Airlines are feeling the strain of swelling oil prices resulting from the Iran war and closure of the Strait of Hormuz. To deal with higher operating costs, many companies are making changes that shift the burden to consumers, including higher baggage fees, more fuel surcharges and canceled routes.

How are higher gas costs affecting airlines?

Airlines and their customers across the U.S. are being impacted but especially those based in four major hubs: Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York City. In these locations, the average price for a gallon of jet fuel is currently $4.25, according to the aviation trade association Airlines for America. On Feb. 27, the day before the war in Iran started, the average price was only $2.50. Airlines are also “facing an increase in the amount of fuel their aircraft use because of extra miles required to avoid flying over the conflict zone,” said The Guardian.

Fuel is already an expensive cost for aviators and is “generally airlines’ largest expense after labor,” said Quartz. Airlines are feeling the pressure as a result. If prices were to stay at their current level, it would mean an “extra $11 billion in annual expense just for jet fuel,” said United CEO Scott Kirby in a memo to employees. For “perspective, in United’s best year ever, we made less than $5 billion.”

How are airlines adapting?

Many are adding “extra fees and surcharges onto already rising ticket prices” to “recoup costs as the war in Iran causes fuel costs to surge,” said The New York Times. Luggage is one common area where airlines are bumping up the price. Delta and Southwest announced they would “start charging $10 more to check a bag on U.S. domestic flights,” days after United and JetBlue said the same.

The company with the most notable baggage changes may be American. The airline said it would “raise the fee by $10 each for the first and the second checked bag for travelers booking domestic and short-haul international flights,” said The Detroit News. The company also “increased the cost of a third checked bag by $50 to $200” for fliers and additionally announced an upcoming $5 increase on checked bags for passengers flying economy.

Some airlines are also including pricing for the fuel itself. Canada’s second-largest airline, WestJet, announced it would “add fuel surcharges of up to 60 Canadian dollars, or about $43, to some flights,” said the Times. Air Canada unveiled surcharges of 50 Canadian dollars to certain warm-weather destinations. For passengers, the decisions from airlines resulted in “rising fares and fees, fewer flight options and difficult decisions about whether a trip is worth the cost,” said The Associated Press.

Airlines are also cutting the number of places they go. Several Asian airlines have stated they would “cut flights to mitigate fuel shortages and mounting costs,” said Business Insider. Ryanair, Europe’s largest carrier, is also “considering reducing routes,” while Lufthansa could ground up to 40 planes. Air New Zealand will “cut about 5% of its flights, or about 1,100, at the start of May,” and in the U.S., United and Delta are both cutting routes.

As the world creeps toward peak travel season, industry leaders are taking notice of the fuel shortages. ACI Europe, an association representing airports in the European Union, notes these shortages could “hit within three weeks, disrupting summer travel and ‘significantly’ harming the European economy,” said CNBC. For people who still want to fly, experts say “flexibility and careful planning can help offset these costs,” said the AP, and “fare-tracking sites can alert travelers to price changes.”

What happened

White House border czar Tom Homan said Sunday that TSA agents may receive overdue paychecks this week, after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to redirect other Department of Homeland Security funds to pay airport security workers. House Republicans the same day rejected a bipartisan Senate bill to fund DHS except for the agencies responsible for Trump’s mass deportation push, then approved their own stopgap funding bill and adjourned for a two-week Easter-Passover break. Some airports remained clogged by hourslong security lines over the weekend.

Who said what

The Senate “appeared to have finally figured out” how to fund DHS, The Associated Press said, only for the deal to collapse “spectacularly” in an acrimonious split with House Republicans. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) called the compromise worked out by Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) a “joke,” then pushed through legislation that would fund all of DHS for eight weeks. House Democrats said they would have backed the Senate compromise if Johnson had allowed a vote. “This shutdown should have ended,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) told CNN over the weekend.

Homan told CBS’s “Face the Nation” he “hopes” Trump will force lawmakers to return early from their break to pass a DHS funding bill. It’s “good news” the “struggling” TSA officers will be paid, he told CNN. But “it’s ridiculous” that they are “sitting there right now, working very hard, not being paid by members of Congress out on vacation getting paid.”

What next?

Homan said the ICE agents deployed to aid TSA workers will stay on “as long as they need us, until they get back to normal operations.” In the DHS funding fight, it’s “not clear what the Senate will do next,” the AP said, but “nothing ahead is likely to be easy.”

‘America’s airport problems need to be fixed now’

Chicago Tribune editorial board

The U.S. “cannot function with travelers stuck in security lines for three and four hours,” says the Chicago Tribune editorial board. TSA employees “cannot be expected to go weeks or months without paychecks they need to pay their bills,” and ICE agents “have a job to do other than looking inside travelers’ bags and checking identification, tasks for which they are not directly trained.” Americans “have the right to expect their government to take care of these things.”

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‘Affordable housing is possible, if we stop ignoring the obvious’

Sam Raus at USA Today

American cities are “short on housing yet full of unused space,” says Sam Raus. With “nearly a quarter of the workforce going remote, and no amount of return-to-office mandates likely to change this trend, it’s time for cities to repurpose these empty buildings to meet the demands of the moment.” Turning “cubicles into apartment complexes for those who still live in cities would require state and local politicians approaching zoning policies, building codes and taxation with fresh eyes.”

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‘Israel’s displacement of civilians in Lebanon is a possible war crime’

Nadia Hardman at Al Jazeera

Israel’s “attacks in Lebanon — and the threat of more to come — have caused more than a million people to flee their homes,” but the “laws of war stipulate that civilians cannot be forced to leave their homes unless imperative military reasons dictate,” says Nadia Hardman. The “evacuation must be temporary, and people must be allowed to return once the hostilities end. In short, war is not a license to expel people from their land.”

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‘With Tina Fey as first host, “SNL UK” kicked off with familiar skits and very British humor’

Robert Lloyd at the Los Angeles Times

After “50 years of being practically synonymous with New York City, ‘Saturday Night Live’ has opened the door to London with ‘Saturday Night Live U.K.,’ following in the steps of ‘Law & Order U.K.’ and possibly nothing else,” says Robert Lloyd. Of “all the cities in the world that might conceivably replicate the spirit of the NBC original, the British capital, with its urban dynamism, media concentration and 20,000 comedians, feels like the obvious, and perhaps only, choice.”

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What happened

An Air Canada regional jet landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport Sunday night crashed into a fire truck, killing the pilot and copilot, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. The Federal Aviation Administration shut down all flights at the airport until 2 p.m. local time Monday to facilitate the investigation of the collision. Of the 72 passengers and crew aboard the flight from Montreal, 41 were hospitalized and 31 have since been released, Port Authority Executive Director Kathryn Garcia said at a press conference.

Who said what

Air Canada Express Flight 8646, operated by Jazz Aviation, struck a rescue and firefighting truck that was “responding to a separate incident” shortly before midnight, LaGuardia said in a statement. Photos of the scene showed “severe damage to the front of the aircraft, with cables and debris hanging from a mangled cockpit,” and the “damaged emergency vehicle” on its side nearby, The Associated Press said.

The plane was “going about 130 miles per hour just before it hit the fire truck,” CNN said, citing data from Flightradar24. Air traffic control had granted the truck permission to cross the runway to a United flight that had reported an odor making flight attendants ill, then seconds later urgently ordered the truck to stop, according to audio from the tower. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the incident.

What next?

LaGuardia is a “critical hub for the busy Northeast corridor,” with “nearly 900 departures and arrivals each day,” The New York Times said. More than 400 flights were canceled Monday, “compounding delays at an airport already under strain” from TSA worker shortages.

The war in Iran has caused airlines “their biggest test since the Covid-19 pandemic”, said The New York Times.

Air traffic has been “paralysed” and more than 52,000 flights to and from the Middle East have been cancelled since the war began – that is “more than half of all flights planned in the region”.

“Costs are adding up” and tourism in the region has “effectively ground to a halt”. For Emirates and the other Gulf airlines, who “have the highest profit margins in the industry”, continued disruption could take a “substantial” financial and reputational toll.

‘Scrambling’ for alternatives

Since the first missiles were launched, air traffic controllers have been “shepherding passenger jets through safer but congested airspace on the edge of the war”, said the BBC. On a normal day, each individual controller would be responsible for around six aircraft “in their area at a time”. But in times of war it can easily be “double that”.

Shifts would normally be around “45-60 minutes long with 20-30 minutes off” but during times of conflict “they will likely only do a 20-minute stint and then break for the same length of time”. In times such as these, more controllers are brought in to manage the volume and “rotated more frequently to ensure they don’t become overwhelmed”.

Airlines “have been scrambling to find alternatives” to normal routes through Iranian airspace, and the effects are “rippling across the region”, said The New York Times. “Tens of thousands of flights” have been cancelled since war broke out, and the total numbers in the Gulf remain “well below normal levels”.

Airspace restrictions have become an “increasingly common challenge for airlines navigating a world shaped by geopolitical conflict”. The Russian invasion of Ukraine had a similar effect: the “Siberian corridor” over Russia used to be a “relatively direct connection” between Europe and Asia but is has become a “patchwork of workarounds”. Likewise, the airspace over Iran, Iraq, Syria, Bahrain and Qatar is now “largely devoid of commercial planes”. The war in the Middle East is “further fragmenting a once efficient and finely tuned global aviation network”.

As “established east-west routes are narrowing, the skies over Central Asia matter more than they did before”, said The Times of Central Asia. Countries like Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are “not immune to the crisis” and cannot match the “far larger networks” and “deeper fleets” of other Gulf hubs.

But they can provide “overflight planning, air traffic management, and route resilience rather than headline passenger numbers”. Their “aviation systems clearly now carry far greater strategic and economic importance than they did only a few years ago”. Governments in the region have acknowledged the “strategic value of their territory for rail, road, and trade corridors”, but the disruption caused by the war in Iran has “added aviation to that argument”.

‘Ballooning cost’

The war in Iran has “exposed the fragility of modern travel”, said Bloomberg. As flight paths become “increasingly narrow”, airlines’ “long-term growth plans” have been thrown into “disarray”.

Diversions add many hours to flights so planes must carry more fuel, which is “an expensive burden in light of the spike in energy costs”. With shipping channels through the Strait of Hormuz “effectively shut”, the markets have been “driving up prices of crude and products like diesel and jet fuel”.

This will inevitably affect consumers. Carriers may “hike fares” and add “fuel surcharges to cover the ballooning cost”. Equally, airlines and other large energy consumers could begin to “panic buy oil derivatives contracts” to “shield them from wild price swings”.

In the longer term, continued instability could also change flight culture, with safety concerns “likely to remain front of mind for many travellers” for the foreseeable future. Higher inflation around the world could mean demand to fly is “reshaped”, even “spurring passengers to rethink long-haul trips” and “favour cheaper holidays closer to home”.

The Shetland Islands are famed for their remote beauty but for locals this comes at a cost. Now campaigners are pushing for the island’s ageing ferries to be replaced with undersea tunnels.

“The ferry service has served our islands very well but that’s a 20th-century form of transport,” Alice Mathewson, from North Yell Development Council, told The Guardian. “In the 21st century the answer is: dig a hole. Scotland has to drag itself into the 21st century.”

Short journey can take hours

Shetland is connected by a fleet of 12 ferries that make around 70,000 sailings a year to nine islands carrying about 750,000 passengers. The council says many of these vessels are operating beyond their intended working life and that ferries are a significant contributor to local carbon emissions.

A journey of a few miles can take hours, provided the ferries run at all given bad weather, common in the North Atlantic, mean sailings are often cancelled.

“For time-pressed islanders, care workers and businesses, it adds delays, stress and costs,” said The Guardian. The social consequences of relying on ferries are also “significant”, because they drive “depopulation and isolation”.

Cut journey times by up to 80%

The answer to Shetland’s problems may lie 230 miles to the northwest. Between 2002 and 2022, a £360 million project connected the Faroe Islands through a series of undersea tunnels. Boasting what is thought to be the world’s first submarine roundabout, the road network has cut journey times by up to 80%, been credited with helping to revitalise the territory’s economy and contributed to net immigration over the past decade. Funded largely by borrowing, the costs are being recouped by tolls that start at £2 for residents.

With Shetland’s “unreliable” ferry service “holding the Scottish islands back”, it is hardly surprising its residents “are contemplating building a tunnel system of their own”, said The Times. Earlier this month a delegation of Scottish MPs visited the Faroe Islands to see if such a scheme could be replicated on Shetland.

‘Steeped in Scandinavian engineering’

A campaign by residents on Yell and Unst, the most northerly of Shetland’s islands and backed by the local Lib Dem MP, Alistair Carmichael, is “credited with forcing tunnels and bridges firmly on to the political agenda”, said The Guardian.

Last year, the group commissioned and funded geological surveys and engaged advisers “steeped in Scandinavian tunnel engineering” to try to “prove their economic, social and financial value”.

A report on Shetland Islands Council’s inter-island connectivity programme published last summer proposed four undersea tunnels be taken forward for consideration. There are “no cost estimates at this stage”, said Shetland News, though it would be expected to run into the hundreds of millions.

