The sudden shutdown of airspace in Texas earlier this week was due to a lack of communication over the use of an anti-drone laser by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol during an apparent attempt to stop operations by Mexican drug cartels, according to reports.

The use of the laser, sanctioned by the Pentagon but not relayed to aviation authorities, resulted in the sudden closure of the airspace over El Paso, Texas by the Federal Aviation Administration late Tuesday, according to The New York Times.

A Trump administration official told The Independent that Mexican cartel drones “breached” American airspace, though sources close to the matter told The Times that what USCBP officials believed to be a drone turned out to be a party balloon.

Defense Department officials were reportedly present during the incident, the outlet reported. However, the department later claimed that the threat from “drones” were no longer present.

The Independent has contacted the Defense Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the FAA for clarity over the incident.

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A source told AP that the laser was deployed near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford did not consult the White House, Pentagon or Homeland Security officials over the decision.

The technology was used this week used despite a meeting scheduled for later this month between the Pentagon and the FAA to discuss the issue, the sources added.

In its initial announcement online the FAA stated that all flight operations at the southwestern airport — located near the U.S.-Mexico border — would be prohibited for 10 days from February 11-21 due to “special security reasons.”

The ban spanned a radius of 10 nautical miles and it applied from the ground up to about 18,000 feet. “No pilots may operate an aircraft in the areas covered,” the FAA said, though it noted that Mexican airspace is excluded.

However, instead of days the ban was lifted just hours later.

“The temporary closure of airspace over El Paso has been lifted,” the FAA said in a statement on Wednesday morning. “There is no threat to commercial aviation. All flights will resume as normal.”

In a travel advisory posted on Wednesday, the airport said that the ban impacts all flights, including “commercial, cargo and general aviation.” It noted that travelers should get into contact with airlines for the “most up-to-date flight status information.”

Meanwhile, the same flight prohibition had also been issued over Santa Teresa, New Mexico, located a few miles from El Paso, according to the FAA.

Reactions from officials

On Wednesday morning, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, who represents El Paso, described the ban as unusual, and that she was still scrambling to get the facts.

“The highly consequential decision by FAA to shut down the El Paso Airport for 10 days is unprecedented and has resulted in significant concern within the community,” she wrote in a post on X on Wednesday morning.

“From what my office and I have been able to gather overnight and early this morning there is no immediate threat to the community or surrounding areas,” she said, adding that she has urged the federal government to lift the ban immediately.

In a statement, City Representative Chris Canales said that there is no indication the area faces any “kind of imminent safety threat.” But he described the lack of advance notice as “especially troubling.”

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“This is going to have a deep economic impact” on the region, “including in southern New Mexico,” New Mexico Rep. Gabe Vasquez said in a video posted on X on Wednesday morning.

The medium-sized El Paso airport — which is the seventy-third largest in the nation — services over three million people per year. Over 1,000 flights were scheduled during the next 10 days, according to Cirium, an aviation firm, indicating thousands of travelers could have been impacted.

At a news conference on Wednesday after the ban was lifted, El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson criticized the federal government’s actions.

“I want to be very, very clear that this should’ve never happened,”Johnson said. “You cannot restrict air space over a major city without coordinating with the city, the airport, the hospitals, the community leadership…That failure to communicate is unacceptable.”

The lack of a clear explanation for the sudden closure — and quick reversal — has fueled fear and speculation online.

“Shouldn’t the citizens of El Paso know if they’re in any danger?” one user wrote on X. “I would hate to think our government is causing unnecessary panic.”

“Folks. Pay attention. This is unprecedented,” Juliette Kayyem, a CNN national security analyst, wrote on social media. “El Paso airport is the ‘gateway to Mexico.’ He’s going after the cartels, I suspect.”

What travelers should do

According to the FAA, there are no federal requirements pertaining to cancelled or delayed flights. Instead, each airline has its own policies.

“If an airline has made a commitment to provide a particular service or compensation, then the Department can hold the airline accountable,” the Department of Transportation’s website states.

It notes that stranded travelers can ask airline staff if they can compensate them for the cost of hotels or meals.

Following the El Paso airport closure, United Airlines issued a statement saying that travelers can exchange their tickets for new flights without paying a fee or fare difference. Southwest Airlines said it had “notified affected customers and will share additional information as it becomes available.”

