DEAR ABBY: Last year, after several years overseas, my husband and I returned stateside and moved to my hometown. It has been a lonely transition. One of my friends from school, “Skip,” has helped, but more and more, he dominates social situations by framing what people first learn about me and my husband. It is usually unflattering or one-dimensional, or he’ll include me in a one-time event story but make it sound like it was my whole life, which it isn’t.
Skip also dominates a conversation and always has to be right. This interferes with our meeting other people, and it leaves my husband feeling alienated and even more alone. He would like to meet and have conversations with new people, but Skip doesn’t take it well when I try to explain that his behavior is stifling.
Should I pull back, or try to broach the subject of allowing my husband and me to interact with new people without Skip framing who we are before we meet them?
— MISREPRESENTED IN THE MIDWEST
DEAR MISREPRESENTED: Carve out time for you and your husband to socialize independently from your old “friend,” who does not seem like much of a friend from where I’m sitting. Use that time to look into volunteering opportunities for yourself and your husband, separately if necessary, and joining other social or special interest groups. If you do, those folks will have the opportunity to meet the real you, and your husband may begin to feel less isolated. Please don’t wait to start, because if you do, your husband may become depressed from the continued social isolation.
** ** **
DEAR ABBY: My husband has two grown children from his first marriage and two grandchildren. When I met him, he was still in what he described as a very unhappy and unhealthy marriage of 30 years. Because of this, his family has labeled me a home-wrecker. While his children are polite and cordial, we don’t have any kind of relationship with each other.
My husband feels that for every holiday, we must host his children for some portion of the day, after which they can go be with their mother and other family. I don’t think I should have to open up my home and cook for people who don’t like me. Could you please provide me with some guidance?
— LOOKING FOR WHAT’S FAIR
DEAR LOOKING: Please consider a change in attitude. You stated that your husband’s children are polite and cordial with you. They may not dislike you as much as fear that getting too close to you might alienate their mother. Your husband should be able to invite his children into the home you share if he wishes, and the atmosphere should be as warm and welcoming as you can manage. (“Kill them with kindness.”)
If there is a lot of work involved, your husband should help you with it if he can. If you can manage to do this, you may be able to improve the relationship you have with your stepchildren, which will benefit everyone.
TUCSON, Ariz. — Fresh surveillance images from Nancy Guthrie’s porch the night she went missing, coupled with intense police activity across Arizona and the detention of a man had raised hopes that authorities were nearing a major break.
But then the man was released after questioning, leaving it unclear Wednesday where the investigation stood into last week’s disappearance of Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie.
FBI agents carrying water bottles to beat the 80-degree F (26.7-degree C) heat walked among rocks and desert vegetation at Guthrie’s Tucson-area home. They also fanned out across a neighborhood about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away, knocking on doors and searching through cactuses, bushes and boulders.
Several hundred detectives and agents are now assigned to the investigation, which is expanding in the area, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department said.
In a nearby neighborhood, two investigators emerged from daughter Annie Guthrie’s home with a paper grocery sack and a white trash bag. One, still wearing blue protective gloves, also took a stack of mail from the roadside mailbox. They drove away without speaking to reporters.
Barb Dutrow, who was jogging through a neighborhood where teams were searching, said an FBI agent told her they were looking for anything that might have been tossed from a car. Dutrow, who was visiting from Louisiana for a convention, said she “can’t imagine the feeling of the family of having their mother taken.”
A day earlier, authorities said they had stopped a man near the U.S.-Mexico border, just hours after the FBI released videos of a person wearing a gun holster, ski mask and backpack and approaching Nancy Guthrie’s home in Tucson. The man told media outlets early Wednesday that he was released after several hours and had nothing to do with Guthrie’s disappearance last week.
Authorities have not said what led them to stop the man Tuesday but confirmed he was released. The sheriff’s department said its deputies and FBI agents also searched a location in Rio Rico, a city south of Tucson where the man lives.
