapy. It has been nearly six months since my ex-partner walked out. Her assessment is that I am thriving, solid, and confident with a plan for moving forward. She expressed amazement at my growth, noting that most people don't bounce back quickly from the shock of their families falling apart.

I credit my experience as a homeless teenager with helping me bounce back so quickly. When you lose your home, world, and family as a kid, on some level, you'll always be prepared to lose it again.

I spent years knowing my worst fear was my partner leaving. In our relationship, I did everything I could imagine to please my ex and prevent being abandoned. However, once they left and I realized the worst thing had happened, I was terrified, but I also felt a profound freedom.

Starting over and rebuilding is a thing that I know how to do. I've done it before and knew I could and would do it again.

I'm starting to rebuild my life

Once I wrapped my mind around the immediate crisis of being abandoned, I realized the first thing I had to do was figure out who I was, and who I wanted to be now.

In my case, spending practically all of my adult life (age 20-39) with a partner made it hard to know who I am as an individual. Divorce changes you. I will never be the person I was before that day in January when I came home and learned my marriage was over. To cope, initially, I immersed myself in my work, which, as a writer/small business owner, is never-ending.

I got rid of all the clothes my ex-partner had wanted me to wear. I dyed and then more recently cut off my hair. My life was mine to architect, and I wanted to look as different on the outside as I felt on the inside. I committed to my creative projects. I reconnected with friends and creative collaborators around the world. I started going out to social and community events. I reinvested my time and presence in the subcultures and interests that were mine before I met my now ex-partner.

Essentially, I started investing in getting to know myself again. As part of this journey, I've found that being in a community, being surrounded by people who have the same passions as I do, makes me feel less alone and more excited about the future than I've felt in years.

I'm leaning on my chosen family for support

I'll never forget the night after my ex-partner left when I got a call from one of my now closest friends. "Let me be part of your inner circle?" he asked.

In that moment all the lessons I learned as a homeless youth flashed through my brain. I could white-knuckle myself through this alone, trusting nobody, or I could remember that not everyone was trying to hurt me and create a new family built on trust, love, and shared experiences. Queer chosen family has always been important to my sense of self, but that has been especially true this year.

As I have navigated my divorce I have loved deeply, and I have let people love me. I have let people emotionally show up for me and trusted them not to hurt me. Contrary to my deepest fears, I wasn't isolated, and there were people ready and excited to build a new family with me. These are friends who were there on my worst days. People who got in their car in an ice storm to get to me the day my ex-partner left stayed up all night on the phone with me, listening as I tried to make sense of what happened.

I never wanted my relationship to end in divorce, and I never imagined it would. However, now that it has, I've learned that isn't the end of the world.

Being alone is scary, but much to my surprise, even though I'm starting over at 40, I feel much less alone than ever before. I'm surrounding myself with people who love me for who I am. I'm also learning that I like the new life I'm building — maybe even better than the one I lost.

• Ukraine's navy has acquired at least 16 Swedish-made patrol boats this year to counter Russia.
• The CB90 assault craft can deploy on various missions, from troop delivery to mine reconnaissance.
• They are also configurable — able to act as an armored raider or floating command center as needed.

Ukraine's navy added three Swedish-made patrol boats to its fleet earlier this month as it continues to hammer Russian naval forces in the Black Sea.

The recent CB90 delivery comes after Sweden announced its massive $682 million military aid package to Ukraine in February, which included 10 CB90 vessels and 20 other riverine boats. The Netherlands similarly provided three more CB90s to Ukraine a month later, for a total of at least 16.

Turning the tide in the Black Sea

Steel Front, a military assistance initiative run by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, sent Ukraine the new CB90-class fast assault crafts, which are already in operation in waters near Crimea.

Following a six-month effort by Steel Front and Ukrainian steel giant Metinvest, the three vessels and crew training for Ukrainian forces cost more than $4.1 million.

"There is no doubt the Black Sea is an important front," Oleksandr Vodoviz, an executive at Metinvest, said in a statement, "and our aim is that these powerful boats will make a significant difference to Ukraine's ability to defend itself."