“Three major European tunnelling contractors” were appointed in December “to undertake the next phase of work on proposals to replace some Shetland ferry routes with fixed links”, said New Civil Engineering. They will “assess” the “test case” that is under way at the Yell Sound crossing, one of the busiest inter‑island routes. Councillors are expected to consider the next stage in summer 2026, when preferred options for each of eight island routes in the programme will be selected.

“I have always said the most difficult tunnel to be built would be the first one,” said Carmichael. “Once you’ve proven the concept, you won’t have to make the case [for others]. Communities will be banging on your door.”

‘The death of Bay Area public transportation’

The Washington Post editorial board

It “looks like the Bay Area Rapid Transit system is headed for a financial death spiral,” says The Washington Post editorial board. Public transit use is “down across the country, but most other systems are closer to pre-pandemic levels. The Bay Area, however, is filled with technology firms that offer generous work-from-home policies.” BART “has been treated more like a jobs program for transit workers than a way for people to get around.”

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‘Trump’s era normalizes Washington sex scandals’

Juan Williams at The Hill

The “tide of sex scandals in Washington is now beyond tabloid gossip,” says Juan Williams. These scandals “point to a raft of powerful people who put personal desire ahead of good government.” They “would reach beyond the tabloids to dominate all news coverage of official Washington in any other era of American politics.” But in the “Trump administration, it is background noise to the regular news reports on the Justice Department’s defiance and slow-walking the opening of files on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.”

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‘Oscars should focus on best pictures, not celebrity politics’

Clay Routledge and Paul Anleitner at USA Today

The “rejection of celebrity lectures shouldn’t obscure the fact that Hollywood has an important societal role to play,” say Clay Routledge and Paul Anleitner. Americans “don’t want to be lectured to by wealthy entertainers who seem disconnected from their everyday struggles. Celebrity activism is more likely to polarize than persuade.” This “doesn’t mean that Hollywood’s only role is entertainment, however. Films can inspire us in ways that no acceptance speech ever could,” because “humans are ‘storied creatures.’”

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‘It is time to recognize menopause as a workplace issue’

Lara Bertola, Akanksha Jalan and Belinda Steffan at Le Monde

As many executives are “approaching or over 50, the fact that many are experiencing menopause is still largely overlooked,” say Lara Bertola, Akanksha Jalan and Belinda Steffan. Are “senior women executives somehow immune to hot flashes, sleepless nights, and the resulting fatigue?” The “lives of women executives are thrown into upheaval by the hormonal changes they undergo.” This is a “burden affecting all women at this stage of life, who face both specific, unrecognized challenges and often unsympathetic attitudes.”

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Following pilot schemes in several US cities last year, Uber has launched a women-only service across the country.

The new feature on the Uber app – which gives women the choice to request trips with female drivers – is designed to help them “feel more confident” both in the passengers seats and behind the wheel.

Safety concerns

Uber and rival company Lyft have “faced criticism over their safety records” for years, said The Associated Press. The ride-hailing apps have had “thousands of reports of sexual assaults from passengers and drivers”, with many female users losing trust in the service.

In February, Uber was ordered to pay $8.5 million (£6.2 million) to a woman who said she was raped by one of its drivers in Arizona three years ago. The plaintiff claimed Uber had “been aware of a wave of sexual assaults committed by its drivers but had not taken basic action to improve safety”, said the BBC. A jury deliberated for two days before finding Uber was responsible for the driver’s behaviour – “a ruling that could influence the outcome of thousands of other cases against the company”.

Uber intends to appeal against the verdict, claiming the incident had not been foreseeable as the driver had a high user rating on the app and no criminal record. It maintains its drivers are contractors not employees and therefore it should not be liable for their conduct.

According to the company’s latest safety report, the number of sexual assaults reported during US rides has dropped from 5,981 from 2017-18 to 2,717 from 2022-23 – which Uber says represents 0.0001% of rides across the country.

Sex discrimination?

The new service lets women request a female driver when they order a trip or reserve a trip with a female driver in advance. Women can also toggle on the preference in their settings to increase the likelihood of being matched with a female driver in the area, and opt for another ride if they end up waiting too long. Those with a teen account can also use the service.

According to Uber, around a fifth of its drivers in the US are female – a figure that varies by city. Like passengers, female drivers have the option of changing their preferences to request female riders. The programme was piloted in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit last summer before spreading to 26 cities in November. It is now available for female drivers in 40 countries, and for riders in seven countries, including Portugal and Saudi Arabia.

The roll-out is going ahead despite an ongoing court case in California brought by two Uber drivers who argue the policy is discriminatory against men and violates the state’s Unruh Act, which prohibits sex discrimination by businesses. The case claims that the new feature “gives its minority female drivers access to the entire pool of passengers, while leaving its majority male drivers to compete for a smaller pool of passengers”, said The Guardian. It also argues the policy “reinforces the gender stereotype that men are more dangerous than women”. Uber disputed that Unruh had been violated and said its “women preferences” feature served a “public policy interest in enhancing safety”.

“I take Uber rides at all times of day and night,” said Lakshmi Varanasi on Business Insider. There’s a “wide grey area between assault and a perfectly uneventful Uber ride”. The women-only driver option could give both riders and drivers more “control” over uncomfortable situations. “I, for one, will try this out.”

People looking to spend tons of money on a car will soon have a more eco-friendly option, as a variety of luxury auto companies are developing electric vehicles. High-end automakers are taking different paths to market: Companies like Ferrari are all-in on EVs; others have a more muted approach. As the jostling continues, there are concerns that the luxury car market might be the wrong platform for EVs.

What luxury companies are making EVs?

Ferrari, Lamborghini, Mercedes-Benz and Porsche are all experimenting with EV development. Ferrari has been pushing ahead at a rapid pace. The company “doesn’t have an EV on the market yet, but its first model, called Luce, is expected to be open for orders later this spring,” said CNBC. Still, there are hurdles ahead for the iconic Italian brand.

For starters, electric cars can go extremely fast just like gas-powered Ferraris, but “much of what makes an internal combustion Ferrari compelling is missing,” Karl Brauer, an executive analyst for iSeeCars, said to CNBC. People purchase Ferraris for the “way it stirs a person’s senses: the look of it, the sound and feel of the engine and the smell of the exhaust.” Experts say many of these experiences may not exist in an electric Ferrari.

Though Ferrari’s plans are in motion, the same cannot be said for Lamborghini, which has “pulled the plug on plans” for its EV in the “face of collapsing demand among its well-heeled customers,” said The Times. Instead, the company will debut a hybrid model. It admits this is a demand issue. The “acceptance curve” for EVs in Lamborghini’s market is “flattening and close to zero,” Lamborghini CEO Stephan Winkelmann said to the Times.

What does the market say?

Others in the auto industry have also noted the demand problem raised by Lamborghini executives. For “many years, many of the electric vehicles that Americans bought were luxury models, like the Tesla Model S, the GMC Hummer and the Porsche Taycan,” said The New York Times. All of these vehicles sell for more than $80,000, while Lamborghinis and Ferraris routinely sell for six figures (the Ferrari Luce EV is expected to cost at least $500,000).

Geopolitical factors, particularly tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump, are also being considered. Mercedes-Benz “had been selling electric versions of its luxury sedans and SUVs in the United States but recently said it would stop importing them,” said the Times. Volkswagen has similarly “slowed production of the ID.Buzz, an upscale electric van that’s made in Germany.” Many automakers have seen the “largest losses from luxury models. Now fewer sales will mean smaller losses.”

While luxury brands may be struggling with EVs, the “picture is very different for worldwide EV sales for brands not on the high-end,” said Wired, as this vehicle market is booming. It could also be that luxury buyers simply don’t want electric cars. For “luxury brands, which operate lower volumes and higher R&D costs,” said Philip Nothard, Cox Automotive’s insight director, to Wired, the industry’s challenges are “even more pronounced.”

What happened

The House Tuesday failed to pass a bipartisan aviation safety bill that won unanimous approval in the Senate in December. The 264-133 House vote fell just short of the two-thirds majority required under special fast-track rules typically used for non-controversial bills. Nearly all 133 no votes came from Republicans.

The bill would have required most aircraft to carry advanced location tracking technology, ADS-B In, that the National Transportation Safety Board said would have prevented last year’s deadly midair collision near Washington, D.C.

Who said what

The Senate’s ROTOR Act is strongly backed by the families of the 67 people who died in the January 2025 collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight. It was also supported by labor groups, NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy and, until Monday night, the Defense Department. But it “ran into headwinds in the House from several powerful Republican committee leaders,” NPR said.

The bill’s defeat was a “major win” for Transportation Committee Chair Sam Graves (R-Mo.), a longtime advocate for smaller private aircraft, Politico said. Graves argued that his rival ALERT Act addressed all 50 NSTB recommendations to prevent future collisions. But Homendy and the victims’ families oppose his legislation because it does not require the use of ADS-B In, as the NSTB has advocated since 2008.

What next?

The victims’ families said in a statement they were “devastated” by the Senate bill’s defeat and urged “House leadership to bring the ROTOR Act back for a vote that lets the majority pass it.” Given that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and his top lieutenants voted no Tuesday, “it is unlikely that the House will revive the bill,” The New York Times said. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the ROTOR Act’s lead sponsor with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), called Tuesday’s vote a “temporary delay” and predicted the bill will “become the law of the land.”

At least 39 people have died following a high-speed collision between two trains near Córdoba in southern Spain. Around 400 people were on the trains and more than 120 required treatment from the emergency services.

The death toll is “not yet final”, said Spanish transport minister Óscar Puente, who has launched an investigation into the cause of the “extremely strange” incident.

This is Spain’s worst train crash since 2013, when a high-speed derailment in Galicia, northwest Spain, left 80 people dead and 140 others injured.

What happened?

At around 7.39pm local time on Sunday, a high-speed Iryo train from Málaga to Madrid derailed near Adamuz, near Córdoba. Carriage six, seven and eight – which contained “about 50 people”, said El País – landed on the adjacent tracks and was then hit by a train from Madrid on its way to Huelva.

The Iryo train “was not travelling at such a high speed”, though it has “not yet been determined how fast it was going”, and was able to brake following the initial derailment. The second train, an Alvia, was travelling at “200 kilometres per hour [125mph] parallel to the Iryo train at that moment”, then derailed and fell down a “five or six metres high” embankment.

Members of Spain’s civil guard and civil defence “worked on site throughout the night”, and the Spanish Red Cross set up a help centre in the nearby town of Adamuz, said Euronews. Initial photos and videos showed “twisted train cars lying on their sides under floodlights” as emergency services tried to help survivors.

Why did it happen?

The official cause is “not yet known”, said the BBC. “An investigation is not expected to determine what happened for at least a month.”

This was an “extremely strange” incident, said Puente. It occurred on a “straight stretch of track”, the train was “relatively new” and the track had been “recently renovated”, so it is difficult to say with any certainty what the causes might have been, said La Vanguardia. Iryo confirmed that its train, manufactured in 2022, underwent an inspection as recently as 15 January.

The stretch of track where the crash took place “recently received an investment of more than 700 million euros (£608 million) for renovations which were completed in May”, said The Telegraph.

What are the authorities doing next?

Forty-three people – 39 adults and four children – remain in hospital, with 13 of them in intensive care, said the BBC.

Renfe – Spain’s national state-owned railway company – believes it will take “more than four days to resume service between Madrid and Andalusia”, said Spanish newspaper ABC. Spain has the largest high-speed rail network in Europe, second only globally to China, with almost 2,000 miles of track.

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has cancelled his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos because of the train crash, said Sky News. “Today is a night of deep pain for our country owing to the tragic rail accident in Adamuz,” he said on X. “No words can alleviate such great suffering, but I want them to know that the whole country is by their side in this tough moment.”

King Felipe is expected to visit the accident site tomorrow, said Sky News. Attending a funeral in Greece, the family has confirmed they would return “as soon as possible”.

The main concern for Zimbabwe’s driving instructors is not teaching the highway code to their students but making sure they “survive some of the world’s deadliest roads”, said The Associated Press.

In 2024, the country recorded more than 2,000 deaths from road traffic accidents and more than 10,000 injuries, according to the Traffic Safety Council of Zimbabwe. Africa as a whole has the “world’s highest fatality rate at 26.6 deaths per 100,000 people, compared with a global average of about 18”, said AP. And Zimbabwe has one of the highest rates – nearly 30 deaths per 100,000 people – within Africa.

‘Pothole-riddled reality’

Zimbabwe was once known for “orderly traffic and well kept roads” but its network has “deteriorated since the 2000s”. A series of economic crises has taken its toll on road infrastructure, while “weakened” enforcement of maintenance has led to “traffic chaos”.

Despite attempts to bolster police presence on the roads, “dangerous driving remains deeply entrenched”. Transport minister Felix Mhona told the country’s Senate that over 90% of road accidents are attributable to human error, said The Herald.

Deaths, injuries and damage from road traffic accidents constitute a “devastating and predictable public health disaster”. Such is the scale of the problem that motorists have been “holding prayers at blackspots”, looking for “divine intervention to tame the carnage” and to ward off “avenging spirits”, said News Day.

When Nigerian newspaper Vanguard recently placed Zimbabwe in the top 10 of the best road networks in Africa, “many Zimbabweans laughed in disbelief”, said Tendai Ruben Mbofana in The Zimbabwean. Road users are used to a “pothole-riddled reality” caused by “years of underfunding, corruption, weak maintenance cultures, and political mismanagement”. In some places, the deterioration has been so marked that roads are left “resembling post-conflict zones”.