It was the latest twist in an investigation that has gripped the nation since Nancy Guthrie disappeared on Feb. 1. Until Tuesday, it seemed authorities were making little headway in determining what happened to her or finding who was responsible.
The black and white images released by the FBI showing a masked person trying to cover a doorbell camera on Guthrie’s porch marked the first significant break in the case. But the images did not show what happened to her or help determine whether she is still alive.
FBI Director Kash Patel said investigators spent days trying to find lost, corrupted or inaccessible images.
Even though the images do not show the person’s face, investigators are hopeful someone will know who was on the porch. More than 4,000 calls came into the Pima County sheriff’s tip line within the past 24 hours, the department said Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities have said for more than a week that they believe Nancy Guthrie was taken against her will. She was last seen at home Jan. 31 and reported missing the next day. DNA tests showed blood on her porch was hers, authorities said.
Savannah Guthrie posted the new surveillance images on social media and said the family believes their mother is still alive.
The longtime NBC host and her two siblings have indicated a willingness to pay a ransom.
It is not known whether ransom notes demanding money with deadlines that have already passed were authentic, and whether the family has had any contact with whoever took Guthrie.
TMZ reported it received a message Wednesday from someone claiming to know the kidnapper’s identity and that they unsuccessfully tried to reach Savannah Guthrie’s brother and sister. The person asked for bitcoin in exchange for the information, TMZ said. The FBI did not immediately respond to a message.
Authorities have said Nancy Guthrie takes several medications and there was concern from the start that she could die without them.
The loss dropped the Sixers to 30-24. The Eastern Conference’s sixth-place team takes a two-game losing streak into the NBA All-Star break. Meanwhile, the third-place Knicks improved to 35-20 after posting their largest victory in franchise history and evened the season series with the Sixers at two games apiece.
No Embiid, no victory
Remember when Embiid couldn’t move well at the beginning of the season?
Back then, the Sixers played at a noticeably slower pace on nights when the 7-foot-2, 280-pound center was in the lineup. As a result, there was a growing belief that the team was better when Adem Bona or Andre Drummond started in his place.
No one thinks that anymore.
Embiid missed his second consecutive game on Wednesday with right knee soreness. And he was sorely missed.
The Sixers have now lost six of the last seven games that Embiid has not played. Their lone victory during that stretch was a 113-94 decision over the Golden State Warriors on Feb. 3 at Chase Center. The Sixers are 11-12 without him and 19-12 when he plays.
The Sixers trailed by as many as 52 points against the Knicks. This came after they trailed by as many as 31 points against the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday.
New York scored 32 points off 18 Sixers turnovers. The Knicks also had a commanding 51-38 rebounding advantage in Philly’s most-lopsided loss of the season.
The Sixers must find a way to play well in games without Embiid, considering he’s going to miss more time due to not playing in back-to-backs.
“There’s been some, probably not as good of nights [without Embiid],” coach Nick Nurse said. “And I think most of it has been offensively. When I thought we were operating really well early in the year with some of the stuff we kind of put in in training camp, and just kind of maybe get back and readjust [to playing without him] we go over it a little bit and look at some of that stuff, because we’re obviously capable of playing pretty decently offensively as well.”
Tyrese Maxey finished with a game-high 32 points to go with two assists. His backcourt mate, VJ Edgecombe, added 14 points, four rebounds, and two assists. Dominick Barlow had 13 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
However, Bona got into early foul trouble and finished with six points, five rebounds, two steals, two turnovers, and four fouls, while being minus-24 in 22 minutes, 42 seconds. Drummond had two points and four rebounds and was minus-10 in 10:38 off the bench. He was replaced by Charles Bassey in the rotation during the second half.
Bassey, whose second 10-day contract expires on Saturday, had two points and one block in 4:38. Following the game, he was assigned to the Delaware Blue Coats.
“It’s weird, man,” Maxey said of readjusting to play without Embiid. “It’s weird because you got to play multiple different ways. A lot of times when he sits out, it’s on back-to-backs, so it’s hard. You go from playing one way with him or without him early in the season. He comes back and then you got to play that way and then a different way when he’s there, which is OK. It’s fine, you know what I mean?
