• The personal trainer Ben Carpenter said it's a mistake to rely on willpower to make healthy changes stick.
• For lasting fat loss, Carpenter advises making habits that can be kept long-term.
• Work with, not against, your existing preferences, he said.

If you want to lose weight successfully — and for good — it helps to make it as easy as possible.

By making healthy habits effortless, you won't have to rely on willpower and are more likely to stick to them, Ben Carpenter, a personal trainer and fat loss coach, told Business Insider.

Carpenter's new book, "Fat Loss Habits," is designed to help people set themselves up for sustainable fat loss.

"When it comes to weight loss, a lot of people view obesity traditionally as a lack of willpower," Carpenter said.

But willpower is a finite resource, and at some point, it will run out, he said.

By choosing a form of exercise you enjoy, rather than what's optimal, you're more likely to develop a habit that becomes so ingrained in your routine that you don't have to think about it.

"Over time it becomes second nature," Carpenter said.

Think long-term

Changing your mindset about fat loss could be the key to getting off the yo-yo diet cycle.

Carpenter said that instead of asking yourself how you can lose as much weight as possible as quickly as possible, ask what you could still be doing in a year's time.

"What could you be doing so well a year from now that next January you aren't asking yourself again, 'What diet should I go on?' I think that's a fundamental mindset shift that would help most people," Carpenter said.

People go on and off restrictive diets like they're switching lights on and off, Carpenter said: "If someone can adopt health-promoting behaviors that they can adhere to for long periods of time, arguably the need for dieting diminishes."

For your weight loss to be long-term, you need to think about long-term habits, Carpenter said: "Most people are trying to achieve long-term goals, but they're doing it via short-term behaviors."

Dietitians have previously told BI that diets promising rapid, drastic weight loss are unsustainable and best avoided.

Keep a food diary for a couple days

Carpenter recommends people self-audit before trying to lose weight.

This could be as simple as keeping a food diary for a couple of days to help you identify tweaks. For example, swapping cream in your coffee for milk.

"I prefer to ask people what they're doing at the moment, their own preferences, and then try and find things that take as little effort and cause as little pain as possible," Carpenter said.

He added: "If you can get better results doing 99% of everything you are already doing, it takes a lot less effort and willpower than someone going, 'Here is your new diet plan, good luck.'"

Overhauling your diet can seem doable at the start but motivation often dwindles.

"From a motivation perspective, it could be really exciting to make substantial changes to your eating and watch the scale drop quickly. It might even motivate you to keep going," registered dietitian Alix Turoff previously told BI. "But when your plan is very rigid, this motivation typically lasts only a few weeks before you're burnt out and wanting to quit."

• Justin Baldoni sued The New York Times over its coverage of Blake Lively's harassment complaints against him.
• The suit is a strong PR defense that shows he's serious about protecting his reputation, a PR expert said.
• Industry pros told BI both stars' personal and professional lives will likely be damaged as the battle continues.

Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's reputations are likely to face even more damage as their legal battle intensifies, crisis PR and legal experts say.

Baldoni, the director and star of the romantic drama "It Ends with Us," sued The New York Times on Tuesday for libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of implied-in-fact contract over its December 2024 story about his costar Lively's accusations that he sexually harassed her and damaged her reputation in the press.

Baldoni's 87-page lawsuit rebuts Lively's claims in detail, offering a different perspective on the Times' bombshell story. It also accuses Lively of attempting to salvage her public image at Baldoni's expense and engaging in a "hostile takeover" of the production of "It Ends With Us."

The Times told BI in a statement that their story was "meticulously and responsibly reported."

Baldoni's team's decision to sue a newspaper for hundreds of millions of dollars isn't just a legal tactic. It's a major PR statement, too.

"To know that the Baldoni team is so strongly standing in their truth shows that there's a lot more to the story than what initially came out in that Lively complaint," Mike Fahey, the founder and CEO of the PR agency Fahey Communications, told Business Insider.

Baldoni's suit does not name Lively, but her attorneys told BI in a statement that the filing doesn't change anything about the initial claims made in her complaint, and they look forward to addressing Baldoni's claims in court.