‘Strikingly inadequate’ enforcement

To promote road safety, Zimbabwean police have begun using body cameras and breathalysers, and want a “review of the driver licensing system”, said AP. This would include improvements to training programmes, public information campaigns to raise awareness of reckless driving, and tougher enforcement, including deducting points for more driving offences.

The Zimbabwean government is targeting tourist routes for improvement, hoping the investment will “deliver a key economic benefit” for the country and its struggling economy, said Global Highways. One example is the road linking Beitbridge, on the South African border, with Bulawayo and the ever-popular Victoria Falls. The Zimbabwe Transport Ministry has, however, “exceeded its planned budget”, meaning “there are concerns as to how future works will be funded”.

“While road rehabilitation is a positive step, it cannot solve the problem alone,” said The Herald. The government has shown it can take hardline legislative stances – such as its recent strategy to tackle drug trafficking and substance abuse – and it is essential that the same “model of commitment and resource intensity” is “replicated” in the road safety sector.

New road safety policies have been introduced but their enforcement is “strikingly inadequate”. Inconsistent action by the authorities has led to drivers and passengers feeling “empowered to flout safety rules without fear of consequence”.

What happened

President Donald Trump Wednesday announced that the Transportation Department will roll back automotive fuel efficiency standards finalized last year. “People want the gasoline car,” he said in the Oval Office, with the CEOs of Ford and Stellantis and a GM plant manager standing behind him. The new rules would require automakers to produce cars and light trucks averaging 34.5 miles per gallon by 2031, from 50.4 mpg under the Biden-era rules.

Who said what

The White House said slashing fuel efficiency rules would cut upfront costs for a new vehicle by $930. But drivers would collectively spend $185 billion more on fuel by 2050 and emit about 5% more carbon dioxide, environmentalists and economists said, citing the same Transportation Department estimates.

Watering down fuel efficiency standards is “the second part of a one-two punch” against former President Joe Biden’s push to boost electric vehicles, The New York Times said, after Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress got rid of Biden’s EV tax credits earlier this year. Since they also eliminated fines for violating the fuel standards, automakers can already ignore them, said Dan Becker at the Center for Biological Diversity. But future administrations will now find it harder to reinstate the higher standards.

What next?

The Transportation Department will likely finalize the new rule next year. Auto executives “publicly praised” Trump’s announcement but “have privately fretted that they are being buffeted by conflicting federal policies,” the Times said. The rollback also pushes the U.S. “further out of sync with the rest of the world, where the electric vehicle market is growing.” This will “signal to the Chinese that the world market is open to you and we’re just going to abandon it,” Becker told The Washington Post.

The government is to look into the design of cars and growing use of new LED headlights, which drivers argue is making it harder to navigate roads at night.

Four out of five drivers (82%) are concerned about being dazzled by vehicle headlights with the arrival of darker evenings after the clocks have gone back, according to new research from motoring organisation the RAC.

“Unfortunately, for a lot of drivers, the annual onset of darker evenings coincides with another unwelcome arrival – that of overly bright headlights that they believe make driving more difficult due to dazzle and discomfort,” said RAC senior policy officer Rod Dennis.

Have they actually got brighter?

The RAC attributes the increased brightness to modern bi-xenon or LED bulbs, which are becoming more common in new vehicles.

The beam from LED headlights is “whiter, more focused and brighter than the more diffuse light from halogen lamps fitted in older cars”, said the BBC.

Other factors causing problems for drivers include badly aligned headlights and the higher position of SUV lights.

Is it dangerous?

At best, headlight glare can make driving “uncomfortable and more difficult”, said the RAC, “but the consequences can be more severe”.

Half of drivers surveyed said they had been temporarily blinded, while more than a third said they felt less safe driving because of bright headlights on other vehicles. Others reported tiredness, headaches and even migraines.

The problem is worse for older people, whose eyes take longer to recover from glare. Between the ages of 15 and 65 recovery time increases from two to nine seconds, said the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents on its Older Drivers website. A 2018 study published in the Frontiers in Psychology journal also found that headlight glare particularly affected people with cataracts.

In all, dazzling headlights are cited as a factor in between 200 and 300 accidents in the UK each year, said the House of Lords Library, but there is no evidence that brighter lights are causing more collisions than previously.

What can be done?

As the problem has grown more pronounced in recent years, the RAC has joined with other road safety bodies including the College of Optometrists and IAM RoadSmart to campaign for the causes of headlight glare to be investigated.

A Westminster Hall debate on the issue is to be held today, with a government-commissioned report led by consultancy TRL expected to be published in the coming weeks.

The Department for Transport said the findings will help “to better understand the causes and impact of glare, which will inform new measures in the upcoming Road Safety Strategy”.

Alongside this, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency has “stepped up surveillance to intercept the sale of illegal retrofit headlamp bulbs”, with anyone caught facing a fine of up to £1,000.

Drivers can also help to minimise the impact of brighter headlights. The College of Optometrists recommends you ensure that your windscreen, and glasses if worn, are clean, avoid looking straight ahead but focus on the edge of the road, and do not wear night sunglasses sold for night-driving, as they reduce overall light, not glare.

While headlight glare is a problem that “needs tackling”, said the RAC, it is “important to remember that brighter headlights can give drivers a better view of the road ahead – so there’s a balance to be struck”.

What happened

A Navy fighter jet and helicopter based off the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz crashed into the South China Sea within 30 minutes of each other Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said on social media. President Donald Trump Monday said “bad fuel” could be to blame for the “very unusual” dual crashes.

Who said what

The MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter and F/A-18F Super Hornet jet were on separate “routine operations” when they went down, the Navy said, and all five crew members involved “are safe and in stable condition.” Trump told reporters traveling with him to Japan on Air Force One that he did not think foul play was involved. “They think it might be bad fuel,” he said. “We’re gonna find out. Nothing to hide.”

The F/A-18 was “at least the fourth of the $60 million fighter jets the Navy has lost this year,” CNN said. The other three were destroyed in a “series of mishaps” involving another aircraft carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman, The Associated Press said. Two F/A fighter jets “went overboard” into the Red Sea while the third was “mistakenly shot down” by the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg. The half-century-old USS Nimitz is traveling to its home port in Washington state before being decommissioned next year.

What next?

Sunday’s incidents are “under investigation,” the Navy said. Results from the military’s investigations into the USS Truman’s mishaps “have yet to be released,” said the AP.

Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist candidate running for New York City mayor, has proposed free public buses as part of his campaign.

It's become a major part of his platform, as he and his supporters argue that free buses could increase ridership and efficiency, as well as benefit lower-income New Yorkers. But the suggestion also has its fair share of critics, who say it would greatly reduce bus safety, increase taxes and may not even be feasible.

Get on board

Implementing free New York City buses could “increase ridership citywide by 23% — an additional 170 million trips in a year — and increase the average bus speed,” said The New York Times. Making buses faster also “incentivizes people to ride the bus who might otherwise now be taking an Uber” or a taxi, said economist Charles Komanoff to NPR. Along with free fares, “building more dedicated bus lanes and other service upgrades could improve speed and ridership numbers further,” added the Times.

The proposal could also improve efficiency. “Assaults on bus operators may decline because passengers are not swiping a card or handing over cash,” said Slate. The boarding process could also be faster without the extra time needed to pay the fare. While there will be a drop in revenue because of the lack of fares, the “city would benefit economically because of the time and money that riders would save,” said the Times.

Free buses are also “fiscally progressive, disproportionately benefiting the less wealthy,” said Slate. It “removes a major barrier to transit access for low-income individuals,” said economics Professor Amitrajeet A. Batabyal at the Rochester Beacon. Fare elimination improves access to “nonwork activities, such as shopping, health care visits and social interactions, which may improve overall quality of life.” As a result, policymakers “ought to focus on the ability of such actions to reduce financial strain, improve health and even decrease contacts with the criminal justice system.”

Missing the bus

“There is no such thing as a free bus,” said The Washington Post editorial board. Removing fares “would cost more than $500 million annually to the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) in lost fares to make all buses free to riders,” said Vital City. To replace this revenue, the “city would have to provide those funds annually to the MTA either through a reallocation of existing approved funding under the mayor’s control or, more likely, a budget modification approved by the City Council.” The funding will have to come from taxpayers. More specifically, the city’s bus system is “controlled by the state, meaning any changes would need buy-in” from Gov. Kathy Hochul (D), said the Post. She has “already ruled out raising taxes on high-income residents to pay” for Mamdani’s agenda.

Free buses can also lead to “major safety issues,” said Paul J. Gessing, the president of the Rio Grande Foundation, a New Mexico-based think tank, at the National Review. Especially in increasingly extreme weather, they might become “rolling homeless shelters.” If there is free unlimited bus access to buses, “vagrants and drug addicts would camp out all day,” said the Post. In turn, “parents would grow afraid to let their children ride alone.” While “wealthier residents would find another way to get around,” those who are poor and most dependent on the buses would “suffer the most.”

Mamdani's free bus plan may be a lofty promise to begin with, as it would “require cooperation from state leaders and the MTA, which is state-run, and might require some concessions on his part,” said Al Jazeera. The MTA is also “under additional pressure from the federal government.” Mamdani “understands that transportation affects job prospects, influences public health and helps shape the cost of living,” said Slate. “Many of his proposals are creative and worthwhile. Nixing bus fares is an exception.”

Cruises remain one of the most popular choices for an easy and cost-efficient vacation, but data shows that there is a drawback: Crime rates aboard cruise ships are continuing to rise and have reached an almost two-year high in 2025. Crime on these floating cities isn’t a new phenomenon, but experts say it is important to remain vigilant as statistics increase.

How bad is crime on cruise ships?

Crime has always been a problem on cruise ships due to the large number of people confined onboard, with sexual assaults and rapes being particularly common. But the issue seems to have reached new heights this year. From January to March 2025, there were 48 crimes on cruise ships reported to the FBI, according to data from the Department of Transportation. This marks the highest three-month period of crimes reported on cruise ships since April to June 2023, when the FBI counted 55 incidents. The United States’ three biggest cruise companies, Carnival, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian, had 12, nine and five incidents reported, respectively.

Of the reported incidents, at least 23 “were reported rapes, 10 were sexual assaults and seven were assaults, which all reportedly happened on cruise ships,” said Fox 9. Other violent crimes also take place on ships and not only those operating in the United States. In May 2025, a “57-year-old man was arrested and bailed on suspicion of murder and a 60-year-old was arrested and bailed on suspicion of manslaughter” on the Malta-registered MSC Virtuosa, said The Independent.

Disney Cruise Lines has been dealing with a particular influx of sexual crimes, according to reports. In the past five years, Disney “has gone from having between one and three sexual assault allegations on its cruises to reporting 15 assaults in 2023 and 18 assaults in 2024,” said Newsweek. As with all other ship incidents, the “crimes documented by the DOT are alleged and based on ship reporting, and do not reflect the outcome of any law enforcement investigation.”

How can you stay safe?

Experts say it often comes down to standard safety measures. Cruise ships are “generally safe environments, but as with anywhere, it’s smart to take some common-sense precautions,” cruise content creator Jenni Fielding said to The Independent. Despite what the “headlines might suggest, cruising remains one of the safest ways to travel.”

If you are on a cruise ship, you should “lock your cabin door at night, avoid leaving drinks unattended and never go into someone’s stateroom alone,” Fielding told The Independent. If walking to your stateroom or cabin alone, you should also be “mindful of who is around in the corridor.” Beyond this, all cruises will “have a security officer and a team of people responsible for the safety and security of passengers and crew” that you can go to in an emergency, said Forbes.

And while crime rates on ships may be rising, cruises remain “one of the safest vacation options in the world, with rates of serious crimes that are exceedingly lower than those on land due to multiple layers of security and the nature of cruising,” Charles Sylvia, the vice president of industry and trade relations for Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), said to industry outlet TravelPulse. Almost all cruise lines “have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to criminal behavior, and allegations of major crimes on cruise ships are extremely rare.”

While air travel remains the safest mode of transportation by a significant margin, there might be something happening on airplanes that could cause you a literal headache. Toxic fumes from jet airliners can sometimes leak into the cabin and cause significant health problems for passengers, according to a new investigation from The Wall Street Journal. The fumes have reportedly been found in the cabin of almost every modern airplane model, and there are indications that both the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airplane manufacturers have long known about the problem.

How do toxic fumes get on airplanes?

There have been thousands of “fume events reported to the Federal Aviation Administration since 2010, in which toxic fumes from a jet’s engines leak unfiltered into the cockpit or cabin,” said the Journal’s investigation. This is due to a design element on planes called “bleed air.” While half of the oxygen on planes is recirculated into the cabin through filters, the other half is “pulled from outside via the aircraft’s engines,” which can bring unwanted oil fumes into the cabin if the seals keeping the oil out fail.

These fumes “have led to emergency landings, sickened passengers and affected pilots’ vision and reaction times midflight,” said the Journal. The majority of these fumes “consist of carbon monoxide and unspecified quantities of neurotoxins, aren’t toxic and have mild to no symptoms,” said The Hill. Continued exposure, however, such as what is experienced by pilots and flight attendants, could “lead to more severe side effects.”