“It’s the reality of it, and I think we’ll be all right. He’ll be here more than he isn’t here when we get back, and we just got to maintain. Those games that he’s not there and [suspended forward] Paul [George] probably won’t be there till the end, so we just got to maintain.”
The Sixers also struggled to contain Jose Alvarado. The reserve guard, acquired last week in a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans, finished with 26 points on 8-for-13 shooting from the three-point line. He also finished with a game-high five steals.
The Brooklyn native’s play drew loud “Jose … Jose … Jose!” chants from the Knicks fans who made up at least half of the 19,746 in attendance.
“Obviously, we had zero readiness and energy physically or mentally,” said Nurse, whose squad trailed 72-42 at intermission. “We kind of got to the half, the game was pretty much settled by then, and just going over all the things that we already gone over that we couldn’t get done.”
This past summer, the Sixers were excited about their deep, versatile backcourt rotation featuring Maxey, Edgecombe, Quentin Grimes, and Jared McCain.
Daryl Morey, the team’s president of basketball operations, likened it to the guard-heavy style used by the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers to reach last season’s NBA Finals.
But the Sixers traded McCain on Feb. 4 to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for a first-round pick and three second-rounders. Meanwhile, Grimes has missed the past two games with an illness.
The Sixers also traded Eric Gordon to the Memphis Grizzlies on Feb. 5 for a pick swap. As a result, Kyle Lowry, MarJon Beauchamp, and Dalen Terry joined Maxey and Edgecombe as the available guards against the Knicks.
And that wasn’t good.
Sixers’ Tyrese Maxey (right) scored a game-high 32 points against the Knicks on Wednesday.
Lowry is a six-time All-Star and future Hall of Famer. But in his 20th NBA season, the 39-year-old has taken on more of a player-coach and mentor role. Meanwhile, Beauchamp and Terry are both on two-way contracts.
Beauchamp made his first appearance in Monday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. He finished with eight points, three rebounds, one assist, one block, and three turnovers against the Knicks. And Terry had a rebound, an assist, and one turnover one day after signing his two-way contract with the team.
The Sixers need to strongly consider adding a guard in the buyout market. That will help Maxey and Edgecombe, especially on nights Grimes is unavailable.
Meanwhile, McCain appears to be finding his groove in Oklahoma City.
The second-year guard had 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting — including making 2 of 3 three-pointers — in the Thunder’s 136-109 victory over the Suns. McCain scored eight of his points in 75 seconds.
The Sixers had more problems than being without Embiid and a lack of guard depth. Against the Knicks, they shot 18.8% (6 of 32) from three-point range.
Kelly Oubre Jr. (0-for-5), Edgecombe (0-for-5), Justin Edwards (0-for-3), Trendon Watford (0-for-2), Terry (0-for-1), and Johni Broome (0-for-1) were a combined 0-for-17.
A lot of the Sixers’ three-pointers were short or off target. The squad appeared noticeably fatigued in their first home after following a five-game West Coast road.
“Maybe,” Maxey said when asked if being tired impacted their three-point shooting. “I think, in general, guys are a little tired, but that’s what the break is for, though. That’s what the [All-Star] break is for. Rejuvenate, get your legs back under you. Get mentally prepared for this stretch because after the break, it’s go time. It’s go time for every team in the NBA that’s trying to make a push, for sure. They want to play their best basketball down the stretch to get ready for the playoffs.”
The Sixers are 16th in the league in three-point shooting at 35.6%. However, they’re 21st in made threes (12.7 per game). And the squad hit less than half that amount against the Knicks.
As bad as things were, this wasn’t the fewest amount of made three-pointers for the Sixers this season. They made 4 of 28 in a road victory over the Orlando Magic on Jan. 9.
The Sixers were fortunate that night. They know they must shoot the ball better to stay in games, especially when Embiid doesn’t play.
Jose Alvarado scored a season-high 26 points and Mikal Bridges added 22 points as the New York Knicks beat the 76ers 138-89 Wednesday night.
