Those mysterious drones reportedly flying over New Jersey and surrounding states are probably just planes, the White House says.

• "Using very sophisticated electronic detection technologies provided by federal authorities, we have not been able to ... corroborate any of the reported visual sightings," national security spokesman John Kirby said in the briefing room yesterday.
• "To the contrary, upon review of available imagery, it appears that many of the reported sightings are actually manned aircraft that are being operated lawfully."

🛸 Catch up quick: Reports of suspicious drone sightings began last month in central New Jersey, then spread to New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maryland.

• Elected officials in those states have launched investigations and demanded federal probes.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) wrote to President Biden to express "growing concern about reports of unmanned aircraft systems" and request more federal resources. (Read the letter.)

• Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who sits on the Senate's Homeland Security committee, said the drones should be shot down "if necessary."

✈️ It's not necessary, the White House says.

• "We have no evidence at this time that the reported drone sightings pose a national security or a public safety threat or have a foreign nexus," Kirby said.

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OpenAI said in a court filing today that Elon Musk wanted OpenAI to turn into a for-profit company years ago, Axios' Ina Fried reports.

• Why it matters: Musk is suing to block OpenAI's planned transition from a nonprofit research lab into a for-profit corporation. Musk helped found OpenAI, but has since become a critic and AI competitor.

📧 OpenAI's new filing includes emails, sent before the breakup, in which Musk endorsed a for-profit structure — one where he would have had most of the equity.

• "Probably better to have a standard C corp with a parallel nonprofit," Musk wrote in 2015, according to OpenAI.

Musk didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.

• Keep reading ... Timeline from OpenAI.

1. 🇸🇾 Thousands of Syrians poured into the streets today to celebrate the fall of dictator Bashar al-Assad. Go deeper.
2. ⚖️ McKinsey & Co. will pay $650 million in a deal with federal prosecutors over its work helping Purdue Pharma increase opioid sales. Go deeper.
3. 🏥 Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, 84, fell and was hospitalized during a congressional trip to Luxembourg. "While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation," a statement from her office says. Go deeper.

Oregon is far and away the top producer of Christmas trees in the U.S., according to USDA data.

• Domestic farms cut more than 14.5 million Christmas trees in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available. More than half came from Oregon and North Carolina.

The U.S. imported another 3 million trees.