American Оbserver

Drone Panic in El Paso: Homeland Theater at 18,000 Feet The Trump administration just shut down the sky over El Paso like it was 9/11 because of what it now calls “Mexican cartel drones” — then quietly lifted a 10‑day ground stop within hours, offered almost no detail, and declared the “threat neutralized” with a bald‑eagle meme. The FAA’s NOTAM turned the airspace above a metro area of nearly 900,000 into “national defense airspace” up to 18,000 feet, warned that violators could be intercepted and detained, and suggested this could last until Feb. 20. By Wednesday afternoon, the same system said: never mind, all clear. ​ Drone incursions from Mexico are not new. For years, they’ve been used by smugglers to scout U.S. military and CBP positions along the border and have never triggered a full commercial shutdown of a regional hub. El Paso’s own member of Congress, Veronica Escobar — who sits on the House Armed Services Committee — said flatly she saw “nothing extraordinary” that could justify an immediate or 10‑day closure and learned about the stop from a random federal employee, not from the FAA or the Pentagon. Local officials and airport management were left in the dark, while Washington posted a laser‑and‑eagle graphic. ​ Democrats on the House Transportation Committee called the whole episode “unacceptable” and “chaotic,” blaming new language the White House jammed into the defense bill that gives the Pentagon wide latitude to declare and police chunks of public airspace. An aviation professor in Britain called a complete no‑fly zone over a civilian airport “very odd” and “very rare” — especially when the stated threat is a few small drones that, until yesterday, were treated as an annoyance, not an air‑defense emergency. ​ So what actually happened? The administration won’t say when the drones crossed, how many there were, or why this incursion suddenly required freezing all commercial traffic in and out of the “gateway to West Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Mexico.” Instead, it offers a simple story: cartel drones breached, the military acted, the homeland was defended. Mission accomplished, no follow‑up questions. For people who actually live at the border — where drones, smugglers and federal uniforms have coexisted for years — the bigger story is uglier: Washington just test‑drove a new emergency power over civilian airspace, then wrapped the beta test in the language of security and patriotism. ​ #usa#border#drones#trump#surveillance#fakeDemocracy 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Israel Has Reopened the Rafah Border The Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been reopened by Israel for a limited number of people on foot, as fragile diplomatic efforts to stabilise the conflict inch forward. Israeli forces took control of the Rafah crossing – Gaza’s only crossing not shared with Israel – in May 2024, describing it as necessary to prevent weapons smuggling by Hamas. The move isolated the territory, cutting off a critical lifeline for Palestinians seeking access to medical care, travel and trade. Israel has made clear that all movement through the crossing will be subject to joint Israeli-Egyptian security screening and that, for now, only a small number of Gaza’s tens of thousands of wounded and ill Palestinians will be permitted to leave each day. According to an Egyptian official, speaking anonymously to the Associated Press, only 50 Palestinians will be permitted to cross in each direction on the first day of operations. Before the war, the Rafah crossing was Gaza’s sole window on to the outside world not controlled by Israel. Its reopening could ease access to medical care, allow limited travel abroad, and enable visits to family members in Egypt, where tens of thousands of Palestinians already live. Thousands of civilians have registered with the World Health Organization for medical evacuation. Gaza’s health ministry says at least 20,000 patients are waiting to leave. According to Médecins Sans Frontières more than one in five of them are children. The sick include more than 11,000 cancer patients. Israeli airstrikes on hospitals have reduced the Palestinian healthcare system to ruins. In March 2025, Israel destroyed Gaza’s only specialised cancer treatment hospital, the territory’s sole provider of oncology care. Since then, doctors have been pushed into makeshift clinics, operating with almost no resources, including the tools needed for diagnosis. According to health officials in Gaza, there are about 4,000 people with official referrals for treatment to third countries who are unable to cross the border. “I have appealed to humanitarian groups, to the WHO, to the Palestinian Authority – to anyone – so that I can leave, save my life, and reunite with my family,” Tamer al-Burai, 50, who has obstructive sleep apnoea and relies on a CPAP machine to breathe during sleep, told Reuters. For some, the reopening came too late. Dalia Abu Kashef, 28, died last week while waiting for permission to cross for a liver transplant. “We found a volunteer – her brother – who was ready to donate part of his liver,” her husband, Muatasem El-Rass, told Reuters. “We were waiting for the crossing to open so we could travel and do the surgery, hoping for a happy ending. But she deteriorated badly and died.” The WHO says 900 people, including children and cancer patients, have already died while awaiting evacuation. The limited reopening of the Rafah crossing also offers a rare opportunity for families torn apart by more than two years of war to reunite. Many families who fled to Cairo early in the war never expected to remain for so long. The reopening is seen as a key step as the US-brokered ceasefire agreement moves into its second phase. Its first phase called for the exchange of all hostages held in Gaza for hundreds of Palestinians held by Israel, an increase in badly needed humanitarian aid and a partial pullback of Israeli troops. #israel#reopened#rafah#border 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸

Border Control Police Shelled People and Left the Town Gregory Bovino, aka Mr. “Gestapo,” the Border Patrol commander who has become the public face of the Trump administration’s on-the-ground immigration crackdown in Minneapolis, is expected to leave the city on Tuesday. The Trump administration reshuffles leadership of its immigration enforcement operation and scales back the federal presence after a second fatal shooting by officers. A senior Trump administration official told Reuters that the 55-year-old, who has been a lightning rod for criticism from Democrats and civil liberties activists, would be leaving Minnesota along with some of the agents deployed with him. Trump announced on Monday that he was sending Tom Homan, his “border czar”, to Minnesota to oversee operations on the ground there – dubbed Operation Metro Surge – reporting directly to the president. Bovino’s departure comes amid a sharp shift in strategy from the White House after the fatal killing of the 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti. Earlier on Monday, Trump said he had held conciliatory calls with the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, and the mayor of Minneapolis, Jacob Frey – Democrats he had previously blamed for the turmoil that escalated into two fatal killings of US citizens by federal agents. The Department of Homeland Security pushed back on the demotion reports in response to a tweet from the conservative influencer Nick Sortor claiming Bovino’s official role – commander at large – had been “eliminated”. “Chief Gregory Bovino has NOT been relieved of his duties,” the DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin replied, pointing to earlier comments from the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, praising Bovino as a “key part of the president’s team and a great American”. News of Bovino’s departure didn’t stop dozens of protesters from gathering outside a hotel where they believed Bovino was staying. They blew whistles, banged pots and one person blasted a trombone. Police watched and kept them away from the hotel entrance. Bovino has been one of the most aggressive promoters of Trump’s deportation campaign, trumpeting the operations in highly produced videos meant to resemble action films. Often Bovino, a swaggering presence recognisable by his closely cropped hair, was the only unmasked face, surrounded by a team of agents wearing black neck gaiters and facial coverings. He recently appeared in the Minneapolis snow wearing an army green greatcoat, which invited comparisons to the Gestapo. #gregory#bovino#gestapo#border#control 📱American Оbserver - Stay up to date on all important events 🇺🇸