The Knicks bounced back from an overtime home lost to the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night for their 10th win in 12 games. Two of those victories have come against the Sixers. The teams split their four-game season series.
Alvarado, acquired last week from New Orleans, shot 8-for-13 from three-point range and finished with five steals.
Karl-Anthony Towns had 21 points and 11 rebounds. Mohamed Diawara scored 14 points. Jalen Brunson, who scored 40 points against the Pacers, scored eight on Tuesday.
Tyrese Maxey led the way with 32 points in three quarters for the Sixers, who played without center Joel Embiid. The Sixers’ center sat out due to right knee soreness. VJ Edgecombe added 14 points, and Dominick Barlow scored 13.
The Sixers, who lost their second straight and for the third time in four games, were held to a season-low point total, just their third game under 100 points this season.
The Knicks jumped out to a 16-4 lead thanks to nine points from Bridges. They led by 30 at the half. The Knicks shot 58% from the field in the first half, paced by 19 points from Bridges and 16 from Towns. They finished with a season-high 41 assists.
Embiid missed his second straight game. He hadn’t missed consecutive games since Dec. 19-20. Quentin Grimes missed a second straight game due to illness.
OG Anunoby missed this fourth straight game for the Knicks with a right toenail avulsion.
The Sixers head into the All-Star break with a 30-24 record and will host the Atlanta Hawks next on Feb. 19 (7 p.m., NBCSP).
The Downingtown Interchange reopened Wednesday night after being closed for several hours because a toll-booth canopy collapsed during planned demolition work on the toll plaza, Pennsylvania Turnpike officials said.
“We were performing preliminary work to remove the canopy, in anticipation of a full closure this weekend. This is part of the demolition work as we reconfigure the toll plaza,” Turnpike spokesperson Marissa Orbanek said in an email.
“During the preliminary work, canopy columns destabilized, and we immediately shut down the interchange to ensure the safety of employees and motorists. While the interchange was shut down, the canopy fell down on top of the toll booths,” Orbanek said.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike has been switching to an “open road tolling” system that allows tolls to be charged electronically without vehicles having to slow down.
A 44-year-old man was in police custody after he allegedly stabbed his 3-month-old child late Wednesday morning in Chester County, police said.
Just after 11:35 a.m., Coatesville police were dispatched to the 2000 block of Smithbridge Drive to respond to a report on an infant that had been stabbed.
Officers took Michael Phillips into custody for stabbing his infant son in the abdomen, police said.
“After stabbing him, the father took the infant outside and threw him in the snow,” police said.
The infant was reported to be in very serious condition and was flown to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for surgery, police said.
Just before 8 p.m., the Chester County District Attorney’s Office said the child was out of surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition.
Police on the scene of a stabbing of an infant on Smithbridge Drive in Coatesville, Wednesday, February 11, 2026
President Donald Trump has backed down from his decision to exclude Democratic governors from an annual White House meeting that has long been bipartisan, according to the National Governors Association.
For decades, the White House meeting between the president and governors — held around the NGA’s annual winter gathering in Washington — has included Republican and Democratic governors. That nearly changed last week when Trump did not extend an invitation to Democrats, sparking concern among governors. After telling Democratic governors Friday that they would not be invited to the meeting, the bipartisan NGA said the meeting would no longer be part of the organization’s official schedule for the gathering.
On Wednesday, however, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), the NGA chairman, told governors that Trump would be inviting all governors to the White House on Feb. 20 for the NGA’s business breakfast.
“He was very clear in his communications with me that this is a National Governors Association’s event, and he looks forward to hosting you and hearing from governors across the country,” Stitt wrote to the governors. “President Trump said this was always his intention, and we have addressed the misunderstanding in scheduling.”
Governors from all states are expected to gather in Washington for their conference from Feb. 19 to 21.