LUBBOCK, Texas — There was no stirring comeback this time.

And the end result was the same as it has been in each of Colorado’s most recent road outings — discouraging, embarrassing and downright ugly.

No. 16 Texas Tech battered the Buffaloes into submission Wednesday, topping CU 78-44 at United Supermarkets Arena. It was the Buffs’ 12th consecutive loss against a team ranked in the Associated Press Top 25, and their 24th consecutive loss against an AP Top 25 foe in a true road game.

Texas Tech (18-6, 8-3 Big 12) pushed its lead to 16 points in the first half when the Buffs received a spark from freshman wing Ian Inman, who came off the bench to knock down four consecutive 3-pointers. The last of those 3-pointers cut the Red Raiders’ lead to eight points with 3 minutes, 41 seconds remaining in the first half, and the Buffs were in position to get a defensive stop when LeJuan Watts launched an awkward 3-pointer at the shot clock buzzer.

Watts, though, tracked down his own offensive rebound, leading to a 3-pointer from Tech’s Jaylen Petty on the extra possession. That shot started a 12-3 half-closing run for the Red Raiders, who owned a 39-22 lead at the break.

Texas Tech nearly squandered a 24-point lead in Boulder last month, with a Buffs rally falling short in a two-point loss, but this time the Red Raiders didn’t let CU back in the game. Tech opened the second half with an 11-1 run, holding the Buffs without a field goal for the first 4 minutes, 54 seconds after halftime.

Texas Tech dominated the glass, posting a 47-30 rebounding advantage while turning 17 offensive rebounds into a 21-0 edge in second-chance points.

Texas Tech forward JT Toppin posted is Big 12-leading 15th double-double, finishing with 16 points and 18 rebounds. Inman finished 4-for-5 on 3-pointers with a season-high 12 points, but the rest of the Buffs finished just 2-for-20 from long range. CU shot a season-low .291 overall.

CU (14-11, 4-8 Big 12) faces another tough road challenge Saturday at No. 22 BYU (2 p.m. MT, Fox Sports 1).

École Polytechnique shooting survivor Nathalie Provost says it took her several weeks to return to the site of the Montreal massacre, but doing so allowed her to reclaim her life and create a sense of safety again.

She was shot in the leg, foot and forehead by a gunman who killed 14 women and injured more than a dozen people in 1989, including six of her classmates.

“We cannot live in the fear that it can happen,” Provost said, emotion still ripe in her voice 37 years later.

Her reflections on healing come in response to one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history on Tuesday in Tumbler Ridge, a small community in British Columbia, where nine people are dead, including the suspect.

Provost, now a member of Parliament in Quebec, says going back to school to finish her undergraduate degree once she was released from hospital was her way of moving forward. She says that was the best thing she could have done at the time.

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Now as a mother of four, she acknowledges how difficult that must have been for her own mother, breaking into tears as she speaks of the sorrow and fear that must be consuming the parents of Tumbler Ridge right now.

“I’m so sad. I just cannot imagine what it is being 12, 13, 15, 16 years old and looking at what they were looking at yesterday evening. I remember what I saw. And for all of those who saw horror in their life, I am so sad,” she said.

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Quebec announces major investment at Polytechnique Montréal, questions linger for CEGEPs

Like many other parents across the county, Vancouver psychologist Dr. Valerie Caldeira says it was difficult to send her kids to daycare Wednesday morning.

“My sense of safety, also shattered,” she said, adding, “You kind of have to trust that they will be OK.”

Caldeira says it’s going to take time for the country to recover and that returning to routine is an important step, whether that’s going to extracurriculars or sticking to meal times.

“To have that sense of normalcy – that will really help restore a sense of safety,” Caldeira said.

While our sense of danger might be heightened, Dr. Allison Crawford, a chief medical officer for 9-8-8: Suicide Crisis Helpline, says that is not permanent, and there is hope for restoration.

She said it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, shocked, devastated, and that just knowing other Canadians are feeling this way can be validating and establish social cohesion.

“While we acknowledge the magnitude of this loss now, and have to do work to help people feel a sense of safety and connection …that’s not permanently shattered,” Crawford said.