Whether the case goes to trial or settles out of court, Fahey said the story is far from over. "It's an onion, and there are a lot of layers to peel back," he said.

Erik Bernstein, the president of Bernstein Crisis Management, agreed. He cautioned that it might get ugly: "I think we're going to see two people's personal and professional lives dragged through the mud."

The text messages included in Baldoni's lawsuit cast Lively's claims in a different light

The timing of Baldoni's lawsuit against the Times, which was filed 10 days after Lively filed her initial complaint against him, was a strategic move to strike back quickly before public interest waned, Fahey said.

"The shelf life on a story like this is very short," Fahey said.

Evan Nierman, the CEO of PR firm Red Banyan, added that the tone of Baldoni's lawsuit suggests that the actor-director is "concerned that The New York Times piece could define him for years to come."

"He is taking a very aggressive stance to defend his reputation and prevent a negative perception of him from hardening into the public consciousness," he added.

Part of that stance included providing additional context on text messages in Lively's complaint to make the case that the Times' reporting leaned on "'cherry-picked' and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead."

The PR and legal experts who spoke to BI said that, if real and undoctored, the text message screenshots included in Baldoni's lawsuit strengthen his case and make for a strong defense.

"I thought it was a necessary move to show the full context of the text messages and the full context of some of the events that Blake Lively is alleging to paint a different type of picture, a different type of narrative," said Camron Dowlatshahi, a partner at MSD Lawyers, a Los Angeles law firm that specializes in entertainment and employment law.

"This is a full-on legal battle, but this is more of a public relations battle at this point," he added. "And so Baldoni had to come forward and do something."

Baldoni's lengthy lawsuit addresses various points made in Lively's initial complaint. With pages and pages of details to pore through, the general public may no longer know what to believe. Nierman said that's likely also by design.

"I think that's probably part of their strategy, is to muddy the waters," Nierman said. "And part of the way that you do that is by launching a full frontal assault on the outlet that broke the story and has so far framed the narrative."

Nierman added that Baldoni and his team probably hope that undermining the Times' credibility will "cast doubt into people's minds that Baldoni is this negative actor that the story portrayed."

Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, doubled down on his team's intention to unveil more messages between Lively and Baldoni during a Friday interview on NBC's "Today" show.

"We plan to release every single text message between the two of them," Freedman said. "There is nothing that in any way is a concern about this entire situation from our perspective, and we want the truth to be out there."

Bernstein said that Baldoni and his team likely view this lawsuit "as a must-win."

"He has to be thinking that he needs to win, or he'll be seen as untouchable by Hollywood in our, let's say, post-Weinstein era," he said.

Experts say Baldoni seeking $250 million in damages from the Times is a deliberate move to fuel headlines

Baldoni's suit is lengthy and asks for a hefty $250 million in damages. The experts who spoke to BI said that's another PR strategy that will draw more attention to Baldoni's narrative.

"Big numbers get printed, right? Your story is a lot more interesting if it's $250 million than if it's $20,000," Bernstein said.

"The exorbitant number is meant to drive headlines, not to result in collection,'" Nierman added. "It is a PR play to get attention and to ensure that his side of the story does get reported. So I actually think it's a very savvy move to attach such an astronomical figure to it."

Dowlatshahi, the lawyer, said that it's not typical for an amount in damages to be listed in the lawsuit, though he said that this situation is anything but typical.

"This is a high-profile celebrity battle, and so I think that amount was needed to be a show of force."

The PR battle will continue in public, and neither star will emerge unscathed

The same day Baldoni filed his lawsuit against the Times, Lively formally filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer, and his PR team in New York federal court.

The lawsuit, obtained by BI, stems from the complaint Lively previously filed with the California Civil Rights Department. It accuses Baldoni and his PR team of engaging in a campaign to retaliate against Lively for speaking out about Baldoni's alleged sexual misconduct on the set of "It Ends With Us."

It's unclear how long it will take for this to play out — it could be months or even years if it goes to a jury trial — but the experts BI spoke with agreed that this is just the beginning of a long and messy road ahead.

And the hits will keep coming: Though Lively was not named in Baldoni's suit against the Times, Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman told NBC's "Today" show that they "absolutely" plan to sue Lively, too.