The bleed air design has been “featured in almost every modern commercial jetliner except Boeing’s 787,” said the Journal. But the fume reports are “largely driven by Airbus A320s, which are used by the three largest U.S. airlines,” said NewsNation. A 2015 FAA report said the annual rate of fume incidents was about 33 per 1 million aircraft flights; the Journal reported this rate was significantly higher in 2024 at 108 incidents per 1 million flights.

What can these fumes cause?

While the fumes don’t often cause major problems, they sometimes lead to significant health consequences. Flight attendant Florence Chesson was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury and “permanent damage to her peripheral nervous system” from fume exposure, said the Journal. The effects on her brain were “akin to a chemical concussion and ‘extraordinarily similar’ to those of a National Football League linebacker after a brutal hit,” Chesson’s doctor told the Journal.

“The most common problems I see are general nervous system problems,” Dr. Robert Harrison, an occupational medicine specialist at the University of California San Francisco, told CBS News. If a person breathes the tainted air into their lungs, it “circulates around, and then it gets into their brain and can affect the other parts of the nervous system.”

What have officials said?

The FAA maintains that fumes rarely leak into airplane cabins. In “rare instances, mechanical issues such as failures of an engine oil seal or recirculation fan bearings can cause fumes to enter the cabin,” the agency told CBS News in a statement. The FAA “investigates the causes and makes sure they're fixed before the aircraft returns to service.”

Flight manufacturers and airlines have provided similar remarks. Airbus’ aircraft are “designed and manufactured according to all relevant and applicable airworthiness requirements,” an Airbus spokesperson said to People. Airbus is “committed to continuously enhancing our products, working closely with operators and regulators to ensure the best possible cabin environment for passengers and crew.”

Google Maps is available in more than 250 countries, so it may surprise some people to learn that a modern tech-obsessed nation like South Korea isn't on that list. Google Maps has long been shunned by the Asian country, and the app has never fully worked there. South Korean officials say this is due to national security concerns over geographic data, which has led the country to push back against efforts to integrate with Google Maps. But many South Koreans and tourists feel the time has come to let Google in.

'Decades-long struggle'

Many South Korean officials are wary of making Google Maps fully accessible in the country. At the "heart of this issue lies a set of map data owned by the South Korean government," which Google says it "needs to create a comprehensive map of the country," said CNN. Google has repeatedly "asked South Korea to export that data," and authorities have repeatedly "refused, citing national security concerns."

This "decades-long struggle began over geopolitical tensions" in 2008, when Google Maps "labeled some Korean locations by their Japanese names," said Soyun Ahn, an assistant professor of communications at Boston College, to CNN. Since then, South Korea has been reluctant to allow Google Maps access to its data, even though "most overseas platforms have no such issue operating, including other Google products like Gmail and YouTube."

The "opposition to Google's request is fierce," and national security experts also "warn that approving the request could set a precedent for other foreign companies, particularly from China," said The Guardian. The government "must listen to industry concerns," said Kim Seok-jong, the chair of the Korean Association of Spatial Information, Surveying and Mapping, to the outlet.

Many defense experts say providing Google the maps would "hand adversaries a precision targeting aid," said The Diplomat. They often cite Ukraine's 2022 experience: When Google Earth "refreshed satellite tiles, bloggers scraped the imagery and geolocated newly built military facilities, forcing Kyiv to ask Google to blur sensitive areas after the fact."

'Major inconveniences to foreign tourists'

Others say the time has come for Google to gain a seat at the South Korean map table. This may ring especially true for tourists who must find alternative navigation apps.

It's "tiring because you need to download three apps, then juggle three to find a way to where you want to go," Taiwanese traveler Eric Weng said to CNN. And many tourists "often struggle to navigate with Google Maps due to the limited information and languages supported" on the South Korea version of the app, said TechCrunch.

Google claims the "lack of data restricts its Google Maps services in Korea, causing major inconveniences to foreign tourists," said Reuters. The company also pushes back against issues regarding national security, claiming there are "no security concerns about its mapping data on South Korea" and that the data is "publicly available and used by a number of companies."

The South Korean government is "under stronger pressure this time amid escalating trade pressure from the Donald Trump administration," said The Korea Times. U.S. officials have cited the map issue as "one of the major trade barriers with Korea," with South Koreans "taking a cautious approach to trade matters involving the world's largest economy."

Helsinki has been hailed as the road safety capital of the world, after city officials revealed there has not been a single traffic-related fatality in the past year.

While road deaths have declined by an average of 3% across EU countries, according to recent European Commission figures, "they are still commonplace in metropolitan areas", said Politico. So, "to go a full year without one is a remarkable feat for most cities – let alone a European capital".

'Vision Zero'

The achievement is the culmination of years of work to reduce and then eliminate road deaths in Finland. The country adopted a "Vision Zero" traffic safety strategy in the early 2000s, guided by a set of principles and policies that, said The Guardian in 2020, "shifts responsibility for crashes from road users to the designers of the road system". If there is a crash, "it is up to authorities to ensure that it does not happen again".

Helsinki's traffic fatalities have been declining ever since. It recorded zero pedestrian fatalities in 2019, with the city's last fatal traffic accident occurring in early July 2024. Traffic-related injuries in the capital have also plummeted from 727 in 2023 to 14 in 2024.

For context, there were a total of 20,418 deaths on EU roads in 2023, with two countries, Lithuania and Latvia, registering an strong increase (33% and 26% respectively), according to a European Transport Safety Council report.

'A handful of small changes'

Helsinki's success does not come "from any one major policy shift but from a handful of small changes" that add up to "meaningful impact" said MSM. By focusing on safer people, safer roads, safer vehicles, safer speeds and better post-crash care, the aim is to create "multiple layers of protection, so if one fails, the others will create a safety net to lessen the impact of a crash", said Forbes

More than half the city's streets now have a speed limit of 30 kph (less than 20 mph), a decision driven by data showing the risk of pedestrian fatality is cut in half by reducing a car's speed of impact from 40 kph to to 30 kph, said Politico.

And "street design has also played a key role", said Finnish news outlet YLE. "Pedestrian and cycling infrastructure has been significantly upgraded" and "more traffic cameras and automated enforcement systems have been introduced". In many areas, "roads have been narrowed and trees have been planted with the deliberate goal of making drivers move more cautiously", said Politico.

Other measures include "improving the traffic skills of different road users", said Forbes, as well as increasing motorcycle and moped helmet-wearing rates to nearly 100%, and "allowing the police to make random alcohol and drug tests". Finland is also the only country in Europe to conduct an in-depth investigation into every single fatal collision.

The European Transport Safety Council has recognised the country's carefully co-ordinated progress in road safety. "In Finland, they say, 'Vahinko ei tule kello kaulassa'," said ETSC director Antonio Avenoso. This "roughly translates as: 'Accidents don't come with a bell around their neck'".

'Electric bikes are driving me crazy. Make them follow the same rules as cars.'

Blake Fontenay at USA Today

There is "no disputing that e-bikes have become popular throughout the country," but "what is less easy to understand is why e-bikes and their electric-motored brethren aren't better regulated," says Blake Fontenay. Complication "shouldn't justify what seems to be a lack of any serious type of enforcement." E-bikes "ought to be on the roads, in bike lanes where they are available, following the same rules that car drivers must follow, and with tickets issued."

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'Trump's DC takeover is extreme — but crime concerns aren't unfounded'

Anthony Coley at MSNBC

Donald Trump's "moves to take over the Metropolitan Police Department and activate the D.C. National Guard are unnecessary, wrong and unwarranted," says Anthony Coley. But if "officials in the district don't do something fast, they may give the president and Congress more reason to try to take over even more than they already have." Suspend the "summer recess, convene in special session and change the laws needed to improve public safety and head off a full GOP takeover."

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'The Air Force's denial of retirement benefits for trans service members is part of a vicious pattern'

Joe Rojas at The Philadelphia Inquirer

There is a "cruel and familiar rhythm to the U.S. military's history of inclusion," says Joe Rojas. The "current policy, which denies early retirement options to transgender service members with 15-18 years of service, is a particularly vicious iteration of this historical pattern." It is "designed to undermine the careers of a specific, vulnerable group." The Air Force is "attempting to quietly purge dedicated people at the very moment they are poised to achieve the stability they earned."

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'Can UNESCO accommodate both preservation and human rights?'

Fiona Kelliher at Foreign Policy

UNESCO has "faced backlash for its responses to mass evictions and violence at World Heritage Sites around the world," and "questions remain about the organization's role in human rights violations at World Heritage Sites and its failure to safeguard communities," says Fiona Kelliher. Some "supporters of UNESCO's overall mission would still like to see it rethink its approach to human rights." A "right to land would help unify ideas of indigeneity and protection from displacement and land-grabbing."

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What happened

A Bangladesh Air Force fighter jet on a routine training mission experienced a mechanical failure and crashed into the Milestone School and College campus in the nation's capital city of Dhaka Monday. The crash, and the resulting blaze, killed at least 27 people, 25 of whom were children.

Some of the victims' bodies were charred "beyond recognition," The Associated Press said. One teacher rescued more than 20 students and later died from her injuries.

Who said what

The pilot made "every effort" to divert the plane to a "more sparsely inhabited location," the military said. This is the "deadliest plane crash in the Bangladeshi capital in recent memory," AP said. And it comes as neighboring India is "still grappling" with last month's Air India crash that killed 260 people and was the "world's worst aviation disaster in a decade," said Reuters. The losses from this accident are "irreparable," said Muhammad Yunus, the leader of Bangladesh's interim government.

What next?

The air force and the government vowed to investigate the crash. In the meantime, dozens of people remain hospitalized with burns, and worried family members are searching for their missing relatives. Today has been declared a national day of mourning.

The deadly crash of Air India Flight 171 last week has centered renewed scrutiny on the airplane's manufacturer, Boeing, and this time it's the 787 Dreamliner in investigators' sights. The accident, which killed over 270 people, was the first fatal crash for the Dreamliner since the model began flying in 2011.

Experts had previously raised concerns about safety issues for the Dreamliner, and the crash comes just weeks after Boeing agreed to a multi-billion-dollar payout related to another one of its faulty aircraft, the 737 Max. Now, the Dreamliner's troubles may begin to overshadow the Max's issues.

More problems for Boeing

Worries about the Dreamliner are not entirely new, as the "planes have been the subject of heightened scrutiny after whistleblowers raised concerns about manufacturing and quality issues going back many years," said The New York Times. Despite these concerns, the plane had never been involved in a fatal crash in the 14 years it has been flying, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

The cause of the Air India crash remains unclear, and "multiple factors, including bird strikes, pilot error, manufacturing defects or inadequate maintenance, can play a role in aviation accidents," said the Times. Determining the cause of the accident could take "months or years." Boeing "stands ready to support the investigation led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau," said Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg in a statement.

But this is only the latest in a string of issues for Boeing, which has faced public ire over safety incidents in recent years. Just weeks before the Air India crash, Boeing "agreed to pay $1.1 billion in a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to avoid prosecution over the two crashes that together killed 346 people" on 737 Max jets, said The Guardian.

Recent problems with the Dreamliner have also drawn attention. American Airlines decided to ground a "new premium-heavy Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner due to serious maintenance problems," the aviation news site Simple Flying reported two days before the Air India crash. Another Dreamliner that was "identical to the one that crashed in India made four emergency landings in less than a month earlier this year," said The Telegraph.

New questions

The Dreamliner debacle "comes at a critical moment for the hobbled American icon, which has been buffeted by a succession of crises in recent years, losing billions of dollars due to plane groundings and production delays," said The Wall Street Journal. The Air India crash will likely "raise fresh questions about Boeing just as it begins to emerge from the fallout of a high-profile incident early last year when a door plug on a recently delivered 737 Max fell off during a flight."

Boeing employees have "observed shortcuts taken by Boeing" during assembly of the Dreamliner, "resulting in drilling debris left in interfaces and deformation of composite material," one Boeing engineer told CBS News. The engineer also claimed to have witnessed issues with other models. While this was the first fatal crash involving the Dreamliner, the plane has been "involved in previous investigations."

The Air India crash was also critically timed for Boeing on the business side, as it occurred "days before the opening of the Paris Air Show, a major aviation expo where Boeing and European rival Airbus will showcase their aircraft and battle for jet orders from airline customers," said The Associated Press. Boeing has already been dealing with significant losses in recent years, having "posted a 2024 loss of $11.8 billion," said CBS, bringing its total losses to over $35 billion since 2019.

What happened

A London-bound Air India flight crashed into a residential area of Ahmedabad seconds after takeoff yesterday, killing 241 or 242 passengers and crew and more than two dozen people on the ground, including at least five medical students in a hostel hit by the plane.

The only surviving passenger, British national Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, told medics he was thrown from the plane as it split in two. It was the first fatal crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the deadliest aviation disaster in India since 1996.

Who said what

About "30 seconds after takeoff, there was a loud noise and then the plane crashed," Ramesh told the Hindustan Times. "When I got up there were bodies all around me." His brother told Sky News that Ramesh "video-called my dad and said, 'Our plane crashed — I have no idea how I got outside, or how I survived.'" Most of the people on the flight were Indian nationals, but 52 British passengers, seven Portuguese and one Canadian also died in the crash.

What next?

