Today’s Big Story

The High Cost of Flying Private

Analysis of 19 million flights reveals 50% rise in emissions, condemned as ‘gratuitous waste’

Look, I get it. I’ve been fortunate enough to travel on a private jet a few times and it’s hard to beat the experience—it’s luxuriously comfortable and extremely efficient. As Ferris Bueller famously said, “ If you have the means, I highly recommend it.” But, it appears that the ultra-wealthy are using the PJs as taxis for trips of less than 50 kilometers (31 miles), and the emissions are adding up.

After all, we know private air travel isn’t great for the environment, but what is the cost, really? For scientists, calculating the carbon emissions from commercial air travel involves data that’s relatively easy to access. For private air travel, that’s more of a challenge—though a study that was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment seeks to change that.

Titled “Private aviation is making a growing contribution to climate change,” the study looks at carbon emissions from the private jet world using data from 2019 to 2023. The study’s authors relied on data from ADS-B Exchange, a crowdsourced community whose website describes itself as “an unfiltered, uncensored window into global aerial movements.”

What did the study’s authors learn from their research? First, that private air travel is leaving a growing mark on the environment. The scientists behind the study observed that “emissions increased by 46% between 2019-2023.” Their other findings included that 47.4% of the flights were of distances less than 310 miles, and that 68.7% of the private jets were registered in the United States.

Private flights, used by just 0.003% of the world’s population, are the most polluting form of transport. The researchers found that passengers in larger private jets caused more CO2 emissions in an hour than the average person did in a year. But those small planes aren’t going anywhere. According to Grist, industry expectations are that another 8,500 business jets will enter service by 2033, far outstripping efficiency gains and indicating that private flight emissions will rise even further. The researchers said their work highlighted the vast global inequality in emissions between wealthier and poorer people, and that tackling the emissions of the wealthy minority was critical to ending global heating.

Trump Names Some Big Appointments

The president-elect appears to have settled on Marco Rubio to be the nation’s top diplomat

Donald Trump is expected to name Senator Marco Rubio of Florida as his secretary of state, sources told the New York Times, as the president-elect moves rapidly to fill out his foreign policy and national security team. Of course, Trump could still change his mind at the last minute—he’s nothing if unpredictable—but appeared to have settled on Rubio, whom he used the derogatory nickname “little Marco” during his first campaign but also considered when choosing his running mate this year.

According to the Washington Post, he also asked Rep. Mike Waltz to be the White House national security adviser—elevating two Florida Republicans “with more hawkish foreign policy views than that of the incoming president, who ran on a platform of restoring peace to a war-torn world.” Some are saying the picks may foreshadow the kind of clashes between Trump and his aides that dominated his first term in office when he sought to pull U.S. troops out of Syria and negotiate a nuclear arms deal with North Korea—moves that were ardently opposed by some of his more hawkish aides, such as national security adviser John Bolton and then-Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. But Trump has prioritized loyalty as a prerequisite of joining his administration, an attempt to stamp out challenges to his decisions.

Other loyal supporters getting positions include former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who was tapped to lead the Environmental Protection Agency. Trump said that Zelda will “ensure fair and swift deregulatory decisions that will be enacted in a way to unleash the power of American businesses.” But he’ll also maintain “the highest environmental standards, including the cleanest air and water on the planet.” The announcement came after Trump selected longtime adviser Stephen Miller, an immigration hard-liner, to be the deputy chief of policy in his new administration and named New York Rep. Elise Stefanik as his choice for U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Bitcoin Hits a New Record

What to know about crypto’s post-election rally

As money continues to pour into crypto following Donald Trump’s victory last week, bitcoin has climbed to yet another record high. The world’s largest cryptocurrency topped $87,000 for the first time on Monday. As of around 3:45 p.m., bitcoin’s price stood at $87,083, per CoinDesk, up over 28% in the last week alone.

“Bitcoin is now in price discovery mode after breaking through all-time highs early last Wednesday morning when it was officially declared that Trump won the election,” Mike Colonnese, an analyst at H.C. Wainwright, told CNBC. “Strong positive sentiment is likely to persist through the balance of 2024 and [we] see bitcoin prices potentially reaching the six-figure mark by the end of this year.”

Analysts are crediting much of the recent gains to an anticipated “crypto-friendly” nature of the incoming administration, which could translate into more regulatory clarity but also leeway. Still, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict. And while some are bullish, others continue to warn of investment risks.

Shoes Off. Laptops Out. Stop for Photos?

The TSA has finally weighed in on the viral trend of those stylized security tray photos

Phone: check. Passport: check. Boarding pass: check. Make it look cute: check. (Click.) Over the past few months, have you noticed your social media feeds popping with pictures and videos of aesthetically pleasing airport trays. Yes, those gray, plastic bins in which you put your shoes, keys, laptop and other personal items. Recent ones showed a creator’s monochrome variations for different cities. Others opt to display gadgets or what they’re reading.

For most of us, going through the security screening at the airport is a panicked jumble of bags, documents and shuffling through scanner lines. Who wants to wait for someone to arrange their stuff for a photo?! It's all fun and games until you are the one waiting behind one of these people. “These ‘tray displays’ might look great on Instagram or TikTok, but they're adding unnecessary time to the security process,” Gavin Lapidus, a travel consultant told Thrillist. “In busy airports, even small delays can quickly cause irritation or further hassle.”

But there must be a solution, or at least a compromise between social media stardom and security check etiquette, right? So they went directly to the source, and asked the TSA about its official stance on the social media trend. In short, the TSA doesn't have an issue with you wanting to participate in the trend—but they suggest waiting until after you go through security. Then, take your bin and spend all the time you want arranging and snapping pics.

The Long Read

Is every woman the wrong woman?

Don’t forget it.