Though both stars' reputations have already been damaged, they'll likely worsen as the case unfolds publicly.

"There's going to be some skeletons in the closet coming out," Bernstein said. "It's just going to be a long dragged-out thing where there's maybe no real winner."

• China's new Type 055 cruiser is its most modern and powerful surface combatant.
• The ship China labels as a destroyer is so large it compares more to US cruisers.
• China is building these ships fast while the US sunsets most of its aging cruisers.

China's navy has a menacing new addition to its naval fleet: the Type 055 class guided missile destroyer.

The destroyer is the most modern and potent surface combatant in China's navy, officially known as the People's Liberation Army Navy. Designed for multiple missions and fitted with a massive arsenal and advanced electronics, it is an apex predator in the PLAN's growing fleet meant to protect China's carriers from harm.

The class is so daunting and capable that the US Department of Defense classifies it as a cruiser. Many observers compare it to the US Navy's own cruisers, which have performed a similar role.

"Depending on your criteria, the Type 055 is the best or second-best surface combatant in the world," Chris Carlson, a retired US Navy captain and naval analyst told Business Insider.

And while the US Navy seeks to divest from its aging cruiser fleet, China is expanding its fleet at a breakneck pace.

Type 055 'Renhai'

China's desire for a massive surface combatant dates back to the 1960s. China initiated an "055" program in the mid-1970s, then canceled it in 1983 due to weaknesses in its industrial base and technological know-how.

Three decades later, however, China's booming economy enabled its shipbuilding industry to become the largest in the world. It emphasized modernizing the navy and building or acquiring fleet oilers, nuclear submarines, guided missile warships, aircraft carriers, and more.

The keel of the first Type 055, Nanchang, was laid in December 2014, just three months before the keel of China's first domestically built carrier, Shandong, was laid.

When Nanchang was commissioned in 2020, it made the class a force to be reckoned with. Measuring 590 feet long and displacing 12,000-13,000 tons, it is the largest class of surface combatant China has ever built.

Each Type 055, which NATO classifies as the Renhai-class, is fitted with 112 vertical launch system (VLS) cells, which launch missiles. Sixty-four cells are positioned forward of the bridge in an 8x8 configuration and 48 are located aft in a 6x8 configuration. These VLS cells have both cold and hot launch capability, enabling them to field a more diverse missile arsenal; in a cold launch, a missile is ejected from the cell via pressurized gas before its engine fires.

That arsenal includes YJ-18 anti-ship cruise missiles, CJ-10 land-attack cruise missiles, and HHQ-9 surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), which have ranges of around 335 miles, 497 miles, and 124 miles, respectively. The class may also be able to carry Yu-8 anti-submarine missiles.

In 2022, China tested a cold launch of a YJ-21 hypersonic missile from a Type 055's VLS cells. The missile reportedly has an approximate range of 932 miles, a cruising speed of Mach 6, and a terminal speed of Mach 10, which makes it challenging to intercept.

The Type 055 also features a single box launcher with 25 HHQ-10 short-range SAMs, four Type 726 defensive launchers capable of launching chaff, flares, and decoys, 2 triple-tubed torpedo launchers with Yu-7 torpedoes, a single 11-barelled H/PJ-11 Close-in weapon system (CIWS), and a H/PJ-38 130 mm naval gun.

At the stern, a helicopter deck and hangar can house two helicopters capable of tracking submarines and helping with logistics.

The Type 055 is also brimming with modern radars, sensors, and other electronics. This includes four Type 346B Dragon Eye S-band active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars mounted on the superstructure and four X-band radars housed in an integrated mast, making it the first Chinese warship with dual-band planar radar arrays. Its hull-mounted sonar can be enhanced by towed active array sonars.

With its arsenal and sensor/electronic suite, the Type 055 can take on an anti-ship, anti-submarine, anti-air, or land-attack role, making it the best candidate for a carrier escort. It's also capable of operating as a command flagship for any PLAN surface action group without a carrier.

The US Department of Defense has speculated that China wants to incorporate ballistic missile defense (BMD) systems on the Type 055, which could enable it to serve in a BMD/anti-satellite role similar to Japan's BMD destroyers.