Outside experts speculated, based on CCTV footage, that the plane may have lost altitude and crashed due to a bird strike, "extremely rare double engine failure," improperly set flaps or heat-related lift issues, the BBC said. "Early hypotheses often are ruled out during lengthy, technical crash investigations," The New York Times said.

'Permitting reform can ensure a lasting manufacturing renaissance'

Philip K. Bell at Newsweek

For "manufacturing to continue growing our economy," the U.S. "must update its permitting laws and procedures," says Philip K. Bell. "Permitting delays and associated costs make it harder for manufacturers to compete and win in the global economy." Manufacturing "thrives on certainty," and "ensuring that regulations are achievable and stable helps manufacturers plan long-term and make positive investment decisions." Streamlining the "permitting process and reducing the endless required studies can ensure America is able to take advantage of incoming investment."

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'The bigotry at the heart of Pete Hegseth's Navy ship renaming'

Michael A. Cohen at MSNBC

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is "marking Pride Month by offering a one-finger salute to the LGBTQ community," says Michael A. Cohen. It's "part of a larger effort to whitewash the accomplishments and, arguably, the humanity, of women and minorities in the U.S. military." The "renaming of the USNS Harvey Milk" was "intentional — a punitive and mean-spirited slight at the estimated 80,000 LGBTQ+ service members in the U.S. military." It's "not hard to read between the lines here."

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'Why UTIs are getting so much harder to treat'

Natasha K. Boyd at New York magazine

The rising rate of "antibiotic resistance means UTIs are becoming an increasingly difficult infection to treat," says Natasha K. Boyd. Though "usually regarded as a nuisance, albeit a painful one, UTIs are turning into a complicated illness for a growing number of the population." This "isn't to say that antibiotics are never an effective treatment for UTIs." But the "growing consensus among professionals in the field is that something needs to change."

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'AI will devastate the future of work. But only if we let it.'

Gary Rivlin at Time

The "view from the frontlines of AI is sobering," says Gary Rivlin. The "central question isn't if AI will transform our economy — it will — but whether we'll harness it to augment human potential rather than simply replace it." Will we "seize this moment to create more fulfilling work and widely shared prosperity, or allow its benefits to flow primarily to those who own the algorithms?" There is "no immutable law that says automating labor means eliminating human workers."

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UK rail passengers will be able to take advantage of fast and reliable train Wi-Fi for the first time – provided that they are travelling on the 43-mile stretch of track between Earlsfield in south London and Basingstoke in Hampshire.

Operator South Western Railway has become "the first to introduce rail-5G Wi-Fi in Europe", said Rail Advent. So far, it's on a small scale – the new technology "requires trackside poles and antennas, which need to be installed along the route as well as on trains" – but it paves the way to ending the poor on-board connectivity that has frustrated travellers for years.

'Not true Wi-Fi at all'

Train Wi-Fi is the "bane of every commuter's existence", said The i Paper. Too many of us have opened our laptop to catch up on important tasks, "only to find that the onboard Wi-Fi connection is patchy or barely working at all". And it's not a service-specific issue – only half of all UK travellers surveyed by watchdog Transport Focus in July 2024 said they were satisfied with internet reliability.

Part of the reason train Wi-Fi proves so unreliable is that "it's not true Wi-Fi at all", said The i Paper. It relies on mobile data signal channelled through SIM cards fixed to the train. The problem is that these mobile internet connections aren't "ubiquitous across the whole country", and just 69% of rural Britain is covered by the main four mobile networks, and areas with fewer masts provide a weaker connection. Train services also tend to cap usage.

Another problem is that "if you were trying to design a system uniquely made to try and limit the spread of Wi-Fi signal, you couldn't do much better than a modern UK train carriage". Their construction materials block electromagnetic signals like Wi-Fi, and crowded trains mean those signals are even more obstructed before they finally reach our laptops or smartphones – where they must be shared between dozens, or hundreds, of passengers.

'Momentum has now swung' towards connectivity

The solution to tiresome train Wi-Fi is more mobile towers, because "the faster you travel, the harder the handover from one tower to another", said the Financial Times. Installing more 5G masts helps to bridge the gaps. From these, the mobile connection could be converted to Wi-Fi via antennas on the roofs of trains. Alternatively, mobile operators could "build out their 4G and 5G networks along railway lines" so passengers could use that service rather than relying on on-board Wi-Fi.

In 2023, transport officials "briefly looked into scrapping free Wi-Fi on trains", arguing that passengers prioritised value for money. But "momentum has now swung towards more connectivity". South Western Railway's new service is a start, but is "only available along 43.5 miles (70km) of track, which express trains take just 30 minutes to pass along", said The Telegraph. Outside that stretch, "passengers will have to use the existing provision, which relies on mobile phone masts away from the railways".

"But be careful what you wish for," said the Financial Times. "Imagine a world in which train passengers (especially the most self-important ones) could seamlessly log into their Zoom calls, or stream short videos without headphones." Many of us would "go from complaining that the Wi-Fi doesn't work to complaining that it does".

Aviation experts across the U.S. are warning that hackers could create a new risk for fliers: The system used on airplanes to warn pilots of impending collisions is vulnerable to attack. This announcement adds a new element to an aviation industry that has had a slew of recent problems, including the fatal crash in Washington, D.C., earlier this year and a series of blackouts at New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport.

The system in question has long been used to avoid collisions in the skies and is standard on modern airplanes. But this new vulnerability has some pilots worried.

What is this system?

The Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) is required on all U.S. passenger airplanes and "alerts pilots when two aircraft come dangerously close to each other," said The New York Times. If the two airplanes come within a certain proximity, TCAS "will alert pilots to a possible crash by instructing them to redirect their aircraft, either by climbing or descending."

The system is not perfect, as evidenced by the mid-air crash in Washington, D.C., in January, which "sparked urgent concerns about air traffic safety" and made people question if TCAS "failed to warn the pilots of the jetliner in time," said Newsweek. Nonetheless, TCAS is a key safety feature, as the system "has been in use for decades and experts say it has significantly reduced collisions," said the Times.

How vulnerable is the system?

If hackers were to gain access to an airplane's TCAS, the "successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities could allow an attacker to manipulate safety systems and cause a denial-of-service condition," said the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. Hackers may be able to generate "spoofed location data" that could "lead to the appearance of fake aircraft on displays and potentially trigger undesired" TCAS warnings.

There are several unconfirmed instances in which this may have already happened. During one notable event on March 1, "more than a dozen planes inbound for Reagan [National Airport] experienced" TCAS warnings, said Intelligencer. As the planes flew closer to the airport, several "audio alarms unexpectedly went off: 'Traffic, traffic!' or 'Descend, descend!'" But the "flight crews realized that nothing was there. Visibility was good." This wasn't unprecedented, as "civil aviation around the world has experienced a growing number of similarly troubling incidents."

The "half-dozen airliners who received the alerts in short succession reacted as they had been trained to do: They followed the computer-generated commands that told them to climb or dive," said The Telegraph. Pilots are worried that the TCAS which "falsely told those pilots that a collision was imminent was not only deliberately spoofed," but that "malicious people around the world" may have been responsible.

The idea of a TCAS hack "scares the shit out of me," one pilot told The Telegraph. Still, not everyone feels that a hack is all that likely. In prior years, pilots "would often see things like miscalibrated transponders on a light aircraft, misreporting and then broadcasting the wrong data and causing weird alerts," Ken Munro, a member of the cybersecurity firm Pen Test Partners, said to the outlet. It is nevertheless "technically possible" for TCAS to be hacked, Munro said, as others have admitted. Pilots "know these attacks exist, but we don't know what would happen if they occurred," said Matt Smith, who performed a TCAS study for the U.K.'s Oxford University.

Riding the rails is one of the best ways to see the United States. Yes, Amtrak is a beleaguered institution. But these trains are able to go where cars often can't, gliding by spectacular scenery in remote reaches of the country. All this while giving passengers the freedom and space to move around. Patience is necessary when traveling by train, as is a spirit of adventure. This guide will turn you into a rail expert.

Advantages of train travel…

No need to arrive at the airport three hours early or double-check that your carry-on items are TSA compliant. And because someone else is driving, the views are yours for the gawking.

You will meander "alongside deserts, forests, mountains, rivers; through coal plants, suburban backyards, cornfields and the occasional Big American City," The Washington Post said. The observation car, with its floor-to-ceiling windows, is "where the magic happens," and after watching the vistas whiz by, you can get out at one of the stops to stretch your legs and poke around near the station.

…and a few drawbacks

Train travel is a lot slower than flying. You take off from Los Angeles and land in New York City about six hours later, while it's three days by train — as long as there are no delays. There is no true transcontinental route on Amtrak; if you want to go from coast to coast you will need to switch trains at least once. On overnight journeys, it can be difficult to sleep in a coach seat, as you can hear "neighbors' conversations at all hours of the night."

Seating and room options

Amtrak has three different seating classes: coach, business and first. Coach is "roomy and comfortable" for most travelers, with the seats offering "generous dimensions," Condé Nast Traveler said. Business seats are "more spacious," with extra legroom and a fold-down footrest, and passengers receive one free non-alcoholic beverage. In both classes, there are outlets, picture windows and "plenty" of storage space for luggage. The Acela, which runs from Boston to Washington, D.C., only has business and first classes.

Private rooms ensure long-distance journeys are more comfortable. Roomettes have two seats that turn into beds, with access to a restroom and shower in the car, while bedrooms have twice the space, plus a sofa, a sink, toilet and shower. Passengers in private accommodations receive lounge access at select train stations and complimentary meals. There are also family rooms and accessible accommodations. On longer journeys, all riders have access to the observation car, dining car and café car; passengers can bring their own food on board as well.

The most picturesque routes

The Coast Starlight between Los Angeles and Seattle is a winner for water views. Find a seat in the observation car and soak up the "panoramic views of waves crashing along the majestic Pacific Ocean coastline," Afar said. The California Zephyr between San Francisco and Chicago reminds riders of the country's "astounding geographical diversity," including the "endless plains" in Nebraska, "red-rock canyons" of Utah and Nevada's "pristine" deserts.

The Adirondack is a route that leaves U.S. borders, departing New York City in the morning and chugging into Montreal come nightfall. During autumn, the trees "put on their fiery autumnal best," but every season is a stunner. The Southwest Chief trek between Chicago and Los Angeles is just as colorful, with passengers enjoying "wondrous desert sunsets" in New Mexico that "turn the skies sherbet orange."

When to buy tickets

The best time to purchase Amtrak tickets is a few months before your journey, "especially if you're reserving a room in a sleeper car," National Geographic said. The early bird also gets the best deal, as Amtrak uses dynamic pricing and the cheapest tickets sell first.

Fares vary, based on the time and day of travel, and you can expect higher prices around holidays and peak travel times. Discounts are available for seniors (10%), military personnel and families (10%), veterans (10%), students (15%) and children (50% for kids 2 to 12 years old). The USA Rail pass offers savings and flexibility, for $500. The ticket lets you take 10 rides in coach during a 30-day period to any of Amtrak's destinations.

'America's roads are killing us'

Andrew Rogers at The Hill

For "generations, America has approached road safety with a reactive mindset: wait for fatalities, then fix the road," says Andrew Rogers. This has "left us with roads built for speed and sprawl, not safety and sustainability." Americans "need to stop looking in the rear-view mirror when it comes to safety — and start seeing risk before it becomes tragedy." Drivers "interact with smart traffic signals, adaptive speed enforcement, telematics and digital sensors." These "patterns reveal design flaws we can fix."

Read more

'Like Michelle Obama, I lost my mother last year. Here's what the year has taught me.'

Desiree Cooper at MSNBC

Exhausted "mothers never retire. If they live long enough, they become matriarchs," says Desiree Cooper. Michelle Obama "isn't having it." It's a "cruel twist to tell a woman she needs to become the top trad-gran after she's already dedicated the lion's share of her life to her family." If Obama "doesn't want to become her tribe's connective tissue, then she may also need to use her time in therapy to define what it means to be a matriarch."

Read more

'Kamala Harris 2028? Hard pass.'

Liza Featherstone at The New Republic

The "most important factor in Donald Trump's win was that Kamala Harris lost," says Liza Featherstone. Harris is "not lacking in charisma," but she "embodies the stereotype of the out-of-touch political elite that Democrats should be rejecting." Her "proximity to the Silicon Valley rich kept her from embracing even a Biden-level of populism and helped her lose the 2024 election." The "next party leader should not come from the social circles of the coastal superrich."

Read more

'I work with sex trafficking victims. Here's how Diddy's trial could help them.'

Beck Sullivan at USA Today

With "Sean 'Diddy' Combs' trial for sex trafficking charges now underway, the public will be exposed to a rare, high-profile human trafficking case," says Beck Sullivan. But there is an "invisible audience paying close attention: current victims of human trafficking who don't yet recognize their own exploitation." When "inaccurate media representations become our cultural standard for human trafficking, real victims will continue to go unseen." It's "crucial we resist the urge to fit victims into familiar molds."

Read more

What happened

The U.S. Navy said Monday that an F/A-18E Super Hornet fighter jet was "lost at sea" after slipping off the deck of the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier, sending the $60 million aircraft into the Red Sea along with a tractor that was towing it into the ship's hanger bay. One sailor sustained "minor injuries" in the accident, the Navy said.

