Washington has a new instrument of culture war: the Operations Specification. On February 13, the Federal Aviation Administration issued OpSpec A134 — "Merit-Based Pilot Hiring" — a mandatory directive requiring every U.S. commercial carrier to formally certify that its pilots were hired purely on qualification, experience and technical aptitude. Airlines that fail to comply, the Department of Transportation warned, will face federal investigation. Transportation Secretary Se

The Trump administration has a messaging problem on oil — and it's sitting at the bottom of the Persian Gulf. Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran last week, the U.S. Navy has rebuffed near-daily requests from commercial shipping companies seeking military escorts through the Strait of Hormuz, according to sources familiar with the matter. The reason: the attack risk is simply too high. The consequence: roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply is effectively bo

Three years after a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio — blanketing a small American town in a chemical plume visible for miles — Congress is making its third attempt to pass meaningful rail safety legislation. Advocates are cautiously optimistic. They've been here before. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Jon Husted (R-Ohio) introduced the Railway Safety Act of 2026 on 24 February, mandating wayside defect detectors,

The Supreme Court handed the Trump administration a stinging defeat last month, striking down the president's sweeping use of tariff powers under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act — a ruling that reverberated immediately through the nation's freight networks. But for an industry that has spent three years navigating one of the worst downturns in its history, the verdict has prompted relief and anxiety in roughly equal measure. The court's 6-3 decision found that