Eight Type 055s are in service. At least three more are reportedly in varying stages of construction. China may build as many as 16 Type 055s in total.

Despite its young age, the class has already gained a reputation as one of the best surface combatants in the world.

"I'd say the Type 055 is the most capable in anti-surface warfare, but not as capable in the air defense and BMD role as a US [Arleigh] Burke DDG," Carlson, the retired US Navy captain, said. He said the Type 055's strike and ASW capabilities are about the same as its American counterpart.

Ticonderoga-class

The size, armament, and mission of the Type 055 are often compared to the US Navy's Ticonderoga-class cruiser. Measuring 567 feet long, displacing around 10,000 tons, and first entering service in 1983, the ships of the class are considerably older and smaller than the Type 055s.

But the Ticonderogas are no less potent and have a larger missile arsenal, with two sets of 61 Mk 41 VLS cells able to carry 122 missiles and two quad-tubed Mk-141 launchers at the stern.

Two Mark 45 5-inch guns are present at the stem and stern, as well as two Phalanx CIWS' and two triple-tubed Mark 32 torpedo tubes capable of firing Mk 46 or Mk 50 torpedoes. A helicopter hangar capable of housing two MH-60R Seahawk helicopters provides additional ASW capability.

The exact makeup of each Ticonderoga's missile arsenal is dependent on its mission, as it is capable of carrying a host of different missiles. These include Tomahawk cruise missiles for ground targets, Harpoon anti-ship missiles for hostile ships, and RUM-139 VL-ASROC anti-submarine missiles for enemy subs.

The missiles have ranges of up to 1,500 miles, 149 miles, and 10 miles respectively.

The Ticonderoga's main role, however, is air defense. It can carry a wide range of anti-air missiles, including Evolved Sea Sparrow SAMs, and all active variants of the Standard Missile family; the SM-2 Blocks III, IIIA, IIIB, and IV; the SM-3, and the SM-6.

Those missiles, which can intercept targets ranging from 35 miles to over 200, enable the Ticonderoga to provide an effective air defense umbrella against low- and high-altitude threats, including helicopters, drones, jets, and missiles.

In 2008, an SM-3 fired from the cruiser USS Lake Erie destroyed a defunct satellite at an altitude of some 150 miles, demonstrating its ability to perform anti-satellite missions.

Another defining asset of the Ticonderogas is the AN/SPY-1 passive phased array radar — a vital component of the AEGIS Combat System, an advanced and integrated naval defense system that combines command, detecting, tracking, and weapons control for comprehensive management of air, surface, and submarine threats, and which the Ticonderogas were the first ships to employ.

Twenty-seven Ticonderoga-class cruisers were built between 1980 and 1994, but only nine are in active service today.

Cruiser gap?

The importance of the Ticonderoga and the Type 055 to their respective fleets is hard to overstate. Their displacement, arsenal size, and ability to perform multiple missions and operate as flagships puts them at the top of the list of most important surface combatants — second, perhaps, only to the carriers.

In an acknowledgment of their capability, the US Department of Defense officially designates the Type 055 as a cruiser, despite China's own designation of destroyer, which is likely a PR move intended to make the PLAN seem less aggressive. (Destroyers typically have smaller displacements and arsenals than cruisers and play a less prominent role in the fleet.)

Consequently, their deployments are carefully monitored, with their standalone voyages seen as intentional shows of strength.

Type 055s have sailed in the waters off Alaska in 2021, 2022, and 2024, including as part of joint Chinese-Russian patrols. Recently, a Type 055 visited the island nation of Vanuatu, signaling to some that China was trying to increase its presence in the South Pacific.

The Ticonderogas have also been on the move. In 2022, the cruiser USS Port Royal sailed through the Taiwan Strait in a sign to China. More recently, in June, USS Normandy participated in a show of strength off Norway, and in September, USS Bunker Hill took part in a massive five-nation drill in the South China Sea.

Though both navies currently have nine cruisers in active service, this will not be the case for long. While China has only just entered the cruiser game, the US Navy has been seeking to decommission its cruisers for years.