Who said what

"Initial reports from the scene" indicate that the Truman "made a hard turn" to evade incoming fire from Houthi rebels in Yemen, a maneuver that "contributed to the fighter jet falling overboard," CNN said. It was the "second time in just over four months" that the Truman lost an F/A-18, Task & Purpose said. A missile cruiser from the carrier's strike group "accidentally shot down" that fighter jet in December, forcing both pilots to eject. The Truman also "collided with a cargo ship in the eastern Mediterranean Sea near Egypt" in February, leading to the firing of the aircraft carrier's captain, USA Today said.

What next?

The Truman strike group, in the Red Sea as part of President Donald Trump's anti-Houthi operation, and its "embarked air wing" remained "fully mission capable," the Navy said. Houthi-controlled television said a U.S. airstrike Monday hit a prison holding African migrants in Yemen, killing at least 68 people.

If you are hoping to land a deal on your next car, the last few months of the year is the time to strike. Often, carbuyers can find the best deals starting in the fall through early winter, ahead of new models hitting the lots in the new year.

But if you really want to squeeze as much savings as possible out of your next car purchase — especially amid potential price hikes due to tariffs — you can get even more granular about timing than just general seasons. Certain parts of the month and even specific days of the week can increase your odds of shaving off just a little more from the price.

When can you get the best deal on a car?

October through December is generally the best time to purchase a car. But if you "want to get the best deal, you might want to wait until December, even though you'll run the risk of having fewer cars to choose from," said Edmunds.

If you don't want to hold out until December, at least try to wait until the month's end. That's because "you're likely to find competitive car-buying deals toward the last week of any month or quarter," since "this is when car salespeople are more motivated to slash sticker prices even if it means they'll get lower commissions," said MarketWatch.

As for which day of the week to go in, "Monday is usually the best day of the week to buy a car" since "showrooms will be the least busy," said MarketWatch. However, Tuesday or Wednesday can also be a good bet, especially in areas where dealerships aren't open on Sundays, said Edmunds.

Does the same timing apply for buying a used car?

In short, yes. Fall tends to be a "good time" to buy a used car, said GOBankingRates, especially if you plan to "head to your local car dealer," as "you'll likely find that they're trying to move their current inventory off the lot as quickly as possible."

But the start of the calendar year, when the weather is colder, may be even better. If you have a high level of control over your timing, "New Year's Eve and New Year’s Day" in particular "are the best days of the year to buy a used car, because there are 47.9% more deals than average," said CNBC, citing analysis by iSeeCars, a search engine for used cars. Martin Luther King Jr. Day marks "the second-best time of year to buy a used car, with 43.3% more deals than usual."

Another "sweet spot" for used car buyers is from early April to early May, said The Wall Street Journal, because "when people get their tax refund back in the spring, a lot of them go car shopping." This can lead dealerships to "compete for customers by offering deals."

Are some years better than others for buying?

It is important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees when car shopping. While certain days of the week and periods of the year can offer better deals, the broader context of what is going on with the economy that year can have a sizable impact on prices as well.

In 2025, a major thing to watch is Trump's tariffs and how they are affecting the auto industry. This year, buying sooner than later may actually end up being less costly, since "by the end of the year, if not sooner," it is expected that tariffs "will force sticker prices to rise significantly," said The New York Times. Given added costs on imported cars and car parts, "prices could be 8% higher," effectively "pushing the average selling price of a new car above $50,000," said the Times, citing Cox Automotive. Plus, due to the added costs that automakers have been absorbing, "shoppers will see fewer options," particularly when it comes to "entry-level models" affordable to buyers on a budget, said auto industry publication Car and Driver.

For buyers planning to take out an auto loan, the trajectory of interest rates that year is also important to keep an eye on. Although personal factors like your credit score hold sway on the rate you receive, the broader interest rate environment matters too. "When the federal funds rate is up, auto loan rates typically follow suit," said Experian; "once inflation becomes more manageable and the Fed cuts its interest rate, however, that move trickles down to lenders, which often lower their interest rates as well." In August 2025, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell "gave a tepid indication of possible interest rate cuts" ahead, though decisions will ultimately hinge on labor market conditions and the impact of Trump administration policies, said CNBC.

Another change this year that buyers should factor into their calculations is Trump tax bill's new auto loan interest deduction. The tax break, which "will start with purchases made in 2025 and run through 2028," allows car buyers to "write off up to $10,000 a year in interest paid on qualifying auto loans," with no need to itemize, said Kiplinger. There are several caveats to the deduction, however, including that it "doesn't work with used cars or with loans taken out before 2025," and that the car you purchase "must have its 'final assembly' in the United States," said USA Today.

How else can you score car-buying savings?

Of course, timing isn't everything when it comes to buying a car. Other tips to keep in mind include:

Get pre-approved before you start shopping. Before you enter a car dealership, get pre-approved for a car loan. This can help you understand how much you can afford to spend and whether your credit needs improvement, said NPR. You will also have more leverage to negotiate.

Do your research. It's also smart to gather lots of information, including on vehicles and their features, the fair market value and average selling price. "When car dealers know you've done your homework, they are more likely to offer their best deal first," said GoBankingRates.

Comparison shop at different dealerships. Shop around and compare what different dealerships can offer. One approach here is to "call, text or email the internet sales department of three dealerships that have the car you want" and "ask each for the total selling price, including any additional accessories that may have already been installed on the car," said Edmunds. Then, either take the best offer or bring it to the other dealerships to see if they'll do even better.

Improve your credit score. Another way to lower the rate you get on your next auto loan is by boosting your credit score, whether by lowering your credit utilization or fixing any errors on your credit report.

What happened

A New York City sightseeing helicopter broke apart in midair and crashed into the Hudson River Thursday, killing all five passengers — a family of Spanish tourists — and the pilot.

Who said what

Emergency boats with divers surrounded the Bell 206 helicopter soon after it crashed into the Hudson near Jersey City, New York Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said. "Four victims were pronounced dead on scene, and two more were removed to local area hospitals, where, sadly, both succumbed to their injuries." The dead included Agustín Escobar, an executive at tech company Siemens, his wife and three kids, The New York Times and The Associated Press said. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the crash an "unimaginable tragedy."

Video of the crash showed the Bell 206, operated by New York Helicopters, tumbling downward without its main rotor blades attached. Once the pilot "loses both the tail and the rotor, there's nothing left to do," aviation lawyer Jim Brauchle told The Washington Post "It's an unrecoverable event, unfortunately."

What next?

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, the "latest U.S. aviation disaster," the AP said. "At least 38 people have died in helicopter accidents in New York City since 1977," including fatal tourist helicopter crashes in 2009 and 2018. "Tens of thousands of tourist helicopter flights depart from heliports in and around New York City" each year, the Times said.

America's national railway service could be heading off the tracks, as Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner announced on March 19 that he was stepping down from his position. Gardner's resignation comes amid a flurry of criticism aimed at Amtrak by the Trump administration — specifically from Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency.

The White House has been at odds with Amtrak over its desire to privatize the company, something that Musk has mused over several times. Gardner's resignation came at the specific request of the Trump administration, according to a report from Reuters. His resignation, along with continuing pushes for privatization, have left some wondering where the for-profit company goes from here.

Push to privatize

Amtrak is one of several institutions, along with the U.S. Postal Service, that Musk has suggested privatizing, claiming that a national rail service is a burden on taxpayer dollars. President Donald Trump himself hasn't spoken on the privatization issue, but this anger toward Amtrak isn't new for his White House. Trump "tried to cut federal funding for the company in half during his first administration — but it's taken a sharper turn this time around," said Gizmodo. Billions of federal dollars for Amtrak "got caught in Trump's federal funding freeze," putting further strain on the country's train commuters.

Gardner had "tried to go along with as much of the Trump administration's demands as possible," but it "seemed inevitable that he and the company would continue to receive significant scrutiny," said Gizmodo. Musk, meanwhile, has "mused about the privatization of Amtrak, claiming that the railroad's service pales in comparison to the high-speed rail systems in other countries," said Bloomberg.

Musk reportedly "called Amtrak 'kind of embarrassing' — while comparing the U.S. carrier to passenger rails seen in other countries, such as bullet trains in China," said The Associated Press. While countries like China have fully state-owned railway systems, others, like Canada, have a mix of both. Musk has further claimed that privatization is the "only way to fix the national rail system," said The New York Times. Amtrak has indeed "struggled with aging infrastructure and frequent delays" and has never turned a profit.

Amtrak's future

Amtrak could be brought in a different direction if Musk's wishes comes true. The company is the nation's largest high-speed rail provider, and privatizing it "could have a huge impact on the technology's future," said Newsweek. Such an effort "could prompt investment and improve services for passengers," a spokesperson for AmeriStarRail, a company considering a private sector investment with Amtrak, said to Newsweek. AmeriStarRail and other "private-sector investors recognize a significant opportunity to grow ridership, revenue and profits," the spokesperson said.

However, while Trump and Musk lament over Amtrak, the company seems to be heading in the right direction, at least on paper. During the 2024 fiscal year, Amtrak said it saw an all-time ridership record of 23.8 million people. This represented a 15% boost from 2023. Ticket revenue also reached $2.5 billion, a "first in Amtrak's history and 9% higher year-over-year." It also dropped its losses 9% to $705.2 million. And while "profitability is not Amtrak's objective," according to the company itself, Amtrak expects to make a profit sometime during the next four years.

'Airport theory' is the increasingly popular trend of arriving at an airport close to flight departure times. It is "shaking up air travel" after gaining "tens of millions of views on TikTok", said Newsweek.

Airlines have warned against the tactic but many social media users are promoting it because it "limits passengers' wasted time by streamlining the airport experience".

'Poor time management skills'

TikTok has been flooded with videos of people trying out airport theory. Several creators have recorded themselves "navigating airports and clearing security with just minutes to spare", said Mail Online.

Travellers have been getting mixed results. Lexi Smith managed to clear security in five minutes even after she was "randomly selected for an additional security screening" and was able to get on her flight "20 minutes after arriving at LAX". However, things didn't go so well for Jenny Kurtz, who followed the popular trend "just to find terminal screens flashing 'flight closed' at the Chicago-gate".

The discrepancy in results elicited mixed reactions from users across the globe, with some people "fully embracing" it while others are calling it a "reckless attempt to justify poor time management skills".

'Steer clear of this practice'

The rise of 'airport theory' content coincided with a 645% increase in Google searches for “I missed my flight” in the past month, said the New York Post.

Testing the theory is a "risk people should not take", said the Daily Express. With Easter around the corner, peak travel season is fast approaching and travel experts have warned airline passengers to "steer clear of this practice at all costs" to avoid ruining their holiday.

In fact, passengers are being urged to book fast-track boarding services as it can "cut down the time spent in queues and provides a smoother airport experience".

What happened

Southwest Airlines said Tuesday it will start charging most passengers for checked baggage, ending a longtime free-luggage policy that the company had touted as an important differentiator as recently as last fall. The new policy, which follows other quirks recently discarded by the idiosyncratic airline, applies to flights booked starting May 28.

Who said what

Southwest has "struggled recently and is under pressure from activist investors," The Associated Press said, and the budget airline is "betting that the added bag fees will outweigh the loss of business from travelers who look closely at the costs on top of ticket prices." Southwest is "playing a dangerous game," Thrifty Traveler executive editor Kyle Potter said to The Washington Post, lamenting "the end of an era" and of "maybe the single most popular policy in the entire U.S. airline industry."

Passengers loved Southwest's "quirks and perks," including its "'Hunger Games' open seating policy," never-expiring flight credits, "flight attendant jokes" and "especially the free checked bags," Hannah Sampson said at the Post. Now "much of that is about to be gone." That's "what happens when a hedge fund takes over," aviation journalist Benét J. Wilson said to the outlet. "They dismantle everything that made Southwest special. And it's going to be just another legacy airline."

What next?

Southwest was one of several airlines that "flashed an early-warning signal" Tuesday, "suggesting that consumers and businesses were starting to get nervous amid wider economic and political uncertainty," The New York Times said. But while shares of United, American and Delta fell, Southwest's stock closed up more than 9%.

What happened

A container ship hauling toxic chemicals collided with a tanker carrying jet fuel for the U.S. military off the northeast coast of England Monday, causing multiple explosions. The crews of both vessels abandoned ship, and Britain's coast guard said 36 sailors were safely taken ashore. The owner of the cargo ship, the Solong, said one crew member was missing.

Who said what

The U.S.-flagged tanker Stena Immaculate was carrying Jet-A1 fuel for the U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command, a military spokesperson and the ship's U.S. operator, Crowley Logistics, told Reuters. One crew member told the BBC that the Solong, registered in Portugal and owned by German firm Ernst Russ, came out of nowhere and collided with the 600-foot Stena Immaculate at 16 knots.

"Both vessels have sustained significant damage in the impact of the collision and the subsequent fire," Ernst Russ said in a statement. Some residents reported seeing a "massive fireball" after the crash, said Martyn Boyers, CEO of the Port of Grimsby East. The Solong was carrying 15 containers of sodium cyanide, a toxic chemical used in gold mining and other commercial applications, and alcohol.

What next?