“I think there’s lots of hope that we will collectively come back together and have that sense of safety restored.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 11, 2026.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

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Polytechnique expands scholarship program to 14 women in memory of 1989 tragedy

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As work on the first phase of the North End sewage treatment plant nears completion, City of Winnipeg officials provided a look inside the construction of the most expensive project in Winnipeg’s history. 

At an estimated $3.2 billion, the total project cost is more than the city’s entire 2026 budget. On top of the cost, it’s also one of the most complex projects the city has ever undertaken, officials said on Wednesday.

“One of our colleagues in the city drew an analogy between doing multiple organ transplants, while the patient is alive,” Matt Dryburgh, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, told reporters. 

Every day, millions of litres of raw sewage continue flowing through the site even as crews connect new infrastructure to the old.

The North End facility treats roughly 70 per cent of Winnipeg’s wastewater and all of the solids removed from the city’s sewer system. 

With capacity in the existing plant expected to run out in four to six years, the city is under increasing pressure to finish the project. Construction of the first phase — the new headworks and power supply facility — is expected to wrap up this summer.

The headworks is the first stage of the treatment process, where grit, sand and debris are separated from incoming wastewater before it moves through the rest of the plant. 

Tying that new system into the existing one has required careful planning and around-the-clock work, city officials say.

“We’ve had to undertake that work with divers working nights on a 24/7 basis to fit it in with the plant operations,” said deputy project manager Rob Black.

WATCH | Take a look inside the sewage treatment plant upgrade:

First phase of North End sewage treatment plant upgrade nearing completion

Take a look inside the first phase of the upgrade project at Winnipeg’s North End sewage treatment plant, which is expected to wrap up later this year.

Several storeys below ground, massive pumps lift incoming sewage roughly 22 metres so it can continue flowing by gravity through the treatment process. 

The reinforced concrete structure housing the equipment stretches deep underground, with walls metres thick to contain the flow.

City officials say once the headworks phase is fully operational, it will improve reliability and efficiency at the aging plant, which was first commissioned in 1937.

Construction on the overall upgrade began in 2021. The city expects to move into the second phase, the biosolids removal facility, later this year. 

A third and final phase — a nutrient removal facility  — still requires $1 billion in additional funding to proceed.

One in 14 children who died in England in a four-year period had parents who were close relatives, according to “stark” figures revealed by the first study of its kind.

The figures, published by the National Child Mortality Database (NCMD), based at the University of Bristol, analysed all 13,045 child deaths in England between 2019 and 2023. Of these, 926 (7%) were found to be of children born to consanguineous parents, meaning the mother and father are close blood relatives, such as first cousins.

Although the exact number of children with consanguineous parents across England is unclear, the data clearly shows their overrepresentation within mortality statistics and requires “urgent action”, according to researchers.

The largest geographical estimate of consanguinity currently available is from a large study following the lives of 13,000 babies born in Bradford. It found that one in six of these children had parents who were first cousins, most of whom come from the city’s Pakistani community.

“This is the first analysis of its kind globally looking at consanguinity-related child deaths across a whole country and over a number of years,” said Prof Karen Luyt, the director of the NCMD and lead author of the study. “The NCMD’s dataset is unique: it is timely, complete and comprehensive, and it gives us a clearer insight than we have ever had of the impact of consanguinity on child mortality.”

She added: “Seven per cent of child deaths over the period were of children born to consanguineous parents. These children might have died from any cause, but the data shows us very clearly that they are overrepresented in mortality statistics. Action is urgently required to improve outcomes for this group.”

The report also revealed stark ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in child mortality and consanguinity. Of the deceased children with parents who were close relatives, four in five (79%) were from an Asian ethnic background, with the most common ethnicity being Pakistani, the research found.

Furthermore, almost a third (30%) of children from Asian backgrounds who died had parents who were close relatives, compared with only 5% of children from a Black background, and 1% from a white or mixed background.

Of the deceased children whose parents were close relatives, more than half (52%) lived in the most deprived areas of England, compared with only 5% living in the least deprived areas.

Previous studies have shown that children born to parents who are close relatives have an increased likelihood of experiencing worse health outcomes on an array of measures. For example, children born to these parents are twice as likely to be born with a congenital anomaly, as well as having an increased risk of experiencing issues with speech and language development.