And while all governors are now being invited to the White House, not all Democrats were invited to a separate dinner there scheduled to be held around the NGA gathering. Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, both Democrats, said in recent days that their invitations to the dinner had been rescinded. The other 16 Democratic governors remained on the guest list but decided Tuesday that they would not attend unless all 18 of them were invited.
Trump said on social media Wednesday that the situation over the White House meeting invitations had been a misunderstanding — and he blamed it on Stitt, whom he referred to as a “Republican In Name Only.” Stitt “incorrectly stated my position on the very exclusive Governors Annual Dinner and Meeting at the White House,” Trump wrote, and said that invitations were sent “to ALL Governors, other than two, who I feel are not worthy of being there.”
Trump emphasized that Polis and Moore had not been invited to the dinner, slinging baseless accusations against them, but he noted that he did invite some Democratic governors that he has repeatedly sparred with, including Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Stitt got it WRONG!” Trump wrote. “I look forward to seeing the Republican Governors, and some of the Democrats Governors who were worthy of being invited.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had defended Trump’s decision to exclude the Democrats from the meeting only a day earlier. “The president has the discretion to invite whomever he wants to the White House,” she told reporters.
NGA CEO Brandon Tatum said in a statement that the organization was “pleased the president will welcome governors from all 55 states and territories to the White House.”
“The bipartisan White House governors meeting is a valued tradition and an important opportunity to build bridges and hold constructive conversations,” Tatum said. “The NGA looks forward to continued collaboration between governors and the White House.”
The Democratic Governors Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the meeting and dinner.
NEW YORK — Activists planned protests at more than two dozen Target stores around the United States on Wednesday to pressure the discount retailer into taking a public stand against the 5-week-old immigration crackdown in its home state of Minnesota.
ICE Out Minnesota, a coalition of community groups, religious leaders, labor unions, and other critics of the federal operation, called for sit-ins and other demonstrations to continue at Target locations for a full week. Target’s headquarters are located in Minneapolis, where federal officers last month killed two residents who had participated in anti-ICE protests, and its name adorns the city’s major league baseball stadium and an arena where its basketball teams plays.
“They claim to be part of the community, but they are not standing up to ICE,” said Elan Axelbank, a member of the Minnesota chapter of Socialist Alternative, which describes itself as a revolutionary political group. He organized a Wednesday protest outside a Target store in Minneapolis’ Dinkytown commercial district.
Demonstrations also were scheduled in St. Paul, Minnesota, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, North Carolina, San Diego, Seattle and other cities, as well as in suburban areas of Minnesota, California and Massachusetts. Target declined Wednesday to comment on the protests.
Target first became a bull’s-eye for critics of the Trump administration’s surge in immigration enforcement activity after a widely-circulated video showed federal agents detaining two Target employees in a store in the Minneapolis suburb of Richfield last month. Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos Minnesota, an immigrant-led social justice advocacy organization that is part of the ICE Out Minnesota coalition, said his group is focusing its protests on the Richfield store.
One of the demands of Wednesday’s protests is for Target to deny federal agents entry to stores unless they have judicial warrants authorizing arrests.
Some lawyers have argued that anyone, including U.S. Border Patrol and Immigration and Customers Enforcement agents without signed warrants, can enter public areas of a business as they wish. Public areas include restaurant dining sections, open parking lots, office lobbies and shopping aisles, but not back offices, closed-off kitchens or other areas of a business that are generally off-limits to the public and where privacy would be reasonably expected, those lawyers say.
Target has not commented publicly on the detention of the store employees. CEO Michael Fiddelke, who became Target’s chief executive on Feb. 2, sent a video message to the company’s 400,000 workers two days after a Border Patrol agent and a Customs and Border Protection officer shot and killed Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti on Jan. 24.
Fiddelke said the “violence and loss of life in our community is incredibly painful,” but he did not mention the immigration crackdown or the fatal shootings of Pretti, an ICU nurse at a medical center for U.S. veterans in Minneapolis, and Renee Good, a mother of three fired on in her car by an ICE agent.