In total, Sweden has provided at least 13 CB90s to Ukraine's navy. The Netherlands donated nearly two dozen inflatable and armored boats, including three CB90s, to Ukraine in March. The Finnish Ministry of Defense also delivered a number of landing crafts to Ukraine. It wasn't immediately clear what type of vessels were sent, but Finnish media speculated them to operate similarly to the Swedish CB-90.

Inside the CB90

Dockstavarvet, a shipyard owned by Swedish defense manufacturer Saab, originally developed the CB90 for the Swedish Navy.

The 52-foot-long patrol boat is propelled by twin diesel engines that allow it to travel at speeds of up to 40 knots — or 46 miles per hour — with a range of more than 240 nautical miles.

Two partially ducted water jets make the lightweight CB90 highly maneuverable. It can make sharp turns and come to a complete stop in about 130 feet.

Armed to the teeth

The combat boat is equipped with a gun mount atop its wheelhouse, which can mount a .50-caliber machine gun, 40mm grenade launcher, or remote-controlled weapons.

In addition to its top-mounted guns, the CB90 can deploy Hellfire anti-ship missiles, 2.8-ton sea mines, and depth charges.

A versatile vessel

Designed to patrol and defend coastal waters, the shallow-draught CB90 can be deployed in both open waters and rocky shores for missions like ferrying troops, mine reconnaissance, or landing troops for amphibious raids.

From gunboat to command post

The vessel's aft is also configurable; it can accommodate a range of gear, from remote-controlled weaponry to additional radar and communications equipment.

Armed and armored

Whether operating as a combat-ready gunboat or a floating command post, the CB90 has a durable hull made of lightweight polyethylene lining and safety glass, offering ballistic protection to shield its personnel and vital components during hostile operations.

"With its armament and ballistic protection, the CB90 can deliver its troops in the face of enemy fire with a degree of survivability for both the craft and embarked troops," Pete Pagano, a retired US Navy officer, wrote in an article for the US Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine.

While the armed and armored CB90 can survive the potentially high-risk delivery, Pagano wrote that the Swedish-built vessel alone "could provide limited supporting firepower for the embarked troops during the vulnerable approach to and landing on the beach," calling for support from other landing craft to bring in heavy equipment.

Transport for troops and cargo

The boat is typically operated by a crew of two officers and one engineer, with two operator seats and a middle jump seat in an aircraft-style cockpit.

The CB90's midsection has a compartment that can carry 21 combat-ready Marines and up to 4.5 tons of cargo, making it an efficient method to deploy troops or extract casualties.

Deployed by naval forces around the globe

Since being commissioned in 1991, more than 200 CB90 boats have been operated by naval forces worldwide. The US Navy even contracted US-based boat manufacturer SAFE Boats International to build CB90s as riverine command boats.

The combat boat's design and capabilities have also been modified over the years. Dockstavarvet optimized the boat's design in its next-generation variant, the CB90 HSM, altering the engine position to make it quieter and more efficient.

The CB90 HSM features a new combat management system and surveillance sensors, making it "a whole new breed, ready to take on the coasts of Sweden," according to a press release.

Supporting Ukraine's riverine flotilla

While the new combat boats are operating near Crimea, CB90 boats supplied by Ukrainian allies have bolstered the country's riverine units, which have been hammered by Russian forces.

Explosive-laden Russian drones and artillery have decimated Ukrainian boat crews defending the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine.

Last October, a Russian ace drone pilot, identified by the call sign "Moisey," struck nearly 400 Ukrainian marines and three dozen vessels.

"We were sitting in the water at night, and we were shelled by everything," a Ukrainian marine named Maksym, who was stationed at the river's east bank, told The New York Times in December. "My comrades were dying in front of my eyes."

Maksym added that Russian aircraft continued to pummel the left bank with glide bombs as the Ukrainian platoon tried to evacuate.

"The left bank was like purgatory," he said. "You are not dead yet, but you don't feel alive."

The Swedish CB90s, among additional donated boats from other allied nations, have been integral to Ukraine's efforts to fend off Russian forces in the region.

• 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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