More than a quarter (27%) of all child deaths occurring within this period were related to chromosomal, genetic and congenital anomalies, according to the research. Of children born to parents who were close relatives, almost three in five (59%) of these deaths were due to chromosomal, genetic and congenital anomalies. Of these child deaths due to genetic factors, almost 17% were born to parents who were close relatives.

An NHS spokesperson said: “This report provides further clear evidence on the increased risk of genetic conditions and serious illness that having closely related parents carries and highlights a worrying number of deaths in more deprived areas.

“With hundreds of children losing their lives in recent years, the NHS is running a small pilot which will test whether nurses with specialist training in these complications could prevent the death of vulnerable babies, targeted in areas where close-relative marriage is prevalent.”

A man is suspected of killing two people, including a person he was in a prior relationship with, and then gunning down four more at another home hundreds of miles away in connected homicides, authorities in Florida said.

Law enforcement in Fort Lauderdale and Sarasota County on Wednesday both identified 51-year-old Russell Kot as a suspect in the homicides. He died of apparent self-inflicted wounds on Tuesday following his alleged killing spree, authorities said.

Deputies in Sarasota County initially responded midday Tuesday to a shooting at a residence in a gated community, authorities said.

Four people were killed — including a man who was shot while approaching the front door, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. Two women and another man were found dead inside the home, located in the Amberlea neighborhood, authorities said.

The suspect, Kot, was also found dead in the home, the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said. Video showed his vehicle entering the neighborhood at around 11 a.m. Tuesday, it said. Shortly after, a neighbor’s Ring camera captured the sound of gunfire, the sheriff’s office said.

The man who was shot outside the residence was seen entering the neighborhood in his vehicle about 37 minutes later, the sheriff’s office said. Responding deputies found neighbors performing CPR on him in the front yard, it said.

Later Tuesday afternoon, over 200 miles away on Florida’s east coast, police conducting a well-being check at a residence in the Victoria Park section of Fort Lauderdale found two people dead inside a residence, police said.

While authorities in Sarasota County were working to identify the victims and suspect in their case, the sheriff’s department said Fort Lauderdale police contacted them to advise that they believed the double homicide and Sarasota County shooting might be related. 

Following the Fort Lauderdale homicide, the suspect’s vehicle was captured on camera traveling near Sarasota, before the quadruple homicide in Amberlea, authorities said.  

Kot lived in Fort Lauderdale and had a “previous romantic relationship” with one of the Fort Lauderdale victims, according to the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office. That victim was connected to the Sarasota County victims, officials said, though they did not elaborate.

Police on Wednesday identified the victims in Fort Lauderdale as Larisa Blyudaya, 46, and Ben Azivov, 18.

The victims in Sarasota County were identified by the sheriff’s office on Wednesday as Olga Greinert, 49; Florita Stolyar, 66; Anatoly Ioffe, 61; and Yaroslav Blyudoy, 39.

The homicides remain under investigation. 

A motive in the Sarasota County incident is unknown at this time, the sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

“Based on our preliminary investigation, it appears that the suspect died of self-inflicted wounds, and there are no known documented mental health crises nor history of violence associated with him,” the Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office said.

Teachers and school administrators across the country continue to lead children out of classrooms and off school grounds into often violence-prone and dangerous left-wing protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

On the west coast, for instance, teachers at Issaquah High School in Issaquah, Washington, helped students begin an anti-ICE protest which soon exploded in violence as they began beating up a mother this week.

After the violent confrontation, school principal Erin Connolly dismissed the incident by admitting that there was violence but waving it all off because there were no “serious injuries.” Connolly also did not condemn the violence and even reiterated that students had a right to protest.

Teachers led Issaquah’s middle school kids in a protest that same day. That protest, too, devolved into violence and property destruction.

Other reports found that the UTLA had been caught planning ICE “resistance” and using kids as their pawns in pushing the political agenda.

According to the report at Defending Education, the UTLA has passed around planning documents and materials that advocate for use of school resources as a “form of resistance” against ICE and is urging teachers to begin “engaging students in community self-defense” by offering “service learning hours” in school.