Fiddelke was one of 60 CEOs of Minnesota-based companies who, in the wake of Pretti’s death, signed an open letter “calling for an immediate de-escalation of tensions and for state, local and federal officials to work together to find real solutions.”
The protests over its alleged failure to oppose the immigration crackdown in Minnesota come a year after Target faced protests and boycotts over the company’s decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. At the time, critics said the decision marked a betrayal of Target’s retail giant’s philanthropic commitment to fighting racial disparities and promoting progressive values in liberal Minneapolis and beyond.
The retail chain also is struggling with a persistent sales malaise. Critics have complained of disheveled stores that are missing the budget-priced flair that long ago earned the retailer the nickname “Tarzhay.”
While Wednesday’s protests targeted a tiny fraction of the company’s nearly 2,000 stores, the negative attention serves as another distraction from Target’s business, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail division of market research firm GlobalData.
“The agenda has been hijacked by this,” Saunders said. “And it is a bit of a distraction for Target that they’d rather not have.”
In recent days, a national coalition of Mennonite congregations organized roughly a dozen demonstrations inside and outside of Target stores across the country, singing and urging Target to publicly call Congress to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement among other demands.
A spokesperson for Mennonite Action said the coalition was not formally connected to ICE Out but following the lead of organizers in Minneapolis.
The Rev. Joanna Lawrence Shenk, associate pastor at First Mennonite Church of San Francisco, said the group did not plan any actions on Wednesday but was mapping out weekend singalong events at Targets in a handful of towns and cities, including Pittsburgh and Harrisonburg, Virginia. She estimated that by the end of the weekend more than 1,000 congregation members will have participated.
Shenk noted that the Mennonites sing This Little Light of Mine and other gospel songs and hymns.
“The singing was an expression of our love for immigrant neighbors who are at risk right now and who are also a part of our congregation,” she said. “For us, it’s not just standing in solidarity with others but it’s also protecting people who are vulnerable.”
EL PASO, Texas — The Pentagon allowed U.S. Customs and Border Protection to use an anti-drone laser earlier this week, leading the Federal Aviation Administration to suddenly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday, according to two people familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.
The confusing arc of events began as the FAA announced it was shutting down all flight traffic over the city on the U.S.-Mexico border for 10 days, stranding some travelers, but the closure ended up only lasting a few hours. The Trump administration said it stemmed from the FAA and Pentagon working to halt an incursion by Mexican cartel drones, which are not uncommon along the southern border.
One of the people said the laser was deployed near Fort Bliss without coordinating with the FAA, which decided then to close the airspace to ensure commercial air safety. Others familiar with the matter said the technology was used despite a meeting scheduled for later this month between the Pentagon and the FAA to discuss the issue.
While the restrictions were short-lived in the city of nearly 700,000 people, it is unusual for an entire airport to shut down even for a short time. Stranded travelers with luggage lined up at airline ticket counters and car rental desks before the order was lifted.
Normal flights resumed after seven arrivals and seven departures were canceled. Some medical evacuation flights also had to be rerouted.
Jorge Rueda, 20, and Yamilexi Meza, 21, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, had their morning flight to Portland, Ore., canceled, so they were losing part of their Valentine’s Day weekend trip.
Rueda said he was glad that “10 days turned into two hours.” They were booked on an evening flight out of El Paso.
Troubling lack of coordination
The investigation into last year’s midair collision near Washington, D.C., between an airliner and Army helicopter that killed 67 people highlighted how the FAA and Pentagon were not always working well together.
The National Transportation Safety Board said the FAA and the Army did not share safety data with each other about the alarming number of close calls around Reagan National Airport and failed to address the risks.
Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a former Army helicopter pilot who serves on committees focused on aviation and the armed services, said the issue Wednesday was the latest example of “the lack of coordination that’s endemic in this Trump administration.”
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said he would request a briefing from the FAA on the incident.
Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat whose district includes El Paso, said neither her office nor local officials received any advance notice of the closure. After it was lifted, she said “the information coming from the federal government does not add up.”