The Navy argues that the cruisers have approached, passed, or will soon pass their expected service lives and that the cost of keeping the ships up and running is draining the service of funds and shipyard space.

In 2021, for instance, USS Vella Gulf lasted just one week into a deployment before leaks in a fuel tank required it to return to port. More mechanical problems were soon uncovered, and the ship spent two months undergoing repairs before it could rejoin its carrier strike group.

Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro has even testified to Congress that some of the ships were unsafe. A modernization effort for seven cruisers, meanwhile, went as much as 200% over budget and fell years behind schedule.

The Navy wants to divest from ships it says it doesn't need and invest in new vessels that it argues can adequately fill in for the role of the Ticonderogas in the 21st century, like the new Flight III variant of the Arleigh Burke-class destroyers.

But Congress has so far rejected the Navy's plans to retire all of its remaining cruisers due to fears that they play too important a role in countering China, whose increasing might could be a means to try to seize the island of Taiwan by force.

Four Ticonderogas — Vicksburg, Cowpens, Leyte Gulf, and Antietam — were decommissioned in the last year. On November 4, Del Toro announced that the Navy would operate three cruisers planned to be decommissioned in 2026 into 2029, effectively extending their service lives. The rest are planned to be decommissioned before then.

China, meanwhile, will continue building Type 055s at rates virtually unthinkable to US shipyards.

Benjamin Brimelow is a freelance journalist covering international military and defense issues. He holds a master's degree in Global Affairs with a concentration in international security from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. His work has appeared in Business Insider and the Modern War Institute at West Point.

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Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is taking aim at the controversial H-1B visa program, arguing that it replaces "good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad" — just as the program is at the center of a debate within the Republican Party.

"The main function of the H-1B visa program and other guest worker initiatives is not to hire ‘the best and the brightest,’ but rather to replace good-paying American jobs with low-wage indentured servants from abroad," Sanders wrote on X. "The cheaper the labor they hire, the more money the billionaires make."

The self-described democratic socialist has a history of opposing the program, which allows U.S. companies to hire foreign workers for specialty occupations. It is predominantly used by the tech industry, but has faced criticism mainly from the right that it brings in cheap labor from abroad to replace American workers.

TRUMP SAYS HE'S NOT CHANGED HIS MIND ON H-1B VISAS AS DEBATE RAGES WITHIN MAGA COALITION

The program recently became part of an intra-Republican debate when Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who have been tapped by Trump to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, argued for the importance of foreign workers for tech companies.

"The reason I’m in America along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla, and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of H1B," Musk said on X.

That reopened a rift between those on the right over the program and whether it is being used to attract the best talent or being used by companies to bring in cheaper labor, primarily from India, who are tied to their job by the visa.

Sanders cited statistics to show that in 2022 and 2023, the top 30 corporations using the program laid off over 85,000 American workers, while hiring over 34,000 H-1B workers, and that 33% of new IT jobs are filled by foreign national guest workers. He also pointed to layoffs at Tesla, one of Musk’s companies.

ERIC SCHMITT BLASTS ‘ABUSE’ OF H-1B VISA PROGRAM, SAYS AMERICANS ‘SHOULDN’T TRAIN THEIR FOREIGN REPLACEMENTS'

"If this program is really supposed to be about importing workers with highly advanced degrees in science and technology, why are H-1B guest workers being employed as dog trainers, massage therapists, cooks, and English teachers?" he said. "Can we really not find English teachers in America?"

Sanders conceded that there may be labor shortages that could be filled by H-1B workers, but he called for substantially increased guest worker fees in order to pay for opportunities for Americans, as well as other reforms, including increased minimum wages and the ability to easily move jobs.

"Bottom line. It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker," he said.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION MOVES TO CHANGE H-1B GUEST WORKER PROGRAM TO PRIORITIZE HIGHER-WAGE APPLICANTS

Sanders said that the "economic elite and political establishments" promised in the 1990s that a loss of blue-collar jobs due to free trade agreements would be offset by more white-collar IT jobs.

"Well, that turned out to be a Big Lie. Not only have corporations exported millions of blue-collar manufacturing jobs to China, Mexico, and other low-wage countries, they are now importing hundreds of thousands of low-paid guest workers from abroad to fill the white-collar technology jobs that are available," he said.