The collision released jet fuel into the Humber Estuary, and "efforts to assess any environmental damage are still ongoing," the BBC said. The impact on seabirds, gray seals and fish from the jet fuel was likelier to be more immediate and of shorter duration than with a crude oil spill, Mark Hartl, a scientist at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University, said to The Washington Post. But the fuel can still be hazardous for wildlife, and the fact that it's burning "changes the complexity and chemistry," so "it's a bit early to speculate" on the final damage.

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Wednesday that the Trump administration was rescinding federal approval of New York City's first-in-the-nation congestion pricing toll program for vehicles entering Lower and Midtown Manhattan. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which manages the new program, quickly filed suit and said it would keep collecting the $9 toll until a court told it otherwise.

Who said what

Duffy said in a letter to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul that congestion pricing was a "slap in the face to working-class Americans" and complained that the tolls supported the city's robust subway and bus system, not road maintenance. "CONGESTION PRICING IS DEAD," President Donald Trump said on social media. "Manhattan, and all of New York, is SAVED. LONG LIVE THE KING!"

"We are a nation of laws, not ruled by a king," Hochul shot back in a statement. "We'll see you in court." The MTA said in its lawsuit that the program has worked as intended since its Jan. 5 launch, with traffic below 60th Street down 9%, reducing accidents and saving drivers an average of 20 to 30 minutes within the district, while foot traffic increased. Other cities that adopted congestion pricing, like London and Stockholm, have had similar results over the longer term, The New York Times said. "The tolls are typically unpopular at the onset before gradually winning over more public support."

"It feels like the commuters of our city and our region are now the roadkill on Donald Trump's revenge tour against New York," Hochul said at a news conference. "New York hasn't labored under a king in over 250 years and we sure as hell are not going to start now." Whether you "love congestion pricing or hate it," she said, "this is an attack on our sovereign identity, our independence from Washington."

What next?

Duffy did not give a time frame for trying to shut down congestion pricing, saying only that federal officials would contact the state to "discuss the orderly cessation of toll operations." MTA CEO Janno Lieber said tolling would "continue notwithstanding this baseless effort to snatch those benefits away."

What happened

A Delta Air Lines regional jet from Minneapolis flipped upside-down while landing at Toronto's Pearson International Airport Monday afternoon, its tail and one wing shorn off. At least 18 of the 80 people aboard were injured, three of them seriously though none with life-threatening injuries, Delta said.

Who said what

It is unclear what caused the Bombardier CRJ-900 to flip over, though "conditions at the time were harsh," The Washington Post said, with wind gusts of up to 40 miles per hour drifting snow. But the "runway was dry and there was no cross-wind conditions" when rescue crews reached the burning plane a few minutes after the crash, said Toronto Pearson Fire Chief Todd Aitken.

The plane's final descent appeared normal, but "the second that the wheels hit the ground, then everything happened," passenger Pete Koukov told The New York Times. "I unbuckled pretty fast and kind of lowered myself to the floor, which was the ceiling," and "people were panicking." The incident was the latest in a "string of plane crashes in recent weeks" that have "stirred fear among fliers and the aviation community," The Wall Street Journal said.

What next?

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading the investigation of the crash, with assistance from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

A small prototype jet has broken the sound barrier, making it a possible successor to Concorde more than two decades after the iconic aircraft disappeared from our skies.

The test flight might have come "years later than expected and lasted just 12 minutes", said The European, but it could herald the return of supersonic travel, halving some commercial journey times.

What happened to Concorde?

The era of supersonic commercial flying "came to an abrupt end" in 2003 with the retirement of Concorde, said the Financial Times. The revolutionary aircraft's high fuel consumption made it "extremely expensive" to operate and its "loud noise" limited it to only transatlantic routes.

The entire fleet was grounded following a fatal crash in July 2000 and then the wider slump that followed the 9/11 attacks the following year proved to be "the final straw" for Concorde, which was officially retired.

How fast can it go?

The scaled-down prototype, nicknamed the "Baby Boom", broke the sound barrier for the first time during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in California in late January. The small jet, officially called XB-1, reached an altitude of 35,000 feet before accelerating to Mach 1.1 (844mph) – "10% faster than the speed of sound", said Sky News.

Boom Supersonic, the Colorado-based company that made the jet, hailed its test flights as a major milestone towards the return of supersonic air travel. Founder and CEO Blake Scholl said he hopes now to "bring the benefits of supersonic flight to everyone", predicting that the market for supersonic passenger jets could be "easily over 1,000 aircraft".

When might it carry passengers?

The XB-1 is a small prototype. It's 63 feet long, which is about one-third the size of Overture, the supersonic commercial airliner the company hopes to make. Overture is intended to seat between 64 and 80 passengers and travel at speeds of up to Mach 1.7.

That could allow the aircraft to "halve some flight times", said the Financial Times, making trips between London and Miami in just under five hours. Designed to fly more than 600 routes around the world, it's already been pre-ordered 130 times by industry giants such as American Airlines, United Airlines and Japan Airlines.

It would be built using new materials such as carbon fibre and would be more fuel-efficient than Concorde, said Scholl. Its engines would also be able to use sustainable aviation fuel. Boom Supersonic hopes to begin carrying passengers on Overture as early as 2029 and expects to charge around $5,000 for a seat.

A spate of plane crashes in recent months has shaken the public's faith in the safety of air travel.

The crash of a small medical plane in Philadelphia on Sunday, which killed seven people and injured at least 19 more, followed a mid-air collision of a plane and helicopter in Washington DC that claimed the lives of 67 just four days before. Beyond America, there were alarming, high-profile crashes in December in Kazakhstan and South Korea.

Are there more air accidents now?

Despite these recent incidents, commercial planes are still one of the safest modes of travel. Between 2018 and 2022, the fatality rate on commercial aircraft was just one per 13.7 million passenger boardings, according to data from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology cited by France 24.

Plane deaths are, in fact, rarer now than they were between 2008 and 2017, when there was roughly one death for every 7.9 million boardings. In 2024, despite several notable crashes, the overall global accident rate remained low, at approximately 1.3 per one million flights.

What are the main causes of air accidents?

Human error accounts for "up to 80% of aviation accidents", said Euronews, according to research by the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical Academy in Florida. Pilot mistakes contributed to 53% of cases, while mechanical failures were responsible for 21% of accidents. Not surprisingly, a study by plane-maker Airbus found that take-off and landing are the most dangerous moments of any flight.

How risky is flying?

Flying is far safer than driving. Since January 2009, five people have died in accidents on scheduled commercial flights in the United States. By comparison, an average of more than 100 people a day died on America’s roads and highways between 2003 and 2022, said CNN.

"When you arrive at the airport and step aboard the pressurised tube, that's the safest part of your trip. You were more at risk driving to the airport," aviation safety expert Anthony Brickhouse told CNN.

Technological advancements, strict regulations and thorough accident investigations have much improved aviation safety over the years. But some believe there is a risk of "overconfidence" in the system. "We continue to try to downplay everything and talk about how safe the system is," Ed Pierson, director of the Foundation for Aviation Safety, told CNN. "That's not the right mindset. That's the mindset that gets people killed."

What happened

A regional American Airlines flight with 64 people aboard collided with an Army helicopter Wednesday night near Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C. The passenger jet, preparing to land after a nonstop flight from Wichita, Kansas, and the UH-60 Blackhawk both crashed into the frigid Potomac River. The Blackhawk, on a training flight from Fort Belvoir in Virginia, had a crew of three, the Army said.

Who said what

A massive search-and-rescue operation involving about 300 first responders had found "no survivors" as of late last night, and "police have pulled multiple bodies from the water," The Washington Post said. The 60 passengers on American Eagle Flight 5342 included figure skaters, their coaches and family members returning from a development camp in Wichita; at least two of the skaters were Russian, the Kremlin said.

The Wichita area was "thrilled in January 2024 when American Airlines added a nonstop flight to Washington," The New York Times said. But the D.C.-area lawmakers had warned that adding more flights could jeopardize safety at the busy airport, where "at least eight near-midair collisions" occurred last year, according to FAA data. The last major U.S. commercial airline crash was in 2009, near Buffalo.

What next?

Regan National will be closed until at least 11 a.m. Thursday. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead an investigation into the deadly collision.

There are "no survivors" after an American Airlines jet carrying 64 people collided in mid-air with a military helicopter carrying three soldiers in Washington DC last night: the first fatal US air crash since 2009.

Experts are struggling to make sense of how one of the world's most sophisticated airspace control systems was unable to prevent the tragedy. "These sorts of things don't happen in the United States any more," Geoffrey Thomas, an aviation consultant, told the BBC. It's "perplexing".

What did the commentators say?

The collision took place in "some of the most tightly controlled and monitored airspace in the world", three miles south of the White House, said The Guardian.

But the airspace is also very busy, with "debates over congestion" and "concerns at near-miss crashes" in recent years, said The New York Times.

It's "not unusual" for military helicopters to be so close to commercial planes, former RAF pilot George Bacon told the BBC. But military pilots "can choose to fly where they want", while civilian planes have to follow fixed flight paths. That means the onus was on the helicopter to avoid the plane.

Moments before the crash, an air traffic controller could be heard asking the Black Hawk helicopter if it had the jet "in sight", according to audio obtained by CNN. Other audio captures the helicopter pilot confirming that it had seen the aircraft. But "less than 13 seconds later", there were "audible gasps", apparently from the control tower, "at the moment of the crash". What happened in between is "a mystery".

President Donald Trump said the crash "should have been prevented". "Why didn't the control tower tell the helicopter what to do instead of asking if they saw the plane?" he posted on his TruthSocial account. "NOT GOOD!!!"

What next?

Pete Hegseth, recently sworn in as Trump's defense secretary, posted on social media that an investigation had been "launched immediately" by the army and the defense department.

At least 28 bodies have been recovered from the Potomac River so far.

"We don't believe there are any survivors," the Washington DC fire chief said.

President-elect Donald Trump's second term in the White House is days away. With the second iteration of the Trump administration on the horizon, some are wondering how the incoming president's likely lackadaisical stance on regulations will affect the United States — with questions about auto safety high on the list.

This regulatory change, whether for good or bad, is likely to occur sooner rather than later, with legal experts noting that a shift in vehicle safety regulations could have wide-ranging impacts on the auto industry. After Trump won the 2024 election, Reuters reported that his transition team was considering dropping a mandatory crash-reporting rule for autonomous vehicles, largely at the behest of Tesla CEO and Trump ally Elon Musk. Trump advisers later told Reuters that the people making these recommendations had "no role in charting administration policy."

Even if this change is not made, regulatory shifts in the auto industry are likely to be fast-moving under Trump's new administration. While many are raising cautions flags, not everyone seems to consider this a problematic change.

What did the commentators say?

Many of the concerns revolve around self-driving cars, such as the ones manufactured by Tesla. There are currently "no federal regulations that specifically govern autonomous vehicles, and any regulation is left to states," said Tom Krisher at The Associated Press, though federal guidelines have been proposed.

Others are worried about the ability of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to do its job. Mandated reporting for autonomous vehicle crashes has given "NHTSA an important window into what is happening on the road," Ann Carlson, the former acting administrator at NHTSA, said to NPR. If this rule were to be overturned, NHTSA would not have a view into "what is going on on the roadways with what is really novel and interesting, important technology — but technology that we really need to make sure is safe."

It is not only cars, either, as some are worried about trucking regulations under the new administration. Officials have recently "moved ahead with requiring new technologies to reduce crashes and fatalities involving large trucks," but the "incoming administration could install a red light to block their efforts," said Jonathan D. Salant at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Not only did "Trump promise to reduce regulation but incoming Vice President J.D. Vance, while in the U.S. Senate, co-sponsored legislation to block the proposal requiring truckers to use speed limiters." Truckers are "very nervous that safety-oriented rulemaking will be watered down or pulled altogether," Zach Cahalan, the executive director of the Truck Safety Coalition, said to the Post-Gazette.

The "last time the Trump administration was in the White House, they did not advance safety regulations," Harry Adler, principal at the Institute for Safer Trucking, said to the Post-Gazette. However, not everyone seems to be as worried about safety issues. Autonomous vehicle executives are "excited by the prospect of Republicans using their new power to set standards that will help them expand from a handful of cities to communities across the nation," Ian Duncan said at The Washington Post.

There are also hopes by advocacy groups that Trump will help them slash drunk driving fatalities. Biden and Congress "passed a law in 2021 directing federal regulators to require anti-drunken driving technology in all new vehicles," but that "standard is not yet in place, and it's unclear whether the incoming Trump administration will follow through," Grant Schwab said at The Detroit News.

Trump "could be motivated by his personal approach to alcohol," as he abstains from alcohol due to his brother's alcohol-related death. Trump could nonetheless "wish to minimize regulatory pressure on an industry that has so far resisted widespread adoption of available, life-saving technology that can detect impaired driving and prevent vehicle operation."

What next?

Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Transportation, Sean Duffy, has said he intends to allow a federal probe into Tesla's autonomous driving system. He additionally "committed to prioritizing safety on the roadways and in the air" during his confirmation hearings, per NPR. Duffy appears likely to be confirmed by the Senate, and the "automotive industry is bracing for seismic policy change," said Automotive World.

Norway has cemented its reign as a leader in electric vehicle purchases with nine out of 10 new cars sold in Norway last year being powered by electricity.

