Transportation

CHINA WATCHSkyscraper Mystery: What Beijing Doesn't Want You to Know
On Friday, a small single-engine aircraft slammed into the upper floors of the CITIC Tower — Beijing’s tallest skyscraper and one of the tallest buildings in the world. Within hours of impact, China’s vast censorship apparatus went to work. All references to the incident — videos, posts, eyewitness photos — were purged from Weibo, WeChat, and other Chinese social media platforms. The question everyone is asking — was this a 9/11-style attack or a tragic accident? — remains officially unanswered.
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IMMIGRATIONDHS Threatens to Halt Customs Processing at Airports in Sanctuary Cities
By Thérèse Boudreaux, The Center Square
Major airports across the country could soon freeze customs processing and cancel all international flights if sanctuary cities continue bucking federal immigration enforcement operations.
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DRONESWho Has Authority to Deal with Drones? In Most of Europe, That’s Unclear
By James Reeves
Europe’s growing drone problem is a governance problem. The hardware exists. What is missing, across most of the continent, is the legal authority to deploy it, the jurisdictional clarity to coordinate it, and the political will to mandate either.
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MARITIME CYBERSECURITYResearchers Find Training Gaps Impacting Maritime Cybersecurity Readiness
Whether it’s a fire or a flood, a ship’s crew can only rely on itself and its training in emergencies at sea. The same is true for crews facing digital threats on oil tankers, cargo ships, and other commercial vessels.
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SHIPBUILDINGCollaborating Toward a Shipbuilding Renaissance
By Daniel Justice, Miyeon Oh, Brian Persons
America is a maritime nation, and its security and prosperity are inexorably linked to the sea. Yet the United States has let its ability to design, build, and sustain the fleet of ships that are the backbone of this prosperity atrophy. A maritime nation that cannot build ships cannot long thrive.
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AIRPORT SECURITYWalk-Through Screening System Enhances Security at Airports Nationwide
By Ariana Tantillo
A new security screener that people can simply walk past may soon be coming to an airport near you. Last year, U.S. airports nationwide began adopting HEXWAVE to satisfy a new Transportation Security Administration (TSA) mandate for enhanced employee screening to detect metallic and nonmetallic threats.
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BAD LAWSHow Special Interests Keep Bad Laws on the Books: The Case of the Jones Act
By Colin Grabow
The 1920 Jones Act restricts intra-U.S. water transport to vessels that are U.S.-flagged, U.S.-owned, and built in U.S. shipyards The law serves as a tribute to how entrenched interests can hijack public policy and make the repeal of failed, costly laws among the heaviest of political lifts.
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AVIATION SAFETYNew Technology is Keeping the Skies Safe
DHS S&T Baggage, Cargo, and People Screening (BCP) Program develops state-of-the-art screening solutions to help secure airspace, communities, and borders
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AVIATION SAFETYActions from Federal Government Needed to Alleviate Air Traffic Controller Staffing Shortages at Many Facilities: Report
The current shortage of staff at air traffic control facilities is attributable to past hiring constraints and a misallocated workforce, the effects of which may be exacerbated by current inefficiencies in shift scheduling, says a new report.
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AVIATION SAFETYNew Tech Will Make Our Airplanes Safer
By Yulia Karra
Odysight.ai’s technology allows for constant monitoring of aircraft, sending alerts in case of malfunctions that could lead to accidents.
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REAL IDSecurity Theater REALized and Flying without REAL ID
By Alexis Hancock
After multiple delays of the REAL ID Act of 2005 and its updated counterpart, the REAL ID Modernization Act, in the United States, the May 7th deadline of REAL ID enforcement has finally arrived. Does this move our security forward in the skies?
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REAL IDReal ID Is Useless, Unconstitutional, and Finally Here
By Patrick G. Eddington
At its core, the mentality behind REAL ID is that every American is a potential airline terrorist first and a citizen of the Republic a very distant second. Among other problems, a REAL ID requirement potentially creates an end-run around direct regulation of the right to travel. REAL ID obliterates the idea of freedom of travel, which is why it should be abolished.
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EARTHQUKESDo Earthquakes Affect Car Crashes in the United States?
Researchers are combining data on earthquake shaking intensity, crowdsourced traffic data from the Waze navigation app and police crash reports to find out if car crashes are more likely during seismic events.
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INFRASTRUCTUREHeathrow Power Outage Exposes Infrastructure Vulnerabilities
The cause of Thursday’s power outage at Heathrow Airport, the result of a fire at the North Hyde electrical substation, is still not known, but it has highlighted several vulnerabilities in the U.K.s infrastructure.
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CHINA WATCHCalls Grow for U.S. to Counter Chinese Control, Influence in Western Ports
By Bing X
Experts say Washington should consider buying back some ports, offer incentives to allies to decouple from China.
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