Sanders comments come days after President-elect Trump, who had railed against H-1B abuse during the 2016 campaign, said that he has always supported the program. 

"I have many H-1B visas on my properties. I’ve been a believer in H-1B. I have used it many times. It’s a great program," he told the New York Post.

While the high-stakes fight to lead the House of Representatives is over, Speaker Mike Johnson’s politically perilous year is just beginning.

Winning the speaker’s gavel was no easy feat considering Johnson, R-La., had no Democratic support and could only lose one fellow Republican, thanks to the House GOP’s razor-thin majority.

All House Republicans except for Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., voted for Johnson on Friday afternoon. Two GOP lawmakers who had initially voted for someone other than Johnson, Reps. Keith Self, R-Texas, and Ralph Norman, R-S.C., were eventually persuaded to switch their votes after speaking with Johnson and President-elect Trump.

Johnson will have to navigate a similarly slim margin over the next few months as he helps carry out what President-elect Donald Trump promised would be a very active first 100 days of his new administration.

REPUBLICANS GIVE DETAILS FROM CLOSED-DOOR MEETINGS WITH DOGE'S MUSK, RAMASWAMY

"There’s a lot of expectations and potential pitfalls," Marc Short, who served as director of legislative affairs during the first Trump administration, told Fox News Digital in an interview late last month. 

Just the first half of 2025 alone is expected to see at least three separate fiscal fights.

Johnson, meanwhile, is set to lose two House Republicans – Reps. Elise Stefanik of New York and Mike Waltz of Florida. Both members are joining the Trump administration at the end of this month.

It will reduce his House GOP majority to just 217 seats, compared to 215 for Democrats, which means Republicans will need to vote in lock-step to pass any bills on a party-line vote. 

Special elections to replace Waltz and retired Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., are set for April. An election to replace Stefanik has not yet been set.

Meanwhile, Republicans are gunning to pass two massive conservative policy and spending overhauls via a process called "reconciliation," which lowers the threshold for passage in the Senate from 60 votes to a simple majority for certain budgetary issues.

Both Republicans and Democrats have tried to use reconciliation to pass significant fiscal policy changes that the other side normally opposes, meaning it takes extraordinary levels of intra-party cooperation in both the House and Senate.

"There’s huge expectations on budget reconciliation, and that’s really hard, even when you’ve got wide margins. To think you’re going to do it twice in a year with those margins, I think is an enormously high expectation that seems to be unreasonable," Short told Fox News Digital.

"And add onto that another funding bill in three months, plus a debt ceiling fight."

Along with reconciliation bills – which are unlikely to get much, if any, Democratic support – Republicans will also have to grapple with the government funding deadline they just punted to March 14.

DANIEL PENNY TO BE TAPPED FOR CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL BY HOUSE GOP LAWMAKER

House and Senate lawmakers passed a short-term extension of fiscal year (FY) 2024’s government funding levels in December to give negotiators more time to hash out the rest of FY 2025.

Congress will risk plunging the government into a partial shutdown if the House and Senate does not pass another funding extension or set new priorities for the remainder of FY 2025 by then.

The next government funding deadline will come at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.

That’s not all Johnson will have to focus on during those months, however.

A bipartisan agreement struck in 2023 suspended the U.S. debt limit through January 2025 – after which the Treasury Department will be forced to take "extraordinary measures" to avoid a national credit default.

The debt limit refers to how much debt the U.S. government can accrue while making expenditures it has already committed to. As of Christmas Eve, the national debt — which measures what the U.S. owes its creditors — fell to $36,161,621,015,445.57, according to the latest numbers published by the Treasury Department. 

Raising the debt limit is also traditionally a fraught political battle, with both Republicans and Democrats seeking any possible leverage to attach their own policy goals to the negotiations.

A recent model produced by the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) projects the Treasury’s "extraordinary measures" will carry the U.S. through mid-June or earlier, giving Congress potentially six months to act.

• Elon Musk is funding a new private preschool in Texas called Ad Astra.
• It's set to open its doors this year for children aged three to nine.
• The school is focused on STEM-based learning and has long-term goals to expand into a university.

