Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Good morning. Conflicting accounts emerge over the sudden closure of a major city's airspace.
This unnecessary decision has caused chaos and confusion in the El Paso community.
Conditions at ICE facilities leave detainees wanting to return to their country of origin. The Associated Press tells us why they're stuck. And the personal injury lawyer who could become Team USA's oldest ever Winter Olympics competitor.
Chapter 2: What caused the sudden closure of El Paso airspace?
It's Thursday, February 12th. I'm Cecilia Ley, in for Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On Tuesday night, out of nowhere, federal officials mysteriously closed a large patch of airspace over El Paso, Texas, bewildering pilots.
Okay, ground stop 0630 for how long? 10 days. So the airport's totally closed? Apparently, we just got informed about 30 minutes to an hour ago. So for 10 days, you guys are not open? Well, we won't be here, but no air traffic. Okay, thanks for that heads up.
El Paso Airport hosts about 3.5 million passengers and serves not only large areas in Texas, but parts of New Mexico and northern Mexico.
Chapter 3: How did the El Paso community react to the airspace disruption?
Dan LaMoth is a Pentagon reporter for The Washington Post. He told us the sudden decision caught everyone off guard.
I think in particular, the idea that you would restrict it for 10 days was pretty striking. You know, it would be one thing to restrict it for a couple hours for a specific reason.
Chapter 4: What issues are reported inside ICE facilities?
But a 10-day period of time, that's a major airport, that's a major city. It just struck people as kind of like completely out of pocket.
And yet, despite the order, airspace opened just a few hours later. This confusion appears to center on government departments at odds with one another.
The Pentagon was interested in testing counter drone technology, and I think using the counter drone technology. And we're told it was a laser based technology, basically shooting down drones was the idea. And FAA was not sufficiently comfortable with how this would work, and whether commercial flights would be safe.
So when they didn't have the level of detail they wanted, we are told that they then restricted the airspace.
The Trump administration didn't address claims of miscommunication publicly. Instead, they said that drones operated by Mexican cartels had breached U.S. airspace. Multiple outlets reported that the Pentagon gave Customs and Border Protection the green light to use the lasers without coordinating with the Federal Aviation Administration. But it's not even clear what they actually hit.
They apparently did shoot down a couple things. There is reporting that they actually ended up shooting down Mylar party balloons. So not a threat, if that's what it was.
Reports suggest aviation officials had warned a closure like this could happen if they weren't given the time to review how laser systems might cause disruptions, and a meeting was in place to discuss the technology next week. El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson criticized the disruption in his community.
Medical evacuation flights were forced to divert to Las Cruces. All aviation operations were grounded, including emergency flights. This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9-11.
Meanwhile, El Paso's Democratic Representative Veronica Escobar said she was skeptical of the administration's explanation, suggesting that drone invasions at the border are common in the region for as long as drones have been around. Lamothe told us the Pentagon wants the authority to use counter-drone systems for the border and for big events like the upcoming World Cup.
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Chapter 5: How did the Pentagon and FAA conflict over airspace restrictions?
I'm ready to be deported. Before we let you go, a few other stories we're following. The mass shooting at a school in Canada on Monday left at least six people dead, including a teacher and five students, and dozens more injured. Police identified the suspect as 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootselaar, a former student who died at the scene from a self-inflicted wound.
The suspect's mother and stepbrother were also found dead at a nearby home, and a motive hasn't been established. Yesterday, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney addressed Parliament.
Families in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, woke to a different world. Parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, began this day as their first day on earth without someone they love dearly. What happened has left our nation in shock and all of us in mourning.
Van Root-Solar reportedly had a lapsed gun license. Canada has stricter firearm laws than the U.S., but as Reuters reports, the federal government has struggled to deliver on a politically divisive gun buyback program that was implemented after a mass shooting five years ago. After a difficult 2025, the jobs market has made a surprisingly good start this year. Official figures show that U.S.
employers added 130,000 positions last month, the strongest growth in over a year. Gains were concentrated in healthcare, social assistance, and construction fields, but the picture was more mixed for white-collar workers. Over 30,000 jobs were lost across financial and information sectors, giving some economists pause on having an overly enthusiastic outlook.
According to the Wall Street Journal, feds will likely maintain a wait-and-see posture before making further rate cuts based on the January report. And finally, the Olympics can make heroes out of people from all walks of life, including personal injury lawyer and curler Rich Roonan. At 54 years old, the Minnesotan could become the oldest American athlete in the Winter Games history.
Despite his age, Roonan insists he's still a force to be reckoned with and wears a T-shirt that reads, "'I'm not the dad and I'm not the coach,' just in case anyone mistakes him for anything but a competitor." The Wall Street Journal notes that Runin is an alternate, meaning the slip-and-fall attorney will only get to play if someone, well, slips and falls.
You can find all these stories and more in the Apple News app. And if you're already listening in the news app right now, we've got a narrated article coming up next. Wired takes a deep dive into a cybercrime compound in Southeast Asia and profiles the whistleblower tried to take it down from the inside. If you're listening in the podcast app, follow Apple News Plus Narrated to find that story.
And I'll be back with the news tomorrow.
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