The Scandinavian nation is "leagues ahead" in the “electric car race", said Quartz, and has "become the poster child" for the transition to EVs, said DW.

Green and robust

As far back as the 1990s, Norway set out to manufacture EVs and, although "early attempts" had "limited commercial success", they "fostered public awareness and acceptance of electromobility", said the outlet.

Norway's "remarkable commitment" to fighting climate change has been "driven by strong government policies, robust infrastructure, and a supportive public". Its "wealth and size" played a part in its "EV success" – it has a population of 5.5 million and is one of the world's richest nations, thanks to substantial oil and gas reserves, ironically.

Norway "penalises" petrol and diesel cars with "high taxes", said Reuters, and exempts EVs from import and value-added taxes to "make them more attractive", although "some levies" were reintroduced in 2023. EVs have been exempt from road tolls and parking fees and were allowed to use bus lanes in and around the capital, Oslo.

The approach has worked because it has been "consistent over time" and maintained by governments of "various political persuasion", said the outlet, in contrast to other countries where "someone puts tax incentives or exemptions and then they pull back again," said Christina Bu, head of the Norwegian EV association.

Offering incentives, rather than banning petrol and diesel cars, has also helped, said the outlet, and another advantage is that Norway "does not have an automaker lobby". Norway's power grid is "one of the greenest and most robust in the world", said DW, and usually produces a "surplus of energy", which helped ease the home charging of EVs.

Ambitious goal

Norway has set a target for all cars sold to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2025, a milestone that would put it a decade ahead of the European Union, of which it is not a member.

But "reaching that ambitious goal" will "likely be a difficult task", said Quartz. Øyvind Solberg Thorsen, from the Norwegian Road Federation, said that "the figures and the increase in share show that the last few percentages" to meet the 2025 target may be "difficult to achieve".

While nearly all new buyers of cars in Norway have gone electric, "some hold-outs remain", noted Reuters, particularly among rental companies, which prefer to use cars that are familiar for tourists.

What happened

The first congestion pricing system in the U.S. took effect in New York City Sunday, with vehicles automatically charged a toll to drive in Manhattan below 60th Street.

Who said what

The toll, initially $9 a day at peak traffic times for most passenger vehicles, is "meant to reduce traffic gridlock in the densely packed city while also raising money to help fix its ailing public transit infrastructure," The Associated Press said. The program "launched without major hiccups" Sunday, following "years of studies, delays and a last-ditch bid by New Jersey" to stop it from taking effect.

What next?

The first "real test for the tolling program will come during the workweek," The New York Times said, but it will "most likely be some time" before it's "clear whether congestion pricing works, or whether it can withstand continuing attempts to overturn it by a broad array of opponents," including President-elect Donald Trump. Proponents noted that congestion pricing in places like London and Stockholm "were largely unpopular when first implemented" but gained approval "as the public felt benefits like faster bus speeds and less traffic," the AP said.

America's love affair with super-sized trucks and SUVs has a downside: The giant vehicles can be a menace to pedestrians, who have died in ever-greater numbers in recent years. That may change.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing new rules designed to "reduce the number of pedestrians killed and seriously injured" on American roadways, NPR said. The number of pedestrians killed in vehicle accidents has risen by 75% since 2009. The reasons for that rise are "complicated," but surely include the "growing size and weight of vehicles." Another factor? Design. Those big vehicles with "higher front ends and blunt profiles" are 45% more likely to cause fatalities than smaller cars and trucks.

The proposed rules will require auto companies to test their vehicles on crash test dummies that "simulate children and adults," said The Associated Press. That testing is expected to reveal "blind spots for drivers" in vehicles that have grown in "size and hood height" over recent years. The aim is to save lives. "We have a crisis of roadway deaths," said one official, "and it's even worse among vulnerable road users like pedestrians." 

What did the commentators say?

Cars are safer than ever "for the people inside of them," Collin Woodard said at Jalopnik. That's not the case for people outside vehicles. Federal regulators have known "for over a decade" that action was needed to protect pedestrians and now it's finally happening. The proposed rules would apply to all American-made vehicles under 10,000 pounds, but "it's no secret that the Escalades and F-150s of the world are the primary targets." The rising number of pedestrian deaths makes the United States an "outlier" — in other developed countries road deaths "have been dropping instead of increasing." The rules could still be watered down, "but this is still a huge step in the right direction."

Giant passenger vehicles in America are "too much of a good thing," said The Economist. Carmakers say they're giving buyers "what they want" by increasing the size of vehicles, but the rising death rate of pedestrians is too high a price to pay for "roomier interiors and more powerful engines." Analyses show a vehicle's weight is a "critical factor" in the survivability of vehicle crashes, and that just makes sense. Despite all the safety features available on American vehicles today, "the laws of physics are cruel." Bottom line: "Reining in the heaviest vehicles would save lives."

What next?

Big trucks and SUVs "could look very different in the near future," said The Street. It's not just safety rules that will prompt the change: Automakers are also pushing — in fits and starts — to transition from gas-guzzling engines to electric vehicles, and the sheer size of many popular vehicles is an obstacle to that shift. "We have to start to get back in love with smaller vehicles," Ford CEO Jim Farley said at the Aspen Ideas Festival. 

If implemented, The Verge said, the rules could save 67 lives a year. That may just be the start. Europe has "gone much further to protect pedestrians" by enacting rules that prevent some of the largest American passenger vehicles from being sold on the market. The new rules are a "step in the right direction," said Cathy Chase, the president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. "But it still falls behind what Europe has successfully done."

A rise in drunken disorder on flights and at airports has led Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary to call for a two drinks per passenger limit at airport bars.

Photos of the "airport pint" have long been an Instagram staple but "booze-fuelled violence" has "surged this summer", said The Telegraph, leading to a conversation about the wisdom and safety of airport boozing.

'Powder and tablets'

Most passengers "show up an hour before departure" said O'Leary, which is "sufficient for two drinks", but if the flight is "delayed by two or three hours you can't be guzzling five, six, eight, ten pints of beer".

He added that "as long as they can stand up and shuffle", passengers "will get through" boarding and "then when the plane takes off, we see the misbehaviour".

"We don’t want to begrudge people having a drink", he said, "but we don't allow people to drink-drive", yet "we keep putting them up in aircraft at 33,000 feet".

In the past, most drunk passengers fell asleep on the plane, he said, but now, thanks to "powder and tablets", they stay awake, leading to an increase in assaults on cabin crew and confrontations between passengers.

It's "certainly a growing problem", former British Airways pilot Nick Eades, the world's longest-serving Boeing 747 captain, told the broadsheet.

Previously, passengers "would dress up and put a shirt and tie on" for air travel, but now, "flights are so cheap" and "all the airports want to do is get you into the bar and encourage you to drink excessively".

The boss of Turkish-German budget airline SunExpress, Max Kownatzki, told TTG that British travellers are "more high-spend, more hedonistic" after holidaymakers on a flight out of the UK drank the entire stock of booze for a four-hour flight to Turkey in the space of just 25 minutes.

A new YouGov poll of 6,771 British adults found that 62% said they strongly, or tend to, support a two alcoholic drink per passenger limit at airport bars, reported Business Traveller, but some have responded to O'Leary's campaign with cynicism.

'Lairy minority'

Wetherspoons founder Sir Tim Martin told The Times that he's "had no complaints about our pubs from the airport authorities or airlines that I'm aware of in recent years".

Suggesting hypocrisy on the part of the Ryanair boss, Martin pointed out that "years ago" his chain "stopped selling 'shooters' at airports, as well as 'double-up' offers", while O'Leary's airline still "offers a discount on Irish whiskey if a double is ordered".

No one "would ever be so cynical as to note that a limit on consumption in the airport might drive up sales elsewhere", wrote corporate comms professional Gavin Devine on X, but O'Leary's campaign "would be so much more compelling if it was combined with halting sales of booze on board his planes".

"At its best", wrote Sean Thomas in The Telegraph, drinking in airports is "one of the great pleasures of travel". Airports are "crowded, stressful, labyrinthine, bureaucratic" and "full of screaming babies or passengers with 98 items of oversized luggage".

The best way to "de-stress from all this" is "a drink, and maybe four drinks, not two". A "lairy minority" might exist, but airports shouldn't "ruin the fun of the many because of the sins of the few".

Is it "still safe to fly"? That's the alarming question asked by one newspaper as it reported that 2024 has already been "one of the worst for air travel that anyone can remember".

But just how dangerous is air travel and what has caused this year to be so bad?

'Horror comics'

This year "has been one of the worst for air accidents that anyone can remember", said The Sunday Times. It got off to a tragic start in January when Japan Airlines flight 516 collided with a De Havilland coastguard plane as it landed in Toyko, killing five people.

Within days, a panel blew out on Alaska Airlines flight 1282, "leaving a gaping hole in the cabin" and "terrified passengers breathing through oxygen masks". These two incidents saw "aviation safety thrown into the spotlight", said Euractiv. Months later, the front windscreen of an Austrian Airlines Airbus A320 flying from Mallorca to Vienna was shattered and most of the nose cone was torn off.

Turbulence has been a major issue in 2024, with serious injuries being caused and the first death on a large commercial airliner since 1997. In May, a Boeing 777 hit "some of the worst turbulence that Singapore Airlines pilots have experienced", said The Sunday Times. A passenger died of a heart attack and more than 40 suffered skull, brain, spinal or bone injuries.

Then, earlier this month, all 62 passengers and crew died when the Voepass ATR 72-500 turboprop they were travelling in crashed in Brazil after the plane "corkscrewed down 17,000ft in just one minute".

Meanwhile, airline bosses told the newspaper there has been an increase in "horror comics" – the internal air safety reports that pilots have to file if they encounter serious turbulence or other safety issues on a flight.

All of this is making passengers more anxious. In June, the analytics company Quantum Metric found that one in five travellers aged 18-54 now checks the aircraft type when buying an air ticket and one in four plans to take fewer flights this year due to safety concerns.

'Catastrophic combination'

So what's gone wrong? Aviation is "being assailed on two fronts" – a "nosedive" at Boeing and "increasing turbulence", said The Sunday Times.

"Poorly made aircraft" are an issue, and a series of Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes were caused by a "catastrophic combination of corner-cutting, poor risk assessment and a calculated failure to inform airlines, pilots and regulators about changes to flight control software on the new jet that went into service in 2017".

Tim Clark, president of Emirates, the world's largest international carrier, said it is a "fact of life" that there has been "an uptick in clear air turbulence in the last year or two". Clear air turbulence is the most dangerous kind because pilots cannot see or predict it. Writing for The Irish Times, Paula Gahan said that after a decade as a cabin crew member, she had "little doubt" that turbulence is "getting worse" – and scientists support this.

Paul Williams, professor of atmospheric science at Reading University, told The Sunday Times that climate change is to blame, because rising air temperatures are disrupting the speed and flow of jet streams. But Nick Careen, head of operations, safety and security at IATA, the aviation industry’s trade body, said: "We certainly can't put a finger on saying this is all environmentally driven" and "there needs to be more study".

A Harvard University study from 2017 found that the odds that a plane you are flying on will crash are one in 1.2 million and the odds of dying in a crash are one in 11 million. To put these figures in context, your chances of dying in a car accident are one in 5,000.

What happened

The Canadian government ordered the country's two main freight railroads and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference union into binding arbitration, forcing an end to a 17-hour shutdown. The railroads, Canadian National and Canadian Pacific Kansas City Southern (CPKC), had locked out 10,000 union engineers, conductors and dispatchers at midnight amid an impasse in labor contract negotiations.

Who said what

A "prolonged shutdown could have brought severe economic repercussions" for Canada's "export-driven economy," The New York Times said. Roughly half of Canada's exports, mostly to the U.S., may have come to a halt, snarling supply chains and harming "several sectors of Canada's economy, including agriculture, mining, forestry, oil and manufacturing."

"We gave negotiations every possible opportunity to succeed," said Steve MacKinnon, Canada's labor minister. But "impacts of the current impasse are being borne by all Canadians," and the government has a "responsibility to ensure industrial peace." Teamsters Canada Rail Conference President Paul Boucher said his union is "deeply disappointed by this shameful decision," adding Canadian National and CPKC "manufactured this crisis" and "took the country hostage." The railways, which had asked the government for binding arbitration and been rejected, praised the decision.

What next?

MacKinnon said he expected the trains to start moving again "within days." 

What happened

Delta Air Lines canceled more than 800 flights on Monday, struggling to recover from a worldwide technology outage even as most other airlines and affected companies largely resumed normal operations. The outage started Friday when cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike released a faulty update for Microsoft Windows devices, sparking global mayhem at airlines, hospitals, logistics companies and other institutions. Delta was hit especially hard, canceling more than 5,500 flights total.

Who said what

It will be "another couple of days" before "the worst is clearly behind us," Delta CEO Ed Bastian said to employees Monday. "Today will be a better day than yesterday, and hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be that much better again."

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said he told Bastian on Sunday that his agency had received "hundreds of complaints" about Delta and made clear "we will hold them to all applicable passenger protections," including refunds for customers who want them.

What next?

The chairs of the House Homeland Security Committee and its cybersecurity subcommittee told CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz on Monday to prepare to testify and "detail how this incident happened and the mitigation steps CrowdStrike is taking" to "ensure that it does not happen again."