Elon Musk is expanding his reach as he launches his newest venture: early childhood education.

Located in Bastrop, Texas, Ad Astra is a private preschool that is accepting applications for children aged three to nine. The school's website said that Ad Astra will subsidize tuition for its opening year, after which costs will be set in line with local private schools.

"Ad Astra's approach to education is centered around hands-on, project-based learning, where children are encouraged to explore, experiment, and discover solutions to real-world problems," the website said, adding that its curriculum will be centered on integrating STEM subjects into the classrooms.

A notice from the Texas Health and Human Services Department said the preschool obtained its initial permit on November 14, officially allowing the school to open in 2025. Per the permit, the preschool can admit up to 21 students in its first year of operation. The school's application materials first obtained by Bloomberg said that the school's long-term goal is expanding into a university focused on STEM learning.

While Musk's name does not appear in any of the school's application materials to the state, his foundation donated $100 million to get the preschool up and running, according to tax filings.

As the CEO of Tesla, SpaceX, and the owner of the social media website Twitter turned X, Musk is not primarily known for his influence on education. However, this isn't his first investment into the field — in 2014, Musk opened a school also named Ad Astra that he created for his kids and the kids of his SpaceX employees, which stopped its in-person operations after Musk's kids graduated.

It's not uncommon for billionaires to donate to schools and universities. Ad Astra's opening, however, comes at a time when President-elect Donald Trump is taking office for his second term. Musk is a close ally of Trump, tasked with leading a new cost-cutting commission called the Department of Government Efficiency. Amid calls to eliminate the Education Department and give states more control over classrooms, Musk could play a key role in shaping education policy by offering advice to Trump and lawmakers. DOGE does not have the power to make any changes on its own.

"I do think we need significant reform in education," Musk said during a Trump campaign event in October.

"The Department of Education seems to regard as its primary duty foisting propaganda on our children as opposed to getting them a good education. It's insane," Musk said. "The priority should be to teach kids skills that they will find useful later in life and leave any sort of social propaganda out of the classroom."

Ad Astra and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

New priorities for education

Ad Astra's website said it is not a Montessori school, but it operates like one, focusing on child-centered education and individualized lessons. The application form to the school also encourages parental involvement, saying that Ad Astra wants "parents and guardians to be actively involved and share their gifts with the community."

The school's website does not directly reference politics, but Musk, Trump, and other Republican lawmakers' past comments indicate how the GOP would like to shape education under Trump's administration. When Trump announced former wrestling executive Linda McMahon as his education secretary, he wrote in a statement that she would "fight tirelessly to expand 'Choice' to every State in America, and empower parents to make the best Education decisions for their families."

Reducing the federal Education Department's influence over education has long been a priority for Republican lawmakers. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law a series of bills aimed at increasing parents' involvement in classroom curricula and ending "woke" lessons in classrooms.

Trump and Musk's DOGE partner Vivek Ramaswamy have also proposed shutting down the Education Department altogether. Ramaswamy recently blamed the department for kids' poor reading literacy scores.

The emphasis on STEM education at Ad Astra reflects Musk's priorities for hands-on learning that would equip children with the skills he has said they'll need to enter the workforce. McMahon has previously expressed support for workforce education programs, suggesting a focus on teaching kids practical skills could be a priority over the next four years.

Are you a parent interested in enrolling your child at Ad Astra? What priorities do you have for education in the US? Share your thoughts with this reporter at [email protected].

The polar vortex will deliver colder and snowier weather for the Eastern U.S. in early January.

The man told Newsweek that he wants to give the human figurines he found on the street "a good home after being cooped up like that."

Companies including Starbucks are improving their paid parental leave policies, while some states have passed laws to support new parents.

One historian described Trump's proposals to Newsweek as a "throwback to the 19th century."

"I began to look everywhere I could, on her phone, on her email and in old texts, for things I could use to keep her memory alive."

The Titans are in desperate need of a quarterback, but Chris Johnson is advising his former squad to still take Travis Hunter in the spring's NFL Draft -- telling TMZ Sports Tennessee would be "absolute fools" to pass on the Heisman Trophy winner.…