“I believe the FAA owes the community and the country an explanation as to why this happened so suddenly and abruptly and was lifted so suddenly and abruptly,” Escobar said at a news conference.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said earlier that the airspace was closed as the Defense Department and the FAA halted an incursion by Mexican cartel drones and “the threat has been neutralized.”
Officials at the Department of Homeland Security, FAA and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A Trump administration official insisted the agencies were in lockstep to protect national security and pointed to Duffy’s statement. The Pentagon said it had nothing to add to its statement that largely mirrored Duffy’s.
Cross-border drone activity is not new
Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales, whose congressional district covers an area that stretches about 800 miles along Texas’ border with Mexico, said cartel drone sightings are common.
“For any of us who live and work along the border, daily drone incursions by criminal organizations is everyday life for us. It’s a Wednesday for us,” Gonzales said.
Steven Willoughby, deputy director of the counter-drone program at the Department of Homeland Security, told Congress in July that cartels are using drones nearly every day to transport drugs across the border and surveil Border Patrol agents. More than 27,000 drones were detected within 1,600 feet of the southern border in the last six months of 2024, he said, mostly at night.
What is “extremely rare” is the closure of an entire airport over a security issue, according to a former chief security officer at United Airlines.
Officials usually will try to take security measures to isolate the risk if a specific plane or airline is threatened rather than shut down the airport, said Rich Davis, now a senior security adviser at risk mitigation company International SOS.
Mexican officials question the explanation
Asked about the drone explanation provided by U.S. officials, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had “no information about the use of drones on the border.” She noted that if U.S. authorities have more information, they should contact Mexico’s government.
Mexican defense and navy secretaries planned to talk with officials from U.S. Northern Command in a meeting Wednesday in Washington attended by several other countries, Sheinbaum told reporters. Sheinbaum said the Mexican officials would “listen” in the meeting and her government would look into “the exact causes” of the closure.
El Paso is a hub of cross-border commerce alongside Ciudad Juárez. That Mexican city is home to about 1.5 million people, and some of its residents are accustomed to taking advantage of facilities, including airports, on the U.S. side of the border.
That easy access to the United States also has made Juarez, like other border cities, attractive to Mexico’s drug cartels seeking to safeguard their smuggling routes for drugs and migrants headed north and cash and guns moving to the south.
‘This was a major and unnecessary disruption’
El Paso Mayor Renard Johnson told reporters that he did not hear about the closure until after the alert was issued.
“Decisions made without notice and coordination puts lives at risk and creates unnecessary danger and confusion,” Johnson said. “This was a major and unnecessary disruption, one that has not occurred since 9/11.”
The airport describes itself as the gateway to west Texas, southern New Mexico and northern Mexico. Southwest, United, American and Delta are among the carriers that operate flights there.
A similar 10-day temporary flight restriction for special security reasons remained in place Wednesday around Santa Teresa, New Mexico, which is about 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of the El Paso airport. FAA officials did not immediately explain why that restriction remained.
Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, said in a statement that he was seeking answers from the FAA and the Trump administration “about why the airspace was closed in the first place without notifying appropriate officials, leaving travelers to deal with unnecessary chaos.”
Confusion for travelers
Travel plans on both sides of the border were disrupted.
María Aracelia was pushing two roller suitcases across the pedestrian bridge from Ciudad Juarez to El Paso on Wednesday morning. She had a round-trip flight to Illinois scheduled for the afternoon.
After receiving a text at 4 a.m. telling her about the 10-day closure, she scrambled to try to find other options, even how to get to another airport. Then came a notification that the El Paso airport had reopened.
“This is stressful, and there isn’t time to make so many changes, especially if you need to get back for work,” Aracelia said.
WASHINGTON — The House voted Wednesday to slap back President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada, a rare if largely symbolic rebuke of the White House agenda as Republicans joined Democrats over the objections of GOP leadership.
The tally, 219-211, was among the first times the House, controlled by Republicans, has confronted the president over a signature policy, and drew instant recrimination from Trump himself. The resolution seeks to end the national emergency Trump declared to impose the tariffs, though actually undoing the policy would require support from the president, which is highly unlikely. The resolution next goes to the Senate.
