Today’s Big Story

The Ongoing Drone Drama

What to know about mysterious flyers spotted in New Jersey and other states

It’s at once wildly far-fetched and yet more realistic than we might want to think. After all, easily weaponizable small drones have become a feature of battlefields from the Middle East to Ukraine. And now that threat looms over the U.S. homeland as mysterious drones have been showing up in the skies above New Jersey and other states for weeks, confounding residents and prompting lawmakers to call for more answers as to what exactly is going on.

The sightings have put intense pressure on federal agencies to provide more information about the aircraft, as officials have urged calm and emphasized there is no evidence suggesting the sightings pose a security threat. “I want to assure the American public that we are on it,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday on ABC’s This Week.

Reported drone activity prompted at least one airport—New York’s Stewart International Airport—to temporarily close its runways for about an hour on Friday night. “This has gone too far,” said New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Saturday, adding last month she “directed the New York State Intelligence Center to actively investigate drone sightings and coordinate with federal law enforcement to address this issue.”

Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday that he's “working to pass a bill” to give local law enforcement “more tools for drone detection” following a spate of mysterious sightings in Northeastern U.S. states. The drones were first spotted in North Jersey, then New York, but now appear to be popping up in Maryland and Florida, too.

But the numbers are a little concerning. We’re not talking about a couple dozen sightings. One official said they know of “at least 400 sightings,” and another said “there could be thousands.” Officials have said the drones appear to be commercial-grade, not recreational, and could be up to six feet in diameter.

As for where are they coming from and why are they there? These remain the biggest unknowns, with officials unable to publicly pinpoint where the mysterious objects originated or explain exactly what they are doing there. The Pentagon has said they are not owned by the military and that they are not coming from an Iranian "mothership" off the East Coast, as suggested by Rep. Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey. In a statement to NBC News, the U.S. Secret Service confirmed it “does not currently have any unmanned aerial systems operating in or around New Jersey or New York.”

Trump Eyes Privatizing U.S. Postal Service

He feuded with the mail agency in his first term, now it may end up on the chopping block

President-elect Donald Trump has expressed a serious interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks, the Washington Post reports. The move would resurrect his first-term goal to overhaul the U.S. Postal Service, which experts say would influence how e-commerce giants operate, impact hundreds of thousands of government jobs and potentially undercut reliable delivery to more remote areas.

America's mail carrier is the second most-beloved federal agency behind the National Park Service, recent polling shows. Like many industries, the rise of the internet has hurt its bottom line—and its leadership has failed to reverse that financial trend in recent years. The USPS has lost more than $100 billion since 2007, reported a net loss of $9.5 billion for its fiscal year ending Sept. 30—$3 billion more than last year—largely due to a year-over-year increase in non-cash workers' compensation expense.

Trump’s specific plans for overhauling the Postal Service were not immediately clear. But he feuded with the nation’s mail carrier as president in 2019, trying to force it to hand over key functions—including rate-setting, personnel decisions, labor relations and managing relationships with its largest clients—to the Treasury Department.

The Year in Wikipedia

What did you look up this year?

It’s probably due to my job, but I’m on Wikipedia a lot. I love it. And so do a lot of people—it’s the seventh most-visited website in the world. And remarkably, it's entirely written and edited by volunteers. It's free of paywalls and has remained a nonprofit since it launched back in 2001. At a time when it’s increasingly difficult to separate truth from falsehood, Wikipedia is an accessible tool for fact-checking and fighting misinformation.

A 30-year-old tech worker recently told GQ that looking up things on Wikipedia is “the nearest thing that I have to a hobby”. It seems, men love Wikipedia. Specifically, they love Wikipedia articles that have little-to-no relevance to their daily lives. This is, at least, according to their bemused girlfriends, or the women seeking them out, because this year, the “Wikipedia boyfriend” has finally had his moment.

English-language Wikipedia was viewed over 76 billion times this year. As for the most popular pages, those articles are a “reflection of our world, highlighting our collective interests at a unique moment in time,” Anusha Alikhan, the chief communications officer at the Wikimedia Foundation, said in a statement. Not surprisingly, they were largely related to U.S. popular culture and politics: Vice President Kamala Harris and the 2024 presidential election were second and third on the list with nearly 29 million and 28 million views, respectively. The fourth most-visited page was about Lyle and Erik Menendez. But “Deaths in 2024” was the overall winner, with nearly 45 million visits over the past 10 months.

The World’s Top Spot for Shopping

So long, Fifth Avenue. The world’s most expensive shopping street is now in Italy.

Milan’s Via Monte Napoleone has beat out New York’s Fifth Avenue to become the world’s most expensive shopping street, marking the first time a European city has topped the rankings in more than three decades.

Rents on the street, situated in the heart of Italy’s financial capital, jumped 11% over the past 12 months to $2,047 per square foot, or €20,000 ($21,094) per square meter, as demand outstripped supply, according to a report released by real estate group Cushman & Wakefield. CNN reports that rents on Upper Fifth Avenue, which covers 49th to 60th streets, remained flat for the second consecutive year at $2,000 per square foot.

Via Monte Napoleone—which is far smaller than the other global luxury hotspots like the iconic Avenue des Champs Élysées in Paris—is home to the world’s biggest high-end names. Italian heritage brands Loro Piana and Tod’s rub shoulders with the likes of Bottega Veneta, as well as perhaps the most on-the-nose Milanese of them all, Versace. Gucci sits opposite Prada in an Italian luxury face-off. All of them choose to show at Milan fashion week, rather than any of the other Big Four, which periodically injects more high-fashion buzz to the city. And while there’s no way to know how many of 2024’s 11 million visitors were big spenders (and not just window shoppers), the average shopper on Via Monte Napoleone spent 2,500 euros per purchase. And that’s the highest average receipt in the world, according to the tax-free shopping firm Global Blue.

You’re Never Too Old for Grown-Up Toys

The best gizmos, gadgets and other fun things for all ages

Remember the fun of opening up an exciting new toy when you were a kid? Maybe you had asked for—pined for it, even. Or perhaps it was a total surprise. In any case, it consumed all your attention and certainly made your holiday vacation a whole lot more fun. The gifts in this guide elicit the same shock and satisfaction. They're not practical and that's the point. These are items that are designed to delight and distract in the best way possible.

Invest in the good stuff.