Trump believes in the power of tariffs to force U.S. trade partners to the negotiating table. But lawmakers are facing unrest back home from businesses caught in the trade wars and constituents navigating pocketbook issues and high prices.
“Today’s vote is simple, very simple: Will you vote to lower the cost of living for the American family or will you keep prices high out of loyalty to one person — Donald J. Trump?” said Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who authored the resolution.
Within minutes, as the gavel struck, Trump fired off a stern warning to those in the Republican Party who would dare to cross him.
“Any Republican, in the House or the Senate, that votes against TARIFFS will seriously suffer the consequences come Election time, and that includes Primaries!” the president posted on social media.
The high-stakes moment provides a snapshot of the House’s unease with the president’s direction, especially ahead of the midterm elections as economic issues resonate among voters. The Senate has already voted to reject Trump’s tariffs on Canada and other countries in a show of displeasure. But both chambers would have to approve the tariff rollbacks, and send the resolution to Trump for the president’s signature — or veto.
Trump recently threatened to impose a 100% tariff on goods imported from Canada over that country’s proposed China trade deal, intensifying a feud with the longtime U.S. ally and Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Johnson (R., La.) insisted lawmakers wait for a pending Supreme Court ruling in a lawsuit about the tariffs. He engineered a complicated rules change to prevent floor action. But Johnson’s strategy collapsed late Tuesday, as Republicans peeled off during a procedural vote to ensure the Democratic measure was able to advance.
“The president’s trade policies have been of great benefit,” Johnson had said. “And I think the sentiment is that we allow a little more runway for this to be worked out between the executive branch and the judicial branch.”
Late Tuesday evening, Johnson could be seen speaking to holdout Republican lawmakers as the GOP leadership team struggled to shore up support during a lengthy procedural vote, but the numbers lined up against him.
“We’re disappointed in what the people have done,” Kevin Hassett, the director of the White House’s National Economic Council, told reporters at the White House on Wednesday morning. “The president will make sure they don’t repeal his tariffs.”
Terminating Trump’s emergency
The resolution put forward by Meeks would terminate the national emergency that Trump declared a year ago as one of his executive orders.
The administration claimed illicit drug flow from Canada constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat that allows the president to slap tariffs on imported goods outside the terms of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.
The Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Brian Mast of Florida, said the flow of fentanyl into the U.S. is a dire national emergency and the policy must be left in place.
“Let’s be clear again about what this resolution is and what it’s not. It’s not a debate about tariffs. You can talk about those, but that’s not really what it is,” Mast said. “This is Democrats trying to ignore that there is a fentanyl crisis.”
Experts say fentanyl produced by cartels in Mexico is largely smuggled into the U.S. from land crossings in California and Arizona. Fentanyl is also made in Canada and smuggled into the U.S., but to a much lesser extent.
Torn between Trump and tariffs
Ahead of voting, some rank-and-file Republican lawmakers expressed unease over the choices ahead as Democrats — and a few renegade Republicans — impressed on their colleagues the need to flex their power as the legislative branch rather than ceding so much power to the president to take authority over trade and tariff policy.
Rep. Don Bacon (R., Neb.) said he was unpersuaded by Johnson’s call to wait until the Supreme Court makes its decision about the legality of Trump’s tariffs. He voted for passage.
“Why doesn’t the Congress stand on its own two feet and say that we’re an independent branch?” Bacon said. “We should defend our authorities. I hope the Supreme Court does, but if we don’t do it, shame on us.”
Bacon, who is retiring rather than facing reelection, also argued that tariffs are bad economic policy.
Other Republicans had to swiftly make up their minds after Johnson’s gambit — which would have paused the calendar days to prevent the measure from coming forward — was turned back.
“At the end of the day, we’re going to have to support our president,” said Rep. Keith Self (R., Texas).
Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) said he doesn’t want to tie the president’s hands on trade and would support the tariffs on Canada “at this time.”
